Author: Zero Romance

Chapter 3241

The location of Shanhaiguan has been at the throat of the land passage between Northeast and North China since ancient times. Starting from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains Dynasty built Guancheng there as a stronghold for foreign defense.

In the 14th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, King Xu Da of Zhongshan, on the orders of Zhu Yuanzhang, rebuilt a larger Guancheng 60 miles east of the former Guancheng and connected it with the Great Wall, completely cutting off the connection between Yanshan and the Bohai Sea.

The land is in the channel.

Because it is adjacent to Yanshan Mountain in the north and Bohai Sea in the south, it is named Shanhaiguan.

In the more than two hundred years since then, the Ming Dynasty has been continuously investing manpower, material and financial resources to expand the Shanhaiguan defense line. I am afraid that even the officials of the Ministry of Industry cannot tell how many phases of construction have been completed over the years.

But that coastal defense line has already become an unbreakable iron gate on the northern border of the Ming Dynasty. Even if it is as powerful as Haihan, if you want to attack that heroic pass, you have to plan carefully and spend several years slowly preparing for the battle.

The fortress group built east of Shanhaiguan is one of the components of the defense line, but it is hardly the main body of the defense line.

The real line of defense consists of seven large and small cities, centered on Shanhaiguan Pass and connected by the north-south Great Wall.

The perimeter of Shanhaiguan City is nearly ten miles. The city wall is four feet to six feet high and more than two feet thick. There are four gates in the east, west, south, and north respectively: Zhendong, Yingen, Wangyang, and Weiyuan. Outside the city, there are many Yanshan water veins.

It flows into the moat. The city gates are all built with towers, and outside the city gates there are urns with side-opening doors.

The city wall on the east side of Guancheng is integrated with the Great Wall, and that section of the wall is also the west wall of Dongluo City, one of the seven Guanchengs. Viewed from the air, Dongluo City seems to be on the east side of Guancheng.

A huge urn city, the area is almost a quarter of the size of the city.

Originally, more than ten years ago, the Ming Dynasty planned to build another city, which was wrongly named Xilao City. However, soon after the construction started, the construction was stopped due to funding problems, and the initial project was also abandoned.

In addition to Dongluo City, Weiyuan City is located northeast of Guancheng and east of the foot of Yanshan Mountain, standing alone outside the Great Wall.

Weihai City and Ninghai City.

The Shanhaiguan defense line, which is more than ten miles wide, has seven cities of that size, and a large group of fortresses outside the pass. The strength of the defense is obvious. It is reasonable for the Qing army to not come to bite this hard nut.

In terms of hardware level alone, the strength of that line of defense can be said to be no less than that of the line of defense built by Haihan on the Jinzhou Isthmus to resist the Qing army in the southeast.

In the battle on the second day, the Haihan Army cleared most of the fortresses outside the pass, but that was just the beginning of the war. Only those seven cities with complete fortifications on the defense line could truly connect the east.

test.

Is it impossible to attack the entire defense line at the same time? Even if we pull all Haihan's garrison in Liaodong, it will not be an easy task.

With the troops currently available to Sun Zhen, he can choose one or two attack points on that line of defense and try to concentrate his firepower to break through the city defenses.

Facing such a combat target, Sun Zhen would not count on a reliable infantry attack to achieve a breakthrough. He pinned his hopes on the weapons covered with tarpaulin behind the camp.

Is it the new artillery that was shipped from the south just half a year ago? The Sixth Army Division has been conducting training in secret since receiving it. So far, it has never been used in foreign wars. It was used even in the attack on those Ming army fortresses yesterday.

The artillery was well prepared, and the powerful new artillery was hidden in order to catch the Ming army by surprise.

It is said that those artillery pieces were arranged to make an unexpected appearance at the National Day event held in Hangzhou. Such an appearance did not allow the Sixth Army Division to take the lead, which made Sun Zhen a little regretful.

Judging from the current progress of the battle, the Sixth Lu Division is still expected to become the first unit to use the Zhiwan Cannon in actual combat. Once Shanhaiguan is captured, will it be written into the glory of military history? Thinking of this, Sun Zhen

I was immediately full of energy.

When the moonlight in the sky shines on the tower of Shanhaiguan, a new day's battle begins.

With yesterday's devastating attack experience, tomorrow's battle will be much smoother when attacking several fortress groups in the east.

When Bu Nao's infantry tried to break into the first few forts and clean up the battlefield, the artillery deployed on the Shanhaiguan city wall took the initiative to open fire, hoping to prevent the Haihan Army's offensive from outside its fire range.

The several guns that fired had obviously been calibrated before the war, and the shells fired accurately landed in the direction of the Haihan army's attack, causing some casualties to the infantry.

But that's not entirely a bad thing. The Ming army exposed its firepower in advance, and Sun Zhen could make adjustments to the direction of the attack based on this.

Sun Zhen discussed the battle plan with his operational staff yesterday and believed that attacking Shanhaiguan City, the most heavily fortified city, was not the best option. There are Dongluo City and Wengcheng on the east side of Guan City, with several layers of defenses inside and outside. Even if they are used in new-style

Artillery may not be able to achieve immediate results.

Judging from the firing situation in Guancheng at this time, it is obvious that the Ming army deployed the most powerful artillery to the core area of ​​the defense line and attacked in that direction, which would inevitably suffer more casualties.

Sun Zhen decided to adopt another offensive plan, attacking the weakly defended areas south of Guancheng and between the southern city and the coastal cities of Weihai and Ninghai.

The two small cities of Weihai and Ninghai are arranged one behind the other along the coastline. Weihai City can be seen visually from the direction of Haihan's attack, and the space between Nanyi City and Weihai City is nearly two miles long.

There are no other fortifications except the Great Wall, which is almost the most obvious weak point of the entire defense line.

Of course, the Great Wall alone is not just a wall in that area. The wall there is as high and thick as Guancheng, and there are military garrison piers every hundred feet, and various defensive weapons are also erected on it.

And Ming Dynasty did not ignore the weaknesses of that section of defense. On the contrary, it was actually one of the traps set by the entire defense line.

If the enemy breaks through that section of city defense, they will soon discover that there is a narrow, unobstructed plain behind that seemingly weak defense line, located exactly between the three cities of South Wing, Weihai, and Ninghai.

The artillery shells fired from those three cities can cover the triangular area in the middle. Anyone who attacks that area, whether infantry or cavalry, will pay a heavy price.

But for Sun Zhen, that was the easiest part of the entire line of defense to break through. As for how to crack the Ming army's layout, that line of defense had to be broken through first.

Sun Zhen decisively gave the order: "Let the artillerymen roll out the new cannon at the wrong place and give it a hard blast!"
Chapter completed!