March 20th, the fourth year of Chengshun in the Chu Empire and the eleventh year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty.
On this day, tens of thousands of people from the Great Chu Empire captured Huai'an City. During this battle, there were more than 10,000 Ming troops in the city, more than 2,000 casualties, and the remaining 10,000 people surrendered one after another.
On this day, Yang Sichang suddenly suffered a stroke and died. Dozens of remaining civil and military officials surrendered, fled or died!
After this battle, the Ming Dynasty not only lost the two strategic cities of Yangzhou and Huai'an, but also lost its main force of more than 50,000 people. Among them, the only new champion of Jiangbei that the Ming Dynasty could handle in Jiangbei, the Water Transport Superintendent mark.
After the destruction of the Water Transport Supervisor, there was no longer a new main force from Huai'an to Youzhou!
The Chu army completely wiped out the Jiangbei New Biao Army and the Water Transport Supervisor, which was even more significant than the conquest of Yangzhou City and Huai'an City itself.
You must know that in the first two months of the battle, the Chu army did not launch an attack on Yangzhou and Huai'an immediately. Instead, they adopted a roundabout attack strategy, first capturing Sizhou and even Taoyuan County, Suqian, Qinghe and other places. It was to block the northward escape route of these two new standard armies.
The Chu army did not want the two main New Standard troops to break through and flee north, and then continue to fight to the death with the Chu army in Shandong, Beizhili and other places.
In that case, the Chu army will be able to take it by then, but it will definitely be a lot of trouble and the cost will be greater.
After all, it is much easier to launch a large-scale encirclement and annihilation campaign in Jiangbei than in Beizhili.
Now that the strategic goal has been successfully achieved, Luo Zhixue is also very satisfied!
The Battle of Jiangbei has reached this point, and most of the strategic objectives have basically been completed. Next, only Hefei and Fengyang are left, especially Fengyang, a strategic location that has not yet been captured.
These two places, especially Fengyang City, were more troublesome for the previous Chu army.
The trouble is not that Fengyang City itself has strong fortifications, but rather fortresses and the like.
It’s the trouble in the marching process.
From Chuzhou controlled by the Chu army all the way north to Fengyang City, the road is very empty, which is very suitable for cavalry mobile operations. The Ming army deployed more than 5,000 cavalry in this area, and they were all uniform. A frontier cavalry capable of charging and shooting on horseback.
Unfortunately, the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire have never been able to gain any advantage in the Jiangbei area for so long, and they were even suppressed most of the time!
The only main cavalry brigade under the Chu army, the First Cavalry Brigade, was busy putting out fires all day long and could not do anything else...
If these cavalry were left alone and the army was sent north without hesitation, the army would probably be pinned down by the enemy cavalry before they even reached Fengyang City, and the safety of the logistics line would be out of the question.
What a slap in the face!
This is also the reason why the Chu army has not captured Hefei and Fengyang City in the Jiangbei area for so long.
However, with the opening of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Chu army capturing Sizhou and Jiuxian along the Huaihe River, the logistical channel problem that had troubled the Chu army for several months would no longer be a problem.
The enemy's cavalry is strong, so the Chu army will not transport by land, but by water, directly transporting the logistics materials all the way to Fengyang City through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Hongze Lake, and the Huaihe River...
Your cavalry comes to intercept. The navy's river fleet is no longer a vegetarian. The navy's firepower is much more powerful than the army's artillery force...
Under such circumstances, the Chu army is also preparing to launch the Battle of Fengyang in the next stage. As for Hefei further south, it seems to be close, but supplies are more difficult to obtain, so it has to be delayed.
Besides, if Fengyang City can be captured, then the Ming army in Hefei City in the south will easily fall into a huge strategic encirclement. At that time, the Chu army will attack from three directions of Lujiang, Chuzhou, and Fengyang at the same time. Hefei, the Ming army in Hefei City was afraid that it would be surrounded and annihilated.
Therefore, when the Chu army planned the front-line battle in Fengyang, Hefei, they decided to attack Fengyang first, while Hefei waited for the attack later.
Considering that when going to fight in the Fengyang area, he might encounter a large number of enemy frontier cavalry, and there was a high possibility of a field battle. Therefore, after reflection and consideration, Luo Zhixue decided to dispatch the main force of the 10th Division of the New Force to go there.
The 1st Cavalry Brigade and the temporarily transferred 1st Cavalry Guards Regiment and 4th Cavalry Regiment will also accompany the battle.
In order to increase the ability of the westward advancing troops to resist cavalry attacks, the Chu army transferred some of the many four-wheeled carriages from other troops to be assigned to the 10th Division, allowing the tenth division's baggage regiment and other troops to be assigned more four-wheeled carriages.
Four-wheeled carriages not only could carry more supplies, but more importantly, they could easily form defensive formations to resist cavalry attacks.
They even increased the number of two-and-a-half kilogram field guns in the Tenth Division.
In the many previous battles between the Chu Army and the Ming Army cavalry, it was found that the two-and-a-half-pound field cannon was light in weight, fast in maneuverability, and easy to deploy. The most important thing was that the two-and-a-half-pound field cannon in the Chu Army was fired in a fixed installation. The medicine packs, no matter the distance, are all filled with standard medicine.
The combination of these various aspects results in the fact that although the power of this artillery is average, its rate of fire is extremely fast. Under the control of a skilled gunner, it can achieve five rounds in two minutes, which is basically the same as the rate of fire of a musket.
The high rate of fire is very effective against cavalry.
After all preparations were completed, the two infantry regiments of the 10th Division and other divisional troops began to march westward along the Huaihe River. They would first go to Jiuxian County to join the 38th Regiment of the 10th Division, and then fight together toward Fengyang City.
The 1st Cavalry Brigade and two cavalry regiments marched with the 10th Division to provide peripheral cavalry reconnaissance, interception and other tasks.
As a result, a large gray army was soon seen moving westward, and in the Huaihe River not far away from them, there were a large number of fleets heading together under the cover of the Navy's Canal Squadron.
After the Tenth Division and other troops advanced westward, Luo Zhixue ordered the First Division and the Eleventh Division of the Third Army to go north to Xuzhou to reinforce the 23rd Mixed Brigade that was attacking Xuzhou.
Accompanying the two main divisions heading north, there were more than two thousand supplementary soldiers. These supplementary soldiers were all recruits from the recruit training camp in Jinling City.
The reason why it is emphasized that they are new recruits is because they are all new recruits who have been trained to be equipped with flintlock guns from the beginning.
After these new soldiers arrive in Xuzhou, they will be incorporated into the 23rd Mixed Brigade. After being mixed with the original strength of the 23rd Mixed Brigade, the 23rd Mixed Brigade will be expanded by two more infantry battalions.
Although the 23rd Composite Brigade bears the name of a Composite Brigade, its initial establishment was in the form of a brigade-directed battalion. The brigade administered five infantry battalions plus an artillery battalion, baggage battalion, engineer battalion and other units. .
However, in order to carry out a cross-sea raid on Haizhou, and the navy's demand for transportation capacity that could be guaranteed in a short period of time was also limited, it only had three infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, one baggage battalion, and a small brigade when it set out for combat. It is an assault battalion with a total strength of only over 4,000 troops.
This force is actually not as large as the 39th Reinforcement Regiment led by Brigadier General Meng Junli, deputy commander of the 10th Division.
Now that the brigade has been fighting inland, there is no need to worry about any transportation issues, so the Ministry of Military Affairs has added two more infantry battalions and part of the artillery baggage and other troops to the mixed brigade according to the predetermined plan, allowing the second The Thirteenth Mixed Brigade was expanded to full strength with five infantry battalions and related artillery, cavalry, baggage and engineers.
The 23rd Mixed Brigade at full strength will be a large-scale mixed brigade with more than 7,000 people.
Moreover, it is a large-scale mixed brigade with mobile combat capabilities, and its combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of a second-class division.
This is also the reason why Bai Yangrong, the commander of the 23rd Mixed Brigade, is an army major general.
Two divisions of the Third Army, a group of supplementary targets, and a large number of fleets headed north.
Luo Zhixue issued a third strategic order, ordering the First Guards Division and the Fourth Division of the First Army to continue heading north and advance toward Shandong.
The First Army advanced towards Shandong in order to cooperate with the war in Henan.
When the general staff of the Da Chu Empire formulated the Northern Expedition, they actually largely referred to Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition many years ago, and took more into account its own huge material consumption and reliance on canals and shipping. Therefore, the entire Northern Expedition could be It is very clear that the Chu army basically mobilized around rivers and coastal areas.
For example, Yangzhou, Gaoyouzhou, Huai'an, Sizhou, Qinghe, Suqian, Fengyang and other cities, as well as the cities where the Chu army mainly attacked and had large-scale battles with the Ming army, are all cities along the river.
There is another one that may seem inconspicuous, but actually played a significant tactical role in the early days and greatly restricted the early troop mobilization of the Ming army in the Haizhou landing operation. This is a coastal city.
Even subsequent battles will most likely follow this principle. The Chu army will march westward along the Yellow River and attack cities along the Yellow River such as Xuzhou, Guide, Kaifeng, and Luoyang.
At the same time, they will move north along the canal and along the coast to attack Shandong.
For example, attack Yanzhou Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture along the canal, and then move eastward along the Daqing River into Jinan Prefecture and the northern part of Qingzhou Prefecture.
For example, along the coast, under the cover of the navy, launch an attack from the coastal direction to the north, capturing the central and southern parts of Qingzhou Prefecture, Laizhou Prefecture, Dengzhou Prefecture and other places.
During this process, the navy was also preparing to land on the eight islands in Changshan, Dengzhou Prefecture, and even directly land and capture Penglai, Dengzhou, so that it could subsequently hoard and replenish supplies by sea to support the huge consumption of the Northern Expeditionary Army.
Looking at these offensive directions, it is not difficult to find that the Chu army actually relies very heavily on logistics in its operations. Basically, after leaving the rivers and coasts, if land transportation encounters slight obstacles.
Its combat effectiveness, especially its artillery firepower, will drop drastically in an instant, and then it will often be powerless against those strong cities and fortresses.
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Luo Zhixue doesn't have any good ideas for this!
One of the great advantages of the Chu army is its powerful artillery force. It is impossible for the Chu army to give up a large number of artillery in order to reduce logistical pressure.
Without a large number of artillery, is the Chu army still a Chu army?
Furthermore, the Ming army likes to play defensive operations. The battle between the Chu army and the Ming army is a process of constantly prying the Ming army's turtle shell... As a result, his army had to carry a large number of mortars and siege artillery. These heavy artillery Once there are more, the consumption of various types of ammunition, mules and horses, food and grass will naturally increase.
Therefore, there is no way to avoid logistical dependence.
And with the continuous development of military technology, the military's reliance on logistics will also become greater and greater.
There is no way to avoid the increasing logistics consumption, so we can only improve our logistics transportation and support capabilities as much as possible.
And the key here is the cavalry!
For contemporary warfare, cavalry is indispensable. The flatter the terrain and the farther away from rivers and coasts, the higher the importance of cavalry.
If there is no cavalry in fighting in these places, even the logistics line cannot be guaranteed!
Therefore, Luo Zhixue couldn't help but think deeply when he looked at the map of Fengyang Mansion.
Nowadays, there are thousands of cavalry in Fengyang Prefecture. They are all elite cavalry of the border army. Their combat effectiveness is not weak, at least not as bad as the Chu Army's First Cavalry Brigade. There are many cavalrymen under the Chu Army's division. The troops are suffering!
If you can get this cavalry...
