I want to be emperor

Chapter 216 Preparing for the establishment of the navy
Dong Mingjie went to Jingzhou Mansion with Luo Zhixue's instructions, but Luo Zhixue was still not idle.

He organized the remaining 5000 soldiers into a garrison regiment under his direct control temporarily, and asked the logistics department to select [-] people from other unqualified soldiers to be incorporated into the transportation battalion to transport supplies for the various armies.The rest of the soldiers who didn't even need the transport battalion were reorganized into the construction battalion and the reclamation battalion, and then a very small number of diehards were thrown into the prisoner of war camp.

In this way, the surrender of more than 5000 soldiers was basically dealt with.

After dealing with these surrenders, Luo Zhixue convened a meeting of various ministries to discuss various matters concerning the expansion of the main force.

The Township Protection Army has been expanding its role, occupying more and more territories, and requiring more and more troops.

Although three garrison divisions have also been reorganized successively, the combat effectiveness of these garrison divisions is still too poor.

To expand territory and conquer cities, what is really needed is the main force.

Not only ordinary infantry and field artillery and cavalry are needed, but also more siege artillery.

The above is only the scope of the army, and as the rural protection army continues to fight in the waters of the Han River, it will soon drink horses to the Yangtze River, so Luo Zhixue also intends to take advantage of this opportunity to formally build a navy.

On August [-]th, at the military affairs meeting held by Luo Zhixue, he let the generals under his command speak freely about the issue of building the navy, and finally finalized all the matters related to the building of the navy.

The Ministry of the Navy is tentatively established to coordinate and govern all naval development and combat affairs.

The reason why it was set up as a department from the beginning, instead of administering a naval department within the staff department, or setting up a director after the artillery and cavalry, was purely because Luo Zhixue wanted to distinguish the army from the navy from the beginning.

After all, the army and the navy belong to two arms that are not related to cattle and horses, which is different from artillery and cavalry that still belong to the army.

It's just that although the Ministry of the Navy has been established, its personnel and strength are very small.

For the time being, there are only more than 20 inland warships and more than 30 general cargo ships belonging to the water supply battalion that have been captured from the Ming army.

These are some inland river vessels, the maximum displacement is only tens of tons, and the kind that can't even put a few cannons on them.

This water supply battalion will become the foundation of the Rural Protection Army Navy and will be reorganized into the Yangtze River Fleet.

Well, although the Township Protection Army hasn't drunk the Yangtze River yet, it's not a problem to put the prefix of the Yangtze River on its own inland fleet before the rainy day.

It will have to be changed in a few months.

The former water supply battalion, now the Yangtze River Fleet belongs to small ships, not many ships, and few people.

Therefore, even Lu Xingye, the first Minister of the Navy, was only a brigadier general, one level lower than the rank of major general of the other four directors Liang Yise.

The reason why this person is a brigadier general is that Luo Zhixue believes that the navy is an independent branch, and the rank of the head of the navy, that is, the head of the navy department, cannot be too low, otherwise, he will only be a colonel if he dies.

Now in the Rural Protection Army, a colonel is no longer a high-ranking military rank.

Before officially going south, Luo Zhixue established a division-level organization and appointed several division commanders and brigade commanders.

Considering the matching of positions and ranks, Luo Zhixue also promoted many senior generals under his command.

Four ministers and two directors, all major generals, deputy ministers or directors of important departments are brigadier generals, general directors are colonels, and all subordinate departments are majors or lieutenant colonels.

In terms of field troops, Huang Dingquan, commander of the North Route Army and commander of the second division, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and Zuo Yingzhe, chief of staff of the North Route Army and commander of the first garrison division, was awarded the rank of major general.

And Huang Dingquan is currently the only lieutenant general under the rural protection army system.

Huang Guangmao, commander of the West Route Army and commander of the second garrison division, was promoted to major general.

It is worth noting that Huang Dingquan's rank of lieutenant general did not come from his position as the commander of the Second Division, but because of his position as the commander of the North Route Army.

The rank of the commander of the main division is a major general. For example, Li Duo, the commander of the third division, was awarded the rank of major general.

Li Chengtong, who led the main force of the First Division to go south to Hanyang, was also promoted to the commander of the First Division by Luo Zhixue before going south.

The brigade commander of the main division has the rank of brigadier general, the infantry, cavalry, and artillery regiment commanders of the main division have the rank of colonel, and the baggage regiment has the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The battalion commander of the main infantry battalion is mainly a major, supplemented by a lieutenant colonel.

The major general ranks of Zuo Yingzhe and Huang Guangmao are also not because of their positions as commanders of the garrison division, but because of their positions as chief of staff of the North Route Army and commander of the West Route Army.
The commander of their garrison division is only temporarily serving concurrently, but in the plan, the standard military rank of the commander of the garrison division is brigadier general.

After Dong Mingjie was promoted to the commander of the third garrison division, he was awarded the rank of brigadier general.

The brigade commander of the garrison division is assigned the rank of colonel, the infantry regiment commander is a lieutenant colonel or major, the infantry battalion commander is a captain, the infantry sentry commander is a lieutenant, and the captain is a second lieutenant or warrant lieutenant.

Generally speaking, the rank of officers in the garrison division is one level lower than that of the main force.

However, the above standard military ranks are not absolute. It also depends on the combat strength of the garrison division, the military achievements of the officers, and their qualifications.

Among them, Zhao Jiachao, the head of the first garrison regiment who belonged to the first garrison division, is the rank of colonel, because the first garrison regiment has high combat effectiveness, and at the same time, he is old and has great military achievements.

However, Lu Xingye, the first minister of the Ministry of the Navy, was very happy that he was able to obtain the rank of brigadier general. You must know that his rank not long ago was only a lieutenant colonel.

Lu Xingye is also a veteran general in the Baoxiang Army. He joined the army during the Funiu Mountain period. Because he was a naval officer of the Ming Army and was proficient in water skills, he began to manage the ships in the Baoxiang Army very early. Small sampan.

Especially after the Rural Protection Army went south, because they needed to use the Baihe River and the Han River to transport supplies, they paid more and more attention to water power. A special water supply battalion was also set up to transport the ships and supplies of the battalion.

Its nature is the same as that of the army's supply battalion, and it is an armed escort of supplies.

And Lu Xingye was the battalion commander of this water supply battalion, and he was promoted to a major. Later, as he went south to Zhongxiang, the scale of the water supply battalion gradually expanded. In addition, before and after the Zhongxiang Battle, the water supply battalion escorted a large number of ordnance, weapons and troops southward. .

Even if there is no credit, there is hard work.

After the Battle of Zhongxiang, Luo Zhixue was rewarded for his meritorious service, and Lu Xingye, who was a heavy supply battalion on the water, was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

When Luo Zhixue thought about independently developing water power into a branch, as the only mid-level officer in the rural protection army who was proficient in water warfare, Lu Xingye also ushered in a leapfrog development, directly skipping the lieutenant colonel Was promoted to brigadier general.

With such an encounter, Lu Xingye was naturally extremely satisfied.

Therefore, after he became the Minister of the Navy, he brought a group of people, including several captains under his command, some technical officers from the Ordnance Department, and civilian shipbuilders, to design ships specially for combat according to Luo Zhixue's instructions. battleship.

The new warships are also very simple. Basically, they are still improved on the traditional inland warships, mainly adding artillery.

The displacement of the newly built warships is only about [-] tons, and the installed artillery is also expected to be equipped with two hundred catties of short robes.

After all, a small boat can't be expected to be equipped with any heavy artillery, or the boat will be shaken to pieces as soon as it is fired...

At the same time, when fighting in inland rivers, we don't expect to attack enemy ships directly from a long distance.

Luo Zhixue didn't pay too much attention to these small inland river warships. Anyway, it's enough to make do with it. The important thing is to get out a batch of inland river warships quickly, so that when the time comes, there will be no warships after entering the Yangtze River. .

Therefore, after Lu Xingye reported this new warship, Luo Zhixue didn't waste much time, and directly approved the shipbuilding plan, and demanded that the construction or modification be started quickly.

Preparing to build a navy is just one of Luo Zhixue's many military affairs.

In the process of building the navy, Luo Zhixue ordered the establishment of the second siege artillery battalion, the third siege artillery battalion, the fourth siege artillery battalion, and the fifth siege artillery battalion, a total of four siege artillery battalions.

Among them, the second, third, and fourth siege artillery battalions are still expected to be equipped with [-]-jin mortars. One will be assigned to the Northern Army to strengthen the strength of the Northern Army, and the other two will be transferred south to strengthen the offensive strength of the troops going south. .

As for the Fifth Siege Artillery Battalion, the battalion will be equipped with 48-jin mortars, and will also be assigned to the southward troops.

The production of all kinds of mortars at the Xiangyang Armory is very smooth and fast. After all, there is no technical difficulty in this thing. As long as you work overtime, dozens of them can be produced in a month. The production difficulty is much less than that of field artillery.

These siege artillery battalions will first set up the shelves, and then slowly replenish the artillery depending on the situation. As for all the troops, it is estimated that it will take a few months.

However, the expansion of the Rural Protection Army has always been to finalize the designation first, and then slowly replenish personnel and equipment.

Similarly, this military expansion strategy has also continued to other main forces.

On August [-], Luo Zhixue formally ordered the establishment of the Fourth Division with the newly recruited troops in Anlu Prefecture, and expected to transfer some officers and non-commissioned officers and other backbones from other units.

This order has been issued, but it will take at least two months to see the formation of the fourth division's army, and it is estimated that it will take more than three months to form a fighting force.

Therefore, it is basically impossible to count on it in a short period of time, not to mention the fourth division, and even the third division now.

The third division has been training for more than a month, but now even the personnel have not yet expired, and the equipment is extremely lacking.

Especially guns are in short supply. People from the third division squat at the gate of Xiangyang Arsenal every day to ask for guns. Ding Gangyi, the supervisor of Xiangyang Arsenal, saw that they all took a detour...

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(End of this chapter)