While Zhang Cheng was still returning to Xuanfu from Henan, he had already sent several teams of sentry riders to go to Liaodong outside Shanhaiguan to explore the terrain and mountains, and roughly compiled a sand table map of the terrain of the western Liaoning Corridor.
After he led the Xuanbei Army through Shanhaiguan, and after more than a month of careful survey, the mountains, rivers, terrain, river valleys and streams were described in more and more detail.
The sand table of the Xuanbei Army made all the officials and generals shine. Even Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, was very impressed. This sand table looked even more shocking than the topographic map of Changling that Zhang Cheng had shown!
With such a detailed topographic map of the sand table, all the officials and generals felt that it was possible to talk about war on paper. Everyone pointed at the sand table with interest and asked questions.
Zhang Cheng smiled and personally explained the meaning of each mark to Governor Hong Chengchou, General Commander Zhang Ruoqi, Fu Chen Qiu Minyang and other officials, while generals such as Wei Zhice and Zhang Guodong of the Xuanbei Army explained to other commanders and soldiers.
On the sand table, the specific positions of the Qing army's defense lines were marked, and they were clearly displayed in front of everyone, as if they were seeing them in person.
The trend and position of the trench walls are clear, as well as the artillery positions of the Qing army's various camps. They are also marked. Some of these are the gun positions observed through telescopes, and some are the positions of those who did not close their sentries at night. Guessed from experience.
The Hongyi cannon, which can fire more than ten kilograms of gunfire, is difficult to move after all. It can only be seen in the Qing military camps in Weijin, and there are also a few in the mountain passes of the East and West Shimen.
On the mountainside or on the top of the mountain, the Qing military camps were surrounded by medium-sized artillery with five- and six-pound cannons on some piers. There were also some small cannons such as Folang machine guns and tiger crouching guns, which were placed on the frontline of the mountain defense line. .
These artillery pieces were similar to the defense line set up by Zhang Cheng on Changling Mountain. They were coordinated with the trench walls, some Han army flagbird cannons, and Tatar bows and arrows.
According to observations, in places such as Rufeng Mountain, Shimen Mountain, and Huangtu Ridge, Han military flags and Korean soldiers holding bird cannons were found stationed on every line of defense.
The real Tatar armored soldiers hold bows and arrows, or broadswords and shields. They set up defenses behind the gun soldiers and use them in close combat. Of course, they are also intended to supervise the battle team. .
At the same time, there seemed to be some crossbows, small trebuchets, mortar cannons and other weapons on various mountains. Judging from the sand table, the Qing army used the wall as a city to defend it, which shows that its defense was not lax.
After Zhang Cheng introduced the Qing army's defense situation on the sand table, he also suggested that when the armies attack the mountain, it is best to spread out their formations and make the soldiers as sparse as possible.
In this way, it will not only make it difficult for the Tatar artillery to hit themselves, but also prevent the ricochet from causing serious damage. The only problem is that before rushing into the wall, the team must be gathered together to prevent the Tatars from forming a formation and attacking from the wall. Break out from within.
This issue of formation conversion is difficult to say, but it is not impossible. The key lies in how each army conducts its usual drills!
For example, according to the "Records of Military Training", when the armies form formations, trumpets, blares, gongs, golden drums, flag orders, etc. are used to direct each team's armor to come and go and change formations, and to gather and disperse.
If you practice well in normal times, it is not difficult for the soldiers in each battalion to change their formations according to the orders of the trumpets and golden drums and flags. They are sometimes sparse and sometimes dense, and sometimes divided and sometimes combined.
Of course, the speed of opening and tightening has a lot to do with the eliteness of each army. This is completely guaranteed by daily drills.
Regarding Zhang Cheng's suggestion, Yang Guozhu, Wu Sangui and other generals naturally had no objections. Chen Jiugao's Beijing camp was only responsible for firing artillery from behind and did not involve formation changes, so they had no objections.
Furthermore, regarding trench filling and artillery teams, Zhang Cheng also suggested filling soil bags and baskets with soil in advance, and trying to prepare as many trench bridges as possible, so that a large number of civilian convoys would not have to rush in front of them, but would be hidden behind them. After the military formation, they suddenly rushed to fill trenches and build bridges.
There are also those tools for attacking fortresses, which are not suitable to be concentrated in the front army. It is not easy to make them, but these are sharp weapons for close combat. They are difficult and long-range. They are only useful when charging against the wall in the end.
For artillery such as the Folang machine in the special car camp, you can't move around and fire at the same time and still hit the target enemy, right?
If they can still hit, then it is true that the artillery god is possessed and self-propelled artillery has come to the world. Therefore, these must be hidden behind the front formation and must not be exposed in front. Just wait until they attack the wall of the Tatar stronghold before launching bombardment.
After listening to the various suggestions put forward by Zhang Cheng, all the generals had some insights. Especially the generals in the vehicle and artillery camps of each army breathed a sigh of relief. Marching under artillery fire, everyone was a little frightened.
"...Mr. Zhang's proposal couldn't be better...it couldn't be better..."
After several discussions, it was finally decided that the light tanks from each vehicle camp would drive at the forefront of the army, using thickened shields as shields to cover the charge of the soldiers as much as possible.
Of course, even so, there may be heavy casualties, but there is no way. The current Ming Dynasty does not have a tank that can withstand artillery bombardment. Even if there is, it must be quite heavy, and it will be difficult to implement even on flat roads. , not to mention the battle of attacking mountains and climbing high.
On this point, Yang Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Town, Li Fuming, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi, Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, and Tang Tong, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen, all considered this. Even Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen, who were responsible for the feint attack on Huangtu Ridge and Songshan Ridge, He also nodded with a heavy expression.
In a war, there will definitely be casualties, and there is nothing we can do about it!
However, Chen Jiugao, the commander-in-chief of the front camp of Shenji Camp, hesitated a little when Zhang Cheng made the suggestion next.
His suggestion was to ask the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion to push the artillery as close as possible, especially to the two key places of East and West Shimen, and to bombard the fire road piers and enemy towers built on the mountainside and mountain passes as much as possible. Suppressed the artillery fire of the Tatars.
In the past ten years or so, the Ming Dynasty spent huge sums of money to build a large number of piers and platforms in Liaodong, typically one pier for three miles and one pier for five miles. Especially those enemy towers, most of which were two-story hollow enemy towers covered with bricks.
It is generally about three to five feet high, with a width of twelve feet, or seventeen or eight feet around it. The middle floor is empty, with arrow windows on all sides. The upper floor is built with oars and is surrounded by crenels. Most of them are built with large stones. Well done, very solid.
Songshan Fort was originally one of the eight forts outside the Guan Pass. There were many such piers and platforms built in the surrounding mountains. On weekdays, they were equipped with various towers and towers to guard, watch and convey the enemy's situation.
However, the Qing army had besieged Jinzhou for a long time, and the fire road piers and enemy towers around Songshan Fort had long been captured and used as lines of defense for the Qing army.
