With heavy snow blocking roads in the northern provinces, the Chu Empire's medium- and large-scale military operations north of the Yangtze River have basically come to a halt.
Then they started to clear out illegal armed forces and gang-related and explosive personnel in several northern provinces.
The war in the north seems to be covered by white snow.
On the other hand, medium-sized battles continued to break out in the southern region. In October, the Fifth Division under the Southwest Campaign Command captured Anlong Division in the far west of Guangxi. After Anlong Division was captured by the Chu army, it was announced that Guangxi had It fell completely under the control of the Da Chu Empire.
After capturing Anlongsi, the Fifth Division will continue to advance westward and begin to march toward Yunnan.
At the same time, the Seventh Division was also fighting towards Guizhou.
In addition, the 19th Division launched an attack from the Chunan area to Guizhou.
The troops invested by the Chu army in Yunnan and Guizhou have reached three first-class divisions, which can be said to be a lot of troops.
However, there are many mountains and dense forests in the Yunnan-Guizhou area. Marching in this direction is very troublesome. Not only is it difficult to supply, but it is also difficult to transport artillery. What is also disgusting is that due to the harsh climate, non-combat attrition is very serious. .
Therefore, in the war in the direction of Yunnan and Guizhou, the Chu army has always adopted a strategy of fighting steadily and advancing gradually, even fighting in the front while building roads behind...
Although the progress is slow, the cost is small, and non-combat attrition is within control.
Moreover, the southwest is not greatly affected by winter, so it can continue to launch attacks throughout the winter.
Although it is in the Little Ice Age, even in parts of Guangdong and Guangxi in the south, you can see white snowflakes in winter. But this is the south after all. Even if it snows, it is unlikely to be heavy, and the snow on the ground is even thicker. It will not melt all winter long.
Under such circumstances, although the winter will be colder, it will not greatly affect medium- and large-scale military operations.
Even to a certain extent, in the winter in the south, there is not much snow, and at the same time it rarely rains, and the roads do not become muddy due to water accumulation, the entire logistics supply is more convenient than in spring and summer.
This is also an important reason why the Chu Empire likes to launch medium and large-scale campaigns in winter and before the rainy season in the southern region.
This winter, after deliberation, the senior leaders of the Dachu Empire decided to increase support for the southwest front to a certain extent and mobilize some troops to attack Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan when the fighting in the north stopped and the pressure was not too great.
However, this kind of reinforcement is actually limited, and is far less than the reinforcement of the northern troops.
Therefore, the scale of the fight will not be too large, and the Military Academy did not ask the southwest team to win Yungui or even Sichuan this winter. They just thought that they could not fight in the north in the winter anyway, so they would stretch their muscles in the south. Seize several cities and expand the control area.
As for the strategic core of the entire Chu Empire, it is still the northern region, to be precise, Shanxi and the Shaanxi-Gansu region.
Although the fighting in the north has stopped at present, there will definitely be another large-scale attack after the spring, especially the attack on Shanxi and the Shaanxi-Gansu region.
The senior leaders of the Dachu Empire hope to regain Shanxi and the Shaanxi-Gansu region next year. This is not only to expand the territory, but more importantly, to ensure the security of the hinterland of the Central Plains, and at the same time to end the war on the northwest defense line as much as possible, and then free up troops. Used for the battle in the northeast and subsequent battles into Sichuan.
Therefore, the Dachu Empire continues to provide reinforcements to Shaanxi and Shanxi front lines, including troops, weapons, ammunition and even food.
Luo Zhixue held an imperial strategy meeting in Jinling City in late October and initially formulated a strategic plan for next year.
The strategic plan is very simple, that is, to launch attacks on Shanxi and Shaanxi from multiple directions at the same time.
In addition to the original First Army, Fourth Army and several second-class divisions, the planned force will also send the newly formed Fifth Army in the Jiangbei area to the battlefield.
The Fifth Army consists of the 24th Division and the 25th Division.
The core 24th Division and the 25th Division are new troops newly formed after the 23rd Division of the Great Chu Empire. The infantry are all equipped with 2-year-old flintlocks and adopt brand-new line tactics. Conduct training.
In terms of artillery distribution, the infantry troops completely gave up the short-barreled artillery of two to three hundred kilograms, and instead fully equipped two and a half kilograms of field artillery as infantry support firepower.
In the divisional artillery regiment, the 24-pound mortar and the 48-pound mortar were completely abandoned.
The Chu army discovered in many actual battles in the past that although these mortars were effective in siege warfare, they were basically useless in other combat effectiveness, especially in field combat. At the same time, those 48-pound mortars were not light, weighing over a thousand kilograms. Well, if the main force moves with these mortars, most of the time it will be lonely, and it will also consume a lot of mules, horses, and food.
Therefore, at a military meeting in October, the Army decided to separate mortars and field artillery. Division-level troops will only have direct control of three field artillery of different calibers to further enhance mobility and reduce logistical pressure.
As for the mortars, they were further centralized and reorganized. Especially the 48-pound mortars, which existed purely for siege, were separately organized into each mortar regiment or even mortar brigade, and were directly assigned to each army and campaign commander. Departments, which will be strengthened to each division and corps during the battle according to the situation, and are specially used for critical operations.
On the other hand, because the eighteen-pound mortar was light in weight and could even be carried directly by mules and horses, it continued to be organized in each infantry regiment and used as front-line infantry support firepower.
The two divisions under the Fifth Army were the first to carry out artillery reform. After more than half a year of training and many exercises, they have achieved combat effectiveness. So this winter, they will go to Tongguan together with other friendly troops - Lushi's front line is preparing for the westward campaign to start next year.
When the Fifth Army was transferred from Jiangbei, the Sixth Army, which had recruited and trained troops in Jiangxi and Anlu, was also officially declared an army and entered a period of adaptive training.
The 26th Division and the 27th Division under the Sixth Army are also the latest two main divisions in the Chu Empire to reach full strength and form an army.
The 28th Division, the 29th Division, and the 30th Division that follow are still empty frames for the time being.
If nothing unexpected happens, the number of the first-class divisions of the Chu Army will only be ranked thirty in the short term.
Limited by military expenditure pressure and the production capacity of flintlocks and artillery, the Dachu Empire cannot continue to expand the size of the first-class division uncontrollably.
There can be thirty first-class divisions. This is already the result of the huge external pressure of multi-front operations. Even after the unification war is over, these thirty first-class divisions may have to be downsized to a certain extent, otherwise The pressure on military spending is too great.
The first-class divisions in the Chu army, regardless of whether they were old-style divisions using matchlocks or new-style divisions using flintlock muskets, each had a strength of about 14,000 men.
Thirty first-class divisions, then the total strength reaches more than 400,000.
And this does not include the cavalry brigades, which have expanded to more than ten brigades, more than twenty mortar regiments, and multiple heavy artillery regiments.
Add these up, and it is possible to reach 500,000 when fully staffed.
And with so many field troops, the pressure on the Chu Empire was already great.
You know, these are field troops and the cost is not small.
At the same time, it is impossible for the Chu Empire to spend all its military expenditures on the Army's First-Class Division. In addition to the Army's First-Class Division, there are also three Guards Divisions and the Navy that directly belong to the royal family.
However, despite this, the current military strength of the Da Chu Empire is still very tight. Thirty first-class divisions may seem like a lot, but when spread across various fronts, they are not many.
For example, in the Yunnan-Guizhou direction, there are only three first-class divisions in total, and the three first-class divisions are seriously understaffed, with a combined strength of just over 35,000 troops.
At present, many first-class divisions, especially those that do not have too severe combat missions, are actually not fully staffed. So many first-class division numbers are needed because there are not enough arrangements, but for the sake of To control military expenditures, the Army will adjust the number of troops and equipment of different Class A divisions as appropriate.
The three first-class divisions in the Yunnan-Guizhou direction only have about 12,000 people per person.
In addition, the 13th Division to suppress in Guangdong, the 21st Division to suppress in Zhejiang, and the 12th Division to suppress in Fujian, these divisions have even fewer troops, with only about 10,000 people per capita.
First-class divisions are very expensive and cannot be formed in large numbers. Even if they have many numbers, they cannot be fully staffed.
At the same time, a large number of first-class divisions must be upgraded to replace their equipment and launch their guns. The combination of many circumstances prompted the Dachu Empire to accelerate the expansion plan of the second-class divisions.
In the past six months, the Da Chu Empire Army has tasted the benefits of the second-class division.
The 100th Division and the 101st Division were prepared in the Anlu and Wannan areas. These two earliest second-class divisions successfully maintained a certain amount of infantry combat effectiveness at a relatively low cost and were used to garrison local areas and suppress civil strife. .
These two divisions had previously participated in the illegal armed suppression operations in the Jiangbei area. Because the enemies lacked heavy firepower, and even lacked illegal cavalry weapons, these two second-class divisions, even though they lacked heavy firepower and artillery, relied on their ability to The infantry combat effectiveness of the Bijia Division still successfully completed various combat missions.
The success of these two divisions led the Chu army to form a second-class division in Jiangbei, Shandong, and Henan, namely the 102nd Division, the 103rd Division, and the 104th Division.
Later, the 105th Division and the 106th Division were prepared in the central and southern areas of Beizhili.
The above-mentioned five second-class divisions are used for internal suppression, maintaining logistics lines, and participating in illegal armed suppression operations. Although their performance has been good and bad, they are generally good. The 106th Division also recruited mules and horses on the spot. , after replenishing a batch of field artillery, they were transferred to Shanhaiguan. They participated in the Shanhaiguan battle and performed well.
The existence of these five second-class divisions directly liberated the main first-class divisions participating in the Northern Expedition, allowing each first-class division to safely participate in front-line battles such as Jiliao and Xuanda.
After conquering Youzhou, taking Shanhaiguan, and successively taking over the Great Wall defense lines such as Jiliao and Xuanda, and recruiting tens of thousands of local border troops, the Chu army formed five B-level troops on the spot based on the above-mentioned border troops. and other divisions, used to garrison the defense lines of the Great Wall.
They are the 107th Division and the 108th Division on the Jiliao front line.
The 109th Division, the 110th Division, and the 111th Division on the front line of Xuanda University.
Although these five second-class divisions were reorganized from the frontier army and their combat effectiveness was not very good, after supplementing them with a certain number of cold weapons, matchlock guns, and small and medium-caliber field artillery, their combat effectiveness was improved, and they assisted several frontline troops. There is not much problem in fighting with an A-class division.
Because the second-class divisions performed well on the northern front, the Army recruited troops and formed more second-class divisions on the spot in Guangdong, Guangxi, southern Chu, northern Chu, Henan, and central and southern parts of North Zhili.
They are the 112th Division in the Guangdong direction.
The 113th Division in the direction of Guangxi.
The 114th and 115th Divisions heading north of Chu.
North Zhili faces the 116th and 117th Divisions in the Shanxi direction.
The 118th and 119th Divisions in the direction of Chunan.
The 120th Division in the Jiangxi direction.
So far, the Da Chu Empire Army has finalized the designation of 21 second-class divisions, most of which have been organized, and a few are still being reorganized.
According to the army's plan, the second-class division will continue to expand, and during the expansion process, it will accept part of the troops of the first-class division, such as the spearmen from the first-class division...
Because all the old first-class divisions will start next year, they will be re-equipped one after another according to the re-equipment plan of the first division at that time. All the infantry units with mixed matchlocks and spearmen will be replaced with rifles equipped with flintlock muskets. Gunners, while reforming two brigades and four regiments of infantry into three regiments of infantry.
This means that there are a large number of spearmen who are either converted into musketeers or retired...
The Army doesn't want to choose either... they want to transfer a large number of spearmen from the old Class A Division to the Class B Division.
After all, the B Division is still an old-style unit equipped with matchlocks and spearmen for the time being. Due to the production capacity of flintlock muskets, the Chu Army may not be able to complete the army-wide replacement of flintlock muskets in the next five years.
In the past few years, let alone the second-class divisions, some first-class divisions have to continue to use matchlock guns.
A large number of spearmen in Class A divisions quit the front-line combat order and joined Class B divisions, which also reduced the training work of Class B divisions and ensured the infantry combat effectiveness of Class B divisions.
Therefore, on November 26, Luo Zhixue officially approved the Army's plan to refit some of the old Class A divisions deployed on the front line.
The establishment of nine more second-class divisions was also approved.
In this way, the Da Chu Empire Army will have thirty first-class divisions and thirty second-class divisions.
Although most of the A-class divisions and B-class divisions are destined to be unable to be fully equipped with full strength, the A-class division only has 10,000 troops, and the nine-pound field artillery is only in the single digits.
If a small number of second-class divisions fight in conjunction with first-class divisions, they may have eight or nine thousand troops. However, the second-class divisions that are located in the hinterland and have no combat missions may only have seven or eight thousand men, let alone artillery of medium caliber or above. .
But the numbers of the sixty divisions are also very scary.
The equipment required by the sixty divisions is naturally a huge amount. In order to ensure the smooth supply of equipment and ammunition, Luo Zhixue plans to inspect the Dangtu Industrial Zone again in December to inspect the major local factories, especially Dangtu. Construction of arsenal and production work.
