Dragon Sea Empire

It is recorded in the official local chronicles of the Ming Dynasty:

"...The Xiping Fort of Guangning Wei is eight miles east and called Xixing Fort, the southeast of the fort is Xining Fort, and the west of Xining is called Xiping Fort. There is also Pingyang Fort. It's called Pingyangpu.

Shengsheng Fort is twenty miles away in Weidong. "Yi Tong Zhi": Forts located in the north of Wei are called Zhen'an, Zhenbian, Qingshi, Tuanshan, Shuangshu, Bei'an, Dong'an, Nan'an, Xi'an, Zhong'an and other forts.Those in the east are called Gaomiao, Daota, Banqiao, Pingyang and other forts.Those in the southern region are called Sita, Luyang, Liuhe, Shisanshan, Feng'an, Shawo, Shadun, Haichao, Dajue, Linghe, Shuangfeng and other forts, all 25.There is also Xianchang Village, which is a hundred miles away in Weinan. "

The Liaohe River flows [-] miles west of Haizhou City, where it crosses the Sancha River and travels northwest for more than [-] miles, leading directly to Guangning.

In other words, no matter whether the Ming army moved eastward to recover Liaodong, or the Chinese army took Guangning, they must control the Xining Fort and Xixing Fort areas.

The Ming army's large-scale dispatch of troops to Xining Fort this time has actually been brewing for more than half a year.After Wang Huazhen was appointed governor of Liaodong, he has been planning to go east to recover Liaodong.In his view, the naval bandits were entangled with the remnants of the Jurchen Eight Banners in the north, and clashed with North Korea in the southeast. This was a good time for the Ming army to seize the opportunity to advance eastward.He also sent food and silk to the Chahar and Horqin Mongolian tribes outside the border, encouraging them to send troops to attack the territory of the Chinese army.

When troops were dispatched in early September, Wang Huazhen refused to listen to Xiong Tingbi's advice, and insisted on ordering that almost all the food and grass stored in Guangning Guard be transferred to the front line.

On that night, Zhang Pan not only launched a long-range fire raid on the Ming army's central camp in the west, but also sent nearly [-] soldiers from the Liaodong militia to attack the Ming army's camps in the two outer and two routes by night.

In his original intention, he did not intend to take a risky attack.The guards at Xining Fort were too few. Zhang Pan was worried that after sending troops to attack at night, once the Ming soldiers bombed the camp collectively, his own soldiers would be involved, so he didn't dare to take the risk of attacking with the main force in the dark.However, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao Yi, head of the Second Regiment of the First Division, and Guo Yun, the supervising officer, both believed that it was necessary to take advantage of the chaos to attack.

Zhang Pan made a compromise, and sent people from the Liaodong Militia to attack in two ways, with local people leading the way.

As a result, when the Ming army's central camp collapsed, Zhang Pan was too cautious and missed the opportunity to loot the Ming army's camp.However, he sent Liaodong militiamen to attack the camps of the Ming army in the north and south. Lost in the reeds, when we got outside the Zhenwu Camp of the Ming Army on the South Road, Zhang Pan's shelling of the Ming Army's middle camp had already started for half an hour, and the Ming Army on the South Road had been awakened long ago. The lights were bright and swords were on the verge of breaking out. The Liaodong militiamen had lost the opportunity to sneak attack, so they had to quietly return to Xining Fort the same way.

All in all, the Chinese Army performed well in the first stage of the defense of Xining Fort: it was only because of Zhang Pan's overly cautious character that the Chinese Army missed the opportunity to further expand the results of the battle.

The camp of the Ming army's central army retreated dozens of miles that night. At dawn, Wang Huazhen relied on his confidant generals Jiang Chaodong, Sun Degong, Mao Wenlong and others to finally gather the troops together.At this time, they discovered that there were artillerymen from the Beijing Battalion following the Guangning Army.In order to attack Xining Fort, Mao Wenlong concentrated almost all the heavy firearms of the entire army, and put them all in the Beijing artillery camp.

At that moment, Mao Wenlong was so anxious that his face was flushed red, he didn't bother to ask Wang Huazhen for instructions, and rushed towards Xining Fort with his standard battalion troops.

Wang Huazhen was also in a hurry: If these firearms were destroyed or taken away by the Chinese army, then the Battle of Xiningbao would not have to go on. His only choice was to return to Guangning with his troops and be looked down upon by Xiong Tingbi. A bad-tempered guy might even point his nose and yell.

Wang Huazhen immediately ordered his standard battalion of cavalry, led by Jiang Chaodong, to rush back to the original camp of the Chinese army. The first task was to protect those firearms.

Then, he ordered Sun Degong to gather his troops as soon as possible and return to Xiningbao.

The artillery raid launched by Zhang Pan delayed the general attack planned by the Ming army for ten days.Mao Wenlong was pleasantly surprised to find that most of his cannons were intact. The Chinese army did not rush out of the city to sweep up the Ming army camp, but only fired a few shots at it from time to time.

The central army of the Ming army set up camp three miles back from the original camp, and sent an outpost near Xining Fort. Once it found that the Chinese army in Xining Fort was planning to attack, it immediately reported to the camp.Mao Wenlong reorganized his troops and continued to organize a general attack on Fort Xining.

During these ten days, there were only some sporadic conflicts between the two sides, most of which were encounters between scouting horses and scouting cavalry.The east of Xining Fort until the Sancha River is covered with wetlands and swamps, and there are reeds everywhere. In fact, the Ming army could not form a tight encirclement of Xining Fort.

Mao Wenlong suggested to Wang Huazhen that he set fire to the reed marshes and cleared a large wetland with a good view, so that he could monitor and blockade Xining Fort.Zu Dashou received this errand and set fire to the east of Xining Fort for several days.His troops had the most conflicts with the defenders of Xiningbao and the Chinese Army's scouts to the east of the Liao River, almost a dozen times a day.

The No. 12 day when the Ming army began to besiege Xining Fort was the seventh day when Zhang Pan bombarded the Ming army camp, and it was also the seventh day when the first batch of reinforcement troops arrived at Xining Fort. The sailboat appeared at the mouth of the Liaohe River.

The communication ship "Sea Bird" and other two clipper ships returned to Lushunkou, and reported the student army's going directly to Fort Xining to Colonel Huang Lue, the deputy logistics manager of the Liaodong Marching Road and the garrison of the Lushun Fortress.

The two captains of the communication ship did not know this: among the 200 student troops they sent ashore on the Sancha River, there was the son of their supreme commander.

Huang Lue knew it. He had already received the news that the student army was going to gather in Lushun, and he also knew that Yin Feng's son was among them.

This time he became anxious and angry. On the one hand, he sent a fast horse to inform Zhao Tie in Liaoyang of the matter as quickly as possible, and on the other hand, he quickly discussed with Luo Quanxiu, the commander of the Fourth Division who had just arrived in Lushun.

The troops of the Fourth Division had just been transferred from Jiangnan, and they were going to North Korea to support Yan Siqi's Fifth Division in attacking Seoul.Huang Lue explained the situation with the shortest words, and Luo Quanxiu's face immediately turned pale.

Luo Quanxiu immediately said: "Don't wait for the order from Liaoyang, I will give you the strength of a regiment, just the first regiment, most of them are still on the ship and have not disembarked, so go directly to Xining Fort. You will dispatch all aspects , I will bear the responsibility of deploying troops in violation of orders!"

Huang Lue smiled wryly and shook his head: "Old Luo, at least we fought the Japanese pirates together, so we should also bear the responsibility of deploying troops without authorization this time. I still have my own standard guards on hand, and there are a few Jiangnan merchants on the pier. Let’s requisition all the sailboats.”

The admiral of the Sixth Squadron of the Navy's Beiyang Fleet staying in Lushun is Mai Dahai's cousin, and soon heard about it from Huang Lue.The relationship between their Mai family and Yin Bin is even more closely related: this Yin Bin's mother is from their Mai family, and Yin Bin is their nephew, who may be Yin Feng's future heir and the Mai family's backer.Without saying a word, the admiral of the Mai family mobilized all the ships he could mobilize, mobilized all the troops he could command, and helped the fourth division troops carry the ammunition day and night.

So, on the seventh day after the student army arrived at Xining Fort, the Sixth Squadron of the Beiyang Fleet, escorted by thirty large blessing boats, arrived at the mouth of the Liaohe River.

From then on, the Ming army's siege of Xining Fort completely deviated from Wang Huazhen's original plan, and also made Zhang Pan's steady defense plan a waste of paper.

On the same day, Zhao Tie issued an urgent order to the Chinese Army in Liaoyang to the north line and the Chinese Army near the Liaohe River: all the departments gave up all the combat deployments at hand, and went west to support Xining Fort with all their strength.All ministries take the narrowest Huangniwa in the Sancha River as the assembly point: this is the bridgehead on the east bank of the Sancha River floating bridge.On the same day, Zhao Tie sent his standard battalion out of the south gate of Liaoyang City and headed straight for Sancha River.

Two days later, Zheng Zhihu, who was dealing with the Mongols in the Hetao of the Liaohe River, received an urgent order from Zhao Tie and immediately got rid of the Mongols.

The entire Liaodong war suddenly mobilized troops around Xining Fort, and started a big battle that everyone felt chaotic.Originally, the battle plan planned by Yin Feng and the old battalion combat department of the Chinese Army was to wait for the northern and eastern fronts of the Liaodong War to come to an end. When winter came, the wet swamps in the lower reaches of the Liao River would freeze, and the cavalry of the Chinese Army would be used. Quickly cross the river to support Xining Fort, and then mobilize the army to defeat the main force of the Ming army in one fell swoop, and strive to capture Guangningwei at the end of the year.

This plan requires the defenders of Xining Fort to hold Xining Fort for three to four months when they can only receive very little reinforcements.

However, because of the boldness of the cadet army, the overall situation in Liaodong changed its combat plan.

On the other side of the front line, Wang Huazhen has recklessly transferred all the remaining troops in the rear to the front line of Xining Fort in the past few days.Hei Wenlong, guarding the fort at Pingyang Bridge, Zhu Shixun, the imperial guard at Xixing Fort, Chen Shangzhi, the Chinese Army of Jinzhou, Yu Hongjian, guarding the fort at Tiechang, He Shiyan, a guerrilla at the Daling River, Deng Deng, guarding the fort at Jin'an, Huang Zonglu, the guard at Youtun, and the regiment Shan Shoubao Cui Jinzhong, Zhenning Shoubao Li Shi, Zhenyuan Shoubao Xu Zhenjing, Zhenan Shoubao Zheng Weihan, Zhenjingbao General Zhou Yuanxun, Qingbao Guerrilla Yan Yin, Dakang Shoubao Wang Guotai, Zhenwubao Du Si Jinli , Liu Shizhang, Li Weilong, Wang Yougong and other original garrison troops were transferred to the front line of Fort Xining.The total number of Ming troops in Xining Fort increased to 9 to nearly [-].

"Crazy! This Wang Huazhen is completely crazy!" Xiong Tingbi was furious when he heard the news in Shanhaiguan, and couldn't bear it any longer. He rode to Guangning overnight with a dozen of his own soldiers.