Speaking of Xu Bangdao, many people are estimated to be familiar with it. In the Battle of Lushun in the Sino-Japanese War, Xu Bangdao was one of the few generals in the defenders who dared to lead his troops to take the initiative, and achieved certain results in the Battle of Tuchengzi. This battle was also written into the history textbook, and Xu Bangdao was able to appear in the textbook along with Deng Shichang, Zuo Precious and others.
However, speaking of which, Xu Bangdao's brilliant performance in the Battle of Lushun is not only the battle of Tuchengzi. Before the Japanese landed in Liaodong and Xu Bangdao took the initiative to attack Tuchengzi and engage the Japanese army, due to the weak strength of the defenders in Jinzhou City, an important barrier on the back road of Lushun, he had taken the initiative to ask the arch guards to assist the deputy capital stationed in Jinzhou, Tong Lianshun, and jointly defend Jinzhou.
The southeast corner of Jinzhou City in the Sino-Japanese War
After Xu Bangdao's arch guard army arrived in Jinzhou, considering that trapping Jinzhou was not the way to go, after consulting with Lian Shun, he took the initiative to lead his troops out to defend the high ground outside the city to block the Japanese army.
From the Nest occupied by the Japanese army after landing to Jinzhou, there are two routes to go, Jinzhou Road and Fuzhou Road. Since the Arch Guard army had only one battalion of infantry, one battalion of horses and one battalion of artillery, the total strength of the army was only in the early 2,000s of the first day, and its strength was limited. And there are only more than three hundred veterans, the others are recruited after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, poor training, if you guard two major roads, it is bound to disperse the troops, it is easy to be broken by the Japanese army.
Therefore, Xu Bangdao decided to concentrate his forces and defend the Golden State Road with the main force. Xu Bangdao built temporary fortifications on the Shimenzi Plateau next to the Jinzhou Road, as the core position of his defensive line, the right wing was deployed on the Great Monk Mountain, and artillery was deployed in the Jiataogou at its northern foot and the highlands on the west side, the left wing was set up on broken head mountain near Fuzhou Avenue, and the base camp was set up in Yanjialou, east of Jinzhou City.
In the distance, look out over the highlands where the Arch Guards are stationed
This deployment of Xu Bangdao left Fuzhou Avenue almost defenseless. After the Japanese army set out from the Qiziwo on November 2, it soon learned of the deployment of the Qing army from the captured Qing soldiers, and Yamaji Yuanzhi decided to lead the main force of the 1st Division to take the Fuzhou Avenue and bypass the Shimenzi Heights where the Arch Guards were stationed. Only the forward Saito Detachment (commander Saito Tokumei Shosa, under the command of the 1st Infantry 15th Regiment, the 1st Engineer Brigade and the 1st Cavalry Squadron), the 1st Brigade Commander of the 1st Brigade covering the flanks of the Nogi Nogi Yoshinori Division (under the 1st Company, the 1st Cavalry Squad and the 1st Squadron of the Mountain Artillery), and the Kono Daisaso Division (under the 15th Regiment) walked on the Golden State Avenue. The Arch Guards made no contact with the main Japanese force.
However, to be fair, it was impossible to resist the attack of the Japanese army of an entire division and regiment by relying solely on the more than two thousand untrained recruits of the Arch Guard Army, and in fact, the Arch Guard Army could not even block the flank troops led by Nogi Nogi Yoshinori later, and if it was dispersed, it would only lose faster. Therefore, Xu Bangdao's deployment was also a helpless choice made according to the actual situation at that time, and there was no need to be too harsh.
Artillery of the Qing army
The Qing army's records of the battles at Shimenzi Heights are few and mostly limited to describing how the generals fought. According to Japanese information, on November 5, the Japanese forward Saito detachment first reconnoitred the Qing positions on the Shimenzi Heights, and due to the fierce fire of the defenders, Saito Shosa did not rush to attack. It was not until Nogi Arrived with his follow-up troops and had lunch that the Japanese attacked.
The first Japanese attack began around 11:00 a.m., and after four hours of fierce fighting, the Japanese attack was repulsed. After a rest, the Japanese launched a second attack at 4 p.m., but because the Qing army occupied the natural danger and could give full play to the firepower from above, the Japanese attack was unsuccessful, and by 8 p.m., the Japanese army could only withdraw first to rest.
Since Yamaji Motoharu planned to launch a general attack on Jinju at 6:00 a.m. on November 6, in order to ensure that he met the main force in time, Nogi Yoshinori once again launched an attack on the Ishimonzi Heights. This time, Nogi Learned the lesson of the previous day's failed frontal attack on Shimenzi Heights, ordered saito's detachment to attack from behind bypassing the Qing positions on the right, and gradually seized the various positions held by the Qing troops on both flanks of the Shimenzi Heights, and encircled the Arch Guards in a roundabout way.
The fear of being copied from the back road was a common disease of the Qing army since the Opium War, and the Japanese army used this trick repeatedly in the Sino-Japanese War, often collapsing as soon as it detoured the Qing army's defense line. However, under the command of Xu Bangdao, the Gongwei Army persisted for a long time despite the large number of recruits and poor training. It was not until 6:40 a.m., when the Qing positions around Shimenzi were gradually lost and suffered from the enemy on their backs, Xu Bangdao commanded his troops to abandon their positions and return to Jinzhou City through Yanjialou and Sanlizhuang.
Positions captured by the Japanese
In this battle, Xu Bangdao fought fiercely with the Japanese army for more than ten hours with inferior troops, and delayed the Japanese army on the Golden State Road for a whole night, although it ended in failure, but it was not easy.
Interestingly, however, according to Japanese war history, the entire Battle of Jinzhou— including the two battles of Shimenzi and the attack on Jinzhou City — the Japanese lost only three dead and sixteen wounded. As for the well-documented losses at the Battle of Shimenzi, only about three or four people were wounded, which can be described as minimal, and it seems that the archery technique of the Arch Guard is somewhat poor.
However, the archery level of the Arch Guard army was so poor that the Japanese army attacked for several hours and failed to rush up, I don't know whether nogi Hidori cherished the lives of soldiers too much, or the Japanese army was very afraid of death, and could not move after injuring a few people, or what was the mystery of the Casualty Figures of the Japanese Army.
Golden State East City Gate