Compared with the battle against Zhungeer back then, it was more difficult. If you want to fight a war, you have to prepare for it several years in advance. In a war, you need to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people at every turn, and directly send troops as little as 100,000 to as many as 200,000. above military strength.
Traveling to the Annan area seems much easier.
Counting from the time when the Dachu Empire decided to attack the Annan region in late October and launched the war in December, the preparation time for the war was not even two months.
In the past two months, there was not much military preparation in the true sense. Most of the time was spent on various communications.
The Dachu Imperial Army did not even carry out large-scale mobilization for this purpose, but directly mobilized the border defense troops deployed in Guangdong (Guangning County belongs to Lianzhou Prefecture of Guangdong Province and belongs to the mainland) and Guangxi, as well as those stationed in the overseas territory of Jinlan Bay. , garrison in Jiulongjiangfu area.
It is expected that the total force to be used will be just over 20,000, with the main force being B-class standing divisions and not a single A-class combat readiness division.
The nearly 2,000 Marines in the Navy are considered combat readiness units, but they are naval establishments. There is no distinction between combat readiness, standing readiness, and defense. All Marines are units that maintain combat readiness all year round.
With just such a force, the resistance of the Annan rebels was defeated head-on in just half a month!
In a frontal battle outside Thang Long City in late December, a second-class standing mixed regiment of the Chu army with more than 4,000 troops defeated more than 30,000 enemy troops head-on. In this battle, the main force of the Annan rebel northern army suffered 3,000 casualties. More than 10,000 people were captured, and the rest fled. This battle directly led to the collapse of the rebel Northern Army.
The Chu army of tens of thousands, with the cooperation of Zheng's remnants of more than 20,000 people, began to sweep across the north on a large scale, and then quickly advanced to the south, that is, the central Annan region.
During the same period, that is, on December 29, more than 60,000 troops were mobilized more than 50 kilometers south of Hue City in the south to try to ambush the Chu army.
It is true that the Chu army was not familiar with the terrain, and the indigenous guide they recruited was a tough guy with strong patriotism. He led the Chu army into the middle of a canyon, and then was ambushed by the main force of the Annan rebels.
The Annan rebels accumulated heavy troops directly in front of the canyon for frontal interception. At the same time, they used familiar terrain to ambush heavy troops on both sides in advance.
After the Chu army entered the ambush circle, they had completed the de facto strategic encirclement of the Chu army, leaving only one way to the rear.
From a normal perspective, this kind of deployment can be said to be seamless. In addition, the rebels have more than ten times the strength advantage, and the ambushed Chu army will have to shed its skin if it is not to die.
But when the fight actually started, the generals of the Annan rebels saw what it means to have beautiful ideals but hard-core reality!
Their originally impenetrable frontal defense line was directly turned into powder under the rapid and intensive artillery fire of the Chu army. The frontal defense line composed of a total of 40,000 troops collapsed after half an hour of resistance... Then they They were also pursued by the Chu Army's 32nd Division Cavalry Regiment, a total of more than 500 light cavalry!
When these more than 500 light cavalrymen, wielding fifteen-year-old sabers and riding Hexi horses, rushed towards the tens of thousands of enemy troops that had been dispersed in the front, they were like wolves rushing into the flock of sheep and caused a large number of rebel casualties. .
According to post-war statistics, most of the rebel casualties were actually caused by this dissatisfied second-class divisional cavalry regiment, which numbered more than 5,000 people.
Most of the cavalry's sabers have curled blades!
When the Chu army forcibly attacked the rebels' frontal defense line, they directly sent infantry troops into formation to fight against the rebel forces rushing up from both sides.
The two wings of the Chu army only had more than a thousand troops each, and the artillery support they received was not much. However, the enemy troops rushing over from the opposite side numbered tens of thousands on each side.
The two sides fought on both sides, with a strength ratio of more than ten to one.
This is also the comparison of troops on the entire battlefield!
But what kind of strength advantage, what kind of ambush, etc., are nothing at all under the intensive infantry firepower of the Chu army's line infantry!
Especially on the right side, the Annan rebel general who led the army is probably very courageous, and the courage of the rebels under his command is also very high.
They came one after another, armed with a small number of matchlocks, spears and all kinds of messy cold weapons, and then formed a nondescript and dense frontal formation, constantly attacking the Chu army infantry line in front!
Then, like wheat being harvested, they fell down row by row!
The Chu army line they faced seemed thin, but it had dense firepower that far exceeded that of the matchlock era!
Under such intensive firepower, the rebels also used dense formations to attack. The Chu soldiers on the opposite side did not even need to aim, they could just keep loading and firing at the dense phalanx on the opposite side.
When more and more people fell, and there were no bunkers that the rebel company could rely on, such as breastworks, they would inevitably waver.
People are all afraid of death!
Especially this tactic where everyone stupidly lines up to shoot or shoot arrows face to face, and then gradually get closer to engage in hand-to-hand combat...it still requires courage, because you can't hide...and there is no place to hide.
Unlike in the age of skirmishers, soldiers can use the terrain to avoid artillery fire when fighting, and they can also lie on the ground. It seems that the firepower is more intense, but in fact, the psychological impact on the soldiers is far less than in the formation era. .
After all, in the era of cold weapons or muskets, everyone fought in formations. Do you want to lie on the ground and hide from bullets? That's right, he was afraid of war and deserted. If he was caught by the officer, he would be chopped down with a knife.
In this case, when one's own casualties reach a certain level, especially when the comrades around him are found lying down one after another, the collapse of the soldiers is inevitable.
This is the instinct of animals to survive!
If one person collapses, it will cause a chain reaction, and then the entire formation and the entire army will collapse.
The situation of the tens of thousands of rebels who came over to the right was almost the same. Tens of thousands of people came over confidently at first, but they were killed by the Chu army with artillery fire a few hundred meters away. After entering the range of a hundred meters, they were killed again. He was killed and wounded by the Chu army's volley fire with continuous fire.
The opponent initially wanted to use matchlocks to counterattack, but found that their own firepower was too poor and the effect was very poor. The most important thing is that the Chu army's artillery threat was too great. If they continued to fire from a hundred meters away, it would be equivalent to Be a living target for the Chu army artillery on the opposite side!
At this distance, all artillery of the Chu army, whether it is a 65mm regimental field gun or a 115mm howitzer, or a 90mm field gun, a 130mm light howitzer, or a 150mm light howitzer.
They all fire the same type of ammunition: shotgun!
Well, that is, a big troll!
The Chu army's shotguns are fully lethal at this distance of 70 to 80 meters to 100 meters, and their shrapnel dispersion, killing kinetic energy and other data are in optimal condition.
The killing power is much stronger than solid artillery shells and grenades!
If they dare to stay still and play with the Chu army... In fact, the fusiliers who do not need the infantry to work hard to fire volleys, the artillery unit will let them know what the 'God of War' is in minutes.
Therefore, the rebel generals on the opposite side chose to continue advancing, and the further they advanced, the more casualties they suffered.
As they walked, before they entered the fifty-meter range, they couldn't rush forward and collapsed on their own.
Then came the more than a thousand infantrymen of the Chu army, marching at a steady pace, lined up, and came forward carrying the 14-year-old tropical version flintlock rifles with bayonets attached.
In this seemingly strolling bayonet attack, the defeated soldiers on the opposite side had no courage or determination to resist, and could only keep turning around and running away.
The same thing happened on the left side!
The Annan rebels, the Southern Army, finally gathered an army of 60,000, and wanted to use ten times the strength to ambush and stage a three-sided siege.
He also used spies as guides and successfully brought the Chu army into the ambush circle.
But in the actual ambush battle, they were unable to do what they expected. The more than 60,000 rebel troops who were supposed to ambush and besiege the Chu army were instead chased and beaten by thousands of Chu troops...
The ones who pursued the most ruthlessly were the cavalry regiment of the 32nd Division. They chased the defeated troops all the way and killed one after another. From the morning to the afternoon, the sabers were cut and curled, and many of the horses escaped. Foaming at the mouth, the cavalry regiment finally achieved huge results, killing more than 5,000 enemies.
In this battle, the Chu army directly killed more than 10,000 rebels and captured more than 20,000.
If it weren't for the fact that our own troops are a little short, we are not familiar with the surrounding terrain.
At the same time, the opponent collapsed too quickly and was very scattered, making it too troublesome to chase.
Otherwise, the Chu army could have achieved more results, and at least there would have been tens of thousands more prisoners.
This battle took place more than fifty kilometers south of Hue City. Because both sides of the battle actually fought around Hue City, the Chu army called it the Battle of Hue.
The great victory in the Battle of Hue, coupled with the great victory in the Battle of Thang Long in the north.
Through two decisive battles, the Chu army had actually defeated the main forces of the Annan rebel northern and southern armies, especially severely damaging their military morale.
Although there are still many rebels in various places, probably more than 150,000 in total, in fact they can no longer pose any actual threat to the Chu army.
The rest of the Annan War was just the end of the campaign.
After Luo Zhixue received the battle reports of these two battles from the south, he did not pay too much attention to the situation in Annan.
In response to the situation in Annan, he had already made all arrangements in December last year, including establishing provinces, appointing major military and political officials, issuing orders to launch war, etc.
The next thing is already a matter for local officials and local garrison. It is nothing more than various suppressions and suppressions. This kind of thing is very familiar to the Chu Empire, in the Southwest, Kangzang and Turpan regions, as well as the former Korean Peninsula. Regions, etc., the Chu Empire has done this countless times.
It is nothing more than finding and killing the remnants of the enemy and various recalcitrant elements through repeated purge operations, coupled with large-scale indoctrination policies and immigration marriages.
This process will take at least two or three years. The specific duration depends on whether the indoctrination policy is implemented smoothly.
If the indoctrination policy goes smoothly, it will be shorter. For example, the previous indoctrination policy in the Korean Peninsula was implemented very smoothly, and the local purge operation was basically ended in just over a year.
However, in places such as Chuankang and Kangxi, as well as in the newly occupied areas in the southwest, it is more difficult to implement the indoctrination policy in some places. The local language, religion, cultural customs, etc. are all obstacles.
The clearing operations in these areas will basically last for many years.
The purge operations in these areas will not truly end until a large number of settlers have established a foothold in the local area, and have integrated with the local good indigenous people on a large scale, completely changed the customs, and ensured that there is no pure dissident in the local area. .
The Da Chu Empire is already familiar with these matters, and has its own set of established procedures. The military and political parties below will handle them on their own, and there is no need for Luo Zhixue to pay personal attention.
The Da Chu Empire is too big, and there are too many things that need to be handled by Luo Zhixue personally. If Luo Zhixue needs to handle these bits and pieces personally, then Luo Zhixue won't have to live a good life.
So twenty-one years after entering Chengshun, Luo Zhixue withdrew his attention from the two provinces of Annan and reinvested his attention in the country.
The expansion of some territories on the periphery may be very important to the military and other soldiers, but for the entire Chu Empire, it is actually a trivial matter.
What can really affect the strength of the empire, the rise and fall of the empire, is the development of a series of domestic industries such as domestic industry, commerce, agriculture and livestock.
The first among them is agriculture, livestock, fishery and animal husbandry!
This industry is directly related to the issue of whether the people of the country have enough to eat. The most important issue that the Chu Empire has paid most attention to in the past twenty years has always been agricultural issues.
Well, animal husbandry and fisheries actually count, and they are both under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Machines and equipment, guns and cannons, they all don’t matter when you have a full meal.
Therefore, in the past ten years or so, the Chu Empire has invested huge sums of money, spending countless manpower and material resources to build countless water conservancy facilities, and even artificially diverted the Yellow River.
All this is to increase food production.
And all of this paid off!
Thanks to the smooth diversion of the Yellow River, the Huaihe River Basin has finally returned to its original appearance. Although the lower reaches of the Huaihe River have accumulated a large amount of sediment due to the continuous alluvial erosion of the Yellow River over the past few hundred years, the flood control situation is still severe, but in the end The dam will not burst as easily as before.
In addition, the flood control facilities in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River, especially in the Hongze Lake area, have been built for more than ten years. The empire has spent tens of millions of dollars at least on this, and these flood control facilities were previously used to prevent the Yellow River and The confluence of the Huaihe River.
Now that the water from the Yellow River is no longer coming, the pressure has suddenly been relieved a lot.
I dare not say that the weather will be smooth in this area in the future, but the agricultural production situation will be greatly improved.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry very optimistically estimates that the grain output in Anlu and the three provinces of Jiangbei and Henan will increase by more than 10% in the 21st year of Chengshun, and this increase in output will continue in the following years. will continue.
Even in Shandong and Hebei, due to the inflow of water resources from the Yellow River and the rational use of water resources through a large number of canals built in advance, grain output will increase in normal years.
The grain output of these provinces north of the Yangtze River in the Chu Empire will increase to a certain extent in the next few years.
After receiving the estimate report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Luo Zhixue was much happier than learning about Lien Chan and Lianjie from Annan.
Compared with the smooth development of domestic agriculture, Annan's counterinsurgency is nothing more than a trivial matter!
Luo Zhixue had no interest in countering the rebellion, but he was very interested in developing the plains around Thang Long.
This place is a rare place. Although the Red River flood disaster is relatively serious, as long as the flood control facilities are well done, it is entirely possible to develop the area into a new granary for the empire.
However, the investment in flood control facilities is relatively large, and subsequent new immigrants will also take time. This matter can be postponed for a few years before being implemented.
If we want to build a new granary now, we still have to go to the Northeast Plains. The black soil there is very fertile, and the land is vast and sparsely populated, and there are not many local indigenous people to deal with. It is perfect for resettling immigrants and cultivating grain. .
Luo Zhixue is planning to start this year and once again increase his efforts in developing the Northeast region!
The Northeast is not a bitter cold place, but the empire's heavy industry base and large granary!
