On July 20, the 14th year of Chengshun, the 23rd Cavalry Regiment of the Chu Empire Army captured Chijin City.
The more than 800 Jungar troops in Chijin City failed to break out and collapsed, with more than 300 casualties on the spot. Most of the remaining troops surrendered and some escaped.
However, the stolen Zhungeer army failed to escape in the end. Instead, they were intercepted and pursued by the Chu army's cavalry and were killed, injured or surrendered.
In the end, all the more than 800 enemy troops were destroyed.
In an actual battle between the two sides, Sun Huabei brought a good start to the Chu Empire. He wiped out all the enemy troops and captured hundreds of war horses. At the same time, after the breakout battle outside the city, he took advantage of the situation to take over the Red Gold City and provide great support to the Chu Empire. The imperial army established a steady supply depot and subsequent material transfer stations.
In the evening of that day, Major General Xu Donglai, commander of the Sixth Cavalry Division, led the Sixth Cavalry Division, the Fifth Infantry Regiment, and the Second Baggage Regiment to successfully arrive at Chijin City.
In the evening of the same day, Major General Xu Northeast Army, as the forward commander and commander of the 6th Cavalry Division, held a brief meeting at which the follow-up combat plan was finalized.
In fact, the combat plan has already been formulated in Jiayuguan, and several different sets of combat plans have been formulated according to different situations. However, in actual operations, these combat plans formulated in advance still need to be carried out in a timely manner according to the actual situation. Adjustment.
According to the order of Major General Xu Northeast Army, the forward troops will continue to march at high speed and attack Kuyu City (Suoyang Town), which was once the Shazhou Guards station in the early Ming Dynasty.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty established Shazhou Guard in the Western Regions. It was originally stationed in Shazhou, that is, Dunhuang. Later, the Ming Dynasty carried out strategic contraction in the Western Regions, and Shazhou Guard moved east to Kuyu. The world once called this place Shazhou Guard City. In fact, this place was not The sandbank, the ancient sandbank is still hundreds of kilometers away to the west!
The original Shazhou Ancient City was abandoned by the Ming Dynasty and taken over by the local Mongols. The Ming Dynasty nominally established Shihandong Zuowei here, but it actually lost control. Later, the place was controlled by the Turpan people.
However, considering that Guazhou to the northwest of Kuyu City is very close, even if the enemy forces in the city are blocked when attacking Kuyu City, the enemy forces in the direction of Guazhou may still be short of the Chu army's attack.
In order to cover up the real situation as much as possible and delay the time for the main force of Zhungeer in the direction of Hami to react, adjustments were made to the combat plan.
While planning to attack Kuyu with the main force, a cavalry force was sent to bypass Kuyu City and continue to attack Guazhou. The purpose was not to capture Guazhou, but to cut off the connection between Guazhou and Hami in the rear.
Information blockade and shortcomings of the battlefield were Xu Donglai's main strategic purpose.
As for attacking Kuyu and Guazhou itself, it is actually not difficult. In fact, these two places are not the main deployment direction of Zhungeer, but only a symbolic deployment of hundreds of troops.
Just like Chijin City, these troops are not used to resist large-scale Chu army attacks, but to resist small-scale attacks and report the situation back in time.
This is a very typical outpost.
Even without relying on the main force coming from the rear, more than 10,000 people from Xu Dong could easily conquer the above-mentioned places.
Because these places are just small cities between Jiayuguan and Hami. They are not big cities in themselves. They have a small permanent population and not much food supply for military supplies. There is not enough food supply in the local area, so it is naturally difficult to garrison them. Too many troops.
In the Hexi region, there are only two places suitable for garrisoning heavy troops, one is Hami and the other is Jiayuguan. The two areas separated by hundreds of kilometers are actually not suitable for garrisoning large numbers of troops, and it is difficult to provide a large amount of food and grass for the army.
In order for these places to provide a large amount of food and grass, a certain period of cultivation and development is required, and the time required is at least several years or even longer.
Although the Gansu Governor's Office has prepared to mobilize and organize people from the Guandong (Jiayuguan) area to go to Chijin, Shazhou, Guazhou and other places for reclamation, this will take time.
In a short period of time, these places will not be able to bring any supply of food and grass to the Western Expedition of the Great Chu Empire Army. At most, they will serve as transfer stations.
——
After formulating the battle plan, the Chu army's troops began to take action.
Early the next morning, as the vanguard of the entire army, the 23rd Cavalry Regiment, which is good at running attacks, will still be the first to set off. They will take the first step and bypass Kuyu City to reach Guazhou and blockade the direction of Guazhou and Hami. contact.
Xu Dongbei continued to lead the main force of the 6th Cavalry Division, the 5th Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Baggage Regiment and other troops westward to Shazhou City.
Just as Xu Dongbei led the forward army to continue the action, there was also a Chu army in the rear that also left Jiayuguan and began to advance westward.
This unit is personally commanded by Army Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo, commander of the Fourth Cavalry Corps, and has jurisdiction over the main force of the 13th Cavalry Division, the 14th Cavalry Division, and the 2nd Infantry Division, totaling more than 25,000 people.
The forward troops led by Xu Dongbei were also directly under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Cavalry Army.
The Fourth Cavalry Army was the core force of the Chu Empire garrisoning Jiayuguan. It had three cavalry divisions, the Sixth Cavalry Division, the Thirteenth Cavalry Division and the Fourteenth Cavalry Division.
These three cavalry divisions are all first-class cavalry divisions in the Chu army. They are fully equipped all year round. Among the cavalry divisions in the Chu army, their combat effectiveness is at the first level.
The Chu army seems to have many cavalry divisions, thirty in total, and there are dozens of cavalry regiments attached to the infantry divisions. However, in fact, there are not many cavalry units that are fully staffed and maintain combat readiness all year round. , are basically deployed in important strategic locations on the frontier or hinterland.
The Fourth Cavalry Corps is the only fully combat-ready cavalry corps, and it also has three cuirassier regiments that have spent a lot of money and food to form!
As for the Second Division, it was not under the control of the corps before, but was temporarily strengthened to the Fourth Cavalry Corps.
After all, this battle is expected to involve siege of the city, especially Hami. The cavalry troops are naturally useful for attacking in the field, but if you want to say that they are used to siege the city, it is nonsense.
Although the cavalry unit is also equipped with artillery, there is not even a 115mm field gun, and the largest caliber is only a 90mm field gun.
In order to attack Hami City, the First Army Headquarters temporarily strengthened the Second Division, a combat-ready first-class division, to the Fourth Cavalry Corps to support cavalry operations.
The strengthened Fourth Cavalry Army, not to mention the First Army, even in the entire Chu Empire Army, although it is not the largest in number, it is definitely the military-level unit with the most powerful combat capabilities.
It has more than 10,000 cavalry and more than 15,000 infantry and artillery, all combat-ready first-class troops.
The dispatch of such troops also means that the top brass of the army are determined to win as big a victory as possible with limited logistical support, a victory that can defeat the rest of the country, especially those bastards in the navy. Big win for shutting up.
To this end, the Army did not hesitate to send out most of the core main forces in the First Army.
After the Fourth Cavalry Army attacked, although the First Army Group in the Shaanxi-Gansu region still had a large number of troops, there was actually only one third division left in the combat readiness division.
To be honest, the First Army actually has a lot of troops under its jurisdiction, including five first-class divisions, thirteen second-class divisions, and twelve cavalry divisions.
Because of the factors following the destruction of the Dongjiu people and the rise of the Jungar people, the northwest region also became a heavily fortified area of the empire, gathering a large number of army troops.
However, most of these troops are actually conventional troops. There are only five division-level troops that are truly in combat readiness.
The remaining troops, even the three so-called first-class divisions, are actually in a regular state, with complete equipment, but insufficient personnel. On weekdays, they only maintain about 12,000 people, which is far from 15,000 people. There are still thousands of people missing from the full list.
If we want to reach peak condition, we need to recruit thousands more people.
Not to mention the rest, those second-class divisions ranged from 6,000 to 8,000 men, and generally lacked mules and horses.
So despite the fact that the First Army has a large number of troops, most of these troops are still based on defensive operations. If it comes to defensive operations, Zhungeer on the opposite side will not be able to get in no matter how hard he jumps.
But if you want to fight it out, it will be much more troublesome. Mobility is a troublesome thing.
This is because the Army has limited military expenditures and has to maintain a strength of more than one million. It has to make compromises. Even a considerable part of the former Class A Division has been weakened.
Before large-scale mobilization and replenishment, the first group army could actually pull out only tens of thousands of people for the first time.
The other troops don't even have mules and horses. If they just stupidly drag them out and go to the Gobi Desert and grasslands to fight with the nomads, they will die miserably.
This is also the reason why the army dispatched four units: the Second Infantry Division, the Sixth Cavalry Division, the Thirteenth Cavalry Division, and the Fourteenth Cavalry Division after deciding to attack the Jungle people, because in the northwest region, there are only a total of The five troops in combat readiness and the remaining third division are not in the border area, but in Lanzhou behind.
In such a huge area at the rear, a combat readiness division must be left at least as a precaution... If the combat readiness forces in Gansu were wiped out by aliens, wouldn't there be only a group of second-class divisions left in the rear?
"First Evolution"
Besides, the enemies of the Dachu Imperial Army are not just the Jungar people, there are also potential enemies in the country.
How should I put it? In the past thirteen years of Chengshun, the military has exterminated more than 60 rebellions, large and small. The targets of the rebellion were all kinds of people. Most of them were chieftains from Southwest, Qingkang and other regions, and quite a few were from There are too many gentry, landlords, tyrants, and other random people in remote areas.
The largest rebellion was the rebellion of a chieftain in the Kangxi area. Unwilling to give up the power in his hands and accept the empire's policy of repatriation, he brazenly assembled thousands of troops to rebel. He also colluded with the Jungar people and brought The Chu army's garrison strength in Kangxi Province was very heavy.
As for the Shaanxi-Gansu region, not all of them are good people. In the late Ming Dynasty, there were the most thieves from all walks of life, and that was Shaanxi-Gansu.
Therefore, many of the forces of the First Group Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu region are actually used internally but not externally...
It is necessary to leave a combat readiness division in the rear and several first-class divisions and cavalry divisions in the rear.
However, as the frontline fighting began, some troops in the First Army also began to mobilize, especially those near Jiayuguan. They began to concentrate on replenishing troops, mules, horses, and various equipment. They needed to move westward.
On the one hand, it is to fill the void in the Jiayuguan defense line after the Fourth Cavalry Army advances westward, and on the other hand, it serves as the strategic reserve of the Fourth Cavalry Army.
However, the reinforcements were also extremely cautious when they came forward. There were obviously many troops in the rear, but when the reinforcements came forward, they strictly controlled the troops, instead of directly mobilizing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops with just one order.
It's easy to get out, but it's just as easy to starve to death after getting there!
The amount of land that can be cultivated in Jiayuguan is limited, and the food that can be supplied is also limited. The previous supply of about 30,000 troops was not enough, and long-term support of food and grass from the rear was required.
If the rear is ignored and directly reinforces hundreds of thousands of troops, even if they just go to Jiayuguan, the difficulty of logistical supply will increase sharply.
It is estimated that the additional logistics troops or civilians transporting grain and grass will have to add hundreds of thousands of people.
In order to meet the food and fodder needs of the frontline army and more logistics personnel in the rear...the money and food required is enough to give Luo Zhixue a headache!
Why is it difficult to advance westward? This is why it is difficult!
It is easy to go with large-scale troops, but it is not easy to go without going hungry.
To this end, the army's top brass directly dispatched the most elite combat-ready troops in order to maximize their combat effectiveness under the limited supply of food and grass.
Army Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo also knew the responsibilities he shouldered.
Let’s not talk about other things in this battle, but Hami must be won, otherwise we will not be able to explain to Jinling. In the words of earlier, we will have no face to face His Majesty...
Four of the five combat readiness divisions in the First Army are under his command. If Liao Hongpo is beaten to a pulp, let alone getting promoted and making a fortune, you will be lucky if you don't go to a military court.
However, Liao Hongpo was not afraid of this, nor did he have any worries!
On the contrary, he was extremely excited!
He had already seen the rank of general beckoning to him... It was even possible to enter the Imperial Study Room and become the Counselor.
As for failure?
Just kidding, he has fought all his life, and this is the one he has the greatest confidence in among all the battles he has fought.
With four combat-ready divisions, especially the Sixth Cavalry Division and the Second Infantry Division, top-notch combat forces, if they were to face the Zhungeer barbarians of more than 20,000 people in the direction of Hami, they would still suffer defeat. He drowned himself in the shit basin.
Army Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo was full of confidence. He led the two cavalry divisions and the main force of the 2nd Infantry Division all the way west, and soon arrived at Chijin City.
At this time, there was only one cavalry post left by the Sixth Cavalry Division to garrison the Red Gold City. After seeing the arrival of the main force from the rear, they quickly moved forward to catch up with their main force.
After Liao Hongpo arrived in Chijin City, the first thing he did was to establish a material transfer station system and arrange troops to conduct reconnaissance and patrols around the area to prevent enemy troops from infiltrating.
In his opinion, everything else about this westward advance was vain, and ensuring logistics was the most important thing.
If the logistics are stable, just attack from the front!
If the logistics are not stable... the enemy will starve to death unless he is killed!
After the logistics were arranged and the material transfer system was established, Liao Hongpo continued to march westward with his troops.
At this time, Xu Donglai's Sixth Cavalry Division had already reached the outside of Kuyu City!
Not only Shazhou City, but also the 23rd Cavalry Regiment of the Sixth Cavalry Division bypassed Kuyu City and ran directly to the northwest of Guazhou, directly blocking the connection between Guazhou and Hami in the rear.
However, this time Xu Donglai and Sun Huabei's plans failed. Although Sun Huabei's 23rd Cavalry Regiment moved quickly enough, they may have been missed by the enemy when they detoured Kuyu City. By the time they arrived at Guagua When he arrived in the state, he found that the enemy was already prepared.
Since the enemy troops are well prepared, the messengers have probably been sent out a long time ago.
Sure enough, the search force sent out found the caravan that had been coming from the direction of Hami. The people in the caravan said that yesterday they encountered a small-scale Jungar cavalry with only a few dozen cavalry, and This Jungar cavalry was in a hurry and headed straight towards Hami.
Obviously, the news of the Chu army's attack had been known to them, and now the Zhungeer cavalry team who had informed them had forgotten the direction of Hami.
Now it is unrealistic to catch up and intercept.
The news was leaked, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
Being able to let the news leak out when they reached Guazhou has bought the Chu army several days.
Now that the news has been leaked, Sun Huabei is too lazy to implement a comprehensive blockade and directly pulls out cavalry artillery to besiege Guazhou.
As for attacking the city directly... He is a light cavalry regiment, and he only brings four 65mm cavalry cannons. If he attacks the city, the cavalry will need to dismount and fight on foot.
Although there are only a few hundred enemy troops in Guazhou City, and they can be defeated if they actually attack, the losses will be too great and the gains will not be worth the losses.
The elite cavalry and the enemy's infantry and artillery defending the city were locked in a fierce battle. Even if they won, they would suffer a huge loss.
Therefore, we only need to besiege and block the connection between Guazhou and Kuyu City.
As for the siege, we will wait until the battle over Kuyu City is over and the Fifth Infantry Regiment comes up.
For things like siege, infantry and artillery must be more professional.
This is also the reason why Xu Donglai, the forward force, brought a seemingly slow-moving infantry regiment, which was used to attack the city and garrison at transfer points along the way.
As for fighting in the wild, there is no need for them, there are a large number of cavalry troops.
Sun Huabei did not wait too long. Just two days later, he waited for the arrival of the main force led by Xu Donglai himself.
It only took Xu Donglai and the others half a day to capture Kuyu City, which was only garrisoned by two to three hundred enemy troops, and completely annihilated the Zhungeer garrison.
After taking Kuyu City, they hurried to Guazhou.
The 5th Infantry Regiment went into battle, and the 6th Cavalry Division swept the formation on the outside and bombarded it with more than 30 artillery pieces.
Under the absolute firepower, especially the Chu army's grenade offensive, the defenders of Guazhou City could not hold on for long. After a few hours of shelling, the opposite side could not hold on.
When the grenadiers rushed up to pry open the gap, a group of musketeers wearing light half-body plate armor rushed into the city, and Guazhou City was declared to have fallen into the hands of the Dachu Empire.
In the afternoon of the same day, the 'red background yellow dragon stepping on wonton sun flag', a special flag for the royal family of the Da Chu Empire and also used as the national flag, was raised in Guazhou City. Next to it was the Army's 'black border, red background, black dragon holding sword flag' '.
After taking Guazhou City, Xu Donglai did not immediately continue heading to Hami in the northwest direction, but paused and began to rest.
Now that the news has been leaked, there is no need to rush to Hami. Anyway, it doesn't make much difference whether you go a few days earlier or a few days later.
Moreover, the distance between Guazhou and Hami is very far, more than 300 kilometers. This is still a straight line on the map, and the actual distance is even further.
The most important thing is that on this more than 300 kilometers of road, there are no large oases for the Chu army to garrison and supply. At most, there are some Gobi desert towns and small oases along the way. Ordinary business travelers pass through these. The place can still get supplies, but tens of thousands of troops rush over at every turn, digging up all the local grass roots and eating them, but it doesn't work.
For the advancing Chu army, this place is no different from no man's land. Therefore, if you want to cross this area, you must rely on sufficient and adequate logistics.
Although Xu Donglai's troops carried a lot of food and grass, their consumption has been reduced after these days. With the remaining food and grass, they rashly went deep into the no-man's land, hoping to cross a distance of hundreds of kilometers...the supplies that followed If you can't come up, you will starve to death in the Gobi Desert.
Therefore, we must be cautious and cautious. It is best to wait until the main force at the back, especially a large amount of supplies, arrives.
But before that, there is still a place that can be captured first, and that is the ancient Shazhou City, which is the Dunhuang area.
There are actually not many people in this place nowadays, and even the roads are not very smooth.
Since the Ming Dynasty abandoned this place, although indigenous barbarians once occupied these places, with the passage of time, business travel mainly between Hami and Jiayuguan basically took the northern route, that is, passing through Guazhou, and no longer detoured. Traveling to the sandbank, the sandbank gradually declined, and the commercial roads along the way were abandoned. Currently, only a few indigenous people live here.
But the oases of sandbanks are particularly important in this place full of desert and Gobi Desert.
If this oasis area in Shazhou can be redeveloped and cultivated, it is expected that thousands of young people can be resettled there for cultivation, and the food produced from the cultivation can be supplied nearby to Guazhou and even the army stationed in Hami later.
In this westward march, the military seems to be just fighting all the way west, but in fact, frontline fighting is only part of the entire westward march strategy.
Reclamation is still following behind.
If we don’t keep up with the reclamation, then the army marching westward will be like rootless duckweeds. Even if the Chu Empire is full of money and grain, and has excellent logistics and transportation capabilities, it will be impossible to continue to transport massive quantities of goods from the hinterland of the Central Plains to the northwest frontier year after year. of food and grass.
The food and fodder for the local garrison needs to be provided as much as possible on the spot, if not all, then at least most of it.
Therefore, in the entire westward expansion strategy, the key to controlling the Western Regions is settlement.
Under such circumstances, the seemingly abandoned ancient Shazhou City becomes very important.
For this reason, while the main force of the 6th Cavalry Division was resting in Guazhou, the 23rd Cavalry Regiment once again shouldered the heavy responsibility and fought towards the sandbank hundreds of kilometers away.
This time, there was no obstacle either. There were not even the troops of Geer headquarters stationed in this place, only the local tribesmen. Facing the Chu army, they did not even have the courage to resist, so they surrendered directly...
With the sandbank also captured, several important cities and large oases from the entire Guanxi region (Jiayu Pass) to the Hami region basically fell into the hands of the Chu army.
Next, the Chu army naturally set its sights on Hami!
But this time, the Chu army did not engage in any urgent marching and attacking, because there were many enemy troops in the direction of Hami, and they had to pass through hundreds of kilometers where they could not replenish food and grass on the spot!
Under such circumstances, running and attacking... rushing over with a small number of troops and lightly armed means killing people. As for sending a large number of troops and carrying artillery... that is not a running attack.
Therefore, Army Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo, commander of the Fourth Cavalry Corps, did not continue to divide his troops. Instead, he concentrated his forces and, with a large number of logistics troops, began to move steadily towards Hami!
Don’t seek speed, just stability!
This move of Army Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo disappointed Zhuote Babatur, the second son of Batur Huitaiji, the Jungar leader in the Hami direction!
Ever since he got the news of the Chu army's westward advance, he had been preparing for several days, waiting for the Chu army to advance westward with light troops, and then give the Chu army a ruthless attack.
So that these Chu barbarians know that they, the weaklings from the Central Plains, do not come just outside the Great Wall.
It's a pity that Chu Jun didn't give him this chance!
The steady and steady westward march of the Chu army seems to be slow and easy to attack, but if you really run up and attack their main force, you can knock out the attacker's teeth.
Zhuote Babatur is not stupid, he also knows that Chu Manzi is good with guns.
But... this won't work without fighting. We can't just watch them run to the gates of Hami City!
Even if the city of Hami can be defended for a while... But what about the oasis and large areas of land outside the city... Without the oasis land, it is equivalent to defending the lonely city in the desert. It can be sustained for a few months, but a few months later, or even next year Woolen cloth?
When fighting in the Gobi Desert, blindly defending the city will not work. Sooner or later, you will die.
Besides...the Zhungeer people were not blind to what was going on outside the window. They had also heard about the unification war that took place in the Huaxia region and the war between the Chu army and the unification of the East.
Hundreds of artillery pieces and continuous bombardments were bombarding a small city. Just imagining this scene is enough to make the enemies of the Chu Empire tremble with fear!
If they want to hold on to the city under the violent bombardment of the Chu army, no army can do this yet, and the Zhungeer people actually don't have much confidence.
Therefore, they want to put the battle in the wild, on the field battle that Zhun Geer is best at.
