I want to be emperor

Chapter 356 The Rise of the Formal Class Students
In Jiangnan in late October, snow has already started to fall in many places.

This snowfall is not good news for the Chu army, because it means that it is difficult for the Chu army to continue to launch large-scale battles in a short period of time, and then sweep the entire Jiangnan.

But for the Ming army in other places in the south of the Yangtze River, this was a timely snowstorm, which gave them extremely precious breathing time.

However, it can also be just a breather.

When the snow stops, even if the snow on the ground remains, the Chu army will continue to carry out military operations, and it will be impossible to completely reverse the situation in the Jiangnan area.

It can be as short as a few days, or as long as half a month, it is impossible to make any practical changes in the defense strength of the Jiangnan states.

In fact, this is indeed the case. On October 29, after the weather improved slightly, even though there was still a lot of snow on the ground, a new round of military operations by the Chu army had already begun.

The scale is not large, and the speed of action is not too fast, but the first and sixth divisions after rest and replenishment, with the cooperation of the seventh garrison division and No. attack.

The First Division led the No.15 Garrison Division to Zhenjiang, and the First Mortar Regiment accompanied the eastward advance.

The Sixth Division led the Seventh Garrison Division to Lishui, and the Sixth Mortar Regiment went south with it.

All the way south, although the march was slow due to the weather, especially the snow on the road, it did not affect the actual actions of the Chu army much.

After all, even if it snows in the Jiangnan area, it will not be tens of degrees below zero like in the north.

More importantly, the winter clothes of the Chu army were distributed in time, which was enough for the soldiers to get thick winter clothes.

Before the Eastward Campaign, the logistics department had considered that they would fight in the cold winter in the middle and late stages of the Eastward Campaign, so they had already started preparing a large number of winter clothes in advance.

When the weather turned cold, enough winter clothes were distributed to the eastward troops as soon as possible.

Not only the main force, but even the soldiers of the newly formed and trained garrison divisions were allotted winter clothes in time, which made many newly surrendered soldiers have a very good sense of the new Chu army they served.

When they served as soldiers in the Ming army, they couldn't eat a few full meals throughout the year, and they didn't have a new military uniform for several years, let alone winter clothing.

But it's good to go to Chu Jun's side, not to mention being able to eat every day, and he took a whole set of thick winter clothes as soon as he came.

Just these four words are enough to make most of the newly surrendered soldiers give up their hearts to the Chu army.

This fight is also much harder than when he was in the Ming army in the past.

This was very obvious when attacking Zhenjiang.

In this battle, the First Division did not personally participate in the siege operations, but was only responsible for providing artillery support and mid-range infantry fire support. The No.15 garrison division was responsible for the specific siege operations.

The performance of the No.15 garrison division is quite good. During the siege process, filling the moat, then to the siege, and then to the subsequent battles in the city, the performance is remarkable.

Its fighting power even shocked the generals of the Ming army on the opposite side.

"Is this still the garrison of the Chu thief? Didn't it mean that the garrison of the Chu thief is composed of surrendered troops? Why doesn't it look like it?"

The generals of the Ming army guarding the city in Zhenjiang also had some knowledge. Naturally, they had heard that there were two types of troops in the Chu thieves. One used a lot of guns, and the soldiers were recruited and trained by themselves. The fighting power is quite fierce.

There is also a garrison army reorganized by the Chu thieves from the surrendered troops. From personnel to equipment to tactics, they are still the same as the original Ming army.

But, now it seems that these garrison troops don't look like surrendered troops at all.

In the shock, more than 5000 defenders in Zhenjiang City were defeated cleanly by No.15 defenders.

If the civil and military officials of the Ming court in Zhenjiang City knew that many of the soldiers in the No. 15 garrison division were actually Ming army defenders in Jinling City, and it took only ten days to work hard when they first defected, they would probably be killed. Even more shocked and angry.

Nima, when I was in the Ming army, I was a group of soft-legged shrimps, but after ten days, I ran to the Chu thief, and all of them became brave and fearless.

The No.15 garrison division was formally established in Dangtu County, Taiping Prefecture. One regiment of this division was selected and formed by Dangtu, Dashengguan and other Ming troops, and the remaining three regiments and other troops were formed by Jinling Chengming Select and form the army's troops.

To put it bluntly, most of the troops in the No. 15 garrison division were actually the Ming army defenders in the area around Jinling City.

However, after changing masters, the combat power changed greatly.

Well, this change in combat effectiveness does not mean the level of equipment or tactics, or the comprehensive combat quality of the soldiers, but a huge change in morale.

But just these changes in morale have caused a substantial increase in the combat effectiveness of these surrendered soldiers.

Major General Cao Hongsheng, the commander of the First Division, was quite satisfied with this.

The No.15 garrison division can play a certain role, which will greatly reduce the pressure on the first division, and will be of great benefit to the subsequent eastward advances to Changzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang and other places.

If he can win these places smoothly, Cao Hongsheng feels that his military rank should also be raised.

Cao Hongsheng served as the commander of the first division before the Eastward Campaign, with the rank of major general of the army.

Along the way, the First Division played well, but if they wanted to rely on these smooth sailings to get promoted, they were still a little short.

But if the entire Jiangnan campaign can be successfully completed, then it is estimated that it will be almost the same.

Wouldn't it be nice to follow the example of Li Chengtong, the former commander of the first division, and get the rank of lieutenant general, and then get the rank of army commander.

Cao Hongsheng, the commander of the First Division, wanted to go further. Xu Jian, the new commander of the Sixth Division, Major General of the Army, did not think about continuing to be promoted in a short time, but wanted to fight this battle well and secure his position completely.

As the brigade commander of the No.12 Infantry Brigade, Xu Jian led his troops to participate in the Battle of Jiujiang, the Battle of Hukou, the Battle of Anqing, and the Battle of Jinling City. In both the Battle of Jiujiang and the Battle of Jinling City, the No.12 Infantry Brigade was the main offensive Troops are the first troops to enter the city.

Because the No.12 Infantry Brigade under his leadership performed well, he also became the new commander of the Sixth Division after Zhang Malin, the former commander of the Sixth Division, was transferred to the Tenth Division as the commander.

He didn't have much ambition when he took office as a new official, he just wanted to fight a good battle honestly and secure his position.

Like the other unlucky ones, the poor performance was finally mentioned to the garrison or transferred to the provincial garrison headquarters and the four major headquarters to take up idle positions.

The senior generals in the Great Chu Empire are not static, in fact, they are always changing.

Many senior generals who were active on the front line in the early days are actually gone now.

They were expelled from the army's power center one after another either because of their ability, or because the timing was wrong, they failed to catch up with the good times, or simply because of their attitude, etc.

This is still a high-ranking general, but there are even more mid- and low-ranking officers.

Now, at the Army Officer Academy, nearly 200 graduates from formal classes emerge every three months. After these people have entered the army one after another, they have not only greatly solved the problem of the lack of a large number of qualified officers in the Chu army. The predicament also squeezed out the positions of many officers who were born in the old Ming army, bandits, or even crash courses.

Now in the Chu Army, including the Army and Guards, there are a total of thirteen main divisions, one cavalry brigade, and seven mortar regiments.

Among them, the thirteen main divisions in the main force belong to the artillery regiment, and all the battalion commanders of the artillery battalion are all graduates of the official class of the Military Academy, and there are also eight artillery regiment commanders who are also graduates of the official class. pregnancy.

If the technical arms are more friendly to the formal class graduates, then in the infantry unit with the most competition, the formal class graduates will start to rise in large numbers.

Almost all the main infantry battalion commanders are graduates of the official class.

In the group leader level, more than half of the group leaders are graduates of the formal class.

Moreover, among the graduates of the official class, there have already begun to appear general officers at the brigadier level.

Among them, the most famous one is Wang Yongnian, who graduated from the first formal class.

This young man served as the head of the No.20 Third Infantry Regiment at the beginning of this year, and he performed very well.

Before the Dongjin Campaign, he was still the commander of the lieutenant colonel. After the Jiujiang campaign, he was promoted to colonel because of his outstanding performance. He still served as the commander of the No.20 Third Infantry Regiment.

After the Battle of Jinling, with the establishment of the Tenth Division, Zhang Malin, the former commander of the Sixth Division, was transferred to the Tenth Division as the division commander, and the No.12 Infantry Brigade commander was transferred to the Sixth Division as the new division commander, and Wang Yongnian was also promoted to the No.12 Infantry Brigade Commander, and was awarded the rank of Brigadier General.

In addition to Wang Yongnian, four of his classmates also won the rank of brigadier general after the Battle of Jinling. One was transferred to the Eighth Division as the brigade commander, one was transferred to the Fourth Division as the deputy division commander, one was transferred to the Logistics Department as the director of the Ammunition Department, and one was transferred to the Eighth Division as the brigade commander. Transferred to the Training Division of the Staff Department as the Director.

These transfers are all real positions with real weight and weight. To be honest, they are more important than many positions at the rank of major general.

Therefore, regardless of the graduates from the official class, there are only five brigadier generals in total, and the rest are a group of school officers and even lieutenant officers.

But in fact, they have actually controlled the power of the Great Chu Empire Army and become the real core group of the Army.

The army reuses generals from formal classes who have received complete military education. This is an important measure of Luo Zhixue's regularization of the army.

Today's wars are not won by a high-ranking general with a slap on the head and a sudden whim.

The current war requires careful planning and efficient cooperation from all aspects to win.

This is especially evident in large-scale battles.

(End of this chapter)