I want to be emperor

Chapter 248 Explosive Charge (Fifth update for subscription)
While speaking, Colonel Xie Xiaobo added: "On the day of the general offensive, I will personally carry out the blasting operation. Even if there is an accident, I will dare to issue a military order and absolutely guarantee that one blasting site will go smoothly. Detonate!"

Seeing that Xie Xiaobo had said such things, Li Chengtong naturally shut up and didn't talk about the blasting issue.

But although he didn't say anything, he was still quite worried about the failure of the blasting, because it was expected that the first wave of troops rushing to the top of the city would be an assault battalion composed of elite soldiers under his first division.

If the assault battalion's attack failed or even suffered heavy losses due to the failure of the blasting, the loss would be huge.

But Colonel Xie Xiaobo has issued a military order, what else do you want...

Later, other people raised some questions or doubts one after another, and others also answered or discussed solutions together.

But generally speaking, the real problems are only some small problems, and the combat plan formulated by the staff is quite reliable as a whole.

After all, in order to formulate a plan to conquer Wuchang City, the General Staff has collected all kinds of information more than a month in advance, and has made many deduction and thought of many methods.

Dozens of people made the battle plan, covering the operations department, the strategy department, and other personnel belonging to the staff department. At the same time, the logistics department also sent people to participate.

This is also a great feature of the rural protection army's fighting, that is, the general staff will formulate macro strategic planning and large-scale battle plans.

The staff department is responsible for training and combat, formulating grand strategies and combat plans for major campaigns, which is much more complete than the military system in traditional dynasties.

In contrast, the Ming court did not have a professional organization to formulate macro-strategies and battle plans for major battles.

For example, the current strategy of the Ming court to encircle and suppress the bandits and encircle the rural protection army is all patchwork.

Yang Sichang made some suggestions, Hong Chengchou also made some suggestions, and then the top civil servants made a final decision with a slap in the head.

But how to do it, I'm sorry, Chongzhen's monarchs and ministers don't know or understand...then the generals on the front line have to find their own way.

To sum it up, it's what the boss says, but it doesn't do anything.

The next thing to do is to do it, but I don't know what to do, so I can only do things on my own in the end.

The good effect of the staff system has made Luo Zhixue decide to implement the staff system in the three-level troops of division, brigade, and regiment, and provide the commanders of the troops with a comprehensive staff team to help them make suggestions and check for gaps.

However, the promotion of the staff system still needs to wait until the Battle of Wuchang is over. Now that the army has already moved, it is not suitable to make too many changes, so as not to delay the fighter.

And after the Battle of Wuchang is over, Luo Zhixue will gradually begin to promote the staff system, setting up the post of chief of staff among the three levels of division, brigade and regiment, and then matching a number of full-time staff to form a staff team.

After a pre-imperial military meeting was over, Luo Zhixue also decided on the time for the final attack.

the day after tomorrow.

That is October 22.

This time node is already relatively late. As the weather gets colder and colder, it will become more and more unfavorable to the siege. The rural protection army must speed up its actions and launch a general offensive as soon as possible.

On October 21, the engineering unit reported that gunpowder had been buried in two secret blasting sites, and the final placement of the fuse and detonation would be carried out tomorrow.

Also in the afternoon of the same day, Luo Zhixue met with the battalion commander and other officers of the assault battalion to boost their morale.

In tomorrow's siege, the assault battalion will take on the most important and dangerous task, that is, to rush up to launch the siege operation immediately after the blasting is successful, seize the blasting gap, and welcome the reinforcements from the rear to control the surrounding city walls.

That night, Luo Zhixue once again summoned some school-level officers, mainly the officers from various ministries who will launch the siege tomorrow, also to boost their morale.

After a night of silence, early the next morning, there was a sudden commotion outside Wuchang City.

A large number of soldiers of the Rural Protection Army came out of the barracks and began to line up. Many soldiers of the Rural Protection Army directly entered the traffic trenches and approached the city wall.

Such a large-scale mobilization of troops could not be concealed at all. The observers of the Ming army on the top of the city immediately discovered the abnormality and urgently reported to a group of senior civil and military officials in the city.

Soon, a group of high-ranking civil and military officials, including Huguang Buzheng Envoy, Huguang Inspectorate Envoy, Wuchang Prefect, and Huguangdu Commanding Envoy, all appeared at the top of the city. ,
They didn't dare to go directly to the city gate tower, because that place was a living target. If they dared to go up, once they were discovered by the artillerymen of the thieves, they would attract violent shelling in minutes.

They hid directly in a section of the city wall and looked out of the city through the battlements.

This look scared them a lot!

"There are at least tens of thousands of bandits here, and thousands of bandits to the east. They are about to launch a general attack!"

"There are so many heavy armors among these security thieves. Look, among the thieves in the first few phalanxes, at least half of them are heavy armors."

"How good is this!"

These few high-ranking civil and military officials, facing the dark security army outside the city, none of them had confidence, and all of them showed panic.

Don't panic!
They are the powerful ones protecting the bandit army. The defenders hid in the city a few days ago, and they have been bombarded by the bandit army, killing and injuring nearly a thousand people one after another.

If the bandit army attacks all the time this time, wouldn't there be more casualties.

Once there are too many casualties, the defenders in the city will collapse in minutes.

These senior officials are still very clear about what the army under their own hands is.

There seem to be more than 2 defenders in the city, but in fact most of them are ordinary guards drawn from various places in southern Chu.

Among the more than 2 soldiers, there were only three to four thousand soldiers, and the rest were ordinary guard soldiers who didn't even have much military training on weekdays.

Although they all hold weapons and wear military uniforms, their actual combat effectiveness is very worrying.

Such an army of [-] may seem like a lot of people, but after the bandit army rushed to the top of the city, only a few thousand soldiers dared to fight the bandit army at the top of the city.

And those who can really be relied on are the soldiers and servants of the generals. There are even fewer of these people, and it is estimated that there are only two to three hundred people in total.

In addition, there are not many cannons. There are only a dozen or so general cannons weighing more than 100 kilograms, and Francophones, while attacking military cannons weighing tens of kilograms, tiger squatting cannons and the like are more than [-], but The power of these cannons weighing only a few kilograms is too small, and the range is too short to be useful at all.

Wuchang City seems to have more than 2 troops garrisoned, but in fact the overall strength is much worse than that of Zhong Xiang's defenders.

This is also the reason why the army retreated decisively to Wuchang City when they heard that the beach was lost after leaving the city. At the same time, after the first batch of about 3000 bandit soldiers arrived in Wuchang City, they did not have the courage to take the initiative to attack, and the bandit army was caught off guard.

Because with the quality of this group of Ming troops, if they dare to fight against the bandit army in the wild, they will seek their own death.

Let alone field battles, even if they stick to Wuchang, they don't have much confidence.

Back then Tang Hui led an army of [-] to defend Zhongxiang. Although the defense of Zhongxiang was average, the strength of the troops stationed in Zhongxiang was stronger.

There are more soldiers, and more artillery, especially large artillery.

But Zhong Xiang was taken down the same way back then.

Although their Wuchang City has stronger city defense facilities now, its military strength and artillery are not as good as Zhong Xiang's back then.

More importantly, the morale in the city is very low.

Under such circumstances, it may be difficult to block the general attack of the bandit army.

Not to mention what the Ming army inside the city thought, but the rural protection army outside the city started their siege operations step by step.

The infantry began to dispatch in large numbers and entered the predetermined positions. The artillery was also ready, and a large number of shells had arrived in advance and were stored near the artillery positions.

As long as the Ming army on the opposite side dares to go up to the top of the city to resist, the artillery of the Township Protection Army will mercilessly shell them.

And the Ming army inside the city also knew that the top of the city was very dangerous, and the infantry of the rural protection army outside the city did not start to attack, so naturally they would not be foolish to go to the top of the city on a large scale now, but only sent some people up sporadically Just in case.

More soldiers of the Ming army were assembled one after another and hid in the fortifications behind the city wall. As long as the thieves sent out infantry to attack the city, they would go to the top of the city to fight back.

At about [-]:[-] in the morning, the artillery unit of the Township Protection Army began a suppressive shelling, targeting some places where the Ming army gathered on the top of the city, especially the section of the city wall where the Ming army deployed artillery.

Don't ask how many enemy troops can be killed, but just suppress the enemy army so that they can't let go of the top of the city and control the artillery to fight back.

At this time, in a traffic trench, hundreds of soldiers from the assault battalion were also ready, as were the soldiers of the First Infantry Brigade on the left, right and rear.

Now, they are waiting for a signal!
Signal to attack!
At the back of the battlefield, Luo Zhixue looked at the temporarily calm battlefield in front of him, with a calm expression, and even smiled and said something to Xu Zhixian beside him.

"Xu Aiqing, yesterday I heard that someone asked you to propose marriage. I heard that it is a scholarly family in Hanyang. As a wedding present!"

After hearing this, Xu Zhixian said with embarrassment: "I also have this idea, but I am lonely and have no elders. Don't you worry about it!"

Luo Zhixue said: "It's not easy, as long as you are willing, I will marry you!"

When Xu Zhixian heard this, he immediately beamed with joy and said: "It's still your majesty's admiral's intentions. In fact, I wanted to mention this before, but I didn't dare to disturb your majesty!"

Luo Zhixue chuckled: "You have such a temper, you always like to beat around the bush, you can just talk about these small things directly."

While the two were chatting, someone came over from the side. It was Colonel Xie Xiaobo, the director of the Engineering Department.

"The two blasting sites have been prepared and can be ignited and detonated at any time. Please show your Majesty!"

Luo Zhixue looked back at him, still smiling and said: "Then what are you waiting for, let's explode!"

Colonel Xie Xiaobo immediately bowed and said, "I obey the order!"

And following Luo Zhixue's order, about a minute later, he saw a sudden vibration of the city wall directly in front, followed by a dull loud noise from the city wall.

Looking again, I saw that the originally tall city wall in front had collapsed into a piece of rubble and soil!
At this time, there was a rush of whistles in the starting position of the assault battalion on the front line!
A large number of soldiers from the Assault Battalion of the Rural Protection Army jumped out of the trench and rushed towards the collapsed city wall that was still emitting smoke and dust.

"Come on!"

"kill!"

"Long live the Home Guard!"

　The fifth update is here, please subscribe, order in full.

　　There will be updates later!
　　I worked hard today in the rain!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)