After entering May, the temperature in China is gradually rising, especially in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions in the south.
When the 7th Division moved south along the Beijiang River, the soldiers in each department had already changed into thin summer clothes.
But even so, the local sultry weather also caused the soldiers of the Chu army who went south to suffer a lot.
Speaking of the soldiers of the 7th Division, they are not actually northerners. Most of the soldiers are from the Hantianfu area of Huguang, and some are soldiers from northern Jiangxi who were supplemented nearby when fighting in Jiangxi.
As for the 11th Garrison Division, which has been fighting with the 7th Division, most of them are soldiers from the Jiangxi area.
According to traditional concepts, they are all very typical southerners, and they are also southerners south of the Yangtze River. In their living environment, it is not that they have never experienced the scorching heat in summer.
But even so, when they really entered the Lingnan area, especially when they left Shaozhou Prefecture in northern Guangdong and started to go south along the Beijiang River to Guangzhou Prefecture, they still couldn't stand the local heat.
When they were in Qujiang, Shaozhou Prefecture, it was considered summer, but after all, it was a mountainous area in northern Guangdong, a little further north. In addition, the spring was quite cold during the Little Ice Age, so at that time these Chu soldiers I didn't feel any obvious discomfort.
However, as the weather started to heat up rapidly in mid-May, by the time they reached the Qingyuan area of Guangzhou Prefecture, it was already late May and approaching June.
This is the hottest time of the year!
To be precise, it's not just hot, it's sultry. This place is in a coastal area, and the ocean will bring a lot of moisture-rich airflow...
Then the soldiers of the 7th Division and the 11th Garrison Division felt like they were being cooked.
Huang Xiangbin wore a wide-topped hat and a thin summer military uniform with even the sleeves rolled up. However, he was still sweating from the heat, and from time to time he picked up a kettle and took a sip to replenish himself.
After taking a sip of water, Huang Xiangbin looked at the soldiers marching south silently in front and behind him, with a trace of worry on his face.
He did not expect that he would lead the army from Huguang to Jiangxi, and then from Jiangxi to Guangzhou. Along the way, he would encounter stubborn resistance from many enemies and encounter many obstacles. But he never expected that he would encounter many obstacles in his military career. The biggest problem is not the stubborn enemies or the complicated and difficult terrain, but the damn heat.
Although he was riding a horse at this time and did not have to walk directly, he was still feeling so uncomfortable. You can imagine how difficult it was for the soldiers under his command to march on foot.
Even before heading south from Shaozhou Prefecture, I had already made a lot of preparations, such as changing summer clothes for the army in advance, and also prepared tens of thousands of bamboo hats for my army to protect the soldiers from the sun, and incidentally. Blocks the many rains in spring and summer in the south.
But when we actually arrived at Guangzhou Prefecture, our army still suffered a lot of non-combat attrition.
Since mid-May, the local temperature has risen rapidly, suddenly changing from a mild spring state to a cool day state. More than 300 people in his army fell ill in just half a month.
You know, his army attacked the entire city of Shaozhou without losing more than 300 men...
No, even when we attacked the dangerous pass of Nanxiong Mansion, there were not so many casualties.
The last time there were more than 300 casualties was when the Iron Turtle stormed Ganzhou City.
But in the past half month, they didn't make any urgent marches, they just moved south slowly.
At most, they just captured Yingde County along the Beijiang River. Well, in fact, they didn't fight at that time. When the one or two thousand Ming troops on the opposite side saw the Chu bandits coming, half of them fled and the other half surrendered.
On the Qingyuan side, after a regiment of their own forwards arrived, the gentry in the city simply opened the door under the leadership of the county magistrate to welcome Master Wang.
However, just like this, his army suffered a non-combat attrition of more than 300 people in half a month. Well, although most of them could return to the original army after treatment, but in a short period of time, Shortage is not.
Besides, most of the wounded can return to the army after treatment, but when calculating casualties, the wounded will still be included.
Therefore, this illness can also be regarded as non-combat attrition.
Moreover, there are various reasons for falling ill, making it difficult to guard against them.
There are some people suffering from heat stroke. Because the weather is hot and cold, and the temperature difference is large, there are also many colds and fevers. Many of them are caused by drinking raw water.
Because the soldiers in the main division received hygiene propaganda in the new barracks, they should drink boiled water as much as possible when marching and camping.
However, many soldiers in the garrison were directly reorganized from the surrendered soldiers of the Ming Army and did not receive complete training in the new camp. Their concept of hygiene is generally weak. A few of them drank cold water from the kettle. After finishing, I was very thirsty because of the hot weather, and I was too lazy to make a fire to boil water, so I drank raw water directly from the wild...
Then I had vomiting and diarrhea...
No matter how strong a man is, he will turn into a sick cat after having diarrhea for several days... and many people even lost their lives because of the severe illness.
The only thing that makes Huang Xiangbin fortunate is that these are common symptoms and not large-scale infectious diseases, otherwise his army of tens of thousands would collapse in minutes...
The climate in the southern coastal area has brought a lot of trouble to the 7th Division and the 11th Guards Division, but it is just a small trouble.
Since the weather is hot, the temperature difference is huge and it is easy to catch a cold, and raw water in the wild is easy to get sick, etc., then Huang Xiangbin and the others will also take some targeted countermeasures.
The first is to recruit a large number of doctors.
Although there is a medical battalion in the Seventh Division, which contains a lot of military doctors and guards, the number is still a little lacking. It is also necessary to recruit doctors while marching on the way south.
Secondly, the concept of hygiene must be strictly promoted, especially that soldiers should not be allowed to drink raw water directly. The water must be boiled before drinking.
At the same time, because of the cold summer march, the soldiers lost a lot of water and needed more water to replenish it. They had to prepare more cold water before departure. The number of bamboo water bottles carried by the soldiers was increased from one to two or even two. Three.
Then at each post, even during the march, manpower must be regularly arranged to boil water in advance and replenish it.
After initially solving the problem of drinking water sanitation, the doctors accompanying the army also began to prepare large quantities of heat-clearing and detoxifying decoctions and distribute them to the soldiers to prevent heat stroke. In addition, front-line grassroots guards and grassroots military doctors also focused on preaching the importance of hygiene.
Of course, what is more important is to convey the order and force the soldiers not to drink raw water in the wild, not to urinate or defecate in the military camp, and to pay attention to personal hygiene and a series of regulations.
After the centralized implementation of many measures, the number of sick soldiers in the army has been significantly reduced.
By the time they reached Jinli, a small town more than 20 kilometers north of Guangzhou Fucheng, the number of soldiers in the army who fell ill due to heatstroke, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, etc. had dropped significantly.
Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin was relieved at this time. He was really afraid of leading the army all the way from Ganzhou to Guangzhou, but he was defeated by the disease before the Ming army killed many people.
This disease attack also made Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin realize that fighting is not only about the bravery of soldiers, not just weapons and ammunition, but also many other aspects.
And sometimes, something seemingly inconspicuous can lead to the collapse of an army.
Such as hygiene issues!
While undergoing initial rest in the small town of Jinli, Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin took the time to write a report on the disease attack on the army going south in the past half month, especially focusing on the issue of drinking water sanitation.
This report will not only be sent back to Jinling City, but will be used as a reference by His Majesty and the staff of Jinling City.
It was also passed to the Fifth Division and other units fighting in Guangxi.
The Fifth Division and other troops fighting in Guangxi actually belong to the troops under Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin.
Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, he is not only the commander of the 7th Division. In fact, the commander of the 7th Division is just a part-time job for him now. His current official position is even the garrison commander of Guangdong and Guangxi, and he is ordered to coordinate the war between Guangdong and Guangxi.
The three troops currently fighting in Guangxi, namely the Fifth Division, the Third Garrison Division, and the Sixth Garrison Division, all belong to the Guangdong and Guangxi Garrison Command, that is, under Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin.
The climate and environment in Guangxi are not much better than those in Guangdong, and are even worse in many places, making it easier for soldiers to be attacked by diseases.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Because he ordered the Fifth Division and other units fighting in Guangxi to also focus on hygiene issues and prevent heatstroke.
In the Battle of Guangdong and Guangxi, the biggest enemy of the Chu army was not the Ming army, but the local climate and environment.
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Huang Xiangbin took the 7th Division and the 11th Garrison Division to rest for two days in the small town of Jinli before continuing south.
At this time, Guangzhou City was not far away from them. According to the normal marching speed, it would only be about a day's journey.
Well, if we were not ambushed and blocked by the Ming army along the way.
Because it is close to Guangzhou, and Guangzhou itself is the residence of the governor of Guangdong, Guangzhou City, as the provincial capital, naturally garrisoned a lot of Ming army troops. At the same time, intelligence also showed that in addition to the local troops in Guangdong, there were also a group of troops from the sea. The so-called rebels.
In fact, these people were all kinds of messy pirates in the late Ming Dynasty. Many of them were recruited or won over by the Ming court officials, and then appeared in Guangzhou to fight against the Chu pirates.
Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin laughed at these pirates!
As long as these pirates are sailing on the sea, that's all. The Chu army, regardless of the army and navy, can really only stare at them...
But if they dare to go ashore to fight the Imperial Army, it is simply because they are too short-lived.
Not to mention these miscellaneous pirates, even if Zheng Zhilong's troops were on land, they would be defeated by the Chu army.
