Through a confrontation exercise between the 1st Division and the 6th Garrison Division, the Da Chu Empire Army used the exercise to further simulate the fighting style of the main force equipped with new field artillery after reorganization.
It further verified the powerful combat effectiveness of the new artillery against the Ming army.
If the previous two and a half kilograms of field artillery only made the Chu Empire Army stronger than the Ming Army in field combat, and the Ming Army's multiple defeats were more due to their own poor equipment and poor morale.
So the Chu Empire Army, which is equipped with nine-pound field guns and five-pound field guns on a large scale, will directly crush the Ming army in terms of combat effectiveness. This crushing is not just a matter of fighting will, but also a hardware level. comprehensive crushing.
Even if the fighting will of the Ming army explodes, every soldier can fight to the death, and their ability to withstand casualty rates has reached the peak of the traditional feudal army.
But it will still not be a match for the Chu Empire Army.
Through the firepower suppression of a large number of medium and large-caliber field artillery, if the Chu Empire Army faced the Ming Army again, it would be a dimensionality reduction strike. The two were not on the same level at all.
After the exercise, Luo Zhixue aims to gradually promote the equipment of five-pound and nine-pound field guns in other main forces. The original two-and-a-half-pound field guns will also continue to be equipped, but the subsequent equipment will be directly decentralized to each unit. In the infantry regiment, it is used directly as infantry support artillery during wartime.
The strategic support firepower will be provided by five-pound field guns and nine-pound field guns.
It's just that although Luo Zhixue has issued the decree, it will still take time for the other main forces to equip the five-pound and nine-pound field artillery on a large scale.
The artillery production capacity at the Xiangyang Arsenal has reached its peak, while the Hantian Arsenal is still under preparation. It is estimated that the Hantian Arsenal will not enter the early production stage until February at the earliest.
But again, let people wait for equipment, not let equipment wait for people.
Now there are not so many medium and large caliber field guns, so we should first train gunners, first equip the main forces with five-pound and nine-pound field guns in small batches, and then use these small quantities of medium and large-caliber field guns to train more gunners.
The gunners should be trained first, and then the initial combat effectiveness can be formed as soon as the equipment is in place.
The Da Chu Empire Army has always done this in a series of previous military expansion operations, especially the expansion of the artillery unit, and it has already gained a lot of experience.
For example, for the current nine-pound field artillery, each artillery is over-allocated to two gun crews. The two artillery crews use the same artillery and rotate training so that the people can rest but the artillery does not rest.
At the same time, every gun crew is also super-staffed. There are two gunners, one is the gunner and the other is the deputy gunner.
The other loaders, etc. are all double.
In other words, each nine-pound field gun in the current Baoxiang Army is actually equipped with four gun groups, and the training is carried out in a way where experienced people lead novices.
When enough artillery is available, three new artillery groups can be pulled out in minutes.
In late December, as the reorganization work of the existing main divisions was carried out in an orderly manner, the first seven divisions also gradually reached full strength of conventional troops such as infantry, baggage, and engineers, in addition to artillery and cavalry.
In addition, after several months of continuous production, the Dachu Empire also hoarded and produced a batch of cold weapons, especially armor.
Luo Zhixue also ordered the re-dressing of each garrison division.
It is mainly replaced with swords, spears, armor, bows, arrows, muskets and other equipment, and is equipped with a two and a half kilogram field cannon.
Before that, each garrison division had completed the reorganization work before changing equipment.
Over the past month or so, various garrison armies have successively and intensively removed approximately tens of thousands of unqualified soldiers, further streamlining the personnel and improving their quality.
These retired garrison soldiers were basically assigned to non-combat units under militarized management such as settlement camps, transportation camps, and construction camps.
Or simply retire and return to your hometown if you wish, or arrange to work in various factories.
The Dachu Empire Army carried out a certain reduction and streamlining of the garrison.
The main reason is that when each garrison division is forming an army, time is often very tight, and the selection of personnel is often relatively extensive. In addition, sometimes the number of captured or surrendered soldiers is not enough, and the standards are often lowered for selection. .
So much so that the garrison soldiers formed by the Baoxiang Army were all recruited from surrendered soldiers at a ratio of three to one or even two to one. In this way, the quality was not that high.
After all, the overall quality of the Ming army is too bad. Among the 10,000 soldiers, only two or three thousand soldiers who have received military training can survive. The rest are all ordinary guards recruited temporarily or simply The county is brave and young.
When the Baoxiang Army reorganized the garrison, it was inevitable that a large number of guardsmen or young men without formal training would be selected.
In fact, it doesn't matter to these people. After all, after joining the garrison, you can slowly train and you can actually use it after a few months. However, some people's physical fitness really cannot keep up with the requirements, so these few people are not very It's time to continue serving in the army.
At the same time, it is inevitable that some veterans who are greedy for life or afraid of death or who are sneaky and sneaky will be selected. These people are the kind of people who can spoil a whole pot of porridge with one piece of mouse droppings. Naturally, they need to be eliminated one by one.
Before November, the combat tasks of various garrison divisions were also relatively heavy, so they were not suitable for such a big move.
However, after November, with the arrival of cold winter, the fighting between the Ming Army and the Chu Army subsided and entered the confrontation stage. The Baoxiang Army began a large-scale centralized cleanup of various garrison divisions.
From the eight garrison divisions with approximately 70,000 troops, tens of thousands were directly eliminated.
The proportion of withdrawals reached one-seventh, and its intensity was not insignificant. The large-scale withdrawals even forced almost every division to downsize a regiment.
For example, the newly formed 7th Garrison Division had about 9,000 people when it was first formed. It had four infantry regiments plus a baggage battalion, engineer battalion, cavalry battalion, artillery battalion and other complete establishments.
However, after the clearing and reorganization, more than 6,000 people were left. The infantry only had two infantry regiments and two infantry battalions, which directly reduced four infantry battalions. The baggage battalion was also reduced from more than 500 people to two infantry battalions. More than a hundred people.
However, this retreat not only did not affect the combat effectiveness of the 7th Defense Division, but also further improved the combat effectiveness of this defense division.
Because the overall quality of the more than 6,000 people after reorganization is better, and because there are fewer people, there is less pressure on food supplies, so the per capita rations that the soldiers can obtain have actually increased.
At the same time, although the people were cleared, the mules, horses, carriages, and various weapons and equipment of the division were not cleared. Instead, the best equipment was concentrated and selected, making the equipment more concentrated and sophisticated.
The situation of the Seventh Garrison Division was also implemented in several other garrison divisions. Although the number of people was reduced, the combat effectiveness increased.
After the reorganization was completed, Luo Zhixue began to further replenish the equipment for these garrison troops.
The weapons and equipment used in each garrison division were basically equipment captured from the Ming Army, and the quality of the Ming Army's equipment was hard to describe.
The large number of cold weapons previously produced by the arsenals of the Da Chu Empire needed to be supplied to the main divisions first, so there was no excess output to replenish the garrison.
And as the cold weapons of each main division gradually arrive, there will be enough spare power to replenish part of the garrison.
Recycle some inferior iron knives, spears, assault cannons and other weapons with serious quality problems that are still used by the garrison and recycle them into raw materials. At the same time, they will be replenished with swords and spears produced by the Great Chu Empire and two hundred kilograms of them. Iron cannon.
Not to mention armor.
For troops like the garrison division, whose weapons, equipment and tactics follow the Ming army system, the number of armored soldiers directly affects the core combat effectiveness.
The armor output of the Dachu Empire was not low.
In order to manufacture and equip armor on a large scale, the Da Chu Empire not only used hydraulic machinery and equipment for forging and drilling on a large scale, but also produced and equipped armor with iron sheet cloth that was relatively cost-effective and suitable for mass production. Faceplate.
And there are three types: full body armor, half body armor, and half body light armor.
In terms of protective capabilities, the armor produced by the Dachu Empire is actually just like that. It can only be said to be average, but it is better than nothing...
However, the cloth-faced armor produced by the Da Chu Empire may not look very good, but the output is huge!
Others have hundreds or thousands of armors and equipment, while the Chu Empire Army has tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 armors and equipment.
In each main division of the Baoxiang Army, even the musketeers have specialized half-length light armor...
The armor ratio can reach 100%!
The number of armors and equipment of each garrison division is much different. How many armors and equipment each garrison division can have before basically depends on how many Ming army armors the Baoxiang Army captured at that time, and some of the high-quality armors are often given away. Go to the main division to equip them, leaving only a pile of junk for the garrison division.
Therefore, for a long time, the armor equipment level of each garrison division was not very good. Most soldiers did not even have iron armor and had to make do with cotton armor.
Fortunately, the Ming army on the opposite side had lower armor coverage than them... so the garrison could still bully people with their armor most of the time.
This was very obvious in the battle between the Chu Empire garrison and the Ming army in Hanzhong Mansion.
A group of garrison soldiers whose weapons were second-rate in the Great Chu Empire were able to overwhelm the main force of the local Ming army... just because they had greater equipment and food advantages...
Of course, it is a fact that the equipment of the garrison is poor. Luo Zhixue has always wanted to improve the equipment level of the garrison.
There was nothing we could do before, but now we are taking advantage of winter to take a breather, so we have made arrangements directly. We have not expected that the garrison divisions can also achieve 100% armor coverage. We only need to let some core members of each garrison division. As long as the troops can wear armor.
In addition, what is really important is to directly equip each garrison division with two and a half kilogram field guns.
This is the highlight of this defense division reorganization!
