After the quarrel between the army and navy in Tomu Prefecture lasted for five days, both sides finally came up with a plan that neither of them were satisfied with, but that was still acceptable.
We have a general plan, then we make a detailed battle plan, and then we start taking action.
According to the combat plan, the Army will dispatch about 30,000 troops this time, including the 18th Infantry Division, a combat readiness division with a total of 18,000 troops. In addition, the 46th Division, which was originally stationed in the Bomu Prefecture area,
The 46th temporary brigade consists of the 136th Infantry Regiment, the 46th Division Cavalry Battalion, the 462nd Artillery Battalion, and the 461st Transport Battalion, with approximately 6,000 people.
Then there is a local Pomu Prefecture reserve group of about 2,000 people, and four militia battalions with a total of 2,000 people.
In this regard, the army dispatched troops. The main force among them was naturally the 18th Infantry Division, the 46th Temporary Brigade, the Bomu Prefecture Reserve Regiment, and the four militia battalions, which were mainly responsible for maintaining the logistics supply line.
In other words, only the 18th Infantry Division went into battle, and the remaining 12,000 men were all prepared to maintain supply lines.
Among them, the 46th Temporary Brigade is mainly responsible for the logistics and transportation after leaving Bomu Prefecture. At that time, the military will recruit a large number of indigenous young people to transport materials, and the 46th Temporary Brigade will act as a material escort.
The Bomu Prefecture reserve regiment and four militia battalions are responsible for the transportation of materials from the port to the Bomu Prefecture for a period of about tens of kilometers, and also take care of the house. The reason why Bomu Prefecture needs to use militia and reserves to be responsible for transportation
There is nothing that can be done about the materials being used by civilians. In this poor place overseas, the empire has a sparse population, and there is no place to recruit young people to transport supplies.
At the same time, there are no natives in the empire-controlled areas, so there is no need to capture young natives to serve as husbands.
Localization is no joke, but there will be no indigenous people in the areas actually controlled by the empire.
The empire has been paranoid about localization to the extreme. They would rather leave the gold and silver mines in the controlled area unexcavated, or simply hire the empire's people to dig at high prices, rather than allowing natives to be recruited from outside to mine.
No matter what the reason is, the empire does not allow indigenous people to appear in the areas controlled by the empire, not even indigenous slaves.
Only people from the Tang Dynasty could live in the territory of the empire, and absolutely no natives were allowed to enter, not even slaves.
After all, even if you are a slave, you cannot maintain the slavery system forever. Slavery will be abolished in decades or hundreds of years. Then the people of the Tang Dynasty will be dumbfounded when they see the mountains and plains filled with indigenous people!
Therefore, Li Xuan formulated a very strict localization policy from the beginning.
As long as there are indigenous overseas territories, local officials cannot expect to be promoted, and the inflow of any industrial equipment will also be strictly prohibited.
Many people actually suggest that in overseas territories, we can actually capture the indigenous people to mine and build roads, especially corporate capitalists who have been trying to promote this for many years for the sake of profit.
However, the imperial officials were firmly opposed, especially local officials in overseas territories, who were determined not to allow it, because it would hinder their localization strategy, and localization was an important indicator for measuring the performance of officials in overseas territories.
Therefore, although Datang controlled many overseas territories, and these territories also contained numerous minerals, they actually successfully developed them very well. They were generally high-value gold mines, and other ordinary minerals were generally not mined. They would rather
They import it from the indigenous people and are unwilling to invest in digging it themselves.
The indigenous people cannot use it, and the cost of hiring people from China to poach them is too high, which ultimately leads to this embarrassing situation.
However, Li Xuan still firmly implements this localization strategy, and even regards localization as a national policy: the land of the Tang Dynasty can only support the people of the Tang Dynasty!
This situation was reflected in overseas military operations. It was impossible for the army to use indigenous young men to serve as civilian husbands in the areas controlled by the empire, and the number of immigrants was small. The few young men who could be recruited were basically incorporated into the militia.
So I can only do it myself.
However, after leaving the actual control area of the empire, the military's material transportation became much more convenient. They directly recruited young indigenous people to serve as civilian husbands, and those young indigenous people who stuttered casually were happy to help the Tang army transport supplies.
This has to be said to be a very strange thing.
It is difficult for the army to carry out land transportation in one's own controlled areas, but it is often more convenient after leaving one's own controlled areas.
Therefore, more often than not, when fighting inland, the Tang Army usually fought along rivers, because it could rely on inland rivers to transport supplies.
But this has to involve the Navy.
Compared with the Army's 30,000 people, the Navy's number of participants in the battle was much smaller. The largest number was the 13th Marine Regiment. This regiment was equipped with small-caliber naval guns moved directly from the battleships and supporting gunners.
A naval artillery battalion has about five thousand people.
However, the naval forces do not participate in operations deep inland. They are responsible for some indigenous ports along the coast and mainly control some ports on both sides of the inland river.
In addition to the land force, there were two fleets participating in the battle, namely the 43rd Fleet and the 37th Gunboat Group.
However, the 43rd Fleet is only responsible for sealing off the coastal waters of the war zone, providing coastal artillery support, and assisting in the occupation of coastal ports. It is also responsible for coastal transportation escort missions in the war zone, and will not enter inland river operations.
It was the 37th Gunboat Group that entered the inland river to fight.
This brigade has a long history. Its predecessor was the first overseas inland river fleet of the Tang Dynasty Navy, a brigade under the Gohe Prefecture Gunboat Squadron. Later, the Datang Navy split the Gehe Gunboat Squadron and followed the domestic example.
The inland river gunboat force underwent organizational reforms, and finally the Ruo gunboat brigade was established.
The 37th Gunboat Battalion was one of them. Later, all the officers and soldiers of this brigade were transferred to Bomu Prefecture and were responsible for the inland river warfare affairs of Bomu Prefecture. It was just a Bomu Prefecture, but in fact they were responsible for
It is a river warfare mission throughout the northwestern region of India.
So although they are just a brigade, and their commander is just a brigadier general, they have quite a few gunboats under their command, including six offshore patrol ships and seventeen inland river gunboats.
In this battle, the brigade will dispatch most of the offshore inland river gunboats to participate in the battle and sail upstream along several rivers to support the army's operations and maintain inland river transportation and supply lines.
The army and navy will dispatch a total of about 40,000 troops to participate in this joint operation, half of whom will be responsible for logistics affairs, and only about 20,000 will participate in frontline operations.
It can also be seen from this that the impact caused by the introduction of rifled weapons in the Tang Dynasty, especially breech-mounted rifled guns, was that the pressure on logistics increased sharply.
Just to maintain the 18th Artillery Regiment, which is equipped with a total of fifty-four breech-loaded rifled guns, thousands of people are needed to transport supplies at the same time, and this will become more serious as the battle line lengthens.
That is to say, there are now inland river fleets that can transport materials. If we only rely on traditional manpower to transport materials, it will be even more troublesome.
The forces for the joint operation have been assembled and the battle plan has been determined. The person responsible for commanding this battle is Army Lieutenant General Shao Xingfan, the new commander of the Indian First Army.
Because currently, including the 18th Division, they are all temporarily under the army's establishment.
As for Army General Nie Kebao, he is the Superintendent of Military Affairs in India and is responsible for military affairs in India, Myanmar and other directions. Naturally, he will not go into battle in person to steal credit from his subordinates.
On April 18, when the leading troops of the 18th Infantry Division began to march inland, it was officially announced that the Second Indian Expeditionary Campaign had begun.
Three days later, the leading force of the 18th Infantry Division, the division's cavalry regiment, was the first to engage in battle with the local indigenous troops. The result was no surprise. The cavalry regiment suffered one death and twelve injuries.
They defeated the indigenous army of about 2,000 people in front of them, killed and wounded more than 300 enemy soldiers, and captured more than 500 people.
The man who died in the cavalry regiment actually accidentally fell down from his horse and hit his head on a rock!
Among the twelve injured, one sprained his foot.
Therefore, strictly speaking, their casualties in this battle were actually only eleven wounded, two seriously wounded and nine lightly wounded.
But even so, the commander of the cavalry regiment was still very unhappy. These natives were so lawless that they dared to hurt his cavalry. They must be taught a lesson. So he followed the cavalry all the way and chased and killed the thousands who escaped.
Most of the indigenous troops were also wiped out.
The first battle was a good start, and subsequent operations of the 18th Infantry Division went even more smoothly.
Two days later, the fifty-second regiment of the division arrived at an indigenous city. The city was quite large, with tens of thousands of people living in it.
However, in the eyes of the soldiers of the 18th Infantry Division, its city defenses were completely behind the times. Their city defenses basically did not have professional artillery defenses, and they just relied on tall walls to block enemy infantry charges.
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The Army of the Tang Dynasty was already quite experienced in conquering such backward traditional city defenses. During the Unification War, it was unknown how many similar city defenses were conquered, and they also fought many during the subsequent external expansion.
Therefore, when they arrived at the city that the military called 'City No. 6', they were not in a hurry to directly launch an infantry attack.
The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were very valuable, and they would not just charge stupidly. After all, they had city walls, and they could still defend against infantry.
They waited for a long time, and after arriving at an artillery battalion, they prepared to attack.
After the artillery battalion's artillery was ready, its eighteen 75-inch howitzers began the bombardment.
Amidst the rumble of cannons, a live lesson was given to the local indigenous people on how to fight a modern offensive and defensive war!