When the Chu army started a large-scale shelling, a battle broke out that was unexpected by both warring parties. Well, it is actually not correct to say it was a battle, because the soldiers of the Chu army had not come up yet.
The Chu infantry at the front was also two to three hundred meters away, and their mission was not to attack the city, but to step forward to protect the howitzer units and prevent the enemy from taking the initiative to destroy the artillery positions.
The protagonist of the Chu army's battle is the artillery, which is the more than 100 artillery pieces of various types, especially the large-caliber howitzers.
As for the Dongjiu people... they haven't even seen the appearance of the Chu soldiers clearly yet. They are several hundred meters away, and the Chu army's artillery positions are basically covered and sloped. Even on the condescending city wall, it is not easy to see the Chu army soldiers clearly...
But these Dong captives had already been attacked by intensive shelling before they could even see the appearance of the Chu soldiers clearly, and they were stunned.
When Bai Yangrong heard from his chief of artillery staff that it was expected that this round of shelling would kill at least two thousand enemy troops, and that the enemy troops had already evacuated from the city, and the conditions were met for dispatching infantry to attack the city, he I was shocked...
How come this Dongjiao people are less experienced than the Ming army's new standard army...
The shelling lasted only an hour, and only two to three thousand shells were fired. If this level of shelling were to be resisted by the Ming and Xin Biao troops, it is estimated that the opposing general would not even frown.
It's not that the soldiers of the New Standard Army are braver, but they generally have thick anti-artillery fortifications...
As long as the anti-cannon hole is dug deep enough, even a 48-pound grenade will still be dregs!
In the past, when the Chu Army and the New Biao Army fought, it would often appear that after their own artillery bombarded them indiscriminately, the opposite side looked like a ruins. It was very tragic...
Inexperienced generals will think that the artillery bombardment is effective, but when the Chu army sends infantry to attack directly, the new standard troops on the opposite side will emerge from the artillery defenses like mice, and then use various matchlock guns, old-style Fight back with short robes and even bows and arrows...
Very disgusting!
Therefore, the Chu army later learned to be smart. During a critical battle, it would take several days to prepare for artillery attacks. If you don't fire out tens of thousands of artillery shells first, don't expect the Chu army to send infantry to attack the city!
Today's artillery bombardment, for Bai Yangrong, was just a dessert before dinner. He fired thousands of artillery rounds to suppress the enemy slightly, and then deployed closer to let the infantry dig trenches, tunnels, etc., to prepare for tomorrow. Prepare for formal large-scale bombardment and siege.
But he never thought... this was just a foreplay-style bombardment, and the other party knelt down directly.
He felt that he had either met a fake Dongjiao people, or the Dongjiao people were deceiving, hoping that the enemy would show weakness, and that he wanted to induce him to send infantry to the city, and then set up an ambush.
The possibility of pretending to be a captive is unlikely. The captives on the opposite side all have rat tails. Moreover, in the previous small-scale cavalry confrontation, we also captured several enemy cavalry alive and asked for a lot of information. , the people stationed in Fuzhou City are all serious regular troops from the East.
Among them, two to three thousand people were from the Manchu Eight Banners, and five to six thousand were from the Han Eight Banners.
Regardless of whether it is the Manchu Eight Banners or the Han Eight Banners, this is the regular Eight Banners organization of Dongji.
Therefore, there is no doubt that the enemy troops in the city are all real Eastern captives, not just ordinary common people pretending to be young and strong.
Since it is not fake, then the other party must have a conspiracy.
Anyway, he didn't believe that the other party collapsed after only one hour of shelling... If the Dongjiu people were so careless, their Great Chu Empire would have pushed down the Liaoxi Corridor and captured Dayu'er alive.
According to the reality of the intelligence sent back from Ji Liao, the Dongji people are still very good at fighting, have relatively high morale, and are more brave in charging into battle.
This information is inconsistent with the current performance of these Dongli people!
But, it is obvious that the opponent suffered heavy casualties and has abandoned the city.
This made Bai Yangrong hesitate. After careful consideration, he said: "Let the artillery fire for another half an hour and see!"
"Let the Eighty-ninth Regiment prepare for an assault. If the opponent is really a soft-footed shrimp, then there is no need to wait for tomorrow, and we will attack the city today!"
"By the way, if we really attack the city later, let the grenadiers put on armor and go up to see the situation first. Don't send the main force in all at once, so as not to cheat the other side!"
Bai Yangrong was very cautious here. Even though the opponent seemed to collapse, he still did not launch a general attack easily.
Ever since, the sound of explosions continued to sound in Fuzhou City!
——
Bai Yangrong could only see the shelling scene of his own howitzers, but he had never personally experienced the scene of being bombarded by continuous howitzers.
In fact, it is difficult for him to personally feel the panic when a large number of howitzers are shelling!
At the same time, Bai Yangrong actually commanded howitzers in actual combat for the first time when he was executing this combat mission on the Liaodong Peninsula.
After all, the howitzers of the Dachu Empire were developed not long ago. They were successfully developed and produced last year. The howitzers were put into actual combat for the first time during the Western Front campaign last year. However, the number invested was not large, and the total amount was only three. Just forty doors.
This number of howitzers is actually not much compared to the Chu army's artillery unit, which has hundreds of artillery pieces at every turn.
In most cases, the Chu army relied on field artillery and mortars to resolve battles.
In the subsequent Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou battles, the Chu army also invested in howitzer operations, but the number was still small.
Although the Dachu Empire has a large output of guns and artillery, it cannot withstand the multi-front operations of the Dachu Empire army. There is a battalion of howitzers here and a battalion there. After they are distributed to many places, there will naturally not be many howitzers available.
In the past, although Bai Yangrong had heard about the actual combat performance of howitzers, he had not personally commanded them.
After Bai Yangrong was transferred to the commander of the Seventh Army, the superiors began to prioritize the deployment of howitzers and equip the Seventh Army with priority in order to strengthen the combat capabilities of the Seventh Army and ensure that they could still ensure absolute firepower superiority when they crossed the sea to land and faced a counterattack by a large number of enemy troops. military.
At the same time, during the spring and summer of this year, the howitzer production lines of many arsenals in the Dachu Empire were also put into operation smoothly, allowing them to produce more howitzers, especially the more powerful 18-pound light howitzers and 24-pound howitzers. The production capacity continued to increase. Therefore, the Seventh Army also received more howitzer rations than friendly forces during the same period.
Among the two main first-class divisions under the current Seventh Army, the divisional artillery regiments are the latest artillery formations, and they are fully equipped.
Each artillery regiment has three artillery battalions. Each artillery battalion has two five-pound field artillery posts, one nine-pound field artillery post, and one eighteen-pound light howitzer post. Each post has four artillery pieces, a total of ten Six doors.
The three artillery battalions added up, that is twenty-four five-pound field guns, twelve nine-pound field guns, and twelve eighteen-pound light howitzers.
At the same time, each infantry regiment and baggage regiment each have four two-and-a-half-pound field guns and four nine-pound light howitzers.
The division's cavalry regiment has two two-and-a-half-pound field guns and two nine-pound light howitzers.
The division has a total of eighteen two-and-a-half-pound field guns, twenty-four five-pound field guns, and twelve nine-pound field guns; the howitzers include eighteen nine-pound light howitzers, and twelve eighteen-pound light howitzers. .
At the same time, all types of field mortars were completely dismantled, including 24-pound mortars, 18-pound mortars, and nine-pound mortars.
In this way, a main first-class division of the Dachu Empire Army has fifty-four field guns of three different calibers, and thirty howitzers of two calibers, for a total of eighty-four!
As for the larger-caliber 14-pound cannon, the 24-pound howitzer and the 48-pound howitzer, they are incorporated into the independent artillery force and are directly under the jurisdiction of the field army or the border defense\campaign headquarters.
The Seventh Army has a heavy artillery regiment with twelve 14-pound cannons, twelve 24-pound howitzers, and twelve 48-pound howitzers. This regiment has poor mobility and can only be deployed permanently. It is used for defensive operations, or longer-term offensive operations.
This time when he came to Fuzhou City, Bai Yangrong only brought the relatively mobile 24-pound howitzer. As for the cannon and the 48-pound howitzer, he brought them over but left them at the Jinzhou defense line.
On the one hand, it is not easy to transport these heavy artillery, and on the other hand, it is also because the Jinzhou defense line is more important. It doesn't matter if Fuzhou City cannot be defeated, but if it is attacked by the enemy and the Jinzhou defense line is lost, it will be over.
Even so, the Seventh Army that came to Fuzhou City still carried nearly two hundred artillery pieces.
Even the two-and-a-half-pound field cannon and the five-pound field cannon are not equipped with grenades for the time being, so they are of little use in this kind of siege operations, but they can still provide some assistance.
In addition, the Jiujin field gun can fire grenades. Coupled with dozens of howitzers, there are a lot of artillery that can fire grenades. In addition, the Chu army has always not cared much about ammunition consumption and how many can be fired. Just hit as many as you can, so after the artillery bombardment started, the number of grenades fired by the Chu army was very large.
Bai Yangrong himself had no feelings about this...
However, the Dongji people on the opposite side seemed to be bombarded by dense thunder, which stunned them.
Although the Dongji people also knew that the Chu army had explosive shells, in fact before the Liaodong battle, even the western Liaoning side had fought the Chu army several times before, but they had never been attacked by such intensive howitzers. .
Because the Chu army did not have so many howitzers in western Liaoning before...
Now, after being intensively bombarded, they could no longer withstand it and were forced to voluntarily abandon the city.
However, even so, the cautious Bai Yangrong still let the artillery troops fire shells for another half an hour...
After finally confirming that the Dongjiu people had abandoned the city and were not planning a conspiracy, the infantrymen of the Chu army cautiously went up.
And they didn't launch a large-scale attack. They just let a few grenadier sentries get closer to test it. However, the result of this test was very strange...
The three grenadier sentries sent up did not encounter enemy counterattacks from beginning to end, and they climbed to the top of the city smoothly!
After the grenadiers opened the city gate, scattered Dongjiu people in the city tried to rush up and fight back.
At this time, even the cautious Bai Yangrong had already ordered the 89th Regiment to launch a general attack.
After the 89th Regiment launched a general attack, the Dongjiu people also broke out towards the north gate. Under the cover of the Dongjiu cavalry, they began to break out and escape to the north.
When he saw his own black dragon flag flying on the tattered Fuzhou City Gate Tower, Bai Yangrong still couldn't believe it: "It was defeated so easily?"
On the other hand, the logistics staff on the side muttered in a low voice: "Can't it be simple... You ordered so many grenades to be fired. If these grenades were replaced with silver, they could be killed directly."
Gunpowder is very expensive these days, and iron is also very expensive. The fuse in the grenade is also very expensive because of its complicated craftsmanship.
The combination of these factors results in the high cost of grenades.
The nine-pound grenade produced and used the most by the Dachu Empire was the 115mm standard grenade used by the nine-jin field gun, nine-jin cannon, and nine-jin light howitzer plus its propellant pack. , the total purchase cost of the Army is eighty-two-five cents.
It’s basically equivalent to three months’ salary of an ordinary low- and middle-level worker!
You have to know that a nine-pound field gun made of bronze only costs more than 800 taels of silver... which is basically the same as the cost of a hundred rounds of artillery shells.
This is outrageous!
Looking around the world, there is probably no other army that dares to equip hundreds or thousands of howitzers like the Chu army, and can fire thousands of grenades at every turn.
Even so, the huge military expenditures squeezed a large amount of fiscal revenue from the Chu Empire.
In the six years of Chengshun, it is estimated that the central government's fiscal revenue will only be about 70 million taels. This revenue includes agricultural taxes, commercial taxes and other regular taxes, as well as the profits turned over by government-run enterprises under the Ministry of Industry. Among the profits turned over, the salt industry The bulk of the profits handed over by the company are.
Looking at the whole world, this fiscal revenue is also the highest in the world!
But the financial expenditure of the Great Chu Empire was also the same. In order to kill the Eastern captives and completely eliminate the threat from the north, Chengshun's military budget in six years reached 40 million taels of silver!
A military budget of 40 million taels of silver... If Huang Taiji knew about it, he would have to wonder if the world was kidding him!
And how are so many military expenditures spent?
Well, just like when we attacked Fuzhou City just now, the artillery shells were shot out for free...
But Bai Yangrong doesn't care about this. He only leads the troops to fight. Since ammunition will be sent later, wouldn't it be stupid not to use it?
The battle of Fuzhou City fully demonstrated the heroic spirit of the Chu Empire Army, which allowed the Chu army to capture Fuzhou City with only dozens of casualties.
These casualties basically occurred in sporadic operations after entering the city.
As for the siege stage, because the Dongji people voluntarily abandoned the city, and then took the initiative to break out after the Chu army's large-scale attack, the infantry of both sides did not actually fight in a serious way.
This battle is very simple. The Chu army's artillery fires, the Dong captives run away, and the Chu army's infantry goes up to take over the city!
Only in this way can Bai Yangrong sigh, "It's so simple!"
While Bai Yangrong was sighing, the Eastern captives, who had successfully broken through under the cover of two to three thousand cavalry, headed north dejectedly. After some discussion, several Eastern captive generals wrote an urgent battle report and sent an urgent messenger. Sent to Shenyang.
Reporting the fall of Fuzhou City was secondary. The important thing was to urgently gather more troops from the rear to prevent the Chu army from continuing to move north.
Otherwise, these Chu thieves will all go to Gaizhou. Once Gaizhou is lost, Haizhou will be right in front of us, and behind Haizhou is Shenyang.
If you don't want the Chu army on the Liaodong Peninsula to move north like a broken bamboo, you must deploy heavy troops to stop them.
Finally, the number and power of the Chu army's explosive shells were mentioned again and again, saying that they were undefeable and had a greater impact than the red cannons of the past, and asked other friendly forces to guard against the Chu army's explosive shells.
After the Dongli Central Center in Shenyang received this battle report, the government and the public were shocked!
In order to reverse the crisis in the Liaodong Peninsula, block the Chu army south of Gaizhou, and even try to drive the Chu army back to the sea, Huang Taiji acted extremely quickly.
On the same day, an emergency order was issued to dispatch 30,000 main troops from the western Liaoning front line to reinforce Gaizhou, and at the same time, 20,000 cavalry troops from Southern Mongolia were urgently dispatched to reinforce.
The next day, he personally ordered more than 30,000 troops garrisoned in various places in Liaodong to gather in Gaizhou, and he himself would also go south to Gaizhou to take charge of the army to prevent the Chu thieves from the south from continuing to move northward!
On the way, they did not forget to urgently summon people to inquire and discuss how to deal with the Chu army's explosive bombs.
While he was busy with this, he naturally did not forget an edict, beheading all the frontline generals of the Liaodong Peninsula who had voluntarily abandoned Jinzhou and then Fuzhou, and sent additional generals to take over Fuzhou. Broken troops!
They abandoned Jinzhou without even fighting, causing the Liaodong Peninsula to lose its forefront and a frontline fortress that was easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Forget it, Huang Taiji was not someone who couldn't understand his subordinates.
He also knew that the Chu bandits were coming fiercely, and he sent thousands of troops to land behind Jinzhou. If the Jinzhou defenders did not give up Jinzhou, they would be attacked from the north and the south, and the entire army would be destroyed.
But during the Battle of Fuzhou, they actually ignored the Chu army's superiority in explosive ammunition and did not dig trenches or build bulletproof fortifications in advance. As a result, the Chu army could not hold out for even half a day after attacking the city... This is intolerable. .
It's not the first day that the Chu Army used blooming ammunition. They had used it a few years ago. On the battlefield in western Liaoning, the Chu Army had already used blooming ammunition on a large scale.
Although the report said that the explosive bombs used by the Chu thieves were different from the previous explosive bombs, the explosive bombs were explosive bombs. If they exploded, they would kill people. There was no difference. They must be guarded against.
The Dongji garrison on the front line in western Liaoning basically followed the example of the Ming army in building forts and digging trenches, but the garrison on the Liaodong Peninsula turned a blind eye to this change. Whether they were lazy, underestimated the enemy, or really didn't know how to deal with it, it was all the fault of the senior generals of the Liaodong Peninsula garrison.
If Jinzhou or Fuzhou had complete anti-artillery fortifications, Huang Taiji did not think that the Chu army could win so smoothly. Otherwise, it would be possible for the front line to hold on for ten days and a half until reinforcements arrived.
But it won't be like this now, where I can't even hold on for half a day!
What's the use of such waste if you don't kill it!
If Huang Taiji is courageous and skillful, after a fierce operation, the entire war machine of the Eastern Capture of the Qing Dynasty quickly started to operate at high speed!
A large number of troops and food supplies began to gather towards the Liaodong Peninsula from all directions!
Even several Mongolian tribes located in Liaohetao in the relatively distant Monan Mongolia sent a large number of cavalry south within a few days after receiving Huang Taiji's recruitment order.
The various changes in the Dongjiu people were also noticed by spies from the Military Intelligence Department of the Da Chu Empire.
It would be impossible not to notice it... With such a large-scale military mobilization, almost the entire Eastern Qing Dynasty was swept away. Troops were mobilized everywhere. It was impossible to hide such a huge movement.
After the news reached Shanhaiguan, the Chu army also moved!
The Chu army immediately dispatched a division and with the cooperation of two cavalry brigades, they quickly attacked a fortress city of the Dongji people. They attacked on the same day, broke the city and occupied it on the same day.
This also forced the Dongji people not to dare to act rashly on the western Liaoning front line, at least not to directly lead a large number of main forces back to defend without hesitation.
This was to prevent Huang Taiji from dispatching hundreds of thousands or more troops to the Liaodong Peninsula and posing too great a threat to the Seventh Army.
However, there is only so much that the Chu army in the direction of Shanhaiguan can do.
After all, there is a question of priority here. The mission of the Seventh Army in the Liaodong Peninsula is to attract a large number of troops to invade the East and create favorable opportunities for the Chu army to attack the Liaoxi Corridor next year, instead of attracting enemy troops in the Liaoxi Corridor. The strength of the troops allowed the Seventh Army to fight all the way to Shenyang.
This involves cross-sea transportation, plain combat and many other issues.
The top brass of the Chu army had never thought of letting a group of mostly infantry troops stupidly walk on the plains and attack Shenyang. The cavalry they used to kidnap people were not made of paper...
Not to mention that the Seventh Army did not have cavalry support, even in Ji Liao where most of the Chu army's cavalry was stored, the Chu army was still at a disadvantage in terms of cavalry.
Therefore, the strategy of the Chu army's top leaders is still to use cavalry as a supplement, infantry and artillery as the main force, to attack directly and steadily, to push forward directly, and to fight a few big battles in the Western Liaoning Corridor to annihilate a large number of enemy troops.
Therefore, after a small frontier fortress was captured, there was no further progress when the Dongji people became nervous again.
As for Bai Yangrong, he didn't go directly north to Gaizhou as the Dongluo people expected...
He didn't really go to Shenyang, let alone Gaizhou, he didn't even want to stay in Fuzhou!
This place is still about 20 kilometers away from the sea. Although there is a Fuzhou River passing by and flowing into the sea, winter is coming. It is so cold these days. Let alone the Liaodong Peninsula, it is snowing in Guangzhou...
When winter comes, the Fuzhou River freezes minute by minute, and it is no longer possible to escape directly by boat in Fuzhou.
Moreover, it is difficult to get fire support from the navy's large number of artillery pieces in Fuzhou.
When Bai Yangrong heard that the East Captives in the north were like wasps that had stung a hornet's nest, coming towards the Liaodong Peninsula from all directions, he also sent a mixed regiment and twenty-four howitzer battalions back to defend the Jinzhou defense line, thus avoiding the East Captives. If people don't come to Fuzhou, they go directly to the Jinzhou defense line.
With a mixed regiment plus a second-class division and an entire heavy artillery regiment, as well as naval artillery available for support at any time, the Jinzhou defense line was only so-so.
At the same time, he ordered to dispatch engineers to the small port of Yanggongbao on the coast south of Fuzhou City and recruit young local men to build docks, camps, and various defenses.
He had no intention of using Fuzhou City as a strategic support point for defensive operations. It was just an outpost at most. The real strategic defense support points were the coastal port camps at the back and Changsheng Island further back.
Changsheng Island serves as the main station for troops, while Yanggong Fort serves as the beachhead!
At that time, you can attack or retreat!
You can also get strong firepower support from the navy at any time. Even if you are defeated and the situation is critical, you can just escape by boat!
It's not much better than guarding Fuzhou City alone!
When Bai Yangrong led his troops to build the Yanggong Castle and Changsheng Island, Huang Taiji also hurriedly led his troops to Gaizhou!
Finally, they arrived in Gaizhou before the Chu army arrived and stabilized the situation. After heaving a sigh of relief, Huang Taiji waited for more than ten thousand Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry, and then led his army south to Fuzhou in early October!
On October 14, when the light snow was falling outside Fuzhou City, the vanguard of the Eastern Capture Army also fought dozens of miles outside Fuzhou. Hundreds of Chu army defenders fled at the wind, all on horseback...
Before leaving, they set a fire and burned Fuzhou to the ground!
On October 16, the Dongjie vanguard reached the Yanggongbao Port. They launched an attack in the light snow. They were immediately counterattacked by the Chu army's fierce artillery fire and bullets. More than a thousand were killed and injured on the spot. In addition, the snow increased and there was snow on the ground. It got thicker and thicker, and the Donglu people had to stop attacking.
On the 17th, Huang Taiji, who was on a personal expedition, led thousands of personal guards to the front line of Yanggongbao!
At this time, more than 50,000 Eastern captives had gathered in Yanggong Castle, including tens of thousands of cavalry, and more than 50 red cannons or field artillery!
When Huang Taiji braved the light snow and led a group of generals up the small mountain to look at the Yanggong Castle ahead, he frowned more and more!
This damn place didn't even have a serious city wall, but it gave him a feeling that he had no idea what to say, because the Chu army had dug almost all the surrounding areas... There were fortresses and trenches of various sizes everywhere. , parapets, horses and other defensive fortifications.
Moreover, there are a lot of Chu army warships parked nearby. Even if they are a little far away and cannot be seen clearly, you can tell with your toes that there must be a large number of artillery on these warships, and the Chu army's defensive position is right on the seaside. Naval fire support from the rear is always available.
How to fight this?
On October 18, the weather in Yanggongbao not only did not improve, but the snow fell even heavier. After several days of light snow, coupled with this heavy snow, the snow on the ground quickly reached half a foot. thick.
Because the snow is very thick, let alone attacking at this time, it will be very troublesome for the Dongji people to transport food, ammunition and other materials.
On this day, Huang Taiji was forced to order an evacuation to Fuzhou City!
They can't imitate Chu's army and spend the winter at the seaside! They had a large number of field camps and fortifications prepared in advance, but they had nothing when they kidnapped people... They didn't even have enough tents because they came in such a hurry.
On this day, in the Royal Courtyard of Jinling City, Emperor Luo Zhixue of the Chu Empire officially approved the construction plan of the 'Jiangnan Province Songjiang Prefecture Industrial Base'!
