September 28, the 14th year of Xuanping, was already more than half a month after the Ninth Army went into battle, but it was not until today that Jinling City gradually received actual battle reports from the northern grasslands.
Although the north and the south have always maintained communication, the Ninth Army will send reports back to Jinling City almost every day after receiving the order. Most of these reports are continuously sent back to Jinling City through the three-hundred-mile expedited method.
In order to ensure that the battle report of the Ninth Army and the orders from Jinling City can be effectively delivered, and that the express delivery of three hundred miles can operate, the Postal Department has taken special measures. They have transferred some postal messengers from other routes.
As well as horses, the fast horse delivery from Datong Prefecture to Jinling City was strengthened.
As for the information notification from Datong Mansion to the Ninth Army station on the grassland, they can only rely on the military's own messengers.
Although the Postal Service was awesome and was the largest and only express delivery agency in the entire empire, it failed to expand its business to the grasslands.
Jinling City had also received battle reports from the Ninth Army one after another before, but they were all battle reports from the time when the troops were just dispatched, so nothing could be seen.
But today, they received a battle report. It was said that a few days ago, the transportation unit under the Ninth Army had a fierce battle with a Tatar division. Although the transportation unit suffered heavy losses in this battle, it was also severely damaged.
In this department, more than a thousand Tatar corpses and wounded people could be confirmed.
This battle can be regarded as the first large-scale battle between the Ninth Army and the Tatars. The previous battles were small-scale battles involving dozens or hundreds of people, mainly focusing on reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance.
This battle naturally attracted the attention of the top management of the Ninth Army. After all, this was the first serious, medium-sized battle between the two sides, which allowed the military to effectively judge some specific situations of the enemy.
But when the senior officials of the Ninth Army carefully read the battle report of the Thirteenth Baggage Regiment, a dispute arose.
Because they found very obvious loopholes in the battle report of the 13th Baggage Regiment!
This loophole is that the series of orders Liu Mengyang gave at that time were obviously against common sense.
For example, instead of taking a detour, he broke into the stone formation directly.
Another example is that after breaking into the stone formation, instead of gathering the main force to rush out immediately, they chose to send out troops gradually.
These tactical choices are obviously against common sense. At least in the eyes of many staff officers in the military department, such obvious low-level mistakes should never occur.
Liu Mengyang was a graduate of the fifth phase of the martial arts academy and an officer who graduated from the imperial academy. His qualities were not bad in all aspects. How could he make such an obvious tactical mistake?
After arousing discussion, Lieutenant General Deng Xide, commander of the Ninth Army, learned about it. However, after Lieutenant General Deng Xide read the battle report, he just let it go!
Then he said: "With a clumsy baggage force, 3,000 warriors were able to fight against 5,000 enemy cavalry, but they were able to kill 1,200 enemies, and the ones they killed were the elite Tatar cavalry who came and went like the wind. I don't know, gentlemen here.
Who can do it?"
Just one sentence made everyone shut up!
Killing or injuring 1,200 Tatar cavalry is no easy task!
Even the more than 15,000 cavalrymen in the cavalry corps have not achieved such results.
But Liu Mengyang achieved such great results with just one transport force. This alone was enough.
What's more, although Liu Mengyang didn't explicitly talk about a war of attrition, he did explain in the battle report why he made these tactical arrangements, in order to attract the Tatar cavalry to give up their mobility and directly engage in hand-to-hand combat with him.
And the results have proven that his approach is correct.
Not only did he successfully escort a batch of hundreds of tons of supplies to the Ninth Army's station, but he also annihilated 1,200 Tatar cavalry!
Although the second half of the journey was supported by infantry and cavalry dispatched by the Ninth Army, when approaching the station of the Ninth Army, in order to dispel the idea of an attack by the main force of Anda Khan, almost the entire cavalry regiment moved into action.
Respond.
However, Liu Mengyang’s contribution to successfully escorting the supplies still remains!
More importantly, after the first material escort he carried out was successful, he also gave valuable experience to the second and third batch of material escort troops that followed.
Of course, despite his merits, many people still feel that Liu Mengyang's approach is quite inappropriate.
Because they felt that such a war of attrition could kill and injure many Tatar cavalry, but their own losses would be considerable. What's more, this approach could easily chill the soldiers.
Although it is right to fight to the death for the empire and the Holy Emperor, and it is acceptable to suffer certain losses in order to achieve strategic goals, but it is not acceptable to simply and crudely exchange one life for one with the Tatars.
So that the soldiers can be convinced.
If you directly tell the soldiers that our Tang army has a large number of soldiers, just replace the hundreds of thousands of Tatar troops with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and then our Tang Dynasty will win. It would be weird if we don't mutiny.
No one wants to die!
Even the soldiers who have been brainwashed for a long time and have developed the instinct to obey orders are not willing to die, and they are even less willing to be treated as cannon fodder by their superiors.
In the end, the result of the Ninth Army's handling of the Battle of Stonehenge was that major issues were reduced to trivial matters.
Liu Mengyang was not rewarded for his contribution to killing the enemy, and he was no longer held responsible for deliberately sacrificing his soldiers.
However, this was only a personal treatment for Liu Mengyang, but for the entire 13th Transportation Regiment and the garrison soldiers of South Limburg, as well as the civilians of the 43rd Transportation Regiment, they received many rewards.
After all, they suffered huge casualties before killing many Tatars, and at the same time successfully escorted the supplies to their destination. They successfully completed their mission, and moreover, they overfulfilled it.
The Tang Empire had always been very generous in rewarding meritorious officers. Officers who commanded well were credited with merit, and several people with outstanding performance were promoted right after the war.
Ordinary soldiers are also given double military pay by being promoted to military ranks, and those with great merit are even given the opportunity to study in a martial arts school.
At present, the Datang Army still retains the training and training for active-duty soldiers, providing an opportunity for quick training for active-duty soldiers with outstanding performance. After passing the training, they will become officers.
Although most of the officers who come out of this crash course for active duty soldiers are unlikely to reach high positions, they usually stop at captain. A very few can become colonel officers. At most, they will end up with the rank of colonel.
But even so, it is a great opportunity for them to change their own lives and even the fate of their family.
Because military officers, even the lowest warrant officers, are still considered officials. After retirement, they can change their careers to civilian officials.
The unique system of the Tang Empire in which military officers retired and became civilian officials also allowed the generals of the Tang Dynasty to gain equal status with civilian officials in terms of social and political status.
Even many years after the Unification War, there are still a large number of students applying to become officers because of this.
Because they don’t have to worry about becoming warriors or even military households after abandoning civil service and joining the military. They can serve in the army for decades, fight on the battlefield, and after establishing meritorious deeds, they can calmly switch careers to civilian officials.
There is an almost perfect escape route, dispelling students' fear of joining the army.
The rewards given to the soldiers also made the soldiers quite satisfied. Even the ordinary civilians also received extra wages.
Liu Mengyang, who was directly ignored by others, was also very satisfied with the status quo, because after nearly two thousand soldiers under his command were killed or injured, he was still the leader of the 13th Baggage Regiment.
And as an ambitious person, he didn't believe that his superiors would turn a blind eye to him.
This time he did not punish himself, but it was actually a reward. When the matter calmed down, the record of killing and injuring 1,200 Tatar cavalry on his resume was enough for him to defeat many of his colleagues and gain priority for promotion.
And this is enough!
The Ninth Army Headquarters also wrote the handling method into the battle report, and then sent it to Jinling City. After all, the Ninth Army officers actually do not have the power to directly reward officers and soldiers, such as promotions. The entire army has an agency to promote the rank of officers and soldiers.
, only Quan Xusi.
The power to appoint military officers lies with the Ministry of Military Affairs.
The power of combat command lies with the Operations Department.
Of course, frontline troops can also promote and appoint lieutenants, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers during battles. However, the promoted military ranks can only be regarded as temporary military ranks. You still need to apply to the Quanxu Division afterwards, and only after the Quanxu Division has officially approved it can
The promotion is truly completed, and in most cases, Quan Xusi will not reject the promotion report of the front line.
The same is true for appointments. Positions appointed on the battlefield are all acting positions. They need to be confirmed by the Ministry of Military Affairs before they can be officially appointed. Similarly, for low-level positions temporarily appointed on the battlefield, such as captains and battalion commanders, usually
It will not be revoked and will usually be confirmed.
Now, along with the battle reports, there are a large number of promotion and appointment application reports.
Naturally, there are follow-up people to do these things. Li Xuan is not too concerned about this. He is concerned about the situation of both sides reflected in the battle of the Stone Formation. At least from the battle of the Stone Formation, even if there is no cavalry to cover it,
, if we only rely on infantry, we can complete the supply mission to a certain extent.
And this is very important!
At the same time, seeing the effectiveness of the train array in transportation and defensive operations, Li Xuan couldn't help but think of trains. If the empire could build a railway that extended to the grassland, and then relied on the railway for rapid maneuvers, even if its own cavalry was of average strength,
It can also firmly control the grassland.
It is a pity that the current high-pressure steam engine has still not been developed.
But Li Xuan really felt that even if the high-pressure steam engine had not yet been developed, the railway should be put on the agenda.
Without a high-pressure steam engine, we would have to use horses!
Under Li Xuan's promotion, Datang had already launched experimental railways in many places.
Long before unification, railways were built in Guangzhou's business district, using draft horses as power, for transporting bulk materials at the port. Later, such primitive railways were built in many other port areas, mining areas and other areas.
Railways, these primitive railways, are more than ten kilometers long and only a few hundred meters short.
Now Li Xuan feels that it is time to build a long-distance railway!