The north wind howled. Although it was already past February, the weather was still cold.
Yang Jian sneaked into the capital to spy on the Revolutionary Army while Zhou Qingfeng quietly left the capital and arrived at Shanhai Pass in the northeast.
As the world's number one pass, Shanhai Pass was a majestic pass. It was stuck on the road leading to the capital from Liaoxi Corridor with Liaodong Bay on the east and Yanshan Mountain Range on the west. It was connected to Jiayu Pass thousands of miles away and helped the Han people resist the invasion of the barbarians from the north.
Zhou Qingfeng stood on the city wall that was more than ten meters high and looked at the enemy with his binoculars. There was an army of tens of thousands of people about three kilometers away. They were holding a flag that was more than ten feet tall with a big word 'Gao' written on it.
"It's the Kennu appointed Deputy General Gao Hongzhong. He was originally a Guanning guerrilla of the Ming Army stationed at the Liaohe River area. Last year, when Nurhachi swept through Liaoxi, he surrendered. This guy is used by Hwang Tae-gil like Fan Wencheng. He's a hardcore traitor, "Gao Daniu stood behind Zhou Qingfeng and introduced the enemy's situation. He added in the end, "We roughly estimated that the enemy has 50,000 people."
Through the binoculars, Gao Hongzhong's camp was set up tightly. There were very few people walking around in the camp. The troops were orderly and quiet. There were more than ten cannons placed around the camp gate. From the appearance, they did not look like the old cannons of the Ming Army at all. They had been changed to the western long-barreled heavy cannons.
These new cannons had thick walls and gradually became thicker from the muzzle to the breech so that more charges could be used. The cannons had cylindrical ears so that they could be easily installed on the wheeled gun carriage. Moreover, they could adjust the angle of fire for aiming. However, these cannons easily weighed two tons. They had to rely on manpower and animal to transport them on the bumpy road. God knows how many Kennu people would die from exhaustion.
In contrast, the Revolutionary Army's cannons of the same power were less than half a ton. They even had a special four-wheeled heavy artillery carriage to transport them. They were already suffering from the current dilapidated road.
"After the enemy set up camp, they started shooting at our wall. Their cannons could reach up to a few kilometers away. Although they did not hit our people, they hit the wall many times." Gao Daniu pointed at a few white spots outside the wall. "Those were all shot by Gao Hongzhong's cannons. We fought back with the Longsong Cannons but the effect was not good. "
Even if the Revolutionary Army's machinery factory had a lot of black technology, it was still impossible for the artillery to accurately hit the enemy's artillerymen thousands of meters away. Unless the Revolutionary Army's cannons could accurately hit the gap of the enemy's artillery chest wall that was only a few meters wide, there was no way to destroy the enemy's artillery. was.
Unless the Revolutionary Army's artillery could accurately hit the gap that was only a few meters wide on the enemy's artillery position's chest wall, there was no way to destroy the enemy at all. When Zhou Qingfeng put down the binoculars, he was baffled. The Kennu artillery was a little too professional. Their handling of the details was completely in line with the norm. How was this a technical unit that a group of barbarians could train?
"Something's not right," Zhou Qingfeng muttered to himself. There were many artillerymen in the Ming Army. It was not surprising that Gao Hongzhong could still control the artillery after he surrendered. But the artillery of the Ming Army was very weak. No one would believe that they had evolved so quickly in one year.
The problem at hand was not just that the enemy had suddenly become stronger …
The Revolutionary Army used a lot of money and manpower to develop industry and agriculture and manage the population. They were conservative in the construction of military forces and pursued elite soldiers. Until now, Zhou Qingfeng only had ten brigades and fifty thousand regular soldiers. Even with the two infantry brigades that had recently finished training, the military strength was still not enough to occupy all the cities in the area he controlled.
This was a lesson learned from the Ming court. The Ming Army was large in scale, but the quality of the soldiers was extremely poor. It was fine if the soldiers were poor, but they were scattered everywhere like beans. The result was that they could only defend the city and wait for the enemy to break them one by one. Zhou Qingfeng would rather have a small number of elite soldiers and have the ability to fight the enemy in the field. The defense of the city was handed over to the specialized militia and garrison troops.
But at the moment, the military strength under Zhou Qingfeng was still too limited. He gathered five brigades to take over the capital. It was easy to take over the capital, but the five brigades had to split up and defend in different directions. They also had to suppress the surrendered Ming Army. They were really too busy. Shanhai Pass was extremely important, but they could only let Gao Daniu's brigade come over.
Du Song was originally the chief of Shanhai Pass. Seeing that the capital was finished, he simply surrendered. But the tens of thousands of stragglers under him had to be reorganized, screened, and controlled. This put a lot of pressure on Gao Daniu.
Gao Daniu only had five thousand people, plus another five thousand militia. This small number of people was not enough to defend Shanhai Pass. He could not ignore the tens of thousands of people under Du Song. So when Gao Hongzhong, this dog traitor, swaggered over with his troops, he could only watch. At most, he sent some cavalry to harass them.
"The tens of thousands of people under Gao Hongzhong are very strange. Most of them are the Ming Army of the past, just that they have changed to some firearms. But their spirit is completely different from the past. " Gao Daniu said, "My cavalry has fought with the enemy many times. Currently, they can still control the situation, but the enemy's battle power has increased very quickly. Especially when the enemy has started to use the infantry square formation that combines hot and cold weapons. "
According to the previous intelligence investigation, the organization of Gao Hongzhong's troops had evolved from the old pure cold weapon square formation to the Spanish square formation with a small number of firearms. About one-tenth of the troops were equipped with firearms, and the infantry with spears formed a powerful but clumsy all-directional square formation.
The National Defense Army, which had been reorganized from the Imperial Guard, was evolving into an all-firearms square formation, entering the era of lined up shooting with the help of artillery. But Zhou Qingfeng had to admit that the enemy was also improving, and the speed was very fast. He pondered for a while on the city wall and guessed suspiciously in his heart, "The Portuguese from Macau that the Ming court gathered before have probably run to the Kennu side."
Ever since Nurhachi created the Brainwashing Sect, his ability to control the bottom level had greatly improved, and the Revolutionary Army's infiltration of Liaodong and Liaoxi had become much more difficult. Many intelligence agents had lost contact, or it was difficult to pass on information. Zhou Qingfeng could not figure out what was going on with the enemy.
After taking down the capital, Zhou Qingfeng blocked the way for Kennu to get material aid from the Han people. Next, he wanted to slow down a little. At least let him complete the fourth phase of the army expansion and settle the 100,000 land troops. But Gao Hongzhong's appearance disrupted his thoughts. When he stood on the city wall of Shanhai Pass, he knew that Nurhachi was coming to fight him to the death.
"Gao Hongzhong is just cannon fodder." Zhou Qingfeng said with certainty, "Nurhachi is not that stupid. He knows that Shanhai Pass has a strong defense, and the Liaoxi Corridor is particularly narrow near the sea. This place is suitable for our Revolutionary Army's heavy firepower. Even if he has 50,000 people, how long can he resist? "
Zhou Qingfeng was wondering if this was a deliberate suicide to confuse the enemy. The Kennu would abandon these tens of thousands of people and secretly send troops to attack from the Haigai area in the east after attracting the main force of the Revolutionary Army. This was the easiest route. After all, the road from Shenyang to Liaoyang and then to Haizhou was relatively easy to travel. In war, the conditions of the road were an important factor in determining the outcome.
However, the Kennu were not stupid. Haizhou might be easy to attack, but the terrain of Gai Prefecture was similar to Shanhai Pass. It also blocked the enemy's ability to attack. If the enemy wanted to win, they would have to bleed.
Or if the Kennu wanted to attack Liaonan from the direction of Dandong, they could also attack the capital region from the direction of Mongolia. But these two routes were not easy to take. If they were defending the Ming Army, the Kennu might succeed. But now the Revolutionary Army's morale was high, they were well organized, and they dared to fight to the death in the field. It would not be so easy to succeed.
And there was no movement in other directions except for Shanhai Pass.
Nurhachi, what do you want to do?
Zhou Qingfeng put his hand on the city wall and carefully thought about the arrangement of the enemy and his side. He finally decided, "No matter how the enemy attacks? We will fight our own. Gao Hongzhong, this dog traitor, dares to go 400 miles into Liaoxi Corridor and show off in front of us. We will destroy this guy. "
Even if the enemy had 50,000 troops, Zhou Qingfeng was not afraid. He believed that with their firepower advantage, they could completely crush the enemy. "Order a transport fleet from Tianjin to transport the newly formed 11th Brigade of the National Defense Army from Tianjin to Shanhai Pass."
It was not a problem for a brigade to defend Shanhai Pass, but it would be a bit difficult to defeat an enemy ten times their number in the field. Especially since this enemy had learned some skills from who knows where, it would be even more difficult to deal with.
Because Liaoxi Corridor was near the sea, Zhou Qingfeng planned to send an additional brigade by sea to go around Gao Hongzhong's back. Unless Gao Hongzhong had the ability of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and could maintain a tenacious fighting spirit and heaven-defying attack ability in the predicament of being attacked from both the front and the back, he would be dead for sure.
"Nurhachi most likely wants to mobilize my troops, so he is giving me a piece of fat meat to eat." Zhou Qingfeng snorted disdainfully. "You're looking down on me too much. I don't care if he's a poisonous bait or a fat piece of meat. I'm going to make him eat it in no time."
The order to mobilize the troops was soon passed to Tianjin by Jia Gang's Divine Sense. The 11th Brigade, who had just walked out of the recruit training camp, immediately boarded more than ten 500-ton transport barges and headed towards Shanhai Pass amidst the sound of the steam engine.
Due to the complexity of the formal ship structure, the construction speed was slow. The number of the old 2,000-ton sail transport ships was not enough, and the carrying capacity was low. For this reason, the Jinzhou Shipyard of the Revolutionary Army had been producing 500-ton self-powered barges.
The barges had a simple structure, large space, and fast construction. They could even run with a small steam engine of 100 horsepower. They were especially suitable for a 'small bathtub' like the Bohai Sea where the distance between ports was close and the sea was relatively calm. The entire transportation process of this brigade only took three days. It could be said to be efficient in the current era.
However, when the 11th Brigade arrived at Shanhai Pass and was ready to launch a landing operation at the enemy's rear, new information came. Kennu had sent another 30,000 troops from Jinzhou to the south into Liaoxi Corridor and had just stationed in Ningyuan City.
This army was only 120 kilometers away from Shanhai Pass. If it was fast enough, it was likely that it would meet up with Gao Hongzhong in three days. This time, it was Mangurtai who led the troops.
This situation was delicate.
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