At the imperial strategic meeting on the outskirts of Jiujiang City, Rear Admiral Lu Xingye made a solemn promise on behalf of the navy: the navy will do its best and has absolute confidence to cover the army's landing at Hukou and ensure the safety of river transportation.
The Navy's confidence and commitment satisfy both Luo Zhixue and the Army.
For Luo Zhixue, the strength of the navy can be increased so much, and it is now possible to control the Yangtze River waterway, so it is not in vain that he has allocated special funds to the navy many times in the past half year.
As for the Army, if the Navy can help the Army land at Hukou and help the Army transport logistics supplies, then the Army's many support over the past six months will not be in vain, and it may even grit its teeth and allocate part of its artillery production capacity to the Navy.
This is not to say that the Army's field guns are directly given to the Navy, but that the Hantian Arsenal frees up production capacity to produce long-barreled naval guns specifically for the Navy.
After all, the army's artillery is not suitable for use by the navy.
Take the Jiujin artillery as an example. The Army's Jiujin field gun has a caliber of 115 mm. The barrel is two meters long and the barrel diameter is eighteen times. The thickness of the barrel should be thinner and the barrel should be shortened. The length and barrel thickness are all designed to reduce the weight of the artillery to enable field march maneuvers.
As for the Navy's nine-pound naval gun, it has a caliber of 115 mm, a barrel length of 2.6 meters, and a barrel diameter that is 22 times larger. The barrel thickness is also thicker, especially when propellant is installed at the rear of the barrel. In order to withstand greater chamber pressure, the thickness is relatively thick. At the same time, because there is no need to consider the issue of marching maneuverability, this kind of artillery uses a small four-wheeled low gun mount specially used on battleships and land fortresses.
In fact, it is the Hongyi cannon in the Ming Dynasty. It is a typical long-barreled cannon and is usually used as naval gun and fortress artillery.
The characteristics are that the barrel diameter is larger, the barrel is thicker, and heavier. At the same time, because there is no need to consider maneuverability, there is no need to consider the weight issue too much. Therefore, cheaper iron-cast artillery can also be used instead of expensive ones. copper.
Copper-cast artillery is much more expensive than iron-cast artillery.
Therefore, although the army and navy seem to be equipped with nine-pound artillery, in fact the two are very different. The artillery factory at the Hantian Arsenal treats these two kinds of artillery with the same caliber but different purposes separately. Set up production lines.
But even the production of different production lines still requires the use of mechanical equipment and skilled workers, which will inevitably occupy the limited production capacity of Hantian Arsenal.
With total production capacity limited, the Army also made certain sacrifices in order to take the overall situation into consideration and to allow the Navy to assist the Army in capturing Hukou and Anqing and opening up the Yangtze River waterway.
You know, many troops in the army are still waiting for artillery equipment.
Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty has refitted Hongyi artillery into gun mounts or simply newly cast lightweight field artillery, and then used it in field battles.
This also led to increasing pressure on the Chu army.
In the past, the Ming army could hit the Ming army with two and a half kilograms of field artillery, but now they have to use five or even nine kilograms of field artillery.
And the quantity requirements are also increasing.
After all, the Ming Dynasty had always equipped a lot of Hongyi artillery. At the same time, the Ming court's Hongyi artillery casting level was actually not low, and the output was also not low.
It's just that in the past, the generals of the Ming Dynasty had nothing to learn from and couldn't understand the special mounts of field artillery, so they could only use Hongyi artillery as fortress artillery on the spot.
Now that the Chu Empire Army has provided them with samples and given them something to copy, their thinking has changed very quickly.
There is no doubt that Mingting is actually very receptive to all kinds of new technology and equipment.
The three main equipment in the Ming court, the Fo Lang machine artillery, the Hongyi cannon, and the bird gun, were all imported. However, after the Ming court saw these good things, they directly began to imitate and equip them on a large scale.
Even people have come into contact with flintlock guns, but the flintlock guns passed over from Europe before were still spring wheel flintlock guns and early impact flintlock guns.
The cost is extremely high, the process is complicated, and it is not cost-effective for large-scale equipment, so Mingting did not build it...
Not to mention Mingting, even though Europe is rarely equipped with flintlock muskets, Gustav II of Sweden, who died just a few years ago, still used matchlocks in his reformed line tactics, but only with the Chu army. Similarly, the large-caliber matchlock was lightweighted. This was the Swedish-style matchlock that was very popular during the Thirty Years' War.
Not only used by Sweden, other European countries also imitated and used them. For example, the United Kingdom widely produced Swedish-style matchlocks for use in the war during the Civil War.
In other words, until now, the matchlocks used by musketeers in Europe are still mainly matchlocks. Although flintlocks are also equipped, they are only in small numbers.
Historically, it was probably not until the 1660s and after the various technical problems of percussion flintlock guns were gradually solved, the firing rate was improved, and the cost was reduced that the flintlock guns gradually replaced the matchlock guns. But to completely replace them, then It also went through quite a long period of time.
During this period, the emergence of the sleeve-type bayonet at the end of the 17th century finally established the status of the flintlock as the main infantry weapon, and the tactic of queuing to kill began to completely spread across Europe.
Looking at the development and application of muskets in the Ming court and Europe during the same period, we can see that the Ming Dynasty did not lag too far behind.
They all use matchlock guns, so no one can say which one is wrong...
Therefore, don't think that the Ming Dynasty would not learn to imitate better weapons and equipment.
They are not stupid either!
It's just that sometimes advanced equipment may not be able to play its role.
In the past six months of the Ming Dynasty, various governors have produced a lot of guns and artillery, but they still can't defeat the Chu army, so sometimes weapons can't decide everything.
What's interesting is that in this process, a large number of guns and cannons produced by the Ming army governors fell into the hands of the Chu army.
In the early Battle of Chunan, the Army of the Great Chu Empire seized at least 5,000 intact new matchlock guns from the Ming army. Well, they were thief-killing guns copied from the Chu army's first-year matchlock guns.
In addition, about twenty two-and-a-half-pound field cannons and three five-pound field cannons were also seized. Although these artillery pieces were all made of iron, they were quite useful.
In the end, these new guns and artillery that Yang Sichang spent a huge price to develop finally fell into the hands of the Chu army and were equipped.
The muskets and artillery used in the temporary fourth mixed regiment are the guns and artillery captured from the Huguang New Standard Army compiled and trained by Yang Sichang.
And this time in the Jiujiang Battle, the Chu army captured a large number of new guns and artillery, and these guns and artillery will also be directly supplemented for use by the various departments of the Chu army.
Speaking of which, in fact, the new standard army of the Ming army made a certain contribution to the expansion of the Chu army.
At least those dozens of field artillery and Hongyi heavy artillery can help the Chu army relieve a lot of pressure.
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When the first army of the Chu army began to go to the mouth of the lake, they began to build boats and rafts for crossing the river, preparing for the subsequent crossing of the river to attack the mouth of the lake.
The main force of the 7th Division, which was not yet full, also went south and arrived at Fuzhi Xingzi City in Nankang Prefecture.
It's just that the Ming army stationed here had already learned about the fall of Jiujiang and the destruction of almost all the defenders. The more than 8,000 Ming army stationed here were just ordinary battalion sentries, and many of them were young civilians recruited.
They had no intention of resisting the menacing Chu thieves.
On the eve of the arrival of the 7th Division at Xingzi City, the Ming army stationed in the city had already taken the initiative to retreat. Some of them crossed the lake in boats and then headed to the lake mouth, but more still retreated all the way south.
When the 7th Division reached Xingzi City, there were only hundreds of weak old and young people left in the city, and they offered no resistance at all. As soon as the Chu army arrived, they took the initiative to open the city gate and surrender.
Xingzi City was captured without a single blow, but it did not make the commander of the 7th Division, Major General Huang Xiangbin, happy...
Because after entering the city, he discovered that the Ming army that had retreated early had emptied all the grain, gold and silver from the official warehouses in the city, and not even a single hair was left for him.
Although it is said that money and food will still be obtained through purge operations, confiscation of the recalcitrant gentry, and forced expropriation of grain banks at low prices, this cannot restore the money and food taken away by the Ming army.
I just don't know where the 1st Cavalry Brigade is. If it reaches the De'an area, it may not be able to intercept the Ming army escaping from Xingzi City.
Although the 1st Cavalry Brigade and the 7th Division went south together, they were divided into two groups.
The First Cavalry Brigade took the flat road directly south from Jiujiang City, taking the plain area west of Mount Lu, and finally headed all the way to De'an, in order to quickly reach De'an and stop the Ming army in De'an City before they could react. They fled or other Ming army reinforcements came to the place.
Of course, what is more important is that this place is relatively flat and suitable for cavalry operations.
As for the Seventh Division, they will detour to the east of Lushan Mountain and go south to Xingzi City along the shore of Poyang Lake.
The main reason is that Xingzi City of Nankang Prefecture is quite special. It is separated from Jiujiang by a large mountain, which is the famous Lushan Mountain.
If the army wanted to go from Jiujiang to Lushan, the detour to the west would be too far, and the detour to the east would be closer. Therefore, the 7th Division took a line east of Lushan.
This was because of the detour and the fact that the road was not easy to walk, so this gave the Ming army in Xingzi City enough time to retreat.
However, these Ming troops failed to escape in the end...
Because they happened to meet the 1st Cavalry Brigade about ten miles away from De'an City, on the northwest bank of Boyang River...
More than 5,000 Ming military camp sentries faced thousands of elite cavalry led by the blind man himself. The result is needless to say.
They have no other choice but to stay in place and defend to the end. They are a typical enemy who cannot be defeated and cannot escape.
Moreover, defending on the spot was very troublesome, because the First Cavalry Brigade turned around and took out several two-and-a-half-pound field guns to bombard their camp.
After suffering like this for two days, when the Seventh Division also caught up, the fate of these more than 5,000 Ming troops was completely doomed.
After a stubborn resistance and hundreds of casualties, the remaining 4,000 people broke through and were forced to surrender in desperation. They also handed over a large amount of money and food they had brought out from Xingzi City.
And during this process, thousands of Ming troops in De'an City, which was only a dozen miles away across a river, never came out from the beginning to the end!
The Ming army commander and deputy general Wen Tingkai who withdrew from Xingzi City was extremely angry at the behavior of the friendly troops in De'an City who sat still and refused to rescue them.
On the day of surrender, he voluntarily surrendered and expressed his intention to serve the Chu Empire. He also said that if the Chu King's army wanted to attack De'an, he would be willing to lead the army as the vanguard.
