The capture of Nanchang did not cause any big surprises within the Chu Empire. After all, this was something that had been expected.
Even though Nanchang is governed by Jiangxi Province, it cannot hide the fact that its city defenses are sparse and its troops are sparsely stationed.
Previously, senior governors on the eastern front of the Ming Dynasty such as Wang Jiazhen and Shi Kefa, in order to build the Jiujiang defense line and keep the Chu army out of Jiujiang, basically raided the governors of Anlu, Jiujiang, and some governors of Yingtian and Nan. Most of the troops in the surrounding areas including the governor of Jiangxi.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to gather nearly 50,000 troops on the Jiujiang defense line.
However, this means that Nanchang, Fuzhou, Ruizhou, Linjiang and other cities in the rear are unlikely to have many troops garrisoned.
Under such circumstances, when the Chu army was on the front line of Jiujiang, it annihilated more than 30,000 Ming troops by conquering Jiujiang Prefecture and Zhi Dehua. After the two battles of De'an Suburban Battle and De'an Siege Battle, it annihilated about seven or eight Ming troops. Thousands of people.
This also means that most of the troops deployed by the Ming Dynasty on the Jiujiang defense line have been wiped out, leaving only less than 10,000 troops stationed at Hukou.
It also means that the huge central and northern Jiangxi region has completely opened its door to the Chu army.
After all, even a provincial city like Nanchang in the rear only has two or three thousand troops garrisoned, plus about two thousand troops who fled south from De'an. All the old, weak, sick and disabled, together with the defeated soldiers, could only number five thousand.
As for the defenders of other cities, there are even fewer, and there is no such thing as the New Standard Army.
Even if the Chu army only sent a newly formed army, the under-strength 7th Division would go south with the cooperation of the 1st Cavalry Brigade. It would not even be allocated an independent mortar regiment specifically for siege. It would be impossible to go south to attack De'an and Nanchang. There won't be much of a problem.
Actual combat also proves this point.
After the Seventh Division captured De'an with an almost unstoppable momentum, they quickly captured Nanchang City with the cooperation of the Ming Army inciting rebellion in Nanchang City.
The so-called Battle of Nanchang seemed to have several days of blockade and preparations ahead, but the actual fighting only lasted about one morning.
The 7th Division of the Chu Army that entered the city took full control of Nanchang City in just one morning and ensured the safety of many official warehouses and private grain store warehouses in the city without causing fires.
After capturing Nanchang City, the main force of the 7th Division did not stay in Nanchang City for long. Instead, it handed over the local defense to the 22nd Garrison Brigade of the 11th Garrison Division and continued to fight with the 1st Cavalry. The brigade cooperated and headed south.
The follow-up tasks of the 7th Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade are still very heavy. They must continue to sweep through many prefectures and counties in northern and central Jiangxi.
Although these prefectures and counties no longer have the main force of the Ming army, they more or less have some troops stationed there. There are still many cities garrisoned by one or two thousand people.
To deal with these cities with few garrison troops, the 7th Division, the main force of the Chu army going south, was simply divided. With two infantry brigades as the core, it was matched with cavalry, artillery and baggage and other troops, forming two troops with five troops each. The mixed brigade combat detachment of more than a thousand people split up and headed south.
One group, the Thirteenth Brigade, goes straight to Fengcheng along the Gan River. Later, the brigade will continue south along the Gan River to attack Linjiang Prefecture, Ji'an Prefecture and other areas, and finally fight all the way to Ganzhou Prefecture.
One unit, the 14th Brigade, will turn to the southeast, first kill Jinxian, and then attack Fuzhou Prefecture and Jianchang Prefecture. If nothing unexpected happens in the follow-up, the unit will turn toward the northeast sandy area and attack Guangxin Prefecture, Raozhou Prefecture and other places, and finally deployed troops at Hukou, cooperating with the First Division and other troops to launch a cross-river operation.
Of course, the premise is that the First Division and other troops have not been able to launch the cross-river operation.
After all, the 14th Brigade wants to fight all the way south and north, and finally reach Hukou. Even if it has the cooperation of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, it will be difficult, and the most important thing is that it will take a lot of time.
If we want to wait until the 14th Brigade completes many tasks and finally sends troops to Hukou, it will probably be a month or two later.
The First Division and other troops cannot wait so long.
The time for the Chu army to advance eastward is still relatively tight. At least they must try to capture Anqi before winter arrives, and it is best to capture Jinling City directly.
This means that it is impossible for the Chu army to waste a month or two at Hukou. ,
As for whether the 7th Division's southward troops can be allowed to bypass the Poyang Lake and go directly to the mouth of the lake instead of sweeping across the central and northern areas of Jiangxi.
From a military perspective, this decision is acceptable.
But economically it is not worth the gain.
Don't forget that the direct reason for the Chu army's eastward march was to unify China at a larger scale, but at a smaller scale, the goal of the Chu army's eastward march was very simple and pure.
That is to invade northern Jiangxi and Jiangnan to seize local money and food to avoid financial bankruptcy!
Therefore, after conquering Jiujiang and advancing into northern Jiangxi, the Chu army's first goal was not to annihilate how many Ming troops or capture many cities, but to take advantage of the Ming army to react before the powerful, gentry and big families ran away with money and food. In front of the road, it swept across the northern and southern areas of Jiangxi with lightning speed, especially those areas along the Ganjiang River system with developed water transportation and many fertile fields.
And this is also the most important strategic task of the 7th Division.
To put it bluntly, the money and food needed for the subsequent Chu army's eastward advance are all waiting for the seventh division to capture the city and collect the money and food.
Therefore, it is impossible for the 7th Division to say that they let so much money and food go without grabbing it. Instead, they performed a purely military mission and went directly to Hukou.
War is the continuation of politics, and politics is the continuation of economics.
After all, war is essentially a struggle for interests.
As for wars purely due to conflicts of will, they are very rare. Most wars are due to conflicts of interest.
What is benefit?
Money and food!
Behind money and food, it represents national strength, whether the people can have enough to eat, and whether capitalists can make money. It represents too many things.
The Chu army's eastward advance was directly driven by profit, money and food.
After the Seventh Division moved south, it launched a sweeping sweep, and a garrison division in the rear, the 11th Garrison Division, after completing its reorganization, moved south one after another and cooperated with the Seventh Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade in sweeping.
The basic model is that the elite cavalry units of the 1st Cavalry Brigade will take the lead to kill, blockade, and block the enemy's escape route, and then the main infantry and artillery of the 7th Division will follow up and attack the city.
After the defeat, the troops of the 11th garrison division followed up and were responsible for subsequent clearing operations to suppress the garrison.
At the same time, the garrison also needs to be responsible for maintaining the security of the logistics line of the troops moving south.
Therefore, the troops fighting south were not only the 7th Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade, but also the 11th Garrison Division.
And as the 11th Garrison Division moved south, it gradually expanded in size as it continued to accept surrendered troops.
After the Battle of De'an, the 11th Garrison Division, which had only about 8,000 men at the time, accepted the surrender of about 3,000 selected troops.
After the Battle of Nanchang, the 11th Garrison Division accepted another 2,000 selected troops.
At this time, the size of the 11th Garrison Division had swelled to about 12,000 men.
But this was not done yet. Soon, as the Seventh Division continued to conduct combat operations in various prefectures in Jiangxi, a large number of prisoners were reorganized and qualified soldiers were selected for surrender.
Soon, the size of the 11th Garrison Division had expanded to more than 15,000 men. In order to arrange for so many troops to drop, a temporary supplementary brigade had to be established.
Naturally, a garrison division with so many troops would not work.
The Chu army's garrison division consisted of one division and two brigades, plus a field artillery battalion, baggage regiment, engineering battalion, and cavalry battalion.
Having three brigades is not normal, so the Military Affairs Council soon issued an order. The 11th Garrison Division's supplementary brigade was independent and expanded into the 12th Garrison Brigade. Subsequent troops from various tribes in Jiangxi will be supplemented one after another. Enter the division.
In this way, the combat strength of the Chu Empire Army in the south and south of Jiangxi reached the designation of one main division, two garrison divisions and one cavalry brigade.
Due to the large number of troops going south, the Chu army has long faced mixed operations between the main force and the garrison. However, the main force is frequently mobilized, and the garrison is often stationed in a certain place for a long time.
Luo Zhixue began to make certain changes to the command system of the garrison.
This also led to the emergence of the Jiangxi Garrison Command.
The Jiangxi Garrison Headquarters is responsible for commanding the garrison forces in Jiangxi and is responsible for many civilian tasks such as military recruitment and military and civilian work.
It is worth noting that the Jiangxi garrison headquarters only has three garrison divisions: the 7th garrison division, the 11th garrison division and the 12th garrison division.
Other main forces also fighting in Jiangxi are not under the command of this garrison headquarters.
However, in order to allow the garrison to better cooperate with the main force in operations, the commander of the Jiangxi Garrison Command was concurrently served by Major General Huang Xiangbin, commander of the Seventh Division.
In addition, garrison headquarters were also established not only in Jiangxi but also in several other places.
For the time being, there is the Henan Garrison Headquarters, which is actually the former North Route Army Headquarters, and is dominated by the First Garrison Division fighting in Nanyang Prefecture.
Shaanxi Garrison Headquarters, this is the former West Route Army Headquarters, is dominated by the Second Garrison Division fighting in the Guanzhong Prefecture area.
The Sichuan Garrison Command is a newly established force, mainly based on the Fourth Garrison Division of the garrison that previously fought in eastern Sichuan.
The Chubei Garrison Headquarters was also established to oversee the Fifth Garrison Division and others.
The Chunan Garrison Headquarters was established, with jurisdiction over the Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Garrison Divisions.
Due to its special status, the Han Tianfu, that is, the Gyeonggi Province, did not have a garrison headquarters. The Gyeonggi Garrison Command continued to be responsible for recruiting soldiers, military and civilians and other civilian duties. The Gyeonggi Garrison Command nominally also had jurisdiction over the Guards.
In this way, the Dachu Empire has established garrison headquarters in provinces under full or partial control, that is, provinces where governors have been established, and it has been clarified that the garrison headquarters has many tasks such as recruiting troops and military and civilians.
This formed a relatively complete local army command system.
What is worth noting is that the main forces in the Chu Empire Army are still not under the jurisdiction of the garrison headquarters.
Regardless of whether it is the temporary mixed regiments, the main divisions, or even some other independent main forces, or the Guards, they are not under the command of the garrison headquarters, but are directly under the jurisdiction of the Military Academy.
Through the establishment of the garrison headquarters, Luo Zhixue once again clarified the difference between the main division and the garrison division.
One is the main field force and the other is the local garrison force.
Different tasks, different resource allocation.
After all, the various garrison armies in the Chu army were actually just to house a large number of prisoners of war, and by the way, selected some of the soldiers who could fight for their own use.
But I really didn’t expect to rely on these garrison troops to fight the war.
In fact, the combat effectiveness of these garrison troops is not very good. It is okay to use them to deal with the battalion sentries in the Ming army, but it is obviously not enough to deal with the new standard troops in the Ming army.
If they were to go north and confront the Dongluo, these garrison troops would also die and become cannon fodder.
Therefore, in Luo Zhixue's mind, these garrison troops were only a temporary measure and should be used first.
When the combat missions are no longer tense, or when a certain garrison's garrison has become the hinterland, and there are no combat missions.
Then these garrison armies should be further streamlined, and the truly usable elites should be selected and reorganized into the main force. Although the quality of the garrison divisions is a bit poor, they can be selected and reduced into a mixed regiment organized by the main force. Just barely.
Such a mixed group with main force and equipment is much more powerful than a garrison division.
The remaining garrison officers and soldiers were selected and arranged to go to the fields to become self-reliant in order to save military expenses.
After a few years of farming, depending on the situation, they may be transferred to the frontiers for farming, or they may simply be demobilized and demobilized so that they can become farmers or workers again.
After such integration, there will be no garrison left.
Through the establishment of provincial garrison headquarters, the military's top brass once again learned about Luo Zhixue's attitude towards the garrison and its future arrangements.
They were first reorganized to serve in secondary combat missions, and then streamlined directly when the missions were no longer available. Elite troops were selected and trained as the main force, and the remaining troops were stationed for farming. After a few years of farming, they were retired.
In this way, a large number of surrendered troops can be arranged to prevent these surrendered troops from wandering to local places and endangering public security or even turning into thieves. At the same time, it can continue to control the support of military expenditures.
Military senior officials are also very supportive of this.
Nowadays, military expenditure is too huge, and a large part of military expenditure is actually personnel consumption.
Because of the particularity of the garrison being derived from prisoners of war, as the Chu Empire continues to expand, its scale will inevitably continue to expand, and the expansion speed will be faster than the expansion of the main force.
In a battle in Chunan, the Chu army expanded by two garrison divisions.
Now, the Eastward Campaign is less than a month old, but two garrison divisions have been expanded. As the battle continues, we still don't know how many garrison divisions will be expanded.
Regardless of their combat effectiveness, these garrison divisions all cost money and food.
People have to eat, right?
There are more and more garrison divisions, and they have begun to seriously occupy the main force's share of military expenditures. Therefore, it is necessary to control the size of the garrison divisions.
As for the continuous streamlining and downsizing of the garrison officers, the Chu Empire had already done this once last year.
When Wuchang was established as the capital, the garrison divisions under the Chu Empire Army at that time each had a strength of more than 10,000 people.
However, after some streamlining, basically each division had only more than 7,000 people left at that time. In other words, the Da Chu Empire Army basically eliminated one-third of the garrison soldiers at one go and arranged These eliminated garrison soldiers went to settle land or engage in construction work to support themselves.
Now, as the garrison division expands again on a large scale, Luo Zhixue has made this routine clear.
In the future, this large number of equipment and cold weapons will not be able to defeat the garrison, which has little combat effectiveness and is obviously behind the times.
When Luo Zhixue finalized the garrison headquarters of each province and once again clarified the idea of using the garrison, a large amount of money and food was collected from the northern and central areas of Jiangxi, and then gathered into the hands of the Dachu Empire officials to support the next step. war.
Because after the capture of the central and northern areas of Jiangxi, a large amount of money and food were collected, Huang Chengxuan, the Minister of Finance, has been walking much straighter in recent days.
At the imperial staff meeting, Huang Chengxuan said with a smile on his face: "This time the army did a great job, and the tax department did an even better job. The various trophies seized from the south, as well as the confiscated money and grain from the recalcitrant nobles and gentry, and various materials were discounted. , plus the floating wealth in cash, it is probably more than eight million taels of silver, which is no less than what we gained in Chunan before."
"And a lot of it is precious food, which is even more rare."
Luo Zhixue also had a smile on his face: "Huang Aiqing still knows the importance and the urgency!"
Huang Xiangbin led the 7th Division to fight south, which was actually very challenging. This challenge was not a military challenge, but an economic challenge.
How to fight in order to preserve and seize more money and food to the greatest extent.
This is a very critical issue.
Going south to win the battle is nothing, but being able to seize millions of taels of property is a real skill.
And Huang Xiangbin obviously did a very good job.
In this imperial meeting, several senior civil servants attended the meeting, and these civil servants were talking about administrative or financial matters.
As for military affairs, that is the military's business, and Huang Chengxuan and Guo Quanshu have nothing to do with them.
At this meeting, in addition to the follow-up arrangements for the money and grain seized in Jiangxi, the main topic was to finalize the candidates for the governor of Jiangxi, the chief envoy, the inspector general, and the prefect of Nanchang and other high-ranking officials on the ground in Jiangxi.
Before the war, the Chu Empire had already established the Jiujiang Prefecture's Yamen in advance, and had begun to initially build the Jiangxi Governor's Yamen.
However, more senior official appointments have not been made in time.
Now that the army has successively captured most areas in Jiangxi, the selection of governor of Jiangxi cannot be delayed any longer.
After some deliberations, Luo Zhixue carefully considered the many candidates selected, and finally selected Han Yuanji, the former prefect of Huangzhou Prefecture and director of the Agriculture Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, as governor of Jiangxi.
However, there are two special people among the others, namely Huang Xingwen, who was demoted by the Ming court, and Jie Xuelong, who was captured.
When the city of Nanchang was destroyed, Huang Xingwen directly shouted that Luo Zhixue was his majesty and directly declared that the city would serve Da Chu.
And the identity of this person is not simple. He is the Deputy Inspector, a supervisor who patrols Ruizhou and other prefectures. He used to be highly valued by Shi Kefa and even Wang Jiazhen. In Jiangxi, his political status is worse than that of Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong. Some.
It doesn't matter whether such people are sincere or not, but since they have publicly joined the Da Chu Empire, it is naturally impossible for them to go down. With a wave of his hand, Luo Zhixue directly gave Huang Xingwen the title of "Jiangxi Inspector" Official hat, and sent a team of guards to personally 'protect' this person.
As for Jie Xuelong, he did not surrender, but was captured.
This was also the first time that the Chu Empire captured a high-ranking Ming court official at the governor level, which had extremely important political implications.
Naturally, such a person cannot be allowed to die easily, let alone let him go.
Targeting this person, Hantong and the Military Intelligence Department directly cooperated and sent an elite spies to Xinghua, South Zhili, overnight, which was Xie Xuelong's hometown.
The kidnapping... no, it was to protect Xie Xuelong's direct family members in his hometown.
After all, Jie Xuelong had been 'surrendered' to the Chu Empire, and a letter of allegiance of more than 60,000 words, stamped with Jie Xuelong's personal seal, had been published.
When Jie Xuelong saw this letter of allegiance, he was speechless...
When did I, Jie Xuelong, say that he would be loyal to you, hypocritical Chu?
But no matter what, after this letter of allegiance is announced, the Ming court will most likely become furious and exterminate the Jie family!
The Great Chu Empire naturally wanted to protect Xie Xuelong's family.
Facing a frontier official like Jie Xuelong, a high-ranking official with strong political significance, Luo Zhixue had already decided to pay attention, no matter what this person thinks in his heart, whether he is willing or not, no matter what his ability is, let alone what his character is.
He will hang this person up high and act as a model!
It is a typical example used to attack the prestige of the Ming court, the morale of the Ming army, and boost one's own prestige and morale, as well as the people's hearts.
"Look, even such a high-ranking official has defected to our Chu Empire, and you still haven't surrendered so easily..."
Ever since, Jie Xuelong, who had been imprisoned a few days ago, discovered that he had been inexplicably 'written' with a letter of allegiance, and then his imprisonment became house arrest...
Just three days later, Jie Xuelong, who was still under house arrest, was appointed by Luo Zhixue as the chief envoy of Jiangxi.
Even though there were eight guards with knives and muskets staring at him, Jie Xuelong still firmly refused and had an extremely tough attitude, saying that he would rather die than become a hypocritical official. He wanted me to be a thief in his dream. Go for it!
Until a man from Hantong walked up to him and muttered a few words, and he could vaguely hear something like killing the whole family...
Finally, Jie Xuelong sighed, knelt down obediently and accepted the imperial edict, becoming a glorious civil servant of the Chu Empire.
As a result, in a series of battles in Jiangxi, a governor captured by the Chu Empire, a deputy inspector and supervisor whose actual status was second only to the governor, suddenly became an official of the Chu Empire.
No matter what they think in their hearts, in the eyes of the outside world, especially the Ming court, the two of them have already turned into thieves!
