Dong Mingjie went to Jingzhou Mansion with Luo Zhixue's instructions, but Luo Zhixue was still not idle.
He organized the remaining two thousand or so surrendered troops into a garrison regiment under temporary direct control, and asked the Logistics Department to select 5,000 people from other unqualified surrendered troops and organize them into transportation battalions to transport supplies for various armies. The remaining surrendered soldiers who were not even sent to transport camps were organized into construction camps and reclamation camps, and a very small number of die-hard elements were thrown into prisoner-of-war camps.
In this way, the surrender of more than 15,000 troops has basically been dealt with.
After handling these surrendered troops, Luo Zhixue held a meeting of various ministries to discuss various matters regarding the expansion of the main force.
The Baoxiang Army has been expanding, occupying more and more territory, and requiring more and more troops.
Although three garrison divisions have been reorganized, the combat effectiveness of these garrison divisions is still too poor. They can barely perform secondary front tasks, but it is unreliable to let them serve as the main force in combat.
To expand territory and conquer cities, what is really needed is the main force.
Not only ordinary infantry, field artillery and cavalry are needed, but more siege artillery is needed.
The above is only the scope of the army, and as the Baoxiang Army continues to fight in the waters of Hanshui River, it will soon drink from the Yangtze River. Therefore, Luo Zhixue also plans to take advantage of this opportunity to formally build a navy.
At the military affairs meeting held by Luo Zhixue on August 5, he allowed his generals to speak freely on the issue of preparing to build a navy, and finally finalized all matters regarding the preparation of a navy.
It is tentatively planned to establish a Navy Department to coordinate and manage all naval development and combat affairs.
The reason why it was set up as a department from the beginning, instead of having a naval department within the staff department, or setting up a director following the example of artillery and cavalry, was purely because Luo Zhixue wanted to distinguish the army from the navy from the beginning.
After all, the army and navy are two unrelated arms, which is different from artillery and cavalry, which are still arms under the army.
However, although the Navy Department was established, its personnel and troops were very few.
For the time being, only the more than 20 ships belonging to the water transport camp were successively captured from some inland river warships of the Ming army and more than 30 ordinary cargo ships.
These are all inland river ships, with a maximum displacement of only a few dozen tons, and they cannot even carry a few artillery pieces.
This water transport camp will become the basis of the Baoxiang Army Navy and be reorganized into the Yangtze River Fleet.
Well, although the Baoxiang Army has not yet drunk the Yangtze River, there is nothing wrong with putting the Yangtze River prefix on its own river fleet as a precaution.
The province will have to change it in a few months.
In front of the heavy transport camp on the water, the ships belonging to the Yangtze River Fleet are not big, not many, and have few people.
Therefore, even the first Navy Minister Lu Xingye was only a brigadier general, one level lower than the rank of major general of the other four Directors Liang.
The reason why this person is a commodore is because Luo Zhixue believes that the navy is an independent branch of the military. The rank of the head of the navy, that is, the minister of the navy, cannot be too low. Otherwise, he will only be a colonel.
Nowadays, in the Baoxiang Army, colonel is no longer considered a senior military rank.
Before officially moving south, Luo Zhixue established a division-level establishment and appointed several division commanders and brigade commanders.
Taking into account the matching of positions and military ranks, Luo Zhixue also promoted many senior generals under his command.
The four ministers and two directors are all major generals. The deputy minister or the director of an important department is a brigadier general, the ordinary director is a colonel, and the subordinate departments are majors or lieutenant colonels.
In terms of field troops, Huang Dingquan, commander of the North Route Army and commander of the Second Division, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and Zuo Yingzhe, chief of staff of the North Route Army and commander of the First Guard Division, was awarded the rank of major general.
And Huang Dingquan is currently the only lieutenant general under the Baoxiang Army system.
Huang Guangmao, commander of the West Route Army and commander of the Second Garrison Division, was promoted to major general.
It is worth noting that Huang Dingquan’s lieutenant general rank did not come from his position as commander of the Second Division, but from his position as commander of the Northern Route Army.
The standard rank for division commanders of main divisions is major general. For example, the commander of the third division, Li Duo, was awarded the rank of major general.
Li Chengtong, who led the main force of the First Division south to Hanyang, was promoted to commander of the First Division by Luo Zhixue before going south. He is still serving as the commander of the First Infantry Brigade for the time being, and his military rank is also that of major general.
The brigade commander of the main division has the rank of brigadier general, the commanders of the infantry, cavalry, and artillery regiments of the main division have the rank of colonel, and the commanders of the baggage regiment have the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The main infantry battalion commander is a major, with the lieutenant colonel as the auxiliary.
The major general rank of Zuo Yingzhe and Huang Guangmao is also not due to their positions as garrison division commanders, but because of their positions as chief of staff of the North Route Army and commander of the West Route Army.
Their garrison division commander is only temporarily serving as a part-time officer, but in the plan, the standard military rank for the garrison division commander is brigadier general.
After Dong Mingjie was promoted to commander of the Third Defense Division, he obtained the rank of brigadier general.
The brigade commander of a garrison division has the standard rank of colonel, the infantry regiment commander has the rank of lieutenant colonel or major, the infantry battalion commander has the rank of captain, the infantry sentry commander has the rank of lieutenant, and the captain has the rank of second lieutenant or warrant officer.
Generally speaking, the rank of officers in the garrison division is one level lower than that of the main force.
However, the above standard military ranks are not absolute. It also depends on the combat strength of the garrison division, the officer's personal military exploits, and seniority.
Among them, Zhao Jiachao, the commander of the First Guard Regiment, who directly belongs to the First Guard Division, has the rank of colonel, because the First Guard Regiment has high combat effectiveness, and at the same time, this man is senior and has great military achievements.
However, Lu Xingye, the first Minister of the Navy, was very happy to obtain the rank of Brigadier General. You should know that his military rank not long ago was only Lieutenant Colonel.
Lu Xingye was also a senior general in the Baoxiang Army. He had already joined the army during the Funiu Mountain period. Because he was a naval officer of the Ming Dynasty and was proficient in water skills, he began to take charge of the ships in the Baoxiang Army very early. Small sampan.
Especially after the Baoxiang Army went south, because they needed to use the Baihe River and Hanshui River to transport supplies, they increasingly paid attention to water power. Before the establishment of the Navy, multiple water transport battalions had been set up in the Logistics Department. In order to escort these water transport battalions, the General Staff A special water transport camp was also set up to transport the ships and supplies of the camp.
Its nature is the same as the army's supply camp, which is an armed escort of supplies.
Lu Xingye was the battalion commander of this water supply camp and was promoted to major. Later, as he moved south to Zhongxiang, the scale of the water supply camp gradually expanded. In addition, before and after the Battle of Zhongxiang, the water supply camp escorted a large number of ordnance, weapons and troops southward. .
Even if there is no credit, there is still hard work.
After the Battle of Zhongxiang, Luo Zhixue discussed meritorious deeds and rewarded him, and Lu Xingye, who served as a heavy transport battalion on the water, was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
When Luo Zhixue was thinking about developing water power into an independent branch, as the only mid-level officer in the Baoxiang Army who was proficient in water warfare, Lu Xingye also ushered in a leapfrog development and directly skipped the position of lieutenant colonel. Promoted to brigadier general.
Lu Xingye was naturally extremely satisfied with such an opportunity.
Therefore, after becoming the Minister of the Navy, he took a group of people, including several captains under his command, some technical officers from the Ordnance Department, and civilian shipbuilders, to design a ship specifically for combat according to Luo Zhixue's instructions. Warship.
The newly built warships are also very simple. They are basically improved on the traditional river warships, mainly adding artillery installations.
The displacement of the newly built warships is only about fifty tons, and the artillery installed is mainly expected to be equipped with short robes of two hundred kilograms.
After all, even a small boat cannot be expected to be equipped with any heavy artillery, otherwise the boat will be blown apart when it is launched...
At the same time, when it comes to inland warfare, we don't expect to directly attack enemy ships at long range.
Luo Zhixue didn't pay much attention to these small river warships. Anyway, it was enough to make do. The important thing was to quickly get a batch of river warships out, so as not to have no warships when they entered the Yangtze River. .
Therefore, after Lu Xingye reported this new warship, Luo Zhixue directly approved the shipbuilding plan without any further nonsense and requested that construction or modification be started quickly.
Preparing to build a navy is just one of Luo Zhixue's many military affairs.
In the process of preparing to build the navy, Luo Zhixue ordered the establishment of a total of four siege artillery battalions: the second siege artillery battalion, the third siege artillery battalion, the fourth siege artillery battalion, and the fifth siege artillery battalion.
Among them, the second, third and fourth siege artillery battalions are still expected to be equipped with 18-pound mortars. One will be assigned to the Northern Army to strengthen the strength of the Northern Army. The other two will be transferred south to strengthen the offensive strength of the troops moving south. .
As for the fifth siege artillery battalion, this battalion will be equipped with 48-pound mortars and will also be assigned to the troops going south.
The production of various types of mortars at the Xiangyang Arsenal is very smooth and fast. After all, there is no technical difficulty in this thing. As long as you work overtime, you can produce dozens of them in a month. The production difficulty is much less than that of field guns.
These siege artillery battalions will first set up their frames, and then slowly replenish the artillery depending on the situation. As for all the troops, it is estimated that it will take several months.
However, when the Baoxiang Army expands, it always finalizes the number and organization first, and then slowly replenishes personnel and equipment.
Similarly, this army expansion strategy has also been extended to other main forces.
On August 12, Luo Zhixue officially ordered the preparation of the fourth division with newly recruited soldiers from the Anlu Prefecture area, and expected to transfer some officers and non-commissioned officers and other backbones from other units.
This order has been issued, but the formation of the Fourth Division will not be seen until at least two months later, and it is estimated that it will take more than three months to form combat effectiveness.
Therefore, it is basically impossible to count on it in a short time, let alone the fourth division, even the third division cannot be counted on now.
The third division has been training for more than a month, but now even the personnel have not expired, and the equipment is extremely lacking.
Especially the shortage of guns and guns. People from the Third Division squatted at the gate of Xiangyang Arsenal every day to ask for guns. Ding Gangyi, the supervisor of Xiangyang Arsenal, saw them all take a detour...
————
