I want to be emperor

Chapter 233 Crossing the River!

On the fifth day of October, Luo Zhixue held an expanded participation meeting, and all the ministers and ministers in Hanyang City participated from the second rank and above.

At the meeting, Luo Zhixue emphasized that the offensive to cross the river is imminent, and all departments should cooperate closely to do a good job in crossing the river.

After some discussion, the heads of various ministries began to express their views.

The Minister of Counseling, Yuan Gaofeng, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, said: "The factories under the Ministry of Industry have already made all preparations. The Xiangyang Arsenal and other military supply factories in the rear have entered an emergency wartime production state. Every day there will be a large number of All kinds of military supplies are transported from Nanyang, Xiangyang and other places to the front line of Hanyang to ensure that the military supplies are worry-free!"

Huang Chengxuan, Minister of the Ministry of Finance, said: "In addition to the planned military expenditures, our Finance Department has prepared 500 million taels of silver in advance as emergency war expenses, and can be used for various unexpected war expenses according to the will at any time."

Speaking of this, Huang Chengxuan added: "If the 500 taels is not enough, we can raise another 200 million taels of silver, but this will greatly affect the operation of administrative agencies in various places in northern Chu, as well as the construction of water conservancy and the restoration of farming in various places."

"As for the grain, most of the grain and grass we have stored in the front line of Hanyang have been handed over to the military logistics department. According to the grain and grass supply standard of our army, this batch of grain will last a whole year for the [-] troops. Institutions and auxiliary personnel eat it."

Guo Quanshu, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said: "The Ministry of Civil Affairs has prepared more than 2000 officials at all levels in advance, and established Wuchang, Yuezhou, Changsha, and Changde prefectures, prefectures, and counties in advance."

"The prefects, magistrates and other middle and high-level officials of all prefectures have prepared candidates in advance, and at the same time, they are also ready to recruit a large number of low-level officials in southern Chu. I will take over a place administratively."

And Chen Xingkai, Minister of the Taxation Department, is even more domineering: "Respect Your Majesty's will, our taxation department has dispatched more than 3000 capable tax officials, more than 26 investigation tax police officers, and more than [-] armed tax police officers from various prefectures and counties in northern Chu. There are a total of [-], [-] elites, and after this group of tax elites go south, they will carry out the confiscation and taxation work as soon as possible.”

The number of people who went south from a mere taxation department greatly exceeded the total number of people who went south from other administrative agencies!
This shows that the Great Chu Empire attaches great importance to taxation work!

And the other officials of the Great Chu Empire are not surprised by this. The Taxation Department is the administrative agency with the largest number of people in the Great Chu Empire.

They even have armed tax police. The combat effectiveness of this armed tax police is not much worse than that of the garrison, but there are not so many people.

It was also Luo Zhixue's direct intention to deploy armed tax police from various prefectures and counties to go south.

On the one hand, it is better to get out of the tax issues in various parts of southern Chu, and to solve some armed tax resistance matters on the spot.

Another aspect is also to reduce the pressure on the military. This time, there are not many troops going south, and the main force is just the first division, plus half a guard division, the first cavalry brigade and a mortar regiment. .

These main forces are probably around 2 people.

In addition, there is a garrison division with a scale of [-] people.

In other words, the total number of troops going south is actually about 3.

3 people were going to attack the entire South of Chu, and it was almost enough for fighting alone, otherwise Luo Zhixue would not have the courage to cross the south of the Yangtze River directly.

But it is possible to defeat the Ming army, but how to control a large area after defeating the local Ming army is more troublesome.

According to the plan, the task of suppressing the local area will be handed over to the garrison, including the sixth garrison division and the planned seventh garrison division that will be formed by accepting prisoners of war.

However, the sixth garrison division in the early stage must cooperate with the main force to fight, and it may take time for the new seventh garrison division to be reorganized.

Then in this process, the task of suppressing the newly occupied area in the rear will be more troublesome.

In order to solve this problem, Luo Zhixue simply sent armed tax police over there in advance, and asked them to help suppress the newly occupied area by the way.

Anyway, the main military problem in the newly occupied area is to wipe out the routs, bandits, and landlords in the Ming army. To deal with these people, the armed tax police are actually better than the garrison...

——

When all the departments in the civil service system expressed their opinions one after another, Xu Zhixian from the military also stood up.

"Thank you for your cooperation and support!"

"Our army has been preparing for this trip to the south of the Yangtze River for more than a month, and the soldiers have been training hard day and night. Once we launch the crossing operation, we and our soldiers will fight bravely without fear of a strong enemy, so as to conquer Wuchang, Yuezhou, Changsha, Changde and other prefectures as soon as possible. , will never fail His Majesty's high expectations!"

When Xu Zhixian also made a statement on behalf of the military, and even made a military order, the last high-level meeting before crossing the river can be regarded as coming to an end.

The next day, that is, at around six o'clock in the morning on the sixth day of October, Luo Zhixue held a military affairs meeting before dawn, and formally issued an order to start the battle across the river immediately.

After signing the combat order, Luo Zhixue looked around at the generals and said: "This trip to the south of the Yangtze River is related to the fate of the empire. I hope you will work hard and fight bravely. I am waiting for your success!"

"I will reward those who have made merit in this battle generously!"

After a group of generals left, Luo Zhixue, dressed in military uniform, led a group of civil and military officials to the south gate of Hanyang City facing the Yangtze River.

Luo Zhixue looked towards the south, and saw a vast Yangtze River!

On the other side of the Yangtze River is the city of Wuchang defended by the Ming army!

On the wharf along the river near the Yangtze River in Wuchang City, a group of ships of the Ming army navy were moored, and there were even a few temporarily built forts beside the wharf.

On the north bank of the Yangtze River, that is, on the side of Hanyang City, the Yangtze River Fleet and the Hanshui Fleet of the Great Chu Navy have set sail from the pier one after another.

At this time, Xu Zhixian also explained to Luo Zhixue: "The current two fleets have concentrated more than 90.00% of our army's current warships. The Yangtze River Fleet will be the main force and will be responsible for intercepting the Ming army. The water fleet will move westward to cover the army crossing the river."

"Many warships in the Hanshui Fleet have temporarily installed a total of [-] two-and-a-half-pound or five-pound field guns to bombard the enemy troops on the beach nearby, so as to solve the problem that the first batch of landing troops do not have long-barreled artillery firepower. A question of support."

"With the firepower of the Hanshui Fleet, plus a batch of light artillery carried by the first batch of landing troops, it should be enough to provide fire support for the landing troops."

"At least, the firepower of their camp along the river with thousands of people is far inferior to ours!"

After hearing this, Luo Zhixue said: "The plan formulated by the General Staff is still sound, thank you Xu Aiqing for your hard work!"

When Luo Zhixue and Xu Zhixian looked at the entire Yangtze River from the south gate of Hanyang, all they could see was actually the navy fleet.

The troops crossing the river were not actually in Hanyang City, but about fifteen kilometers upstream.

This time the Township Protection Army crossed the river offensive, and chose Shuilin Town as the crossing point.

This is a small town along the river about fifteen kilometers west of Hanyang City, and directly opposite it is a relatively flat wilderness, and the beachhead of this wilderness has relatively rare river sand and solid gravel ground .

Although the Ming army also set up a large camp not far from the opposite bank, deploying at least a thousand troops to garrison it.

But in the end, the Township Protection Army chose to launch the cross-river operation here.

Anyway, the Ming army established many camps along the river on the east and west sides of Wuchang City, and there were small checkpoints every mile.

No matter where the rural protection army crossed the river and landed, they would basically encounter beachhead denial by at least a thousand enemy troops in a short period of time.

But it doesn't matter, anyway, the Ming army in Wuchang City will not appear here for a short time.

-

According to the investigation by the intelligence department, there are about [-] Ming troops stationed in Wuchang, which is also the absolute main force of the Ming army in Wuchang.

A total of more than 2000 people have been deployed along the river along the east side of the periphery of Wuchang City. There are one large and three medium-sized camps along the river, and the entire eastern defense line along the river extends for about [-] miles.

Within [-] miles west of Wuchang City, there are also several medium and large camps along the river, each with a garrison strength ranging from hundreds to thousands.

The defense line of the Ming army in Wuchang was very clear and simple.

That is to take Wuchang City as the core, extending to the east and west sides, about ten miles apart, relying on the local ferry, small town or village to build a large camp, deploying hundreds of troops.

Between these large camps, there will be small checkpoints with dozens of people deployed at intervals of one mile to prevent small-scale infiltration operations by the rural protection army.

Based on these deployments of the Ming army, the staff guessed that the overall defensive strategy of the Ming army might be to wait for the rural protection army to cross the river, then let these Ming troops deployed along the river on both sides resist on the beach as soon as possible.

By slowing the pace of crossing the river by the rural protection army, it bought time for the main force in Wuchang City to send troops to block the attack.

Otherwise, there is no need for them to set up multiple large camps on the east and west sides of Wuchang City, and the deployment of troops is still lined up.

In view of this situation, Xu Zhixian's judgment is: "They are still afraid of us, they don't want to be besieged by us in Wuchang, and they don't have the confidence to defend Wuchang in our storm!"

"That's why I want to plan to fight a beachhead blocking battle, and give us a half-way attack."

This is also a fact, if they didn't have no confidence to defend Wuchang City, they wouldn't do it like this.

Without the confidence to defend the city, they would absolutely not let the thieves cross the river smoothly and besiege Wuchang.

Once the security thieves are allowed to besiege Wuchang, they will completely lose the initiative in the war later.

What's more, there are still naval forces of the bandit army outside the Yangtze River. Once Wuchang cannot be defended, they will not even have the chance to retreat from the Yangtze River.

In Wuchang City, many people still don't want to turn to thieves, let alone die!
(End of this chapter)