I want to be emperor

Chapter 379 Xiong Wencan's Despair
According to the latest requirements for the establishment of the main force of the Chu Army, the artillery regiments of each division will also have a mortar battalion with twelve 48-jin mortars or 24-jin mortars. The specific deployment of artillery depends on the troops. In the combat environment where the terrain is flat and the march and supplies are convenient, it is equipped with a 48-jin mortar.

If it is a unit fighting in a place with complex terrain, it is equipped with a 24-jin mortar, which weighs only [-] catties.

The Mortar Battalion in the Seventh Division has jurisdiction over 48 catties of mortars. This is because the Ganjiang River can provide transportation and supplies.

In Chunan, the fifth division facing the front line in Guangxi is equipped with 24-jin mortars. Because the terrain is complex and the supply is not smooth, they mainly pursue mobility in artillery. Half a catty and five catties are the main ones, and nine catties are less.

The same situation is still in the west of southern Chu, facing the Ninth Division in the direction of Guizhou. This main division was expanded from the temporary Fourth Mixed Regiment. The main force of the field artillery is also five catties and two and a half catties. Eighteen catties are the main ones, and there is not a single 24 catty mortar...

As for the [-]-pound mortars, they have been gradually lowered to the brigade-level troops. For example, the [-]nd Guards Division of the new army that uses flintlock guns, the [-]-pound mortars are directly deployed to the regimental artillery battalion. The regiment belongs to the artillery battalion and has four [-]-jin mortars under its jurisdiction.

This thing has been completely regarded as infantry with firepower by the Chu army.

However, the more mortars are equipped, the more powerful they are, which puts more and more pressure on the Chu army's ammunition supply.

Although the Seventh Division has a lot of troops and cannons, the required mortars and ammunition are not much.

After arriving in Nanxiong, after testing the attack for a while, they simply stopped planning to attack, and waited for the ammunition from the rear to be transported before preparing to take Nanxiong in one go and pry open the northern gate to Guangdong.

It didn't take long for the ammunition needed by Huang Xiangbin, and a batch of ammunition was urgently dispatched from the rear, especially the mortar shells needed for the battle.

Huang Xiangbin was a little surprised by this. He originally thought that his superiors would be the same as the previous few months, but he didn't expect to draw out a large amount of ammunition so readily, and the amount was even more than he estimated. .

But when he received the five-hundred-mile urgent order from the staff department, he understood why the higher-ups gave him so much ammunition, and even took out several ammunition warehouses in Jiangxi and transported them to Ganzhou urgently by boat , and then transferred to the Nanxiong front line.

Because the superiors told him to take down Nanxiong quickly, and then enter Guangdong and fight all the way to Guangzhou.

During this period, the higher-ups will do their best to ensure the supply of food, grass and ammunition for the Seventh Division and the No.11 Garrison Division.

There was only one request from the higher ups, to enter Guangdong quickly, annihilate as much of the local enemy forces as possible, and then cooperate with the Fifth Division in the southern direction of Chu to capture Guangxi, in order to initially resolve the battle in the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi.

After receiving the order, Huang Xiangbin also began to think about how to quickly take down Meiguan and take down Nanxiong.

As for continuing to go south to fight Guangzhou and the like, there is no rush now, and it will not be too late after winning Nanxiong.

When Huang Xiangbin was thinking about how to take Meiguan and Nanxiong Mansion, Xu Zhixian in Jinling City also reported to Luo Zhixue the recent battles in various places.

"Your Majesty, according to our strategy of first going south and then going north, we have launched the Guangdong-Guangdong Campaign and the Fujian-Zhejiang Campaign!"

"In the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Seventh Division and the No.11 Garrison Division, led by General Huang, have launched an attack on the Nanxiong front line. In order to support this direction, we have urgently allocated a batch of ammunition supplies to this direction, mainly The mortar shells and propellants that are urgently needed at the front line!"

"At the same time, according to His Majesty's instructions, we have sent more than 2000 soldiers to the Seventh Division, allowing the Seventh Division to restore the full strength of the four regiments. The original Seventh Division fighting in the direction of Zhejiang will strengthen the strength of the regiment. It is temporarily expanded into the No.12 mixed brigade."

"Optimistically, we will receive good news from General Huang within a month!"

"In the south of Chu, the Fifth Division will launch an offensive against Guilin in the near future. In order to support them, we have urgently dispatched a large amount of combat supplies from the Changsha Arsenal.

"At the same time, a reinforced regiment of the Ninth Division was dispatched to the south to strengthen the main force of the Guangxi direction!"

"At the same time, in the south of Chu, we still have three garrison divisions, the sixth garrison division, the eighth garrison division, and the tenth garrison division, which are enough to assist the main force on the front line."

"The core strategic goal of our army in this direction is to first capture Guilin, then capture Wuzhou, and then control the entire Guangxi."

"On the entire battlefield of Guangdong and Guangxi, we have invested the main force of two divisions and one reinforced regiment, and two mortar regiments to provide siege fire support. A total of four garrison divisions provide auxiliary combat support!"

"A lot of materials such as ammunition, food and grass have also been mobilized, which is enough to meet the needs of a large-scale war in the local area."

While listening, Luo Zhixue watched the battle report on the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi.

The battle reports he read were actually not too detailed, they were all about the general direction. After all, Luo Zhixue, as the emperor of the Great Chu Empire, had too many things to pay attention to, even the most important military affairs, he could not Hold everything in your hands.

In the past, when the territory was small and the number of troops was small, he would often pay attention to a battle involving hundreds of people and understand the course of the battle.

Now, for such a large-scale battle as the Battle of Guangdong and Guangxi, he only pays attention to some general issues.

He only gave an order to the senior generals under him: Take Guangdong and Guangxi!

As for how to coordinate the overall occupation, that is the business of senior generals like Xu Zhixian.

After the specific order came to the front line, it was up to senior front-line generals such as Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, Commander of the Seventh Division, and Major General Lin Siyong, Commander of the Fifth Division, to win the strategic locations of Guilin, Nanxiong, Guangzhou, and Wuzhou in this way.

Given Luo Zhixue's current status and busyness, it is difficult and unnecessary for him to pay attention to a specific battle in person, what he wants is to control the general direction.

For example, personnel arrangements.

In order to better coordinate the Guangdong-Guangzhou campaign, Luo Zhixue also simultaneously adjusted the senior personnel in the above two directions at the beginning of the Guangdong-Guangzhou campaign.

The Guangdong-Guangdong Garrison Command was established. The commander was transferred from Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, commander of the Jiangxi garrison and concurrently commander of the Seventh Division, and the deputy commander was concurrently served by Major General Lin Siyong, commander of the Fifth Division.

These two people are actually the commanders of the two main divisions that entered Guangdong and Guangxi.

Letting them serve as local garrison commanders and deputy commanders is actually just to allow them to better command the garrison in coordinated operations.

But this is only temporary, and Luo Zhixue will make further changes in the future.

As for the Guangdong-Guangzhou Garrison Command, this Garrison Command is also the first cross-provincial large-scale command in the Great Chu Empire, because in the past six months, Luo Zhixue found that the provincial-based Garrison Command is not very suitable for the current war need.

Because a battle line often spans multiple provinces, the combat scope of a main division also changes frequently.

In addition, the Great Chu Empire occupies more and more provinces, and there will be more in the future. If there are dozens of provinces, according to today's vision, Jinling has full power to command the troops of each province, which is too inefficient, and the provinces The transfer of troops between them is easy to argue.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue believes that it is necessary to set up another institution similar to the Governor's Mansion of the Ming Dynasty between the capital and the provinces as an institution to coordinate the military affairs of several provinces.

Considering the particularity of the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, Luo Zhixue simply set up a Guangdong and Guangxi garrison command to coordinate local military affairs.

This Guangdong-Guangzhou Defense Command is a first trial or two. If the effect is good, then Luo Zhixue will be promoted in Fujian, Zhejiang, Huguang and other places.

The war in Guangdong and Guangxi suddenly broke out on a large scale this spring.

This caught Xiong Wencan off guard!
He didn't understand. It was fine before, although the Chu army was also aggressive, and it was very difficult to fight, so that the official army could only be in a strategic defensive position, and even a counterattack was an extravagant hope.

But at any rate, we can still defend several strategic locations, such as Guilin, Ganzhou, and Nanxiong.

However, after entering April, Ganzhou fell first, and then on April [-], the crucial Meiguan in Nanxiong Mansion was forcibly broken through by the Chu army.

Just two days later, after losing Meiguan, the defenseless city of Nanxiong also fell to the Chu thieves.

More than 8000 Ming soldiers from various places in Nanxiong Prefecture died in battle, and more than 3000 people were taken as prisoners of war. Only more than [-] people fled back to Shaoguan.

Among them, the core force of the Guangdong-Guangdong New Standard Army Zuojun, a total of more than 3000 people were sent out to garrison, but only less than a thousand people came back.

After the news of Nanxiong's fall reached Wuzhou, Xiong Wencan didn't speak for a long time, and even lost interest in swearing. A group of lowly civil and military officials looked at Xiong Wencan's gloomy face one by one, and walked back to the backyard without saying a word .

What made Xiong Wencan behave so abnormally was not only because of the fall of Nanxiong Mansion, but also the bad news from Guilin and other directions.

On April 2, under the leadership of Major General Lin Siyong, the leader of the bandits, the Fifth Division of the Chu bandits broke through the [-]-strong defense line led by the Guangdong New Standard Army Youjun and captured Guilin City.

During the fierce battle, the right army of the Guangdong New Standard Army suffered many casualties, and was ambushed by Chu rebels during the breakout process. A full-stacked mixed brigade only withdrew more than a thousand people.

As for other guard soldiers, there were even more casualties and captures.

After this battle, not only was the Ming court's line of defense in the direction of Guilin completely penetrated, but more importantly, Xiong Wencan had no more troops to mobilize to organize a second line of defense after losing troops.

(End of this chapter)