This time the army was divided and continued fighting. Luo Zhixue did not personally lead the troops south, but planned to stay in Zhongxiang for a period of time to direct the operations of various ministries.
Under the command of Luo Zhixue, the Xuhe mixed detachment with the 2nd Infantry Brigade as the core set off first, heading eastward to Jingshan.
A few days later, the 1st Infantry Brigade of the 1st Division and the artillery and other units continued southward along the Han River. Their initial target was Qianjiang.
As for the third garrison division's westward advance, it will have to wait until later.
After all, the reorganization of the surrendered soldiers captured in Zhongxiang also takes time. In order to properly reorganize these surrendered soldiers and send them out to fight as soon as possible, Luo Zhixue personally presided over the reorganization affairs this time.
In just three days, 6,000 surrendered soldiers were initially selected. These surrendered soldiers were all people who voluntarily continued to serve in the army and met the basic conditions.
After these surrendered troops were selected, the original fifth garrison brigade was directly divided into two to form the new fifth garrison brigade and the new sixth garrison brigade, and then each added more than two thousand surrendered troops.
After having these two garrison brigades, the Third Garrison Division will be assigned some baggage, cavalry, and artillery units.
However, like other garrison divisions, these auxiliary forces have been severely reduced. For cavalry, don't expect elite cavalry. There are not even elite mounted infantry. The divisional cavalry regiments of the three main divisions are not yet full. , where are the extra war horses and elite mounted infantry assigned to them?
Therefore, the third garrison cavalry battalion of the third garrison division only has more than 300 cavalry, and they are still the remaining mounted infantry. Compared with the ordinary infantry in the garrison division, they can only ride horses...
It can barely be used as a forward reconnaissance force, but don't expect anything else.
The artillery unit is only the size of a short artillery battalion. It is temporarily equipped with sixteen general cannons of various types weighing more than 200 kilograms, Franco machine artillery, etc. The Home Guard Army captured a lot of these old artillery pieces, and the main force basically has them. These old artillery pieces are not needed, so the amount captured is basically the amount used by the garrison division.
The baggage force is only one battalion in size, because the firearms and equipment in the garrison division are not of high quality, and the ammunition consumption is small. At the same time, there are not many mules and horses. The main consumption is food, and the subordinate regiments also have own baggage troops, so the size of the division's baggage troops does not need to be too large.
The weapons required by the above-mentioned troops are also very simple. Just use the captured Ming army weapons and equipment.
In this way, the Third Defense Division can be considered fully equipped. As for combat effectiveness, it is difficult to say.
It is difficult to accurately evaluate the combat effectiveness of the garrison brigades in the Baoxiang Army. The most powerful one is the First Garrison Regiment. This regiment was originally the 4th Mixed Brigade. It had fought tough battles in Yuzhou and performed well.
As for the combat effectiveness of the other garrison troops, they are only average, but even if they are average, they are much stronger than the ordinary Ming army guards. After all, the garrison troops in the Baoxiang Army include a large number of Ming army soldiers, and at the same time, their treatment Better and better equipped.
There was no surprise in the selection of the commander of the 3rd Garrison Division. Luo Zhixue directly appointed Dong Mingjie, the former commander of the 5th Garrison Brigade, as the commander of the 3rd Garrison Division.
Dong Mingjie led his troops to reorganize Zhongxiang for several days, and on August 2, he led his troops to leave Zhongxiang and head towards Jingmen Prefecture.
After capturing Jingmen Prefecture, the Third Defense Division will continue to march towards Jingzhou Prefecture in order to capture Jiangling as soon as possible.
The importance of the governance of Jiangling and even Jingzhou Prefecture is self-evident, and besides Jiangling, there is another place that is very important, and that is Yiling Prefecture.
To the east of Yiling Prefecture is the Jianghan Plain area in the traditional sense, and to the west of Yiling Prefecture is the Daba Mountain.
Before Dong Mingjie led the army to set off, Luo Zhixue summoned him and ordered him:
"The most important thing about Jingzhou Prefecture is that it is the western gateway to the Jianghan Plain, and it is also the bridgehead for marching into eastern Sichuan. If there is an opportunity, your troops should quickly seize Badong, Wushan and other places to lay the foundation for our army's subsequent march into Sichuan."
"However, you won't get much reinforcements after moving west, so you need to be cautious. If you can fight Badong, fight. If you don't have a chance, don't force it."
Marching into Sichuan is not an important strategic goal of the Baoxiang Army at this stage, nor is it even the main strategic goal of the next stage. However, if there is an opportunity to seize Badong, Wushan and other places in advance, Luo Zhixue would not mind letting his troops seize these places in advance. , to facilitate subsequent visits to Sichuan.
But if there is no chance, then let it go for now. As long as the Third Defense Division can defend the Yilingzhou area and block the enemies in the Sichuan area from the Jianghan Plain, then the strategic mission of the Third Defense Division will be completed.
The strategic mission of the entire 3rd Defense Division is actually very similar to that of the 2nd Defense Division. The strategic mission given by Luo Zhixue to the 2nd Defense Division is also mainly focused on the Yunyang area. If there is a chance, he will attack Hanzhong Prefecture and Kuizhou. If you don’t have the chance, forget it.
Not only that, but the strategic tasks of the Second Division and the First Defense Division on the northern front are also based on defense and supplemented by offense.
This involves the overall strategic planning of the Baoxiang Army.
The strategic plan of the Baoxiang Army has always been very clear, which is to first capture the Nanyang Basin and then occupy Chubei.
After laying the foundation for Northern Chu, we then set out to cross the Yangtze River southward to the southern Chun area, then move eastward along the Yangtze River to Jiangxi and South Zhili, and then march eastward to the sea!
Among them, the eastward strategy was formally proposed and implemented after the Battle of Zhongxiang.
The strategy of advancing eastward is also very simple, which is to focus on capturing the areas along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially the prosperous area south of the Yangtze River.
Luo Zhixue never had the idea of competing with those bandits, officers and soldiers for territory in the already-beaten Shaanxi, Central Plains and other areas.
All along, Luo Zhixue had no great interest in directly sending his army northward and fighting all the way to the capital.
Because of the competition for hegemony in the Central Plains and other places, the flat terrain is very conducive to the use of cavalry. Regardless of the recent battles, the Baoxiang Army still has a cavalry advantage against the Ming Army. ,
But those were the Ming armies in the inland area of Huguang. Once the Baoxiang Army moved north on a large scale, the Ming court directly transferred Guanning Cavalry and other elite cavalry from the Jiliao area. The Baoxiang Army would fall into a cavalry disadvantage in minutes. And it’s an embarrassing situation with a big disadvantage.
Not to mention that after going north, there is still the possibility of facing the East Capture. The East Capture has already controlled most of Mongolia and has a large number of Mongolian cavalry under its command.
At the same time, there is also a strategic risk, that is, even if everything goes well in the northward journey, after killing the Ming Dynasty, it means that the Baoxiang Army will need to directly face the Eastern Capture.
And Dongli is not easy to fight!
In addition to these direct strength comparisons, the logistics of traveling north from Xiangyang are also very troublesome.
Nowadays, the army of protecting the countryside is carrying more and more artillery, more and more ammunition and baggage, and its logistics requirements are getting higher and higher.
Under such circumstances, the Baoxiang Army was more inclined to launch an offensive around waterways rather than taking land routes.
The head of Logistics Department Director Yu Xiujie felt numb when he thought that after traveling north from Xiangyang, there would be hundreds or even thousands of kilometers of land supply lines.
At the same time, they are facing an area thousands of miles away, full of starvation. Occupying these places can bring nothing but some gold and silver and a large number of refugees to the rural protection army.
On the contrary, it will also greatly restrict the strength of the rural protection army as well as administrative and financial strength...
These will seriously affect the overall rapid development of the Baoxiang Army.
The Baoxiang Army now needs more territory, but it is not a destroyed territory, but a place where the people's livelihood is basically stable, a place that can produce a large amount of grain and other strategic materials, and provide a large amount of tax revenue for the Baoxiang Army.
Looking at China today, only the Yangtze River coast meets this condition, especially the Jiangnan region.
After hearing about the Jiangnan strategy earlier, Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Taxation, patted his chest and said: "If we can win Jiangnan, if the taxes collected by our taxation department the following year are less than this amount, I will hang myself directly!"
As he spoke, he gestured with two fingers!
Twenty million, this is the figure given by Chen Xingkai, and this is still his conservative estimate, and it is limited to the income directly turned over to the General's Office, and does not include taxes allocated to local county and government finances.
Although the Taxation Department is responsible for the taxation of the Baoxiang Army, neither the taxation collected nor the Finance Department takes away all of it.
Among the many taxes collected by the Baoxiang Army, the taxes will be divided into several parts, and part of them will be directly turned over to the Finance Department of the General's Mansion and stored in the treasury, which is the national tax in the traditional sense.
Another part is reserved for local finance at all levels. Different taxes are allocated in different proportions, leaving part for town, county, state, government and other levels of finance to be used for various administrative expenses.
In this case, when Luo Zhixue and others talk about taxes, they generally refer specifically to the national taxes left to local governments.
In the second year after taking over the Jiangnan region, the Ministry of Taxation said it could collect at least 20 million in national taxes, which shows Chen Xingkai's confidence in the Jiangnan region.
It is worth noting that Jiangnan refers to Jiangnan in a narrow sense, that is, the area south of the Yangtze River in South Zhili, and does not include Jiangxi and Zhejiang.
The northern areas of these two places are also land of plenty and can also collect a large amount of tax revenue.
There is money along the Yangtze River, especially in the Jiangnan area. This is why the core strategy of the next phase of the Hometown Protection Army is not to go north or west, but to go east.
In Wang Xiazi's words: They are fighting life and death in the north, wouldn't it be great for us to grab land and make money in the south.
Under such circumstances, a series of strategies of the Baoxiang Army that seem strange to outsiders can be explained.
Why did the Baoxiang Army not pursue the victory and advance directly into the Central Plains after defeating Zuo Liangyu in the eastern suburbs of Yuzhou?
Why did the Baoxiang Army only send a single garrison division to the west to Yunyang? After Huang Guangmao captured Yunyang, he stayed in Yunyang for a long time, and the various departments under his command also divided their troops to garrison. He was not even interested in marching into Hanzhong Prefecture.
It is because the Home Guard Army has no interest in these places for the time being, and is only thinking about going south, and in the later stage, it will prepare to move eastward.
