From the Huang Zhushan era, the main factor limiting the expansion of the main force of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was not food and soldiers, but the production of muskets and artillery.
As for soldiers, whether they are recruited or captured Ming soldiers, or even recruited by force, they can get initial satisfaction. Although there is a shortage of food, it is enough to barely make ends meet. If it is not enough, just go outside to collect food.
But for muskets and artillery, there is no way to quickly increase production.
Even if the Ministry of Industry continues to expand the scale of each workshop, this expansion takes time, and it cannot be completed in two or three days. It will take more than half a month or even one or two months at least.
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After the workshop is expanded, there must be enough skilled craftsmen and ordinary workers. Ordinary workers are easy to solve, but skilled craftsmen are not so easy to find or train. At present, the craftsmen in the workshops under the Ministry of Industry of Datang are basically
They were collected from Xingquan Prefecture and Liping Prefecture using various methods such as recruitment and coercion.
However, even this was far from enough to meet the needs of the Tang Dynasty Work Department workshops.
Then there is the issue of raw materials. Xingquan Prefecture and most of Liping Prefecture currently occupied by the Tang Dynasty do not have large-scale iron ore, copper ore and other minerals, let alone saltpeter, sulfur, lead and other minerals.
, so much so that the Tang Dynasty currently relies heavily on outsourcing various raw materials.
Even if these are met, the production of muskets and artillery still takes time!
A gun needs to go through many processes from raw materials to finished product. Each process takes time, and all these times are added up. If the craftsmen use traditional methods to build it, it will take a month. If it is made according to the current data of Datang
The small-scale flow-based production adopted by the Ministry of Industry of the Dynasty would also take about twenty days.
In other words, even if the Ministry of Industry makes another large-scale expansion now, it will take at least two months before the new army of the Tang Dynasty can get the expanded muskets!
This time was too long for the Tang Dynasty.
From the beginning of the year to the present, the Work Department workshops of the Tang Dynasty have continued to expand and increase production, but the scale of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty has also continued to expand. In the past, the New Army of the Tang Dynasty only had a few hundred musketeers, but now, the number of musketeers in each unit's establishment has been
There are thousands of people, and the demand for muskets has further increased, and it has increased to a level that the workshops affiliated to the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty simply cannot meet.
Therefore, the batch of muskets currently lost by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty cannot be replenished in a short time!
In response to this problem, Zeng Ziwen suggested using the many existing Ming army prisoners to further expand the size of the garrison camp!
We can't let all these Ming army prisoners work as coolies. That would be a waste of human resources!
"Although our army has begun to prepare reserve battalions equipped with pure cold weapons, the reserve battalions are still regular troops of our army. In addition to cold weapon training, daily training will also insist on training various gun tactics, infantry and artillery coordination and other tactics.
, the reason for equipping cold weapons is limited by the production of guns and artillery. However, when the production of guns and artillery increases in the future, the reserve battalion troops can become regular infantry battalions in a short time by replacing them with new guns and artillery.
At the same time, the soldiers in the reserve battalion can also make up for the battle losses of the main infantry battalion in time!" Zeng Ziwen and his previous team were very enthusiastic about the expansion of the army, whether it was the main battalion, the reserve battalion, or simply this garrison battalion.
At the same time, Zeng Ziwen continued: "Considering the present and the future, our army will capture a large number of Ming troops. This number may be thousands or even tens of thousands. Even if a few are selected from them to add to the main force, the remaining
The number will still be very large, and it is not an option to let all these people serve as coolies. It is necessary to increase the size of the garrison camp. Even if the combat effectiveness is weaker, it can still serve as auxiliary combat tasks, especially to garrison places and maintain supplies.
Secondary tasks such as transportation lines!”
"The main force of our army is not large in number. The tip of the knife should be used where it matters most and cannot be wasted on some insignificant secondary tasks!"
After hearing Zeng Ziwen's words, everyone present nodded slightly!
Li Xuan also thought for a while and then said: "The expansion of the garrison camp is necessary. The current two garrison camps are indeed too different from the existing prisoners in scale, and it is difficult to arrange!"
"Well, Zeng Aiqing, please work harder and come up with a plan to expand the garrison camp!"
Zeng Ziwen immediately said: "I obey the order!"
Then Li Xuan said again: "These Ming army prisoners have bad habits. We cannot keep them in the same way by being incorporated into the garrison camp. They must be trained strictly!"
The status of the garrison battalion in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty has always been rather awkward. Due to problems with weapons and equipment, as well as the quality of the soldiers, their combat effectiveness has never been high, and their fighting will has been relatively weak.
In several battles, the garrison battalion actually did not perform well, and could only be said to be mediocre at best.
Now it is time to expand the size of the garrison camp. It cannot always be like this. Even if it is equipped with cold weapons, it must be a real cold weapon army. It cannot be like this now, just a Ming army disguised as the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
, and he is also a guard soldier.
Although Li Xuan also knew that freezing did not last overnight, and it was not easy to change the habits of these Ming army prisoners, but as long as they were ruthless enough, this would not be a problem!
Unfavorable in combat? Kill!
Disobey? Kill!
The whole army mutinied? Kill!
For the surrendered troops, we must use such strong methods to spur them, otherwise, the surrendered troops will be just a bunch of trash.
During the late Ming Dynasty, countless Ming troops surrendered to the Tatars. Before they surrendered to the Tatars, their combat effectiveness was extremely weak. However, after surrendering to the Tatars, each of them became extremely powerful. What remote reasons played a role here?
There is no reason, it’s just strict military law!
The Tatars are not the ones who open charity houses. Since they have accepted your surrender, you have to work hard for them, otherwise why would they waste this food?
If the surrendered Ming army fails to fight effectively, they will kill people every minute.
So after the Ming army surrendered and became the Qing army, because the Qing army was threatening them with knives from behind, they all became extremely ferocious.
In the end, he helped the Tatars level the land of China, and used knives to coerce tens of millions of people to join them in shouting master to a group of rat-tailed pigtails. The Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty was simply the shame of all military dynasties for five thousand years.
There has never been such a fucking army.
It's nothing to lose a war, it's nothing to subjugate a country, it's nothing to beg for mercy from the barbarians, but it's not just that they themselves committed a crime, and they forced tens of millions of people to commit a crime with them, this kind of history is simply not worth it.
It's embarrassing to tell outsiders, otherwise they will be surprised and ask: Aren't they Han? Why do they do this?
Damn, who knows what they are thinking in their minds, I can’t travel hundreds of years, split their heads open and see what they are thinking!
Putting aside these national sentiments, I have to say that the way the Qing army recruited and surrendered the Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty was quite good.
Moreover, Li Xuan felt that it was quite suitable for his new army of the Tang Dynasty, because his new army of the Tang Dynasty had extremely strict military laws.
This is extremely harsh on oneself, and it is even more harsh on the surrendering Ming army, which is natural!
If there are surrendered Ming soldiers who refuse to fight or even disobey orders, then I am sorry to say that there is only one word to greet them, and that is kill!
As they continue to kill, these people will naturally become convinced, and then they will transform into a ferocious army, perhaps even more ferocious than the Ming army that surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in later generations. After all, the Tang Dynasty was also a Han dynasty, and it was not like shaving their hair to make them more subdued.
Yes, they would not have much psychological pressure if they surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
This is very obvious. Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and helped the Qing army sweep through the Central Plains to resist the Ming army. Therefore, his name has been nailed to the pillar of historical shame for hundreds of years. It is estimated that in another thousand years, Wu Sangui will still be a traitor in people's hearts.
But what if Wu Sangui conquered the most powerful Han dynasty in history for five thousand years: the Tang Dynasty!
Then his name will probably be remembered throughout the ages and he will become a national hero that everyone respects!
Therefore, surrendering is also surrendering to the right person!
These ideas were just passed by Li Xuan. More importantly, he was thinking about how to make these prisoners of the Ming army play a greater role.
The existing garrison camp establishment is too small. These five to six thousand prisoners would require a dozen garrison battalions. Direct command of these garrison battalions would be too problematic.
Moreover, we cannot gather all the garrison camps composed of Ming army prisoners, otherwise the risk of betrayal will be too great.
So they must be used separately and in combination!
For example, the three infantry battalions of the former Third Infantry Regiment were the 10th Infantry Battalion, the 1st Garrison Battalion, and the 2nd Garrison Battalion.
Although this model is still slightly lacking, it is still worthy of continued promotion!
This military strategy meeting in front of the imperial court was very long. While the meeting was going on, Zeng Ziwen directly wrote down how to expand the garrison camp. Because the establishment of the garrison camp was ready-made, it was directly based on the existing number of Ming army prisoners.
As well as the configuration of the troops, it is enough to establish a few garrison battalions.
So when Li Xuan and Qian Mengjiu finished talking about the compensation for the casualties after the war, Zeng Ziwen came to Li Xuan with a piece of preparation plan with wet ink: "Your Majesty, this is the preliminary defense plan drawn up by me.
The battalion expansion plan, the initial opinion is to establish three new infantry regiments!"
Zeng Ziwen did not immediately talk about the establishment of the new infantry regiment, but instead talked about the reserve battalion!
"According to the expansion plan of our army half a month ago, ten reserve battalions will be expanded at one time. As the reserve force of the main force, there are now five reserve battalions established. Among them, the first reserve battalion has been established in the last two
Today begins officially accepting new recruits!
With the successive formation of reserve battalions, it will effectively supplement the strength gap of our main force. At the same time, it will also be more convenient to replenish battle losses of our main force in the future!
According to the scheduled plan, these garrison battalions will arrange the existing five infantry regiments to have two reserve battalions each to supplement the manpower gap of the main infantry regiment!"
After saying that, Zeng Ziwen paused and continued: "Given that the reserve battalion has been able to provide effective auxiliary support to the main infantry regiment, it can also provide supplementary reserve forces.
In order to ensure the purity of the main infantry regiments and maintain their combat effectiveness, I propose not to assign garrison battalions to the existing five main infantry regiments.
I believe that a small number of regular infantry battalion troops should be combined with a large number of garrison battalion troops to form a brand new infantry regiment that can operate independently to undertake second-line combat tasks!"