According to the latest establishment requirements for the main force of the Chu army, each divisional artillery regiment will also have a mortar battalion with twelve 48-pound mortars or 24-pound mortars. The specific artillery deployment depends on The combat environment where the troops are located, where the terrain is flat and where marching and supplies are convenient, is equipped with a thousand-pound forty-eight-pound mortar.
If the troops are fighting in places with complex terrain, they will be equipped with 24-pound mortars, which weigh only 800 kilograms.
The mortar battalion in the Seventh Division is responsible for the 48-pound mortar. This is because the Ganjiang River can provide transportation and supplies.
In Chunan, the Fifth Division, which is fighting on the front line in Guangxi, is equipped with 24-pound mortars. Because the terrain there is complex and supplies are not smooth, the main focus is on mobility in artillery. Even field artillery is The main ones are two and a half kilograms, five kilograms, and nine kilograms is relatively small.
The same situation is still in the western part of southern Chu, facing the direction of Guizhou. The Ninth Division is the main division expanded from the temporary fourth mixed regiment. The main field artillery is also five kilograms and two and a half kilograms, and the mortars are also twenty-four kilograms. Mainly the jin and 18-jin mortars, but there is not a single 48-jin mortar...
As for the 18-pound mortars, they have been gradually moved down to the brigade and regiment-level units. For example, in the Second Guards Division, a new army that uses flintlock guns, the 18-pound mortars are deployed directly to the regiment-affiliated artillery battalions. The artillery battalion of this regiment has four 18-pound mortars.
This thing has been completely regarded as infantry by the Chu army to accompany the firepower.
However, the more mortars were equipped, the more powerful they were, which led to increasing pressure on the Chu army's ammunition supply.
Although the Seventh Division has a lot of troops and artillery, it does not need much mortar ammunition.
After arriving at Nanxiong, they tested the attack and simply stopped the plan to attack by force. They waited for the ammunition from the rear to be transported before preparing to capture Nanxiong in one go and pry open the northern gate to Guangdong.
The ammunition that Huang Xiangbin needed did not wait long. Soon a batch of ammunition was urgently dispatched from the rear, especially the mortar shells needed for critical battles.
Huang Xiangbin was still a little surprised by this. He originally thought that the superiors would snap the ropes like they had in the past few months, but he didn't expect to be so readily handed over a large amount of ammunition, even more than he expected. .
But when he received the five-hundred-mile urgent order from the staff, he understood why the superiors had given him so much ammunition. He even took out several ammunition warehouses stored in Jiangxi and urgently transported it to Ganzhou by ship. , and then transferred to the Nanxiong front line.
Because the superiors asked him to quickly capture Nanxiong, and then rush into Guangdong and fight all the way to Guangzhou.
During this period, the superiors will do their best to ensure the supply of food, grass and ammunition for the 7th Division and the 11th Garrison Division.
There is only one requirement from above, to quickly enter Guangdong, annihilate as many effective local enemy forces as possible, and then cooperate with the Fifth Division in the Chunan direction to capture Guangxi, in order to initially resolve the battle in the Guangdong and Guangxi directions.
After receiving the order, Huang Xiangbin also began to think about how to quickly capture Meiguan and capture Nanxiong.
As for continuing to go south to attack Guangzhou, there is no rush now. It will not be too late to wait until Nanxiong is captured.
While Huang Xiangbin was thinking about how to capture Meiguan and Nanxiong Mansion, Xu Zhixian, who was in Jinling City, also reported to Luo Zhixue the recent war situation in various places.
"Your Majesty, according to our strategy of first south and then north, we have launched the Guangdong-Guangxi Campaign and the Fujian-Zhejiang Campaign one after another!"
"In the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi, the 7th Division and the 11th Garrison Division, under the leadership of General Huang, have launched an attack on the Nanxiong front line. In order to support this direction, we have urgently allocated a batch of ammunition and supplies to this direction, mainly The front line is in urgent need of mortar shells and propellant!"
"At the same time, according to His Majesty's instructions, we have sent more than 2,000 troops to the Seventh Division to restore the Seventh Division to its full strength of four regiments. The original Seventh Division fighting in the direction of Zhejiang has strengthened its regiment strength. It is temporarily expanded to the 12th Mixed Brigade."
"I am optimistic that I will receive good news from General Huang within the month!"
"In the direction of Chunan, the Fifth Division will also launch an offensive against Guilin in the near future. In order to support them, we have urgently allocated a large amount of combat materials from the Changsha Arsenal to the nearest area.
"At the same time, a reinforcement regiment of the Ninth Division was dispatched south to strengthen the strength of the main force in the direction of Guangxi!"
"At the same time, in the entire south of Chunan, we also have three garrison divisions, the Sixth Garrison Division, the Eighth Garrison Division, and the Tenth Garrison Division, which are enough to assist the main forces on the front line."
"The core strategic goal of our troops in this direction is to first capture Guilin, then capture Wuzhou, and then control the entire Guangxi."
"On the entire battlefield in Guangdong and Guangxi, we have invested the main force of two divisions and one reinforced regiment. In addition, we have two mortar regiments to provide siege fire support, and a total of four garrison divisions to provide auxiliary combat support!"
"A lot of supplies of ammunition, grain and grass have also been mobilized, which is enough to meet the needs of a large-scale war in the local area."
Luo Zhixue listened and read the battle report on the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi.
In fact, the battle reports he read were not too detailed. They were all general matters. After all, as the emperor of the Chu Empire, Luo Zhixue had too many things to pay attention to. Even on the most important military affairs, he could not Keep everything in your hands.
In the past, when the territory was small and the number of troops was small, he would often pay attention to a battle involving hundreds of people and learn about the battle.
Now, for a large-scale battle like the Guangdong-Guangxi Campaign, he only pays attention to some general matters.
He only gave an order to his senior generals: Take Guangdong and Guangxi!
As for how to coordinate the overall occupation, that is a matter for senior generals such as Xu Zhixian.
After the specific orders arrived at the front line, it was the matter of senior frontline generals such as Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, commander of the 7th Division, Major General Lin Siyong, commander of the 5th Division, and other strategic locations such as Guilin, Nanxiong, Guangzhou, and Wuzhou.
Considering Luo Zhixue's current status and busyness, it is difficult and unnecessary for him to pay personal attention to a specific war. What he wants is to control the general direction.
For example, personnel arrangements.
In order to better coordinate the Guangdong and Guangxi campaigns, Luo Zhixue simultaneously adjusted senior personnel in the above two directions at the beginning of the Guangdong and Guangxi campaigns.
The Guangxi and Guangxi Garrison Command was established. The commander was transferred from Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, commander of Jiangxi Garrison and commander of the 7th Division, and the deputy commander was concurrently appointed by Major General Lin Siyong, commander of the 5th Division.
These two people were actually the commanders of two main divisions that entered Guangdong and Guangxi.
Letting them serve as local garrison commanders and deputy commanders is actually just to allow them to better command the coordinated garrison.
However, this is only temporary, and Luo Zhixue will make further changes in the future.
As for the Guangdong and Guangxi garrison headquarters, this garrison headquarters is also the first large-scale cross-provincial headquarters in the Chu Empire, because in the past six months, Luo Zhixue found that the garrison headquarters based on provinces is not suitable for the current war. need.
Because a front often spans multiple provinces, the combat scope of a main division also often changes.
In addition, the Chu Empire occupies more and more provinces, and there will be more in the future. If there are dozens of provinces, according to today's visual inspection, Jinling has full command of the military forces in each province. This is too inefficient, and each province The deployment of troops between them is easy to argue with.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue believed that it was necessary to establish an organization similar to the Governor-General's Office of the Ming Dynasty between the capital and the provinces, as an organization to coordinate the military affairs of several provinces.
Taking into account the particularity of the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, Luo Zhixue simply established a Guangdong and Guangxi garrison headquarters to coordinate local military affairs.
This Guangdong and Guangxi garrison headquarters can be regarded as a first test. If the effect is good, then Luo Zhixue will be promoted in Fujian, Zhejiang, Huguang and other places.
The war in Guangdong and Guangxi suddenly broke out on a large scale this spring.
This caught Xiong Wencan off guard!
He didn't understand. It was fine before, although the Chu army was also aggressive and it was very difficult to fight, so that the officers and soldiers could only be in a strategic defensive posture, and even counterattack was a luxury.
But at any rate, we were able to hold on to several strategic locations, such as Guilin, Ganzhou, and Nanxiong.
However, after entering April, Ganzhou fell first, and then on April 18, the crucial Meiguan in Nanxiong Mansion was forcibly broken through by the Chu army.
Just two days later, after losing Meiguan, Nanxiong Fucheng, which was undefendable, also fell into the hands of Chu thieves.
More than a thousand Ming troops from various places in Nanxiong Prefecture were killed in the battle, and more than 8,000 people were taken as prisoners of war. Only more than 3,000 people escaped back to Shaoguan.
Among them, the core and main force of the New Standard Army of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Zuo Army, had a total of more than 3,000 people sent out to garrison, but only less than 1,000 people came back.
After the news of Nanxiong's fall reached Wuzhou, Xiong Wencan didn't speak for a long time, and he even lost interest in swearing. A group of lowly civil and military officials looked at Xiong Wencan with a gloomy face and walked back to the backyard without saying a word. .
What made Xiong Wencan behave so abnormally was not only the fall of Nanxiong Mansion, but also the bad news coming from Guilin and other directions.
On April 16, the Chu Bandit Fifth Division, led by the bandit leader Major General Lin Siyong, broke through the defense line of more than 20,000 people led by the Right Army of the New Standard Army of Guangdong and Guangxi, and captured the city of Guilin.
During the fierce battle, the right army of the Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army suffered many casualties. During the breakout, they were ambushed by Chu thieves. Only a thousand people of a full mixed brigade were withdrawn.
As for other guard soldiers, there were even more casualties and captures.
After this battle, not only did Mingting's defense line in the direction of Guilin be completely penetrated, but more importantly, with the loss of troops and generals, Xiong Wencan no longer had many troops to mobilize to organize a second line of defense.
