nucmednet Chapter 714 The Battle of Port Arthur
Chapter 714 The Battle of Port Arthur
Both the forts at Tiger Tail and Golden Hill were garrisoned, but not by Qing soldiers; rather, by Han Chinese soldiers from the Eight Banners. The Eight Banners soldiers, skilled in archery and horsemanship, disdained and were incapable of operating artillery. Furthermore, Huang Taiji, known for his strategic brilliance, did not prioritize coastal defense. The garrisons at both forts were sparse, barely adequate. Even within Lushun Fortress, only six hundred armored soldiers were stationed. When Huang Taiji captured Lushun, he did not intend to properly manage it; rather, he merely sought to remove this thorn in his side, preventing him from being attacked from both sides when he marched south.
In fact, it wasn't just Lushun; from Fuzhou and Gaizhou to Jinzhou, the entire southern Liaoning region was neglected by Huang Taiji. Almost all the Han Chinese were killed, and the survivors migrated to Liaodong, leaving the area sparsely populated and the land uncultivated. In the original history, it wasn't until after the Qing army entered the pass, during the Kangxi era, that southern Liaoning was gradually developed and its population began to flourish.
The soldiers guarding the Golden Hill Fort were idly sunbathing; the early spring sun was warm and comforting, making them drowsy. When the Qionghai Navy fleet arrived at Lushun Port, surprisingly no one noticed or warned them immediately. It wasn't until the fleet leisurely formed a straight battle line that anyone realized the enemy was at large.
"Enemy attack! It's a Ming Dynasty fleet!"
The soldier on duty shouted at the top of his lungs, waking everyone from their sleep. They jumped up and rushed to the gun emplacement in a flurry.
However, the enemy had anticipated this attack and, with their naval guns positioned far above the gun emplacements, they had no chance. A storm of shells quickly rained down upon them.
"Boom boom boom—" Accompanied by tremendous roars, orange-red flames continuously spewed from the sides of the fleet as cannonballs rained down, massive iron balls slamming into the base of the gun emplacements under immense kinetic energy. The stone-built emplacements teetered precariously, rubble flying everywhere. The soldiers felt a violent tremor beneath their feet, like an earthquake, as if the entire emplacement could collapse at any moment. Under these circumstances, let alone firing back quickly, even loading cannons was difficult, as everyone could barely stand.
Just as the defenders of the fort were hesitating whether to hold out or flee, the enemy made the decision for them.
A shell whistled past the top of the fort's wall, sending up a spray of rubble, before slamming into a cannon and striking the powder barrel squarely, causing a secondary explosion. With a deafening roar, the massive blast wave sent everyone flying, and the heavy cannon barrel soared high into the air, somersaulting before crashing back down, breaking a nearby cannon in two.
The surviving defenders screamed and retreated. They had never seen such fierce bombardment before; it was beyond human resistance. If they continued to hold out, they would all perish with the fort.
The Golden Hill Fort, located halfway up the mountain, had a height advantage and failed to fire a single shot in response, surrendering instead. The Tiger Tail Fort, situated on a low-lying terrain, was even more vulnerable.
Tiger Tail is a peninsula with a low-lying dry beach at its end, slightly above sea level. Facing the imposing Qionghai warships, it was already at a disadvantage; unless the cannons were raised higher, they posed no threat. However, they had no opportunity to fire. The battle line of warships relentlessly rained down shells, and within the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the fort was reduced to ruins. Most of the defenders perished in the shelling, and the fort quickly lost its ability to resist.
After removing the fortifications, several small sampans were launched from each warship, carrying ten people per boat, and they quickly passed through the Lion's Mouth Channel, heading towards Lushun Fort in the harbor.
Although the Tiger Tail peninsula forms a natural breakwater, making the waves in the harbor much smaller than outside, it is still not a true inland lake. When a wave crashes in, the small boat is tossed high into the air, and some people still fall into the sea. Fortunately, being proficient in swimming is a basic requirement when selecting Marines, so there was no danger in falling into the water, and they were quickly pulled ashore by their comrades on the boat.
On the "Shandong", Li Fei watched this scene through his binoculars and thought to himself: The distance of this beach landing is still too far. In the future, when launching the same offensive, we must first get as close to the shore as possible, provide fire support, reduce the time the marines spend advancing in the water, and minimize the danger of them being attacked by shore fire.
The Marines' charge, launched without prior experience in amphibious landings, was ill-considered and covered an excessively long distance. From their starting point to the location of Lushun Fort, a full two miles, this distance would have been enough to riddle them with bullets if they were facing an opponent of similar strength to the Qionghai Navy. Fortunately, in this era, there were virtually no adversaries capable of matching the Qionghai Navy in terms of long-range firepower. Although the defenders of Lushun Fort were alerted by the cannon fire outside Lion's Mouth, they were powerless against the hundreds of small boats charging from two miles away and could only watch helplessly.
The Qing garrison commander at Lushun was a meiler officer of the Bordered Yellow Banner named Degeli. He originally thought that garrisoning Lushun was a lowly job with little reward, but it was relatively safe, as he wouldn't have to go to the front lines, and he was quite content with his lot. Unexpectedly, disaster struck. Suddenly, a fleet appeared out of nowhere and swiftly destroyed the forts on both sides of Lion's Mouth, and also dispatched a large number of small boats, seemingly preparing to launch a land attack on Lushun Fortress.
Degel was furious. He drew his sword and slammed it down on the table, shouting, "Who can tell me where these people and ships came from? Wasn't Dongjiang Town completely wiped out by the Emperor and Prince Wuying? The Ming Dynasty is too busy to take care of its own inland areas, so where would it get the energy to attack Lushun?"
No one could answer him; everyone was completely baffled. Just who were these people?
Seeing the small boat approach the harbor without hindrance and disembark in an orderly manner, Degeri roared, "We can't let them attack so easily! Bombard them!"
The Han soldiers in charge of operating the cannons quickly turned the cannons around and aimed them at the dock. After a flurry of activity, they fired the first shot of the counterattack with a "boom".
However, in the rush, the cannon was not aimed very accurately, and the shell went too far, hitting the beach next to the dock. It then bounced weakly and fell headfirst into the sand pile, where it remained motionless.
Borchu immediately ordered: "Spread out and launch a counterattack as you advance, taking out the artillery positions."
The Marines immediately spread out to avoid excessive damage from enemy artillery fire if their formation was too dense. After moving forward a short distance, they began to find cover on the spot to fire at the artillery positions on the fortress wall.
The two sides were more than 300 meters apart, which was not an ideal position for attack. If it were a smoothbore musket like the Patriot Type 3, it wouldn't even be able to touch the opponent. However, the Patriot Type 9 was a rifled musket, with a range and accuracy several times that of a smoothbore musket. Even at this distance, even if the hit rate could not be guaranteed, it could still pose a threat.
The gunshots rang out one after another, bullets whizzing past the gunner's head and side, startling him. What kind of musket was this? It could shoot so far, almost as far as a cannon.