The Great Chu Empire was in the fourth year of Chengshun and the eleventh year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty.
On February 13, after a long-distance attack, the 39th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Division of the Chu Army finally reached Taoyuan County.
At this time, the more than a thousand defenders in Taoyuan County were already panicking. You must know that the local defenders were not the main force in the Ming army. Let alone the new standard army, there were only a few guardsmen. Most of the more than a thousand people were young men and women recruited by the local government, as well as government officials.
The local officials also knew that the strength of the defenders under their command was extremely poor and it was impossible to stop the Chu army's attack.
Do you know that the Chu army that rushed to attack outside Taoyuan County only had one reinforced regiment, but its actual strength was more than 4,000.
And this is only part of the Chu army heading north. In fact, there is also a 10th Cavalry Regiment wandering around the periphery to guard against Ming army reinforcements, especially Ming army cavalry attacks.
Therefore, the troops arriving at Taoyuan City were mainly infantry, artillery, baggage and other troops, with a strength of about 4,000.
The reason why a reinforced regiment has more than 4,000 troops is mainly because the 39th Infantry Regiment belongs to the 10th Division, and the 10th Division is the earliest and most standard in the Chu army.
Because this Chu army is the 10th Division using flintlock guns and a new organization.
The new troops in the Chu army that used flintlock guns were organized differently from the old troops. There was no brigade organization. Instead, the division had three infantry regiments, a baggage regiment, an artillery regiment, a cavalry regiment, and an engineering regiment under its direct jurisdiction. Barracks, light infantry battalions and other division-affiliated units.
The reason why the brigade organization was not continued was because the regiment-level organization in the new organization was too large.
In the new organization, the number of infantry regiments reached more than 3,000. It consisted of three infantry battalions and an artillery battalion and other regiment-affiliated units. Each of the subordinate infantry battalions reached more than 900 people.
Each infantry battalion has six sentries, five of which are musketeers with one hundred and twenty musketeers, and one grenadier sentry with one hundred and forty grenadiers.
The expansion of the infantry battalion led to the expansion of the regiment-level establishment. In the end, in order to prevent the division-level troops from reaching a huge establishment of more than 20,000 people, the method of adopting a division-directed regiment was finally chosen. During specific battles, an infantry regiment was often used as the main unit. At the core, a number of auxiliary forces are strengthened to form a reinforced regiment for fighting.
In other words, the strategic unit of the Chu army in the new army is the division, and the tactical unit is the regiment.
Under this organization, the 39th Regiment under the 10th Division has strengthened field artillery, baggage troops, engineers, division cavalry and other auxiliary units, and the strength of the reinforced regiment has reached more than 4,000 people.
The strength is roughly the same as that of the previous mixed brigade.
The main force of 4,000 Chu army regular troops came to Taoyuan County. Just looking at it was enough to make the Taoyuan County officials on the city wall tremble with fear.
Then, they made a very conscientious and realistic choice.
He directly opened the city gate to welcome the Great Chu King's troops into the city...
resistance?
What kind of Huayi joke are you kidding? How can those thousands of garrison troops patched together with not even two guns or two pieces of armor be able to stop the menacing Chu army outside the city?
"God's Coming"
They themselves don’t believe it!
In order to protect the lives of more than a thousand soldiers in the city, thousands of people as well as gentry officials in the city, they decisively chose to open the city gate and surrender before the Chu army officially launched their attack.
Now that the defenders and officials in Taoyuan County have surrendered, Brigadier General Meng Junli, deputy commander of the 10th Division, who led the 39th Infantry Regiment, the 10th Cavalry Regiment, the 1st Artillery Battalion of the 10th Artillery Regiment and other troops to fight north was not too embarrassed. Make things difficult for these surrenderers.
They didn't even support the tax officials to clean up the whole city as they did in the past.
The main reason was that they came here to engage in siege operations, not to collect money and food after capturing Taoyuan County, so even the officials from the tax department did not come with them.
Therefore, after he led his army into the city, he only took over the local government's official warehouse, and then symbolically accepted all kinds of money, food and materials donated by the local gentry, and did not engage in any actions such as confiscation.
This was all to avoid local unrest and trigger an armed backlash from the gentry and landlords.
Although the Chu army was not afraid of any armed resistance from these landowners, it was still troublesome. Brigadier General Meng Junli had important things to do now, and he had no intention of playing house games with the local gentry and landowners.
So, after entering the city, he simply sorted out the young and strong local people who had surrendered, and then simply selected a few dozen soldiers with military backgrounds and good riding skills to add to his supply troops on the spot, while the rest waited on the spot. Dismiss them to prevent them from being used by malicious people in the future.
Subsequently, Meng Junli left an infantry battalion and several artillery troops in Taoyuan County for garrison, while he himself led his troops north along the canal, heading in the direction of Suqian.
He had received a notification from the 23rd Mixed Brigade, saying that the 23rd Mixed Brigade was about to arrive in the Suqian area. However, the 23rd Mixed Brigade's reconnaissance cavalry discovered that a Ming army of about two to three thousand people was approaching from the direction of Shandong. Went to Suqian for reinforcements.
At the same time, a part of the Ming army was also directed south to reinforce Suqian in the direction of Xuzhou.
Obviously, in the past period of time, the surrounding Ming armies have been aware of the Chu army's strategic intentions and knew that the Chu army was heading towards Suqian, so the surrounding Ming armies began to reinforce Suqian.
Due to its own lack of firepower, supply difficulties, and the large number of enemy reinforcements in Suqian, the 23rd Mixed Brigade finally requested assistance from the 10th Division.
This is mainly because the 23rd Mixed Brigade landed from the sea and launched an attack inland. They carried a limited number of artillery and limited ammunition. There was no problem in fighting in the field, but if they wanted to fight a tough battle, I am afraid that the firepower and ammo.
When the 23rd Mixed Brigade marched inland from Haizhou, it lacked everything...
In terms of artillery, there are only four nine-pound field guns, four five-pound field guns, and six two-and-a-half-pound field guns, and the amount of ammunition is also limited.
The transportation aspect is also very worrying. Some of the mules and horses transported by ships were not adaptable to the turbulence of the sea. Some of them died directly, and some of them turned into soft-legged shrimps even when they arrived in Haizhou, forcing the Chu army to make temporary arrangements in Haizhou and surrounding areas. Requisition of mules and horses.
However, it is difficult to collect a large number of mules and horses in a short period of time and in a small area.
As a result, when the 23rd Mixed Brigade marched to Suqian, the mules and horses used could only be used to pull cannons and ammunition. There were a large number of ordinary baggage carriages, but they lacked mules and horses, and finally had to A large number of civilians were requisitioned and marched directly with the army.
As a result, it has been raining in Haizhou in the past few days. Although the rain is not heavy, which is the level of ordinary spring rain, it has rained for two or three days in a row, making the roads muddy and difficult to travel.
When we marched, we were unlucky enough to have two nine-pound field cannons. We didn't pay attention when crossing the river, and they directly crushed a bridge that was in disrepair. The two nine-pound field cannons, along with the mules, horses and dozens of soldiers, fell directly. Entering the river, even though this river is not a big river, it is still about ten meters wide and several meters deep. It is really impossible to fish out the nine-pound field artillery weighing one ton in a while...
In the end, they could only leave a small number of manpower and continue to find people locally to salvage the artillery, while the main force continued to advance.
This march westward made the 23rd Mixed Brigade suffer a lot.
It can be said that the Chu army and the Ming army have been fighting for several years, and the main force has never been so embarrassed... I didn't even see many shadows of the enemy along the way, but they were stunned and disgraced.
The angry Major General Bai Yangrong, commander of the 23rd Mixed Brigade, cursed repeatedly.
After a while, I scolded the thief for his lack of foresight. It’s obviously only February and it’s not the rainy season yet. You’re going to make damn rain.
After a while, he scolded the people in the Logistics Department, saying that they were all blind. They didn't even prepare raincoats for the soldiers, so they could only use all kinds of raincoats from the people in Haizhou City and surrounding villages. , rainproof equipment such as hats and hats are all sold out... This is not enough.
After a while, he scolded those bastards in the navy for driving the ship and walking like fucking zombies, jumping and jumping, causing many of the soldiers under his command to suffer from vomiting and diarrhea. The soldiers under his command had already been carried out for months in advance. Adaptability training made me adapt well to seasickness, and I finally got over it.
But the hundreds of mules and horses that accompanied the army could not withstand it, and half of them died at sea. By the time they reached Haizhou, the remaining half had turned into soft-legged shrimps...
In the end, along the way, Bai Yangrong scolded this and that...
"I became a slave to the dragon when I was in Funiu Mountain. I have fought countless big and small battles, but I have never been so aggrieved!"
This was the first thing Brigadier General Bai Yangrong said after seeing Brigadier General Meng Junli, deputy commander of the 10th Division...
Meng Junli glanced at Bai Yangrong's dirty and muddy general uniform, and looked at the short and thin donkey under his butt...
Then he showed a sympathetic look and said: "Brother Bai, this is really... Oh, it's been a hard journey!"
Then Bai Yangrong waved his hand: "I'm afraid of hard work. The most important thing is that I camped in a dilapidated village on the way here. It rained at night, and the house where I stored the gunpowder collapsed. Half of the gunpowder was gone." …”
"Well, this time I attack Suqian, I'm afraid I have to support you with a batch of propellant. Otherwise, the few remaining artillery pieces I have will not be able to fire a few shots."
Meng Junli said: "Don't worry about this. I carry a lot of ammunition with the army. When I attacked Taoyuan County before, I didn't fire a single shot. The ammunition is still full, and the baggage troops behind are still continuing to transport it to our department." Ammunition, so you don’t have to worry about ammunition in the Suqian battle.”
After the two people initially discussed the follow-up battle against Suqian, they separated and went back to their respective teams. When they went back, Meng Junli couldn't help but look back at Bai Yangrong.
This person has been plagued with bad luck recently and is very dangerous!
There was a storm when we came over by boat, and then all the mules and horses in the army were destroyed...
After arriving in Haizhou, it didn’t rain in the vast Jiangbei area during this period of time. It only rained in Haizhou...
In addition, during the march, the bridges were crushed and the artillery fell into the river; while camping, the warehouse storing gunpowder collapsed...
Putting these things together, he seriously doubted that if he got close to Bai Yangrong, he would be easily affected by his bad luck.
Well, it was decided. Let Bai Yangrong take his 23rd mixed brigade north to the Pizhou area to intercept enemy reinforcements on the periphery.
In short, Meng Junli doesn't want to play with Bai Yangrong for the time being...for fear of being infected by his bad luck.
As for Suqian City, it's just a small broken city. He can just fight it by himself.
