I want to be emperor

Chapter 309 The Defects of the Chu Army

Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan on the southern front have trained new standard troops, while on the eastern front, according to reliable information, Shi Kefa has also trained new standard troops.

When Shi Kefa was still under the command of Yang Sichang, he began to compile and train the new standard army according to Yang Sichang's order. Later, Shi Kefa's Anlu governor's area was placed under Chen Biqian's command, and he also received some support from Chen Biqian.

More importantly, Shi Kefa was guarding the front line of Jiujiang and Anqing, behind which was Jiangnan, and a lot of people in the back were counting on Shi Kefa to stop the bandit army from advancing eastward.

A large number of gentry and dignitaries in the south of the Yangtze River were extremely afraid of the Chu army killing them. For this reason, many people contributed money and effort to support Shi Kefa's compilation and training of the new standard army.

For the Jiangnan gentry, they don't care whether the Ming court is alive or not, but they care very much whether they pay taxes or not.

Under the rule of the Ming court, they don't have to pay taxes, but once the Chu army kills them, they will have to pay taxes...

As the so-called stealing money is like killing parents, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River are naturally unwilling to pay taxes obediently. It is impossible for them to fight the Chu thieves in person, but they are still willing to give Shi Kefa a small amount of money to kill the thieves.

The Chu thieves wanted the money and food from the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, so they would naturally resist. Even if there were only a small number of gentry who really contributed money and effort, given the prosperity of Jiangnan, even the support of a small number of gentry was enough for Shi Kefa to get a lot of money. Money is gone.

Shi Kefa, who received a lot of support, compiled and trained new standard troops, which was easier than Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan. According to the investigation of intelligence agencies such as the Intelligence Department of the General Staff Department, Shi Kefa had two new standard troops in Anqing and Jiujiang respectively. The exact number is unknown, but From the memory of the two parts, it is conservatively estimated that there are tens of thousands of people.

This also means that in the follow-up war between the Great Chu Empire and the Ming court, the main force of the Ming army has changed from the weak battalion guards in the past to the new standard army and some frontier troops.

Well, the Jiliao Frontier Army headed by Wu Sangui is still in the Henan area.

The Northern Route Army of the Great Chu Empire has encountered a small force with them, and the fight is not good...

This is not to say that Wu Sangui's frontier troops are better equipped and their soldiers are more brave in combat, but that there are too many cavalry in these frontier troops...

In several small and medium-scale contacts, the Chu army mainly consisted of infantry and artillery, and it was particularly uncomfortable to fight against the hundreds or even thousands of frontier cavalry.

It is very easy to be kited when you go out to fight in the field. As for the sharp guns...the cavalry of the frontier army will not play close combat with you at all, and don't count on riding a horse to charge the battle.

People hang you from a distance, and when you are in formation, they hang you from a distance, and don't come at all, but as soon as you move, when you become a marching line, you will directly charge over on horseback and shoot arrows...

Later, the Northern Route Army mainly focused on defending the city. When they occasionally went out to fight in the city, they often carried a large number of four-wheeled and two-wheeled carriages, some two hundred catties of short robes and two and a half catties of field artillery.

When encountering frontier cavalry, rely on the carriage to carry out defensive counterattacks, and rely on the carriage to retreat or pursue when necessary.

And this, in fact, is also the routine used by the Qi family army to deal with the northern prairie cavalry after they went north decades ago: playing with carriages and light artillery.

It's just limited by the limited number of mules and horses. At the same time, the frontier army is an expert in this kind of car formation, so it is more embarrassing and uncomfortable to fight.

This is also an important reason why the Chu army was in a strategic defense on the northern front and did not enter the Central Plains on a large scale.

If the Chu army lacked cavalry, if they rushed into the Central Plains now, it would be tantamount to giving up their guns and artillery advantages and competing with the Ming army for cavalry and chariot formations.

Let’s not talk about the northern route, let’s talk about the eastern route.

Now that the Chu army is going eastward, it is very likely that they will face Shi Kefa's command, or other Ming court governors, and the new standard army under the governor's command.

For this reason, the General Staff of the Great Chu Empire has been thinking about how to better fight these new standard troops and those frontier cavalry.

The purpose of this exercise involving the Guards, the First Cavalry Brigade, and the Seventh Division is to practice such a confrontation with the new standard army and the frontier cavalry.

However, the results of the actual exercise were not so clear.

In this exercise, the entire Guard Division was dispatched to fight against the First Brigade of the Seventh Division and the First Cavalry Brigade. However, in the actual battle, the Guard Division was pinned down many times, and eventually returned without success and was forced to retreat.

The most important thing is that the Seventh Division, who played the role of the new standard army of the Ming army, chose to defend the city and use guns to resist, making the guards unable to attack for a long time.

At the same time, the First Cavalry Brigade acted as the frontier cavalry of the Ming Army and wandered around the periphery to attack, directly cutting off the logistics line of the Guards Division.

In the end, the Guards Division was forced to retreat in order to avoid greater losses.

A group of military generals headed by Xu Zhixian were not very satisfied with the results of this exercise.

Even in the previous exercises and sand table games of the Great Chu Empire, the Chu army was always the loser...

But, even if it fails, it is usually not so miserable, and in the past exercises or deduction, the referee department often inexplicably added drama to the party playing the Ming army...

As soon as you open your mouth, you will see that the Ming army has hundreds of cannons, and when you turn your eyes, you will see that the Ming army has thousands of fine cavalry, and they are still elite cavalry that will never retreat, or the soldiers of the Ming army will never retreat, all of them are gods. Or simply give the playing generals of the Ming army a full map view...

In short, in every exercise or deduction, especially in sand table deduction, the Ming army is often able to occupy a huge advantage.

Under such circumstances, the failure of the Chu army to play the role in the exercise or sand table deduction is also being cleaned up.

However, this time, the exercise headquarters did not add extra drama. The Seventh Division playing the role of the Ming army only had the strength of a mixed brigade, and the first cavalry brigade only had the size of a thousand cavalry.

As for the No.13 Brigade of the Seventh Division, because it is a newly formed army, the quality of the soldiers is limited, and the tactics in all aspects are not too familiar, and the equipment is also quite satisfactory.

This temporary mixed brigade was roughly similar in level to the Zuo army, the new standard army that the Chu army had encountered before.

As for the First Cavalry Brigade, this is a cavalry unit born out of the cavalry of the frontier army. The cavalry that will be added in succession are also selected cavalry. The real combat effectiveness should be similar to that of the frontier cavalry.

And aside from the cavalry field artillery of the cavalry brigade, comparing the cavalry shooting and charging capabilities alone, it is estimated that it is not as good as the Guanning cavalry under Wu Sangui.

In the eyes of the generals of the Chu army, the above two parts should be able to better simulate the new standard army of the Ming army and the cavalry of the frontier army.

Even if you can't simulate [-]% of the time, it's not a big problem to simulate [-]% of the time.

However, in the exercise, the guard division was defeated!

The reason for the defeat was simple. The 500-odd cavalry of the Guards Cavalry Regiment were not strong enough to carry the [-]st Cavalry Brigade, which played the role of frontier cavalry.

After the Cavalry Regiment of the Guards Division could not carry the First Cavalry Brigade, it was unable to control the periphery or even the cut off logistics supply line, and even the periphery was frequently attacked.

At the same time, the No.13 brigade, who played the role of the Ming army, hid in the city, relying on the city walls and guns to defend it. Although the fifth division had twice the force advantage, it couldn't take the city quickly.

In the end, under internal and external difficulties, he was forced to withdraw his troops.

Even under the threat of a thousand cavalry, they were reluctant to retreat.

During the exercise, Xu Zhixian looked at the retreat formation of the Guard Division, and said bluntly: "If this is actual combat, the entire Guard Division has collapsed by now!"

During the exercise, the Guard Division suffered a complete failure, which made Liang Feiyang, the new Commander of the Guard Division, look very ugly!

After Li Dongshao, the former commander of the Guards Division, was promoted to the commander of the Third Army and the commander of the Gyeonggi Garrison, Liang Feiyang, the former deputy commander of the Guards Division, took advantage of the opportunity to take over as the commander of the Guards Division, and his rank was also promoted to major general.

Although Gang just said that it would be difficult to organize an exercise within half a month after taking office, he was originally the deputy commander of the Guards Division and was very familiar with the brigades below him. Long, the brigade commander came over.

Moreover, Liang Feiyang was also an artilleryman. He had successively served as the head of the Artillery Regiment of the Guards Division, the Chief of the Training Section of the Artillery Director, and the Deputy Commander of the Guards Division. Whether it was the perception of the outside world or his own opinion, he was good at artillery operations.

However, in this exercise, the artillery unit of the Guards Division did not play the expected role. The field artillery and mortar units had a limited effect on the defense fortifications of the defenders.

This is also one of the important reasons why the city cannot be taken quickly.

After all, when the Chu army attacked the city, they relied more on artillery. Once the artillery failed to do their work, it would be more troublesome to fight later.

The guard division suffered a big defeat in the acting, even if the superiors, especially His Majesty, didn't say anything, but the fact that he didn't say anything already represented the seriousness of the matter.

If the exercise is done beautifully, His Majesty will definitely praise him, and if it is not good, he will say "Thanks for your hard work"...

Now there is no praise, not even a word of hard work, which means that His Majesty is very dissatisfied with the performance of the Guard Division.

After the exercise was over, Major General Liang Feiyang, the commander of the Guards Division, called all the officers above the battalion of the Guards Division to come over that night, and yelled at everyone.

Especially the main school officers of the Artillery Regiment of the Guards Division were scolded bloody by him.

The few people in the cavalry regiment didn't fare well either, and they were sprayed with saliva all over their faces.

After spraying, Liang Feiyang said: "The eastward battle is imminent, and my guard division will definitely go eastward with His Majesty, and when my guard division enters the field, then it will be a big battle, and we will fight!"

"This kind of big war has to be fought, we can't afford to lose!"

"The Artillery Regiment has to think about it for me later, and improve the artillery skills. Covering the shelling is not effective, so you have to find a way to shoot accurately."

"As for the cavalry regiment, you have to train hard day and night. As far as your riding skills are concerned, the three-year-old kids in the northern grasslands are better than you, and when you line up to charge, the formation is as messy as shit. You must work harder. Training!"

While Liang Feiyang was raving about his subordinates, Xu Zhixian from the General Staff formally proposed to distribute muskets to the cavalry when he met with Luo Zhixue.

(End of this chapter)