Chapter three hundred and eighty third thousand cavalry attack
Of course, outsiders don't know what Emperor Zhengde thinks. In the new army of the Tang Dynasty in the distant Liping Prefecture in Guizhou, at this moment, no one pays attention to what Emperor Zhengde thinks.
After the Fifth Infantry Battalion arrived at Tonggu Guard City, it received another 500 reinforcements the next day, and this reinforcement force was personally led by Li Chunjing. In other words, the subsequent battle under Tonggu Guard City will be led by Li Chunjing
This forward deputy commander and commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment personally commanded.
Hao Bainian, on the other hand, led the remaining 5,000 main troops to garrison five miles south of the Tonggu Acropolis, waiting for the main force of the Ming army from the north to arrive. At the same time, he was also waiting for the arrival of the Chinese army led by Li Xuan.
However, the main force of the Ming army in the north did not seem to be in a hurry. After besieging the Tonggu Acropolis, the Ming army from the north did not come that day, and the Ming army from the north still did not come the next day. For this reason, Li Chunjing was also a little anxious, and specially ordered his troops to attack the Tonggu Acropolis.
An attack was launched with the intention of putting pressure on the Ming army and forcing the main force of the Ming army to move south.
It was just that during the fight, the thousand men led by Li Chunjing failed to control their strength well and almost defeated the Bronze Drum Acropolis. However, Li Chunjing personally called for an emergency stop and then suspended the offensive. Otherwise, he would have been defeated.
All previous efforts have been wasted.
Li Chunjing just wanted to scare the Ming army in the city, but he never thought about actually defeating it. If he really defeated it, the Ming army in the north would not move south in a short time. If this continues to be delayed for a few days, for
The overall strategy of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty will have a huge negative impact.
This time, the action of almost breaking through the Tonggu Acropolis was very effective, causing the Ming army in the city to panic. Letters requesting reinforcements were continuously sent to the main force of the Ming army.
Under such circumstances, the main force of the Ming army finally officially set off south.
When the main force of the Ming army in the north began to move south to Tonggu Acropolis, Li Xuan also led the Chinese army to arrive and join Hao Bainian's troops.
After the rendezvous, all the main forces of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty were already near Tonggu Acropolis, including the 1st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Regiment, artillery battalion, and baggage regiment.
Cavalry battalion, guard battalion, etc.
In Xingquan Prefecture, only the auxiliary forces, mainly the bandit-capturing camp, are left to garrison. Fortunately, there are already three bandit-capturing camps in Xingquan Mansion, with a total of a thousand people. In addition, there are several preparations.
Hundreds of recruits used to form a reserve battalion, a team of the Guards Battalion.
Although there are not many troops in Xingquan Mansion, and their combat effectiveness is not strong, they are enough to suppress the local area and ensure the safety of the rear.
As for Liping Mansion, although there are not many troops in other places, there are only a few hundred people in Liping Mansion City, and it is also a newly formed bandit camp. However, now that the main force of the new army of the Tang Dynasty is gathered in the north of Liping Mansion, there is no need to go there.
Worry about what problems may arise elsewhere.
After leading the Chinese army to Tonggu Acropolis, Li Xuan immediately summoned Hao Bainian and many other generals to inquire about the situation in Tonggu Acropolis and discuss the follow-up strategy.
At the imperial meeting, Zeng Ziwen also put forward a new idea for the upcoming strategic decisive battle, which was to use the unformed Fifth Infantry Regiment and the Third Infantry Regiment as forwards to show the enemy's weakness and lure the main force of the Ming army to penetrate deeper.
Then the first infantry regiment, the second infantry regiment and other complete main forces were used to launch a surprise attack.
However, as soon as this idea was proposed, it was rejected by Li Xuan!
Because Zeng Ziwen's plan is entirely to use the 3rd Infantry Regiment and the 5th Infantry Regiment, two new units that have not yet formed an army, and do not even have muskets or artillery, as cannon fodder, and to use them as temptations. To put it bluntly,
Just let them die.
Although this may severely damage the northern Ming army, or even completely annihilate them, if one of them fails, the two infantry regiments will most likely suffer heavy losses.
Now the new army of the Tang Dynasty has not yet reached the point of exhaustion. Now the overall strategy is in accordance with the predetermined plan, and there is no need to adopt such a risky strategy.
The reason why Zeng Ziwen proposed such a plan was that he believed that the two infantry regiments were newly established anyway, and many recruits had not even completed basic training and were not equipped with muskets and artillery. Their value was quite limited. In someone like him,
In the minds of traditional generals, this kind of troops are used to sacrifice themselves in exchange for strategic victory.
But Li Xuan’s thoughts are different from his!
Although the soldiers of these two infantry regiments are all new recruits and do not have guns and artillery, the soldiers of these two infantry regiments are recruited as regular army soldiers, and their quality is better than that of the pirate camps and reserve camps or the Ming army.
The garrison battalion composed of prisoners is much stronger. The quality of the soldiers of these two infantry regiments is solid. As long as they are given a few more months, they will soon become a combat-effective force.
You can’t just sacrifice yourself as a real cannon fodder!
Moreover, the current situation is obviously beneficial to our side, so there is no need to adopt risky strategies!
However, the purpose of the imperial strategy meeting is to put forward various strategic ideas and to check for omissions and fill in the gaps. Maybe a small idea, a small shining point, will create a victory.
So after Zeng Ziwen's idea was rejected, he didn't feel anything wrong. In the past few months, Li Xuan had rejected countless plans he proposed. Even he himself didn't know how many. This didn't mean anything.
Explain what.
Among the doctors of the Privy Council, he still holds the position of Director of the Operations Department firmly.
Although the total number of the new Tang Dynasty troops gathered outside the Tonggu Guard City was said to have reached ten thousand, in fact, there were far fewer of them with real combat effectiveness.
Because there is only the First Infantry Regiment and the Second Infantry Regiment are fully equipped. Although the Fourth Infantry Regiment is also fully equipped, there is only one regular infantry battalion in the Fourth Infantry Regiment, and the remaining two are composed of Ming army prisoners.
garrison camp.
The 3rd and 5th Infantry Regiments are even worse. Although they have enough soldiers, many of them have not even completed the one-month recruit training period. Just because of the emergency, they were directly taken out of the recruit camp and used first.
After arriving in the army, basic training will continue.
Therefore, you cannot expect a group of new recruits who have only joined the army for ten or even a few days to take up swords and guns and go into battle to kill the enemy. Their current actual combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the young and strong men temporarily recruited by the Ming army.
How much stronger.
Li Xuan took them not to fight, but to let them see blood on the battlefield and train while facing the enemy.
Of course, it is not ruled out that they can step in at critical moments. Even ten people can be used as one person.
The baggage regiment also had many recruits and only one battalion of veterans.
Not to mention the artillery battalion. According to the establishment, they should have four artillery teams and an artillery transport team, equipped with eighteen 800-jin artillery pieces and six 1,300-jin heavy artillery pieces.
But the reality is that there are only one team of five 500-jin artillery pieces, and one team of five 800-jin artillery pieces. If the artillerymen, musketeers, and artillery transport troops are included, there are only about 300 people in total, which is far from reaching the full establishment scale.
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Moreover, there was a lack of horses for transporting artillery and ammunition. The artillery battalion had to get some oxen and even donkeys, and the ammunition was mobilized by personnel to carry it on carts or simply on shoulders.
In short, this artillery battalion is not worthy of its name.
The cavalry battalion is similar. There are only more than a hundred cavalrymen, not even one-third of the full establishment, because the cavalry battalion also requires four cavalry teams according to regulations, but now there is only a little more than one cavalry team.
Moreover, the quality of the cavalry is not very good, and the horses they ride on are not very good. They are said to be cavalry, but in fact they are mounted infantry. It is basically unreliable to let them charge and fight. At most, they are used as reconnaissance cavalry. In fact, when
So far, the cavalry of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty have mainly been engaged in reconnaissance, and charging into battle is not their strong point.
If you calculate it carefully, you will find that among the tens of thousands of people in the Tang Dynasty's new army, only five or six thousand people can fight, no more, and the rest are brought here to watch the show!
Fighting with the main force of five to six thousand people and more than 20,000 Ming troops was still very stressful, so Li Xuan did not say anything at the imperial strategy meeting. Instead, he encouraged the generals to speak freely and ignore it.
Say whatever you say is useful or not.
Maybe a small idea proposed by someone can bring great tactical advantages!
War, especially this kind of large-scale war, it is impossible to say that the general just slaps his head and makes all the decisions. This kind of large-scale war involves too many things, even if the general is a commanding genius, but
He needs a lot of people to help him handle many chores.
This time the imperial strategy meeting was very detailed, and basically everything was discussed, such as the artillery, where the artillery battery should be placed, so that it can effectively support the entire army's operations, and at the same time, it can be safely maintained.
It will not be threatened by the Ming army's infantry or cavalry.
Next, how many rounds of solid ammunition should be prepared near the artillery position, how many shotgun shells should be prepared, how much spare ammunition should be prepared in the rear, and then how many spearmen should be prepared near the artillery position to protect the artillery position and resist possible cavalry attacks from the Ming army.
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These need to be arranged one by one in advance, and it is not decided by the artillery battalion itself, but requires the cooperation of the entire army.
Just as Li Xuan and the others were sitting and preparing for battle, the belated main force of the Ming army finally arrived at the Tonggu Guard City!
When Li Xuan saw the main force of the Ming army, he frowned slightly, because he saw a large number of cavalry in the Ming army's array!
That was a cavalry force of at least a thousand cavalry!
Although Guizhou is not located in the north, the Yunnan-Guizhou region is a traditional horse-producing area. Although the quality of the horses is not very good, there are a lot of horses. It is normal for the local Ming army to have cavalry!