I want to be emperor

Chapter 243 Fighting the Five Scum Navy

Although the Yangtze River Fleet is in battle, the level of performance makes people want to laugh.

But how to put it, this is a battle on the water between the five slags and the three scums. Fortunately, the Yangtze River Fleet belongs to the five slags, and the Wuchang navy of the Ming army is the third slag.

Because the performance of the Wuchang navy of the Ming army was even worse, the fleet had no battle at all since it came out, let alone fighting on its own, and the combat quality was extremely poor. Some ships were reluctant to start from the pier. Going forward, some of those who came forward also avoided the battle if they could, and turned to avoid it if they were slightly attacked.

There was also a ship that surrendered simply after being approached by the navy of the Rural Protection Army and launched a gang-jumping operation.

On that day, the Yangtze River Fleet of the Great Chu Empire Navy, at the cost of losing two ships, injuring many ships, and killing or wounding more than a hundred soldiers, managed to force the Ming Army Navy back outside Wuchang City after more than an hour of fierce fighting. The Navy's camp is stationed at the dock.

And in the battle, three enemy ships were sunk and burned, one was captured, and more than ten ships were injured. It is conservatively estimated that more than [-] enemy people were killed and more than [-] people were captured.

This time, the Wuchang water battle seemed to be a victory, and successfully defeated the enemy's plan to encircle the encirclement, and also achieved a good battle loss ratio, but Luo Zhixue was still very dissatisfied.

Looking at the two lost warships, one can see why Luo Zhixue was dissatisfied.
Of the two lost battleships, none of them were directly sunk by the Ming navy, and they were all losses caused by the Yangtze River Fleet's own messing up.

One of them was the Chu Navy's own artillery, which exploded due to a misoperation and caused the ammunition beside the naval gun to explode, and sent itself to the sky...

There was another ship whose captain foolishly wanted to break away from the formation and hit an enemy ship near the south bank, but a gust of river wind blew in, and instead of hitting the enemy ship, he slammed into the river bank...

He successfully rushed up and stranded himself!
The foolish captain had no choice but to abandon the ship, set fire to the ship, and took the sailors to escape in an escape boat.

As soon as this person landed, he was dismissed on the spot by the furious Minister of the Navy, Brigadier General Lu Xingye.

In other words, the army is not much better than that. Although they did not sink the ship themselves, they were stupid and sent it directly to the muzzle of the naval warship of the Baoxiang Army during the battle... and another ship was captured. .

In the end, the cannonballs and arson bombs fired by the rural protection army sank or burned three enemy ships, severely damaged many enemy ships, and launched a jumping gang operation to capture one.

On the whole, this naval battle seemed lively, but the quality was extremely low, so low that Luo Zhixue didn't even notice it.

That night, after Luo Zhixue received the complete battle report from the Ministry of the Navy, he said to the Minister of the Navy, Brigadier General Lu Xingye: "The navy must strengthen training in the future, cultivate the tactical literacy of officers at all levels, and prevent low-level mistakes!"

"In this naval battle, the vast number of naval officers and soldiers showed great bravery, but bravery alone is not enough. The war tests not only the bravery of the soldiers, but also their tactical skills."

"The Navy must not only dare to fight, but also be able to fight!"

Luo Zhixue's words made Lu Xingye break into cold sweats behind his back, and immediately said: "I am convicted, I will strictly rectify it in the future, and conduct strict training for naval officers at all levels. It will never happen again today. situation."

Luo Zhixue said: "Well, it is necessary to have this awareness, and the Naval Academy must be fully utilized. The training of officers is not enough to rely solely on letting generals explore on their own. It is not sufficient, and the growth rate is too slow. Make full use of the teaching advantages of the Military Academy, organize and collect various naval battle cases, consider the situation of our navy itself, learn from the advantages and discard the disadvantages."

"In addition, some old warships and temporarily refitted warships in this naval battle are obviously no longer able to meet the needs of modern water warfare. Your Admiralty must organize all kinds of manpower, consider the actual situation and conduct full demonstrations to design and build a more advanced warship. Warships adapted to the needs of modern naval warfare."

"For the new warship, under the premise of retaining the mobility of the inland river, strengthen the firepower of the naval gun as much as possible. In addition to various traditional old artillery, you can consider installing long-barreled artillery."

"During the landing operations before, many warships in the Hanshui Fleet temporarily deployed the army's field guns, and performed well in the cover landing operations. Your Admiralty should conduct research on this situation, demonstrate, and discuss the formal assignment of commanders to the inland warships. Possibility and necessity of tube artillery."

Regarding the series of questions and instructions Luo Zhixue raised against the navy, Lu Xingye basically had nothing to say except yes.

This time the Yangtze River Fleet fought so strangely that even if it won, it could not cover up its huge flaws.

After Lu Xingye came out of the palace, he thought about it for a long time on the road, and in his mind, he classified several middle and senior officers of the navy into the scope of dismissal or devaluation.

Damn it, a bunch of trash, fighting the Wuchang navy is so difficult, and full of loopholes, if you turn around and go to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially the Yangtze River, and meet the more powerful coastal navy of the Ming army, wouldn't you have to completely destroy it? It's over.

You must know that the navy of the Ming Dynasty actually had some combat effectiveness, not to mention the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, and the Zheng fleet recruited by the Ming court, it was a huge monster, and its combat effectiveness in coastal waters was still quite strong.

Given the current situation of the Great Chu Empire Navy, if they go to the Yangtze River or even the coast, they will probably be hanged and beaten...

When Lu Xingye was determined to overhaul the navy, the army's actions were still going smoothly.

On October [-]th, the first batch of mortars of the Township Protection Army arrived outside Wuchang City, and part of the Guards Division arrived with these mortars.

On October [-]th, the units of the Rural Protection Army scheduled to participate in the battle of Wuchang had successfully arrived outside the city of Wuchang.

Including most of the First Division (less than two infantry battalions), the First Guards Brigade of the Guards Division is the core, and the temporary First Guards Mixed Brigade is composed of corresponding auxiliary artillery and cavalry supplies.

The sixth garrison division has a mixed brigade strength.

There are 48 mortars in a group of mortars.

Directly under the First Battalion of Engineers.

There are a total of more than 28 troops, 48 field guns and [-] mortars.

In the outer area of ​​Wuchang City, there are about 3000 people in the eastward detachment, about 3000 people in the westward detachment, and the first cavalry brigade, Qianqi, which provides strategic mobile forces in the outer plains.

At the same time, in the rear ferry area, there is also the newly established regiment of the seventh garrison division. soldier.

This garrison regiment is not only to guard the landing ferry, but also serves as the seed force for the expansion and reorganization of the [-]th garrison division.

As for the gap in the strength of the Sixth Garrison Division after being transferred to three infantry battalions, it was directly supplemented from the surrendered troops.

Now the reorganization of the Seventh Defense Division has officially started, but the division commander Wang Dazhuang has not actually arrived, so the division's current combat training and subsequent reorganization work is temporarily in charge of the deputy director Dong Siyuan.

In fact, Dong Siyuan is better at handling these affairs than Wang Dazhuang, and is more suitable to be the teacher than Wang Dazhuang.

However, his qualifications are still a bit low, and his military rank is a bit low. Even if he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the past, he is not a brigadier general and cannot serve as the commander of the garrison division.

Such a partnership between Dong Siyuan and Wang Dazhuang actually means that Wang Dazhuang is only a teacher in name, and Dong Siyuan is still in charge of the actual affairs.

Wang Dazhuang only needs to sign various orders in the follow-up, as a rubber stamp.

This is also a very special situation in the Rural Protection Army, that is, many senior generals are actually not very good at tactics, and those who actually do the work are often deputy division commanders and deputy brigade commanders.

This is Luo Zhixue's comprehensive consideration of the morale of the army, not only to give enough dignity to the old generals and senior generals like Wang Dazhuang, but also to promote and reuse the middle-level generals with less seniority, and finally formed the current situation.

A veteran general like Wang Dazhuang with deep qualifications and good loyalty but mediocre ability sits on one side, while a mid-level rookie general with outstanding ability like Dong Siyuan but lacks qualifications and a relatively low rank serves as a deputy.

And these deputy positions are often promoted very fast!

Zuo Yingzhe, the director of the Operations Department of the General Staff Department, was transferred to serve as the Chief of Staff of the North Route Army and the Commander of the First Defense Division. He directly solved the brigadier general rank and gained enough qualifications. Luo Zhixue was promoted to the third division soon after. Teacher, awarded the title of major general.

Dong Mingjie was also similar. In order to solve the problem of his military rank, Luo Zhixue simply asked him to serve in the garrison. After he wandered around the third garrison division, he changed from a mere lieutenant colonel to a brigadier general. Luo Zhixue was directly promoted by Luo Zhixue to be the commander of the Fourth Division because of his military exploits in Jingzhou Prefecture.

The same situation also happened to Brigadier General Wang Xianglai, the current Deputy Commander of the Second Division.

Although this person is a brigadier general, and he is already the deputy commander of the main division, but in fact he has not been a dragon for a long time. He only joined the dragon in Luyang County in March.

But because this person was born as a scholar, with a flexible mind, a good attitude, and outstanding learning, he quickly entered the key training list.

Since becoming a dragon, this person has participated in the study of the Suiying School, and has served in the Guard Division system for a long time. He has participated in many battles and performed very well. He was later transferred to the Operations Department and served as the Deputy Director of the Operations Department.

Finally, in August, he was transferred to the deputy commander of the second division and promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

And who is the commander of the second division?Lin Dongsheng.

Lin Dongsheng was one of the earliest batch of old cavalrymen, and he was also one of the three cavalry sentry officers. In terms of qualifications, only Wang Xiazi can stabilize him, and no one else can.

Otherwise, among the four main divisions of the Baoxiang Army, why is he an old cavalry commander? Apart from his own love of learning, he has always studied cultural knowledge, received military education, and worked hard to keep up In addition to Luo Zhixue's progress, it is also related to his profound qualifications.

However, Lin Dongsheng has worked very hard to learn all kinds of things, trying to keep up with the development of the Rural Protection Army. However, when he became a division commander and commanded tens of thousands of troops, he still seemed unable to do what he wanted.

That's why Luo Zhixue transferred Brigadier General Wang Xianglai, who had outstanding ability, to partner with him.

Similar to their situation, there are still many in the Rural Protection Army. Luo Zhixue thinks this model is not bad. It can not only cultivate newcomers with outstanding abilities, but also avoid the situation of veterans who are not capable enough.

All are also ready to expand further and deepen this model.

That is to prepare to establish a staff system in the three-level troops at the division, brigade, and regiment levels.

(End of this chapter)