I want to be emperor

Chapter 284 General Soldier Yu Xiuwen

On March [-]th, the second year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, Luo Zhixue stood outside Linxiang City, looking at the Linxiang City, which was bursting with flames and rumbling sounds from time to time.

It has been the second day since the offensive was officially launched yesterday, that is, on the [-]th.

In the past two days, the Chu army did only one thing, and that was to gradually eliminate the defense nodes of the Ming army outside the city.

The Ming army in Linxiang City did not choose the traditional way of defending the city, and directly retreated behind the city wall. Instead, they chose to actively dig trenches outside the city wall and rely on several relatively high hills outside the city. There are several small fortresses on the protruding part, and small artillery such as general guns are deployed on them.

If the Chu army did not pull out these protrusions and rashly dispatched a large number of infantry to attack directly, they would be intercepted by the fierce firepower of these protrusions, resulting in heavy casualties.

In yesterday's battle, the Chu army had successively conquered three prominent nodes of the Ming army, not only conquered these three prominent points, but also wiped out more than a thousand Ming troops stationed in these places.

However, there were also some casualties, about 200 people were killed or injured.

Through this comparison of casualties, it can actually be seen that the Ming army in Linxiang City chose to build a large number of fortifications, which played a great role.

The Chu army on the attacking side clearly has an absolute advantage in firepower, but among the Chu army's artillery, the field artillery is very ineffective against this kind of trench-based fortress.

Only mortars can cause damage to the Ming army in these trenches and fortresses, but limited by the power of the explosive bullets fired by mortars these days, the overall killing effect is also very limited.

In fact, for this kind of trench-like fortification, it is difficult to say that even the howitzers of later generations can cause fatal blows to the defenders, let alone the current artillery of the [-]th century.

To really conquer these places, the infantry often need to rush up and fight hand-to-hand.

At this time, the importance of armor is also reflected. When the infantry on both sides approach and a melee occurs, the side with more equipment and better armor can often gain a greater tactical advantage.

The three protruding parts were finally taken down by the Chu army relying on their absolute firepower superiority to cover the heavy armor soldiers in the Chu army's assault troops rushing up to kill and kill.

After taking out three protrusions on the first day, the battle continued on the second day.

The Chu army continued to suppress by artillery bombardment, and the way of infantry advancing gradually eroded and captured the fortress of the Ming army outside the city.

After a day of fighting, the Chu army also gained more experience, and the front-line officers also came up with many new tactics and methods to fight.

For example, some front-line soldiers, in order to be able to hide in the trench while killing the Ming army in the opposite trench, specially took out all the grenades from the [-]-jin mortar, and then selected soldiers with huge arms to throw them out.

Later, it was simply thrown directly with the gunpowder bag made.

This is the most primitive grenade.

After seeing this scene, Luo Zhixue directly ordered the officers of the Ordnance Department to start research on grenades immediately, and produce usable grenades as soon as possible.

Then he ordered the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs to prepare to select hundreds of soldiers with strong bodies, strong arms, and excellent psychological qualities to train a special grenade-throwing unit.

Luo Zhixue did not say that grenades should be produced on a large scale, and then assigned to ordinary soldiers on a large scale.

This is not realistic.

First of all, gunpowder is expensive these days, and grenades are also expensive because of the charge. The cost of large-scale equipment is too high, and it is impossible to equip them in large quantities.

The third is that the power of gunpowder these days is so-so. If the power of the grenade is to be ensured, the size and weight of the grenade will not be too small. Once the weight is increased, ordinary soldiers may not be able to throw it too far.

In the end, the grenade will definitely be triggered by directly igniting the matchlock. At the same time, the grenadier cannot throw it directly after igniting the matchlock, because it takes time for the matchlock to burn. If it is thrown too early, if it is picked up by the enemy and thrown back, wouldn't it finished...

Therefore, it needs to be thrown at the right time, which means that the operational risk is very high, even greater than the current mortar operation risk, and the psychological quality requirements for his grenadier are very high.

Therefore, it is very necessary to select some soldiers with strong body, good arm strength and excellent psychological quality as special grenadiers.

As for the use of ordinary soldiers, it is not worth mentioning, and it is very easy for the enemy to be bombed, but a large number of people are killed by the bombing.

Engaging in grenades and grenadiers is Luo Zhixue's temporary idea, regardless of whether it will be of great use in the future, let's do it first.

But he is not prepared to invest too much resources and thoughts in this area!
The weapon of war must be artillery, especially large-caliber artillery.

Grenades are tactical weapons at best, while artillery is a strategic material. The importance of the two is not on the same level.

The fierce battle in Linxiang City on the [-]th continued until the afternoon, when the Chu army began to retreat, all the fortresses of the Linxiang Ming army outside the city had been lost.

Before the Ming army built a total of nine protruding fortresses outside the city, mainly in the east, north, and south directions.

Each of these fortresses is connected by trenches and can communicate with the city.

But after two days of fierce fighting, the nine protrusions were all conquered by the Chu army one by one.

More importantly, the Ming army lost not only nine salients, but also three thousand soldiers and a group of light artillery deployed outside the city.

In Linxiang City, Huguang General Soldier Yu Xiuwen had a gloomy face!
In two days, only two days, all the fortresses outside the city were destroyed, 3000 soldiers were lost, and more than 50 large and small artillery pieces were lost.

How is this fight going?
Huguang You Counselor Wang Xinghuai beside him also said with worry: "Oh, this Chu thief has more guns and thick armor than we expected before!"

"Yu Zongbing, now that the forts outside the city have fallen, what should we do next?"

Wang Xinghuai turned his head to look at Yu Xiuwen, and Yu Xiuwen took a deep breath and said: "In the future, we will rely on the city wall to defend to the death, no matter how angry we are, we must stick to it for at least ten days, so that we can wait for enough reinforcements!"

"We have already sent an emergency request letter before, and the reinforcements must be assembled and on the way, and it will take about ten days to arrive."

"No matter what, we will hold on to it for the next ten days."

Wang Xinghuai didn't ask what to do if the reinforcements didn't come after ten days.

Because even he himself knew that according to the onslaught of the thieves outside the city, if the reinforcements did not come after ten days, their defenders of Linxiang City would definitely be finished.

Now there are [-] to [-] rebels and hundreds of artillery pieces outside the city.

Relying on their [-] defenders in Linxiang alone, it is already very good to be able to persist for more than ten days. It is impossible to persist for longer.

Thinking of this, Wang Xinghuai couldn't help regretting why he foolishly agreed to come over to guard Linxiang last year.

Last year when the city of Wuchang was destroyed, the three divisions were all taken over in one pot. The original officials at all levels died, those who fled, and those who were imprisoned were sent to prison.

However, at the same time, the imperial court was also rebuilding the Huguang Third Division. First, Yang Sichang was appointed governor of Huguang, and then a group of officials were assigned to serve as political envoys, left and right to participate in politics and other positions.

At that time, Wang Xinghuai was promoted to Huguang You Counselor because of this, but just after he was promoted, he was sent to Linxiang by his superiors.

It is said to be in the town, but in fact it is to be a military supervisor. This is also the chief secretary of many places in the contemporary era.

If you do a good job, you will be promoted to governor step by step.

In the past, Shi Kefa was a counselor from the right to supervise the army in Jiangbei, then he was promoted to deputy envoy to guard various places in Jiangbei, and then he was promoted to governor of Anlu.

However, this path to promotion seems to be smooth, the premise is that they can make achievements and survive.

In the past few years, various councilors, deputy envoys and other civilian officials who have died on the battlefield have guarded the army too much, and Wang Xinghuai feels that he is afraid that he will become the next...

Wang Xinghuai had a lot of thoughts, and the commander-in-chief Yu Xiuwen was also in a very bad mood.

He originally commanded Tongzhi to do well in front of Huguangdu, but the security thieves rose up and swept Chubei.

Since last year, he has been leading troops to fight against the rebel army in Chubei, and he has lost one battle after another...

From Xiangyang all the way to Hanyang, after the fall of Hanyang, he took hundreds of remnants across the south of the Yangtze River and fled, and finally arrived in Yuezhou.

After arriving in Yuezhou, a group of people wanted to arrest him and put him in prison...

After losing thousands of troops, there are only more than 300 people left, and every time they are defeated, the court will naturally punish him.

But soon Yang Sichang came to power.

At this time, he had reached a turning point. Yang Sichang didn't dislike him for his repeated defeats. He thought it was because the thieves were too strong, and Yu Xiuwen's defeat was justifiable.

At the same time, Yang Sichang also appreciates a series of arguments put forward by Yu Xiuwen: Avoid field battles with Chu thieves, and at the same time, you can’t defend the city like a foolish one. You have to build a lot of fortifications, especially the ring-shaped sandbags of Chu thieves. Fortifications are even more necessary for artillery defense.

This is very in tune with Yang Sichang who advocated emulating the Chu bandits to train the new standard army, so Yang Sichang not only came forward to save Yu Xiuwen, but even continued to reuse him.

Let him hang up the rank of deputy general to preside over the defense of Linxiang.

After Yu Xiuwen came to Linxiang to support the defense, as the Linxiang city defense system gradually took shape, the defenders also increased from a few thousand to more than 1.

Yang Sichang once again wrote to the imperial court, recommending Yu Xiuwen as Huguang General Soldier.

At that time, after Huguang General Soldier died in Wuchang, this position had been vacant for several months.

What, this is Yang Sichang's promoted general after all, and he has more than 1 troops under his command, so it's not fair to say that he can't return his name, right? In the end, the court recognized Yu Xiuwen, the new Huguang General Soldier.

But Yu Xiuwen himself, in fact, is not very happy that he has become the general soldier of Huguang. On the contrary, if possible, he would rather not be the general soldier of Huguang and stay away from Linxiang.

This Chu thief is terrifying, he knows better than ordinary people!
If possible, he would not face Chu thief!
But there was no way, Yang Sichang appreciated him, reused him, and tried to protect him despite his repeated defeats in previous battles, and even strongly recommended him as the general of Huguang, a defeated army.

When Yu Xiuwen was stationed in Linxiang, Yang Sichang also tried every means to raise food and grass for him in the rear, and transferred soldiers. Even Wang Xinghuai, the right counselor who was sent to supervise the army, was a person Yu Xiuwen knew and had good friends with.

What can Yu Xiuwen do when he meets such an immediate boss?
He can only bite the bullet and keep going!
Up to now, Linxiang City is in danger!
And Yu Xiuwen knew very well that there was a high probability that this city would not be able to be defended, and that he would most likely die after the city was broken.

But Yu Xiuwen still didn't have any thoughts of running away!
Yang Sichang's kindness is too great, he has to pay it back!

(End of this chapter)