The huge ammunition consumption in the Linxiang Battle not only placed severe demands on the Chu Empire's finances, but also posed a huge challenge to the military production capacity of the Chu Empire.
In the Battle of Linxiang, facing a fortified city like Linxiang like a hedgehog, if the Chu army did not have the support of hundreds of artillery, it would be impossible to fight.
But now, except for the First Division and the Fifth Division, all other units of the Chu Army, even the Guards Division, are not equipped with artillery.
The reason why Linxiang Battle was able to concentrate more than 300 field guns and mortars this time was that two main divisions were concentrated. At the same time, part of the artillery of the First Division was mobilized, and one of the First Division's artillery was prepared for use on the Eastern Front. The mortar regiment was transferred over.
This is a different direction, a different time. It would be difficult for the Chu army to replicate this grand occasion.
After all, there was only outside Linxiang City. At the same time, there was no fighting in the direction of Jiujiang on the eastern front. Moreover, Linxiang and Jiujiang were relatively close. The Chu army could quickly concentrate the strength of the two main divisions, and if there were changes on the eastern front, it could attack them at any time. The Guards Division was mobilized to reinforce the eastern front.
Only in this way can we confidently and boldly concentrate two main divisions and a group of main artillery.
If you change to other directions, except for the follow-up east line Jiujiang direction, other places will be very difficult.
But now that it is so difficult to siege the city and the requirements for the number of artillery are so high, subsequent attacks in other directions may be more troublesome.
And it is difficult to change in a short time.
The production of artillery takes time, requires a lot of skilled workers, and requires a lot of equipment. No matter how much an artillery costs, it will be difficult for the Chu Empire to quickly produce enough artillery in a short period of time.
The limited artillery production capacity has also led to the fact that all departments of the Dachu Empire Army are now short of artillery, not to mention that the artillery continues to be lost during the operations of each department.
Even though the artillery is a big thing, like the musket, it will continue to be worn out during combat.
No, after reporting the casualties outside, Xu Zhixian told Luo Zhixue a very unpleasant battle damage: "In this battle, our army had a total of thirteen field artillery and sixteen mortar guns. When the service life reaches the design life, it needs to be transferred to the second-line army or scrapped."
Hearing this, Luo Zhixue frowned.
He has known about the wear and tear of artillery for a long time, especially when the Chu army was still using iron two-and-a-half pound field artillery in the early days. The life of the barrel was very impressive. Often after firing two to three hundred rounds, the barrel It has reached the design limit and can no longer use standard charges.
If you want to continue using it later, you can only use shells with reduced charge, and at the same time reduce the frequency of shelling.
In order to solve this problem, Luo Zhixue began to comprehensively promote the manufacturing and equipment of bronze field guns in June and July last year.
After the Chu army began to manufacture and use bronze artillery on a large scale, the problem of too short barrel life of field artillery was greatly improved, although the cost of bronze artillery was more expensive, and it was several times more expensive.
But at the same time, the life of the barrel has also been increased several times. In comparison, although the initial equipment cost is relatively high, the full life cost is actually about the same.
More importantly, after the life of the barrel is extended, the artillery unit can fire freely without having to worry about the barrel being unable to withstand it after a few rounds of artillery fire...
However, although they were equipped with bronze cannons, there were still a large number of iron cannons in the Chu army.
For example, all kinds of short robes equipped in the garrison, regardless of whether they are self-made or captured, are all iron cannons.
At the same time, the eighteen-pound mortars, the forty-eight-pound mortars, and the two-hundred-jin short robes in the main division were all made of iron. ,
The mission life of these artillery pieces is very low, and they often cannot be used after two to three hundred rounds. Some short iron cannons captured from the Ming army are of even worse quality, and they often cannot be used after more than a hundred rounds.
This also caused the Chu army to scrap a varying number of artillery pieces after almost every battle.
Some captured short robes of poor quality were often directly scrapped and recycled. The early iron two-and-a-half-pound field guns were only temporarily transferred to the second-line troops for low frequency and used with reduced charges, and then waited for replacement.
The scrapping of artillery has further aggravated the Chu army's military production pressure.
Well, it’s not financial pressure.
Because the artillery itself is actually very cheap. The most expensive nine-pound bronze field gun used in the army only costs more than 800 taels of silver to purchase. Other artillery is even cheaper, such as the eighteen-pound mortar, which only costs one Just over a hundred taels of silver.
The artillery purchase cost of just a few hundred taels of silver was nothing to the Chu army with a military budget of 15 million... If you squeeze out a hundred thousand taels of silver, you can buy hundreds of bronze field artillery...
However, the Chu army now only has a hundred bronze field cannons in total.
Why so few? Is it because the Chu Empire cannot afford to sell it?
impossible!
It's purely because of the limited production capacity of the arsenal.
The artillery problem will be a major factor that limits the subsequent improvement of the Chu army's combat effectiveness, at least until the Hantian Arsenal is fully mass-produced.
This is why the Dachu Empire invested heavily in the construction of the Hantian Arsenal and a series of supporting projects.
The Dachu Empire is rich now, but even with money, it cannot buy more artillery...
In fact, a similar situation happened to Yang Sichang. No matter how poor Yang Sichang was, he could still collect hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, but now Yang Sichang only had so much of the new two-and-a-half-pound field cannon.
It's not that he can't afford it, but that he can't find more skilled cannon makers.
There are only so many skilled gunsmiths. No matter how rich you are, you can't increase production capacity too much in a short period of time.
——
After a Linxiang battle, too many artillery pieces were needed, and the losses were considerable. Similarly, the consumption of ammunition was also very high.
Xu Zhixian said with worry: "The artillery shells we hoarded in the eastern suburbs of Linxiang should have been enough to capture the entire Chunan, but in the Battle of Linxiang, the artillery shells we fired already accounted for half of the total."
"We have to attack Baling, Yuezhou, Changsha, Hengyang and other fortified cities later. I'm afraid this batch of ammunition is not enough!"
Luo Zhixue closed the battle report at this time and said: "I will hand over the ammunition issue to the Ministry of Industry and continue to work overtime for production. In addition, you and the Logistics Department will think about it and transfer a batch of ammunition from other directions for emergency response!"
"Now we must give priority to supplying the Chunan front. After we capture Changsha and Hengyang, we will then consider strategic offensive issues in other directions."
Regarding the issue of ammunition, Luo Zhixue didn't have a good solution.
The total ammunition production capacity is limited, and the quantity to be stockpiled is also limited. If the Chunan front line is not enough, the only choice is to divert ammunition from other directions.
It cannot be said that Chu Nan's massive spring offensive was stopped just because of insufficient ammunition.
In addition, Luo Zhixue estimated that the military expenditures for this Chunan fortification might be higher than expected due to the large loss of artillery and ammunition.
I don’t know exactly how much it will be now, but I have to prepare for a rainy day.
Otherwise, if this continues, the Chu army will be reduced to the same level as the Ming army, unable to fight...
As a result, just after the Battle of Linxiang, Luo Zhixue didn't even bother to enter Linxiang City, and he didn't pay much attention to the subsequent clearing operations, let alone the vanguard troops that had already left Linxiang to kill Baling in Yuezhou.
Instead, they continued to convene a group of civil officials in the camp in the eastern suburbs of Linxiang, especially officials from the taxation department, finance department, and personnel department system.
A group of civilian officials were in the military camp, not talking about war or strategy, but discussing how to solve the military expenditure problem.
Luo Zhixue set the tone at the beginning of the meeting: "This Chunan offensive will cost more than we previously estimated. We don't know the exact amount yet, but if Baling, Changsha, Hengyang, etc. If all places are so difficult to fight, the overall expenses will increase by at least half."
"And the empire's inventory of money and food and expected tax revenue are fixed. When we made the budget before, we have already included everything that can be used. Today I called you all here to brainstorm ways to increase revenue!"
Down below, Finance Minister Huang Chengxuan could not help but sigh in his heart after hearing only about increasing revenue but not any words about reducing expenditures.
According to the way those losers in the Army fight, let alone 15 million military expenditures, even if 20 million or even doubled to 30 million taels of silver, it is probably not enough for them.
To attack the small city of Linxiang, half of the ammunition prepared was shot out.
What a waste if there is no shortage of military spending.
But he could only mutter these words in his heart. Now the Chu Nan offensive was in full swing. It was at a critical moment. Taking Chu Nan at the same time was of great strategic significance to the overall situation of the empire, so no matter what he thought, he would We can't break the cold water at such a critical moment and hold us back.
Otherwise, the military generals could kill him with one knife...
Not an exaggerated adjective, but an actual description.
After all, the Chu Empire was different from the Ming Dynasty.
The Great Chu Empire now has the Hometown Protection Army, and then there is the General's Office of the Hometown Protection Army, and then there is the Great Chu Empire.
The army is the foundation and leading force of the Chu Empire.
The various administrative agencies are purely agencies that serve the military.
This can be seen from the various administrative agencies in the Dachu Empire. The two major agencies with ultimate authority are the Department of Taxation and the Ministry of Industry.
These two organizations, one collects money and food, the other manufactures ordnance, both directly provide support for the war.
Other institutions, even the Ministry of Personnel, are not as important as these two institutions.
Therefore, in today's Great Chu Empire, the status of civil servants is much lower than that of military generals. Huang Chengxuan really angered the military. If the military generals collectively launched an attack, it is estimated that His Majesty would not protect him...
Therefore, Huang Chengxuan consciously did not criticize the military's extravagance and prodigal fighting methods. Instead, after careful consideration, he proposed a way to raise military expenses to Luo Zhixue.
Mint coins!
