Today, Luo Zhixue announced the establishment of four infantry brigades, two cavalry brigades, and two artillery brigades, a total of eight brigade-level establishments.
Therefore, there are many people who have been promoted, but there is only one person who is as special as Xu Zhixian.
Xu Zhixian was not only promoted to deputy director of the Staff Division, but also continued to serve as the original chief of the operations section.
That's all. He also serves as the commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion.
This kind of appointment is completely unreasonable, but Luo Zhixue did just that.
From then on, everyone could see how much Luo Zhixue valued Xu Zhixian.
And Luo Zhixue indeed attaches great importance to Xu Zhixian.
Luo Zhixue had already determined that An Yongduo was not suitable to be the director of the General Staff Department, and had already started selecting the new director of the General Staff Department a few months ago.
There were originally three candidates, namely Huang Guangmao, Fei Bingqing, and Xu Zhixian.
Among them, Huang Guangmao is barely qualified. He can't find any faults, but he can't find any advantages either.
As for Fei Bingqing, after Luo Zhixue's observation, he felt that this person was not suitable.
It's not that his ability is not good, but that this person's thinking is still too old-fashioned. At present, he seems to accept and use guns and line tactics.
But Luo Zhixue can also see that this person is still obsessed with various old tactics. This can be seen from the fact that he attaches great importance to the development of heavy armored infantry such as heavy armored spearmen and heavy armored sword and shieldmen.
In the huge Baoxiang Army, apart from Luo Zhixue, he is the one who attaches the most importance to the research, development, production and equipment of armor. He is also very interested in the plate armor Luo Zhixue talks about. He has discussed with people in the arsenal many times how to mass-produce steel. Plate.
Since he valued traditional tactics and heavy infantry, Luo Zhixue simply asked him to be the deputy brigade commander of the Fourth Mixed Brigade, a unit that continued to use traditional tactics.
As for the third candidate, Xu Zhixian, after inspections in recent months, Luo Zhixue has the highest expectations for him. It’s just that this person is very capable, but he still has a flaw.
That is the lack of experience in leading troops on a large scale.
This man was not an old thief, but a scholar among the refugees. He was still a boy before, but what if he was a scholar? He also became a refugee in troubled times, and his life was precarious.
Later, he joined the Baoxiang Army, initially as a clerk, but he wanted to actually lead troops many times. After Luo Zhixue's assessment, he found that this man was quite capable and had read a lot of various military books.
So Luo Zhixue transferred him to be a captain first, then a sentry commander, and finally when the Staff Office was established, he was transferred to the Chief of the Operations Section of the Staff Office.
He performed quite well as the chief of the Operations Section.
Whether it was heading east to Lushan County before, now heading south to Nanzhao County, or even today's Zhaozhuang battle, many of the various battle plans before and after were nominally created by An Yongduo and Huang Guangmao, but in fact the real The person doing the work is Xu Zhixian, the chief of the combat section.
The Operations Section is the organization within the Staff Office that is actually responsible for formulating various combat plans.
Luo Zhixue is quite satisfied with the various combat plans formulated by Xu Zhixian, so Luo Zhixue also wants to train him.
But, this man had only served as a sentry officer before, and he was transferred to the staff office within a few months.
In other words, he has insufficient experience in actually leading troops, let alone leading large-scale troops in combat.
It's okay for such a person to be the chief of the operations section, but it's still a bit immature to be the chief responsible for all the affairs of the staff office.
The director of the Staff Office is not just as simple as formulating a combat plan. The Staff Office currently has five departments: Operations Section, Strategy Section, Intelligence Section, Organization Section, and Recruitment Section, which are fully responsible for recruitment, organization, tactics, training, operations, and intelligence. and other matters.
Basically, except for military affairs and logistics ordnance affairs, everything else is basically under the control of the Staff Office.
This shows the importance of the position of Chief of Staff.
With Xu Zhixian's current qualifications and accumulated experience, he is still a little behind.
As for Huang Guangmao, even though he is a demoted general, he is also a veteran who has been in the army for many years. Moreover, in the system of the Ming army, the chief general of the first army basically has to pass everything. Even the food and salary have to be found by himself, so his overall ability is still qualified. of.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue chose Huang Guangmao as the director of the staff department, and Xu Zhixian as the deputy director, and also let him serve as the commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion.
Let him lead the third infantry battalion while doing the work of the staff office.
It not only allows him to accumulate combat experience, but also allows him to continue working in the staff office, killing two birds with one stone.
As for whether Xu Zhixian can be busy, that is not Luo Zhixue's concern.
If you want to be promoted and have greater power, you have to pay a certain price. If you can't bear the work pressure, it is unlikely that you will be able to fully preside over the work of the Chief of Staff Division in the future.
Being the Chief of Staff is also very busy and stressful.
Huang Guangmao instantly understood this appointment arrangement. Damn it, I guess I am just a transitional candidate like An Yongduo...
The real director of the General Staff Department will be Xu Zhixian in the future.
This discovery made Huang Guangmao a little frustrated. He didn't think that his ability was much worse than that of Xu Zhixian.
However, he was also an optimistic person. When he thought about it, he realized that being the chief of the staff department was just a butler. It was not as exciting as being a brigade commander and leading troops. There were more opportunities to make meritorious deeds.
Anyong can become a brigade commander no matter how he is transferred, and there is a high probability that he will become a brigade commander if he is transferred in the future.
From another perspective, he thinks this is actually a good thing.
From the bottom of his heart, Huang Guangmao still wanted to lead the army. He always felt that if he didn't have tens of millions of people on hand, he wouldn't be considered a high-level general of the rural protection army.
After arranging the new appointments of Huang Guangmao and Xu Zhixian, the establishment of brigade-level establishment and subsequent personnel appointments are almost done.
So Luo Zhixue looked around at everyone again and said: "The establishment of the above-mentioned brigades is to better carry out subsequent strategic tasks."
"And time is urgent, and we don't have much time to waste time. Starting today, the forward troops will move south first, and tomorrow we will launch an attack on Nanyang City!"
"To this end I command:"
At this time, everyone present looked at Luo Zhixue again.
Just listen to Luo Zhixue: "Immediately send an order to Lin Dongsheng of the Second Mixed Brigade, asking him to immediately lead the Second Infantry Battalion south to Li Qingdian, gather the Sixth Infantry Battalion and other troops to launch an attack on Nanzhao County, and then send his troops north to Luyang close."
"The Second Mixed Brigade must capture Luyang Pass in the shortest possible time and subsequently build a defense line here."
"Tell Lin Dongsheng again that the Lushan County area can be abandoned at the appropriate time, and the priority is to guard Luyang Pass. In addition, we must also guard against small groups of enemy troops marching south through the mountains, so the defense work in the Songshan Township area cannot be left behind."
"Xu He, you and the 3rd Infantry Brigade are temporarily stationed in the rear. You have to train hard day and night to achieve combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time. At the same time, while training, you will defend the rear logistics line and suppress the area. You will also be indispensable for the subsequent war on the northern front. ."
"The Zhaozhuang ministries, the 1st Infantry Brigade, 1st Artillery Brigade, and 1st Cavalry Brigade will immediately go south with my general and strive to launch an attack on Nanyang City tomorrow. We cannot allow the enemy too much time to react."
"The Fourth Mixed Brigade will immediately start reorganization work. Tomorrow at least one battalion of troops will be reinforced to go south. Three days at the latest, I must see most of the Fourth Mixed Brigade in Nanyang City."
Having said this, he looked at Anyon and said: "Time is very tight, can you do it?"
An Yongduo said: "My subordinates must lead the headquarters to Nanyang City within three days."
Luo Zhixue nodded slightly and said no more.
Instead, he told the staff officers and other generals: "The staff office and logistics office must do a good job in combat planning, logistics supply and other issues."
"We need to make more operational plans to attack Nanyang Mansion. Whether it is a surprise attack or a strong attack, we must have corresponding plans."
"And I don't need to say more about the importance of logistics. Your logistics department should know very well that no matter what, we must ensure the supply of ammunition and food for all frontline departments."
After Luo Zhixue finished speaking, he glanced around the crowd: "Do you have any more questions?"
Seeing that everyone was silent, Luo Zhixue said: "In that case, let's all prepare to go separately. Time is tight and we cannot allow any waste."
After the meeting ended, Luo Zhixue was not even interested in listening to the various reports on the subsequent cleaning of the battlefield. Instead, he directly led the 1st Infantry Brigade and other main forces to go south first.
Zhaozhuang is about twenty kilometers away from Nanyang City. It is already afternoon. Naturally, it is impossible for them to arrive at Nanyang City in the first time. What they have to do is to try to arrive the next day and launch an attack.
Don't give the Ming army much time to react.
Luo Zhixue took the main force away first, leaving only An Yongduo and Fei Bingqing with the hundreds of people who had just been transferred to their command to reorganize and surrender the troops. As for the battlefield cleaning, it was naturally left to the civilians to handle it.
Many weapons and equipment seized after cleaning the battlefield will also be directly equipped with the Fourth Mixed Brigade.
At the same time, there were fast horses heading north quickly to deliver Luo Zhixue's latest orders to Li Qingdian, Songshan Village, Songjiazhuang and other places.
Not to mention these rear affairs, Luo Zhixue led the army all the way to the south.
About evening, they had arrived and stationed themselves only six kilometers away from Nanyang City.
Just after being stationed, except for those who were on duty and resting, all the soldiers of the Baoxiang Army had already fallen asleep.
They were very tired this day. They had a big battle with the Ming army first, especially the soldiers of the 4th Infantry Battalion. They had been traveling all morning to fight a battle after arriving at Zhaozhuang. They had just finished the battle. Before the battle had time to rest for two hours, the order was received to continue marching south.
On this day, the soldiers of the 4th Infantry Battalion marched a total of more than 25 kilometers, and even fought a battle in the middle.
This is not something that can be done easily.
If this were replaced by the newly established 7th Infantry Battalion and other troops, or other Ming troops, it would be impossible to complete.
Such high-intensity fighting and marching, as well as the high-standard food and physical training in the Baoxiang Army, gave the soldiers of the Baoxiang Army far stronger physical fitness than ordinary soldiers.
However, even though the physical fitness of the soldiers of the Baoxiang Army is generally better, after such a tiring day, they all fell asleep quickly and fell into dreams.
However, ordinary soldiers can do it, but middle and high-level generals such as Luo Zhixue, Huang Dingquan, Wang Xiazi, Huang Guangmao, and Xu Zhixian cannot do it.
They still have to stay up all night to fight, continue to improve tomorrow's battle plan, and strive to successfully capture Nanyang City tomorrow.
