I want to be emperor

Chapter 477
On February 21, the first part of the No.17 Division of the Chu Army captured Hanyin.

On February 23, the main force of the No.17 Division of the Chu Army captured Ziyang County.

On February 29, the main force of the No.17 Division of the Chu Army captured Shiquan.

After entering March, the No. 17 Division of the Chu Army had entered the territory of Yang County, and the forward troops even reached outside Yang County.

At this time, Sun Chuanting urgently dispatched troops and had just started to leave...

Because of the long distance and difficult roads, Huang Dingquan on the front line of Tongguan got the news ten days after the Battle of Jinzhou, and Sun Chuanting, who was also in Tongguan, got the news at about the same time.

It was only on February [-]th that Sun Chuanting learned that Jinzhou had fallen, and he urgently ordered the deployment of troops to reinforce Hanzhong Prefecture.

And it would take a day or two for his messengers to go to Tongguan and Luonan to convey Sun Chuanting's orders, no matter how quickly.

After the order is communicated, the deployed troops also need to gather their strength and prepare their bags, especially the food and supplies accompanying the army. This will take another day or two.

Therefore, when the No. 17 Division of the Chu Army reached the outside of Yangxian County, the reinforcement troops dispatched by Sun Chuanting set off from Tongguan, Luonan and other places to Hanzhong Mansion one after another.

What the No. 17 Division has to do is to take the Hanzhong Plain area first before they arrive.

And to do this, it is to win Yang County, the east gate of the Hanzhong Plain first.

On March 17, the No. [-] Division, which had just arrived outside Yang County, did not rest for too long, and did not even wait for the arrival of heavy weapons such as five-pound or even nine-pound field artillery from the rear.

Because these heavy weapons are too heavy, they need to be transported by ships all the way, and they are still in the future. It will take seven or eight days for them to arrive.

Huang Guangmao knew that time was tight, and there were not many defenders in Yangxian County, let alone any long-barreled artillery, so he ordered an attack directly.

Although there is a lack of robes of more than five catties, the Ming army on the opposite side has fewer troops and lacks long-barreled artillery.

The No. 17 Division of the Chu Army, still relying on the fire support of more than 20 two-and-a-half-pound field guns and more than a dozen eighteen-pound mortars firing new-style grenades, forcibly rushed to the head of Yangxian County and opened the city gate.

The city is said to have tens of thousands of troops, but in this battle, only two to 3000 people went to the top of the city to resist, and this resistance was more symbolic, because the firepower gap between the two sides was too great.

When the two-and-a-half-pound field artillery of the Chu army fired a large number of solid shells and a small amount of grenades, and the eighteen-pound mortar fired a large number of new-style grenades, the defenders in the city basically did not dare to go to the top of the city...

Because going up is a dead word.

As for the fortifications and fortresses outside the city you said, they didn't do these things at all.

The overall defense concept of the defenders in the city is still in the era of cold weapons, and if they are exhausted, they will stay in the era of solid artillery.

It is not difficult for the current Chu army to fight this kind of traditional city that lacks fortifications and fortresses outside the city.

Well, this was also the case in Hanyin and Ziyang counties before. The Chu army didn't even need to make a big fanfare. They just sent an infantry regiment up and pulled a few cannons up to basically defeat them.

When the artillery of the Chu army was bombarding wildly, there were about [-] new Qin troops in the city as the backbone, but the other guard soldiers and even the young and strong peasants ran away in an instant, and the troops left in the city wall were also the same. Unwilling to go to the top of the city to resist.

Ever since, the commando of the No.17 Division successfully climbed to the top of the city with little resistance, and then opened the city gate.

In less than half a day, the No. 17 Division of the Chu Army had already breached the city of Yangxian County, and thousands of Ming troops who were patched together in the city collapsed on the spot.

The two thousand senior generals of the new Qin army wanted to fight desperately, but seeing that all the friendly troops had run away, after the city gate was opened by the Chu army, they raced against time to get the few soldiers sent by Hanzhong Fucheng After the civilian officer of the supervising army was killed, he turned around and raised the banner anyway... It's too late to count as surrender anyway, it can only be counted as surrender, and the treatment of surrender is not as high as that of surrender!
For the uprising and surrender of the new army with the new Qin army, the treatment given by the Chu army is quite high. The leading general was directly awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel, and several other participating generals, such as guerrillas, were also awarded the rank of major or Captain, he was only given a military rank and a vacant position, but he could still get paid every month while his life was safe. It was no better than losing his life on the battlefield.

Therefore, join if you can't beat it, this is what many Ming army generals thought when they attacked the Chu army!

This is also the credit accumulated by the Great Chu Empire after working on the battlefield for several years, otherwise the generals of the Ming army on the opposite side would not have surrendered so simply.

After the No.17 Division took Yang County, it continued all the way west.

But now, there were no mountains or hills to stop them. They followed the Han River and reached Gucheng in just two days.

Facing the front of the Chu army, the local officials struggled repeatedly for several hours, and finally led people to surrender when they pulled out the artillery from the Chu army to prepare to attack the city.

Ever since, within two days, the forward troops of the No. 17 Division of the Chu Army reached Nanzheng, the prefectural city of Hanzhong.

However, the magistrate of the local Hanzhong Prefecture and a deputy envoy sent by Sun Chuanting are very smart, or very conscientious.

When the forward of the Chu army arrived outside the city of Hanzhong, they immediately changed their flags and flags, claiming to be loyal to His Majesty Luo Zhixue, Emperor of the Great Chu Empire...

Well, in fact, they had sent someone to find Huang Guangmao before, and secretly discussed the matter of surrender, but they haven't reached an agreement yet.

Now, the Chu army has already killed outside the city of Hanzhong, what a fart to talk about, just change the flag, it is too late, next year the grass on the grave will be several feet high.

This day is March [-]th!
----

It was also on this day that I had not yet learned about the situation of the No.17 Division, nor did I know that Huang Dingquan, who had already captured Hanzhong Fucheng, led people to the front line to inspect the combat readiness.

With the emergency deployment of the logistics department during this period, the Chu army on the Tongguan front line has already stockpiled a large number of new-style grenades, and more new-style grenades are on the way.

Especially after the thawing of the Yellow River to the east of Tongguan, the Chu Army's logistics department began to directly organize a large number of ships to transport materials to the front line of Tongguan.

The ammunition in these materials is shipped from Hantian Daye Industrial Zone or Yingtianfu Dangtu Industrial Zone. It is first transported to Yangzhou by large ships, and then transferred to many small water transport ships along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to transport northward, etc. After entering Xuzhou, it was transferred to the front line of Tongguan through the Yellow River.

In order to maintain this river transportation line, the Logistics Department mobilized and requisitioned as many as tens of thousands of ships of various types, most of which were small inland river and flat land ships, that is, tank ships in the usual sense.

With the arrival of a large number of new grenades and more strategic materials, Huang Dingquan believed that the time was ripe for a general attack on Tongguan.

On March [-], Huang Dingquan officially issued an order to launch a full-line attack on the Tongguan front.

After Huang Dingquan's order was issued, with Tongguan as the center, Jiezhou in the North Island, and Lushi in the south, with a length of hundreds of miles, multiple Chu troops began to attack the western front.

The Chu army's attack on Tongguan did not mean that they only gathered tens of thousands of troops and rushed directly to Tongguan, but divided them into multiple fronts to attack at the same time.

On the front line from Wenxi to Jiezhou in the north, the main attacking force is the third division starting from Huaiqing Mansion. They will abandon most of the five-jin, nine-jin field guns, 48-jin mortars and other heavy artillery. They were all transferred to the front line of Tongguan to participate in the assault on Tongguan. As for themselves, they were replaced with more and lighter two-and-a-half catties field artillery.

As far as the transportation of luggage is concerned, four-wheeled carriages or even two-wheeled carriages are abandoned, and wheelbarrows or even human-powered methods are used instead.

There is no way, the line from the north bank of the Yellow River to Jiezhou is mountainous, the road is difficult, and it is unrealistic to bring a lot of heavy artillery and carriages to the past, so we can only march lightly.

To the south, the south bank of the Yellow River is the front line of Tongguan, the core of the battlefield. The No.16 Division, two new first-class divisions, No.20 Fourth Division, No.20 Fifth Division, and a large number of heavy artillery and mortar troops are responsible for attacking in this direction. In addition, there are two cavalry brigades. This cavalry brigade is not used to attack fortified battles, but after the infantry and artillery units pry open the tortoise shell of Tongguan, they rush in to chase the enemy's rout and quickly break through and expand the depth. .

The front south of Tongguan was handed over to the second division stationed in Lu's before. Their strategic goals were Luonan and Shangzhou. A little area in Weinan and Huazhou to cut off the connection between the hinterland of Guanzhong and Tongguan.

Because the second division needs to fight in the mountains and cannot advance along the river, they, like the third division, can only advance lightly. They do not carry five-pound and nine-pound field artillery, and their artillery is also concentrated in the On the front line of Tongguan, he only carried a portable field gun of two and a half catties, and the logistics supply was mainly carried by wheelbarrows or even manpower.

Whether it is attacking the front line of Jiezhou or the front line of Luonan, because it is fighting in the mountainous area, the logistics are extremely challenging, so the strength of these two directions is actually not much. There is only one division in each, and there are still no troops. Lightly armed troops with field artillery weighing more than five catties.

It's not that I don't want to send more troops to make a strong detour, but the terrain of this place does not allow it. This can maintain the strength of a division to fight across mountains and ridges. This is already the reason why the Great Chu Empire expects to invest a lot of logistics force. up.

In order to meet the needs of the second division, the logistics department recruited more than 5 civilians from Lushi and other counties in the rear, forming a total of more than [-] transportation regiments, just to supply food, grass and ammunition to the second division ahead.

If one more division is sent up, then the number of logistics civilians will exceed 10!
The difficulty of logistical supplies for fighting in these places and the difficulty of marching the army also reflect the importance of Tongguan.

Why is Tongguan so important?To become a famous pass in the world is a battleground for military strategists in China a few years ago.

It is because Tongguan guards the best, even the only flat road in and out of the Guanzhong area of ​​the Central Plains.

If you don’t take the Tongguan line, you can only cross the mountains from the south, or you can go across the mountains from the north, pass the Jiezhou line all the way to the Yellow River, and then you have to cross the Yellow River before entering the Guanzhong area.

In most cases, the manpower and material resources spent on climbing mountains and crossing rivers from both sides are not as cost-effective as directly storming Tongguan.

This is true for the cold weapon army in ancient times, and it is even more true for the current Chu army.

Although the Chu army launched simultaneous attacks on Jiezhou and Lu's lines, the troops used in the attacks in these two directions were all lightly armed troops. There is no doubt that this is just a partial division, and its greater role is to contain the enemy. Troops, incidentally captured the above places.

Huang Dingquan didn't really expect them to penetrate to the back of Tongguan and attack the Tongguan defenders back and forth. This is unrealistic.

Huang Dingquan has a better and simpler way to capture Tongguan: direct artillery to open the way, and blast all the way there!

For this reason, he did not hesitate to mobilize hundreds of various artillery pieces, and even snatched a large number of new-style grenades from friendly forces.

Now is the time to witness the explosion!
(End of this chapter)