Chapter 1479 The First Mixed Brigade of the Expeditionary Force
Our own troops and warships were weak, so the Portuguese people naturally made targeted arrangements. For example, they knew that Datang's army had very strong field capabilities, so they never had any fight with Datang from the beginning to the end.
During the battles in the field, everyone was huddled in the colonial fortress.
The same is true for sea battles. They knew that the ships of the Tang Navy could maneuver without wind, which would be too disadvantageous to fight, so they simply avoided fighting and went around.
Anyway, the Indian Ocean is very wide and there is no way to go there. They only need to maintain the sea supply line. They do not have to compete with the Tang Dynasty on the sea.
All these characteristics showed that the Portuguese people had no plans at all, or did not dare to engage in a large-scale naval decisive battle with the Tang Dynasty navy.
A decisive battle at sea is easy to win if you win, but if you lose, it will be over in a matter of minutes.
Now that it is broken into parts, although it is very inconvenient and fundamentally cannot avoid failure, at least it allows them to maintain the situation along the Indian Ocean coast for now.
Therefore, it is unlikely that the navy hopes to attack the island of Ceylon and concentrate the main force of the Portuguese navy to annihilate them.
But this is just the inference of the Tang Dynasty Navy, but the actual situation will be like this. Who knows, what if the Portuguese people make up their mind to burn the boat?
Nowadays, in the Tang Dynasty Navy, many naval generals hold this idea, they are not afraid of 10,000, but just in case.
If the Portuguese people are really stupid and gather the main force for a decisive battle, wouldn't it be just right?
Therefore, even if it knows that the possibility is unlikely, the navy still plans to assemble the main fleet in the waters around Ceylon Island. If there is a chance to catch the Portuguese main fleet, it is naturally the best. If not, it can also cover the second alliance nearby.
The landing fleet landed on the island of Ceylon and then several Portuguese strongholds in southern India.
Finally, this section of the sea was completely blocked, cutting off the Portuguese people's maritime connections on the east and west sides of India.
As long as this place can be completely sealed off, the Portuguese colonies in eastern India and Myanmar can be slowly and calmly dealt with in the future.
The navy's preparations are very complete, and the army's preparations are not hasty. They have also been prepared for a long time, but they are not prepared for the attack on Ceylon, but for the Battle of Malacca and the subsequent Nanyang Campaign last year.
And prepared.
At the beginning, the Army was worried that one 19th Infantry Division would not be enough, and mobilized two other divisions. However, the battle against Malacca went smoothly, and the 19th Infantry Division did not suffer much losses, so it simply added new troops.
No more troops were sent for reinforcements.
Therefore, the other two mobilized infantry divisions can only continue training and wait for subsequent orders.
Now, the order has finally arrived!
These two divisions still belong to the Seventh Army. However, the current Seventh Army is different from the original Seventh Army because the Seventh Army has been transferred to India to fight and has taken the 19th Infantry Division with it.
This main infantry division.
After the Battle of Malacca, in order to facilitate command, Li Xuan personally ordered the establishment of an Indian Expeditionary Force with the 19th Infantry Division as the core. The former commander of the Seventh Army served as the commander of the expeditionary force. Basically, a group of people from the military headquarters were appointed.
They were also members of the original Seventh Army.
The Indian Expeditionary Force has only one unit under its control, the 19th Infantry Division. However, the army also has the power to mobilize more than 10,000 ground combat troops of the company's fleet. When necessary, the Navy's Fifth Marine Regiment also belongs to the unit.
Army command.
Basically, the Indian Expeditionary Force is the organization that commands all Datang ground combat forces in Myanmar, India, West Asia, Africa and other regions.
The Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet commands all warships in the Indian Ocean, including the Indian Ocean Fleet itself and the company's fleet.
At the same time, a new Seventh Army was established based on the two divisions of the original Seventh Army that stayed in the country, and troops were transferred from other areas of the country to form the 58th Infantry Division. Although this 58th Infantry Division
They are newly formed, but they are all units drawn from other main forces. Although they seem to have a large number, they are actually combat-ready units.
This time, a mixed brigade was drawn from the mainland to participate in the war, and it was planned to be drawn from the Seventh Army. However, it was not drawn from the 58th Infantry Division, the newly formed main infantry division, because the troops of this infantry division were all
From the perspective of being recruited from inland provinces, they are good at ordinary operations, but when it comes to amphibious landing operations and the like, they are really not good at it. Many soldiers are still landlubbers and get seasick.
The troops participating in the battle this time will be drawn from the other two divisions. Although the predecessors of these two divisions were both reserve divisions, they have become formal infantry divisions after the reform. Moreover, after a year-long process,
The training and preparation were originally prepared for the battles in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Therefore, the mixed brigade formed by drawing troops from these two infantry divisions is also a unit that has been prepared in advance and can be directly recruited to fight without the need for adaptive training.
This newly formed mixed brigade has a rather special designation, that is, the First Mixed Brigade of the Tang Army Expeditionary Force. It has a prefix of Expeditionary Force, which is different from the unified numerical designation of other units.
This is because the army plans to have this unit permanently reside in India or Africa after completing the battles in Ceylon and even South Africa.
The brigade commander was not selected randomly from the country, but Dong Qiankun, the commander of the 57th Infantry Regiment of the 19th Infantry Division, who had participated in the Battle of Malacca and fought in India.
During the Battle of Malacca, this man was just a lieutenant colonel and battalion commander. However, before the battle began, one of his regiment commanders and deputy regiment commanders suddenly had heavy troops and one was injured, so it was his turn to take over the 57th Infantry.
Command of the Corps.
During the Battle of Malacca, this man performed well. In addition, the commander and deputy commander of the 57th Infantry Regiment at that time were unable to handle military affairs, so the superiors corrected him and promoted him to the army after the war.
Colonel.
Then he led his troops to fight in India, where he fought many battles with the Portuguese and local Indian natives. He gained a lot and accumulated considerable military exploits.
In the Army of the Tang Dynasty, military merit was always the top priority. As long as you achieved military merit, you would be promoted in minutes.
However, there are no vacancies for positions such as the division commander, deputy division commander, and chief of staff of the 19th Infantry Division, and the top army officials do not intend to transfer such an officer who is familiar with fighting in Southeast Asia and India back to China to get moldy and rusty, so in order to arrange for his
He was promoted to brigade commander of the first mixed brigade of the expeditionary force and promoted to brigadier general.
In one year, he was transformed from a colonel to a brigadier general. This is something that cannot be seen in ordinary officers, but it cannot be said that it is impossible. Basically, whenever a war breaks out, there will always be so many
A general makes great achievements and then rises through the ranks like a rocket.
Dong Qiankun is such an example.
Dong Qiankun originally returned to China as a representative of the army's frontline generals stationed in India. On the one hand, he represented the frontline soldiers when he returned to negotiate and report to the army commanders in the rear. On the other hand, he also came back specially to accept the promotion order.
.
In the Tang Empire, brigadiers already belonged to the general officer class, while ordinary brigadiers only served as deputy division commanders, division chiefs of staff, etc., or as division commanders of local reserve divisions, independent units in field forces, such as artillery brigades.
The commander-in-chief of such an army.
But he is a very special brigadier general. He serves as the commander of a mixed brigade of field troops!
You must know that the Tang Army has not had a formal establishment of mixed brigades for many years since the reform of its military system. Even if there is a war need and an establishment similar to mixed brigades appears, they are generally not called mixed brigades, but temporary
The name of the brigade. To put it bluntly, these temporary brigades are temporary establishments. They will be abolished as soon as the battle is over, and the troops under their jurisdiction will return to the original troops.
However, this is not the case with the First Mixed Brigade of the Expeditionary Force. This is a field force with a formal establishment. The troops under its jurisdiction are not temporarily under its jurisdiction, but have a fixed establishment.
Therefore, even if he is a newly promoted brigadier general and serves as the brigade commander of such a mixed brigade, he can be regarded as a rising star within the army.
Dong Qiankun accepted the appointment. Before he even got familiar with the troops, he was already notified that the troops were about to board the ship.
He had no choice but to take the troops on board the ship first and get familiar with them on the way.
Anyway, the Tang Dynasty had a complete military system and a very strict command system. He did not have to worry about his subordinates not obeying orders because he was not familiar with the army or lacked prestige.
Disobeying military orders was one of the most serious crimes in the Tang Dynasty military, second only to rebellion!
Besides, the transfer of generals in the Tang Dynasty was relatively frequent. Basically, generals were transferred once every three years, with a three-year term. At the end of the term, they were usually transferred away from their original positions, or even directly out of the original army.
This prevents generals from controlling an army for a long time and turning officers and soldiers into private soldiers.
Although there are some problems that the generals are not familiar with, it can be improved by relying on mature systems.
After getting on the boat, Dong Qiankun led his troops all the way south. He was not idle along the way. Many of them met with his subordinate officers to discuss the battle plan. What battle plan they had was naturally how to conquer Ceylon Island.
It took a long time for such a huge fleet to go to India. This huge fleet set off from the mainland along the coastline, then arrived at Cam Ranh Bay, and then arrived at Malacca.
Then it sailed north through the Strait of Malacca, passing through Myanmar and the northeastern region of India, and finally came to Gohe State.
At this time, two full months had passed since they set out from China.