The establishment of the Southern Route Army Headquarters also means that the Chunan Offensive expected to be launched by the Chu Empire in the spring and summer has entered the final preparation stage.
The troops expected to participate in the war have been arranged and began to carry out strategic maneuvers to arrive at the predetermined position in advance. At the same time, the information must be concealed during this process to avoid being detected by the Ming army's spies on the Chu army's movements.
Although when the fight actually breaks out, it is impossible for the Chu army to really conceal their movements. Even the Ming army can guess the direction of the Chu army's attack: Linxiang.
However, the information that should be concealed still needs to be concealed. If the reaction time of the Ming army is slightly delayed for a few days, it can be exchanged for a certain tactical advantage.
The various troops participating in the war began to maneuver into predetermined positions, and at the same time, the logistics department further hoarded a large amount of supplies on the front line.
In the Chu army's camp in Linxiang, a large number of carriages continued to transport countless grains, ammunition and other various materials.
At the same time, heavy troops and a large amount of supplies were also hoarded in Jiangling and Jianli on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Jingzhou Prefecture.
The Da Chu Empire is trying its best to prepare as many various materials as possible for the troops going to the front line to participate in the war.
Not only weapons and ammunition, but also all kinds of messy military supplies such as food, meat, tents, medicinal materials, medical alcohol, gauze and even candles.
A large army fighting requires more than just weapons, ammunition and food.
In addition to these three things, there are many other things and they are also very important.
For example, medicines, gauze, and medical alcohol are life-saving supplies for injured soldiers on the front line. Sometimes it is better to have less food, but it is also necessary to prioritize the supply of these medical supplies.
After all, food is something that you can eat from the enemy if you are really short of food. If you really can't, you can survive for a few days without starving. However, it is really difficult to collect medical supplies for a while, and once there is a shortage, there will be a large number of them. The wounded soldiers could not receive effective treatment and were killed, wounded or disabled.
In the previous series of battles of the Chu Army, although the number of direct casualties in the battle was not many, the number of soldiers who died in the battle due to excessive injuries and lack of effective treatment after the war was very large, even exceeding the number of direct casualties in the battle. data.
There are many people who become infected after injury and are eventually forced to have their limbs amputated.
Many of these wounded who were killed or had their limbs amputated due to lack of timely treatment were actually minor casualties.
Many people only had small wounds made by swords. In future generations, such minor injuries would not have occurred even if they had not been treated by professional doctors and could have simply treated themselves with medical alcohol, gauze, iodine, etc. No problem, at most it will leave an ugly scar!
But on today's battlefield, such small wounds are often prone to infection, and eventually become more serious, leading to the need for amputation or even death.
This situation made Luo Zhixue very sad!
These are all soldiers who have been on the battlefield and shed blood. As long as they are cured, they will become veterans. The value of such veterans is much higher than that of new recruits.
In order to save more veterans and to further ensure or even enhance the combat effectiveness of the army, Luo Zhixue began to vigorously promote the military medical system.
In the early days, Luo Zhixue only set up a medical clinic under the General's Mansion. Although several medical clinics were later established, these medical clinics were considered to be relatively high-level medical clinics and had relatively few doctors and nurses. .
In response to this situation, Luo Zhixue began to train medical soldiers with simple trauma treatment skills in September last year.
For this kind of medical soldier, you don't need to diagnose the pulse and prescribe prescriptions. All you need is to promptly bandage the wounded soldier urgently, stop bleeding, and be strong enough to transport the wounded soldier to the rear in time and transfer it to a military doctor for further treatment.
Nowadays, every outpost in the Baoxiang Army has such a full-time medical soldier. At the same time, a number of soldiers are selected for emergency treatment training to serve as part-time medical soldiers.
In the camp, the Baoxiang Army set up a medical team, led by a full-time military doctor and three apprentices. On weekdays, they treated simple ailments and minor pains for the soldiers. During wartime, they provided professional treatment for injured soldiers, including further in-depth cleaning and suturing. Wounds, hemostasis, amputation of limbs, etc.
As for technical level, don’t put too much hope in it, because these people claim to be military doctors, but in reality they are all half-empty people. They are not very good at diagnosing pulses and prescribing medicines. Treating trauma can be as simple as removing the violence and directly flushing the wound with alcohol. Then directly seal the wound with a sterilized sewing needle, then wrap it with gauze and that's it.
As for more serious injuries or diseases, they are usually sent to the division medical camp, where professional doctors are available.
It is worth mentioning that in order to prepare for the establishment of the military medical system, Luo Zhixue also rectified, or directly cleaned up, the civilian medical system.
When we were preparing to build several medical clinics, the soldiers of the Baoxiang Army basically came to invite doctors with swords and guns, especially the more famous doctors.
The soldiers of the Baoxiang Army also knew that the doctors they invited could save their lives, so they worked very hard.
Later, after three medical clinics were established, the Baoxiang Army stopped this rough and barbaric invitation mode and changed to a more gentle approach.
When you go to invite people, your head doctor won't come, but you have to send someone over, such as a senior brother or an apprentice.
With the expansion of the control area, the number of doctors controlled by the Baoxiang Army also increased. Finally, Luo Zhixue ordered the three medical clinics to be renamed Hantianfu Medical Clinic, Xiangyangfu Medical Clinic, and Nanyangfu Medical Clinic. .
Provide medical services to the soldiers and officials stationed nearby. At the same time, some personnel from these three medical centers began to be transferred to the main divisions and garrison divisions to set up medical camps.
These medical camps are not large in size. They are usually composed of a few doctors who are proficient in trauma and a dozen schools, and are assisted by dozens of ordinary medical soldiers.
By now, in the first month of the second year of Chengshun, all divisions in the Baoxiang Army have basically had medical battalions, and each battalion has its own medical team.
Against this background, Changsha Medical Clinic, which was directly under the leadership of the Ministry of Military Affairs and Political Affairs, was formally established and temporarily stationed in the eastern suburbs of Linxiang.
The number of doctors in this medical center is very large. Doctor Ma Chongshui, a famous doctor in Xiangyang Xinglin who is proficient in trauma, leads the team. He has 32 doctors recruited from the private sector or transferred from three other medical centers, and more than 80 apprentices. people.
It is worth noting that these doctors all have military ranks, and they all have the rank of officer. Even apprentices have the same rank as warrant officer.
According to the relevant regulations of the Dachu Empire, military doctors were awarded the rank of civilian officers. Adding 'tong' before the military rank has almost the same meaning as Tong Jinshi.
The director of the newly established Changsha Medical Center, Ma Chongshui, holds the rank of "colonel". The other doctors also hold ranks ranging from second lieutenant to lieutenant colonel. This high military rank is basically based on their original medical level and reputation. of.
The reason why the military doctors in the Yuezhou Medical Center are awarded titles is because the Yuezhou Medical Center is also a purely military institution. In essence, like all combat troops, they are part of the Army of the Great Chu Empire.
Because it is very necessary to confer a title.
However, what is awarded is not a regular military rank, but the same military rank unique to civilian personnel such as military doctors.
In addition to doctors with civilian military ranks, Yuezhou Medical Center also has a group of ordinary medical soldiers who are active soldiers. These medical soldiers are all selected and trained from soldiers, and there are more than 300 people in total.
There are about 400 medical staff in one Changsha medical center alone.
The reason why there are so many medical staff in this hospital is purely temporary personnel from Hantian Medical Center, Xiangyang Medical Center, the First Medical Battalion, the Guards Medical Battalion, the Sixth Medical Battalion, the Fourth Medical Battalion and other garrison division medical camps. Temporary reinforcements were mobilized.
After all, other troops have no combat missions now, and these medical staff are idle. We might as well let them go directly to Linxiang to prepare for the subsequent Chunan offensive.
After all, when Chu Nan's offensive begins, hundreds or even thousands of wounded people will be injured in a short period of time.
It is actually very difficult to treat so many wounded people just by relying on each army's own medical battalion. Therefore, it is necessary to mobilize medical staff from other directions to reinforce the Chunan front line.
The establishment of Changsha Medical Center in Linxiang is only temporary. After the army captures Yuezhou and Changsha, this medical center will also be used as a field hospital.
After the frontline army stabilizes the situation and takes control of Changsha Prefecture and surrounding areas, some of the personnel from the Changsha Medical Center will return to various units, and the remaining part will be stationed in Changsha, becoming the fourth official military medical center in the Chu Empire.
This is why it is called Changsha Medical Center and not Linxiang Medical Center or XX Medical Camp.
The establishment of the Changsha Medical Center also means that the Chu Empire's offensive preparations against Chunan have reached the final stage.
At the same time, it also indirectly announced the Chu Empire’s first main attack direction in the Chunan offensive:
There is no doubt that it is Linxiang!
This city between Wuchang Prefecture and Yuezhou Prefecture has become the front line of the confrontation between the Chu Army and the Ming Army.
The Ming army in the southern Chu area stationed at least 20,000 troops in Linxiang.
A mere 20,000 troops is nothing. More importantly, the Ming army clearly learned from Zhong Xiang. The mistake in the fall of Wuchang City turned out to be the habit of relying purely on the city wall for defensive operations in the past. Instead, numerous defenses were set up around the city wall. Fortifications and even firepower points.
These Ming troops placed a large number of sandbags on the top of the city wall and separated the top of the city wall, forming anti-shelling fortifications similar to ring fortifications.
In some areas, there are wooden boards and gravel on the top of these fortifications to block the volley explosion of explosive shells...
The artillery deployed by the Ming army in Linxiang City also adopted a better defense system. They piled sandbags around the artillery and also piled sandbags in front of the artillery.
During this process, these Ming troops even demolished the battlements in front of the gun positions...
It has been proven in many actual battles that the battlements cannot block the bombardment of solid artillery shells, and after being bombarded by solid shells, the rubble formed by these battlements will fly around, causing more serious additional casualties.
It would be better to just dismantle the battlements and replace them with sandbags that are more effective against solid bullets.
The Ming army officials responsible for the defense of Linxiang obviously had specialized in studying the Baoxiang Army, and even more about the Zhongxiang Battle and the Wuchang Battle.
Only in this way can these preventive measures be taken in a targeted manner.
Today's Linxiang has become the most solid city that the Chu Empire Army has ever encountered. Many of its fortifications can greatly reduce the siege efficiency of the Baoxiang Army.
However, even so, the Baoxiang Army still chose Linxiang as the main breakthrough point.
Because the geographical location of this place is so critical, it is the only way to connect Wuchang Prefecture and Yuezhou Prefecture.
Except for the Linxiang line, the other routes are not very reliable, especially for the main force of the Home Guard Army with a large number of artillery and baggage, the other routes are very difficult to take.
In addition, after a winter of renovations, the firepower had been further strengthened, and the fifth division was about to be fully staffed. The Southern Route Army finally decided to attack Linxiang.
As long as they can capture Linxiang, there will be a smooth road ahead, allowing them to go directly to Yuezhou Prefecture to control Baling City, and then go south to Changsha. There will be no strong city passes along the way to stop their progress.
On the contrary, if we bypass Linxiang and choose another direction to break through, let alone the enemy, it will be difficult to deal with the large mountainous area alone.
By the time you drag your artillery slowly across a mountainous area of more than ten or twenty kilometers wide, the Ming army will have already built fortifications on the other side of the mountain and are waiting for you.
When the time comes, we will still have to attack by force, and we will have to attack by ourselves across more than ten or twenty kilometers of mountain roads that are difficult to travel with heavy loads and have no smooth supply.
Just thinking about it makes my scalp numb!
If you want to pass quickly, you can only pass lightly, but in this case, the frontline troops will also lose the vital support of dense artillery.
Whether the Baoxiang Army can fight without the support of field artillery is actually unknown. Even the top brass of the Da Chu Empire Army have no idea.
Because...the main force of the Home Guard Army has never abandoned the artillery unit to play its own game.
There are many examples in the garrison, but the response of these examples is not good.
Based on these precedents, it was impossible for the commander of the Southern Route Army, Major General Han Ziping, to voluntarily give up artillery support. It would be nonsense to detour to other places and cross the mountainous areas to attack by force. In the end, Major General Han Ziping simply bit his teeth and took the hard nut of Linxiang. never mind.
Although Linxiang City's defenses are better, they can also get a lot of heavy artillery support.
Even the nine-pound field artillery and the forty-eight-pound mortar cannon can be easily pulled to the front line.
Not only the artillery under the jurisdiction of the Southern Route Army Headquarters will participate in the battle, but also several artillery units that are not under the jurisdiction of the Southern Route Army will also be temporarily transferred to participate in the battle, and will return to the Eastern Front after the battle is over.
In this way, there are enough artillery, not to mention artillery shells. The logistics line east of Linxiang is very smooth, the terrain is flat, and there are official roads to go, and it can also be transported by ship to the nearby Yangtze River before passing through. Carriage transfer.
Not to mention the replenishment of logistics and transportation after the outbreak of the battle, just the artillery shells stored in the camp on the eastern outskirts of Linxiang in advance can blow up Linxiang.
Han Ziping really didn't believe it. If he got hundreds of artillery pieces of various kinds to hit them, this small Linxiang City could still withstand it!
Impossible.
If the Ming army could really withstand the bombardment of the Baoxiang Army, they would not have been occupied by the Baoxiang Army in the entire northern Chu, and even Wuchang Prefecture would have been lost.
