On February 21, the First Division of the 17th Division of the Chu Army captured Hanyin.
On February 23, the main force of the 17th Division of the Chu Army captured Ziyang County.
On February 29, the main force of the 17th Division of the Chu Army captured Shiquan.
By the time March entered, the 17th Division of the Chu Army had already entered Yangxian County, and the forward troops had even reached the outside of Yangxian County.
At this time, Sun Chuanting urgently mobilized troops and just started to set off...
Because of the long distance and difficult roads, Huang Dingquan, who was on the Tongguan front line, learned the news ten days after the Battle of Jinzhou, and Sun Chuanting, who was also in Tongguan, learned the news at about the same time.
Sun Chuanting only learned of the fall of Jinzhou on February 17, and urgently ordered the deployment of troops to reinforce Hanzhong Prefecture.
And his messengers went to Tongguan and Luonan to convey Sun Chuanting's order, no matter how fast it was, it would take a day or two.
After the order is conveyed, the transferred troops also need to gather their strength and prepare their luggage, especially the food and supplies for the army, which will take another day or two.
Therefore, when the 17th Division of the Chu Army reached the outside of Yang County, the reinforcements dispatched by Sun Chuanting set off from Tongguan, Luonan and other places to Hanzhong Prefecture.
What the 17th Division has to do is to take over the Hanzhong Plain area before they arrive.
To do this, we must first capture Yang County, the east gate of the Hanzhong Plain.
On March 3, the 17th Division, which had just arrived outside Yangxian City, did not rest for too long, and did not even wait for the arrival of heavy weapons such as five-pound or even nine-pound field artillery from the rear.
Because these heavy weapons are too heavy, they need to be transported by ship all the way. They are still behind us. It will take seven or eight days to wait for them to arrive.
Huang Guangmao knew that time was tight, and there were not many defenders in Yang County, and he didn't see any long-barreled artillery among them, so he directly ordered the attack.
Although they lacked more than five kilograms of robes, the Ming army on the opposite side had few troops and lacked long-barreled artillery.
The 17th Division of the Chu Army still relied on the firepower support of more than 20 two-and-a-half-pound field guns and more than a dozen 18-pound mortars firing new grenades, and forced its way to the head of Yangxian City and opened the city gate.
The city boasts tens of thousands of troops, but in this battle only two or three thousand people came to the top of the city to resist, and this resistance was more symbolic because the firepower gap between the two sides was too large.
When the Chu army's two-and-a-half-pound field cannon fired a large number of solid shells and a small number of grenades, and the eighteen-pound mortar fired a large number of new grenades, the defenders in the city basically did not dare to go to the top of the city...
Because going up is a dead word.
As for the fortifications and fortresses outside the city, they have not built these things at all.
The overall defense concept of the city's defenders is still in the era of cold weapons, and if it is exhausted, it will still be in the era of solid artillery.
It is not difficult for the current Chu army to defeat this traditional city that lacks fortifications and fortresses outside the city.
Well, this was also the case in Hanyin and Ziyang County before. The Chu army didn't even need to make a big fanfare. They just sent an infantry regiment up and pulled a few artillery up and they could basically defeat it.
When the Chu army's artillery bombarded the city, although there were about two thousand new Qin troops in the city as the backbone, the other guards and even the young civilians were all gone in an instant, as were the remaining troops near the city wall. Unwilling to go to the city to resist.
As a result, the commando team of the 17th Division successfully climbed to the top of the city without encountering any resistance, and then opened the city gate.
In less than half a day, the 17th Division of the Chu Army had already breached Yangxian City. Thousands of the tens of thousands of Ming troops who had been fighting in the city were scattered on the spot.
The two thousand senior generals of the New Qin Army originally wanted to fight to the death, but when they saw that all the friendly troops had fled, after the city gate was opened by the Chu Army, they raced against time to kill the few soldiers sent by Hanzhong Fucheng. After the civilian officer of the supervisory army was killed, he turned around and raised the flag to surrender anyway... It was too late to count as surrender anyway, it could only be counted as surrender, and the treatment for surrender was not as high as surrender!
For those who led a new type of army such as the New Qin Army to rebel and surrender, the treatment given by the Chu Army was quite high. The leading general soldier was directly awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel, and several other generals, guerrillas and the like were also awarded the rank of major or Captain, what I was given was just a military rank and a false position, but the fact that my life was safe and I could get paid monthly at the same time was no better than losing my life on the battlefield.
Therefore, if you can't defeat them, then join in. This is the thought of many Ming army generals when they attack the Chu army!
This is also the credit that the Chu Empire has accumulated after working on the battlefield for several years, otherwise the Ming army generals on the opposite side would not have surrendered so simply.
After the 17th Division captured Yang County, it continued westward.
But now, there were no mountains or hills to stop their progress. They followed the Han River and reached Gucheng in only two days.
The local officials faced the Chu army and struggled for several hours. Finally, when they were pulling out artillery from the Chu army and preparing to attack the city, they surrendered.
As a result, within two days, the forward troops of the 17th Division of the Chu Army reached Zhengnan, Hanzhong Fucheng.
However, the local magistrate of Hanzhong Prefecture and a deputy envoy sent by Sun Chuanting were very smart, or very conscientious.
When the Chu army's vanguard just arrived outside Hanzhong City, they immediately changed their banners and claimed to be loyal to His Majesty Luo Zhixue, the Emperor of the Chu Empire...
Well, in fact, they had already sent people to find Huang Guangmao before and secretly discussed the matter of surrender, but they had not reached an agreement yet.
Now, the Chu army has already fought outside the city of Hanzhong. It is too late to talk about changing flags directly. Next year, the grass on the grave will be several feet high.
This day is March 9th!
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It was also on this day that Huang Dingquan, who had not yet learned about the situation of the 17th Division or that he had captured Hanzhong Fucheng, led his people to the front line to inspect combat readiness.
With the emergency deployment of the logistics department during this period, the Chu army on the Tongguan front line has accumulated a large number of new grenades, and more new grenades are on the way to be transported.
Especially after the Yellow River east of Tongguan thawed, the Chu Army Logistics Department began to directly organize a large number of ships to transport supplies to the front line of Tongguan.
The ammunition in these supplies is shipped from Daye Industrial Zone in Hantian or Dangtu Industrial Zone in Anlu Province. It is first transported to Yangzhou by large ships, and then transferred to many small water transport vessels for transport northward along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. After entering Xuzhou, they were transferred to the front line of Tongguan via the Yellow River.
In order to maintain this river transportation line, the Logistics Department mobilized and requisitioned as many as tens of thousands of vessels of various types, most of which were small inland river vessels, which are also known as canals in the usual sense.
With the arrival of a large number of new grenades and more strategic materials, Huang Dingquan believed that the time was ripe to launch a general attack on Tongguan.
On March 11, Huang Dingquan officially issued an order to launch a full-line offensive on the Tongguan front.
After Huang Dingquan's order was issued, with Tongguan as the center, from Jiezhou in the north to Lu in the south, multiple groups of Chu troops began to attack the western front on a front that was hundreds of miles long.
The Chu army's attack on Tongguan did not mean that they only gathered tens of thousands of troops and went straight to Tongguan, but they divided it into multiple fronts and launched an attack at the same time.
On the line from Wenxi to Jiezhou in the north, the main attacking force is the Third Division starting from Huaiqing Mansion. They will abandon most of the five-pound, nine-pound field artillery, forty-eight-pound mortars and other heavy artillery. These artillery They were all transferred to the front line of Tongguan to participate in the storming of Tongguan. As for themselves, they were replaced with more and lighter two-and-a-half-pound field guns.
As for baggage transportation, four-wheeled carriages and even two-wheeled carriages were abandoned, and wheelbarrows and even manpower were used instead.
There was no way. The line from the north bank of the Yellow River to Jiezhou was all mountainous and the roads were difficult to navigate. It was unrealistic to carry a large number of heavy artillery and horse-drawn carriages to fight there. The only option was to march lightly.
To the south, on the south bank of the Yellow River, is the Tongguan front line, the core of the battlefield. Responsible for the attack in this direction are the 16th Division and two new first-class divisions, the 24th Division and the 25th Division, as well as a large number of heavy artillery and mortar units. In addition, there are two cavalry brigades. This cavalry brigade is not used for fortified operations. Instead, after the infantry and artillery troops pry open the turtle shell of Tongguan, they rush in to pursue the enemy's defeated troops, quickly break through and expand the depth. .
The front south of Tongguan was handed over to the Second Division, which was previously stationed in Lushi. Their strategic targets were Luonan and Shangzhou. After taking these two places, they would continue to advance lightly to the northwest in an effort to capture Weinan and some areas in Huazhou to cut off the connection between the hinterland of Guanzhong and Tongguan.
Because the Second Division needed to fight in the mountains and could not advance along the river, they, like the Third Division, could only advance lightly. They did not carry the five-pound and nine-pound field guns. Their artillery was also concentrated. On the Tongguan front line, he only carried two and a half kilograms of lightweight field artillery, and the logistics supply was mainly carried by wheelbarrows or even manpower.
Whether it is attacking the Jiezhou front line or the Luonan front line, fighting in mountainous areas is extremely challenging for logistics. Therefore, there are actually not many troops in these two directions. There is only one division in each direction, and there is still no Lightly-armed troops with field artillery of more than five kilograms.
It's not that they don't want to send more troops to make a strong roundabout, but the terrain here doesn't allow it. This can maintain the strength of a division to fight across the mountains. This is the reason why the Chu Empire is expected to invest a lot of logistics power. .
In order to meet the needs of the second division, the Logistics Department recruited more than 50,000 civilians in Lushi and other counties in the rear and formed more than twenty transportation groups, just to supply food, grass and ammunition to the second division in the front.
If one more division is sent up, the number of logistics civilians will exceed 100,000!
The difficulties in logistical supply and army marching in these places also reflect the importance of Tongguan.
Why is Tongguan so important? It has become a famous pass in the world, and it was a battleground for Chinese military strategists a few years ago.
It is because Tongguan guards the best, and can even be said to be the only, flat road from the Central Plains to and from the Guanzhong area.
If you don't take the Tongguan line, you can only go over the mountains and ridges from the south, or you can go over the mountains and ridges from the north, pass through the Jiezhou line and run all the way to the Yellow River, and then you have to cross the Yellow River before you can enter the Guanzhong area.
In most cases, the manpower and material resources you spend on climbing mountains and crossing rivers from both sides are not as cost-effective as directly attacking Tongguan.
This was true for the cold weapon armies in ancient times, and it is even more true for the current Chu army.
Although the Chu army launched attacks at the Jiezhou and Lushi lines at the same time, the troops used in the attacks in these two directions were all lightly armed troops. There is no doubt that this is just a partial division, and its greater role is to contain the enemy. troops, and capture the above-mentioned places by the way.
Huang Dingquan didn't really expect them to penetrate behind Tongguan and attack the Tongguan defenders from both front and rear. This was unrealistic.
Huang Dingquan has a better and simpler way to capture Tongguan: just open the way with artillery and blast all the way over!
To this end, he did not hesitate to mobilize hundreds of artillery pieces of various types, and even snatched a large number of new grenades from friendly forces.
Now, it’s time to witness the explosion! (To be continued)
