I want to be emperor

Chapter 415

On the first day of February in the fourth year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, Gaoyou Prefecture, the capital of Yangzhou in the north of the Yangtze River.

Huang Tinghao, the deputy general of the Ming court, looked at the large number of Chu troops in gray uniforms outside the city, with a serious expression on his face.

Yesterday afternoon, a group of Chu thieves came outside the city. At first he thought it was just a tentative attack by the Chu thieves. Tried to attack Gaoyou Prefecture.

However, the troops who came were not many, and they did not carry too many heavy artillery, so although this tentative attack caused some losses to the defenders in the city, it was not to the extent that they could directly break through the city.

Originally, Huang Tinghao's Chu thieves who came this time were also like this, but what he didn't expect was that as time passed, more and more Chu thieves appeared outside the city.

From a thousand people at the beginning, to two to 3000 people, by the time of nightfall, there were already more than 5000 Chu thieves outside the city
Originally, this was enough, but what I didn't expect was that a large number of bandits arrived one after another this morning.

But this time there were more thieves, and they also carried a large number of artillery.

Looking at the dozens of long-barreled cannons of the Chu bandits outside the city, plus twenty or thirty large short-barreled mortars, Huang Tinghao didn't know that this time the Chu bandits were really rushing to conquer Gaoyou Prefecture. of.

This time, I'm afraid it's more ominous than good.

There are at least tens of thousands of Chu thieves outside the city, and dozens of large and small artillery.

As for the defenders of Gaoyouzhou City, the total strength is no more than 2000 people, of which more than 4000 are Jiangbei New Standard Army, and more than [-] are Guard soldiers.

They are all part of the defenders of Yangzhou's defense line, and they belong to Song Zushun, the governor of Jiangbei.

Song Zushun stationed in Yangzhou, not only guarding a Yangzhou city, but a large area with Yangzhou as the core and along the canal.

In addition to hoarding a large number of troops in Yangzhou City, Song Zushun also sent troops to garrison Gaoyou Prefecture in the north of Yangzhou City, and some troops were stationed in Taixing and Taizhou in the east of Yangzhou City.

If Song Zushun gave up many outlying areas and just defended a Yangzhou city, it would be easy for the Chu army to capture several outlying cities, cut off the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and finally be surrounded strategically.

At that time, Yangzhou City will become an isolated city, and there is no way to get reinforcements from Huai'an and other places.

However, the strength of Song Zushun's troops is also limited. He has a total of more than 3 troops. The defense line of Yangzhou City requires more than 2 troops, and several thousand people need to be allocated to other places. This is left to Gaoyou Prefecture. There are only 6000 people left here.

These 6000 people were commanded by Huang Tinghao, the deputy general under Song Zushun's command.

However, now that Huang Tinghao looked at the large number of Chu troops outside the city, he did not have the slightest confidence in defending Gaoyou Prefecture.

He is a veteran who has fought against the Chu army many times. When Song Zushun fought against the fourth division's onslaught in Hezhou for several months, he was a general under Song Zushun's command, leading a battalion of Jiangbei New Standard Army to fight.

That battle left a deep memory on him. A battalion of more than 600 people under his command fought to the end, and only more than 400 people remained.

The artillery fire of the Chu army seemed to never stop, especially in the few days after the Chu army launched the general offensive, the artillery fire was fierce beyond his imagination.

Under the fierce artillery fire of the Chu army, the infantry battalion he led did not actually engage in close combat with the Chu army, but when he finally withdrew from Hezhou, there were only more than 400 infantry battalions left under his command. .

More than 200 people died in the battle of the Chu army one after another.

However, although his infantry battalion suffered a lot of casualties, it performed well, and even achieved certain results in counter-killing the Chu army. It also performed well during the retreat. He counterattacked and ambushed more than a hundred garrison troops of Chu bandits who were advancing lightly, and beheaded dozens of levels.

After withdrawing to Yangzhou City, Song Zushun quickly recommended him as the deputy commander-in-chief and made him the commander-in-chief of the left army of the Jiangbei New Standard Army.

Among the many new standard troops of the Ming court, their organization, appellation and official system basically come from the Huguang New Standard Army created by Yang Sichang before.

The grassroots organization is similar to that of the Chu army, all of which are teams, posts, and battalions.

As for the battalion and above, they did not set up regiments or brigades, but directly set up an army. They used several infantry to match artillery battalions, supply battalions, and cavalry battalions to form an army with a strength of about 4000 to [-].

Similar to the mixed regiments and mixed brigades in the Great Chu Empire.

In addition, although they have no regiment-level troops and no regimental commanders, they are under the commander-in-chief of the army, and they often have two generals, guerrilla generals, who command two or three infantry battalions to fight.

In fact, this is also the regiment-level establishment of the Chu Army, but the new standard army of the Ming court has not been fixed.

And this, in fact, is also a measure taken by the new standard army generals of the Ming court in order to control the military power. They are unwilling to set up regiment-level troops with a fixed establishment to divide the military power of the army commander.

Therefore, the largest fixed establishment of the new standard army in the Ming court is similar to that of the mixed brigade of the Chu army. If it goes up, it belongs to the designations of Jiangbei New Standard Army and Guangdong Guangxi New Standard Army similar to the administrative establishment.

The strength and combat effectiveness of the new standard troops in different places are also different. When there are more new standard troops in Guangdong and Guangxi, there are more than 2 people, while many new standard troops under the governor's hand are only a few thousand people, not to mention the equipment.

And subdivided into the left, right, front, back, and middle armies, there is a huge gap in the strength, equipment level, and even combat effectiveness of each army.

Specifically, depending on the commander's ability, personal connections, and military training capabilities, a powerful army can often be fully staffed or even overstaffed. In addition to a fixed establishment, there is also a so-called trap camp.

And those with few troops, such as Song Zushun's Jiangbei New Standard Army Rear Army, had no more than [-] troops.

Moreover, the more than 2000 people are mainly composed of three infantry battalions. Although the artillery battalion has the name of the artillery battalion, it actually only has four two-and-a-half catty artillery pieces, and the number is no more than dozens of people. The cavalry battalion is also only a mere Just dozens of rides.

As a result, his rear army was small in strength and poorly equipped. On the one hand, it was because his rear army was organized for a short period of time. It was the last army in the Jiangbei New Standard Army. It was expanded from the infantry battalion that Huang Tinghao led before.

What's more, Song Zushun didn't give him too much support in terms of money, food and guns, but just gave him his number, and then asked him to find a way to gather military supplies and guns.

Huang Tinghao can also understand this. His old boss Song Zushun is also in a state of distress. He has more than 1 new soldiers and more than 2 guards. The cost of raising an army for one copper plate...

The expenses of the Jiangbei New Standard Army and the local guards were all financed by Song Zushun and the generals under his command.

Huang Tinghao's side is no exception.

Sometimes, Huang Tinghao will also have doubts: what is he trying to do to raise money and food to build an army, and then serve the court to fight against the Chu thieves?
Get promoted and get rich?

It's useless to be promoted only to give an official hat.

As for getting rich, the imperial court doesn't even pay military expenses now, and all military supplies have to be collected by themselves. If it's for money, he can skip military training and put the collected money directly into his own pocket. In case of two thousand.

But Song Zushun didn't, and neither did he, Huang Tinghao.

Therefore, getting promoted and getting rich does not exist for many Ming court generals who fought against the Chu army on the front line, even for Song Zushun, a big official in the frontier.

Song Zushun's governor of water transportation was removed by Chongzhen after saying that he would remove it...

Another example is that Yang Sichang, who now succeeds Song Zushun and governor of Shandong, Baoding, Nanzhili and other places, may not end well.

This person was just defeated by Chu Nan two years ago, and then he was dismissed from office by Chongzhen and imprisoned in the sky prison. After squatting in the sky prison for a long time, he was reinstated by Chongzhen.

It is said that Yang Sichang once refused and did not want to be the new governor, but Chongzhen is also a tough boy, so he insisted on doing it if he was sure.

After Yang Sichang was postponed, Chongzhen ordered two consecutive appointments, and also added Yang Sichang the Minister of the Ministry of War, the title of Royal Envoy of the Right Capital, the crown prince Shaobao, and the words Shangfang Baojian. It is said that he personally said to Yang Sichang I only trust what you say.

Yang Sichang, who received such a courteous reception, became overwhelmed and immediately forgot the old story that when the Governor-General of Huguang was fighting in the provinces of Huguang, he was beaten to the end by Chongzhen after only one defeat.

But Huang Tinghao is not optimistic about Yang Sichang's recovery this time.

In his opinion, it is estimated that within a few months, Yang Sichang will be dismissed by the furious emperor...

This is the same treatment as Yang Sichang, a famous minister, and Song Zushun and his generals such as Huang Tinghao, let alone expect any preferential treatment.

However, even so, what should be maintained still needs to be maintained, so Song Zushun still searched for money, food and guns as much as possible to maintain the army in Yangzhou, and even tried his best to improve the combat effectiveness of the Jiangbei New Standard Army and get more What about guns?

His immediate boss, Song Zushun, didn't have much money to support Huang Tinghao, but he also implied that Huang Tinghao didn't have to look forward and backward when doing things in Gaoyou Prefecture. No matter what, the military supply problem had to be solved. If there was any problem, he, Song, would directly take care of it.

Huang Tinghao, overtly and secretly, spent a lot of means to get a batch of money and food, and then expanded two infantry battalions, and set up the artillery battalion, cavalry, and luggage racks, which naturally caused a lot of trouble. Many people reported him, but they were all suppressed by Song Zushun, and Song Zushun resisted the court's questioning.

With Song Zushun on his head, Huang Tinghao is confident that if he is given another three or four months, the strength of his troops can be doubled again.

Artillery and cavalry are not easy to deal with, but it is relatively easy to expand the infantry battalion.

It's a pity that the Chu thief on the opposite side didn't give him such time.

(End of this chapter)