The Battle of Shenyang (3)
Meanwhile, the Qing command headquarters defending the line around Shenyang and the Hunhe River began to stir in a flurry the moment they received word of the Korean army’s sudden movement, which they had been hoping would never come.
It started with a young officer bursting into the room, clutching a telegram in his hand, his face pale with panic.
“The Koreans have begun their attack!”
“Finally…!”
Hearing that the Koreans had at last launched their offensive, Nie Shicheng shot to his feet from his seat, snatched the telegram from the officer’s grasp, and demanded urgently, “Where is their main thrust?”
“The central front of the Hunhe River!”
“Oh ho, look at that? The bastards are honestly carrying out a crossing operation?”
As Nie Shicheng asked the question, the officer nodded vigorously, then began scribbling wildly on the tactical map with a fountain pen that sprayed red ink like blood.
“The main force can’t hold the numerical disadvantage and some commanders are sending in rear units without reporting, trying to defend the line with raw manpower, but casualties are accumulating from French artillery fire, they say.”
“Yes, yes. They were there.”
The entire front of the Hunhe River had already been painted bright red.
All of this was the result of French support artillery and coastal naval gunfire, and the remaining Qing scattered artillery positions clinging to the blue still could not keep up with the enemy’s intense bombardment.
But still, as a top Qing army, the Beiyang Army, there was a faint hope. Nie Zhichao asked beside him, “Can they handle it?”
However, the answer that came back was quite despairing. The general in charge of the actual artillery regiment of the Beiyang Army answered with tired, dark circles under his eyes.
“None at all. With our current available assets, it’s impossible to respond to the Koreans who can freely move across the entire river. Moreover, since our main artillery positions are concentrated on enemy artillery fire, it’s hard to respond individually to those that are shaking our defense line.”
“Hmm.”
When Nie Zhichao fell silent at the answer that shattered his hopes, the artillery regiment commander pointed two fingers and suggested another plan.
“We have two remaining choices. Either gather the remaining scattered artillery positions into one and prepare a powerful strike, or give autonomous authority to the currently deployed artillery positions and exhaust all ammunition. That’s it.”
“But if that happens, when the enemy enters Shenyang city, it could become a fatal counter to us.”
“The enemy’s firepower is beyond imagination.”
As they quietly listened to the conversation, Nie Shicheng shook his head and spread his arms.
“Following the previous plan of surrendering the central part of the river and luring them to the riverbank…”
The one who had received all authority from Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang finally made his decision. The surrounding staff and generals raised their voices in concern.
It was a typical encirclement and annihilation tactic, but the means and assets they could force upon the enemy were very limited.
“But General, if it comes to that, it could be a big mistake like giving the enemy an easy foothold. Rather, gather the scattered artillery positions into one place to concentrate fire on the enemy’s artillery positions…”
“The bastards aren’t fools, Chief of Staff. They know very well that our artillery assets are far inferior to theirs. We know, and the enemy knows. Knowing the enemy and knowing yourself wins a hundred battles. We can’t casually throw away precious assets in a battle we’re bound to lose. This battle is where all the land forces of North China have gathered.”
The Chief of Staff’s concerns were dismissed by Nie Shicheng with a stubborn expression, as if he knew them well, and he pointed out the state of the army.
In summary, most of the soldiers hastily recruited from North China to recapture Shenyang and Liaodong were useless. Not just useless, but the twenty thousand Beiyang Army soldiers who had undergone high-level training and had great spirit were so useless that they couldn’t even hold back the Beiyang Army.
“Deal with the enemy moderately and cross the center. Instead, reinforce by deploying the left and right forces to the reserve. When the enemy sends in rear units to separate our defense line through the narrow gap in the center like a bottle, the left and right wings will simultaneously charge and execute an encirclement and annihilation operation against the crossing forces. After crossing, drive all the panicked enemies to the bottom of the river!”
**CRACK!**
Nie Shicheng slammed his palm hard on the desk, his eyes blazing as he surveyed the surroundings. No one opposed his plan. But he didn’t deny that among the staff and his subordinates, this encirclement battle was a strategy drawn from a position that was quite favorable to the army.
And this matter was something that even the plan’s originator Nie Shicheng himself knew well, so he finally averted his gaze and looked at the innocent Nie Zhichao.
Then, with everyone’s attention on him, Nie Zhichao turned the topic with a hesitant expression.
“Is there any news from Wonsan, where contact has been cut?”
“Reports of some Korean cavalry units trying to break through the perimeter between the eastern boundary towers and outposts, and reports of counterattacks. But most were annihilated before reaching the second line of defense or returned on their own, and no reports have been received of infantry deployment or formation movement for a full-scale offensive.”
In fact, the situation where the entire Hunhe River front was under attack was important, but the news that Wonsan had been attacked and fallen was also quite important.
The number of soldiers who couldn’t escape was considerable, and although the exact damage hadn’t been tallied yet, the garrison stationed in Wonsan had five regiments and at least two brigade-level forces defending there, so the Qing command staff expected the enemy to have at least one division attacking Wonsan.
“Wait.”
At that moment, Zhang Zhidong, who had been resting his chin thoughtfully, opened his mouth. He had fallen from grace rapidly in Beijing due to the failure of Liaodong defense and the Korean entry, and was demoted to a minor post after being pushed aside by the two generals sent by Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang.
Of course, he hadn’t been abruptly removed from the position of Liaodong Defense Commissioner by Li Hongzhang’s one word. He had made a kind of “deal” with the Beiyang Minister. If he willingly connected all the defense commanders and troops of Liaodong to the two generals arriving in Shenyang, the Beiyang Minister would not hold Li Hongzhang personally responsible for the future series of defeats in the entire Liaodong theater.
Thanks to this, despite arriving in Shenyang only two weeks ago, Nie Shicheng and Nie Zhichao were able to successfully build a defense line around the Hunhe River with the help of the regional commanders and governors of Liaodong under Zhang Zhidong’s arrangement without any internal strife.
“That doesn’t make sense. If the bastards stubbornly only cross the river, it’s like saying they’re committing suicide.”
The staff members of the Beiyang Army shared the same opinion.
“We feel the same way and have issued instructions to strengthen the perimeter to the regional defense commanders.”
“Good. Before coming here, I heard that the Korean scouts and cavalry raiding units are quite autonomous, with independent operational authority, and they move freely. If we just watch idly, who knows what variables will come.”
“Since the perimeter in the Wonsan direction has been reinforced, any telegram will reach the command headquarters within the near future, General.”
However, as staff members of the Beiyang Army who had received proper military education, it was a normal level of handling, but in the current situation of the Qing Dynasty, it was quite a good response, as alternately praised by Nie Shicheng and Nie Zhichao.
Well, the Qing army was now like a military that puts sand in the cannons instead of gunpowder and attaches talismans to their foreheads instead of armor and charges, so the excuse was that it hurt the mouth.
“Tsk.”
A few days ago, some soldiers stationed on the riverbank, despite the commander’s and officers’ entreaties, poured urine into the bunkers and positions as if they were ghosts that bullets couldn’t penetrate, and after drinking the water with prayers and talismans, they all got diarrhea in a mess.
Fortunately, thanks to Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang delegating everything and not sparing support, Nie Shicheng, who brought many Beiyang Army officers to command both the staff and command headquarters smoothly, let out a sigh.
“Still uneasy.”
The urgent fire was extinguished, and some fire brigades were secured, but the fire wasn’t just one house but the entire village.
The fire that had swallowed the Qing was still hard to extinguish naturally even after quite some time had passed.
“Do we have any reserve units that can be deployed immediately or are usable? Not the reserves to be placed on the left and right of the defense line.”
After rummaging through reports and telegrams for a long time, the officers answering Nie Shicheng’s question replied.
“Yes. Two battalions from the 5th Regiment of the Beiyang Army and one company from the Engineer Training Battalion have been detached as reserves and are waiting in the rear for the command headquarters defense.”
“Engineer units. Good.”
The engineer units were one of the Beiyang Army’s army establishment plans, a unit of non-commissioned officers specially established by the Beiyang Army to facilitate smooth command between officers and soldiers.
Like other countries, these engineer units had better equipment, higher monthly pay, and high morale, and were preferentially equipped with superior firepower compared to other regiments.
After pondering the power for a moment at the mention of engineer units and regular regiments, Nie Shicheng opened his mouth.
“Add about three companies of infantry to these three units and redeploy them to the northeast direction.”
“…Regiment level?”
“Yes.”
Then the atmosphere in the barracks became a bit awkward.
Contrary to Nie Shicheng’s command, most staff members thought that supporting one regular regiment with engineer units was an overinvestment just to deal with the enemy special forces pouring into the Wonsan direction. Moreover,
“If that happens, when the Korean bastards enter Shenyang city, the central reserve that can react immediately will be significantly lacking…”
“And with insufficient resources to protect the command headquarters, central observation posts, and artillery positions, redeploying the only reserve power to the distant Wonsan on the battlefield requires reconsideration, General.”
If the enemy landing on the protruding central Hunhe River line allowed the enemy to give a powerful blow, the army’s firepower and military resources would decrease significantly.
The engineer units and the regular regiments of the Beiyang Army were different from the other Liaodong garrison forces that were useless and dummies, and most of the staff gathered here relied mentally on them.
But the thinking of Nie Shicheng and Nie Zhichao, who had been doing guerrilla warfare that meant life and death on the Taiwan front, was different from theirs.
“Everyone knows one thing and no one knows two. Anyway, whether we let them cross the river or they pour in from the Wonsan direction, the city will be in chaos just by that. It’s good to think of luring them into complex terrain to cause great bleeding, but right now our army has low morale and lacks the will and resources to perform complex, efficient, and communication-requiring operations like city fighting.”
“‘Jeonui’?”
“In an old-fashioned way, ‘jeonui’ would be right.”
Nie Shicheng’s eyes were red with bloodshot veins, emphasizing the soldiers’ morale and supply.
It was a resentment for not forgetting his subordinates who had filled their stomachs with just roots with the cooperation of local villagers even without supplies in the past, resisting the French army, and for the past self who had wasted the twenty thousand soldiers and opportunities of Sun Kaihua by thinking that if time passed they would retreat.
“The enemy is not only high morale but also a well-equipped army mentally armed with the righteous cause bestowed by heaven. Or, to put it simply, should we say a fanatical army like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? But on the other hand, our army is composed of the complex and sand-like cohesion of bastards scraped together from North China, Jiangnan, and even villagers from Sichuan. Too much of a contrast, so the comparison army is really amazing.”
“…No way to communicate.”
“Yes, so we have to face the Korean army in an open field where the relatively battlefield environment allows direct contact of the news of the situation to one soldier. If we face the enemy in the fortress where it’s hard to distinguish between our army and the enemy, our timid soldiers will not fight against the enemy’s momentum and will flee.”
Above all, the current Liaodong garrison was only pretending to be one body through political consultation between Zhang Zhidong and Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang, with only the heads of officers and generals.
The quality and condition of the soldiers was serious.
Most of the Liaodong garrison, whose homes were trampled by the enemy or forcibly brought, had messed up morale, supplies, and equipment, and although the regiments that escaped from Lushun and Yingkou were better, the soldiers who survived the sieges like Fengcheng and Fenghuangcheng were in rags.
Nie Zhichao, who had been distributing Beiyang Army supplies to them, was now devoting all his efforts to securing supply lines, and Nie Shicheng and Zhang Zhidong could not make any more unreasonable requests knowing his hard work.
Moreover, since the Beiyang Fleet was thoroughly destroyed, the French Far East Squadron freely entering and leaving the Yellow Sea and the Korean Navy whose existence was questioned appeared as a threat, which was also a headache.
Nie Shicheng explained by scattering thirteen wooden blocks around the Hunhe River on the tactical map.
“Moreover, the number of heads who rushed from Shandong and Zhili is also significantly insufficient. The enemy also lacks modern-educated officers and non-commissioned officers, but they have old teachers, military advisory teams from Europe and the United States. If we had the opportunity to hire the observation mission from Beijing or mercenaries from Hong Kong and deploy them to the battlefield, it would have been good, but…”
But this was just a vague regret, an expectation that was impossible to achieve.
Britain had initially expressed willingness to support with mercenaries and some officers, but after the Korean entry tilted the balance, they suddenly withdrew all consultations.
Due to the aftereffects of that problem, the military supplies and weapon supplies imported around Hong Kong were disrupted, and for some reason, the US weapons imported from Japan’s Kobe were also seeing fewer transactions.
Feeling a profound sense of helplessness and loneliness that couldn’t be dismissed as just a change, Nie Shicheng lightly shook his body and said to them.
“Though it is terribly lonely, we just have to defeat those who dare to challenge the Qing with our own way.”
“Yes, General.”
Yes, that’s all. If the cunning barbarians and the Korean bastards clinging to them are disgusting, just repay them with victory.
First, deal with the Korean bastards’ meager army, and push the French bastards out beyond Yunnan, and then perhaps find a way to preserve the Qing in a more equal negotiation table.
“Well done! Draw them as much as possible from the riverbank and push the enemy strongly in the center. Since the enemy is forcing a landing operation, they’ll tire quickly and their morale will sink!”
Nie Shicheng’s palm that hit the desk hard enough to make the wooden blocks on the tactical map shake and fall to the floor was sore.
But he couldn’t distort his expression.
All the officers in the barracks were staring at him!
“The fate of the Qing is truly hanging here, so now we can only entrust it to the heavens.”