On the first day of February in the fourth year of Chengshun in the Great Chu Empire, Gaoyou Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, Jiangbei.
Huang Tinghao, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty, looked at the large number of Chu troops wearing gray military uniforms outside the city with a solemn face.
Yesterday afternoon, a group of Chu thieves came outside the city. At first, he thought it was just a tentative attack by Chu thieves. In the past half year, Chu thieves often wandered outside the city of Gaoyou Prefecture. Tried to attack Gaoyou Prefecture.
However, there were not many troops, and they did not carry many heavy artillery. Therefore, although this tentative attack caused some losses to the defenders in the city, it was not enough to directly break the city.
Originally, the same was true for the Chu thieves that Huang Tinghao came this time. However, what he didn't expect was that as time passed, more and more Chu thieves appeared outside the city.
From a thousand people at the beginning, to two or three thousand people, by nightfall, there were more than 5,000 Chu thieves outside the city.
Originally, this was enough, but what I didn't expect was that a large number of thieves arrived one after another this morning.
This time there were more rebels and they also carried a large number of artillery.
Looking at the dozens of long-barreled artillery of the Chu bandits outside the city, plus twenty or thirty large short-barreled mortars, Huang Tinghao still didn't know that this time the Chu bandits were really rushing to conquer Gaoyou Prefecture. of.
This time, I'm afraid it's going to be much worse.
There are at least tens of thousands of Chu thieves outside the city, with dozens of large and small artillery pieces.
As for the garrison of Gaoyouzhou City, the total strength is only more than 6,000, of which more than 2,000 are Jiangbei New Biao Army and more than 4,000 are guards.
They were all part of the Yangzhou defense line defenders and directly belonged to Song Zushun, the governor of Jiangbei.
When Song Zushun was garrisoned in Yangzhou, he was guarding not just the city of Yangzhou, but a large area with Yangzhou as the core and the canal as the line.
In addition to hoarding a large number of troops in Yangzhou City, Song Zushun also sent troops to garrison Gaoyou Prefecture in the north of Yangzhou City, and some troops were also stationed in Taixing and Taizhou in the east of Yangzhou City.
If Song Zushun gave up many peripheral areas and just defended Yangzhou City, it would be easy for the Chu army to capture several peripheral cities, cut off the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and finally be strategically surrounded.
By then, Yangzhou City will become an isolated city, and there will be no way to get reinforcements from Huai'an and other places.
However, the troops in Song Zushun's hands were also limited. He only had more than 30,000 troops in total. Yangzhou City's defense line required more than 20,000 troops, and several other places also needed several thousand troops. This was left to Gaoyou Prefecture. There are only six thousand people left here.
These six thousand people were commanded by Huang Tinghao, the deputy commander-in-chief of Song Zushun.
However, now Huang Tinghao looked at the large number of Chu troops outside the city, but he did not have the slightest confidence to defend Gaoyou Prefecture.
He is a veteran who has fought against the Chu army many times. When Song Zushun resisted the 4th Division's offensive in Hezhou for several months, he was a general under Song Zushun and led a battalion of the Jiangbei New Biao Army to fight. .
That battle left a deep memory on him. A battalion of more than 600 people under his command fought until the end, with only more than 400 people left.
The Chu army's artillery fire seemed to never stop, especially in the days after the Chu army launched the general offensive, the intensity of the artillery fire exceeded his imagination.
Under the fierce artillery fire of the Chu army, the infantry battalion he led did not actually engage in close combat with the Chu army. However, when they finally withdrew from Hezhou, there were only more than 400 infantry battalions under his command left. People.
More than two hundred people died one after another in the battle between Chu troops.
However, although his infantry battalion suffered a lot of casualties, it still performed well, and even achieved certain results in counterattacking the Chu army. It also performed well during the retreat, and even acted as a rear-breaking force twice and fought a small-scale attack. They counterattacked and ambushed the garrison of over a hundred Chu thieves who advanced with light troops, beheading dozens of people.
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After retreating to Yangzhou City, Song Zushun quickly recommended him as deputy commander-in-chief and made him commander-in-chief of the left army of the Jiangbei New Biao Army.
Among the many new standard armies of the Ming Dynasty, their establishment, titles and official system basically came from the Huguang New Standard Army created before Yang Sichang.
The grassroots organization is similar to that of the Chu army, consisting of teams, sentries, and battalions.
Above the battalion level, they did not set up regiments or brigades, but directly set up armies. They combined several infantry units with artillery battalions, baggage battalions, and cavalry battalions to form an army of about three to four thousand men.
Similar to the mixed regiments and mixed brigades in the Dachu Empire.
In addition, although they do not have regiment-level troops or regiment leaders, they are often led by two generals, guerrilla generals, etc. under the military commander, and these two generals command two or three infantry battalions respectively.
In fact, this is also the regiment-level establishment in the Chu army, but Mingting's new standard army has not been fixed.
And this was actually a measure taken by the Ming Dynasty's new standard army generals in order to control military power. They were unwilling to set up fixed regiment-level troops to divide the military power of the commander of the army.
Therefore, the largest fixed establishment of the New Standard Army in the Ming Dynasty is similar to the army in the mixed brigade of the Chu Army. If it goes up, it is similar to the administrative establishment of the Jiangbei New Standard Army and the Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army.
The strength and combat effectiveness of the New Standard Army in different places are also different. The New Standard Army in Guangdong and Guangxi often has more than 20,000 people, while many New Standard Army under the governors only have a few thousand people, not to mention the equipment.
When broken down into the left, right, front, and middle armies, the differences in strength, equipment level, and even combat effectiveness of each army are also very large.
Specifically, it depends on the military commander's ability, personal connections, and troop training capabilities. A strong army can often reach full or even over-staffing. For example, the former Right Army of the New Standard Army of Guangdong and Guangxi had a total strength of more than 6,000 people. In addition to its infantry battalion, In addition to the six fixed formations, there is also a so-called trap camp.
Those with fewer troops, such as Song Zushun's Jiangbei New Biao Army Rear Army, only had more than 2,000 troops.
Moreover, these two thousand people are mainly composed of three infantry battalions. Although the artillery battalion is named as an artillery battalion, it actually only has four two-and-a-half-pound artillery pieces and only dozens of people. The cavalry battalion also has only Just a few dozen riders.
The reason why his rear army was small and poorly equipped was partly because his rear army had been formed for a short period of time. It was the last army to be formed in the Jiangbei New Standard Army. It was only more than three months ago. It was expanded from the infantry battalion that Huang Tinghao led before.
What's more important is that Song Zushun did not give him much support in terms of money, food and guns. He only gave him his serial number and asked him to find ways to collect military supplies and guns.
Huang Tinghao can also understand this. His old boss Song Zushun is also in dire straits now. He has more than 10,000 new standard troops and more than 20,000 guardsmen under his command. The money and food consumed is very huge, but the court did not give Song Zushun any money. The cost of raising an army is one copper plate...
All the expenses for the Jiangbei New Biao Army and the local garrison troops had to be raised by Song Zushun and his generals.
Huang Tinghao is no exception.
Sometimes, Huang Tinghao would also have doubts: Why did he try so hard to collect money and food to train an army, and then serve the court to fight against the Chu thieves?
Get promoted and make a fortune?
Just giving someone an official hat for promotion is of no use.
As for making a fortune, the imperial court does not even provide military expenses now, and all military supplies have to be collected by oneself. If it is for money, he can skip military training and directly put the collected money into his own pocket. It's ten thousand taels.
But Song Zushun didn't, and neither did he Huang Tinghao.
Therefore, promotion and wealth were non-existent for many Ming court generals who fought on the front line against the Chu army, even for high-ranking border officials like Song Zushun.
Song Zushun's governor of water transportation was removed as soon as Chongzhen told him to do so...
For another example, Yang Sichang, who now succeeds Song Zushun and is the governor of Shandong, Baoding, Southern Zhili and other places, may not necessarily end well.
This man had just been defeated in the battle with Chu Nan two years ago, and was dismissed by Chongzhen and imprisoned in Tianlao. He stayed in Tianlao for a long time before being reinstated by Chongzhen.
It is said that Yang Sichang once refused and did not want to serve as the new governor. However, Chongzhen was also a stubborn boy and insisted on doing what was right.
After Yang Sichang postponed his appointment, Chongzhen issued two consecutive decrees to appoint him. He also gave Yang Sichang the title of Minister of the Ministry of War and Imperial Envoy of the Right Capital. He also added the title of Prince Shaobao and returned the words Shang Fang Baojian. It is said that he personally said to Yang Sichang, I only trust you.
Yang Sichang, who received such courtesy, was so excited that he immediately forgot about the old story that when the governor-general was fighting in the Huguang provinces, he only lost one battle and was beaten to the end by Chongzhen. Then he resolutely went south to Huai'an to preside over the battle against the Chu bandits on the southern front.
However, Huang Tinghao is not optimistic about Yang Sichang's comeback this time.
In his opinion, it is estimated that Yang Sichang will be dismissed from office by the angry emperor in a few months...
Yang Sichang, who was considered a famous official, was treated like this. Song Zushun and his subordinates such as Huang Tinghao and other generals could not expect any preferential treatment.
However, even so, what should be maintained still needs to be maintained, so Song Zushun still searched for money, food, guns and artillery as much as possible to maintain the army in Yangzhou, and even tried his best to improve the combat effectiveness of the Jiangbei New Standard Army and get more Where are the guns?
His immediate boss, Song Zushun, did not have much money to support Huang Tinghao, but he also hinted to Huang Tinghao that when working in Gaoyou Prefecture, there was no need to look forward and backward. No matter what, the military supply problem had to be solved. If anything went wrong, he, Song, would directly take care of it.
Huang Tinghao spent a lot of money and food in secret and overtly, and then expanded two infantry battalions, and set up artillery battalions, cavalry, and baggage racks. This process naturally caused quite a stir. There was a backlash against him, and many people reported him, but they were all suppressed by Song Zushun. Song Zushun also resisted the court's questioning.
With Song Zushun at his head, Huang Tinghao was confident that if he was given another three or four months, the strength of his men would be doubled.
Artillery and cavalry are difficult to deal with, but infantry battalions are relatively easy to expand.
It was a pity that the Chu thief on the opposite side did not give him such time.
