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In the first three days after arriving in Jiujiang City, the Chu army basically spent their time building frontline trenches, testing firepower, and building long ladders and shield vehicles for siege.
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They did not even rush to attack the Ming army's trenches, fortresses and other defensive nodes outside Jiujiang City.
At the meeting, Xu Zhixian introduced in detail the current situation of the Ming army's defense: "Based on the intelligence we have received before, coupled with the information obtained from observation and fire reconnaissance in the past three days, we can currently confirm that Shi Kefa's men Anlu's new standard army is in Jiujiang City, and all the main forces are in the city."
"The New Standard Army of the Ming Dynasty that we detected in Hukou before can basically be confirmed to be the New Standard Army under Governor Yingtian, and not part of the Anlu New Standard Army as we thought before."
"In other words, the entire Anlu New Biao Army is currently deployed in Jiujiang City, and it is estimated that the number is between 6,000 and 8,000."
"In addition, there are about 25,000 Ming military camp sentries in Jiujiang City, and the last few thousand are young civilians!"
"The total strength of the puppet Ming army in the city is about 35,000."
"The puppet Ming army in the city deployed a total of about fifteen heavy Hongyi cannons on the top of the city. It is reported that this batch of Hongyi artillery was urgently transferred from some forts and naval forces along the Jiangnan coast. The minimum Some are heavy artillery of five kilograms, and many are nine or ten kilograms."
"They have also deployed a group of larger-caliber general cannons and Folan cannons at the top of the city. The overall firepower at the top of the city is not weak."
"What's even more noteworthy is that the puppet Ming army also deployed more than a dozen two-and-a-half-pound field cannons on the protruding fortresses outside the city wall. As expected, these two-and-a-half-pound field cannons are the new standard of Anlu. It’s the army’s field artillery.”
"These two-and-a-half-pound field artillery, combined with a large number of small and medium-sized Folang aircraft, assault artillery, tiger squat artillery, etc. in the puppet Ming army, will create a great threat to our army when clearing the protruding fortresses and trenches in the city. !”
"In addition, in the previous several fire probing attacks, we have successively discovered that the puppet Ming army has deployed at least two new standard troops equivalent to our regiment level in various trenches and other defenses outside the city."
"Judging from the artillery deployment of the puppet Ming army and the deployment of the New Standard Army, we can basically conclude that they want to use various trenches, forts and other fortifications outside the city, and then cooperate with the heavy artillery firepower on the city to intercept us. ."
When Xu Zhixian said this, Li Chengtong on the side answered: "These puppet Ming troops are quite self-aware. They know that huddled within the city wall there is no way they can withstand our fierce attack!"
"Hmph, if they don't have protruding defenses outside the city, when our forty-eight-pound mortars can smoothly move forward and attack, the mere city wall can't stop us."
Luo Zhixue said: "It is reasonable to never underestimate the enemy. We are making progress, and they will also learn and make progress."
During the battle between the Ming army and the Chu army, there were several very obvious stages.
In the early days, that is before the Battle of Zhongxiang.
The Ming army basically regarded the Chu army as bandits, well, at most they were slightly stronger bandits, so their tactics were basically based on field battles and proactive attacks.
Chen Yongfu led his troops to attack and suffered a disastrous defeat in the battle of Zhaozhuang, and Chen Yongfu surrendered.
Lu Xiangsheng wanted to attack Xinye, but was intercepted by the Chu army. In the end, he was defeated miserably in the Battle of Sanyuanzhuang, and Lu Xiangsheng died in the battle.
After Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong failed to siege Yuzhou, they finally set up positions with the Chu army in the eastern suburbs of Yuzhou for a face-to-face battle. The result was a disastrous defeat. He Renlong surrendered on the spot, and Zuo Liangyu was defeated and retreated to Ye County.
After these three large-scale field battles, the Ming army basically saw the strong field combat capabilities of the Chu army, so it began to change its strategy to focus on city defense.
However, the Ming army during this period still relied on traditional city defense operations, which mainly relied on the city walls for defensive operations. At the same time, the Huguang Ming army during the campaign failed to obtain a large number of Hongyi cannons.
As a result, in a series of subsequent battles such as the Battle of Zhongxiang, the Battle of Hanyang, and the Battle of Wuchang, the Ming army discovered that their traditional city defense tactics were not reliable at all.
There are many reasons for this, the most critical of which is the large-scale use of mortar cannons and the tactics of blasting and heavy-armored commandos by the Chu thieves.
Faced with exploding mortars, the Ming army's traditional city walls did not provide much protection.
Faced with the siege mode of the blasting and armored commandos, it was difficult for the Ming army to organize an effective counterattack when they were completely suppressed by artillery.
After this series of failures, Yang Sichang proposed to form a new standard army. At the same time, in response to the huge threat of the Chu army's large number of field artillery and mortar artillery in siege operations, he improved his defensive tactics and began to build a large number of cannons around the city wall. They even took the initiative to leave the city wall, dig trenches outside the city wall, and build fortresses and other tactical nodes to resist the Chu army's artillery superiority.
This tactic was used on a large scale for the first time in the Battle of Linxiang, and was continued in the Battle of Changsha.
Although the Ming army still failed in these two battles, it is undeniable that this defensive tactic did bring greater trouble to the Chu army.
And until the Ming army has no better way, they can only continue to do this.
You can't fight the Chu army in the open field, or stay on the city wall stupidly and get bombed, or simply hide behind the city wall and wait for the enemy to rush to the city.
The armor-wearing rate of the Ming army in the Central Plains is far inferior to that of the Chu army. In a real melee, the Chu army's heavy-armored commandos can beat the shit out of them.
In these days of close combat, armor is king. Personal martial arts, courage and morale are all scum in front of armor...
However, the Ming army still made relatively large innovations in tactics during the defensive operations of Jiujiang City.
The biggest change is the large-scale use of Hongyi artillery.
The fifteen large Hongyi heavy artillery deployed on the top of the city are proof of this.
However, in the face of the increasingly shrinking Ming army and its continuous strengthening of artillery, the Chu army did not use the same old tactics. It also continued to improve its offensive tactics during the war.
For example, in terms of the use of mortars, in the past, the Chu army would just pull up to the front line and fire without hesitation, but now they don't. Instead, they will use the terrain, trenches, etc. to secretly send the lighter 18-pound mortars all the way. Arrive at the front line, and finally use its high-angle trajectory to fire directly in the trench.
This kind of 18-pound mortar cannon maneuvered in the trench and fired. Even the Ming army artillery deployed condescendingly at the top of the city could not threaten them.
This tactical mode is actually somewhat similar to the mortar tactics used during World War II, but the actual difference is still very big.
The power of the mortar is far from comparable to that of later mortars.
At the same time, the Chu army also began to use grenades.
At the beginning, during the Battle of Linxiang, the Chu army used soldiers to make simple hand-thrown bombs and throw them into the enemy's trenches to fight.
By the time of the Battle of Changsha, Luo Zhixue had already initially organized a group of grenadiers for siege operations.
It is worth noting that the grenadiers in the Chu army were not used in outdoor battles. They lined up and threw bombs at the enemy formation 20 to 30 meters away...
Well, it's not that they don't want to, but the Ming army didn't give them this opportunity... The Ming army hadn't had a serious field battle with the Chu army for a long time.
Therefore, the grenadiers in the Chu army are currently specially trained for offensive operations in positions.
In short, it is to throw bombs into the trench where the enemy is hiding!
As for why a group of grenadiers should be specially trained instead of directly distributing grenades to the infantry.
On the one hand, the power of grenades these days is limited. When they are light, they are too weak, but when they are more powerful, they are too heavy. Ordinary soldiers cannot go very far at all.
On the other hand, and a more important aspect, gunpowder is very expensive these days, and grenades are also very expensive.
It is impossible for the Chu army to distribute grenades to too many soldiers. If the entire army really wants to distribute grenades, the Chu army's military expenditures will simply not be able to support them.
For these two reasons, the Chu army could only select a group of elite infantry and train them specifically as grenadiers.
In addition to receiving training from musketeers, these grenadiers will also receive additional training in throwing grenades. They can basically be regarded as more elite musketeers with more diverse combat methods.
The placement of mortars in the front and the emergence of grenadiers were all measures taken by the Chu army to dig trenches in response to the Ming army's defensive operations.
But what is more important is that the Chu army is more frantically equipped with artillery, and is inclined to large-caliber artillery.
In the past, the Chu army thought that two and a half kilograms of field artillery was very useful.
But now, the nine-jin field gun and the five-jin field gun have replaced the two-and-a-half-jin field gun and become the main field artillery of the Chu Army's army artillery. In particular, the number of nine-jin field gun equipment is increasing.
This kind of artillery is very powerful whether it is used in field battles or sieges.
At present, in the main force, even the two and a half kilogram field guns have been gradually transferred to the infantry regiments.
Especially among the four main divisions currently attacking Jiujiang City, they are basically equipped with two and a half kilogram field guns. The artillery regiments of each division are only equipped with five kilogram field cannons and nine kilogram field cannons.
In addition to expanding the caliber of field artillery, another major measure taken by the Chu army was to expand the number of equipment for the 48-pound mortar.
In the past, the Chu army's mortar equipment was a mix of eighteen-pound mortars and forty-eight-pound mortars, all deployed in independent mortar regiments.
But later, the 18-pound mortars were directly incorporated into the artillery regiments of each division, and the independent mortar regiments began to be equipped with all 48-pound mortars.
Now, the eighteen-pound mortars have been decentralized to regiment-level troops.
Because the generals of the Chu army discovered that in most critical battles, the eighteen-pound mortar cannon weighed only more than three hundred kilograms. It was more convenient to maneuver on the battlefield than the two-and-a-half kilogram field cannon and the two-hundred kilogram short robe cannon. . Most of the time, they work directly with the infantry on the front line, and the level of cooperation is directly at the battalion level.
This thing is more like an infantry support artillery than a two-and-a-half-pound field cannon. If it weren't for the particularity of the artillery unit, the Chu army generals would have wanted to distribute the eighteen-pound mortar cannon directly to each infantry battalion.
So now, the Chu army has begun to directly distribute light mortars such as eighteen-pound mortars to each infantry regiment in the main divisions marching eastward, such as the Guards Division and the First Division. Each regiment has four guns. The establishment of a sentry.
At the same time, the mortar battalion in the division's artillery regiment also began to add 48-pound mortars.
Overall, the Chu army's artillery units are heading towards a larger number and larger caliber.
As a result, even though the Ming army had gone to great lengths to deploy artillery in Jiujiang City that even exceeded the number of artillery in several fortresses along the Liaodong front line, the number of artillery was still far inferior to that of the Chu army.
However, they were conducting defensive operations after all, and Shi Kefa and others knew early on that the Chu army would inevitably advance eastward, so they started preparations early.
Jiujiang City has stored a large amount of food, ammunition, and even spare weapons.
The various fortifications inside and outside the city walls were deployed to a point where even the Chu army felt inferior.
They built numerous sandbag fortifications on the city wall, and even added thick wood and sand-covered tops to the sandbag fortifications on several gun emplacements.
At a glance, we can tell that this top cover is specially designed to prevent direct hits or volley explosions from Chu army's mortar shells.
Just the various anti-artillery fortifications on the top of the city wall are much better than the anti-artillery fortifications built by the Ming army during the Battle of Linxiang and the Battle of Changsha.
The same was true for the fortifications outside the city. The Ming army built many trenches under the city wall and made use of the moat.
There are also large obstacles in the open space ahead that block the advancement of the Chu army's infantry.
Luo Zhixue went there for the first time and saw these fortifications in Jiujiang. If he hadn't known that he was in the seventeenth century, he would have almost thought that he was on the Western Front battlefield of World War I... Damn, this trench was probably nothing more than this in the early stages of World War I. Bar!
With this fortification, the Ming army didn't even have to worry about hiding in the trench and then being attacked by the Chu army's infantry!
Due to the existence of a large number of obstacles, traps and moats, there was no way for the Chu army to effectively line up and charge.
This Jiujiang is like a hedgehog, which makes Luo Zhixue feel like he has no idea what to eat!
Even Luo Zhixue on the opposite side was shocked by the Ming army's trench defenses, and Shi Kefa himself was even more confident.
Such a powerful fortification has a total force of 35,000, including 6,500 New Standard Army.
There are also more than thirty Hongyi artillery pieces, large and small!
There are mountains of food and grass in the city, enough to feed the defenders and the residents of the city for half a year. It is not a problem to save a little to feed them for a year.
There are also a lot of ammunition in the warehouses in the city, and there are even many workshops in the city with a large amount of raw materials.
These workshops can repair and create a range of weapons from swords and spears to artillery and even ammunition on the spot.
How could Jiujiang City, which was so well prepared, be captured!
impossible!
"In addition, there are about 25,000 Ming military camp sentries in Jiujiang City, and the last few thousand are young civilians!"
"The total strength of the puppet Ming army in the city is about 35,000."
"The puppet Ming army in the city deployed a total of about fifteen heavy Hongyi cannons on the top of the city. It is reported that this batch of Hongyi artillery was urgently transferred from some forts and naval forces along the Jiangnan coast. The minimum Some are heavy artillery of five kilograms, and many are nine or ten kilograms."
"They have also deployed a group of larger-caliber general cannons and Folan cannons at the top of the city. The overall firepower at the top of the city is not weak."
"What's even more noteworthy is that the puppet Ming army also deployed more than a dozen two-and-a-half-pound field cannons on the protruding fortresses outside the city wall. As expected, these two-and-a-half-pound field cannons are the new standard of Anlu. It’s the army’s field artillery.”
"These two-and-a-half-pound field artillery, combined with a large number of small and medium-sized Folang aircraft, assault artillery, tiger squat artillery, etc. in the puppet Ming army, will create a great threat to our army when clearing the protruding fortresses and trenches in the city. !”
"In addition, in the previous several fire probing attacks, we have successively discovered that the puppet Ming army has deployed at least two new standard troops equivalent to our regiment level in various trenches and other defenses outside the city."
"Judging from the artillery deployment of the puppet Ming army and the deployment of the New Standard Army, we can basically conclude that they want to use various trenches, forts and other fortifications outside the city, and then cooperate with the heavy artillery firepower on the city to intercept us. ."
When Xu Zhixian said this, Li Chengtong on the side answered: "These puppet Ming troops are quite self-aware. They know that it is impossible to block our fierce attack by huddled within the city wall!"
"Humph, if they don't have protruding defenses outside the city, when our forty-eight-pound mortar can smoothly move forward and attack, the mere city wall can't stop us."
Luo Zhixue said: "It is reasonable to never underestimate the enemy. We are making progress, and they will also learn and make progress."
During the battle between the Ming army and the Chu army, there were several very obvious stages.
In the early days, that is before the Battle of Zhongxiang.
The Ming army basically regarded the Chu army as bandits, well, at most they were slightly stronger bandits, so their tactics were basically based on field battles and proactive attacks.
Chen Yongfu led his troops to attack and suffered a disastrous defeat in the battle of Zhaozhuang, and Chen Yongfu surrendered.
Lu Xiangsheng wanted to attack Xinye, but was intercepted by the Chu army. In the end, he was defeated miserably in the Battle of Sanyuanzhuang, and Lu Xiangsheng died in the battle.
After Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong failed to siege Yuzhou, they finally set up a battle array with the Chu army in the eastern suburbs of Yuzhou. The result was a disastrous defeat. He Renlong surrendered on the spot, and Zuo Liangyu was defeated and retreated to Ye County.
After these three large-scale field battles, the Ming army basically saw the powerful field combat capabilities of the Chu army, so it began to change its strategy to focus on city defense.
However, the Ming army during this period still relied on traditional city defense operations, that is, it mainly relied on the city wall for defensive operations. At the same time, the Huguang Ming army during the campaign failed to obtain a large number of Hongyi cannons.
As a result, in a series of subsequent battles such as the Battle of Zhongxiang, the Battle of Hanyang, and the Battle of Wuchang, the Ming army discovered that their traditional city defense tactics were not reliable at all.
There are many reasons for this, the most critical of which is the large-scale use of mortar cannons and the tactics of blasting and heavy-armored commandos by the Chu thieves.
Faced with exploding mortars, the Ming army's traditional city walls did not provide much protection.
Faced with the siege mode of the blasting and armored commandos, it was difficult for the Ming army to organize an effective counterattack when they were completely suppressed by artillery.
After this series of failures, Yang Sichang proposed to form a new standard army. At the same time, in response to the huge threat of the Chu army's large number of field artillery and mortar artillery in siege operations, he improved his defensive tactics and began to build a large number of buildings around the city wall. They even took the initiative to leave the city wall, dig trenches outside the city wall, and build fortresses and other tactical nodes to resist the Chu army's artillery superiority.
This tactic was used on a large scale for the first time in the Battle of Linxiang, and was continued in the Battle of Changsha.
Although the Ming army still failed in these two battles, it is undeniable that this defensive tactic did bring greater trouble to the Chu army.
And until the Ming army has no better way, they can only continue to do this.
You can't fight the Chu army in the open field, or stay on the city wall stupidly and get bombed, or simply hide behind the city wall and wait for the enemy to rush to the city.
The armor-wearing rate of the Ming army in the Central Plains is far inferior to that of the Chu army. In a real melee, the Chu army's heavy-armored commandos can beat the shit out of them.
In these days' close-range melee, armor is king. Personal martial arts, courage and morale, etc. are all scum in front of armor...
However, the Ming army still made relatively large innovations in tactics during the defensive operations of Jiujiang City.
The biggest change is the large-scale use of Hongyi artillery.
The fifteen large Hongyi heavy artillery deployed on the top of the city are proof of this.
However, in the face of the increasingly shrinking Ming army and its continuous strengthening of artillery, the Chu army did not use the same old tactics. It also continued to improve its offensive tactics during the war.
For example, in terms of the use of mortars, in the past, the Chu army would just pull up to the front line and fire without hesitation, but now they don't. Instead, they will use the terrain, trenches, etc. to secretly send the lighter 18-pound mortars all the way. Arrive at the front line, and finally use its high-angle trajectory to fire directly in the trench.
This kind of 18-pound mortar cannon maneuvered in the trench and fired. Even the Ming army artillery deployed condescendingly at the top of the city could not threaten them.
This tactical mode is actually somewhat similar to the mortar tactics used during World War II, but the actual difference is still very big.
The power of the mortar is far from comparable to that of later mortars.
At the same time, the Chu army also began to use grenades.
At the beginning, during the Battle of Linxiang, the Chu army used soldiers to make simple hand-thrown bombs and throw them into the enemy's trenches to fight.
By the time of the Battle of Changsha, Luo Zhixue had already initially organized a group of grenadiers for siege operations.
It is worth noting that the grenadiers in the Chu army were not used in outdoor battles. They lined up and threw bombs at the enemy formation 20 to 30 meters away...
Well, it's not that they don't want to, but the Ming army didn't give them this opportunity... The Ming army hadn't had a serious field battle with the Chu army for a long time.
Therefore, the grenadiers in the Chu army are currently specially trained for offensive operations in positions.
In short, it is to throw bombs into the trench where the enemy is hiding!
As for why a group of grenadiers should be specially trained instead of directly distributing grenades to the infantry.
On the one hand, the power of grenades these days is limited. When they are light, they are too weak, but when they are more powerful, they are too heavy. Ordinary soldiers cannot go very far at all.
On the other hand, and a more important aspect, gunpowder is very expensive these days, and grenades are also very expensive.
It is impossible for the Chu army to distribute grenades to too many soldiers. If the entire army really wants to distribute grenades, the Chu army's military expenditures will simply not be able to support them.
For these two reasons, the Chu army could only select a group of elite infantry and train them specifically as grenadiers.
In addition to receiving training from musketeers, these grenadiers will also receive additional training in throwing grenades. They can basically be regarded as more elite musketeers with more diverse combat methods.
The placement of mortars in the front and the emergence of grenadiers were all measures taken by the Chu army to dig trenches in response to the Ming army's defensive operations.
But what is more important is that the Chu army is more frantically equipped with artillery, and is inclined to large-caliber artillery.
In the past, the Chu army thought that two and a half kilograms of field artillery was very useful.
But now, the nine-jin field gun and the five-jin field gun have replaced the two-and-a-half-jin field gun and become the main field artillery of the Chu Army's army artillery. In particular, the number of nine-jin field gun equipment is increasing.
This kind of artillery is very powerful whether it is used in field battles or sieges.
At present, in the main force, even the two and a half kilogram field guns have been gradually transferred to the infantry regiments.
Especially the head
