On the southern front, Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan were training a new standard army. On the eastern front, according to reliable intelligence, Shi Kefa was also training a new standard army.
When Shi Kefa was directly under Yang Sichang, he began to organize and train the new standard army according to Yang Sichang's orders. Later, Shi Kefa's Anlu governor area was placed under Chen Biqian's command, and he also received certain support from Chen Biqian.
More importantly, Shi Kefa was guarding the Jiujiang and Anqing front lines, with Jiangnan behind him. A lot of people behind him were counting on Shi Kefa to stop the bandits from advancing eastward.
A large number of gentry and dignitaries in the south of the Yangtze River were extremely afraid of the Chu army coming over. For this reason, many people paid and supported Shi Kefa in training the new standard army.
For the Jiangnan gentry, they don't care whether the Ming Dynasty dies or not, but they care very much whether they pay taxes or not.
Under the Ming Dynasty, they did not have to pay taxes, but once the Chu army came over, they would have to pay taxes...
As the saying goes, taking someone's money is like killing one's parents. Naturally, the Jiangnan gentry were not willing to pay taxes obediently. It was impossible for them to fight against the Chu thieves in person, but they were reluctantly willing to pay a small amount of money for Shi Kefa to kill the thieves.
The Chu thieves wanted money and food from the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, so they naturally had to resist. Even if only a small number of the gentry sincerely contributed money and effort, given the prosperity of the south of the Yangtze River, even the support of a small number of the gentry would be enough for Shi Kefa to gain a large amount of money. Money and food.
Shi Kefa, who has received a lot of support, is able to train new standard troops more easily than Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan. According to inquiries from the Intelligence Department of the General Staff and other intelligence agencies, Shi Kefa has trained new standard troops in Anqing and Jiujiang respectively. The specific number is unknown, but Remembering the two parts, it is conservatively estimated that there are tens of thousands of people.
This also means that in the subsequent war between the Chu Empire and the Ming Dynasty, the main force of the Ming army they faced changed from the vulnerable camp and sentry soldiers in the past to the new standard army and some border troops.
Well, the Jiliao border army led by Wu Sangui is still in the Henan area.
A small force of the Northern Route Army of the Great Chu Empire encountered them, and the fight was not pretty...
This is not to say that Wu Sangui’s frontier armies are better equipped and the soldiers fight more bravely, but that there are too many cavalry in these frontier armies...
In several small and medium-sized contacts, the Chu army, which mainly consisted of infantry and artillery, was particularly uncomfortable when facing hundreds or even thousands of frontier cavalry.
It's very easy to get kited when you go out to fight in the field. As for the sharp guns and cannons... the frontier cavalry won't engage in close combat with you at all, and don't expect them to charge into battle on horseback.
People will hang you far away. When you are in formation, they will hang you far away and will not come over at all. But as soon as you move, when it becomes a marching formation, they will rush over on horseback and shoot arrows...
Later, the Northern Route Army mainly focused on city defense operations. When they occasionally went out to fight in the city, they often carried a large number of four-wheeled and two-wheeled carriages, some of which were two hundred kilograms of short robes and two and a half kilograms of field guns.
When encountering frontier cavalry, rely on horse-drawn carriages for defensive counterattacks. If necessary, rely on horse-drawn carriages for retreat or pursuit.
And this is actually the way the Qi army used to deal with the northern grassland cavalry decades ago after they went north: using horse-drawn carriages and light artillery to play car formations.
It was just limited by the limited number of mules and horses, and the border troops were experts in this kind of vehicle formation, so the fight was rather awkward and uncomfortable.
This is also an important reason why the Chu army was on strategic defense on the northern front and did not invade the Central Plains on a large scale.
If the Chu army, which lacks cavalry, rushes into the Central Plains now, it will be equivalent to giving up its advantage in guns and artillery to compete with the Ming army in cavalry, chariot formations and other advantages, and the gain outweighs the loss.
Let’s not talk about the northern route for now, let’s talk about the eastern route.
Now that the Chu army wants to advance eastward, it is very likely to face the new standard army under Shi Kefa, or other Ming court governors and governors. If they fight in Jiangbei at the same time, they are also very likely to encounter the frontier cavalry led by Wu Sangui.
For this reason, the General Staff of the Dachu Empire has recently been thinking about how to better fight these new standard troops and the frontier cavalry.
The purpose of this exercise involving the Guards, the 1st Cavalry Brigade, and the 7th Division was to practice fighting against the New Standard Army and the frontier cavalry.
However, the actual results of the exercise were not so clear.
In this exercise, the entire Guards Division was dispatched to attack the 1st Brigade of the 7th Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade. However, in the actual battle, the Guards Division was pinned down many times and ultimately failed and was forced to retreat.
The most important one is the 7th Division, which acted as the new standard army of the Ming Army. They chose to defend the city and used guns and artillery to resist stubbornly, making it impossible for the Guards Division to attack for a long time.
At the same time, the 1st Cavalry Brigade acted as the Ming army's frontier cavalry and wandered around the perimeter to attack, directly cutting off the logistics line of the Guards Division.
In the end, the Guards Division was forced to retreat in order to avoid greater losses.
A group of military generals led by Xu Zhixian were not very satisfied with the results of this exercise.
Even in the various exercises and sand table simulations conducted by the Chu Empire, the Chu army was always the losing side...
But, even if it fails, it is usually not so tragic, and in previous exercises or deductions, the referee department would often inexplicably add drama to the side playing the role of the Ming army...
The moment I opened my mouth, I saw that the Ming army had hundreds of artillery pieces. When I rolled my eyes, I saw that the Ming army had thousands of fine cavalry. They were still fine cavalry who fought to the death, or the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty refused to retreat. Each one of them was a god descending to earth. Or simply give the Ming army's role-playing generals a full map view...
In short, in every exercise or deduction, especially in sand table drills, the Ming army is often able to gain a huge advantage.
Under such circumstances, the failure of the Chu army's role in exercises or sand table deductions is also being cleared up.
However, this time, the exercise headquarters did not make any extravagance. The 7th Division, which played the role of the Ming army, only had one mixed brigade, and the 1st Cavalry Brigade only had a thousand cavalry.
As for the Thirteenth Brigade of the Seventh Division, because it is a newly formed army, the quality of the soldiers is limited, and they are not very familiar with various tactics, and the equipment is also quite satisfactory.
The level of this temporarily formed mixed brigade is generally similar to that of the new standard army Zuo Army that the Chu Army encountered before.
As for the First Cavalry Brigade, this is a cavalry unit that was born out of the frontier cavalry. The cavalry that will be added later are also selected cavalry. Their actual combat effectiveness should be similar to that of the frontier cavalry.
And putting aside the cavalry field artillery of the cavalry brigade, comparing the cavalry shooting and formation rushing capabilities alone, it is estimated that they are not as good as the Guan Ning cavalry under Wu Sangui.
In the opinion of the generals of the Chu Army, the above two units should be able to better simulate the Ming Army's new standard army and frontier cavalry.
Even if it cannot be simulated 100%, it is not a big problem to simulate 80%.
However, in the exercise, the Guards Division was defeated!
The reason for the defeat was simple. The more than 500 half-skilled cavalrymen of the Guards Division Cavalry Regiment were not strong enough to withstand the First Cavalry Brigade, which acted as frontier cavalry.
After the Guards Division Cavalry Regiment could not hold the First Cavalry Brigade, it was unable to control the periphery and even had its logistics supply lines cut off, and even the periphery was frequently attacked.
The Thirteenth Brigade, which also played the role of the Ming Army, was hiding in the city and could not get out with the help of city walls and guns. Although the Fifth Division had twice the strength advantage, it could not quickly capture the city.
In the end, under internal and external difficulties, he was forced to withdraw his troops.
Even under the threat of a thousand cavalry, they were reluctant to retreat.
During the exercise, Xu Zhixian looked at the retreat formation of the Guards Division and said unceremoniously: "If this was an actual battle, the Guards Division would have collapsed by now!"
During the exercise, the Guards Division suffered a comprehensive defeat, which made the new Guards Division Commander Liang Feiyang look very ugly!
After Li Dongshao, the former commander of the Guards Division, was promoted to commander of the Third Army and commander of the Gyeonggi Garrison, Liang Feiyang, the former deputy commander of the Guards Division, took over as the commander of the Guards Division and was promoted to major general.
Although Gang said it would be difficult to organize an exercise less than half a month after taking office, he was originally the deputy commander of the Guards Division and was very familiar with the brigades and regiments below him. At the same time, as the deputy division commander, he also learned from the battalion and regiment step by step. Commander, the brigade commander came over.
Moreover, Liang Feiyang was born in the artillery. He has served successively as the commander of the Artillery Regiment of the Guards Division, the Chief of the Artillery Director Training Section, and the Deputy Commander of the Guards Division. Regardless of the outside world's perception or his own opinion, he is good at artillery operations.
However, in this exercise, the artillery unit of the Guards Division failed to play the expected role. The field artillery and mortar units had very limited effect on the defenders' fortifications.
This is also one of the important reasons why the city cannot be captured quickly.
After all, the Chu army relies heavily on artillery when sieging a city. Once the artillery fails to perform, it will be more troublesome to fight in the future.
The Guards Division suffered a huge defeat in the show. Even if the superiors, especially His Majesty, didn't say anything, this lack of words already represented the seriousness of the matter.
If the drill goes well, His Majesty will definitely give you a few words of praise, and even if it goes badly, he will say 'Thank you for your hard work'...
Now there is no praise or even a word of thanks for your hard work, which means that His Majesty is very dissatisfied with the performance of the Guards Division.
After the exercise, the commander of the Guards Division, Major General Liang Feiyang, called all the officers from the battalion and above of the Guards Division over that night and swore at everyone.
In particular, several major officers of the Guards Division Artillery Regiment were scolded bloody by him.
Several members of the cavalry regiment did not fare well either, as they were sprayed all over their faces by him.
After spraying, Liang Feiyang said: "The Battle of the Eastward March is about to begin. Our Guards Division will definitely accompany His Majesty in the Eastward March. And when our Guards Division comes on stage, it will be a big battle, and we must fight!"
"We cannot afford to lose this kind of war!"
"The artillery regiment will have to think carefully about it later and improve its artillery skills. Coverage bombardment has little effect, so you have to find a way to accurately bombard it."
"As for the cavalry regiment, they also have to train hard day and night. As for your riding skills, the three-year-old little brats in the northern grassland are better than you. And when you line up to charge, the formation is as messy as shit. You must work hard. Training!”
While Liang Feiyang was raging against his subordinates, Xu Zhixian, the general staff officer, formally proposed to issue muskets to the cavalry when he met with Luo Zhixue.
