In order for this Chunan offensive to be carried out more smoothly and faster without affecting the eastward offensive expected to be launched this fall, Luo Zhixue also spent a lot of money.
Nowadays, there are only eight marquises in the Great Chu Empire, which shows the scarcity of these marquises.
As for the ministers who were given the reduced rank of inheritance, the only two people were Wang Xiazi and Huang Dingquan.
The other six marquises are all ordinary reduced-level inheritances, but they can only be inherited for three generations by the original marquises.
In today's Great Chu Empire, this title is still very valuable.
Hearing Luo Zhixue's words, all the low-ranking middle- and high-level generals couldn't help but breathe quickly. Even Han Ziping, the commander of the South Route Army, couldn't help but breathe heavily.
Marquis, reduction, etc., no matter which one they are, the earl Han Ziping is very envious!
If the two were added together, not to mention, it would be enough to make his old Han family rich and prosperous for hundreds of years and retire with the country.
Han Ziping has secretly made a decision in his heart. This battle must be fought beautifully. Whether the old Han family can achieve glory and wealth for hundreds of years depends on this battle.
At the same time, if he fights well this time, his military rank should be further improved.
Han Ziping is now a major general, commander of the Fifth Division, and commander of the Southern Route Army.
At present, in the Great Chu Empire, there is currently only Huang Dingquan, the commander of the North Route Army who leads tens of thousands of troops and is stationed in Nanyang. This general who is deeply trusted by Luo Zhixue holds the rank of lieutenant general.
Other senior generals are generally major generals.
Including the ministers of the four major departments, the commanders of the main divisions, and the cavalry brigade commander Wang Xiazi.
The commanders of each garrison division, the deputy division commanders of each main division, and the brigade commanders are still brigadiers.
Becoming the second lieutenant general in the Great Chu Empire is the biggest ambition of many major generals in the near future.
However, in the Chu Empire, in order to avoid the situation where senior generals with meritorious service could not be promoted in the process of unifying China, Luo Zhixue had already revealed to his generals through informal channels that the military ranks would not be promoted too fast in the early stage.
Therefore, it is very difficult to be promoted to lieutenant general in this environment.
As for the general, don't expect it in the short term. It is estimated that the rank of general will only appear in the later stages of the Unification War.
Many generals, especially the main division commander like Han Ziping, most wanted to make great achievements and obtain the rank of lieutenant general.
After Luo Zhixue made a promise, a group of senior generals, including Han Ziping, left with expectations.
After the meeting, Luo Zhixue walked out of the tent and looked at the night sky in the west!
There are scattered lights there!
Those were the sporadic torch lights of the defenders on the top of Linxiang City. Although they looked dim because of the distance, in this era of near-zero light pollution, they could be seen even from a distance.
Linxiang!
This city, which had blocked the Chu army for half a year, was about to face a real challenge.
Because the next day, the Da Chu Empire Army will officially launch a strong attack on Linxiang!
——
In the early morning of the next day, a large amount of smoke rose early in the Chu army camp on the eastern outskirts of Linxiang City. The soldiers were cooking and providing breakfast for the soldiers who were about to be dispatched.
On the front line, a group of soldiers had already begun to take action. Many soldiers began to transport the artillery and large quantities of artillery shells originally stored in the rear through the communication trenches to a place only a few hundred meters away from the Ming army's defense line.
There have long been artillery positions dug by engineers and ordinary soldiers.
In the past six months, the Chu army had done nothing. Although the camp was more than a thousand meters away from the city wall, numerous communication trenches, ditches and artillery positions had been dug in front of the camp.
As long as a war breaks out, artillery and a large number of troops can be quickly mobilized to the front line and directly launch a strong attack.
On weekdays, these frontline trenches are also garrisoned with troops, but not many.
At about 7:30 in the morning, a large number of infantry troops also entered the predetermined positions.
At the forefront is the 9th Infantry Brigade of the 5th Division.
The Fifth Division had been designated as the main force to attack Linxiang last year. The officers and ordinary soldiers of the division had already conducted long-term targeted training on siege.
At the same time, in terms of equipment, the focus was also on strengthening the equipment used in sieges. For example, there were more mortars and equipment, and more emphasis was placed on the nine-pound and five-pound field cannons in the field artillery.
The current number of nine-pound field guns under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Division is the same as that of the First Division, and both are fully equipped with twelve guns.
Although the Fifth Division is a new force, as a Fifth Division that has been aiming to storm Linxiang and Changsha since the founding of the army, in terms of its ability to attack difficult targets, the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Division should not be How much worse than the first division.
Except for the Fifth Division, other divisions also focused more on offensive operations, especially the artillery units.
In addition, in this battle, the total number of nine-pound field cannons in each department was twenty-four, accounting for almost half of all the nine-pound field cannons in the Chu Empire.
Among them, the Fifth Division has twelve, the Guards Division has eight, and there are four temporarily transferred from the First Division.
For comparison, the Chu army in other directions did not have so many nine-pound field cannons. In the north route direction, the entire North Route Army only had eight nine-pound field cannons in total.
The two lines in the west don't even have one.
The Third Division on the Eastern Front has six gates, and the Fourth Division on the Eastern Front Jiangbei has eight gates.
There are currently eight divisions left in the First Division in the Jiujiang direction on the eastern front.
The nine-pound field artillery currently equipped by the Chu Empire Army is actually only forty-eight in total.
And outside Linxiang City, half of them were concentrated.
In addition to the nine-pound field guns, there were also a large number of five-pound field guns. The Fifth Division had twenty-four and the Guards Division had twenty, adding up to forty-four.
In terms of mortars, there are more eighteen-pound mortars, with a total of ninety-two. The Fifth Division has sixteen, the Guards Division has sixteen, the First Mortar Regiment has twenty-four, and the Second Mortar has There are twenty-four regiments, eight in the Sixth Garrison Division and eight in the Eighth Garrison Division.
Forty-eight-pound mortars are composed of twenty-four in the first mortar regiment and eighteen in the second mortar regiment, for a total of forty-two.
As for the two-and-a-half kilogram field cannon, this small-caliber field cannon has little effect on a city like Linxiang City, which was specially reinforced for defense by the Ming army and had a large number of fortifications for shelling. It can basically be ignored.
In order to attack Linxiang by force, the Da Chu Empire Army spent a lot of money.
And with so much effort, the effect is very good.
After the artillery units completed their preparations in the morning, a large-scale artillery bombardment began at about eleven o'clock.
More than a hundred field guns of three different types and more than a hundred two different types of mortars began to violently bombard the head of Linxiang City and some fortifications dug by the Ming army outside the city.
The violent bombardment was almost earth-shattering, but in fact it did not cause much damage to the Ming army.
Because the Ming army saw the Chu army making such a big move, they had long been on guard against the Chu army's artillery fire, so they hid under the city wall or in the ditch early.
But it doesn't matter. The reason why the Chu army launched such a fierce bombardment was not to kill as many Ming troops as possible immediately, but to destroy some of the Ming army's defenses at the top of the city and outside the city through artillery fire.
The Ming army in Linxiang City learned the lessons of Zhongxiang and the fall of Wuchang. They did not garrison alone on the top of the city. Instead, they built various complex fortifications on the top of the city, especially anti-artillery fortifications.
The most typical one is the accumulation of a large number of sandbags on the top of the city. This is said to be a method the Ming army obtained from the Chu army.
Because the Chu army would pile up sandbags in the artillery positions close to the Ming army to prevent the Ming army from shelling.
The Ming army also has artillery. Although they are short-barreled artillery such as general cannons and Franchise guns, they can also shoot two to three hundred meters during defensive operations. If the hit rate and lethality are not taken into account, it is also It can threaten the Chu army's artillery positions deployed close to it.
In order to prepare for the Ming army's artillery attack, Chu army artillerymen would build sandbag fortifications when constructing artillery positions.
This time too many times, the Ming army on the opposite side also thought about the way out, and finally they also learned to play like this.
Similarly, the Ming army learned from the Chu army in digging trenches outside the city.
You Chu thieves can dig trenches close to the city wall. We can also dig trenches directly outside the city, and then hide in the trenches to prevent artillery bombardment. After you protect the thieves from rushing up, we can come out and attack with assault cannons, tiger squatting cannons, muskets, and bows and arrows. Fire interception.
War is a process of mutual learning.
In order to protect themselves, the Ming army in Linxiang also learned to protect the bandits within their capabilities.
It is unrealistic and impossible for you to ask them to produce a large number of artillery and new muskets. It is also impossible for you to ask them to produce a large number of armored soldiers.
But if you ask them to build anti-gun fortifications and dig trenches, it won't be a big problem.
The Chu army's fierce shelling now is, to a certain extent, aimed at destroying these fortifications, such as the large blocks of horses in the open space outside the city, railings and other obstacles, and the parapets above the ditch outside the city.
There are also battlements, sandbags and other defenses on the city wall.
Destroying the fortifications of the Ming army was also to suppress the Ming army!
And then cover the actions of our own infantry and engineering troops.
To attack a city, you can't just shout and charge forward. Just like the original attack on Wuchang, a series of early battles need to go through before the infantry can launch a charge.
Before the infantry launches the attack, the Chu army needs to clear some of the Ming army's trench positions outside Linxiang City and fill in part of the moat, so that they can obtain a starting position.
At the same time, the engineering troops still need to extend the trench forward, and at the same time secretly dig tunnels to prepare for blasting.
Before carrying out these tasks, it is necessary to suppress the momentum of the Ming army to prevent them from running out to cause trouble.
The violent bombardment did achieve this effect. Since the intensive and large-scale bombardment in the morning, although the Chu army's intensive bombardment started at noon, it basically stopped, and only the normal intermittent bombardment was maintained.
But the Ming army still did not dare to come out and launch a large-scale counterattack.
There was only a small counterattack.
As a result, on the first day of the Linxiang offensive, except for the large-scale artillery bombardment on the first day, there were such small-scale attacks and counterattacks for most of the subsequent day.
This kind of battle seems small in scale, but in fact it is very frequent.
Therefore, the entire battle scene seems very dull and boring. Behind this dull and boring battle scene, the actual number of troops participating in the battle on both sides has reached tens of thousands. The scene is really not much worse than a large-scale battle in the wild.
During the battle, the generals of both sides continued to battle with each other in a battle of wits and courage, and the soldiers were engaged in a seemingly small-scale, but still extremely cruel fight.
