I want to be emperor

Chapter 609 Sandbar and Guazhou

On July 14th, 20th year of Chengshun, the No.[-] Three Cavalry Regiment of the Great Chu Empire conquered Chijin City.

More than 800 Zhungeer troops in Chijin City failed to break through and collapsed, with more than [-] casualties on the spot. Most of the rest surrendered and some fled.

But the Zhungeer army who stole it failed to escape in the end, but was intercepted and pursued by the cavalry of the Chu army and died or surrendered.

In the end, more than 800 enemy troops were wiped out.

In an actual battle between the two sides, Sun Huabei brought a good start to the Great Chu Empire. He wiped out the enemy army and captured hundreds of war horses. The empire's army established a steady supply station and subsequent material transfer station.

In the evening of the same day, Major General Xu Donglai, the commander of the Sixth Cavalry Division, led the Sixth Cavalry Division, the Fifth Infantry Regiment, and the Second Logistics Regiment to Chijin City.

In the evening of the same day, Major General Xu Dongbei, the forward commander and commander of the Sixth Cavalry Division, held a brief meeting at which the follow-up battle plan was finalized.

In fact, the combat plan was already drawn up in Jiayuguan, and several sets of different combat plans were formulated according to different situations. However, in actual operations, these pre-planned combat operations still need to be carried out in a timely manner according to the actual situation. Adjustment.

According to the order of Major General Xu Dongbei Army, the forward troops will continue to march at high speed to attack Kuyu City (Suoyang Town), which was once the Shazhouwei garrison in the early Ming Dynasty.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty established the Shazhou Guard in the Western Regions. It was originally stationed in the Shazhou, namely Dunhuang. Later, the Ming Dynasty carried out strategic contraction in the Western Regions, and the Shazhou Guard moved to Kuyu. The world once called this place the Shazhou Weicheng. In fact, this place is not The sandbar, the ancient sandbar is still hundreds of kilometers away to the west!

The original old city of Shazhou was abandoned by the Ming Dynasty and taken over by the local Mongols. The Ming Dynasty nominally set up the Handong Zuowei here, but it has actually lost control. Later, the Turpan people controlled the place.

However, considering that Guazhou in the northwest of Kuyu City is very close, even if the enemy army in the city was blocked when attacking Kuyu City, the enemy army in the direction of Guazhou may still be short of the Chu army's attack.

In order to cover up the real situation as much as possible and delay the time for the main Zhungeer in Hami's direction to react, the battle plan was adjusted.

At the same time as the main force was planned to attack Kuyu, a cavalry was sent to bypass Kuyu City and continue to attack Guazhou. The purpose was not to capture Guazhou, but to cut off the connection between Guazhou and Hami in the rear.

Blocking information and covering up the battlefield are Xu Donglai's main strategic goals.

As for the attack on Kuyu and Guazhou itself, there is actually no difficulty. These two places are not the main deployment direction of Zhungeer, but only a symbolic deployment of hundreds of troops.

Just like Chijin City, these troops are not used to resist large-scale Chu army attacks, but to resist small-scale attacks and report back the situation in a timely manner.

This is a very typical outpost.

Even without relying on the main force coming from the rear, the more than 1 people from Xu Donglai alone could easily conquer the above-mentioned places.

Because these places are just small towns between Jiayuguan and Hami, they are not big cities in themselves, the resident population is not large, and there is not much food supply for military supplies. There is not enough food supply in the local area, so it is naturally difficult to garrison Too many troops.

In the Hexi area, there are only two places suitable for garrisoning heavy troops, one in Hami and one in Jiayuguan. The two areas separated by hundreds of kilometers are actually not suitable for garrisoning a large number of troops, and it is difficult to provide a large amount of food for the army.

In order for these places to provide a large amount of food and grass, it takes a certain period of reclamation and development, and the time required is at least several years or even longer.

Although the Gansu Governor's Yamen is ready to mobilize and organize people from the Kanto (Jiayuguan) area to go to Chijin, Shazhou, Guazhou and other places for reclamation, it will take time.

In a short period of time, these places could not bring any food and grass supply to the Great Chu Empire Army's westward expedition, at most they would serve as transfer points.

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After formulating the battle plan, the various units of the Chu Army began to act.

In the early morning of the next day, as the forward of the whole army, the No.20 Three Cavalry Regiment, which is good at running raids, still set off first. They will go one step ahead and bypass Kuyu City to Guazhou, and block the direction of Guazhou and Hami contact.

And Xu Dongbei continued to take the main force of the Sixth Cavalry Division, the Fifth Infantry Regiment, the Second Supply Regiment and other troops westward to Shazhou City.

When Xu Dongbei led the forward army to continue to move, there was another Chu army in the rear that also left Jiayuguan and began to advance westward.

Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo, the commander of the Fourth Cavalry Army, personally commanded the unit. It has more than 13 people under the jurisdiction of No. 14 Cavalry Division, No. [-] Cavalry Division, and the No.

The forward troops led by Xu Dongbei also belonged to the Fourth Cavalry Army.

The Fourth Cavalry Army is the core main force of the Great Chu Empire stationed in Jiayuguan. It has a total of three cavalry divisions including the Sixth Cavalry Division, No.13 Cavalry Division and No.14 Cavalry Division.

These three cavalry divisions are all first-class cavalry divisions in the Chu army.

The number of the cavalry divisions of the Chu army seems to be many, there are thirty of them, and there are dozens of cavalry regiments belonging to the infantry divisions, but in fact, there are not many cavalry units that are fully equipped and maintain a state of combat readiness all year round. , are basically deployed in important strategic places in the frontier or hinterland.

The Fourth Cavalry Army is the only fully equipped cavalry army in combat readiness, and it also has three cuirassier regiments that spent a lot of money and food to form!

As for the second division, it was not under the command of the army before, but was temporarily strengthened to the fourth cavalry army.

After all, this battle is expected to attack the city, especially the attack on Hami, and the cavalry troops are naturally used to attack the field, but it is nonsense to say that it is used to attack the city.

Although the cavalry unit is also equipped with artillery, there is not even a 115mm field gun, and the largest caliber is only a [-]mm field gun.

In order to attack the city of Hami, the headquarters of the First Army temporarily strengthened the Second Division, the first-class combat readiness division, to the Fourth Cavalry Army to be attached to the cavalry for combat.

The strengthened Fourth Cavalry Army, not to mention in the First Army, even in the entire Great Chu Empire Army, although not the largest in number, is definitely the military-level unit with the most powerful combat capabilities.

It has more than 5000 cavalry and more than [-] infantry artillery, all armored and other troops.

The dispatch of such troops also means that the top army has made up their minds to fight a big victory as much as possible under the condition of limited logistical support, a game that can make other people in the country, especially the bastards in the navy Big win for shutting up.

For this reason, the Army did not hesitate to send out most of the core main force in the First Army.

After the attack of the Fourth Cavalry Army, although there were still a large number of troops in the First Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu region, there was actually only one third division left in the combat readiness division.

To be honest, the First Group Army has a very large number of troops, including five first-class divisions, thirteen second-class divisions, and twelve cavalry divisions.

Because of the fall of the Dongyao people and the rise of the Zhungeer people, the northwest region has also become a heavily fortified area of ​​​​the empire, bringing together a large number of army forces.

But most of these troops are conventional troops, and there are only five division-level troops that are really in combat readiness.

The remaining troops, even the three so-called first-class divisions, are actually in a normal state, with complete equipment, but insufficient personnel. They only maintain about 1 people on weekdays, which is far from the full force of 5000 people. There are still thousands of people missing.

If you want to reach the peak state, you need to add thousands of people.

Not to mention the rest, those second-class divisions numbered as few as 8000 and as many as [-], and there was a general shortage of mules and horses.

So don't look at the large number of troops in the First Army, but most of these troops are still based on defensive operations. If you want to talk about defensive operations, Zhungeer on the opposite side can't get in no matter how much you jump.

But if you want to fight out, then it will be much more troublesome, mobility is a troublesome thing.

This is due to the limited military expenditure of the Army and the need to maintain a strength of more than 100 million troops, a compromise that had to be made. Even a considerable part of the former first-class divisions has been weakened.

Before large-scale mobilization and replenishment, the first group army could actually pull out to fight raids in the first place, but in fact there were only tens of thousands of people.

The rest of the troops don't even have mules and horses, if they are foolishly dragged out to the Gobi desert and grasslands to fight the nomads, they will die miserably.

This is also the reason why the Army sent four units, the Second Infantry Division, the Sixth Cavalry Division, the No. Of the five troops on combat readiness, the third division is still not in the border area, but in Lanzhou behind.

In the huge area in the rear, at least one combat readiness division should be kept just in case... If all the combat readiness troops in Gansu were wiped out by aliens, wouldn't there be only a group of scumbags of second-class divisions left in the rear.

Besides, the enemies of the Great Chu Empire Army are not only the Zhungeer people, there are also potential enemies in this country.

How should I put it, in the past 13 years of Chengshun, the military has suppressed more than 60 rebellions, large and small. The targets of the rebellion are varied, most of which are chieftains in the southwest, Qingkang and other areas, and quite a few are remote areas. The gentry and landlords are powerful, and there are other messy people, in short, there are too many.

The largest rebellion was a rebellion of a chieftain in the Kangxi area. Because he was unwilling to give up his power and accept the empire's policy of reforming land and returning to locals, he brazenly assembled thousands of troops to rebel, and also colluded with the Jungar people, bringing The garrison troops of the Chu Army in Kangxi Province were struggling.

As for the Shaanxi-Gansu region, not all the people in this place are good people. In the late Ming Dynasty, there were the most thieves from all walks of life, and it was Shaanxi-Gansu.

Therefore, many of the troops of the First Group Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu region are actually internally and not externally...

It is necessary to leave a combat readiness division in the rear and several first-class divisions and cavalry divisions in the rear.

However, as the frontline battles began, some troops in the First Army also began to mobilize, especially some troops near Jiayuguan, and began to concentrate on replenishing troops, mules, horses and various equipment, and they needed to move westward.

On the one hand, it is to fill the vacancy of the Jiayuguan defense line after the Fourth Cavalry Army advances westward, and on the other hand, it also acts as a strategic reserve for the Fourth Cavalry Army.

However, the reinforcements are also extremely cautious when going forward. There are obviously a lot of troops behind, but when the reinforcements go forward, they strictly control the strength of the troops, instead of mobilizing tens of thousands or even 10,000+ troops directly with an order.

It's easy to send out, but just as easy to starve to death after passing!
The amount of land that can be cultivated in Jiayuguan is limited, and the food that can be supplied is also limited. The previous supply of about [-] troops was not enough, and the rear had to support food and grass for a long time.

If the rear does not care about it and directly reinforces 10,000+ troops, even if it is just to stay in Jiayuguan, the difficulty of logistics supply will also increase dramatically.

It is estimated that there will be an additional 10,000+ for the logistics troops or civilians who transport the grain and grass.

And in order to meet the food and grass needs of the frontline army and more logistics personnel in the rear... the money and food needed are enough to give Luo Zhixue a headache!
Why is it said that it is difficult to go west? This is difficult!
It is easy to go with large-scale troops, but it is not easy to go there without going hungry.

For this reason, the high-level army directly dispatched the most elite combat readiness troops, in order to exert the greatest combat effectiveness under the limited supply of food and grass.

Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo was also aware of his responsibilities.

Let’s not talk about other things in this battle, but Hami must win, otherwise he will not be able to explain to Jinling, and in the earlier words, he would be shameless to face His Majesty...

Of the five combat readiness divisions in the First Army, four are under his command. If Liao Hongpo is still beaten into a pile of shit, let alone get promoted and get rich, it will be your fate if you don't go to the military court.

But Liao Hongpo was not afraid of this, nor did he have any worries!

On the contrary, he was extremely excited!

He has already seen the rank of admiral beckoning to him... It is even possible to enter the imperial study and become a minister of affairs.

As for failure?

Just kidding, he fought north and south all his life, and this was the most confident of all the battles he fought.

With four combat readiness divisions in hand, especially the top-level combat power of the Sixth Cavalry Division and the Second Infantry Division, facing the Zhungeer barbarians with more than 2 people to death in the direction of Hami, if they still suffer defeat, He drowned himself in the shit bowl.

Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo was full of confidence, and led two cavalry divisions and the main force of the second infantry division all the way westward, and soon arrived at Chijin City.

At this time, there was only one cavalry post left by the Sixth Cavalry Division in Chijin City, and after seeing the arrival of the main force from the rear, they quickly rushed forward to catch up with their own main force.

After Liao Hongpo arrived in Chijin City, the first thing he did was to establish a material transfer station system and arrange troops to carry out reconnaissance and patrols around the area to prevent enemy troops from infiltrating and harassing them.

For this westward march, in his opinion, everything else is empty, and the logistics support is the most important thing.

If the logistics is stable, just hit the front!

If the logistics are not stable...the enemy will starve to death if they don't kill them!

After the logistics were arranged and the material transfer system was established, Liao Hongpo continued to advance westward with his troops.

At this time, Xu Donglai's Sixth Cavalry Division had already reached the outside of Kuyu City!

Not only Shazhou City, but the No.20 Three Cavalry Regiment of the Sixth Cavalry Division bypassed Kuyu City and ran directly to the northwest of Guazhou, directly blocking the connection between Guazhou and Hami behind.

But this time, Xu Donglai and Sun Huabei's plan fell through. Although Sun Huabei's No.20 Three Cavalry Regiment moved fast enough, it may be that the enemy was behind when they went around Kuyu City. When they arrived in Gua When I entered the state, I found that the enemy had already prepared.

Now that the enemy army is ready, the messengers must have been dispatched long ago.

Sure enough, the search forces sent out found the caravan that had been coming from the direction of Hami. The people in the caravan said that yesterday they encountered a small-scale, only a few dozen cavalry of the Zhungeer cavalry, and This Zhungeer cavalry was in a hurry and headed straight for Hami.

Obviously, the news of the Chu army's attack had already been learned by them, and now the Zhungeer cavalry squad that had tipped off the news had already forgotten the direction of Hami.

It is unrealistic to want to catch up and intercept now.

The news leaked out, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Being able to let the news leak when they reached Guazhou has already bought the Chu army several days.

Now that the news has been leaked, Sun Huabei didn't bother to implement a total blockade in the follow-up, and directly pulled out the cavalry artillery to besiege Guazhou.

As for directly attacking the city... He is a light cavalry regiment with only four 65mm cavalry guns.

Although the enemy army in Guazhou City is only a few hundred people, if they really attack, they can be defeated, but the losses will be too great, and the gains outweigh the losses.

The elite cavalry of the family clashed with the enemy's infantry and artillery defending the city, and it was a big loss to win the battle.

Therefore, it is only necessary to besiege and block the connection between Guazhou and Kuyu City.

As for the siege, after the battle against Kuyu City is over, the Fifth Infantry Regiment will come up.

For things like siege, infantry and artillery must be more professional.

This is also the reason why Xu Donglai brought a seemingly slow-moving infantry regiment with him in this vanguard force, just to attack the city and garrison the transit nodes along the way.

As for fighting in the field, they are not needed, there are a large number of cavalry troops.

Sun Huabei didn't have to wait too long either. Just two days later, he waited for the arrival of the main force led by Xu Donglai himself.

Before Xu Dong came to them, it only took half a day to take down Kuyu City, which was only garrisoned by two or three hundred enemy troops, and completely wiped out the Zhungeer defenders.

After taking Kuyucheng, he hurried to Guazhou.

The [-]th Infantry Regiment was still in battle, the [-]th Cavalry Division swept the formation outside, and more than [-] artillery pieces were bombarded.

Under the absolute firepower, especially under the grenade offensive of the Chu army, the defenders of Guazhou City could not last long, but the opposite side could not hold on after a few hours of shelling.

When the grenadiers rushed up to pry open the gap, a brigade of musketeers wearing light plate armor rushed into the city, and Guazhou City was declared to have fallen into the hands of the Great Chu Empire.

In the afternoon of the same day, the special flag of the royal family of the Great Chu Empire, which is also used as the national flag, was raised in the city of Guazhou, and there was an army's "black-bordered red-bottomed black dragon holding a sword flag" beside it. '.

After taking down Guazhou City, Xu Donglai did not immediately continue heading towards Hami in the northwest direction, but paused his pace and began to rest.

Now that the news has been leaked, there is no need to rush to Hami in a hurry. Anyway, there is not much difference between a few days earlier and a few days later.

Moreover, the distance between Guazhou and Hami is very far, more than 300 kilometers. This is still a straight line on the map, and the actual distance is even further away.

The most important thing is that on the 300-kilometer journey, there are no large oases for the Chu army to garrison and supply. At most, there are some Gobi desert towns and small oases along the way. Ordinary business travelers pass through these places You can still get supplies, but tens of thousands of troops ran over at every turn, digging up the local grass roots and eating them, but it didn't work.

This place, for the Chu army entering, is no different from no man's land, so if you want to cross this area, you must rely on sufficient and sufficient logistics.

Although Xu Donglai's troops carried a lot of food and grass, after these days the consumption has also been reduced, and with the remaining food and grass hastily entered the no-man's land, wanting to cover a distance of hundreds of kilometers... the supply behind If you can't come up, you will starve to death on the Gobi Desert.

Therefore, we must be cautious and cautious, and it is best to wait until the main force behind, especially a large amount of supplies, comes up.

But before that, there is still a place that can be taken first, and that is the ancient Shazhou City, which is the Dunhuang area.

There are actually few people in this place today, and even the roads are not very smooth.

Since the Ming Dynasty abandoned this place, although indigenous barbarians once occupied these places, with the change of time, mainly business travelers between Hami and Jiayuguan basically took the northern route, that is, passed through the Guazhou line, and no longer detoured. Walking along the sandbar, the sandbar gradually declined, and the commercial roads along the way were abandoned. At present, only a few indigenous people live here.

However, the oasis of the sandbar is particularly important in this place full of deserts and Gobi deserts.

If the oasis area of ​​Shazhou can be redeveloped and reclaimed, it is estimated that thousands of young adults can be placed there for reclamation, and the food from the reclamation can be supplied to the nearby troops in Guazhou and even the subsequent Hami garrison.

This time westward, the military seemed to be fighting westward all the way, but in fact the front-line battle was only part of the overall westward strategy.

Followed by reclamation.

If the reclamation is not kept up, then the westward army will be rootless duckweed. Even if the Great Chu Empire is full of money and food, and its logistics and transportation capabilities are superb, it is impossible to continue to transport massive quantities from the hinterland of the Central Plains to the northwest border year after year. forage.

The food and grass for the local garrison needs to be solved on the spot as much as possible, even if not all of them, but at least most of them.

Therefore, the key to controlling the Western Regions in the entire westward expansion strategy is reclamation.

Under such circumstances, the ancient Shazhou City, which seems to have been abandoned, is very important.

For this reason, when the main force of the Sixth Cavalry Division was resting in Guazhou, the No.20 Three Cavalry Regiment once again took on the heavy responsibility and rushed to the sandbar hundreds of kilometers away.

This time, there was also no obstacle. This place was not even allowed to garrison the troops of Geer's headquarters. Only the local tribesmen, facing the front of the Chu army, they didn't even have the courage to resist, so they surrendered directly...

As the sandbar was also captured, several important cities and large oases from the entire Kansai region (Jiayuguan) to the Hami region basically fell into the hands of the Chu army.

In the next step, Chu Jun naturally set his sights on Hami!

But this time, the Chu army didn't engage in any rush marches and raids, because there were a lot of enemy troops in the direction of Hami, and they had to pass hundreds of kilometers where they couldn't replenish food and grass on the spot!

Playing a rush under such circumstances... a small number of troops rushing to the past with light clothes is to send a head, as for sending a large number of troops to the past with artillery... that is not a rush.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo, the commander of the Fourth Cavalry Army, did not continue to divide his troops, but concentrated his forces, and with a large number of logistics troops, he began to move towards Hami steadily!

Don't ask for speed, only for stability!
And Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo's actions disappointed Batur Zhuote Babatur, the second son of Batur Huntaiji, the leader of Jungar in the direction of Hami!

Since he got the news of the westward march of the Chu army, he has been preparing for several days, waiting for the Chu army to advance westward with light troops, and then give the Chu army a wave of ruthlessness.

So that these Chu barbarians know that outside the Great Wall is not something they, the softies from the Central Plains, come here whenever they want.

It's a pity that Chu Jun didn't give him this chance!

The steady and steady westward advance of the Chu army seems to be slow and easy to start, but if you really run up to play the main force to attack them, you can knock the attacker's teeth out.

Zhuote Babatur is not stupid, he also knows that Chu Manzi's guns are amazing.

But... it won't work if you don't fight, you can't just watch them run to the city of Hami!
Even if the city of Hami can hold on for a while... But what about the oasis outside the city and the large tracts of land... Without the oasis land, it is equivalent to defending an isolated city in the desert. It can last for a few months, but after a few months, or even next year Woolen cloth?

When fighting in the Gobi Desert, it is impossible to blindly defend the city, and sooner or later you will die.

Besides...the Zhungeer people are not blind to things outside the window. They have also heard about the unification war in the Huaxia region and the unification war of the Chu army in the east.

Hundreds of cannons fired continuously at a small city. Just imagining this kind of scene is enough to make the enemies of the Great Chu Empire tremble with fear!

Wanting to hold on to the city under the heavy bombardment of the Chu army, no army can do this yet, and the Zhungeer people actually don't have much confidence.

Therefore, they want to put the battle in the wild, on the field that Zhungeer is best at.

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(End of this chapter)