I want to be emperor

Chapter 437 The Decisive Battle Begins in Tianjin

Tianjin Wei, this is a city built only during the Yongle period, and it was used as a military city from the beginning.

The purpose is to set up the screen of Jinmen and lock it into the Beijing waterway.

To the east of Tianjin, the Zhigu River can lead directly to the Yellow Sea, and now...the navy of the Great Chu Empire has controlled the Yellow Sea relying on Changshan and Eight Islands. If necessary, warships can be sent directly to Dagukou, and through here to the inland Transport supplies.

To the south of Tianjin is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

The direction of Tianjin to the northwest, that is, the direction of Youzhou City, is the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In addition, there are many rivers that can go to the northwest.

This place belongs to the main waterway!
If the Chu thieves want to enter Youzhou City, whether they use canals or sea transportation for logistical transportation, if they want to transport materials to Youzhou City, then Tianjin is a strategic place that cannot be bypassed.

He Hong Chengchou built a line of defense here, and he could completely intercept the Chu thieves at leisure. If possible, it would be best to fight for a single battle to completely defeat the army of Chu thieves going north, so as to reverse the disadvantage for the Ming Dynasty and himself.

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At the same time, General Li Chengtong, the garrison commander of Northern Zhili of the Great Chu Empire and concurrently the commander of the Third Army, saw that when the Ming army gathered troops in Tianjin, he simply led his troops to kill them.

Li Chengtong's idea is simpler...

Tianjin can't be bypassed, since it can't be bypassed, then let's fight!
It happened to be a decisive battle, so as not to fight back and forth, and accidents would happen after the war dragged on for a long time.

For example, the captivity into the customs!

The Military Intelligence Department has reported that Dongyao is gathering troops, and it seems that they want to go out of the customs to take advantage of the chaos and even directly enter the customs to invade and occupy China.

If possible, Li Chengyong wants to make a quick decision, and then quickly advance to the front line of Shanhaiguan. At that time, regardless of what the Liaodong frontier army thinks, and regardless of whether the Eastern captives enter or not, he can block Shanhaiguan first.

As long as the Shanhaiguan Pass is blocked, even if Dongyao can bypass Mongolia and break through the Great Wall to enter the pass, it will not affect the overall situation.

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Because of Tianjin's special geographical location, coupled with the fact that the top leaders of both sides wanted to fight in Tianjin, the armies of both sides began to gather towards Tianjin continuously.

Not to mention the Ming army, the Jiliao frontier army and the Xuanda frontier army have all come, with a total strength of about 20, which is claimed to be [-].

On the side of the Chu army, not only the third army, but even the second army that originally went to Zhendingfu, after learning that Hong Chengchou had hoarded an army of '20' in Tianjin Wei, was frightened and went straight to Tianjin. Wei rushed to prepare to reinforce the third army.

The total force gathered in this way will probably have five main divisions, three cavalry brigades and several independent artillery units, with a total force of about 8.

However, there is still a [-]st Guards Division of the [-]st Army in the rear as a reserve.

Adding the two together, there are about 10 people.

When the forces of both sides converged in the direction of Tianjin, almost the entire surrounding area, and even people in the surrounding area all turned their attention to Tianjin and to the commanders of both sides.

In this battle, the commander-in-chief of the Ming army was Hong Chengchou, the minister of the Ministry of War and the censor of the right capital, and the governor of Jiliao.

The commander-in-chief of the Chu army is Marquis De'an, the army general Li Chengtong, who is the garrison commander of Beizhili and the commander of the third army, and is fully responsible for the battle on the front line of Beizhili.

Regardless of the outcome of this battle, these two people will definitely leave a strong mark in the history books.

The winner will become a generation of famous generals.

Loser, become synonymous with loser!
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The first to arrive in the outskirts of Tianjin was the [-]st Cavalry Brigade and the [-]th Division under the Third Army.

They went all the way north along the canal, and finally arrived at Qingxian on June 28, and captured this city that had apparently been abandoned by Hong Chengchou.

Immediately afterwards, more troops of the third army also arrived in Qingxian City one after another.

On July [-], General Li Chengtong, commander of the Third Army, led a group of artillery and transport troops to Qingxian County.

At this time, the Chu army had gathered about [-] troops in Qing County.

However, Li Chengtong did not continue to rashly go north to Tianjin City, but continued to stay in Qingxian City. This was to allow the various ministries under his command to rest and replenish.

The more important thing is to wait for more ammunition and food from the rear to arrive.

In the past few days, various cavalry units on the front line have attacked one after another to investigate Tianjin and its surrounding areas.

During the investigation, the cavalry of the Chu army also continued to engage in battle with the cavalry of the Ming army. The scale was not large, but it was very fierce.

The First Cavalry Brigade, the Second Cavalry Brigade, and the three divisional cavalry regiments basically fought against the Ming cavalry on the opposite side, winning and losing.

In terms of combat effectiveness, the cavalry on both sides are actually equal. The Chu army has no advantage here, and neither does the Ming army on the opposite side.

The Chu army has fewer cavalry in terms of cavalry and archery, and its combat effectiveness is also worse than that of the Liaodong cavalry represented by the elite Guanning cavalry on the opposite side.

However, the three divisions of the Chu army belonged to the cavalry regiment, but they were already equipped with Suifa cavalry guns and pistols. It is quite reliable to deal with some slightly inferior cavalry in the Ming army under mixed combat.

When the cavalry of both sides frequently engage in small and medium-scale battles, the intelligence of both sides is inevitably known by the other side.

Hong Chengchou soon knew that the Chu thieves going north were their third army, and there was also a guard division in it.

He also knew a little bit about the guard division, knowing that this was the guard unit of the false Chu emperor Luo Zhixue, and he heard that the combat effectiveness was very good.

But apart from these, Hong Chengchou also learned some very strange information through scouting cavalry, that is, the infantry of the few Chu bandit troops going north were all musketeers, not to mention the traditional sword and shield soldiers. , not even a few spearmen...

"Where is the spearman among the Chu thieves?" Hong Chengchou was puzzled by this.

Hong Chengchou is also aware of the army model of the Chu thief. After all, many governors of the Ming court have been copying the new standard army for several years.

Even though Hong Chengchou did not engage in any new standard army, he actually expanded the equipment scale of the musketeers according to the tactics of the new standard army, and replaced many sword and shield hands with spearmen. .

To some extent, the more than 2 people directly under Hong Chengchou's command are similar to the new standard army in terms of arms configuration and weaponry, but they still retain a large number of archers and heavy armor sword shieldmen.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou knew very well that regardless of whether it was his own Qin army, the new standard army under other governors, or the Chu thieves themselves, musketeers or archers and spearmen were all used to fight together in infantry combat.

Without the cover of the spearmen's array, whether it is musketeers or archers, they will all be abused.

However, in the army of Chu thieves on the opposite side, there are not many spearmen.

Such an unusual event immediately aroused Hong Chengchou's vigilance. On the one hand, he continued to send more scouts to try to figure out the strength of these Chu thieves, and on the other hand, he also collected information everywhere.

It's a pity that Hong Chengchou at this moment also didn't know why the Chu thief did this, but he knew that the Chu thief seemed to be equipped with a kind of musket that didn't use a matchlock, that is, a self-generating firecracker.

But Hong Chengchou also knows the self-generated firecrackers. That thing is very troublesome and expensive. The most important thing is that the ignition rate is still very low. I don't know why the Chu thief installed so many self-generated firecrackers.

And more importantly, even if it is a self-generating firearm, the rate of fire and accuracy are the same, and it will not be stronger than the matchlock gun.

If it is really fought, it is estimated that the effect is similar to that of an arquebus. In this case, without the cover of a spearman, wouldn't it collapse when it is charged?

The musketeers lined up to fight alone. The Ming army tried it several times, and every time it was a big tragedy...

Except for the weird infantry in Chu Bandit, the others are similar to what Hong Chengchou expected, such as having a large number of mules, horses and artillery.

These Chu thieves seem to have endless money and food. Even infantry units in the army often have a large number of mules and horses, not to mention artillery and luggage.

Therefore, the Chu army has many mules and horses, and the quality of the mules and horses is not good, and this is also a characteristic of them.

Not to mention artillery, the Chu thieves rely on artillery to conquer the world, so the tens of thousands of Chu thieves in front brought hundreds of artillery, he was not surprised at all.

Not even a lot of fear!

For this battle, he, Hong Chengchou or Ming Ting, spent all his money and took out his last family fortune.

There are more than 50 new types of two-and-a-half catties, five catties, nine catties and other anti-thief cannons. In addition, there are also more than [-] old Hongyi cannons that have been modified with new double-wheeled gun mounts.

There are more than 70 long-barreled artillery pieces, which can be said to be Hong Chengchou's greatest confidence!
For these cannons, he almost searched for a lot of cannons from Jiliao and Xuanda, and even asked for several Hongyi cannons on the top of Youzhou City.

In addition to these long-barreled cannons, there are hundreds of small short-barreled cannons of all kinds, such as Francophones, general cannons, tiger crouching cannons, and attacking army cannons. Pull up.

The number of artillery Hong Chengchou gathered in Tianjin is second to none in the war history of the Ming Dynasty.

No matter whether it was the fight with Dongyao or the Chu army before, the Ming army had never gathered so many long-barreled artillery.

This is the first time, and there is a high probability that it will be the last time.

In addition to artillery, Hong Chengchou has more than 3000 elite cavalry under his command. At the same time, he has improvised more than [-] half-baked cavalry who can ride horses. It can barely be said to be [-] cavalry.

Among the [-] cavalry, the most powerful ones are the more than [-] cavalry under Zu Dashou's Guanning cavalry, including the thousand cavalry under Wu Xiang.

Guanning Iron Cavalry, this name is not a certain army with a fixed establishment, nor is it a title similar to Jiangbei New Standard Army, it is more similar to a general term, just like the previous Liaodong Iron Cavalry, it generally refers to those who fight in the Liaodong region frontier army.

Now the Guan Ning iron cavalry headed by Zu Dashou has not only cavalry, but also infantry and artillery, with a total strength of more than [-].

It's not that the [-] Guanning iron cavalry are all cavalry... Even the cavalry among them are not all armored elite cavalry. Among the Guanning iron cavalry, the armored elite cavalry is also a very small part of the elite.

At this time, the four thousand cavalry led by Zu Dashou belonged to this small group of armored elite cavalry.

They are also the most powerful Ming army among the more than 8 Ming troops inside and outside Tianjin Acropolis!
With the help of this cavalry, Hong Chengchou thought to himself that although he has a disadvantage in artillery, he is not powerless to resist. As long as the artillery can support and cover the infantry to maintain the formation, then this battle can be fought.

As long as one's own cavalry can defeat the Chu bandit cavalry first, and then occupy the initiative on the battlefield, then the next battle will be much simpler.

If you fight well, not only can you stop the Chu thief from going north, but you might even hit the Chu thief severely.

(End of this chapter)