Regarding the battles on the front lines of Hefei and Fengyang, what troubled the Chu army before was not how strong Fengyang City was, nor how strong Zhu Dadian's troops were.
But it is difficult to guarantee the safety of the marching process and subsequent logistics lines.
This security threat comes directly from the large number of Ming army frontier cavalry in the Jiangbei area.
It is also attributed to the Ming Army cavalry in the Jiangbei area.
When most of the Ming cavalry in Jiangbei surrendered to Chu, these problems disappeared instantly.
As a result, the 10th Division smoothly reached the foot of Fengyang City, and then launched a fierce attack on Fengyang City with guns and artillery.
Facts have once again proved that there was no Ming army and no city could really block the Chu army's attack these days.
When dozens of large-caliber mortars and dozens of field guns launched an artillery bombardment against Fengyang City, Zhu Dadian's troops simply could not resist.
Only three days after the siege, Fengyang City was captured by the Chu army.
The more than 10,000 defenders in Fengyang City suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and the remaining troops surrendered. Zhu Dadian burned himself to death!
After the fall of Fengyang City, news spread to Hefei, the capital of Luzhou, which directly led to civil strife among the local defenders, and a direct fight between the surrendering faction and the stubborn resistance faction.
After the capitulation faction finally suppressed the civil strife with absolute superiority, thousands of defenders took the initiative to leave the city and surrendered to the Eighth Division outside the city.
As Fengyang City and Hefei, the two most important defensive strongholds of the Ming Dynasty in the hinterland of Jiangbei, were successively occupied by the Chu army, the Chu Empire could also officially declare that it had mostly controlled Jiangbei, and a large number of Chu troops began to attack the northern part of Jiangbei. The region and even Henan and Shandong began to advance!
This also means that the Northern Expedition launched by the Great Chu Empire has entered the second stage: the Battle of the Central Plains and the Battle of Shandong!
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On April 5, the fourth year of Chengshun in the Chu Empire, Huai'an City along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
Luo Zhixue supported the convening of a new round of imperial strategy meeting. At the strategic meeting, based on the current situation, Luo Zhixue asked the military to prepare and formulate a combat plan for the next stage.
Luo Zhixue put forward three requirements for the strategic goals in the next stage.
The first is to capture the rest of the garrison in Jiangbei, including Lu'an in Luzhou Prefecture, and many other cities in Fengyang Prefecture such as Shouzhou, Yingzhou, Bozhou, Mengcheng, Suzhou, etc., and at the same time eliminate local rogue soldiers and thieves. and other large-scale illegal armed forces in order to fully integrate the Jiangbei area into the rule of the Chu Empire.
The second is to occupy the area south of the Yellow River and seize Tongguan. Even if Tongguan cannot be captured, heavy troops must be stationed outside Tongguan to guard against the new Qin army from the Shaanxi direction coming out of Tongguan, and at the same time to guard against the Ming army from the Shanxi direction crossing the river south. It affected the Chu army's actions in the Central Plains and Shandong areas.
Third, capture several strategic locations in Shandong south of Beizhili to lay a solid foundation for the subsequent comprehensive control of Shandong and the march into Beizhili.
These three strategic requirements put forward by Luo Zhixue actually correspond to the second stage of the Northern Expedition plan, which is to capture the Central Plains and Shandong.
In the specific plan, the Chu army wanted to block the Ming army in the direction of Shaanxi and Shanxi first, preventing them from interfering with the Chu army's war in the Central Plains and North China, and then seize Shandong and eliminate the flank threat from the north. Then they went north to the North China Plain on a large scale, that is, North Zhili, especially Youzhou City.
In response to the strategic requirements put forward by Luo Zhixue, the military, headed by the General Staff Department, was also destined to formulate corresponding strategic plans.
The first is to make subtle readjustments to the various units that went north to fight and deploy strategic missions.
The First Army is responsible for the war in eastern Shandong. The First Guards Division and the Fourth Division under its command have a total of nearly 30,000 people. They plan to start from Haizhou and continue to advance north, planning to capture Qingzhou, Jiaozhou and other places.
In addition, the 23rd Mixed Brigade of the Army, which had just captured Xuzhou, was redeployed to Haizhou, preparing to work with the 1st Marine Regiment of the Navy to jointly implement the operational plan of landing on the eight islands in Changshan in the Yellow Sea and even subsequently capturing Dengzhou.
In order to facilitate the overall planning and command of the war in central and eastern Shandong, the 23rd Mixed Brigade was also temporarily placed under the jurisdiction of the First Army.
The Third Army is responsible for the main offensive mission in the eastern direction of Shandong, mainly in the direction of the canal. They must forcefully advance along the canal. Their operational goal at this stage is to capture various places along the canal and capture surrounding areas.
The main tactical targets are Yanzhou, Dongchang, Daming and Jinan Prefecture.
Because the scope of responsibility in this direction is relatively large, and it is expected to encounter a large number of border troops transferred from the north by the Ming Army, and may even encounter the Eastern Captive Forces, the Third Army is also the most powerful, with the First Division under its command , the 10th Division, and the 11th Division will become the main force in the early combat. At the same time, the 1st Cavalry Brigade and the 2nd Cavalry Brigade will also join the Third Army's combat sequence. Together with the two mortar regiments, the front-line combat force will be sufficient. There are more than 50,000 people.
As for the various transportation groups that assist in transporting baggage in the rear, the Chu army has never included these troops in its military statistics.
The Second Army is responsible for the follow-up war in the Jiangbei region. After all, many places in the Jiangbei region have not been captured yet. Even if they can be swept down in the follow-up, it will take time. How should I say, the march of the army will also take time. no……
However, the follow-up battle in Jiangbei does not require too many troops. Therefore, the Eighth Division under the Second Army will directly divert to Ruzhou Prefecture with the cooperation of the Third Cavalry Brigade to cooperate with the southern line at Yiyang Sanguan and other Dabie Mountain passes. Various units of the third division captured Ruzhou Prefecture.
When the Third Division enters Ruzhou Prefecture, the Eighth Division can continue to move north and join the 20th Division to capture Kaifeng Prefecture, Guide Prefecture and other places in Henan.
At the same time, the 1st, 16th, and 3rd Divisions stationed in Nanyang and Xiangyang were reorganized into the Fourth Army, responsible for the subsequent capture of Ruzhou, Henan, Ruzhou and other places. They also needed to be responsible for To seize Tongguan, even if Tongguan cannot be captured, Tongguan must be blocked to prevent the new Qin army under Sun Chuanting from fighting out of Tongguan.
There are thousands of New Qin Army cavalry under Sun Chuanting. Once they are allowed to break out of the Central Plains, they will easily cause big trouble to the Chu Army.
After the Army formulated relevant combat plans, Luo Zhixue did not hesitate too much and quickly approved various combat plans.
"Gene Era"
Then he sent away the senior generals who returned to Huai'an to attend the imperial strategic meeting.
After entering mid-April, the Army of the Da Chu Empire began to take action one after another in accordance with this strategic deployment.
However, the units of the Second Army in the Jiangbei direction were the first to take action. For example, they were closer to the enemy and the targets were not too difficult to hit, so they had to move faster.
Good news is also coming one after another.
On April 14, the Eighth Division of the Chu Army captured Lu'an, annihilating more than a thousand enemies, and then headed towards the shopping mall in the direction of Ruzhou Prefecture, Henan.
On April 20, the Eighth Division of the Chu Army captured Shangcheng and officially entered Henan.
The 20th Division on the other side first took over the local area and surrendered Dingyuan. Suizhou arrived at Fengyang City and took over the defense of the 10th Division. Then it divided its troops and its 39th Brigade attacked westward and occupied Shouzhou. , and then captured Yingzhou on April 25th.
The 40th Brigade of the 20th Division successively captured Guzhen and Suzhou, gathered their troops in Bozhou, and captured Bozhou on the 29th.
The two divisions under the Second Army swept through all parts of Jiangbei in just half a month, and then successively entered the Henan Prefecture area.
By the time May came, the Second Army of the Chu Army had completely ended the medium-to-large-scale fighting in Luzhou Prefecture and Fengyang Prefecture, and then fully advanced the front to the Henan area.
At the same time, the 104th Mixed Brigade of the Second Class Division, which was reorganized and established by accepting the local New Standard Army troops, began to garrison various places in Jiangbei and eliminate local remnants.
Luo Zhixue is quite satisfied with the progress of these small and medium-sized wars.
Sometimes large-scale battles are important, but some small and medium-sized battles are also important.
In a war, there are actually not many large-scale battles involving tens of thousands of people. Most of the time, the wars between the two sides are medium-sized battles that revolve around city after city and the scale of the battle is about a few thousand people.
The Chu army had launched the Northern Expedition for several months. In fact, it had only fought two relatively fierce and large-scale battles with the Ming army, namely the Battle of Yangzhou and the Battle of Huai'an. As for the others, they were either relatively small in scale or not very intense.
However, these seemingly ordinary battles also directly affected the progress of the strategic direction, and also further tested the command adaptability of front-line commanders and the overall quality of soldiers.
If it is not done well, it will cause relatively large casualties, and these casualties may seem to be few in each battle. However, if you can't stand it, fight every day and fight everywhere. Today there are dozens of casualties, and tomorrow there will be one or two hundred casualties in the next county. This adds up. It’s not a small number.
When the Second Army carried out a sweeping operation in the Jiangbei area, even if it went smoothly, it did not encounter much stubborn resistance. However, the casualties still exceeded more than 500, all of which were scattered casualties.
On the other hand, the two main forces, the First Army and the Third Army in the direction of Xuzhou and Haizhou, have not suffered any casualties yet.
The main reason is that the Chu army also needs to hoard a large amount of ammunition, food, grass and other supplies in Xuzhou and Haizhou for the follow-up troops to fight north. However, the transportation capacity is limited whether by canal or sea, so it is so huge. The transportation of materials also takes time.
According to the military's plan, the war in Shandong cannot be launched until May.
Before that, they did nothing else but rush to transport various strategic materials, replenish and replace guns, etc.
Before that, the 23rd Combined Brigade of the Navy and Army had to take action in advance. Just like they landed at Haizhou in the previous Jiangbei Campaign, they would go north in advance and land on the eight islands of Changshan.
On the one hand, it is to contain the enemy, and on the other hand, it is also to transport a large amount of supplies to the eight islands of Changshan in advance, so that the various units of the First Army that enter the eastern part of the Shandong Peninsula can be supplied nearby.
Ever since, Army Major General Bai Yangrong, commander of the 23rd Mixed Brigade, cursed and led his troops to board the ship and head north...
It's no use just scolding. During the bumpy ride on the boat, you still have to vomit what you need to...
When Bai Yangrong arrived by boat at Changshan Island, one of the eight islands in Changshan, he was all helped ashore!
After landing on the shore, Bai Yangrong's face was extremely pale, and he weakly cursed at the group of naval generals behind him: "A classic national curse... If I ever get on a ship of your navy again in this life, I will write my last name upside down!"
But after saying this, the chief of staff next to him, who also had a pale face and weak steps, said weakly: "Brigade commander, we have to take a boat to land in Penglai again..."
When Bai Yangrong heard this, his face became even more ugly. He let out another curse, and then said: "I'll just swim over there..."
