Chapter 202 Battle of Longchuan--Death of Dashan Rock

On December 17, 1890, Duan Qirui, who was only 25 years old, joined Liu Ming's Mingjun with his Jianghuai infantry column, because his troops were all new recruits. In case, after consultation between Hu Chuyuan and Lu Guangxuan, Sun Yuanheng temporarily joined the Jianghuai infantry column with an infantry column and formed a A mixed column with 2,544 people, with 52 Maxim machine guns.

Hu Chuyuan just made up a lie with Liu Mingchuan. The number of Mark Qin machine guns in his hand is very amazing, and there are also more than 240 Liu Jintang of the Hunan Army.

This is a comprehensive counterattack, a great encirclement war, with 100,000 troops and more than 40,000 Japanese troops.

Ye Boyu has arrived in Donggang with some troops to assist Liu Ming's Donggang regiment to resist the possible impact of the Japanese army... This may be very small. Everyone unanimously believes that the biggest retreat of the Japanese army is North Korea's Longchuan, and then retreat from Longchuan to Guicheng.

Therefore, Liu Jintang's troops must first land in Yanzhou, insert Longchuan, and cut off the retreat of the Japanese army.

These days, Hu Chuyuan quietly lives in the toad pond. This small lake, which is cut off by the mountains, is shaped like a half moon. Because it is blocked at the mountain pass, it is called the toad pond at some point.

He set up a temporary command post here, and Liu Mingchuan has decided to go to the battle in person. In the past few days, he has been shuttling through the defense line of Zhen'an Town and deploying troops.

Under the mediation of Hu Chuyuan, the relationship between the Huguang camp and the departments of the Huai army was slightly eased. Zhang Shiying also took the second Huguang battalion to help the Huai army stabilize the front until Duan Qirui and Sun Yuanheng took over.

With the large-scale use of machine guns, the casualties of the Japanese army are also increasing. On December 20, Dashanyan no longer dared to launch a new offensive easily. On the contrary, it predicted that the Qing army might launch a counterattack. It was fortified in Yizhou and other places opposite the river bank, and strengthened the defense force against Yanzhou and Longchuan.

He is very eager to buy new machine guns and equip them in the army. However, only the United States can produce this kind of machine gun so far, and the United States has imposed an embargo on Japan.

The French provided a kind of Harkis wheel machine gun with a caliber of 37mm. The rate of fire is far from that of the Qing army's Maxim machine gun. Although the range is large and the weight is too large, it can only be used for defense, not for position attack.

Even this kind of machine gun, due to difficult handling, the number of equipment of each division is not large.

Dashanyan is can't wait to ask the headquarters to find a way, and it is necessary to transport 60 Hakisian machine guns in the shortest time.

During this period, Li Kaiye had already penetrated into Hushan Town with three infantry soldiers, and could break through the military defense line of Gulouzi Township at any time. In order to march quickly, they were just equipped with an ordinary model of Maxim machine guns in each platoon.

Time can no longer wait any longer. Hu Chuyuan believes that it won't be long before the Japanese army's front will become extremely difficult to attack, and we must seize the opportunity of the Japanese army to turn from attack to defense.

On December 21, Hu Chuyuan ordered the collection of munitions to suppress and bombard the Japanese defense front to ensure the follow-up cross-river operations.

At this time, after a year of preparation, production, transportation and resupply, the Qing army did have the conditions to fight back.

Liu Ming's biography department currently has the three battalions of the Ming Army, the fourth battalions of the Yi Army, the two battalions of the Feng Army, the three battalions of the Huai Army from Xuzhou and Hefei, and the four battalions of the Northeast Regiment.

These are all large battalions, with a total of more than 48,000 people.

The Luguang Tsuen Department has four battalions of the Huguang Army, one reserve battalion, one battalion of the Qing Army, and two battalions of the Qingxu regiment, with a total of more than 21,000 people.

Ye Boqi's headquarters of the Marine Division of the Beihai Joint Fleet was stationed in Donggang, leading one battalion and three battalions of the Donggang regiment, with a total of more than 10,000 people.

Liu Jintang of the Hunan Army is stationed in Gushan Port and leads the five battalions. All of them are the elites of the Hunan army. At present, Xu Yanxu, Chen Fanglue, Xiao Delong, Zhang Chunfa, He Xiuqing and others who are the most capable of the Hunan army have basically arrived, with a total of more than 17,000 people.

Nearly 100,000 troops can rush to the front line, while the three divisions of the Japanese army and the temporary additional North Korean army have a total strength of only more than 60,000 people. Several divisions have relatively fast additions, but the newly added reserve soldiers are far less than the previous ones. Although the Huai Army is also a large-scale supplement, the actual gap in combat quality has narrowed a lot.

This is the important surname of dragging. The elite of the Japanese army is dragged down one layer first, which greatly reduces their tactical literacy and execution ability. It is almost the same as the average quality of Huai Army, Xiang Army and regiment training, but it is only half a catty, and it is much easier to fight.

In fact, because it is much more difficult to supplement than the Qing army, the two brigades of the Japanese army are empty, which are completely covered up by the Korean rebel army. The real strength is less than 50,000, and the supply of guns and ammunition can't keep up.

In contrast, with the arrival of Hu Chuyuan, the armies not only further replenished the personnel and materials, but also the main force has replaced the Jiangnan rifles. The artillery force has increased to 4 integrated artillery battalions and 7 artillery cannons. The Xiang Army and the Huai Army Liu Ming's direct line Yi Army, Huguang Army and Ye Boyu's navy are still in various battalions. It is equipped with a separate artillery guard, with a total of 174 75mm caliber, 138 122mm caliber and 65 155mm caliber new howitzers. In addition, a number of mountain forts, especially the Yuanbaoshan Fort, have been repaired, which can advance targets within 2 kilometers to 35 kilometers of the battlefield. A deep blow.

With the gradual improvement of the supply line from Ocean River to Fengcheng County, the supply of shells is also very stable. In order to supplement the number of skilled artillery of each department, Hu Chuyuan transferred a large number of artillery from Mei Qizhao, Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi to the camp.

On December 21, Hu Chuyuan ordered the collection of munitions to suppress and bombard the Japanese defense front to ensure the follow-up cross-river operations.

A crazy day begins.

This day is for Dashanyan, for the first Tokyo division, the second Sendai division and the sixth Kumamoto division of the whole Japanese army, and for those Korean rebels... This is the end of the day.

Dense artillery began to bombard the front of Dashanyan indiscriminately, which was the most violent shelling the Japanese army had suffered since entering North Korea. It began a sudden shelling at 4 a.m. and lasted until 11 p.m.

Hu Chuyuan did not intend to attack immediately. Instead, he continued to shell from three o'clock in the afternoon. Because the south bank of the Yalu River was a large impact plain, all the bombing targets were very clear. As long as he climbed Yuanbao Mountain, he could see it at a glance.

Next, at 1 a.m., the artillery attack continued. At 5 a.m., the artillery attack began to suddenly strengthen, and a comprehensive sweeping attack was carried out on the entire defense line.

Under such shelling, Nie Shicheng, who served as the first round of assault, was quite excited. Once upon a time, he could also enjoy such treatment. In order to cover his strong attack, it was bombed for two days.

He thought, not to mention the Japanese, even the Russian Maozi can't stand this kind of blow, right?

After three consecutive bombings, until 7:00 a.m. on December 24, Hu Chuyuan asked Liu Mingchuan to officially attack and cross. Nie Shi became a pioneer and led two battalions of nearly 7,000 elites to cross the Yalu River.

Although it was shelled for three days, the Japanese army still reacted fiercely to the Qing army's counterattack and transferred two infantry regiments to intercept Nie Shicheng's troops with the help of intensive artillery fire.

The two sides fought for many battles at the mouth of the Yalu River. It was not until more than a dozen gunboats of the Beihai Joint Fleet, led by an icebreaker, entered the river bank to assist defense, and then captured the Xinling Long Beach opposite Tangchi Town. At this time, Nie Shi formed two battalions, and only one battalion was left behind, followed by Liu Ming Chuan personally led the troops to suppress it, and a total of more than 10,000 people in the three battalions began to fight.

Frontline injury, group training supplement, constantly draw people to the battle.

The artillery of both sides was attacking. The Japanese army also built a fort on the southern line and cooperated with a large number of artillery to counterattack. The Huai army relied on as many as 65 155mm new howitzers to counterattack the Japanese artillery front.

The casualties on both sides were extremely tragic.

In the early morning of December 24, Liu Jintang of the Hunan Army landed successfully in Duoshili under the cover of the North Sea Joint Fleet, and then attacked Yanzhou.

Dashanyan realized that the Qing army had launched a general encirclement counterattack. After leaving the Sixth Division and two North Korean Rebel Brigades cut off, he led the other two divisions to withdraw, returned to Longchuan, and exchanged fire with Xu Zhanxu's troops of the Hunan Army in Longchuan.

On the night of December 24, Li Kaiye bypassed the defense line of the army, inserted the enemy's artillery front from the diagonal rear, blew up a number of artillery of the 6th division of the army, captured some 75mm howitzers, and occupied Dayuling.

On the 25th, in the early morning, Lu Guang Tsuen Department broke through the defense line of the Sixth Division. The two sides crossed the attack between Dayuling and Luoling, and finally relied on two artillery artillery to attack continuously and occupy Luoling.

Lieutenant General Nozaki Sadasumi did not lead the 6th Division to withdraw. Instead, he retreated to defend Luo Daokou and continued to fight with Lu Guang Quan.

Ye Boqi's troops went north along the Yalu River and joined Lu Guangxu. Liu Ming of the Huai army attacked Longchuan to the south. Liu Jintang of the Xiang army finally captured Yanzhou and formed an encirclement with the Huai army, cutting off the retreat of the remaining two divisions in Dashanyan.

Longchuan is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the terrain is complex. Although the mountains are not high, they also have enough tactical value. In this way, Dashanyan defended Longchuan and concentrated his forces at the northwest entrance to block Liu Ming's headquarters of the Huai Army.

Due to the slightly faster marching speed, Zuo Baogui was caught by Shandi Zhiyuan, the lieutenant general of the first division. He suddenly attacked and almost besieged and annibbed. At the same time, the gap between the first division and the second division was also caught by Liu Mingchuan's Mingjun, and he besieged with the Yi army to attack on multiple positions of the second division.

With the occupation of Longyanpu, Xinyi and other places, the difficulty of the Qing army's supply by sea has been greatly reduced.

On December 29, Hu Chuyuan arrived in Longyanpu, personally responsible for the transportation of materials, and asked Liu Mingchuan to change his tactics. He turned to Longchuan to open the formation and prevent the Japanese army from breaking through the siege. At the same time, he gathered large-scale artillery troops and gathered in Xinyi and Luoling against the 6th Division of the Japanese Army and the dynasty. The Third Brigade of the Fresh Volunteer Army bombarded.

While the shells were consumed on a large scale, the 6th Division of the Japanese Army was also gradually lost. The Korean rebels fled and were intercepted by Liu Shengxiu's troops at Longchuankou. Nearly 3,000 people died at the mountain pass, and the rest were captured.

The last day of 1890 was spent in continuous gunfire. Tens of thousands of shells of shells every day were exchanged not only death, but also the low morale of the army. The three divisions were blocked and suffered heavy losses.

On January 1, 1891, on the first day of New Year's Day, Ye Boqi and Lu Guangzheng attacked the Sixth Division. The battle lasted for three days, and finally annihilated more than 4,000 remnants of the Sixth Division. Naturally, their own damage was not light, and they were temporarily stationed in Luoling and Xinyi Adjustment.

With the annihilate of the 6th Division, all artillery troops began to gather again and bombard Longchuan. Because the artillery units of Ye Boqi and Liu Jintang of the Xiang Army also entered the battlefield and deployed in the surrounding areas of Longchuan, Dashanyan suffered a heavier blow this time.

From January 4th, the artillery battalions completed their preparations and launched the first round of attacks on the defense lines of Longchuan, and the shelling lasted for six days.

Dashanyan was forced to choose to break south and was intercepted by Xiao Delong's army in Longchuanpo. Due to the closer deployment of Xiao Delong's machine guns and cannons, nearly 10,000 people from the two divisions led by Dashanyan were severely damaged, leaving only more than 3,000 people, and failed to break through the siege.

Dashanyan is tragic and deserves it. He chooses to commit suicide, while his soldiers generally choose to surrender.

On January 21, the army general Dashanyan committed suicide. On January 27, the Huai army recaptured Turtle City. On January 30, the Xiang army recaptured Anzhou, followed the Qingchuan River to the north, and began to attack Xichuan, the most important transit station on the Japanese army's invading supply line - Xichuan.

As of January 30, the whole Longchuan Campaign was over, and the number of Japanese soldiers killed and seriously injured reached 27,000, the Korean Rebel Army was killed and wounded more than 7,000, 11,000 people were captured, and the number of deaths and seriously injured by the Qing army reached 11,600.

(to be continued)