Through continuous improvement, the cavalry unit developed this tactic of musketry cavalry and charge cavalry cooperating with each other, and then directly assigned the two-and-a-half pound field artillery to the cavalry unit to increase the long-range firepower of the cavalry unit. After so many improvements , which greatly increased the confidence of the Chu army's cavalry troops.
With a cavalry brigade and multiple divisional cavalry regiments, the total number of cavalry in the Chu army would not be less than that of the Ming army's cavalry opposite.
In terms of combat effectiveness, through continuous improvement and multiple small-scale cavalry battles in December, it has also been proved that in a one-on-one duel, the current Chu cavalry is also capable of fighting, and can even occupy Tactical advantage.
This battle can be fought!
And when the Chu army's biggest shortcoming, the cavalry, stated that there was no problem, others would naturally have no problems.
When the battle plan was discussed later, the overall atmosphere was relatively relaxed. Even Wei Kaifu from the Military and Political Department was still willing to joke about the Ming army on the opposite side: "After calculation, there should be more than 30,000 new standard troops on the opposite side. This is It requires a lot of money, food, and guns. Could it be that they all sold their sons and daughters?"
Xu Zhixian explained with a smile: "According to our information, these families basically collect their own money and food. The people in Jiangbei are miserable now. I heard that even the salt merchants couldn't stand Song Zushun. He lost water transportation The governor's official title was due to being impeached and demoted because he raided too hard."
At this time, Lieutenant General Li Chengtong on the side also said: "With the level of their new standard army, how much money can they spend? Their 30,000 people are not enough for us to support 10,000 people. I see, they are making money." All the money goes into their own pockets!”
"But after they lost the supply of guns and ammunition from Zheng Zhilong and the Portuguese, they were able to make a lot of their own guns. This is worth seeing!"
Among the Ming Dynasty's New Standard Army, especially those in the Jiangbei area, part of their guns were made by craftsmen they recruited themselves. Matchlock guns and field cannons were not difficult for the craftsmen of the Puppet Ming Dynasty. It’s just a matter of cost and time.
There were also some guns and ammunition that they had previously purchased through Zheng Zhilong and the Portuguese.
However, after Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Chu Empire, they completely lost all channels at sea and could only rely on casting their own guns.
At this time Xu Zhixian also said: "According to our intelligence, their equipment level is no longer as good as before. There are more than 15,000 new standard troops in Yangzhou, but there are only more than 20 long-barreled artillery. In the past two Not a single new cannon has been added in a month."
"There are even fewer in Huai'an, only about ten gates."
"Their new matchlock guns are also seriously insufficient. Our intelligence personnel have seen with their own eyes that many new standard troops are still using old-style blunderbuss."
"According to our judgment, the number of new standard troops in Jiangbei seems to be larger, but the average quality should be worse than the previous new standard troops in Huguang and Guangdong and Guangxi. Even the new standard troops in Jiangbei during the Hezhou period are slightly worse. Some."
"I'm afraid it will be easier to attack Jiangbei this time than it was to attack Jiujiang before."
Xu Zhixian's words were also recognized by others.
Although there are more enemies to face in the Jiangbei Battle this time, and the New Standard Army alone has 30,000, considering that the quality of the enemy's New Standard Army is not stronger, but has declined. .
What's more important is that the Chu Empire's own strength has increased significantly compared with that during the Jiujiang Campaign.
Even if we don't talk about the army strength of the entire Great Chu Empire, just counting the ground forces currently fighting in the Jiangbei area, there are three divisions, a cavalry brigade, and two mortar regiments.
At the same time, the military is also preparing to use the first, tenth, and eleventh divisions, three main divisions equipped with flintlock guns and using new tactics, for combat in the Jiangbei area.
In this way, the Chu army can concentrate the strength of six main divisions in the Jiangbei area!
Coupled with the 1st Cavalry Brigade and multiple mortar regiments as well as a number of independently attached troops, the strength of the main force alone will reach about 100,000.
And what about the Ming army?
Their new standard army only totaled about 30,000 people, and their guard troops only numbered more than 40,000. The total force was only more than 70,000 people.
Even if we don't count the many differences in the quality and equipment of the two sides' troops, the Ming army is at a disadvantage just in terms of military strength.
If you include the quality of soldiers and equipment levels, the gap is even greater.
It is difficult to quantify the quality of soldiers, but it can still be compared through the food standards of soldiers.
After all, only by eating well can we carry out high-intensity physical training. After training, soldiers can have better physical fitness. Only with good physical fitness can we carry out high-intensity various tactics, fighting and other training, and can we gain more Excellent marching speed and the ability to fight for a long time, etc.
Whether they eat well or not plays a huge role in the overall quality of soldiers.
This is also an important reason why Luo Zhixue has always firmly maintained high standards of food in the military.
In addition to the quality of the soldiers, the gap between the equipment levels of the two sides is actually even greater.
Needless to say, the guardsmen in the Ming Army were just a group of cannon fodder armed with cold weapons and fire guns. No, many senior generals of the Ming Army, such as Song Zushun and Yang Sichang, all felt that this group of cannon fodder was in the way. It's a waste of money and food, it's useless...
The guards soldiers under their command are mostly used as auxiliary troops to repair fortifications, transport luggage and so on.
It is somewhat similar to the auxiliary personnel such as the transportation regiment and construction battalion under the Chu Army's Logistics Department.
Even the new standard army in the Ming army had far lower equipment levels than the Chu army.
Taking the most important artillery as an example, an old field division in the Chu army, such as the artillery unit of the First Guards Division currently fighting in Jiangbei, has a lot of artillery when it is fully equipped.
The division's artillery regiment has twelve nine-pound field guns, twenty-four five-pound field guns, and twelve forty-eight-pound mortars.
Each infantry regiment, baggage regiment, and cavalry regiment each have four two-and-a-half-pound field guns and four eighteen-pound mortars. The total number is twenty-four two-and-a-half-pound field guns and twenty-four eighteen-pound mortars. .
The artillery of one First Guards Division alone is more than the total number of artillery of the Ming Army in the entire Jiangbei region!
Of course, there is currently only one First Guards Division of this fully-equipped unit. As for other units, there will be more or less shortages.
For example, the Eighth Division, which is also fighting in Jiangbei, currently has only eight nine-pound field guns, sixteen five-pound field guns, and eighteen two-and-a-half-pound field guns. In terms of mortars, it currently only has twelve twenty-four-pound field guns. Jin mortar cannon, sixteen eighteen-jin mortar cannon.
The overall firepower is far inferior to that of the 1st Guards Division.
However, even this eighth division has much stronger firepower than the Ming army opposite.
The Eighth Division was able to suppress the tens of thousands of troops under Zhu Dadian's command in Hefei, Liuhe, and Fengyang. This was because Zhu Dadian's local troops were assisted by a large number of frontier cavalry.
If these frontier cavalry had not threatened the Chu army's flanks and logistics line, the Eighth Division would have fought all the way to Fengyang.
In terms of the number of troops, the quality of the soldiers, and the quantity and quality of weapons and equipment, the Chu army was significantly superior to the opposite Ming army.
And these are the reasons why the Chu Empire dared to launch large-scale wars in the Jiangbei Plain terrain that was not conducive to its own operations.
In this imperial military affairs meeting in the first month of the year, the senior officials of the Chu Empire finally finalized the framework of the Jiangbei battle plan.
Beginning on the 20th of the first lunar month, Luo Zhixue officially issued an order to adjust the command system of the departments in Jiangbei and Jiangnan, and re-established three armies.
Previously, Luo Zhixue also established three armies in a series of campaigns on the eastward march, but they were gradually withdrawn after the eastward campaign.
After the First Army marched into the south of the Yangtze River, its first division was stationed in the south of the Yangtze River, while the sixth division was transferred to Zhejiang to fight. However, it was officially withdrawn due to the dispersion of its troops.
The Second Army fought in Jiangbei, but also because the Fourth and Eighth Divisions under its jurisdiction were too scattered. The Eighth Division fought in the Hefei area, but the Fourth Division went to Yangzhou to fight, so it was also canceled in the end.
As for the Third Army, it was withdrawn earlier. After the Battle of Northern Jiangxi, the main force of the Seventh Division was transferred to southern Jiangxi and other places to fight, while the Guards Division continued to march eastward to participate in the Jiangnan Campaign. Therefore, the First Division of Northern Gansu was After the series of battles, the Third Army was officially disbanded.
Ranwen
The reason why these three armies were gradually abolished is because these three armies were temporarily formed purely for the eastward campaign and were not armies with fixed establishments.
Whether before or now, the Chu Army has never set up such a fixed-organization military-level unit.
The same goes for the garrison headquarters.
In the Chu army, the largest fixed unit was the division.
After all, a division is large enough, with 14,000 to 5,000 people. If two or three divisions form an army with a fixed establishment, then the army can reach 40,000 to 50,000 people.
The total number of Chu army's regular troops was only two to three hundred thousand!
Whether it is for military power control or strategic arrangement, Luo Zhixue is unlikely to establish multiple fixed establishments with tens of thousands of military-level establishments for a long time.
Luo Zhixue used garrison headquarters and temporarily established field armies to gather larger forces and launch large-scale operations.
This was the case in the previous eastward campaign, the battles in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, and the northern and western fronts in northern Chu.
Now in the Jiangbei campaign, there will naturally be no exception.
Luo Zhixue directly established the First Army, the Second Army, and the Third Army.
The First Army has jurisdiction over the Fourth Division and the First Guards Division, the two main forces already fighting on the canal line.
The Second Army is responsible for the 8th Division and the 20th Division reinforced from the rear, and will be used for operations in Hefei, Fengyang, and even in the future Henan direction. Speaking of the 20th Division, it benefited from the training of the 100th Division and the 101st Division of the Second Class Division, and took over the task of suppressing the rear important areas. This allowed the Army to put the 20th Division The field force of the division was mobilized for use in the direction of Hefei and Fengyang.
The Third Army has jurisdiction over the First Division, the Tenth Division, and the Eleventh Division. These three divisions are all equipped with flintlocks and adopt new tactics. This army is actually the one used in the subsequent Northern Expedition. The core main force.
Because the tactics of the fusiliers were different from those of the old troops, in order to avoid trouble, the Chu army's top brass simply organized the three new troops that were expected to participate in the Northern Expedition into one army to fight alone.
In addition to these three armies, there will also be the Second Guards Division, the main force of the 15th Division and the 22nd Division in the rear of Jiangnan. On the one hand, it is to suppress the local area and maintain the local situation. On the other hand, it is also a strategic plan for the entire Northern Expedition. Reserve team.
With the formation of these three field armies, the Northern Expedition officially kicked off.
But the first battle that broke out was not in Yangzhou, nor in Hefei, nor even in Zhuzhou and other places, but on the seemingly inconspicuous Yuzhou Island off the coast of Haizhou.
On the 25th of the first lunar month, the Beiyang Fleet of the Dachu Empire gathered hundreds of warships and more than a hundred transport ships, carrying a marine battalion of the navy itself and a reinforced brigade sent by the 15th Army Division to attack Yuzhou Island. A landing raid was launched.
And it only took half a day to successfully capture the island, and then headed straight for Suqian inland.
Immediately afterwards, the Fourth Division of the Chu Army's First Army launched a large-scale artillery attack on Yangzhou, and the First Guards Division in the north started from Tianchang and penetrated into Gaoyouzhou behind Yangzhou.
The core force of the Chu Army's Third Army, with the cooperation of the First Cavalry Brigade, launched a surprise attack directly from the Tianchang area to the north. Two divisions went straight to Huai'an, and one division went to Sizhou.
In just a few days, the Chu army launched a violent attack along the entire canal north of the Yangtze River. It was not a simple attack on Yangzhou as Song Zushun and Yang Sichang had expected.
The navy also dispatched a large number of inland river warships equipped with heavy artillery, and ventured into the canal to bombard Yangzhou City.
Yang Sichang, who gradually learned that Chu bandits were attacking various places, combined the news from many sources and compared the maps, and couldn't help but take a breath.
"These damn Chu thieves have such a huge appetite and courage!"
Yang Sichang couldn't tell where it was at this time. According to the Chu bandits' strategic deployment and raid direction, they were definitely aiming to devour the Ming army along the Xuhuai Canal. They even did not hesitate to send a large number of warships to risk their lives in Yu. Zhoudao launched a landing operation, and then rushed to Suqian.
This was obviously to prevent Yang Sichang's troops from Huai'an from escaping northward.
And this is really what the top brass of Chu Army thought!
Luo Zhixue wanted to annihilate the enemy's effective forces as much as possible in the Jiangbei area, especially the new standard troops among the enemy.
Because fighting in the Jiangbei area, although supplies are not normal, they can still be achieved, and the cost of logistics and transportation can also be effectively controlled.
However, if a large number of enemy troops are allowed to flee to Shandong, Henan and even Northern Zhili, it will be twice as difficult for the Chu army to concentrate so many troops and artillery and launch such a large-scale battle.
The farther away the logistical supply is, the more difficult it will be and the greater the cost will be.
Therefore, if possible, Luo Zhixue hopes to annihilate a large number of enemy forces in the Jiangbei Campaign as much as possible to prevent them from escaping north and putting too much logistical pressure on the subsequent Northern Expedition.
