On May 24, the seventh year of Chengshun, Brigadier General Bian Liming led the 108th Division to take the lead and headed straight for Tashan. (PS: The previous article starts from Chapter 522. The year description in some chapters is wrong. The seventh year of Chengshun was written as the sixth year of Chengshun. I couldn’t change it because I wrote it smoothly. We apologize for the inconvenience!)
It's just that along the way, Brigadier General Bian Liming no longer felt as depressed as he had two days ago.
This was naturally because he met General Zuo Yingzhe, who gave him a detailed explanation of the mission of this battle.
At this time, Brigadier General Bian Liming knew that the attack on Tashan was a fake, but lowering the enemy's vigilance and delaying the enemy was the real thing.
The superiors were afraid of sending the main force to attack, so they were unable to hold back their strength and knock down Tashan, which in turn caused the enemy troops in Jinzhou and Songshan to panic and even flee.
Under such circumstances, the senior officials of the Third Army thought of the only second-class division on the front line, the 108th Division.
This division is among a large number of second-class divisions in the Chu army. It is actually considered to have good combat effectiveness. Otherwise, it would not have been incorporated into the Third Army, and would go deep into the front line with the Army Headquarters, the Ninth Army and other units.
Even though they had only undertaken some minor combat tasks of maintaining logistics lines before, there were not many second-class divisions that could do this.
Because this means that if the second-class division can keep up with the march of the main force, it needs to be equipped with a large number of mules and horses, which also means an increase in maintenance costs.
In order to control costs, most of the second-class divisions in the Chu army actually lacked maneuverability and auxiliary troops. The troops were mainly infantry, supplemented by a small amount of artillery that lacked horses, and the baggage troops did not have many mules and horses. , these second-class divisions are generally stationed in places, mainly controlling key areas.
When engaged in defensive operations, the combat effectiveness is not bad, but if you want to leave the station for mobile operations, you need to temporarily supplement a large number of mules and horses.
Therefore, unless necessary, the Chu army generally will not let the second-class divisions go to the front for mobile operations.
The 108th Division is a bit special. The predecessor of this division is the former Ming Army frontier army that surrendered in the Battle of Tianjin. The Chu army selected some elites from a large number of surrendered troops to form the 108th Division, and Stationed in Shanhaiguan, cooperating with the main force to station in Shanhaiguan.
In subsequent preparations for the Northeast Campaign, considering that the number of main troops was limited and the logistics line in the rear also needed to be maintained, the two second-class divisions were motorized and strengthened to give them the ability to maneuver in the field.
There happens to be one on the Ji Town side and one on the Shanhaiguan side.
The second-class motorized division on the Shanhaiguan side is the 108th Division.
After the division marched eastward with the main force, it has always undertaken secondary combat tasks in the rear, mainly garrisoning material transfer stations in the rear and clearing out the remaining enemies.
The overall performance cannot be said to be good, nor can it be said to be bad. It can be regarded as quite satisfactory...
But they didn't expect that there would be an opportunity to be on the front line, or even as a forward for the entire army...
In this regard, Brigadier General Bian Liming, who had just assumed the position of commander of the division a few months ago, had already put aside his depression, and instead showed great interest and even ambition.
If he can successfully complete the task of stabilizing the enemy assigned by his superiors this time, the epaulette on his shoulders will probably have one more star after the war.
After all, fighting on the front line and successfully completing combat missions is much better than maintaining a satisfactory logistics line at the back.
If he had been maintaining the logistics line in the rear, under normal circumstances, he would at most be able to accumulate some seniority, but don't expect to be promoted directly after the battle.
But it's different being on the front line and directly involved in combat planning.
Brigadier General Bian Liming is looking forward to this!
Brigadier General Bian Liming led the 108th Division all the way eastward and arrived outside Tashan City in less than two days!
Looking at the tortoise shell-like Tashan Fortress in front of him, Brigadier General Bian Liming thought about it for a while and then felt relieved: with the strength of his 108th Division, he would never be able to take down such a fortified city in a short time.
His 108th Division, although one of the few second-class divisions with mobile combat capabilities in the border areas, also switched to flintlock muskets and followed the example of the first-class division in adopting a new organization.
However, the new organization of the B Division is different from that of the A Division.
The Class A division consists of three infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, one cavalry regiment, one baggage regiment, one engineer battalion, and one light infantry battalion.
And it is as full as possible.
At the beginning of this year, several second-class divisions that began to adopt new formations and had mobile combat capabilities were the ones adopting downsized formations.
The 108th Division consists of three infantry regiments, an artillery battalion, a cavalry battalion, and an engineer sentry, and the above is still a theoretical establishment.
In fact, there are only eight two-and-a-half-pound field artillery in the artillery battalion. There are only a hundred or so half-trained cavalry in the cavalry battalion. The engineer sentries are only theoretical. There are only dozens of carpenters and blacksmiths, let alone engineers. It's a maintenance soldier...
The three infantry regiments are not full of personnel...
There are actually only two and a half infantry battalions in each infantry regiment... two full infantry battalions plus a half battalion with only three sentries. At the same time, there is also a lack of direct troops under the regiment.
The infantry regiments in Class A divisions are often directly equipped with four two-and-a-half-pound field guns and four nine-pound light howitzers.
But the infantry regiment of the B Division only had two nine-pound light howitzers.
This second-class division is actually a severely reduced first-class division, with much fewer troops!
The entire division adds up to about 10,000 people!
This is why they are all division commanders, but the division commander Bian Liming is only a brigadier general, because to a certain extent, the mobile second-class division with this number of troops, in the Chu army's view, only has more troops, but its firepower is seriously weakened. Just a mixed brigade.
It’s normal to be attached to a brigadier general!
Even if the 108th Division is reinforced with a small amount of artillery and cavalry, don't expect to be able to conquer Tashan.
According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Department, Tashan, as part of the entire Jinzhou defense line of the Dongji people, formed an integral whole with the three cities of Jinzhou City, Songshan, and Xingshan in the rear.
Tashan exists as the forefront of the entire defense line.
The Dongjiu people deployed no less than ten thousand troops here and had a considerable number of artillery operations.
At the same time, they can also receive military support from Xingshan City at the rear at any time.
At the same time, the terrain here is open, and the enemy's cavalry can easily kill them.
Under such circumstances, his 108th Division could not hope to capture Tashan.
And this... is exactly what the top leaders of the Chu Army want!
If you just want to capture Tashan, there is no need for his 108th Division to come over. If any first-class division comes over, plus the support of the heavy artillery unit and the cover of the cavalry unit, Tashan can be captured in just a few days. .
But after the Chu army finished attacking Tashan, it is estimated that the Donglu people on the opposite side were almost gone...
And letting the 108th Division fight can create an illusion that the Chu army's siege ability is mediocre, which can be regarded as showing the enemy's weakness.
With this mentality, Brigadier General Bian Liming is very relaxed!
After arriving outside Tashan City, he ordered his soldiers to build a camp step by step, build parapets and trenches, and show the enemy's weakness. But don't let the other party attack, which will lead to your own defeat...
When the 108th Division was doing this, the Dongjiu people in Tashan ahead were really panicking...for fear that the Dongjiu people on the opposite side would pull out hundreds of artillery pieces in the next second, and then blow Tashan into ruins.
The defeated Dongji troops recovered from Ningyuan City had said before that the Chu barbarians' guns were extremely sharp, and the siege was earth-shattering...
Although this statement sounds exaggerated, there is no smoke without fire. Even if it is an exaggeration, it is a fact that Chu Manzi's guns are sharp.
Therefore, as the Tashan defenders, they were particularly worried about withstanding this level of shelling.
Soon... they also felt Chu Manzi's shelling... Then, after a burst of shelling, they felt strange...
You said that Chu Manzi's artillery fire was not sharp, and you don't like that either... More than a dozen long-barreled artillery were pulled out from the opposite side, and many short robes were also pulled out, and indeed a lot of explosive shells were fired. It caused a small number of casualties to the defenders in the city.
But...that's it?
The defenders on Tashan East Road, who had been on tenterhooks for several days, came to defend Tashan with the determination to die. Well, of course, it cannot be ruled out that many people turned around and ran away just in case the Chu barbarians' guns were really that sharp. .
However, after the first day of Chu Manzi's attack... they actually produced Chu Manzi, which was just a mediocre idea!
Is it my imagination? Or are you saying that the Chu Manzi opposite is exaggerating?
For a time, many generals from the East were in trouble in Mihu Lake!
Could it be that the defeated troops at the front deliberately exaggerated Chu Manzi's true strength in order to avoid blame?
Blow up your opponent to cover up your own incompetence?
They didn't know and couldn't figure it out, but the corresponding battle report was still sent to Jinzhou.
But until now, Huang Taiji is still unconscious, and it is Dorgon and Hauge who are in charge of affairs in Jinzhou now.
Previously, Dorgon once took advantage of Huang Taiji's coma to eradicate Hauge's forces in advance, hoping to seize the power of the East.
But Hauge came back quickly enough, and he came back with an army of three thousand. In addition, as the eldest son of Huang Taiji, Hauge himself had extremely high prestige and connections.
Many people who originally seemed to have surrendered to Dorgon's Eastern captive civil and military officials immediately defected to Haug's side when they saw Haug's return.
In order to compete for power, Dorgon and Hauge fought several times... There was a small-scale fight between the two sides.
If it weren't for the current enemy, I'm afraid they would have directly erupted into a large-scale civil war.
However, it coincided with the disastrous defeat of the front line at Nakazensuo and the defeat of the former garrison garrison. In order to avoid civil strife leading to total failure, both sides had to hold their noses and continue to cooperate.
As a result, the current Dongji regime has formed an extremely strange scene. Huang Taiji continues to be unconscious, while Dorgon and Hauge are fighting for power while cooperating against the Chu army.
After the battle report of the Tashan garrison was sent to Jinzhou, it caused huge differences between the two sides!
Dorgon put down the battle report sent by Tashan, squinted his eyes and said: "This Chu barbarian doesn't seem to be as scary as the rumors. They say their artillery is sharp, but it's not impossible to fight!"
At this time, several generals under Dorgon also echoed Dorgon's words.
"That's right, let me tell you, I exaggerated the Chu Barbarians before. It's not like we don't have artillery, we even have a lot of artillery, but it's still not enough to conquer the city and land just by relying on these artillery."
"We even made some explosive bombs and some sky-rocketing cannons. Those things sound powerful, but in fact they are too restrictive to use. They consume gunpowder, and when they explode, many of them just make a sound. ."
"As long as the city walls are strong and some artillery-proof trench fortresses are properly arranged, it will be enough to offset the artillery bombardment!"
"Siege warfare relies on the bravery of armored soldiers. I heard that there are commandos among the Chu barbarians. The commandos are all wearing heavy armor and are specially used to attack fortified cities. In the past, the fortified cities of the Ming barbarians were captured by the Chu barbarians. Just because they can’t stop their commandos!”
"But we are different. When it comes to armored heavy infantry, who else is better than me!"
"Those soft-legged shrimps of Ming Manzi, I am afraid that they will collapse when they see Chu Manzi's commando team coming up. If it were me, the Eight Banners Warriors, I would definitely make these Chu Manzi's commando team come back!"
"Yes, our Eight Banners started with heavy armor. This heavy armor fighting is our specialty. They Chu barbarians are only a few years old. How can they be compared with us with their half-baked assault heavy armor? As long as the city defense is done well, If you avoid being mass-killed by their artillery due to carelessness, then when Chu Manzi’s commando comes and kills them, you will definitely make them look good!”
Listening to a group of people on the opposite side turning the topic to the heavy armored fight, Hauge snorted coldly: "That's wrong. When Chu Manzi hit the front post before, although I didn't get close enough to see it with my own eyes, I still couldn't see it with my own eyes." The sound of cannons shaking the earth cannot be faked!"
"Such a dense and sharp shelling is beyond human power."
Dorgon glanced at him and said immediately: "Human beings are made of flesh and blood, so naturally they cannot block artillery shells, but we can take anti-artillery measures to avoid being injured by artillery shells!"
"As long as we can avoid being injured by enemy artillery shells and withstand their bombardment, if they want to capture our city, they can only send heavy armored commandos up, and close combat with heavy armor is our strength!"
"Not to mention, we in the Qing Dynasty still have tens of thousands of fine cavalry. Although Zhongqian was defeated before, it was because of a command error. This time, I personally command the cavalry, and there will definitely be no mistakes!"
Dorgon's words made Hauge's face darken.
Dorgon used the defeat of Zhongqian Suo in Guangning as an excuse. Now he blamed the failure of the cavalry battle in the northern suburbs of Zhongqian Suo entirely on Hauge, believing that his command was at fault.
I wanted to refute, but for a moment I didn't know how to speak.
After all, Hauge was indeed to blame for the failure of the Battle of Nakazensho. Especially in the cavalry battle, Hauge personally commanded the battle, but the result was a complete defeat.
If Huang Taiji hadn't happened to be unconscious, it is estimated that Huang Taiji would have beaten him to the end, and even Wang Jue might not have been able to save him.
There is no point in arguing forcefully, and Hauge can only change the subject: "In my opinion, the main force of the Chu barbarians must not have come up yet. This is just a forward force of the Chu barbarians, and they are just testing the attack!"
"According to the battle report, the Tashan garrison was only bombarded by dozens of artillery pieces from the Chu barbarians, and most of them were small cannons. As far as I know, the Chu barbarians had hundreds of cannons, including hundreds of large cannons. So many!"
"Once the main force of Chu Barbarians arrives, Tashan will be in danger!"
Dorgon did not refute him, but agreed: "This is reasonable. Chu Manzi is famous for his artillery. There must be more than just these dozens of cannons, and there will definitely be more artillery in the future. Once we arrive, there is little point in continuing to resist on the Tashan side."
"Tashan is still far away from Jinzhou, so reinforcements and counterattacks are more troublesome!"
"Now that we have tested Tashan, why not withdraw the troops from Tashan to Xingshan!"
"Xingshan, Songshan and Jinzhou can form a triangle and support each other. If the Chu barbarians send the main force to attack Xingshan, then we can send troops from Jinzhou and Songshan to directly attack the enemy's flanks!"
"Even if the Chu barbarians besiege Xingshan first, and then send troops to bypass Xingshan and attack Jinzhou or Songshan, we can still disperse the enemy's forces and then annihilate them separately!"
"Use Xingshan as a fortress to block the Chu barbarians' offensive, and Jinzhou and Songshan as backup. This way we can protect Jinzhou!"
"As long as Jinzhou is not lost, the Chu barbarians will not be able to break through the Western Liaoning Corridor and penetrate deep into the Liaohe River area behind."
After hearing this, Hauge wanted to refute something... After all, how unhappy he was with Dorgon and always wanted to find fault!
However, now that there is a powerful enemy, and Dorgon said that it would be in line with his idea to withdraw the troops from Tashan and redeploy the troops to Xingshan.
He immediately said: "This is feasible!"
"A few days ago, many barbarians from the former Ming Dynasty came to surrender. They were all generals of the new new standard army of the former Ming Dynasty. They had fought against the barbarians of Chu and were good at city defense construction. I asked them to take charge of the construction of artillery defense fortifications!"
"When it comes to building anti-gun fortifications, the New Standard Army of the Qianming Dynasty is better at it!"
Dorgon saw that Hauge had relented and supported his opinion, and he immediately smiled: "Such a great kindness, I have long heard that the Wen Mingxin Biao Army is good at defending the city, it would be best to have them join!"
After the two speakers, Dorgon and Hauge, reached an agreement, Dongluo also began to take active actions.
The Dongjie garrison in Jinzhou, Songshan, and Xingshan, along with a large number of young and strong civilians who were forcibly recruited, reinforced the city defenses of the three cities on a large scale.
But this time they built city fortifications. Because of the participation of a group of defeated soldiers from the Ming and New Biao Army, the overall fortification construction became more standardized.
They not only strengthened the city wall, but also stacked a large number of circular sandbag fortifications on the city wall, and dug trenches and parapets outside the city wall. These trenches often also have shell holes to protect against shelling from explosive shells.
Build forts outside the city one or two hundred meters away from the city wall. These forts are connected to the foot of the city wall through trenches. During wartime, reinforcements on the city head can enter and exit through hanging baskets, long ladders, etc. for quick reinforcement or retreat.
The entire fortification system is almost exactly the same as the Ming army's city fortifications.
It's just that time is short, and it's not easy to build all the fortifications at once, and the fortifications built in a hurry are not very strong.
The intelligence personnel of the Chu army operating in the surrounding area saw that the Dongluo people began to build a large number of anti-artillery fortifications that had not been seen before, and they concluded that there must be a change in the Dongluo people's convenience.
At the same time, several intelligence departments including the Military Intelligence Department also cooperated with each other to investigate the changes in the Donglu people's city defenses, and finally discovered a group of former Ming and New Standard Army generals who had defected to the Donglu people.
To this end, the Military Intelligence Department also organized several assassinations... They wanted to kill this group of former Ming and New Standard Army generals who had defected to the foreign tribes, so as to prevent the Eastern Captives from building new-style city defenses and make it easier for subsequent armies to attack the city.
It is a pity that although two people were assassinated, the others were strictly protected by Dongjie who reacted quickly, and there was no chance for them in the future.
After learning that the former Ming Xinbiao Army general had been targeted and assassinated, Dorgon was not angry but happy: "Haha, they are so anxious!"
"It seems that the anti-artillery fortifications we have now are quite good, otherwise these Chu barbarians would not jump over the wall in a hurry and use such despicable means as assassination!"
"I think Jinzhou can be defended!"
The people in the Military Intelligence Department probably don't know yet. They made a mistake and did the Third Army a big favor!
The intelligence personnel at the Military Intelligence Department did not know the plans of the senior officials of the Third Army... They had no idea that the senior officials of the Third Army wanted to keep the Dongji people and prevent them from running away.
After the intelligence personnel of the Military Intelligence Department discovered that the Dongji people used a new method to build fortifications, they immediately realized that this thing was the turtle shell of the former Ming Dynasty New Standard Army, and felt that it might be harmful to the Third Army's subsequent siege zone. The outcome was unfavorable, causing our own army to suffer a large number of casualties when attacking the city, so they carried out an assassination in order to destroy the Dongji people's city defenses and reduce the difficulty of subsequent siege.
As a result, the Dongji people believed that the Chu army was really afraid of this kind of fortifications, and thus increased their determination to stick to the Jinzhou defense line.
To be honest, the Third Army's so-called show of weakness to the enemy was actually thought by Dorgon and others that the main force had not yet come over and was just a vanguard...
They were somewhat relaxed about this, but in fact it still failed to make them firm in their determination to defend Jinzhou. At most, they could just watch while fighting.
Once the main force of Chu Manzi comes up, and if the attack on the city is really as sharp as the rumors say, they will run away without hesitation.
However, this assassination by the Military Intelligence Department further strengthened Dorgon's determination to defend Jinzhou.
They thought they had found a way to deal with the Chu barbarians...using the city defense system of the former Ming and New Biao Army, coupled with the Dongji people's own heavy-armored elites, was enough to keep the Chu barbarians at bay in Jinzhou!
A long-term siege would be a long-term siege, but there are still tens of thousands of fine cavalry in Dongji. If the Chu barbarians dare to besiege Jinzhou for a long time, it is not certain who will fight whom.
And the Chu army doesn't know this yet... Brigadier General Bian Liming of the 108th Division is still pretending to be trying to attack the city at the front, but the thunder and rain are light, and even the infantry has not launched a few probing attacks...
The one who hit him was very cautious, for fear that the Dongjiu people on the opposite side would turn around and run away.
However, despite being so careful, the Dongji people still ran away...
On June 1, the seventh year of Chengshun, the Eastern Capture garrison in Tashan quietly left the city before dawn and headed east never to return.
After learning that the Dongjiu people had escaped, Brigadier General Bian Liming was stunned...
"Nima, why are you running away like this? I haven't even done much fighting. How can you run away? If you run away, what will happen to my mission?"
Brigadier General Bian Liming was panicking at this time!
You must know that the task given to him by General Zuo Yingzhe is very simple, which is to pretend to be weak at the foot of Tashan Mountain, to prevent the enemy from running away on a large scale, and then gradually escalate the battle and drag in more enemy troops.
However, it had only been a few days, and the battle had not yet escalated, let alone dragged in the main enemy force, so the other side ran away.
I'm afraid this mission will go to waste.
Bian Liming became anxious when he thought that his rank of Major General was about to leave him!
"Damn it, you have to ask me if you want to run away!"
"Send the order, and the whole army will march quickly to pursue the enemy, catch up with them and entangle them."
Not being able to keep them in Tashan, entangling them in the wild and forcing reinforcements from the East in Xingshan and other places is also an effect.
Anyway, what Zuo Yingzhe wants is to gradually bring in more Japanese troops. In the specific method, Zuo Yingzhe doesn't care about you.
Bian Liming hurriedly caught up, and Zuo Yingzhe in the rear learned about the escape of the Tashan enemy defenders from the emergency horse within a few hours.
After learning the news, Zuo Yingzhe sighed: "It seems that these Dongli people are more cautious than we expected. Tashan has just been attacked and before a full-scale attack has been launched, the opposite side has begun to withdraw troops on a large scale. Look, It seems that they are determined to play the trick of retreating while the enemy advances."
"That's all, since you can't show weakness to the enemy, then let's catch up and let the troops go faster and leave as much as they can, so that the pressure will be less when we attack Shenyang later or even march into the deep mountains and old forests!"
"Well, if this happens, the war in Northeast China will not be resolved quickly."
Zuo Yingzhe could already predict the disappointed look His Majesty looked at him!
At this time, he was holding the window with both hands and looking toward the northeast. The fingers holding the window edge were turning white due to excessive force.
Damn Dongdu, if you don't even cooperate in death, you will die anyway. Isn't it good to fight early and give birth early? You have to run all the way...
After taking a few deep breaths, Zuo Yingzhe summoned his confidant and whispered a few words. After hearing this, the confidant's face changed slightly and he immediately said: "General, you must be cautious about this kind of thing!"
Zuo Yingzhe said: "Don't leave any written records, and don't dictate it directly. Just give a hint or two. Anyone who has walked out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood will understand!"
After his confidant adjutant left, Zuo Yingzhe continued to look north and murmured:
"A bunch of shameless people!"
I don’t want to fight you openly and openly, but I have to force you to play hard!
Zuo Yingzhe is already preparing to use some unconventional means, and he has no psychological burden for this!
Few people know that although Zuo Yingzhe has an elegant name, he is indeed a scholar, so much so that he became one of the earliest students of Suiying School in the Chu Empire.
But this gentleman is a serious outlaw thief...
When he was a gangster in his early years, he even earned himself the nickname 'Blood Scholar'!
There was only a wrong name, not a wrong nickname. His nickname was created with countless blood!
