Although the Yangtze River Fleet's performance in the battle made people want to laugh.
But how to put it, this is a water battle between the fifth scum and the third scum. Fortunately, the Yangtze River Fleet belongs to the fifth scum, and the Wuchang Navy of the Ming Army is the third scum.
Because the performance of the Wuchang Navy of the Ming Army was even worse. The fleet had no formations from the moment it came out, not to mention fighting on its own. Moreover, its combat quality was extremely poor. Some ships were reluctant to set off from the dock. Step forward, and some of those who step forward will avoid fighting if they can. If they are slightly attacked, they will directly turn to avoid it.
Another ship was approached by the Baoxiang Navy and launched a gang-hopping operation, and then simply surrendered.
On that day, the Yangtze River Fleet of the Da Chu Empire Navy successfully forced the Ming Navy back outside Wuchang City after more than an hour of fierce fighting at the cost of losing two ships, injuring many ships, and killing more than 100 soldiers. The navy barracks wharf station.
During the battle, three enemy ships were sunk and burned, one was captured, and more than ten were damaged. It is conservatively estimated that more than 200 enemy ships were killed and more than a hundred were captured.
This time, the Wuchang water battle seemed to be a victory, and it also successfully defeated the enemy's plan to encircle the conflict, and also achieved a good battle loss ratio, but Luo Zhixue was still very dissatisfied.
Just look at the two lost warships and you will know why Luo Zhixue was dissatisfied.
Neither of the two lost warships was directly sunk by the Ming Navy. They were all losses caused by the Yangtze River Fleet's own mistakes.
One of the ships was the Da Chu Navy's own artillery operation error, which exploded the chamber and caused the ammunition beside the ship's gun to explode, sending itself into the sky...
There was also a ship where the captain foolishly insisted on breaking away from the formation and ramming an enemy ship near the south bank. As a result, a gust of river wind blew and the enemy ship did not hit it. Instead, he ran into the river beach...
He successfully rushed forward and stranded himself!
The stupid captain had no choice but to abandon the ship, set fire to the ship, and took the sailors to escape in an escape boat.
As soon as this man landed, he was dismissed on the spot by Brigadier General Lu Xingye, the furious Minister of the Navy.
In other words, the situation on the Ming Dynasty's side was not much better. Although they did not sink the ship themselves, during the battle, they foolishly sent it directly to the muzzle of the Baoxiang Army naval warship... and one of the ships was captured. .
In the end, shotgun shells and arson bombs fired by the Baoxiang army's artillery sank or burned three enemy ships, severely damaged many enemy ships, and launched a gang-hopping operation to capture one ship.
Overall, this naval battle seemed lively, but the quality was extremely low, so low that Luo Zhixue didn't even notice.
That night, after receiving the complete combat report from the Navy Department, Luo Zhixue said to Commodore Lu Xingye, Minister of the Navy: "The Navy must strengthen training in the future, cultivate the tactical literacy of officers at all levels, and eliminate low-level mistakes!"
"In this naval battle, the majority of naval officers performed very bravely, but bravery alone is not enough. The war tests not only the bravery of the officers, but also their tactical skills."
"The navy must not only dare to fight and fight hard, but also be able to fight and fight hard!"
Luo Zhixue's words made Lu Xingye break into a cold sweat after hearing this, and he immediately said: "I am aware of my crime. I will strictly rectify the situation in the future and conduct rigorous training for naval officers at all levels. Today will never happen again." situation."
Luo Zhixue said: "Well, if you have this awareness, you must also make full use of the Naval Officer Academy. For the training of officers, it is not enough to just let the generals explore on their own. It is not sufficient and the growth rate is too slow. It is necessary to Make full use of the teaching advantages of the Officer Academy, compile and collect various naval battle cases, consider our navy's own situation, absorb the advantages and discard the shortcomings."
"In addition, some of the old warships and temporarily modified warships in this naval battle are obviously no longer able to meet the needs of modern water warfare. Your Ministry of the Navy must organize personnel from all aspects, conduct full demonstrations considering the actual situation, and design and build a more modern warship. A warship adapted to the needs of modern water warfare."
"The new warship, on the premise of retaining inland river mobility, should strengthen the gun firepower as much as possible. In addition to various traditional old-style artillery, the installation of long-barreled artillery can be considered."
"In the previous landing operations, many warships in the Hanshui Fleet temporarily deployed army field guns performed well in covering the landing operations. Your Navy Ministry must conduct research and demonstration on this situation and explore the formal assignment of commanders to the inland river warships. The possibility and necessity of managing artillery.”
Regarding the series of questions and instructions Luo Zhixue raised about the navy, Lu Xingye basically had nothing to say except saying yes.
This time the Yangtze Fleet fought so strangely that even if it won, it could not cover up its huge flaws.
After Lu Xingye came out of the palace, he thought about it for a long time on the road, and mentally classified several mid-level and senior naval officers as being dismissed or devalued.
Damn, they're a bunch of trash. It's so difficult to defeat the Wuchang Navy, and it's full of loopholes. If we go back to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially the Yangtze River area, and encounter the more powerful coastal navy of the Ming Army, wouldn't we have to completely defeat them? Finished.
You must know that the navy of the Ming Dynasty actually had some combat effectiveness, not to mention the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian, and the Zheng fleet that the Ming court had surrendered. It was a behemoth, and its combat effectiveness in coastal waters was quite powerful.
With the current situation of the Chu Empire's navy, if it goes to the Yangtze River or even the coast, it may be beaten...
When Lu Xingye made up his mind to reorganize the navy, the army's actions were still going smoothly.
On October 13, the first batch of mortars from the Baoxiang Army arrived outside Wuchang City. Along with these mortars, some of the Guards Division troops arrived.
On October 14, the units of the Baoxiang Army scheduled to participate in the Wuchang offensive have successfully arrived outside Wuchang.
It consists of most of the First Division (minus two infantry battalions), with the First Guards Brigade of the Guards Division as the core, and the temporary First Guards Mixed Brigade, which is composed of corresponding auxiliary artillery and cavalry baggage.
The Sixth Garrison Division is a mixed brigade.
A mortar regiment with forty-eight mortars.
Directly under the First Engineer Battalion.
There are a total of more than 20,000 troops, 28 field guns each, and 48 mortar guns.
In the outer areas of Wuchang City, there are about 3,000 people in the eastward detachment, about 3,000 people in the westward detachment, and the 1st Cavalry Brigade, which provides strategic mobility in the outer plains.
At the same time, in the rear ferry area, there is also the newly established 7th Defense Division Regiment. This regiment is actually a defense regiment composed of three battalions directly transferred from the 6th Defense Division. It does not mean that it is directly reorganized and dropped. soldiers.
This garrison regiment is not only to protect the landing ferry, but also to serve as the seed force for the expansion and reorganization of the 7th garrison division.
As for the strength gap after the Sixth Garrison Division was transferred from three infantry battalions, it will be supplemented directly from the surrendered troops.
Now the reorganization work of the 7th Garrison Division has been officially carried out, but the division commander Wang Dazhuang has not actually arrived yet. Therefore, the division's current combat training and subsequent reorganization work are temporarily in charge of the deputy director Dong Siyuan.
In fact, Dong Siyuan is better at handling these matters than Wang Dazhuang, and is more suitable to be the teacher than Wang Dazhuang.
However, his qualifications are still shallow and his military rank is low. Even though he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the past, he is still not a brigadier general and cannot serve as the commander of a garrison division.
Such a partnership between Dong Siyuan and Wang Dazhuang actually means that Wang Dazhuang is only a teacher in name, and Dong Siyuan is responsible for actual affairs.
In the future, Wang Dazhuang only needs to sign various orders and act like a rubber stamp.
This is also a very special situation in the Baoxiang Army, that is, many senior generals actually have poor tactical literacy. Those who really do the work are often deputy division commanders and deputy brigade commanders.
This is Luo Zhixue's comprehensive consideration of military morale, not only to give enough dignity to senior generals such as Wang Dazhuang, but also to promote and reuse junior generals at the middle level, which finally formed the current pattern.
Senior generals like Wang Dazhuang, who have deep qualifications, good loyalty, but mediocre abilities, sit on one side, and junior generals like Dong Siyuan, who have outstanding abilities but lack of qualifications and a relatively low military rank, hold deputy positions.
And these deputy positions often get promoted very quickly!
Zuo Yingzhe, the former director of the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters, was transferred to serve as the chief of staff of the North Route Army and the commander of the 1st Garrison Division. He directly resolved the rank of brigadier general and obtained sufficient qualifications. It didn't take long for Luo Zhixue to be promoted to the third division. Division commander, awarded the title of major general.
Dong Mingjie was similar. In order to solve the military rank problem for him, Luo Zhixue simply asked him to serve in the garrison. After he wandered around in the Third Garrison Division, he changed from a mere lieutenant colonel to a brigadier general, and then took the victory Luo Zhixue directly promoted Jingzhou Prefecture to the position of commander of the Fourth Division due to his military exploits.
The same situation also happened to Brigadier General Wang Xianglai, the current deputy commander of the Second Division.
Although this man is a brigadier general and is already the deputy division commander of the main division, in fact he has only served as a dragon in Luyang County in March.
But because this person was born as a scholar, with a flexible mind, good attitude, and outstanding learning, he quickly entered the list of key training candidates.
Since joining the Dragon Empress, this man participated in the Suiying School and served in the Guards Division system for a long time. He performed well in many battles. Later, he was transferred to the Operations Department and served as the Deputy Director of the Operations Department for a time.
Finally, in August, he was transferred to the position of deputy commander of the Second Division and promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
And who is the commander of the second division? Lin Dongsheng.
Lin Dongsheng was one of the first batch of veteran cavalry, and he was also one of the three major sentry officers of the cavalry. In terms of qualifications, only Wang Xiazi could hold him in check, and no one else could.
Otherwise, among the four main divisions of the Baoxiang Army, why is he the only one with a veteran cavalry background? Apart from his love of learning, he has always been learning cultural knowledge, receiving military education, and working hard to keep up. Luo Zhixue's progress is also related to his profound qualifications.
However, even though Lin Dongsheng had worked very hard to study in various ways and wanted to keep up with the development of the Hometown Protection Army, however, when he became a division commander and commanded tens of thousands of troops, he still seemed unable to do what he wanted.
That's why Luo Zhixue transferred the outstanding Brigadier General Wang Xianglai to partner with him.
There are many similar situations like theirs in the Baoxiang Army. Luo Zhixue believes that this model is quite good. It can not only cultivate newcomers with outstanding abilities, but also avoid the situation where veterans are insufficient.
All are also ready to further expand and deepen this model.
That is to prepare to establish a staff system in the three-level troops at the division, brigade and regiment levels.
