Dragon Sea Empire

Nine days after the start of the Battle of Xiningbao, there was no fighting on the front line.

On this day, General Zhao Tiezhong, the chief of the Liaodong March of the Chinese Army, rushed from Liaoyang to Dongchang Fort.Before Zhao Tie left Liaoyang, he issued a new combat order: "No troops are allowed to cross the river to join the battle in Xining Fort without authorization."

Zhao Tie only brought the cavalry battalion directly under the old battalion of the first division. He first went to Huangniwa and found that the main force of the cavalry brigade assembled there, several battalions of the second division were hurriedly building pontoon bridges, and a large number of The Liaodong militia battalion poured into the river bank, and the entire bridgehead was in chaos.This is because Colonel Lu Xiaotian, the commander of the cavalry brigade, crossed the river with his standard battalion, Sishui, and went straight to Xining Fort a few days ago.Therefore, the various Chinese armies at the bridgehead did not have high-ranking officers in charge, so it seemed a bit chaotic.He left his guard captain to maintain the order at the bridgehead, and appointed the battalion commander of the second division who had just arrived here, that is, Major Zheng Zhihu, as the temporary supervisor of the bridgehead, and took his own order to rectify the various units in Huangniwa .

Colonel Huang Lue, the logistics chief of the Liaodong March and the garrison of the Lushun Fortress, arrived a day earlier than him. He brought two battalions of the third and fourth regiments of the Sixth Division that had just landed in Lushun, nearly [-] infantry, and carried ten troops. Six light field guns and four Thunderbolt mortars.They came here day and night. Among the recruits of the Sixth Division, there are many young Nanyang Chinese native children. Most of them are the first time to come to the hometown often mentioned by their parents. They have not had time to watch the scenery of "Tangshan" carefully. , was urged to hurry by the officers.They walked on the vast land of Liaodong, and they felt fresh and interesting about everything they saw.Although they were not used to the climate in eastern Liaodong, Wanli was full of pride in returning to the aid of the friendly army. These young people rushed all the way from southern Liaoning to the Dongchang and Niuzhuang areas with great enthusiasm, and it took only three days with artillery and luggage.

Huang Lue took the Sixth Division and the officers of his standard battalion to welcome Zhao Tie and his party.As soon as Zhao Tie saw him, he said in a loud voice: "Brother Huang! Old man, why do you think these young people are so rough in their work..."

Huang Lue hurriedly said: "It's my fault, if I control Yi Zai and prevent them from going to Xining Fort, there won't be any trouble..."

Zhao Tie patted Huang Lue on the shoulder, and laughed loudly: "It's not your fault, my son is a bold one...but this Lu Xiaotian is not young, and he is as ignorant as the children. My standard battalion guards went to Xiningbao and left the Huangniwa Ferry to me to take care of it."

Huang Lue smiled wryly: "He is afraid of accidents..." Among the officers present, only Huang Lue and Zhao Tie knew that Yin Feng's son, Yin Bin, was also in Xining Fort, so he didn't tell the whole story.

Zhao Tie nodded, pulled Huang Lue and said, "Let's go, go and see the Nanyang athletes you brought!"

On the way to the temporary camp again, Zhao Tie whispered to Huang Lue privately: "Ten days ago we opened up the communication channel with Xining Fort, Zhang Pan reported that the two attacks of the army had been repulsed by them, and A night attack was also defeated by them. Now that the officers and soldiers of the Ming army are trapped in the camp, Xining Fort will not be in danger for the time being. I have a plan to eliminate all the Ming army north of Shanhaiguan in one battle."

Before Zhao Tie ordered to temporarily suspend the increase of troops to Xining Fort, the troops of the Chinese army who went to reinforce one after another were too scattered, forming a refueling tactic of increasing troops repeatedly, so they became stalemate with the Ming army.Only then did Zhao Tie issue an order not to allow all the ministries to fight without authorization.

"...I plan to let Xining Fort attract the Ming army. We wait for most of the Sixth Division to arrive, and use all the cavalry Huangniwa to cross the Liao River and go straight to Shaling Station..."

Zhao Tie is now in the temporary camp of the Sixth Division, and in Huang Lue's tent of the Chinese army, he pointed out the place name Shalingyi on the map spread out on the ground.

There were only him and Huang Lue in the tent. Huang Lue squatted on the ground and looked at the map. He nodded and said, "Brother Zhao means to detour to the back of the Ming army in Xining Fort? Then our infantry will attack from the front. Outflank the Ming army in one fell swoop?"

"More than that! There are nearly 6000 defenders in Fort Xining, and self-defense is enough. Therefore, there is no need for the Sixth Division to enter the battlefield frontally. I hope you can take the brothers of the Sixth Division and go back to recover. Board a boat along the coast of Zhouzhou and go out to sea, take the sea route directly to here, and here!" Zhao Tie tapped several place names on the map with his whip in his hand.

"Songshan? Jinzhou!" Huang Lue opened his eyes wide, and laughed: "We can go straight to Guangning in these places, cut off all the back roads of Wang Huazhen, and the Guangning army will all make dumplings." He thought about it. After a while, he frowned and said: "It's not a problem for the brothers of the Sixth Division to go back a bit. It's just that the Ryukyu Squadron of the Marine Corps and the Beiyang Fleet are fighting against Ningyuan. On Chrysanthemum Island, in a short while...all the boats from Jinzhou Lushun will be used by Yan Siqi to attack Seoul."

Zhao Tie frowned and shook his head: "This can't work, time is running out, the north wind is blowing now, in a few days, it will be very troublesome to transfer ships from North Korea to transport troops!"

Huang Lue thought for a while and said: "Well, I will send a fast horse to Lushun Port to deliver the letter now, and use your order from the Liaodong Road Chief to mobilize the communication ships in the port to Juhua Island, and transfer all the ships there to the coast of Fuzhou. Take us aboard."

"How many times do you think it will take to come and go like this, and how many days will it take?"

"The courier will arrive at Lushun within a day without stopping. The sea is still windy from the southwest, and the communication ship can arrive at Juhua Island within two days. It is estimated that those transport ships and merchant ships will take three days to reach Fuzhou with the wind. That is to say, we board the boat on the coast of Fuzhou, and it will take six days at the earliest." Huang Lue looked at the map and roughly calculated the time.

Zhao Tie sighed: "I neglected this point. I should have ordered the Sixth Division to go ashore and rest on the spot, so as to save you from running back and forth. Well, in this battle, you will lead the sea route, and I will take the land route. Commander, I hope we can join forces at the city of Guangning!"

……

Six days later, Huang Lue led two regiments of the Sixth Division and waited for the arrival of a large number of ships in Fuzhou Bay.

At the same time, Zhao Tie led the main force of the cavalry brigade and his directly subordinate cavalry battalion across the Sancha River, took a detour to the north of the Liaodong side wall in the dark, and was led by a local guide to the Shaling Post, [-] miles away to the east.

During the day, Zheng Zhihu led more than 6000 infantry troops of the Chinese Army assembled in Huangniwa, crossing the river westward with great fanfare.They attracted the attention of all the scouts of the Ming army, and successfully covered the cavalry unit led by Zhao Tie that night, so that they were not discovered by the scouts of the Ming army after they crossed the river.Of course, the scouting horses of the cavalry brigade had swept away all the scouting cavalry of the Ming army on the way forward, and successfully kept Zhao Tie's cavalry troops from being discovered.

These days, under Zhao Tie's order, Zhang Pan organized a small team to go out of the city to harass the Ming army's camp. They often lost battles several times. The purpose was to contain the Ming army in front of them and keep them in place.

When the troops led by Zheng Zhihu came to Xining Fort, all the defenders of Xining Fort yelled and greeted the friendly troops who came to support them happily.They understood that this time it was finally their turn to attack.

No. 40 days when the Ming army besieged Xining Fort, the sky was twilight, Zhang Pan, Zhao Yi, and Zheng Zhihu led 10000 infantry soldiers of the Chinese Army out of Xining Fort, forming a broad and long four-row array, facing five miles away The middle camp of the Ming Army.

At the same time, Li Jicheng's [-]rd Cavalry Regiment also left the city gate and lined up on the right flank of the infantry comrades, protecting the right flank of the infantry while monitoring the Ming army in the North Road camp.

There was chaos in the camp of the Ming army, and the generals dispatched troops out of the camp one after another, and lined up outside the trench fence to meet the enemy.

The Ming army has been living in a muddle these days. Wang Huazhen neither attacked nor retreated. He sent various messengers every day: to Guangning and other places in the rear to urge food and pay, and to Horqin Mongolia to urge the Mongols to send troops.For the sake of face, official position, and his own wealth and life, he had to fight this battle.

After the Chinese army crossed the river and marched westward, all the generals of the Ming army knew that the Chinese army's counterattack was about to begin.However, Wang Huazhen couldn't listen to any advice about retreating, and had to wait for the Mongols to come back and attack the Chinese army hard.

His belief in the non-existent Mongol reinforcements was so stubborn that no one could do anything about it.

After Mao Wenlong took over the military affairs of Nanying (formerly the camp of the remnants of the Ming army on the South Road), he never brought up the matter of war.

Now, the offensive of the Chinese army has begun, and Mao Wenlong has been completely discouraged by this battle.He only took his standard battalion soldiers to the big camp, and found that the big camp was in chaos.

None of the soldiers of the Ming army wanted to go out to meet the enemy. They all wanted to hide behind the wooden fence of the camp to meet the enemy. It seemed that this wooden fence could block the artillery fire of the Chinese army.

Chief Soldier Liu Qu is an old soldier. According to the usual practice of the Ming army, the gunners and archers are arranged in the first row, followed by the spearmen.Then there was a row of bird gunners and archers, and then another row of spearmen, so densely packed? Eight rows of soldiers were lined up outside the fence and trench of the camp.More soldiers lined up behind the fence, waiting tremblingly for the sound of the pirates' cannons.

Zu Dashou and his standard battalion formed a formation on the left wing of the Ming army, with 2000 cavalry as the main force.This is the last "goods" in the bottom of the box of the ancestors.Half of these cavalry are servants raised by Zu Dashou and his family. Their combat power is quite impressive, but they are only brave enough to fight.

It was a cloudy day, the sky was covered with gray-black clouds, and the ground was full of smoke and dust due to the footsteps of more than ten thousand people.

The infantry of the Chinese Army attacked amidst the sound of conch horns. They marched slowly, cleaning up various things scattered in the wilderness west of Xining Fort and left behind by the Ming army: carts, artillery vehicles, anti-corrosion tanks, etc. Various weapons such as gunwood fences, knives and guns...

Before long, they had already approached the Ming army camp, about two miles away.