In the bunker headquarters in Lushun Port, these Army officers from the Tang Dynasty were the main commanders of the Liaodong temporary regiment sent by the Army of the Tang Dynasty here, including the regimental commander and the battalion commanders of the following battalions.
And the report they are circulating is the latest establishment and personnel report of their Liaodong garrison!
At the end of the report, a set of numbers stood out: nine hundred and eighty people!
The strength of the Lushun garrison has dropped to a historical low, but their requests for reinforcements have been rejected many times. For three months, not a single reinforcement has arrived at Port Arthur!
The temporary regiment in Liaodong did not have this designation at the beginning. At that time, the army unit that landed there only had one infantry battalion, and the navy sent two teams of marines and an artillery team.
Later, another 300 reinforcements came over one after another. Then the Navy and the Army coordinated and in order to unify the command, the Marine Corps and Artillery Team dispatched by the Navy were directly transferred into the Army's establishment as a whole. The Army gave the Navy certain compensation in other aspects.
Based on these units, the Army formed the Liaodong Temporary Regiment in Lushun. At its peak, it had two infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, one baggage team, and one engineering team. The total strength reached more than 1,500 people, and field artillery
More than twenty doors.
However, after its peak period, this unit has not received any reinforcements in terms of strength. Although combat materials will be delivered one after another, there is no strength at all.
The counterattack of the Ming army was quite fierce. The continuous fighting caused the army to maintain continuous attrition. In addition to factors such as diseases, the number of troops has been reduced by more than 600 people in the past few months. Among them, there were not many dead, only about a hundred.
Most of the people were injured or sick and were brought back to Shandong by ship.
But after the wounded soldiers were transported back to Shandong, the rear did not replenish them!
This means that the Liaodong temporary regiment, although it still has three battalions and two teams on the surface, its actual strength has dropped to less than a thousand men.
Major Jia Huayuan, commander of the first battalion of the Liaodong temporary regiment, who had just read the report, said with anger: "In the past five days, my first battalion has been fiercely attacked by the enemy and was forced to reduce its strength by more than 20 people.
, now, the entire battalion, including the slightly wounded, has less than 300 people!"
"Yes, why haven't the War Department replenished our troops? Have they forgotten us?"
"In the past few months, we have lost more than 600 people in total, and in front of us, there are at least 9,000 enemy troops who are besieging us day and night. Why don't the rear send us reinforcements, even new ones?"
"Hmph, the adults above are all staring at the southwest. They will pay attention to our poor place in the Liaodong Peninsula. What's more, at that time, I was opposed to making us directly under the War Department. No, it's better now.
Now even the Third Army doesn’t care about us!”
Listening to the discussions of his subordinates, Colonel Hong Huofang, the leader of the Liaodong temporary regiment, also looked unhappy!
Naturally, like his subordinates, he was also very dissatisfied with the lack of reinforcements. You must know that he had already made history for the Tang Army and became the first colonel commander with less than a thousand troops under his command.
Damn it, it’s embarrassing to say this!
When he was transferred to the Liaodong Peninsula by his superiors to serve as the newly established temporary regiment in Liaodong, although the number of troops at that time was only 1,600, several senior combat staff officers of the Operations Department had sworn to him that he would not need to
Soon, more troops will be added to Lushun. At that time, the size of the Liaodong temporary regiment will soon reach the size of the mixed regiment, at least 5,000 people!
However, when he came to Lushun, he discovered that all the senior staff officers in the Operations Department were full of lies, braggarts and no drafts.
In the four months since he came to Lushun, he has not seen a single reinforcement!
He reported to the superiors many times, but was rejected every time, and the reason for the rejection was the same. The troops were tight and there were no extra troops for him.
If the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had not restricted troops from recruiting troops on their own, he would have recruited troops on his own.
However, if he dares to recruit troops on his own, the superiors will probably send not reinforcements, but a large army to quell the rebellion!
In the military system of the Tang Dynasty, only the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy of the cabinet had the power to recruit troops. Not to mention his small temporary regimental commander, even the headquarters of the Third Army, even the ministries under the Privy Council, and even
It's the War Department, and they don't have the power to recruit soldiers!
Anyone who recruits troops without authorization will be punished as treason!
The Army Ministry recruits new recruits, sends them to the Training Department under the Privy Council Operations Department, enters the recruit camp for training, and then after training is completed, they are dispatched to serve in various units. This has a complete process.
Even the salaries of soldiers are not paid through the chief officers of each army. Instead, the Pay Department of the Privy Council directly rotates relevant officials to each army, and then conducts statistical verification and payment. Each soldier's salary is divided into two parts, one part is directly
It is distributed to military personnel, and part of it is deducted as food-related expenses.
At the same time, soldiers can also deposit money through military banks. Well, Datang Royal Bank has mobile branches in each army, or directly send money home.
Many rules forced Hong Huofang to watch helplessly as the number of troops under his command dwindled, but he could not be replenished!
It's not even possible to hire local villagers to assist in the battle. In the eyes of the superiors, this kind of thing also falls into the category of private recruitment of soldiers!
A group of officials from the Ministry of War are watching every day!
The Ministry of War has the word "Army" on it, but it is a serious civil service organization with no actual connection with the Army. The Ministry of War is part of the cabinet, and the civilian officials in the cabinet have long wanted to limit the power of the military.
Or simply build a cabinet army of your own.
Once those civil servants were allowed to seize the opportunity, they would be furious, and then Hong Huofang's military career would be completely over.
But although he was annoyed in his heart, he needed to stop his subordinates from saying anything. After all, there were some things that he couldn't say.
He immediately said: "The southwest strategy is related to the empire's ten thousand-year foundation. It is natural for adults to pay attention to it. Our regiment is under the direct jurisdiction of the War Department. It is related to the empire's Liaodong strategy. The superiors have their own plans!"
"As for the difficulty of insufficient troops, it has always been there, but now, we have to bite the bullet and continue to persevere! Now that the Southwest Campaign has won a strategic victory, one hundred thousand supervisors have been annihilated. With the pressure in the Southwest greatly reduced, the higher-ups should also resume their efforts.
We attach great importance to Liaodong, and I believe that reinforcements will arrive in a short time!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a "military report" came from outside.
Military report? Sent from Dengzhou?
The discussion within a few months suddenly stopped, and then Hong Huofang picked up a thick iron box from the hands of the ordering soldier. The tin box was marked with military top secrets and other words. After opening the iron outer packaging, it was revealed that
the envelope inside.
This envelope is a standard envelope used by the Staff Department of the War Department to deliver orders. The words "Staff Department of the War Department" are printed on it, which is very conspicuous.
After checking that everything was correct, Hong Huofang opened the envelope and read the contents of the letter, and then he smiled while reading!
The letter was not long and was in a very standard official document format. The main content was that the Chief of Staff informed him that two thousand reinforcements were about to arrive in Lushun and asked him to prepare for them.
He also made it clear that among the two thousand reinforcements, there were three already formed infantry battalions and about 500 pure recruits. These troops would join the temporary Liaodong regiment and be under his command.
After reading it, he took a deep breath and said: "Everyone, our reinforcements are coming, two thousand people, a full two thousand people!"
"Really, have reinforcements been sent?"
"Two thousand people? There are so many. Could it be that the superiors took the wrong medicine? Now that the military strength is so tight, they can still mobilize so many troops for us?" Some people expressed doubts about the two thousand troops!
But not long after, he also saw the letter, which clearly said, two thousand people!
"Oh my god, they really took the wrong medicine!" After reading this, the man said so, but the joy on his face was very obvious.
"The Holy Emperor is worthy of being the Eternal Holy King. Just after he returned to the court, he saw the suffering of our Liaodong soldiers and sent reinforcements directly!"
"Although they are all new recruits with less combat effectiveness, these are two thousand people. If they train well and hone themselves in actual combat, they can be recruited to fight in a battle. But let alone guarding the port of Lushun.
There is also hope of counterattacking the puppet Ming thief army on the opposite side.
Everyone was stunned by the news that the two thousand reinforcements were coming. Even Colonel Hong Huofang was in a much better mood. Based on the calculation based on the date mentioned in the letter, it was estimated that it would take as short as eight days and as long as ten days.
, this batch of reinforcements will be able to arrive.
Then in the afternoon, he summoned all the main officers under his command to discuss how to welcome the two thousand reinforcements, how to arrange them, how to train them, how to deal with them, etc.
In private, he also discussed a counterattack plan with his chief of staff!
The Pseudo-Ming thieves on the opposite side under King Hui of Liaodong, relying on their large numbers, have been suppressing them in the past few months. Although in the past few months, the temporary formation of Liaodong regiments has at least given the Pseudo-Ming thieves opposite.
The army caused two to three thousand casualties.
However, there were many casualties, and reinforcements were immediately sent in. The strength of the troops has always been maintained at 10,000 people.
The one who was beaten was Hong Huofang, who had no temper at all!
Now that the reinforcements are about to arrive, Hong Huofang naturally has to figure out how to use this batch of reinforcements to launch a counterattack. At least he can take the opportunity to take down the Jinzhou Guard. Knowing that he can capture this place, the subsequent northward advance will be easy.
too much.
But it is not easy to go head-to-head and wait for reinforcements before launching a counterattack northward. In order to prevent themselves from going north, the puppet Ming rebel army has already built a complete defense line in Jinzhou Guard. It will be a tough battle to fight directly.
However, no one stipulates that Hong Huofang must fight a land battle. He can land behind the Jinzhou defense line and give them a front and rear pincer attack!
He didn't believe that after attacking from both sides and cutting off the Jinzhou Wei Ming Army's retreat, they could still defend the Jinzhou Acropolis!