I want to be emperor

Chapter 463 Sixty Divisions
With the heavy snow blocking roads in the northern provinces, the medium and large-scale military operations of the Great Chu Empire in the north of the Yangtze River basically stopped.

Then it started to get busy cleaning up illegal armed forces and personnel involved in gangs and explosions in several northern provinces.

The war in the north seemed to be covered by a vast expanse of white snow.

In the south, however, medium-scale battles continued to erupt. In October, the Fifth Division under the Southwest Campaign Command captured Anlong Division in the westernmost part of Guangxi. After Anlong Division was captured by the Chu army, it was declared that Guangxi had already It fell under the control of the Great Chu Empire.

After capturing Anlongsi, the Fifth Division will continue to advance westward and begin to march towards Yunnan.

At the same time, the Seventh Division is also fighting in the direction of Guizhou.

In addition, the No.19 Division launched an attack on Guizhou from the southern Chu area.

The strength of the Chu army in Yunnan and Guizhou has reached three first-class divisions, which can be said to be quite a lot.

However, there are many mountains and dense forests in the Yunnan-Guizhou area. It is very troublesome to march in this direction, not to mention the difficulty of supplies, and it is difficult to transport artillery. At the same time, it is disgusting that due to the bad weather, non-combat attrition is very serious. .

Therefore, in the war in the direction of Yunnan and Guizhou, the Chu army has always adopted a strategy of fighting steadily and advancing step by step, even fighting in the front and building roads in the back...

Although this progress is slow, the cost is also small, and non-combat attrition is also within the controllable range.

Moreover, the southwestern region is not greatly affected by winter, so the offensive can continue throughout the winter.

Although it was in the Little Ice Age, even in parts of Guangdong and Guangxi in the south, you can see white snowflakes in winter, but it is the south after all. Even if it snows, it is impossible to fall heavily. The snow on the ground is even more No sessions will not melt all winter.

Under such circumstances, although the winter is colder, it will not affect medium and large-scale military operations too much.

Even to a certain extent, because there is not much snow in winter in the south, and at the same time it rarely rains, the roads will not become muddy due to accumulated water, and the entire logistics supply is more convenient than spring and summer.

This is also an important reason why the Great Chu Empire likes to launch medium and large-scale battles in winter and before the rainy season in the southern region.

This winter, after discussions among the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire, they decided to increase support to the southwest front to a certain extent and mobilize some troops to attack Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan when the war in the north stopped and the pressure was not too great.

However, this kind of reinforcement is actually limited, and it is far inferior to the reinforcement of the northern troops.

Therefore, the scale of the fight will not be too large, and the Military Affairs Council did not ask the Southwest Army to say that they must take down Yunnan, Guizhou or even Sichuan this winter. Seize several cities and expand the control area.

As for the strategic core of the entire Great Chu Empire, it is still the northern region, to be precise, Shanxi and Shaanxi-Gansu.

Although the war in the north has stopped at present, large-scale attacks will inevitably be launched after the beginning of spring, especially the attacks against Shanxi and Shaanxi-Gansu regions.

The top leaders of the Great Chu Empire hope that Shanxi and Shaanxi-Gansu regions can be recovered next year. This is not only to expand the territory, but more importantly, to ensure the safety of the hinterland of the Central Plains. It is used in the northeast and subsequent battles into Sichuan.

Therefore, the Great Chu Empire is currently continuing to provide reinforcements to Shaanxi and Shanxi, including troops, weapons, ammunition, and even food.

Luo Zhixue held a strategic meeting in Jinling City in late October and decided to initially draw up a strategic plan for next year.

The strategic planning is very simple, that is to launch attacks on Shanxi and Shaanxi from multiple directions at the same time.

In addition to the original First Army, Fourth Army and several second-class divisions, the planned force will also send the newly formed Fifth Army in the Jiangbei area to the battlefield.

The Fifth Army consists of No.20 Fourth Division and No.20 Fifth Division.

Its core No. 20 Fourth Division and No. 20 Fifth Division are newly formed troops after the No. 20 Third Division of the Great Chu Empire. The infantry are all equipped with two-year-style flintlock guns and adopt brand-new line tactics to train.

In terms of artillery distribution, the infantry unit completely gave up the short-barreled artillery of two to three hundred catties, and changed to fully equipped with two and a half catties of field artillery as infantry support firepower.

In the divisional artillery regiment, the 24-jin mortar and the 48-jin mortar were completely abandoned.

The Chu army has found in many actual combats in the past that although these mortars are effective in siege warfare, they are basically useless in other combat forces, especially field combat forces. Well, if the main force moves with these mortars, most of the time it will be lonely, and it will also consume mules, horses and food.

Therefore, at a military meeting in October, the Army had decided to separate mortars from field artillery, and the division-level troops had only three field artillery of different calibers directly under their control, in order to further enhance mobility and reduce logistical pressure.

The mortars are further centralized and reorganized, especially the 48-jin mortars, which exist purely for siege, are separately organized into each mortar regiment or even a mortar brigade, and are directly assigned to each army and campaign commander. According to the situation, it will be strengthened to each division and army during the battle, and it will be specially used for tackling tough battles.

On the other hand, the [-]-jin mortar guns were light enough that they could even be carried by mules and horses, so they continued to be included in the infantry regiments and used as front-line infantry support firepower.

The two divisions under the Fifth Army were the first to carry out the artillery reform. After more than half a year of training and many exercises, they already have combat effectiveness, so this winter, they will go to Tongguan together with other friendly troops- Lu's front line is preparing for the westward campaign that will start next year.

When the Fifth Army was transferred from Jiangbei, the Sixth Army, which was recruited and trained in Jiangxi and Anlu, also announced its formal formation and entered a period of adaptive training.

The No.20 Sixth Division and No.20 Seventh Division under the Sixth Army are also the latest two main divisions in the Great Chu Empire that have reached full strength and become an army.

The No. 20 Eighth Division, No. 20 Ninth Division, and No. 30 Division in the future are only empty shelves for the time being.

If there is no accident, the designation of the First Class Division of the Chu Army will only rank up to thirty in a short time.

Limited by the pressure of military expenditure and the production capacity of flintlock guns and artillery, it is impossible for the Great Chu Empire to continue to expand the size of the first-class division without restraint.

There can be [-] first-class divisions, which is already the result of the huge external pressure of multi-line operations. Even after the unification war is over, these [-] first-class divisions may have to be downsized to a certain extent, otherwise The pressure on military spending is too great.

The first-class divisions in the Chu army, regardless of whether they are old-style divisions using matchlock guns or new-style divisions using flintlock guns, each division has a strength of about 4000.

Thirty first-class divisions, then the total force has reached more than 40 people.

And this does not include the cavalry brigade, which has expanded to more than a dozen brigades, more than [-] mortar regiments, and multiple heavy artillery regiments.

Adding all these together, it is possible to reach 50 with full staff.

And with so many field troops, the pressure on the Great Chu Empire is already great.

You know, these are field troops, and the cost is not small.

At the same time, it is impossible for the Great Chu Empire to spend all the military expenses on the first-class divisions of the army. In addition to the first-class divisions of the army, there are also three guard divisions and the navy that belong to the royal family.

But even so, the current strength of the Great Chu Empire is still very tense. Thirty first-class divisions seem to be a lot, but they are not many to distribute to all fronts.

For example, in the Yunnan-Guizhou direction, there are only three first-class divisions in total, and the three first-class divisions are seriously understaffed, with a combined strength of just over 5000 troops.

At present, many first-class divisions, especially the first-class divisions that do not have too severe combat missions, are actually not fully staffed. The reason why so many first-class divisions are required is because there are few arrangements, but for the sake of To control military expenditure, the army will adjust the number of troops and equipment of different first-class divisions according to the situation.

The three first-class divisions in the direction of Yunnan and Guizhou have about 1 people per capita.

In addition, the No. 13 Division suppressed in Guangdong, the No. 20 Division suppressed in Zhejiang, and the No. 12 Division suppressed in Fujian have even fewer troops, with an average of only about [-] troops per capita.

First-class divisions are expensive, and it is impossible to form too many, even if there are many designations, it is impossible to get a full staff.

At the same time, a large number of first-class divisions had to be upgraded, so that they could fire guns in order to change equipment. The combination of many circumstances prompted the Great Chu Empire to accelerate the expansion plan of the second-class divisions.

In the past six months, the Great Chu Empire Army has tasted the sweetness of the second-class division.

The [-]th Division and the [-]st Division prepared to be built in Anlu and southern Anhui, these two earliest second-class divisions managed to maintain a certain infantry combat effectiveness at a relatively low cost, and were used to garrison places and suppress civil strife .

These two divisions also participated in the illegal armed suppression operations in the Jiangbei area before, because the enemy lacked heavy firepower, let alone illegal cavalry armed forces, so even though the two second-class divisions lacked heavy firepower and artillery, they could The infantry combat effectiveness of the first-class division is still successful in completing various combat tasks.

The success of these two divisions led the Chu army to form a second-class division in Jiangbei, Shandong, and Henan, respectively, the [-]nd, [-]rd, and [-]th divisions.

Subsequently, the [-]th Division and the [-]th Division were established in the central and southern regions of Beizhili.

The above-mentioned five second-class divisions were used for internal repression, maintenance of logistics lines, and participation in illegal armed suppression operations. Although their performance was good and bad, they were generally acceptable. Among them, the [-]th division also recruited mules and horses on the spot , After replenishing a batch of field artillery, he was transferred to Shanhaiguan, and participated in the battle of Shanhaiguan, and performed well.

The existence of these five second-class divisions directly liberated the main first-class divisions participating in the Northern Expedition, allowing each first-class division to participate in the front-line battles such as Jiliao and Xuanda with peace of mind.

After conquering Youzhou, capturing Shanhaiguan, successively taking over the defense lines of the Great Wall such as Jiliao and Xuanda, and incorporating tens of thousands of local frontier troops, the Chu army formed five second-class troops on the spot based on the above-mentioned frontier troops. The other divisions are used to garrison the defense lines of the Great Wall.

They are the [-]th Division and the [-]th Division on the front line of Jiliao.

The [-]th Division, [-]th Division, and [-]th Division of the Xuanda front line.

Although these five second-class divisions were reorganized from the frontier army, their combat effectiveness was not very good, but after adding a certain number of cold weapons, matchlock guns, and small and medium-caliber field artillery to them, their combat effectiveness has improved, and they have assisted several frontline troops. It is not a big problem for a first-class division to fight.

Because the second-class divisions on the northern front performed well, the army recruited troops and formed more second-class divisions in Guangdong, Guangxi, southern Chu, northern Chu, Henan, and the central and southern parts of North Zhili.

They are the 110th Second Division in the direction of Guangdong

The 110th Third Division in the direction of Guangxi.

The 110th Fourth Division and the 110th Fifth Division in the direction of Chubei.

North Zhili faces the 110th Sixth Division and the 110th Seventh Division in the direction of Shanxi.

The Eighth Division of the 110th and the Ninth Division of the 110th in the south of Chu.

The 120th Division in the direction of Jiangxi.

So far, the Great Chu Empire Army has finalized the designations of 21 second-class divisions, most of which have been compiled, and a few are still in the process of reorganization.

According to the army's plan, the second-class division will continue to expand, and in the process of expansion, it will accept part of the strength of the first-class division, such as the spearmen in the first-class division...

Because all the old first-class divisions will start next year, and they will be replaced one after another according to the first division's replacement plan at that time, and all the infantry units that are mixed with matchlock guns and spearmen will be replaced with muskets equipped with flintlock guns. At the same time, the infantry of the two brigades and four regiments was reformed into three regiments of infantry.

This means that there are a large number of spearmen who are either converted into musketeers or retired in place...

And neither of these two army options... They want to transfer a large number of spearmen from the old first-class divisions to second-class divisions.

After all, the second-class division is still an old-style unit equipped with matchlock guns and spearmen for the time being. Due to the limited production capacity of flintlock guns, the Chu army may not be able to complete the whole army refitting of flintlock guns in the next five years.

In the past few years, not to mention the second-class divisions, some first-class divisions still have to continue to use matchlocks.

A large number of spearmen in the first-class division withdraw from the front-line battle sequence and join the second-class division, which also reduces the training work of the second-class division and guarantees the infantry combat effectiveness of the second-class division.

Therefore, on November 26, Luo Zhixue formally approved the refitting plan submitted by the Army for some of the old first-class divisions deployed on the front line.

At the same time, it also approved the establishment of nine second-class divisions.

In this way, the Great Chu Empire Army will have thirty first-class divisions and thirty second-class divisions.

Regardless of whether it is a first-class division or a second-class division, most of them are destined to be impossible to fill up. The first-class division has only [-] troops, and the nine-pound field artillery is only in single digits.

If a few second-class divisions are fighting in conjunction with the first-class divisions, their strength may be eight or nine thousand, while the second-class divisions in the hinterland with no combat missions may only have seven to eight thousand people, let alone medium-caliber artillery.

But the numbers of the sixty divisions are also very scary.

The equipment required by the [-] divisions is naturally a huge amount. In order to ensure the smooth supply of equipment and ammunition, Luo Zhixue plans to inspect the Dangtu Industrial Zone again in December to check the main factories in the area, especially the Dangtu Industrial Zone. Arsenal construction and production work.

(End of this chapter)