I want to be emperor

Chapter 363 Changes in Jiangbei
Just like a group of scholars in Jinling City, one by one, they buried their heads in various science books published by the Ministry of Rites and Education of the Tang Empire, hoping to show their skills in the upcoming exam in March.

In Hezhou on the north bank of the Yangtze River, a series of battles along the north coast of Hezhou and Jiangpu, which lasted for more than three months, finally came to an end.

The reason why Hezhou and other Jiangbei battles dragged on for so long was because of the supply problem on the one hand, and the cold winter on the other hand.

The issue of supplies is that after the Battle of Anqing, although the Fourth Division was on the edge of the Yangtze River, it was very convenient to obtain supplies of various materials from the Yangtze River, but the actual situation is.

From the end of the Battle of Anqing to November last year, that is, before the Chu army captured Jinling City, the fourth division received very limited supplies.

Because before attacking Jinling City, all kinds of materials and logistics forces of the Great Chu Empire were basically used to concentrate on supplying several troops attacking Jiangnan, including the First Division, Sixth Division, First Guards Division, Seventh Garrison Division, First Mortar Regiment, Sixth Mortar Regiment, etc.

Also participated in the Eastward Campaign, but the units of the Second Army fighting in the Jiangbei area, that is, the Fourth Division, the Eighth Division, and the Fifth Garrison Division, their logistics supply priority is ranked lower than that of the Jiangnan combat troops.

Even if the supply priority of the Second Army in the Jiangbei area is within the Chu Army, the Fourth Division's material supply priority after the Anqing Battle is also ranked behind the Eighth Division.

At that time, the logistics and transportation forces of the Second Army were basically fully guaranteed to go deep into the northern part of Luzhou Prefecture, and some troops even reached the Eighth Division in the southern area of ​​​​Fengyang Prefecture.

At that time, the Eighth Division fought hard. In addition, it snowed early in the Jiangbei area, and the supply of materials was not smooth, which made it more troublesome at one time.

Under such circumstances, the fourth division's material supply priority can only be placed in the back row.

After the Chu army conquered Jinling City and the material supply pressure of the Great Chu Empire was initially relieved, they gradually increased supplies to Jiangbei, but not much.

After all, in November and December, the Chu army still launched offensives in the south of the Yangtze River. Although there were no large-scale and difficult battles during the whole process, there were many medium-scale battles.

The Battle of Zhenjiang, the Battle of Suzhou and Songjiang, etc., and the larger-scale Huzhou Battle also used the strength of two main divisions for the front and back attacks of the Chu army.

Although these battles did not bring any casualties to the Chu army, the consumption of materials was still not small.

In other words, the low casualty rate of the Chu army is directly based on the powerful firepower of the Chu army, and the powerful firepower requires the consumption of a large amount of shells, bullets and gunpowder.

Under such circumstances, the Jiangnan area is still devouring a large amount of ammunition supply. Although the Great Chu Empire has also increased the ammunition supply of various ministries in the Jiangbei area, the increase is not too much. At least there is no way to let the Fourth Division open its hands. Storm and state.

The supply of ammunition and other various materials was insufficient. In addition, it began to snow in Hezhou in late October, and the subsequent weather was severe cold. This also greatly affected the operations of the Fourth Division in Hezhou.

In addition, there is another very important factor. In the Ming army stationed in Hezhou, there are thousands of Jiangbei new troops. In addition, there are also some Ming army troops from the Governor of Water Transport and even the Shandong area.

At that time, when the Ming army stationed on the front line of Hezhou was the largest, it once reached more than [-] people, of which more than [-] were Jiangbei New Army, with more than [-] long-barreled artillery of various types, more than ten of which were two and a half catties. Cannons, and several old heavy Hongyi cannons.

There are probably two or three thousand new muskets.

Although they still can't beat the Fourth Division in this fight, but they are huddled in the city and relying on the severe cold weather to carry out a strict defense, the Fourth Division will really have nothing to do with them for a while.

So it has been delayed until this year. After the Chu army in the Jiangnan area won the Huzhou Battle, and then took Hangzhou, the battle in the Jiangnan area won a complete victory. There will be wars, but the overall scale will not be too large, and it will not be too urgent.

So at that time, probably after the Lantern Festival in January this year, the high-level officials of the Great Chu Empire decided to adjust the direction of strategic material supply after discussing the military benefits before the imperial court, and shifted the direction of Jiangnan to Jiangbei.

From this time on, the 13th Division, [-]th Division, [-]th Garrison Division, No.[-] Garrison Division, [-]st Cavalry Brigade, [-]th Mortar Regiment and other combat units in Jiangbei operations began to obtain the highest priority strategic materials supply.

A large number of various weapons and ammunition produced by the Hantian Arsenal in the rear, various military uniforms, military shoes, tents, and quilts produced by the Hankou Clothes Factory, and a large number of food and grass gathered and transported from Huguang, Jiangxi and other places have passed through the subordinates of the Logistics Department. The inland river transport fleet gradually transported to various ports on the north bank of Anlu Gaoguan River, and then transported to the frontlines by various land vehicles such as horse-drawn carts and wheelbarrows.

At this time, because the Fourth Division is fighting in Hezhou on the edge of the Yangtze River, and this time it has the priority of supplies, it will not be like before, watching a large number of fleets full of supplies passing by...

After receiving a large amount of supplies, especially the reinforcements from the newly formed Seventh Mortar Regiment, the Fourth Division finally appeared in Hezhou as the main force of the Chu Army.

The artillery began to bombard Hezhou City and several fortresses garrisoned by the surrounding Ming army.

This sudden increase in firepower made the Ming army on the opposite side almost fail to recognize whether the Chu thief on the opposite side was still the original Chu thief.

You must know that there are more than 2 Ming troops on the front line of Hezhou. In the past few months, when they were stationed on the front line of Hezhou and fought against the Fourth Division, they had a lot of fights with the Fourth Division, but they have never seen it. Such heavy artillery fire.

At that time, the artillery firepower of the Fourth Division, although it was quite fierce in the eyes of the Ming army, it was just that.
With that kind of firepower density, they can actually do it with the Ming army on the front line of the state. After all, there are thousands of Jiangbei new troops on the front line of the state, and they also have a batch of two and a half catties or five catties field artillery.

As long as they are willing to pay for ammunition, they can also launch a decent bombardment in a short period of time.

Therefore, they once believed that it was an exaggeration for the outside world to say that the Chu thieves had sharp guns and that the artillery fire was extremely fierce during the war.

It's just a group of guys who lost the battle. In order to shirk responsibility, they deliberately exaggerated the strength of the Chu thief.

However, they didn't know why so many people said that the Chu thieves' guns were sharp until the end of the next month, when the Chu army began to intensify their bombardment of the front line of Hezhou.

Nima, the fierce artillery fire is very dense, and it is fired all day long, and there is no time to stop.

More importantly, they also saw the scene where a large number of 48-jin mortars in the Chu army covered the shelling.

They have also seen the 48-jin mortars, and they have also been bombarded by this kind of artillery. But, the support force of the 48-jin mortars obtained by the Fourth Division before is very small, only eight.

Mortars have a very low hit rate and a slow rate of fire. If there are not many mortars, they actually look powerful when fired, but the actual lethality is still relatively limited.

However, this time, in addition to the eight 48-jin mortars that were originally reinforced to them, the Fourth Division also received support from the Seventh Mortar Regiment.

The seventh mortar regiment has four mortar battalions under its jurisdiction, and each mortar battalion has twelve 48-jin mortars, a total of 48 mortars.

When so many mortars are shelling intensively, the hit rate can be ignored directly, because they are all covered bombardments.

As for the lack of rate of fire, it doesn't matter, anyway, the excess gunners are serving a cannon, and they keep firing, anyway, there are enough shells.

A large number of mortars coupled with the shelling of the nine-pound field artillery and the five-pound field artillery, often with a burst of violent shelling, the fortress garrisoned by the Ming army on the opposite side has been completely changed.

The defense line built by the Ming army on the front line of Hezhou gradually appeared loopholes.

After a large number of fortresses in the outlying areas of Hezhou City were conquered, although the Ming army in Hezhou also fought stubbornly, they failed in the end.

Seeing that Hezhou could not hold it anymore, the Ming army on the front line of Hezhou started under the leadership of Song Zushun, the new "Governor of Water Transport, Jiangbei, Fengyang, Anlu, etc. Withdrawing from the Hezhou defense line, although the losses during the retreat were not small, at least with the cooperation of their cavalry, some of the main force was successfully withdrawn, including more than [-] people from the crucial Jiangbei New Standard Army.

Under the cover of the cavalry, they first withdrew to Yingtianfu Jiangbei, then to Liuhe, and later, their main force withdrew to Yangzhou, and part of their troops to Chuzhou.

The fourth division is due to the lack of cavalry troops. The fourth division belongs to the cavalry regiment, which is relatively stretched, and the first cavalry brigade, which cooperates with the second army, is on the front line of Hefei, so it is not very good for the withdrawal of the Ming army. Method.

Speaking of which, this Song Zushun was the first one who was able to withdraw the main force under the offensive of the Chu army. Let alone the others, but the ability to lead troops to fight is more messy than other Chu troops encountered before. The governors and governors are much stronger.

How should I put it, it is very rare for the Ming court to use the right person once, although this time the Ming court was able to use the right person, it was because Wang Jiazhen was trying to protect...

Song Zushun, this should be that in recent years, there are few military strategists in the Ming court. He has been stationed at the border for a long time and has rich experience in leading troops in combat, especially good at defensive operations.

Wang Jiazhen was reused by Chongzhen. After he became the governor of Nanjing, he recommended Song Zushun to the court as the Jiangbei Supervising Army.

The history of this Jiangbei new army can be traced back to when Chen Biqian was the governor of the Eastern Front.

In the early days, Zhu Dadian, the former Governor of Water Transport and concurrently the governor of Fengyang, set up a new standard army of thousands of people. This should be a relatively early new standard army in the Ming court, and it was earlier than Shi Kefa's Anlu new standard army. earlier.

But it didn't take long for this batch of new standard soldiers to be picked by Wang Jiazhen, and half of them were forcibly picked up by Wang Jiazhen.

Although Zhu Dadian was considered a governor at that time, this governor had no reputation in front of Wang Jiazhen.

Because when Zhu Dadian was in Chongzhen for eight years, he was belittled because he was not good at fighting Liu thieves, and later because of his ineffectiveness in fighting Chu thieves, he was demoted many times...

Although Zhu Dadian still continues to be the Governor of Water Transport and Governor of Fengyang, his actual power is not as good as before.

What's more, Wang Jiazhen's Nanjing governor is different from ordinary governors. He is the governor of Henan, Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang military affairs.

Whether it is the governor of Fengyang, the governor of Water Transport, or the Governor of River Transport, they are all within the jurisdiction of Wang Jiazhen, the governor of Nanjing.

Wang Jiazhen, the governor of Nanjing at the beginning, was a governor who could manage the governor... a level higher than the usual governor.

You can tell from the fact that Wang Jiazhen directly added the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War and the title of the right deputy capital censor.

Therefore, Zhu Dadian, who is also known as the governor, has to lie obediently in front of Wang Jiazhen. Wang Jiazhen wants to mobilize half of the Fengyang new standard army as the basis for the Jiangbei new standard army. Naturally, Zhu Dadian does not say a word Dare to say.

Subsequently, Wang Jiazhen transferred hundreds of troops from the Yingtian Xinbiao Army and reorganized them into Jiangbei Xinbiao Army. He also invited Song Zushun, who was rarely proficient in military affairs in the contemporary Ming court, and was especially good at defending the city, to condescend to Jiangbei to supervise the army. .

It is said that he is the Jiangbei Supervising Army, but he mainly serves as the supervising army in the Jiangbei New Standard Army. According to the official rules of the Ming court, he is actually the actual commander of the Jiangbei New Standard Army.

After finalizing various matters, the Jiangbei new standard army began to recruit and train young and strong officers in the Xuhuai area. Wang Jiazhen also gave Song Zushun great support, basically asking for money, food, and guns Cannon is also to search and give guns as much as possible.

In order to obtain guns for the Jiangbei New Standard Army, Wang Jiazhen even wronged himself, contacted Zheng Zhilong, and purchased a batch of foreigners' guns through Zheng Zhilong.

After the establishment of the Jiangbei New Standard Army, Wang Jiazhen also requested the establishment of the Jiangbei Governor, with jurisdiction over Hezhou, Xuzhou, Chuzhou, Yangzhou Prefecture, and Huai'an Prefecture.

Because of Zhu Dadian's poor performance all the time, the Ming court added that the Chu thieves were ferocious, and the governor of Anlu had been established before, so for the sake of local considerations, Chongzhen agreed.

Therefore, Song Zushun became the first Jiangbei governor, and with the support of Wang Jiazhen, he began to vigorously compile and train the Jiangbei New Standard Army.

However, until Wang Jiazhen was dismissed and arrested and imprisoned, the Jiangbei New Standard Army under the command of Song Zushun, who Wang Jiazhen placed high hopes on, failed to truly become an army.

Before Wang Jiazhen was arrested, the Jiangbei New Standard Army, led by Song Zusui, tried to rescue Anqing.

But before he arrived, Anqing was captured by the Chu army, and then Song Zushun led his army back to Hezhou, and began to build a defense line in Hezhou.

At that time, the Jiangbei New Standard Army had only about 7000 troops, no more than ten guns, and more than 2000 muskets.

After Fan Jingwen took over as governor of Nanjing, he did not make any special arrangements for the Jiangbei New Standard Army, but allocated some money, food and guns as usual.

Soon, Jinling City was breached. After Fan Jingwen's death, the Jiangbei New Standard Army lost its direct superior. Song Zushun, then governor of Jiangbei, led the garrison in Hezhou and solved the problem of money, food and guns by himself.

It was not until December that the news of the Ming court's capital reached Hezhou.

When Chongzhen was furious, he did not continue to appoint the Governor of Nanjing this time. Chongzhen felt that this position was too damn evil. The three Eastern Front/Nanjing Governors before and after all lost the city and land to themselves.

Coupled with the fact that Zhu Dadian, the Governor of Water Transport and Governor of Fengyang, had suffered disastrous defeats in many battles, and watched the situation in Jiangbei deteriorate and Jiangnan fell. It's a good idea, and Song Zushun, the governor of Jiangbei who has thousands of new standard troops under his command, became the new governor of water transportation.

And let him take care of military affairs in Jiangbei, Fengyang, Anlu and other places.

As a result, Song Zushun became the governor of water transport and also managed military affairs in Jiangbei, Fengyang, Anlu and other places.

In the end, Song Zushun also continued to serve as governor of Jiangbei.

Of course, for all kinds of governors, the governor must have a corresponding official position to match. Whether it is a governor or a governor, it is just a dispatch, not an official position.

Therefore, Song Zushun was also promoted to be the right servant of the Ministry of War and the right deputy capital censor, which can be regarded as an ordinary governor's match.

In this way, Song Zushun also became the governor of Water Transport, and also managed the military affairs of Jiangbei, Fengyang, Anlu and other places and also Fu Jiangbei.

To put it simply, the huge Xuhuai area in the north of the Yangtze River, that is, the north bank of the Yangtze River in Nanzhili, is under his control, which can be regarded as a reduced version of the previous governor of the Eastern Front.

Song Zushun led the tens of thousands of Ming troops with the Jiangbei New Standard Army as the core, and they did not fight very successfully, not even winning a single battle.

However, in the environment where many generals of the Ming court lost their cities and territories, and also lost troops and generals, Song Zushun was able to withdraw with [-] Jiangbei new standard troops and maintain basic combat effectiveness, which is already very rare.

However, this kind of rarity is just wondering if the high-level officials of the Ming court, especially Chongzhen and those cabinet bosses, can understand it!
(End of this chapter)