I want to be emperor

Chapter 377

When the Chu army broke through the city of Ganzhou, Wang Zhiliang, who had just replaced Pan Zenghong in the army who died of illness at the end of last year, and then served as the governor of Southern Jiangxi, disappeared amidst the chaos.

No one was seen when he was born, no corpse was seen when he died, and even the Ming court never heard of him.

However, the Chu army didn't care too much about Wang Zhiliang's whereabouts. They only cared about how many spoils they captured and how many prisoners they captured.

If the prisoners are captured, they can be reorganized into a garrison division on the spot. It is estimated that two to 3000 people can be selected from the tens of thousands of prisoners, which can just give the No. 11 garrison division, which has continued to fight for more than half a year and has suffered a relatively large loss of personnel, so that the garrison division can be restored. to full capacity.

In the Great Chu Empire, there were no specially trained recruits to supplement the garrison division.

Many new recruits in the Great Chu Empire were all for the purpose of supplementing the main force, or simply for training recruits, and would not be provided to the garrison division.

This is because the main division is actually the regular army of the Great Chu Empire Army, and the garrison division, although it also participates in combat, is actually a temporary strategy for placing prisoners of war.

At the same time, due to the lack of technical weapons such as guns, the garrison division's combat effectiveness is actually very limited.
This is too much, and recruiting recruits to supplement, this is putting the cart before the horse.

Therefore, the current replenishment of the garrison division basically relies on prisoners of war.

However, there are many kinds of prisoners of war, not only limited to the captured Ming army officers and soldiers, but also all kinds of thieves, bandits, and even the official young and strong county warriors, landlord armed forces and so on.

For these people, the Great Chu Empire dealt with them in a unified way, selecting elites to be incorporated into the garrison, while others were incorporated into reclamation battalions, construction battalions, transportation battalions, etc.

Therefore, even in the existing control areas of the Great Chu Empire, through frequent suppression of illegal armed forces and reorganization of large-scale refugee groups, a large number of garrison soldiers can be obtained, and then supplemented to each garrison.

The No.11 Garrison Division has continued to fight for a long time. When it fought in central Jiangxi and other places before, it also suffered continuous battle losses, but it also continued to replenish with prisoners of war, but the number of replenishments was insufficient.

Now more than 1 people have been captured in Ganzhou at one go, which is enough to select two or 3000 people to supplement the No.11 garrison division.

Therefore, to a certain extent, prisoners of war are a kind of burden for the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire, and they can't wait to throw them all to the Pacific Ocean, and then save money and food to train more main forces.

But for front-line generals, the garrison can fill the vacancy of the main force in a timely manner, and it is also very useful, so sometimes it is hoped that more prisoners of war can be captured to supplement the battle damage.

Combat power items such as money and food are even more important. If the quantity is not large enough, it will be a big loss to besiege Ganzhou City this time. After all, the Chu army spent a lot of money in order to win Ganzhou City. A small sum, let alone the cost of a months-long siege.

Conversely, if the amount of money and food captured in the city is sufficient, then not only will it not lose money, but it can also make a fortune, then Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, commander of the Jiangxi garrison and commander of the Seventh Division, will have enough reasons to convince Gyeonggi Several senior generals in the army asked them to support him and lead his troops to continue south.

Not verbal support, but the support of ammunition and food!
For this reason, he wrote a handwritten letter as soon as he took Ganzhou City. In addition to reporting the victory, he also explained the necessity and feasibility of continuing to attack Nanxiong Mansion in the south and enter Guangdong.

Now that the Seventh Division has captured the city of Ganzhou, it also means that the entire southern Jiangxi region has been released from the Chu army. If the Chu army continues to go south, it will be able to directly approach Nanxiong Mansion in Guangdong.

Nanxiong Mansion is the northern gate of Guangdong. If this place can be taken, then the Chu army will be able to go down the river and go straight to Shaoguan. After taking Shaoguan, they will continue to go down the river and go straight to Guangzhou.

Seizing Guangzhou is basically equivalent to controlling the entire Pearl River Delta Plain.

Lieutenant General Huang Xiang sent a letter of victory to Jinling City, and at the same time he took the Seventh Division and other troops to continue southward, heading straight for Nanxiong.

What if Nanxiong didn't have many heavy troops from the Ming army, so they took it directly?
Isn't this a dream to wake up with a smile...

It's a pity that Huang Xiangbin was still too optimistic. He had just won Ganzhou City, and the news was urgently reported that the Southwest Governor Xiong Wencan, who was in Wuzhou, was here.

After learning that Ganzhou had fallen, Xiong Wencan scolded Wang Zhiliang as a waste, while hastily mobilized troops to strengthen the defense of Nanxiong Mansion.

The importance of Nanxiong Mansion is not only known by Huang Xiangbing, but also by Xiong Wencan.

No, within a few days, the first batch of reinforcements from the Ming army from Ganzhou had already arrived at Nanxiong Mansion in an emergency, followed by several batches of reinforcements from different places in the rear. The new standard army of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Guangdong and Guangxi New Standard Army, formerly Huguang New Standard Army Right Army and Guangdong New Standard Army.

At the beginning, Yang Sichang was defeated and retreated to southern Chu, and not long after he retreated to Guangdong, he was dismissed from office by the Chongzhen Emperor, and he was caught in the prison.

The right army of the Huguang New Standard Army under him also fell into the hands of Xiong Wencan.

Xiong Wencan combined all the new standard troops of the Ming court, the new standard army with the earliest formation time, and the half-baked new standard army compiled by himself, the Guangdong new standard army, and renamed it the Guangdong New Standard Army.

This Guangdong-Guangdong new standard army is currently considered to be a relatively large-scale new standard army in the Ming court. At present, there are a total of five armies in total.

Among them, the right army is the most powerful. Well, this right army is actually the original Huguang New Standard Army You Army, which is currently stationed on the front line of Guilin, Guangxi.

The second is the Zuo Army. This Zuo Army is the Guangdong Xinbiao Army as the main force. It has joined a part of the original Huguang Xinbiao Army and is stationed on the front line of Shaozhou Prefecture.

The above-mentioned two armies belong to the full-scale new standard army. They have six infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, one supply battalion, and one cavalry battalion. The jin field artillery belongs to a very typical Chu-style mixed brigade.

The front and rear armies belong to the newly formed troops, and they are not full for the time being. The former army has four infantry battalions, two artillery posts, one cavalry post, and one luggage post. The total strength is about 3000 people, stationed on the Huaiji line. .

The rear army has only three battalions of infantry, one post of artillery, half post of cavalry, and one post of baggage.The total force is about 2000 people, stationed at the front line of Pingyuefu.

Finally, there is the Chinese army led by Xiong Wencan himself. In fact, this Chinese army has fewer troops, only about a thousand people, only two infantry battalions, one artillery post, one cavalry post, and one supply post.

This Chinese army was actually used as Xiong Wencan's personal army, and was stationed in Wuzhou City together with Xiong Wencan as a strategic mobile force.

The entire Guangdong-Guangdong New Standard Army has a total of five armies, with a total strength of about 7000.

The reason why Xiong Wencan was able to form such a large-scale new standard army was purely to take advantage of Yang Sichang's big advantage. You must know that when Yang Sichang retreated to Chunan, he was already gradually recovering the strength of the Huguang New Standard Army under his command.

By the time he fell and was replaced by Xiong Wencan as governor of the Southwest, the strength of the Huguang New Standard Army had recovered to 7000.

On this basis, Xiong Wencan was able to continue to expand, and finally got about 7000 people.

As for guns, to be honest, Xiong Wencan doesn't lack these things.

Haojing (Macau), controlled by the Portuguese, was the most important artillery production place in Linan China in the late Ming Dynasty. Before that, Hongyi cannons were produced in large quantities and supplied to the Ming army.

Xiong Wencan wants artillery, just go to the Portuguese in Haojing to buy it.

In addition, Foshan was also an important base of iron products at this time. In addition to various civil iron products, its guns were also very famous.

Well, Foshan, in the modern times, the influences on people are iron pots and cannons!
Iron pots produced in Foshan are representative of high-quality iron pots in contemporary times, and the price is often two or three times that of iron pots of the same size in other places.

Not to mention the artillery in Foshan, which has been manufactured and supplied to the army for a long time. Many of the Hongyi cannons used by the Ming army in Liaodong were made in Foshan.

As the two major gun producing areas of Haojing and Foshan, Xiong Wencan actually has no shortage of guns!

What he lacks is money and food!

In order to purchase guns and equipment for the new standard army, Xiong Wencan thought of all the ways, not to mention the government's money and food, and even organized several private donations.

Even so, he borrowed some from Zheng Zhilong, and killed several maritime merchant families who had always been at odds with him, in order to raise money for the expansion of the army.

Of course, although it was barely done, the combat effectiveness is actually the same.

Xiong Wencan, after all, is not Yang Sichang, let alone Song Zushun.

Although Yang Sichang's Huguang new standard army was defeated by the Chu army, their combat effectiveness is still quite good.

It is rare to be able to play so tenaciously for the first time.

Needless to say, Song Zushun, this person was actually a serious military talent among the governors-general in the late Ming Dynasty.

But Song Zushun, this one can write military books...

His "Shoucheng Yaolan" is a serious military book, which is much more famous than those books, but in fact he didn't win any battles, let alone a civil servant who knows soldiers and has no books.

In terms of actual combat, Song Zushun was also the only one who was able to retreat in an organized manner with thousands of main forces under the onslaught of the Chu army.

Under the fierce attack of the Chu army, the other so-called famous generals and ministers were either wiped out or completely collapsed and fled.

Everyone can hit!

why?
Because they were not professional generals in the first place!

Xiong Wencan is a typical example...

He is a politician, and he became famous by recruiting Zheng Zhilong. If you let him train soldiers and fight, it is embarrassing to be honest.

And Xiong Wencan, the half-baked general, brought out the Guangdong-Guangdong New Standard Army Left Army, which is the main force to reinforce Nanxiong Mansion.

(End of this chapter)