I want to be emperor

Chapter 258
For the Great Chu Empire after taking down Wuchang City, starting from the end of October, it can be regarded as entering a relatively stable and peaceful period.

Large-scale military operations have been completely stopped, leaving only some small fights.

After all, it is already winter.

It has snowed heavily in Xiangyang and Nanyang Prefectures in the north as early as half a month ago.

After entering November, even the Wuchang Mansion on the south bank of the Yangtze River began to snow heavily. If the Township Protection Army attacked Wuchang City half a month later, or if the attack was delayed for more than half a month, then I have to attack the city under the heavy snow of goose feathers.

Fortunately, the actions of the Great Chu Empire were fairly fast, and the siege of the city was relatively smooth. It did not say that Wuchang City had not been captured after the heavy snow came.

In that case, the siege will become more difficult.

In the cold winter season, it is very difficult to carry out large-scale military operations. The cold weather will lead to non-combat attrition when the army is marching and fighting.

At the same time, in snowy weather, it is also difficult to carry out logistics transportation and supplies.

Especially on the northern fronts, when it snows, the roads can't be distinguished, and the carriages full of supplies can't go.

In order to allow the northern troops to survive the winter smoothly, the logistics department has already sent a large amount of supplies to various parts of the north in autumn in advance.

Including a large number of winter clothes, food and ammunition and so on.

The garrison troops in the north are like this, but it is similar in the south. After all, this will be the Little Ice Age. Even Guangdong in the south can experience heavy snowfall in winter, let alone Wuchang Prefecture.

Under the cold winter, it is difficult for even the rural protection army to launch a large-scale offensive. On the whole, it has begun to switch to a strategic defensive posture on all fronts.

The same is true for the Ming army. The rural protection army’s logistics supply capabilities are more powerful, and it is difficult to ensure large-scale operations, let alone the Ming army. They can’t even supply winter clothes for ordinary soldiers.

Therefore, after entering November, the large-scale battles between the Chu army and the Ming army stopped completely, and only occasionally some small-scale wars broke out, but these small-scale wars did not affect the overall situation.

It is worth mentioning that after November, Yang Sichang finally took office with justification and integrity. He has now moved from his hometown of Changde Mansion to Changsha to sit in the town, and has begun to mobilize troops, even build guns and train new troops to resist the rural protection army.

At the same time, because the Army of Protecting the Township captured Wuchang and was about to leave the south of the Yangtze River in the east, the Ming court began to think about sending big men to the Jiangxi area to integrate the forces of Jiangxi, Jiangnan, Jiangbei and other places, so as to prevent the Army of Protecting the Township from entering the south of the Yangtze River. .

However, with the efficiency of the Ming court center, the fierce factional struggles at the top, and the speed of communication, it is estimated that the prime minister Jiangnan and other military leaders in places such as Jiangnan will not be able to be finalized in a short time.

Generally speaking, after November, the war between the Great Chu Empire and the Ming Dynasty has subsided for the time being, entering a fairly stable period of confrontation.

Even in the Shaanxi area, because the rebel army was beaten by Hong Chengchou before and lost their temper, the remnants of the rebel army fled, scattered, and hid, so the whole seemed relatively calm.

No large-scale war broke out in Jiliao area.

Looking at it this way, the land of Kyushu has entered a relatively peaceful period, which is rare.

However, everyone knows that this peace is only temporary, and when the weather is better in the spring of next year, the land of Kyushu will inevitably rise again.

Wars between the rural protection army and the Ming army are bound to break out again, and the rebel army is very likely to reappear. Even Dongyao's side is expected to make some moves, because it is heard that this year's northern winter is colder than usual. It was cold, and the road was blocked by heavy snow early.

Dongyao, who lives in the northern cold, will inevitably have a more difficult winter.

And the Dongyao had an extremely uncomfortable winter, so according to their rules, there is a high probability that they will send troops to fight next year to grab a wave of blood recovery.

Anyway, whenever the Dongyao couldn't survive, they would go out to rob a wave, rob the Koryo Peninsula, and rob the Mongolian ethnic groups. If this is not enough, then they will boldly detour through Mongolia and enter the customs to plunder.

Therefore, many discerning people can already predict that next year, Kyushu will inevitably rise again, and they have begun to prepare for it.

The high-ranking officials of the Great Chu Empire are no exception.

Regardless of the changes in the outside world, next year, there is no need to wait until summer and autumn when the weather is better, as long as the snow melts and the roads are slightly feasible, the rural protection army will launch offensives and expand one after another.

For example, the offensive against the south of Chu is imperative next year.

The Great Chu Empire will wait until next year, no matter how bad it is, it will take down parts of Yuezhou Prefecture, Changsha Prefecture, Changde Prefecture, Hengyang Prefecture and Yongzhou Prefecture in the area around Dongting Lake and along the Xiangjiang River.

Huguang is familiar, the world is full, not just Chubei and Wuchang Mansion, but the whole Huguang.

The main grain-producing areas of the entire Huguang area are the Jianghan Plain and Xiangyang Prefecture in the Nanyang Basin in the northern Chu area, and the Wuchang Prefecture and other areas along the Yangtze River, as well as the Dongting Lake and Xiangjiang River areas in the southern Chu area.

Those remote mountainous areas can be left alone for the time being, but these plain grain-producing areas, especially the grain-producing areas connected by waterways, must be taken down.

These places are relatively densely populated and produce a lot of food, which is the basis for the Great Chu Empire to conquer the world.

In addition to various places in southern Chu, the Township Protection Army will also launch several battles in several other directions.

Although the northern and northwestern fronts generally implement strategic defense, they occasionally take the initiative to attack one at a time to consume and mobilize the opponent's troops, so as to avoid allowing the Ming army on the opposite side to hoard a large number of troops and then launch a counterattack.

In the eastern Sichuan area on the western front, the top generals of the rural protection army still have no memory of Wushan and Fengjie. They have always wanted to conquer these two places and completely open up the passage to Sichuan.

In late October, the [-]th Garrison Division of the Township Protection Army also tried to launch an offensive against Wushan City, but because of the large number of defenders in Wushan and the difficult terrain, the [-]th Garrison Army lacked siege mortars, field artillery and other artillery , so that the siege failed, not to mention the loss of thousands of people, and not even a hair...

At the military affairs meeting, Xu Zhixian proposed that next year, the western front should be appropriately reinforced, and a main force of mixed brigade size would be sent there, and then a mortar battalion and a field artillery battalion would be brought over. Take it down.

The northern front, the northwestern front, and the western front, these three directions are actually secondary fronts. Although the Rural Protection Army plans to invest some forces in the above directions next year, it will not be too much.

Next year, the real strategic direction of the Great Chu Empire is to go south and east.

Specifically, it will go south first, occupy Huguang first, stabilize the rear, and then concentrate on moving eastward.

It's just that it's hard to say when to go east, it depends on whether the attack on Changsha and Hengyang goes well next year.

After all, there is Yang Sichang sitting in Changsha now, and Yang Sichang is still capable, so it is estimated that it will inevitably take a lot of trouble to fight.

In order to prepare for various offensives next year, the war machine of the Great Chu Empire will not stop this winter, but will continue to organize and train.

At the same time, the rear continues to provide money and food, and various military supplies factories under the Ministry of Industry will continue to work overtime to produce various military supplies.

But even though this war machine was still running continuously, it still slowed down a bit after all, allowing Luo Zhixue to have time to deal with another major matter related to the fate of the empire.

marry!

Preparations for his wedding had actually started in October, and the Wang family and his son had already arrived in Wuchang City at the end of October.

Some generals and some senior civil officials who were abroad also returned to Wuchang City of Han Tianfu one after another to prepare for the wedding ceremony.

Luo Zhixue has already ascended the throne as emperor, his wedding ceremony cannot be fooled casually, there is a whole set of procedures.

After more than half a month of continuous preparations, the preparations for the big wedding can be considered to be fully prepared before the big wedding date.

In the first year of Chu Chengshun, on the sixth day of November in the eighth year of Ming Chongzhen, it is appropriate to marry.

The city of Wuchang is full of joy, and colorful flags can be seen everywhere. The main road in the city, that is, the road that Shengjia and Fengjia will pass through during the wedding, has been paved with loess and has a new look.

Even the policemen who patrol the city and are in charge of security have put on new black uniforms.

The army officers and soldiers stationed and even serving as the guard of honor, without exception, all put on brand-new gray soldier uniforms or dark blue officer uniforms.

Even the soldiers who wear armor as a guard of honor are wearing brand new armor and wearing a new uniform black cape.

As for the civil and military officials who attended the wedding, needless to say, all of them were wearing new court clothes that had just been finalized.

As the orthodox Han Dynasty, the various costumes of the Great Chu Empire are actually the same as those of the Ming Dynasty, especially the dragon robes of the emperor, and the official uniforms of officials are also similar in shape.

The daily official uniforms of the fourth rank and above in the Ming court are vermilion, the seventh to fifth ranks are blue, and the eighth and ninth ranks are green.

The Great Chu Empire did not impose any restrictions on the daily office attire of civil servants. You can wear regular clothes to work if you are willing. It only stipulates that officials of different levels must wear metal bird badges of different levels when they are working.

This bird badge is actually a simplified version of the civil servants at all levels in the Ming Dynasty...

In the Ming Dynasty, the patterns were displayed directly on the clothes, while in Dongyao, the patterns were displayed on special supplementary clothes.

The Great Chu Empire simply canceled these complicated patches, directly simplified the patterns of birds and birds, and carved them into all the badges.

Gold badges for the fourth rank and above, silver badges for the fifth to seventh ranks, and copper badges for the eighth and ninth ranks.

Of course, the patterns of badges from rank one to rank nine are still different.

Generally speaking, the Great Chu Empire did not pay much attention to ordinary clothes, but it imposed very strict regulations on court clothes worn on major ceremonial occasions such as sacrifices.

From shirts to trousers, to coats to hats, from colors to patterns, etc., there are very detailed and strict regulations.

Because court clothes are different, and the symbolic meaning is too strong, so you can't just mess around.

And the court clothes produced in this way are actually not much different from the court clothes of the Ming Dynasty. At first glance, you can’t tell the difference, because they are both dressed in a big red robe...

Don't say that the Ming Dynasty was copied by the Great Chu Empire, but that the court clothes were black in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, and completely turned into scarlet in the Han Dynasty.

Han, Tang, Song and Ming and other orthodox Han dynasties, including some regional Han regimes, basically wear this way, and it has basically remained unchanged for more than 1000 years...

And today is the day when the civil and military officials belonging to the Great Chu Empire wear court uniforms.

Because on this day, Luo Zhixue officially got married, and named Xiang Yangguanghua Wang's queen!

(End of this chapter)