I want to be emperor

Chapter 298 Unfair Battle
Even though the infantry of the bandit Chu in front had just rushed out and hadn't approached the new standard army's line of defense, Yang Sixing knew that he was completely defeated.

The left army of the new standard army initially deployed no more than 1000 troops on the northern front, and even after receiving promotion reinforcements, it was no more than 2000.

However, there were more than 6000 Chu thieves who launched the attack, and they also had artillery support far beyond their own.

It is impossible to defend the northern line.

Once the northern front is finished, the artillery positions in the rear will also be finished. As for the southern and western fronts, they will be finished sooner or later.

At that time, this battle will be considered a complete failure.

The ridiculous thing is that before the war, I thought I could stick to my position and wait for my cousin Yang Sichang to lead the army.

But I didn't expect that under the crushing of absolute strength, my left army couldn't even last a day!
Yang Sixing closed her eyes slightly, and finally couldn't help sighing: This battle, from the very beginning, has no chance of winning, what I have done is just a dying struggle!

This battle is unfair from beginning to end!

What he led was nothing more than a mixed brigade, but the Chu thief on the opposite side had two full divisions and a cavalry brigade.

In terms of military strength, our side is at an absolute disadvantage.

In terms of equipment, especially artillery, our side is also at an absolute disadvantage.

As far as the combat skills and combat experience of the soldiers are concerned, the left army of one's own side is just a new standard army, and has never experienced actual combat.

On the other hand, the main force of the Chu thieves on the opposite side has experienced hundreds of battles since last year. Whether it is senior generals, mid-level and low-level officers, or even non-commissioned officers and other backbone soldiers, they all have rich combat experience.

Even if there are some recruits among the Chu thieves who have not participated in the war, they have gone through many battles such as the Battle of Linxiang and the Battle of Baling in Yuezhou before, and they have experienced actual combat to some extent.

The strength comparison between the two sides is not on the same level at all, and I was still thinking about resisting them before.

The impact of the guards on the northern line finally made Yang Sixing realize the gap in strength between the two sides, and even made him think that he must lose.

However, even so, Yang Sixing did not give up completely.

Even if he was lost, even if he knew he was going to be defeated, Yang Sixing was still making the final struggle.

He took the risk of deploying some troops from the western and southern fronts to reinforce the northern front, while at the same time letting the northern front resist to the death.

But all this is in vain!

After the attack by the Guards Division of the Chu Army, the six infantry battalions belonging to the two regiments of the first wave directly covered the entire northern front and launched a full-scale offensive.

Although the artillery of the Ming army fired shells as much as possible to intercept them, and indeed killed many soldiers of the Guards, it still failed to stop the soldiers of the Guards from attacking.

Soon, the two infantry regiments of the Guards, one on the left and one on the right, rushed to the front of the Ming army's position on the northern line.

The Ming army once organized troops to rely on the parapet to resist, but as the Chu army directly pulled out a large number of two and a half catties field artillery to approach the shelling, destroying a large number of parapets and Ming soldiers behind the parapet, the remaining infantry of the Ming army finally came The inevitable collapse.

After a regiment of guards from the second wave also came up, there would be no suspense on the northern front.

After hundreds of casualties, the remaining Ming army either collapsed or surrendered on the spot.

Immediately afterwards, part of the troops of the Guards went straight to the top of the mountain and captured the artillery positions of the Ming army.

These Ming army gunners actually fled before the soldiers of the Guards rushed up.

There is no way, the northern front is completely finished, and the two to 300 artillerymen of their artillery team can't stop the impact of so many guard infantry anyway.

The next thing was even simpler. The Ming army on the southern and western fronts saw that the situation had completely deteriorated. Most of them chose to surrender, and some of them fled.

But many fleeing Ming troops have nowhere to go!
Yang Sixing chose to stick to a mountain top, surrounded by the Chu army on the south, north, and west fronts, and it was also the attack direction of the Chu army.

Although there is an open area of ​​about a few kilometers to the east, if you continue to the east, you will find Dongting Lake!

These fleeing Ming troops seemed to have pulled out of the battlefield from the east, but in fact it didn't take long for them to encounter the First Cavalry Brigade led by Wang Xiazi, and some Ming troops were forced to surrender or were killed or injured.

In the end, only two or three hundred people were left and fled all the way to Dongting Lake!
The two 300 people failed to escape in the end. Under the threat of the [-]st Cavalry Brigade, they finally chose to surrender.

So far, the entire left army of the new standard army has been wiped out!

The commander of the left army, Yang Sixing, Huguang according to the investigation, died in the battle on the top of the mountain. Many middle and high-level generals under his command were killed or injured, and the rest surrendered with the army.

In the afternoon, the post-war report was also delivered to Luo Zhixue.

After seeing the battle report, Luo Zhixue frowned slightly!
Although the battle was won and the enemy army was wiped out, the casualties of the Chu army were not small.

A total of more than 200 soldiers died in battle, and another 600 soldiers were injured, for a total of about [-] casualties.

At the cost of more than 600 casualties, the Chu army killed about 400 people from the left army of the new standard army of the Ming army, injured more than 400 people, killed or injured about 4000 people, and captured [-] people (including the wounded).

Just looking at the casualties, the ratio is about one to four, which is the highest ratio in the previous battles of the Chu army!

In the past, the Chu army could basically fight the Ming army with a ratio of one to ten, or even an exaggerated casualty ratio.

One to four, which has never happened before.

But considering that the opponent is a new standard army, the equipment and tactics are basically the same as those of the Chu army.

At the same time, this battle is not a battle in the traditional sense, but an offensive battle.

After all, the Ming army has a terrain advantage, and their artillery and muskets can also cause casualties to the soldiers of the Chu army.

That is to say, the Chu army has absolute strength and artillery advantages, otherwise the fight will be more difficult and the casualties will be greater.

However, in Luo Zhixue's view, this still exposed a problem, that is, the Chu army used to have no guns, cannons, and battalion guards who didn't even have much armor. They got used to it, and many officers' combat thinking was limited.

When faced with the new standard army who is also equipped with guns and has similar tactics to their own, it is still not easy to fight.

Luo Zhixue feels that it is necessary to continue to improve tactics and strengthen training in the future.

Because the left army of the new standard army is not the only new standard army in the Ming army, there is also a right army of the new standard army in Changsha.

In addition, the Great Chu Empire also learned that many ministers of the Ming court were imitating Yang Sichang to set up a new standard army, but the momentum was not so great.

In other words, in the future, the Chu army will definitely continue to encounter these new standard troops of the Ming army who adopt new guns and new tactics.

Prepare early, and it will be easier to fight later.

At the end of the First World War, among the more than 5000 people in the Left Army of the New Standard Army, except for the thousand who died in the battle, the rest were basically taken as prisoners, and only a handful of people actually escaped.

In terms of seizures, about a thousand intact and usable muskets, spears, armor, waist knives, etc. were seized.

In addition, fifteen field guns were seized, including twelve two-and-a-half-jin field guns and five-jin field guns.

However, this batch of field battles were all iron-cast artillery, and their performance and barrel life were not as good as the bronze artillery currently used by the Chu army. In addition, in this battle, the artillery unit of the Ming army has always maintained high-intensity shelling. Several of the cannons were obviously overused and overwhelmed.

But no matter what, the capture of these fifteen field artillery pieces is a good thing.

In addition, a batch of war horses, ordinary mules and horses, food and grass were also seized.

After reading the battle report, Luo Zhixue said: "This batch of prisoners of the new standard army is different from the prisoners of the battalion. They are all good seedlings. After the military and political department makes proper selection, they can be directly added to the main force."

The left army of the new standard army, this is a new army that is purely based on the main force of the Chu army. There is a huge difference from the battalion sentinels and guard soldiers in the Ming army. Garrison, that's a waste.

After instructing the Ministry of Military Affairs and other departments to deal with the issue of prisoners of war, Luo Zhixue did not stay long in this small battlefield, but led the army to turn around and fight towards Yiyang City that day.

Now that Yang Sixing's new standard army, the Zuo Army, has been destroyed, it is impossible for any large-scale Ming army in the entire south of Chu to stop the Chu army.

Now Luo Zhixue is not even in a hurry to go to Wuling, Changde Mansion, but directly diverted to Yiyang City.

The more than 3000 defenders in Yiyang City were still debating whether to send troops to rescue Yang Sixing's troops, but they got bad news before they could reach a conclusion.

Yang Sixing's more than 5000 men were wiped out in one day.

This frightened all the civil and military officials in Yiyang City to death, and many soldiers of the Ming Army were even more panic-stricken.

In the afternoon and evening of that day, more than 3000 defenders had fled hundreds of people.

When Luo Zhixue led the guards to attack Yiyang City the next day, there were less than 2000 defenders left in Yiyang City.

And these 2000 people resisted symbolically for only half an hour, and after the Chu army built the artillery position and fired, they simply surrendered.

If there is no accident, the same will happen to Wuling City. According to the account of the prisoners of war, although there are more than 3000 defenders in Wuling City, they are all guards, and their combat strength is worrying.

And Luo Zhixue had already dispatched the Fifth Division to Wuling City yesterday, and if nothing else happened, he would be able to take it down soon.

The battle situation was indeed as Luo Zhixue judged. Although the civil and military officials in Wuling City were more determined to resist, they still failed to block the onslaught of the Fifth Division.

Under the cover of the First Mortar Regiment, the Fifth Division built fortifications on the first day, filled the moat on the second day, and launched a general attack on the third day to take down the city.

After the Fifth Division captured Wuling City, it did not stay in Wuling City, but withdrew one after another the next day, because by this time the Third Defense Division had already reached the area around Wuling City.

The third garrison division crossed the river many days ago, and then successively attacked the area south of the Yangtze River in Jingzhou Prefecture and the area west of Dongting Lake in Yuezhou Prefecture.

There are not many Ming troops stationed in these places, but because the places are large and there are many cities that need to be attacked, the troops of the third garrison division are relatively scattered and it takes more time.

By the time they arrived at Wuling City, the Fifth Division had already captured Wuling City ahead of schedule.

In fact, if Yang Sixing hadn't taken the initiative to lead the army eastward and was finally wiped out by the Chu army on the front line of Yiyang, in fact, according to the planned battle plan, the third garrison division came not too late.

Because at the beginning, the goal of the Chu army was to reach Wuling City, and then break through the city and eliminate the left army of the new standard army. However, with the combat effectiveness of the left army of the new standard army, relying on the fortifications of Wuling City, it will take too long to defend I dare not say, but five or six days or even ten days and a half months is not a big problem.

It's a pity that Yang Sixing led his army eastward ahead of time, and finally bumped into the main force of the Chu army, and then the whole army was wiped out, and Wuling City was taken down in advance.

With the arrival of the [-]rd Garrison Division, Luo Zhixue did not delay any longer, and immediately led the Guards Division, the [-]th Division, and the [-]st Cavalry Brigade to turn south.

This time, they went straight to Changsha!

(End of this chapter)