The reason that prompted Wu Sangui to decisively surrender to the East in the original time and space, and to be the pioneer of the East, had nothing to do with whether he was patriotic or not.
What's more important is that Liaodong has already been transformed into a vassal town, and Wu Sangui and other Ming court generals have become local vassal towns.
The starting point of what they do is not for the country, but for the benefit of their own group.
Once the Chu army goes north to capture Youzhou and destroys the Ming court, people like Wu Sangui will lose their direct allegiance.
At that time, it will depend on who can offer the higher price to win over the Chu army or Dongji.
And the prices in the Da Chu Empire are definitely not as high as those in Dongdu.
Because it was impossible for the Chu Empire to grant kings to people like Wu Sangui, let alone allow them to continue to retain military power and territory.
The most the Da Chu Empire could give them was to give them the actual position of a senior general and let them retain some of their private property.
Don't expect anything else.
The Great Chu Empire even offered Zheng Zhilong the price of a rear admiral. It was impossible for Wu Sangui and the others to be crowned king.
To be more serious, it will destroy the unity of the internal interest groups of the Da Chu Empire and shake the foundation of the Da Chu Empire.
The Great Chu Empire just said that it would not be crowned king unless it was a prince, but it is nonsense to have a king with a different surname behind you.
However, there will definitely be no scruples on the Dongluo side. Let alone making him a king, it would be a matter of just one sentence to directly transfer most of China to Wu Sangui.
At the extreme moment, I am afraid that I will have to promise to support Wu Sangui as the new emperor...
As long as Wu Sangui brings them into the customs, everything will be easy.
Making promises with other people's things doesn't put any pressure on Dongri at all.
Based on the particularity and complexity of the Northern Zhili and Liaodong regions, Luo Zhixue was not prepared to spend too much time in the Northern Expedition.
We must concentrate as much as possible the main force and strategic materials, and attack them directly to Shanhaiguan in one go, eliminating the possibility of the East Riders passing through Shanhaiguan to enter the customs.
As long as the Shanhaiguan Pass is blocked, it will be fine for the Dongniu to bypass Mongolia and break through the Great Wall to come in. The Chu army is not the Ming army.
If the Dong captives dare to bypass Mongolia and enter the pass, the Chu army will let them know what it means to close the door and beat the dogs, and keep the Dong captives in check.
If you want to complete the Northern Expedition in one go and try to block the Shanhaiguan Pass in the shortest possible time without giving Dongluo time to react, this puts very high demands on the entire Chu army.
It is not only a requirement for combat effectiveness itself, but also a requirement for logistical supply.
The army is running all the way in front, and the supply fleets and convoys behind are also running all the way to replenish various strategic supplies in a timely manner.
And this difficulty will become larger and larger as the Northern Expedition continues and the army moves further and further north.
The difficulty of supply will increase exponentially with the supply distance.
If we only fight in the Jiangbei area, we will supply about 50,000 to 60,000 Chu troops and 100,000 civilians.
If we cross the Yellow River and fight deep into Beizhili, the logistics force used will increase exponentially.
If they go all the way to Shanhaiguan in one go, this number will increase several times.
This shows how difficult the logistics are.
In order to smoothly ensure the logistics supply for the Northern Expedition, the Army has begun to build new four-wheeled freight carriages on a large scale.
Many four-wheeled carriages with a load capacity of up to one ton are being manufactured in batches for ordinary roads. Some heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages specially used for good roads are also being built one after another. The load capacity of this heavy-duty four-wheeled carriage can be Reaching 1.5 tons.
There are also a large number of two-wheeled carriages that are better adapted to roads and can barely maneuver even in the wilderness, which are the top priority for mass production.
According to the Army's plan, it is expected that all troops participating in the Northern Expedition will have their baggage units equipped with mules and horses, equipped with different types of four-wheeled and two-wheeled carriages. The supplies carried by a division's baggage troops must be enough to satisfy half of the entire division. Months of rations and ammunition for a large-scale battle.
This is only preparation for land transportation. In fact, for the logistics transportation of this Northern Expedition, land transportation is only responsible for front-line transportation and transportation in non-canal directions.
The real lifeline of material supplies for the Northern Expedition was the Yangtze River-Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal-Yellow River-Huaihe River and many other rivers.
Utilizing the river transportation network composed of these rivers and lakes will be the lifeline of the Chu Empire throughout the Northern Expedition.
In order to successfully complete the huge river transportation plan, the Logistics Department of the Da Chu Empire has entrusted the Naval Ship Administration Department to design a variety of standardized inland river transport ships.
There are large inland river transport ships used for transportation on the Yangtze River trunk line. These ships have a relatively large carrying capacity.
In addition, there are a large number of small and medium-sized transport ships used in small and medium-sized rivers.
In order to facilitate the shipment of materials, these ships will also be divided into categories. For example, the cabins of ships that are specialized in transporting grain are very different from those of ships that are specialized in transporting artillery.
There are three major categories and more than ten types of ships, which are used to transport different materials under different hydrological conditions.
According to the plan, the Da Chu Empire will build at least 8,000 inland water transport ships of various types for the entire Northern Expedition.
And these are only part of the needed ships, because the Chu Empire has successively captured a large number of Ming court water transport ships before this, and in the subsequent journey north, there is a high probability that a large number of ships will be captured on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. of this kind of vessel.
Although water transportation was discontinued last year, the ships used for water transportation are still there.
By then, more or less of these water transport vessels will be captured.
A conservative estimate is that at least 20,000 inland river transport ships will be needed by then to sustain the needs of the entire Northern Expedition.
Well, this demand is actually not only the Chu army's own food and ammunition needs, but also needs to provide part of the rations for the people in the captured control area.
Nowadays, several provinces in the north are seriously short of food. If the Chu Empire does not transport food in time to supplement the local food market, then it is inevitable that the land will be starved and a group of refugees will appear every two days.
Luo Zhixue naturally would not allow this situation to occur.
Therefore, the food supply in the logistics supply of the entire Northern Expedition also included the amount of food rations to support the people in several northern provinces.
According to estimates, during the entire Northern Expedition, the Chu Empire conservatively estimated that it would need to transport at least five million shi of grain northward.
It is worth noting that the five million stones of grain are not all transported to Youzhou City, but the total consumption from south to north, from Jiangbei to Shanhaiguan.
Even so, the total transportation volume is very large, which will put a very heavy transportation pressure on the current Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal system.
After all, the canal's navigation capacity is limited, especially in many river sections where the water level still needs to be raised or lowered, which basically limits the maximum navigation capacity.
In addition, the material supplies from the Dachu Empire include not only food, but also a large number of weapons, ammunition and other messy strategic materials.
And the destinations are all Youzhou City. After arriving at each place, they will be distributed and then distributed and transported through other rivers or lakes, or simply by land transportation.
The entire logistics and transportation system is very complicated. What weapons are sent out from the rear arsenal, where do these things go, and what kind of materials are needed by the frontline army? These are seemingly simple, but in actual operation they are very troublesome.
There must be a comprehensive and large transportation plan.
In the Logistics Department, hundreds of people are so busy working on this logistics transportation plan that their hair will turn gray. According to them, it will take at least a month to just complete the preliminary plan...
Just looking at the logistical transportation plan that the Dachu Empire planned to prepare for the Northern Expedition, which included tens of thousands of carriages and ships of various types, you will know that such a large-scale campaign cannot be launched by a high-ranking general with a slap on the head. of.
It is a general war that requires mobilizing a large amount of manpower and material resources!
However, the entire Northern Expedition plan will not be rolled out at once, but will be divided into several stages. For example, the first stage of the Jiangbei Campaign is expected to be implemented in the spring.
After all, if they want to launch a large-scale Northern Expedition, the Chu army needs to capture several important cities first to lay the foundation for the subsequent large-scale Northern Expedition.
It's not necessary to at least obtain a starting position.
Where is this starting position?
Without a doubt, Yangzhou!
This large city, which became extremely prosperous due to salt merchants and water transportation, was the starting point that the Chu Empire had to capture if it wanted to launch the Northern Expedition.
Because the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows from outside Yangzhou into the Yangtze River!
Without taking Yangzhou, there would be no further Northern Expedition.
After entering April, the Fourth Division, which had rested for more than a month and received a batch of new soldiers and a large number of weapons, set off from Liuhe and headed straight for Yangzhou with the cooperation of the 14th Garrison Division.
In addition to the Chu army in this direction, the First Guards Division that had crossed the river was divided into two. The First Guards Mixed Brigade set out from Liuhe to attack Changshui.
The Second Mixed Guards Brigade went north from Jiangpu and headed straight for Chuzhou.
The garrison in the Jiangpu area was handed over to the 15th Garrison Division.
Thus, the prelude to the Battle of Jiangbei officially began.
Coincidentally, when the Jiangbei Campaign officially started, in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, the 7th Division and the 11th Garrison Division, which had been besieging Ganzhou for several months, received an early batch of ammunition and additional troops. The most important thing was After receiving reinforcements from the newly formed Eighth Mortar Artillery Regiment, they finally launched a general attack on Ganzhou City.
Under the indiscriminate bombardment of dozens of field guns and dozens of large-caliber mortars, Ganzhou City, which had blocked the Chu army for more than half a year, was finally breached by the Chu army on April 8.
In the fierce battle, the Ming army suffered no less than 3,000 casualties, more than 10,000 were captured, and only 2,000 escaped.
From then on, the Chu army completely opened the door to Chunan and marched to Guangdong!
