For the Chu Empire after taking Wuchang City, it has entered a relatively stable and peaceful period since the end of October.
Large-scale military operations have been completely stopped, leaving only some small fights.
After all, it's winter now.
Heavy snow had already fallen in Xiangyang and Nanyangfu in the north more than half a month ago.
After entering November, even Wuchang Prefecture on the south bank of the Yangtze River began to snow heavily. If the Baoxiang Army had been delayed for half a month in attacking Wuchang City, or had been unable to attack Wuchang City for more than half a month, then it would have been We have to attack the city under heavy snow.
Fortunately, the Da Chu Empire moved fairly quickly, and the attack on the city was relatively smooth. It did not mean that they had not captured Wuchang City until the heavy snow came.
If that happens, the siege will become even more difficult.
In the cold winter, it is very difficult to conduct large-scale military operations. The cold weather will cause non-combat attrition when the army is marching and fighting.
At the same time, it is difficult to carry out logistical transportation and supplies in snowy weather.
Especially on the northern fronts, when it snows, even roads cannot be distinguished, and carriages loaded with supplies cannot move at all.
In order to allow the northern troops to survive the winter smoothly, the Logistics Department has transported a large amount of supplies to various parts of the north in the autumn in advance.
Including a large amount of winter clothing, food, ammunition, etc.
The northern garrison is like this, and it's actually similar in the south. After all, this will be the Little Ice Age. Even Guangdong in the south can get heavy snowfall in winter, let alone the Wuchang Prefecture area.
Under the cold winter, it is difficult for even the rural protection army to launch large-scale offensives. Generally speaking, all fronts have begun to shift to a strategic defensive posture.
The same is true for the Ming Army. The stronger logistics supply capabilities of the Baoxiang Army are difficult to ensure large-scale operations for the troops, let alone the Ming Army. They can't even supply winter clothes for ordinary soldiers.
Therefore, after entering November, the large-scale wars between the Chu army and the Ming army stopped completely. Only small-scale wars occasionally broke out, but these small-scale wars did not affect the overall situation.
It is worth mentioning that after November, Yang Sichang finally took office smoothly and legitimately. He has now moved from his hometown of Changde to Changsha to take charge, and has begun to mobilize troops, even build guns and train new troops to resist the rural protection army.
At the same time, because the Baoxiang Army captured Wuchang and had the tendency to move eastward to the south of the Yangtze River, the Ming court began to think about sending big bosses to Jiangxi to integrate the forces in Jiangxi, Jiangnan, Jiangbei and other places to prevent the Baoxiang Army from advancing into Jiangnan. .
However, given the efficiency of the Ming court center, the fierce factional struggle at the top, and the speed of communication, it is estimated that the candidates for the prime minister Jiangnan and other military affairs bosses will not be finalized in a short while.
Generally speaking, after November, the war between the Chu Empire and the Ming Dynasty temporarily calmed down and entered a fairly stable period of confrontation.
Even in the Shaanxi area, because the rebels had been beaten up by Hong Chengchou before, the remnants of the rebels fled, scattered, and hid, so the overall situation seemed relatively calm.
No large-scale war broke out in Jiliao area.
Looking at it this way, the land of Kyushu has rarely entered a relatively peaceful period.
However, everyone knows that this calm is only temporary. When the weather is better next spring, the war in Kyushu will inevitably start again.
The war between the Baoxiang Army and the Ming Army will inevitably break out again in various places, and the rebels will most likely re-emerge. Even the Dongluo side is expected to take action, because it is said that this year's winter in the north is more severe than in previous years. It's cold, and the road has been blocked by heavy snow early.
Dongji, who lives in the northern cold, will definitely have a more difficult time this winter.
Dongluo has had an extremely uncomfortable winter, so according to their rules, there is a high probability that they will send troops to fight next year to regain their health.
Anyway, whenever the Dongluo could no longer survive, they would go out and rob, rob the Korean Peninsula, and rob all Mongolian ethnic groups. If this didn't work, then they would boldly go around Mongolia and enter the customs to plunder.
Therefore, many discerning people can already predict that war will inevitably resume in Kyushu next year, and have begun to prepare for it.
Naturally, the senior officials of the Great Chu Empire were no exception.
Regardless of changes in the outside world, next year, there is no need to wait until the summer and autumn when the weather is better. As long as the snow melts and the roads are slightly feasible, the Baoxiang Army will launch offensives to expand.
For example, the offensive against the Chunan area is imperative next year.
The Chu Empire will wait until next year, no matter what, it will take over parts of Yuezhou Prefecture, Changsha Prefecture, Changde Prefecture, Hengyang Prefecture and Yongzhou Prefecture in the area around Dongting Lake and along the Xiangjiang River.
If Huguang is familiar with it, the world is full of it, not just Chubei and Wuchang Prefecture, but the whole of Huguang.
The main grain-producing areas of the entire Huguang area are the Jianghan Plain and the Xiangyang Prefecture area in the Nanyang Basin in the northern Chu area, and the southern Chu area is the area along the Yangtze River such as Wuchang Prefecture, as well as the areas along the Dongting Lake and the Xiangjiang River.
Those remote mountainous areas can be ignored for the time being, but these plain grain-producing areas, especially those connected by waterways, must be captured.
These places have relatively dense populations and large grain production, which is the basis for the Chu Empire to conquer the world.
In addition to various places in southern Chu, the Baoxiang Army will also launch several battles in several other directions.
Although the northern and northwest fronts generally implement strategic defense, they occasionally have to take the initiative to attack and consume a dozen at a time to mobilize the opponent's troops to avoid allowing the opposite Ming army to accumulate a large number of troops and then launch a counterattack.
In the eastern Sichuan area on the western front, the senior generals of the Baoxiang Army still had Wushan and Fengjie in mind, and they had always wanted to conquer these two places and completely open up the access to Sichuan.
In late October, the Fourth Garrison Division of the Baoxiang Army also tried to launch an offensive against Wushan City. However, due to the large number of defenders in Wushan and the difficult terrain, the Fourth Garrison Army lacked siege mortars, field artillery and other artillery. , so that the siege failed, not only thousands of people were lost, but not even a hair was recovered...
At the military affairs meeting, Xu Zhixian proposed that the Western Front should be properly reinforced next year, sending a main force of the size of a mixed brigade, and bringing a mortar artillery battalion and a field artillery battalion. Let’s not say whether to enter Sichuan for the time being. At any rate, Wushan and Fengjie Take it down.
The northern, northwest and western fronts are actually secondary fronts. Although the Baoxiang Army plans to invest some force in the above directions next year, it will not be too much.
Next year, the real strategic direction of the Chu Empire will still be to go south and east.
Specifically, they will go south first, occupy Huguang first, stabilize the rear, and then concentrate their efforts to advance eastward.
It's just hard to say when to move eastward. It depends on whether the attack on Changsha and Hengyang next year goes smoothly.
After all, Yang Sichang is now in charge in Changsha, and Yang Sichang is still capable. It is estimated that a fight will inevitably require a lot of effort.
In order to prepare for next year's various offensives, the war machine of the Dachu Empire will not stop this winter, but will continue to reorganize and train.
At the same time, the rear continues to provide money and food, and various munitions factories under the Ministry of Industry will continue to work overtime to produce various military supplies.
But although this war machine is still running continuously, it has slowed down slightly, allowing Luo Zhixue time to deal with another major event related to the destiny of the empire.
marry!
Preparations for his wedding had actually begun in October, and the Wang family and his son had arrived in Wuchang City at the end of October.
Some generals who were away and some high-ranking civilian officials also returned to Wuchang City of Han Tianfu to prepare for the wedding ceremony.
Luo Zhixue has ascended the throne as emperor, and his wedding ceremony cannot be fooled casually. There is a complete set of procedures.
After more than half a month of continuous preparations, the preparations for the wedding were completed before the wedding date.
In the first year of Chu Chengshun, the sixth day of November in the eighth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, it was a good time to get married.
The city of Wuchang is filled with joy, and colorful flags can be seen everywhere. The main roads in the city, which are the roads where the holy and phoenix drivers pass during the wedding, have been paved with loess and have a brand new look.
Even the police officers patrolling the city and responsible for public security have put on new black uniforms.
The army officers and soldiers stationed in the garrison and even serving as a guard of honor, without exception, all put on brand new gray soldier uniforms or dark blue officer uniforms.
Even the soldiers who were wearing armor and acting as a guard of honor were wearing brand new armor and a new unified black cloak.
Needless to say, the civil and military officials attending the wedding were all wearing new court uniforms that had just been finalized.
As an orthodox Han dynasty, the various costumes of the Chu Empire were actually no different from those of the Ming Dynasty, especially the emperor's dragon robes, and the official uniforms of officials were also similar in shape.
The daily official uniforms of the fourth rank and above in the Ming court are all vermilion, the seventh to fifth rank are cyan, and the eighth and ninth ranks are green.
The Chu Empire did not impose restrictions on the daily office attire of civil servants. You could wear regular clothes to work if you were willing to do so. It only stipulated that officials of different levels must wear metal bird badges of different levels when working.
This bird badge is actually a simplified version of the supplements for civil servants at all levels in the Ming Dynasty...
In the Ming Dynasty, the patterns were displayed directly on the clothes, while in the Dongluo period, the patterns were displayed on specially made clothes.
The Great Chu Empire simply canceled these complicated embellishments and directly simplified the bird patterns and carved them into numerous badges.
The fourth rank and above wear gold badges, the fifth to seventh ranks wear silver breastbands, and the eighth and ninth ranks wear copper badges.
Of course, the details of the badge patterns for grades one to nine are still different.
Generally speaking, the Chu Empire did not pay much attention to ordinary clothes, but it had very strict regulations on the court clothes worn on ceremonial occasions such as sacrifices.
From tunic to trousers, to coats to hats, from colors to patterns, etc., there are very detailed and strict regulations.
Because the court dress is different and has too strong symbolic meaning, it cannot be messed with casually.
And the court uniforms produced in this way are actually not much different from the court uniforms of the Ming Dynasty. You can't tell them apart at first glance, because both of them are wearing red robes...
Don't say it was copied from the Ming Dynasty by the Chu Empire, but the court uniforms were black during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but completely turned into vermilion during the Han Dynasty.
The orthodox Han dynasties such as Han, Tang, Song and Ming, as well as some regional Han regimes, basically wore this style, and it has basically not changed for more than a thousand years...
Today is the day when civil and military officials belonging to the Chu Empire wear court uniforms.
Because on this day, Luo Zhixue officially got married and named Xiangyang Yanghua and Wang as his queen!
