When Xu Zhixian arrived at the front line of Ruichang City with a group of generals and staff, the Ruichang City he saw had turned into a huge military camp.
Ruichang City was originally just an ordinary small county town. The urban area was originally very small, and the permanent population in the city was less than 10,000.
But since last year, tens of thousands of troops have poured into this small city, which is more than the city's original permanent population.
The garrison of so many troops will naturally have a huge impact on the local area.
The Chu army stationed troops in this city, and Jiujiang City not far away also had tens of thousands of officers and soldiers garrisoned. Many gentry were not fools, so they naturally knew that this place would become a battlefield sooner or later.
When the Ming Dynasty army comes over, won't they, the civilians in the city, suffer.
Therefore, many people left Ruichang City one after another and went to other cities or simply lived in the countryside to escape the war.
Therefore, in the current city of Ruichang, except for a few wealthy gentry who risk war and do business in the city, there are actually not many wealthy gentry living in the city.
But few ordinary people left.
On the one hand, they can’t leave!
For ordinary people, it does not mean that they can live smoothly without leaving their original houses and livelihoods. Many people have very low risk resistance.
Furthermore, it’s hard to leave your hometown, and many people don’t want to leave their hometown.
Finally, they also have some confidence in the Chu army, believing that the war will break out, but judging from the appearance of the Chu army, even if the war breaks out, there is a high probability that the Chu army will go east to attack Jiujiang...
Instead of the Ming army coming from Jiujiang to fight Ruichang.
This confidence was brought about by the Chu army's consecutive victories.
You may not like or even hate the Chu Army, but you have to admit that the Chu Army is really powerful in fighting...
On the contrary, in Jiujiang City opposite, more people left the city.
Regardless of whether they are wealthy gentry or ordinary citizens, eight out of ten people who are able to leave have already fled one after another in the past half year.
So despite the fact that the mansions of the powerful gentry still exist in Jiujiang City, in fact only a few tribesmen are left living there with their servants, and a large number of direct tribesmen have basically run away.
What’s even more interesting is that many of the wealthy gentry who fled did not flee to other areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty, such as Nanchang or Hukou in the east. Instead, they fled directly to the areas controlled by the Chu army in the west. Some of them simply went directly to Xingguo Prefecture, Daye County and other places in Hantian Prefecture.
Although the Chu thieves in the west collect taxes very harshly, they are very strict about rules.
More importantly, these wealthy gentry families in Jiujiang did not have any farms or businesses in the areas controlled by the Chu army. They just went there to live and avoid the war.
In other words, although the Chu thieves collect taxes very harshly, it has nothing to do with them...
On the contrary, those Chu thieves especially welcomed them, the gentry and wealthy people with a lot of money and soft wealth, to settle down under the control of the Chu army.
Even if you don't settle down, you are still welcome if you are just staying temporarily.
As long as you come with money, regardless of whether you buy a house to live in or eat, drink and sleep, this can bring consumption to the areas controlled by the Dachu Empire.
Where there is consumption, there is a market, and where there is a market, there is taxation.
Therefore, some of the first-tier gentry families in Jiujiang now have a very interesting situation.
Their family owner owned a large number of farms, trading houses and other industries in Jiujiang Prefecture. He hated the Chu army very much, and also strongly supported Shi Kefa's fight against the thieves. In Shi Kefa's many apportionments and donations, many local gentry in Jiujiang contributed money.
On the other hand, these gentry families sent some of their clansmen with large amounts of gold and silver to Huguang, mainly the Han Tianfu area, under the control of the Chu thieves to escape the war.
Of course, they will not go to Ruichang City, which is also the center of the war vortex. Although there is a high probability that the Chu thieves will take the initiative to attack Jiujiang, if something unexpected happens and the Ming army attacks Ruichang City, in that case, they will If I go to Ruichang now, wouldn't I be throwing myself into a trap?
Therefore, Xingguo Prefecture, Daye County and other places in Hantian Prefecture, which were also controlled by the Da Chu Empire, accepted a group of gentry and wealthy households who came from Jiujiang Prefecture to escape the war. However, there were not many gentry and wealthy households in Ruichang City who were willing to Stay.
By now, Ruichang City has basically turned into a huge military camp.
Major General Cao Hongsheng, commander of the First Division, took Xu Zhixian on a tour of the city's defenses and introduced to Xu Zhixian: "Now we are on the Ruichang front line, mainly garrisoned with the main force of our division and a brigade of the 7th Guards Division."
"In Ruichang City, there are most of the main forces of our division, including three infantry regiments, baggage regiments, artillery regiments, engineer battalions and other units. In addition, there are the 1st Artillery Regiment and the 14th Garrison Brigade of the 7th Garrison Division."
"Our division's third infantry regiment and the first division's cavalry regiment are stationed in Dunzi Town, north of Ruichang City. The troops in this direction are mainly to control the land transportation line from Fuchi Town to Ruichang City and avoid being attacked by the enemy. At the same time, there is a small dock along the river in Dunzi Town, which can be used as a backup docking point for river transportation supplies."
"Now all the units on the line are fully staffed. Even the 14th Garrison Brigade has been issued with the best cold weapons of all kinds, and has also been supplemented with a batch of blunderbuss and short-barreled artillery that we captured before."
"There are a lot of supplies in the city. There are only five kilograms of cannonballs, and the city's warehouses have a total of 15,000 rounds."
"And the most important mortar shells in the Eastward Campaign, especially the 48-pound mortar shells, we currently have 8,000 rounds in stock."
After hearing this, Xu Zhixian said: "These ammunition will definitely be enough if you let the Ruichang garrison use it yourself, but it is still far from meeting the needs of the eastward marching troops!"
"The army marching eastward has many artillery. In addition to the First Army, the Third Army will also mobilize troops to participate. At the same time, it will also coordinate with the Second Army on the Jiangbei front line to fight."
"At the same time, in order to strengthen the artillery firepower, we also transferred some artillery forces from other ministries to strengthen the eastward advancing troops."
"When fighting, hundreds of artillery pieces fire at once, which consumes a lot of ammunition."
At this time, Major General Qiu Feiya, the executive deputy director of the Logistics Department, stepped forward and said: "Chief of Staff Xu, please rest assured. The ammunition reserves here in Ruichang City are only our preliminary reserves. We are in Fuchi Town and Daye behind us. A large amount of ammunition has been stored in the munitions warehouse in Wuchang, and it has been shipped out as planned."
"Before the Eastward Campaign was launched, I dare not say more, but we can still achieve this by equipping each cannon with at least 500 rounds of shells."
"In addition, Hantian Factory and Xiangyang Factory are working overtime to produce ammunition, most of which will be directly transferred to the eastward front line."
Xu Zhixian nodded slightly after hearing this, but he didn't just listen, he also went to see it himself.
He personally took people to the multiple ammunition warehouses in Ruichang City to personally inspect the ammunition warehouses to ensure that there was no large shortage in the amount of ammunition stored and that there was no shoddy quality.
This time Xu Zhixian came to the Ruichang front line, not just for a casual look. He came with His Majesty's order to check the combat readiness for the eastward campaign.
When he returned to Wuchang, he was going to submit a detailed combat readiness report for the eastward campaign to Luo Zhixue.
Among various war preparations, the hoarding and transportation of grain, grass, and ammunition are undoubtedly the top priority. This is why Xu Zhixian went to inspect the military supplies warehouse as soon as possible after arriving at the front line.
After checking the situation in the warehouse, Xu Zhixian convened a symposium with generals related to logistics to hear about the current transportation situation of various military supplies such as grain, grass, ammunition, etc. on the front line.
But in this symposium, Xu Zhixian frequently heard the term four-wheeled carriage!
As the Minister of the Army Staff of the Great Chu Empire, and in fact the Chief of Staff of the entire armed forces of the Great Chu Empire, Xu Zhixian has a lot of affairs, and the focus of his work is more on strategic control, and he does not pay too much attention to some details. many.
He knew about the four-wheeled carriage, but he didn't know why the logistics officers mentioned this word frequently when making reports.
With doubts, he picked up one of the reports and looked at it. It was a report on transport vehicles of the first baggage regiment, which was the first baggage regiment of the first division.
It states that there are 150 four-wheeled carriages, including 80 specialized four-wheeled ammunition carriages and 70 four-wheeled general transport vehicles.
Wagon?
Xu Zhixian remembered that the Chu Army once used four-wheeled carriages last year, but the four-wheeled carriage technology at that time was not yet mature. The main problem was that the bearing problem could not be solved and the wear and tear was relatively large.
Later, after the adoption of cylindrical bearings, the bearing problem was solved, but the bearings produced were also given priority to various types of mechanical equipment. After all, the mechanical equipment in each factory was the largest user of bearings, and it was also more important.
Most of the bearings supplied to the military are also used in artillery.
The artillery is mounted on a gun mount for maneuvering. This gun mount has two wheels during combat, but it has a very typical four-wheel structure during marching.
The artillery itself is relatively heavy and requires high mobility, so the requirements for the gun mount are also high. After the new cylindrical bearings are developed, in addition to being used for various mechanical equipment, they are basically used for the gun mount.
As for the carriages used by ordinary logistics troops, their priority is basically at the bottom.
After all, ordinary old carriages can also be used, but at most they will wear out more and need to be repaired more frequently.
And now looking at this report, the number of four-wheeled carriages used in the baggage force has increased, and the production of bearings in the rear has also increased.
Xu Zhixian did not ask too many questions. After all, the bearing was just a small detail in the huge military industrial system of the Chu Empire, and he did not need to pay special attention to it.
But he is more concerned about this four-wheeled carriage: "This kind of heavy-duty four-wheeled carriage has a large cargo capacity and also has better defense capabilities in the wild. If conditions permit, we should use more heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages!"
The logistics department official on the side said: "We also know the advantages of heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages. The amount of goods transported is very large. Now the new heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages we are equipped with can transport thousands of kilograms of goods when traveling on ordinary official roads. This transportation capacity is unmatched by two-wheeled carriages.”
"However, this kind of heavy-duty four-wheel carriage has relatively high requirements on roads, and places close to the front line or in places with complex terrain often do not have well-shaped roads, so their use is quite limited."
"So our carriages are mainly light four-wheeled carriages and two-wheeled carriages."
At this time, the official from the Logistics Department also sighed and said: "Actually, even for two-wheeled carriages, our rations are not too large now. Carriages are easy to get, but mules and horses are hard to find!"
"Heavy four-wheeled carriages often require two or even four horses. Even a two-wheeled carriage requires two or one horse."
"The number of mules and horses in our army has always been relatively tight, and most of them need to be supplied to various combat troops. The only three or two crooked melons and dates left for our logistics troops!"
"So the current main means of transportation in our logistics department is actually wheelbarrows."
"But don't mention it yet. It seems like one vehicle can transport very little when transporting supplies in a wheelbarrow, but it doesn't use mules and horses. It just recruits young men and women, and it doesn't have to be picky about the terrain. It can be used even on mountain trails. ."
"In previous large-scale combat operations of our army, this wheelbarrow has taken on a large part of the material transportation volume."
Xu Zhixian laughed after hearing this: "That's true. I remember during the Battle of Changsha, in order to meet the frontline's ammunition and food needs, your logistics department mobilized more than 50,000 civilians to transport ammunition to the frontline in wheelbarrows."
"This wheelbarrow made a great contribution to the victory of the Battle of Changsha!"
In a logistics transportation meeting, Xu Zhixian basically found out the material transportation situation of each frontline unit. For example, which logistics units had more four-wheeled carriages, which units had more two-wheeled carriages, and the logistics department prepared several Transport camps, what are the conditions of these transport camps, etc.
After some understanding, Xu Zhixian had a deeper understanding of the combat readiness on the front line, and had already decided to pay attention. After returning to Wuchang, he would talk to Yu Xiujie of the Logistics Department to see if he could further expand the four-wheel The amount of equipment for the carriage.
Heavy four-wheeled carriages have higher road requirements, but you can build light four-wheeled carriages that are better adaptable to roads.
In any case, this four-wheeled carriage saves more mules and horses than the two-wheeled carriage, and is more cost-effective.
As for those wheelbarrows and the like, they are equipment exclusively used by the transportation battalion under the Logistics Department. The baggage troops in combat troops are generally not equipped with such things.
There are two types of logistics troops in the Chu army. One is the baggage troops under each combat unit, that is, the baggage regiments and baggage battalions under each main division and garrison division.
The other type is the transportation battalion and transportation group under the Logistics Department.
Among them, the transportation regiment and transportation battalion under the Logistics Department are not fixed establishments. They are basically temporary establishments. Except for a few key members who are soldiers, the other personnel are civilians recruited temporarily. They are engaged in the transportation of materials from the rear.
The baggage battalions and baggage regiments in combat troops are fixed establishments. All personnel are professional soldiers and are fully armed with muskets, spears, swords and even artillery. To put it simply, baggage battalions and regiments, they It is a kind of armed logistics transportation personnel.
It is usually used for transporting supplies close to the front line and will face enemy attacks at any time.
Their main task is to escort materials to the front line with armed force. Sometimes they also serve as escort troops for transportation battalions and regiments, escorting transportation battalions and regiments to transport materials.
Under such circumstances, the Chu army's baggage battalions often used horse-drawn carriages as their means of transportation, and there were no large quantities of wheelbarrows in the transport camps.
Since there are a lot of horse-drawn carriages and equipment, Xu Zhixian still hopes that each baggage battalion regiment can be equipped with more four-wheeled horse-drawn carriages if conditions permit. This will not only transport more materials, but more importantly, it will allow the baggage troops to have more powerful weapons. defensive combat capabilities.
Relying on four-wheeled carriages for defensive operations is quite useful, especially when facing a cavalry attack. As long as the carriages are connected and surrounded, it will become a small fortress.
The Chu army's baggage troops in the fortress are fully equipped with guns and artillery, including two and a half kilograms of field cannon.
Under such circumstances, it would be very difficult for the enemy to attack the baggage troops.
