Chapter 2341

With the current combat power of the Haihan Army, it is certainly not a problem to defeat the Qing Army on the frontal battlefield, but after more than two years of confrontation, the Qing Army has also learned a lot of wisdom in the process of repeated defeats.

Try to avoid frontal battles with the Haihan Army on open battlefields, and increase the depth of the position by building a large number of forts and other fortifications, thereby forming a long-term confrontation with the Haihan Army.

Under such circumstances, if Haihan wanted to weaken the Qing army through combat operations on the frontal battlefield, the price he would have to pay was not cost-effective. Moreover, the Haihan Army had limited troops deployed in the Liaodong area. Even if it had the ability to move the front

It will be difficult to maintain a larger ruling area even if it advances greatly to the north.

Therefore, Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun sized up the situation and no longer launched an offensive on the frontal battlefield. Instead, they prepared to use the Snow Stepping Operation as an opportunity to strike at the foundation of the Qing's rule in the Liaodong Peninsula.

The terrain of the Liaodong Peninsula is wide in the north and narrow in the south, with Qianshan Mountains running through the entire peninsula from south to north. Only the coastline is a livable plain area. Therefore, the Haihan Army only needs to concentrate its forces to increase the raids on the settlements along the coast and eliminate these areas.

Taking away as many civilians as possible and creating hundreds of miles of no-man's land would make it difficult for the Qing army to obtain supplies such as grain and grass nearby, thereby weakening its combat power.

The difficulty in implementing this plan was that the Manchus also realized that they could not completely eliminate this risk, so they gradually moved the population settlements along the Liaodong Peninsula to inland twenty or thirty miles away from the coast to increase the number of Haihan people.

It was difficult for the Qing army to plunder the population in these areas. As for the comprehensive deployment of defenses in these areas, it was indeed beyond the capabilities of the Qing army.

Therefore, the Qing army stationed in the Liaodong Peninsula did not have a particularly effective response to the harassment wars launched by the Haihan Army from time to time. They could only dispatch troops from nearby areas and rush to the local area after receiving warnings. Moreover, these

The first task of the Qing army after arriving at the local area was often not to drive away the Haihan army that landed ashore, but to drive the local people inland away from the coast to prevent these people from being easily abducted by the Haihan army.

Since there are basically no large cities in these areas, there are no so-called official roads between towns and villages. The traffic conditions are not ideal, especially after the snow begins to fall in winter. Even if the Qing army receives a warning, it is often necessary to rush to the scene of the accident.

It is also quite time-consuming. If you want to rush from the Dongxi camp near Jinzhou to a township hundreds of miles away, even the cavalry will take three or four days, and such a slow response is often unable to stop the Haihan Army from attacking the local area.

actions taken.

Donggang Town, which was first looted by the Haihan army during this snow-stepping operation, had no Qing troops stationed nearby. It was not until three days later that an armed patrol from the upper reaches of the Yalu River learned of what happened here.

When the Qing army patrol entered here, the entire town was already deserted. No one in the town, either the landlords or the poor, was there. Food, poultry, livestock, and valuable household items were all moved away.

. A large number of footprints and ruts were found near the seaside fishing port outside the town, as well as destroyed carriages. It seems that everything that can be moved, including the residents here, has been shipped out.

Donggang Town, with a population of thousands, suddenly disappeared out of thin air. It was naturally the work of the Haihan Army. While the patrol team sent people to report to the strongholds upstream, they also sent people to check nearby towns to see if there were still Haihan Army activities.

trace.

It is not difficult to verify this guess. After leaving the town and heading west, you can see the traces left by a large number of people passing by on the ground. Although part of them has been covered by the snowfall in the past two days, you can still see these traces.

The footprints are not as messy as the footprints on the beach in Donggang Town. They are most likely the footprints left by the march of the Haihan Army.

The Qing cavalry followed these traces all the way to Changshan Town, twenty miles away, and found that this place was also treated in the same way. The most terrible thing was that they found that the attackers did not leave by boat after succeeding, and the traces of the march never left.

Outside Changshan Town, it continues to extend westward, obviously heading to the next destination.

Another day later, the pursuers crossed the Dayang River and pursued them to Gushan Town, where they found another Qing army that had been annihilated in the battle. The bullet holes on these corpses indicated that their cause of death was death.

Of course, the only army that relied on musket shooting and used this method of warfare was the Haihan Army.

The pursuit here was actually beyond the defense area to which this patrol belonged. However, after checking inside and outside Gushan Town, the Qing army suddenly discovered that this was still not the last stop for the Haihan Army. The opponent was still there after looting the town.

Continuing to head west, it was obvious that he had no intention of stopping here.

This patrol only has a few dozen men and horses, and its strength is smaller than the garrison that was annihilated in Gushan Town. Even if it catches up, it is just a moth flying into the flames, which is obviously not a wise move. Instead, it needs to bring reinforcements from other places.

It is also not easy to stop the actions of the Haihan Army.

Gushan Town is already nearly 200 miles away from their garrison stronghold. It will probably take four or five days at the earliest to go back to bring in reinforcements and then rush back. And where the Haihan Army will be marching by then is impossible to guess.

As for the Qing army camp located at the western end of the Liaodong Peninsula, it is even further away. It is still more than 300 miles away. In order to avoid running into the Shanghai and Han army on the way, it has to take a detour. The reaction time required to move reinforcements will only be longer.

long.

During the period when the Qing army had not yet responded, the Haihan army had already transported thousands of people from the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula. In order to improve shipping efficiency, the civilians who were shipped out were not directly sent to Jinzhou.

It was unloaded at the Changshan Islands, which is still more than a hundred miles away from Jinzhou. This way, it can temporarily save the time required for the more than two hundred miles of voyage, so that civilians can be removed from the areas controlled by the Manchus more quickly.

Ship it out.

These islands off the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula have long been cleared by the Haihan Army. Several large islands in the Changshan Archipelago have also temporarily housed immigrants transported from the Manchu-controlled areas. Just to facilitate management, these people will be slowly removed later.

Moved to Jinzhou and settled down.

There are some private houses on these islands. The Haihan Army only needs to leave some tents and food to allow the people to live temporarily on the islands for a few days. During this period, ships will also be sent from the direction of Jinzhou to bring people on the islands one after another.

Pick up.

As for the safety of these islands, there is no need to worry. After years of raids by the Haihan, there have long been no ships on the coastline controlled by the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. Therefore, although the Changshan Islands are only twenty or thirty miles away from the coast, they are already full of

Clear out the unreachable areas.

Relying on such an efficient transfer method, the Haihan Army moved from east to west while relocating all the villages and towns along the way. These villages and towns were small in size and there were no Qing troops stationed there. Occasionally, a few Manchu landowners tried to resist.

It will also be suppressed quickly, so the process of implementing population emigration is very smooth.

In this operation, many people from Dongjiang Town were specially appointed to carry out propaganda work for the people, so that they would understand that when they were escorted away from here, they were rescued and not kidnapped. The vast majority of Han people were not willing to be enslaved by the Manchus.

, since they have the opportunity to escape from here, and they have Dongjiang Town as a guarantee, they are still more willing to cooperate.

"I took a look at the people who were shipped away. Most of them are not natives of Liaodong, but from Shanxi, Hebei and other areas within the Pass." As soon as Wang Tom returned to the flagship from the coast, he asked Qian Tian

Dun talked about his feelings.

Qian Tiandun responded: "The Manchu Qing settled these Han people from the pass so far away, probably to stop them from thinking about escaping and resisting."

Tom Wang nodded and said: "I think so too, but this time an unexpected combination of circumstances has given us an advantage."

Qian Tiandun said: "But after we finish this wave of fishing, it is estimated that there will be no large-scale immigration to these areas after the Manchu Qing Dynasty."

Tom Wang laughed and said: "We are not just catching fish now, we are simply draining the pond."

No matter where these Han people come from, since they are in the hands of Haihan, they will most likely be included in Haihan's overseas colonial population in the future. Haihan has never found a suitable channel to introduce a large number of immigrants from the inland areas of the Ming Dynasty, but

Today, the Qing Dynasty's attack on the territory of the Qing Dynasty has indirectly realized this wish. However, this blow is really cruel. I think the Qing court must be shocked and angry when they learn about the situation here. Will they continue to do this in the future?

It is indeed difficult to say what the regional immigrant population is.

Of course, Haihan's purpose was to weaken the Manchu Qing in this way, and plundering the population was just a means to achieve the goal. If the Qing government was affected by this and stopped moving people into these areas, it would not be good for Haihan.

There was no loss to speak of, it was just a measure taken by the Manchus to cut off their tail and survive.

When the Qing army patrol arrived at Gushan Town, the Haihan army had already captured Lizifang Town and Bodhisattva Temple Town, and continued west across the Shizui River to capture Qingdui Town.

It is worth mentioning that there are many villages in the southwest of Qingdui Town that are controlled by the Manchus. They tried to unite with militia to resist the Haihan Army, and even attacked the immigrant team that was moving out to sea from Qingdui Town. Such a life-or-death attitude was naturally

Incurred a military attack from the special operations group.

From north to south, the special battle group conquered Dakongtun, Xiaoqiaotun, Shengjiatun, Litun, Luanjiatun and other villages, killing and wounding more than 300 armed personnel of the militia. After this series of battles, it was finally

Let the special forces team brace up and deal with it seriously.

Of course, these Manchu landlords who organized militia groups to fight against the Haihan Army would not be let off easily. The culprits were all executed in public, and their families were sent to do hard labor in the Fushan Copper Mine.

After completing the clearing of Qingdui Town and nearby areas, the Haihan Army stopped for a short rest, because Zhuanghe County, the next stop to be attacked, is the place with the most complete fortifications so far in this operation.

.

In fact, this is not the first time that the Haihan Army has taken action against Zhuanghe, and has kidnapped many people from here. However, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties obviously do not want to give up this place where the city was originally built, and they have also continued to carry out attacks on the county seat in the past two years.

Reinforcement seems to be expected to become a bridgehead against the Haihan army's harassment.

But this is obviously not an easy goal to achieve. One of the purposes of the Haihan Army's dispatch of elite troops this time is to wipe out places like Zhuanghe in one fell swoop.

On the east and west sides of Zhuanghe County are the Zhuang River and the Xiaosi River, which flow into the Yellow Sea from north to south. This terrain could originally be regarded as a natural barrier for the county, but for the Haihan Army, which dispatched a large number of combat ships, it was completely

There is no substantial blocking effect.

The special battle group landed on the river bank south of the county seat. The Qing troops defending the city did not dare to leave the city easily to fight, so they could only watch helplessly as the Haihan army slowly prepared after landing, and fired the artillery one by one.

It was unloaded on the ship and then transported to the outside of the city to set up a posture.

There are actually a few squatting tiger cannons deployed on the city walls of this county, but compared to the equipment of the Haihan Army, they are really inconspicuous. Rather than being weapons used to attack opponents, they are better said to make some noise to embolden oneself.

.

The Haihan Army was basically undisturbed and took their time setting up artillery positions outside the city. After calibration, they launched a bombardment of the area near the city gate.

Although the walls and gates of the county town had been reinforced, it was only for conventional combat situations. It was unexpected that the Haihan Army, which always came and went like the wind, would go out of its way to set up artillery outside the city in a posture of storming.

Start shelling the city walls.

For a time, the shells blasted stone debris from the top of the city, so that the defenders did not dare to show up. The wooden city gate obviously could not withstand such bombardment, and was quickly destroyed.

Immediately, the musketeers, under the cover of large shields, slowly advanced towards the county town. During this period, some Qing troops on the city wall tried to shoot arrows outside the city. They were almost always fired upon as soon as they appeared, and they had no time to aim outside the city.

The target has been shot.

When the infantry advanced to only 20 or 30 steps away from the city wall, they threw several grenades at the city wall, which exploded and caused a howl of ghosts and wolves on the top of the city. When they entered the city through the city gate, they no longer encountered strong resistance.

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The remaining Qing troops and militiamen in the city only resisted for a moment before being defeated due to the huge disparity in combat power. Those with quick legs could escape through the north gate of the county seat and save their lives, while those who did not have time to escape would

Most likely they will become dead souls shot by guns.

The Haihan Army spent a day taking over the county seat and cleaning up inside and outside the city. They escorted the prisoners and local people onto ships and transported them away. Then they planted explosives under the north and south city gates and destroyed the two city gates of the county seat together with the ones above.

All the city towers were blown down. If the Qing army wanted to restore the fortifications here in the future, they would have to carry out a major project.

The two blasts on the county seat were so loud that they could be heard more than ten miles away. Those people who had just boarded the ship heard that the naval forces had destroyed the county seat, and they were secretly glad that they could still survive and leave safely.

Zhuang He. As for the Manchus, all of them looked ashen, knowing that they might never have the chance to come back here again.
Chapter completed!