In the eyes of outsiders, the sudden appearance of the Tang Dynasty seemed very absurd, and there was also mystery in the absurdity!
They all knew Li Xuan because Li Xuan had participated in the imperial examination. Su Jiakang had already sent this person's information to Song Zhiwen, and Song Zhiwen also recorded Li Xuan's information.
But based on the superficial information about Li Xuan, they still couldn't understand how such a powerless scholar with no potential could establish a pseudo-Tang dynasty!
Moreover, although the Pseudo-Tang Dynasty proclaimed itself emperor and established itself, its system was different from that of the Ming Dynasty and even many dynasties in ancient times. For example, they just couldn't understand the Nine Divisions.
In addition, the organization and number of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty are not a secret. Needless to say, the Ming army who had dealt with the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. Even some ordinary people in Xingquan Prefecture and Liping Prefecture also know that the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is based on the "platoon".
Battalion and regiment are used as establishment.
Song Zhiwen said in great detail in the intelligence that the Puppet Tang thief army has a team of about a hundred people, and the leader is called the captain. Several teams are divided into a battalion, and the leader is called the battalion commander. A battalion of robbers has two to three hundred or four to five hundred people.
No wait.
Of course, even Song Zhiwen could not completely understand the detailed organization of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. At least he did not know the regiment-level organization of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, because if the New Army of the Tang Dynasty established a regiment-level organization, Song Zhiwen would have become a prisoner.
He was escorted to the capital.
Therefore, the information dictated by Song Zhiwen was actually not detailed, and even contained many errors and omissions. However, even so, this was the only comprehensive and detailed information that the Ming Dynasty could obtain.
However, such an important piece of information dictated by Song Zhiwen was not taken seriously by the officials of the Ming Dynasty, especially the middle-level officials. In other words, their focus was not on the various weapons or military systems of the puppet Tang rebels, but on the
How many people are there in the puppet Tang bandit army?
Even more people pay attention to how many concubines Li Xuan has and why Liu Bagou is a scholar but considers himself a Taoist priest, rather than the organization and weapons of the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
After all, today's Tang Dynasty is still in the category of clowns in the minds of many officials of the Ming Dynasty. They just regard many things about the puppet Tang thief army as gossip and anecdotes, and do not spend time and energy to study the real truth.
key problem.
Qiu Yu was pretty good. He had at least read the intelligence in detail, especially the military content.
The Ming army attacking the city in front had already begun to retreat, but Qiu Yu was still immersed in shock and could not extricate himself. It was not until other people nearby reminded him that he reacted, and then ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops.
He did not blame the frontline troops for the collapse, nor did he shout about killing the deserters, because even from a distance of two or three hundred meters, he could feel the power of the explosive shells fired by the puppet Tang rebels just now.
Such a sharp weapon cannot be defeated by human beings!
Now that the troops have retreated, the next thing to do is to collect the defeated troops to prevent them from completely dispersing and even shaking the morale of the entire army.
At the same time, we have to find a way to resist the firearms of the puppet Tang rebel army!
The puppet Tang thief army not only has artillery, muskets, but also these explosive ammunition. They are invincible. They must come up with corresponding checks and balances. Otherwise, if they continue to attack, they will die.
At this time, Qiu Yu didn't know that the new army of the Tang Dynasty in Tongguweicheng actually had no grenades. They only had more than fifty grenades on hand, and they had already thrown them all at once. If they wanted to throw them again,
But it’s gone.
In fact, not only grenades, but the fifth infantry battalion under Wang Chaofeng also used 778 ammunition for artillery and muskets.
His troops had been fighting the Ming army for three days. Because they were at a disadvantage in terms of strength, they relied more on superior firepower when defending and consumed more ammunition.
Based on the experience gained from previous battles, troops generally do not carry too much ammunition.
After all, at this time, in a formal large-scale decisive battle in the field, a soldier will fire no more than ten bullets on average. Therefore, theoretically speaking, a soldier carrying ten rounds of ammunition is enough.
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But the theoretical situation can only be said to be a theoretical situation, because it will always exist only in theory. In actual combat, few generals will let soldiers go to the battlefield with only ten bullets, even if they know clearly that they will not use so many.
When Wang Chaofeng's Fifth Infantry Battalion came from the Tonggu Guard, each soldier carried on average at least fifty rounds of ammunition. He originally thought that these bullets were enough, but what he didn't expect was that these bullets would be used in the past few days.
In the frequent and fierce defensive battles, it was quickly consumed.
So much so that there is a dangerous situation of running out of ammunition!
Running out of ammunition was the biggest problem Wang Chaofeng faced. Even at this time, he had secretly vowed in his heart that when he led his army to fight alone in the future, he must bring all the ammunition he could.
A soldier is required to carry at least a hundred pieces of ammunition and several hundred rounds of artillery shells. Otherwise, he will not be able to last long in a fierce battle like today.
Fortunately, the Ming army had temporarily retreated after being hit by grenades. Wang Chaofeng's hope was that reinforcements from the regiment could arrive before the Ming army launched the next large-scale attack.
If the reinforcements from the regiment were delayed, then his fifth infantry battalion would have to turn into a purely cold-weapons unit and fight the enemy hand-to-hand.
And where is the Second Infantry Regiment that Wang Chaofeng was looking forward to now? In fact, the other two infantry battalions of the Second Infantry Regiment are now about fifteen miles away behind the Tonggu Guard.
This distance, compared to the marching speed of these regular infantry battalions, is actually only half a day, but it is already evening, and they will not continue marching after setting up camp here. After all, marching at night is too dangerous, and it is easy for the enemy to
Before I could call him, he got separated in the night.
It is not impossible for an army to march at night and break into pieces as it goes and be completely routed.
A few miles to the right of the Second Infantry Regiment is the First Infantry Regiment.
Further to the rear, there are the Fourth Infantry Regiment and a large number of baggage troops, as well as civilians temporarily recruited for logistics and transportation tasks.
However, unlike the Ming army who liked to send civilian husbands to the battlefield, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty has never had the tradition of sending young men or civilian husbands to the battlefield. They are usually responsible for logistics and transportation in the rear. When fighting, they will not regard young men and civilian husbands as soldiers.
Cannon fodder is sent to the front line.
This is not to say that the generals of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty cherish the lives of civilians and are unwilling to use them as cannon fodder, but because the combat mode of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is different from that of ordinary armies. Civilians who have not received basic training will not know how to do it at all.
It may support the main force in combat, but on the contrary, it may get in the way.
To put it bluntly, in fact, those regular army soldiers who have been trained for at least a month and no more than two or three months are themselves cannon fodder. There is no need for ordinary civilians to be cannon fodder.
The reason why the musketeers shine so brightly and replace all cold weapon types in the infantry is because of its several characteristics: easy to train, low cost, and barely passable combat effectiveness.
Combining these words together, you can actually say: This is a very useful and cheap cannon fodder unit!
Spearmen are actually a kind of cheap cannon fodder soldiers. They are actually easier to train than musketeers. However, the heavily armored spearmen are relatively valuable. After all, wearing armor to fight requires relatively high physical fitness of the soldiers.
Ordinary soldiers really can't become heavily armored spearmen.
Many arms of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, especially the two core arms, were originally cannon fodder arms. Naturally, there was no need to send untrained civilians to the battlefield, and when calculating the strength, civilians in the rear would not be included.
Count it in.
When calculating military strength, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty only counts soldiers wearing military uniforms. Civilians who were forcibly recruited will not be counted. However, the Ming Army, like many traditional ancient armies, likes to exaggerate the number of troops. For example, Zhu Zhihai, who assembled the Ming Army
The regular army, including the Ming army led by himself and the Ming army that went south from northern Guizhou, has only more than 20,000 troops and will not exceed 30,000.
Including young men and civilians, there are almost 50,000 people. On this basis, it is exaggerated to say that an army of 100,000 people is easy.
Otherwise, where do you think the armies of hundreds of thousands or millions of people in so many ancient wars came from?
From this point of view, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was still different from the Ming Army.
However, although they would not send civilian men to the battlefield, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty would still forcibly recruit a large number of civilian men like the Ming Army.
From this point of view, there is actually no difference between the New Army of the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Army. They are both equally bad.
Hao Bainian did not advance with his First Infantry Regiment at this time, but advanced with the Fourth Infantry Regiment, artillery troops and a large number of baggage troops behind.
The actions of the First Infantry Regiment and the Second Infantry Regiment are actually currently in charge of the forward deputy commander Li Chunjing!
However, the distance between these several parts is not far, only a few kilometers in front and back. When a war actually breaks out, they can quickly come together. At that time, Hao Bainian will still be the one to command the army.
That night, Li Chunjing and several major generals rode on horseback to meet Hao Bainian to discuss the follow-up military strategy.
Li Chunjing suggested that the Fifth Infantry Battalion on the Tonggu Acropolis side was fighting very hard and was short of ammunition. Should he consider sending another infantry battalion to reinforce it?
"The fight over the Fifth Battalion is quite hard right now. Wang Chaofeng is also capable, but it's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without straw. With the shortage of ammunition, the Fifth Battalion may not be able to hold on for long. Moreover, under the hard fighting, the casualties of the troops will increase."
It won’t be bigger!”
But as soon as this proposal was put forward, it was rejected by Hao Bainian without hesitation!
Hao Bainian said: "The Fifth Battalion held back the enemy's forward at Tonggu Acropolis for three days, leaving us enough maneuver time. It has completed its mission. Next, the Fifth Battalion can withdraw. There is no need to
The Bronze Drum Acropolis and the Ming army are exhausted!"
After that, he looked around at the many officers present and continued in a slow tone: "Our army does not need to care about the gains and losses of one city or one place in this battle. We are even planning to abandon Liping Prefecture. A mere Bronze Drum Acropolis is nothing.
, our only mission and goal is to defeat or even completely annihilate the main force of the Ming Army on the North Road within the next ten days!"
In fact, Hao Bainian had already sent messengers on fast horses to give the order to retreat to Wang Chaofeng of the 5th Infantry Battalion!
So early the next morning, the Ming army outside Tonggu Guard City discovered that the puppet Tang rebel army in Tonggu Guard City had actually retreated.
Facing the deserted Tonggu Acropolis, the Ming army outside the city shouted:
"The thieves have been defeated!"
"Come on, fight into the city!"
"Kill him without leaving any trace behind!"
Rushing forward to the Bronze Drum Acropolis!
The magnitude of the momentum is extremely shocking. If anyone sees this scene, they will definitely be scared to death!