Chapter four hundred and ninety-ninth imitation fake Tang firearms
Within a few days, the news that tens of thousands of puppet Tang rebels were heading south spread throughout Liuzhou Prefecture, and continued to spread to the entire Guangxi!
This is a mobilization of 20,000 to 30,000 troops, and Liuzhou City is so big, how could it be concealed? If you just stop by the Liujiang River, you can see densely packed ships on the river, full of soldiers and supplies.
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The news that the main force of the puppet Tang thief army was going south quickly reached the ears of Wei Yan, the governor of Guangxi in Wuxuan, through Kuai Ma!
"The main force of the puppet Tang thief army went south?"
"How many people are there? Who is leading the army? How many heavy artillery do they have?"
After Wei Yan heard the news, he immediately asked a series of news, but the Ming army soldiers who came back to deliver the news knew this. They just saw a large group of puppet Tang rebel soldiers boarding the ship from a distance, and countless ships came along.
Down the river.
But I don’t know the detailed troop configuration of the Puppet Tang thief army!
But he still knows who is leading the army, because it is not a secret and can be found out easily!
That is, it was the puppet emperor Li Xuan who led the main force of the puppet Tang thief army southward!
"Are you sure that Li Thief personally led the Tang bandit army's march south?" Wei Yan still couldn't believe it after hearing the news.
Although the Tang bandits are said to be a group of rebels, they are now quite large in scale. The Tang bandits in Guizhou and Guangxi provinces can be considered a separate force, and their leader, the pseudo-Tang Li bandit, is also a figure.
How could you easily lead an army to conquer it yourself?
And the puppet Tang and Li thieves have already marched in person. I'm afraid that this time the puppet Tang bandit army is coming with great force. Maybe I really can't stop them in Wuxuan County.
After asking in detail about the information about the puppet Tang rebel army, Wei Yan fell into deep thought!
This time the Puppet Tang thief army is coming in force. According to intelligence, the Puppet Tang thief army going south this time is said to number fifty thousand. Even if this number is smaller, it is estimated that there are still 20,000 or 30,000 people.
However, the puppet Tang bandit army that defeated him last time only numbered more than 10,000 people. This time, 20,000 to 30,000 people came, making the fight even more difficult.
Although he had nearly 10,000 troops stationed in Wuxuan, his family knew his own affairs. The last time Xiangzhou suffered a disastrous defeat, he lost most of the 8,000 regular troops, leaving only more than 2,000 people who escaped.
Later, in order to strengthen the defense of Wuxuan City, he asked Wang Yue, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, for help. On the other hand, he also recruited soldiers from other guards and young men in Guangxi Province.
However, at this time, the regular guard troops he had assembled were only more than 8,000 people. In addition, Wang Yue sent 3,000 people for reinforcements. These 11,000 people were all the trump cards in his hand. As for Qingzhuang, although he
He has also been recruited, but unlike the officials in Guizhou, he does not like to include these young and strong civilians when counting troops, because many battles with the puppet Tang rebels in Guizhou and Liuzhou have shown that
In a battle with the puppet Tang rebels, the young men recruited temporarily are of no use at all. Instead, they will collapse first on the battlefield, causing a huge rout of the entire army.
The many disastrous defeats of the Ming army in the past almost all started with the collapse of Qingzhuang!
And if you include the young and strong, it sounds like your side has too many troops, but this battle report is even harder to write.
There are tens of thousands of young men in Wuxuan City. If he counts these people, his own army will have more than 20,000 people. If he is defeated by the puppet Tang rebel army, or if he retreats on his own initiative, how will he attack the enemy?
An explanation from the court?
You have defeated more than 20,000 people or retreated without a fight? What do you want to do? Do you still want this official title and this head?
But if you only count the regular army, there will not be so many people. 10,000 people were defeated by 50,000 puppet Tang rebels. Although it is depressing, it is excusable!
As the saying goes, a good woman can't make a meal without rice. No matter how awesome his defense is, there's nothing he can do if he doesn't have enough soldiers under his command!
Therefore, when counting military strength, Wei Yan did not follow Zhu Zhihai's example and include young men and even civilian men. He only counted regular troops. Those young men, even if they were holding weapons, were all included in the category of civilian men.
In fact, these young men who were temporarily recruited can only do the work of civilians, build city walls and other fortifications, transport baggage, etc., and let them go into battle? No kidding, they were bombarded by the cannon of the puppet Tang rebel army. These
The young men recruited temporarily could not last more than a few seconds before collapsing.
In the last battle at Anjia Wharf in Xiangzhou, our eight thousand regular troops, including half of the elite soldiers, were unable to stop the firearms of the pseudo-Tang rebels. Just relying on these young men to block the cannons of these pseudo-Tang rebels
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Just kidding!
Our existing regular army is only 11,000 men. Even though the Governor has repeatedly stated that he has recruited troops from the Guangdong area, and at the same time started a large-scale military training in Wuzhou, he will soon be able to lead more than 50,000 troops to the west, but that will
When did we go there? Maybe Wuxuan was destroyed by the artillery of the puppet Tang rebel army at that time!
When he thought of the artillery and muskets of the puppet Tang rebels, Wei Yan felt his scalp go numb!
The firearms of these pseudo-Tang rebels are so sharp. Even if the governor can stop an army of 50,000 by then, he will probably not be a match for the pseudo-Tang rebels!
After the battle at Anjia Wharf, Wei Yan, like the civil and military officials of the Ming army who had fought against the puppet Tang bandits before, was deeply touched, so much so that he felt a sense of fear that the Tang bandits were completely invincible!
During this period, he was also thinking deeply about how to defeat the puppet Tang thief army. He believed that the reason why the puppet Tang thief army was able to defeat the official army many times was just because of sharp firearms. If he wanted to defeat the puppet Tang thief army, then the imperial officials
The army must have more and better firearms than the puppet Tang bandit army!
Don’t our imperial army have firearms? Just kidding, how could it not be possible? The northern frontier army and the coastal navy are equipped with a large number of Folan cannons. These Folan cannons can also weigh three hundred kilograms, five hundred kilograms or even one thousand kilograms.
Above.
As for muskets, they are a bit inferior in this aspect. Even Wei Yan himself can't stand the various types of muskets of the Ming army. They were of no use at all in the previous battles against the puppet Tang rebels. They were worse than
Bows and arrows are very useful.
However, he also found several muskets used by the pseudo-Tang rebels through some channels, and asked his craftsmen to try to imitate them.
The puppet Tang rebels were able to make muskets and use them, so there is no reason why our imperial officers and soldiers couldn’t use them!
Moreover, he also heard that the foreigners who came from Southeast Asia also had muskets, and he heard that they were quite powerful. I might not be able to make them at home in time, but it is possible to buy a batch from foreigners.
For this reason, he had written a detailed letter a few days ago and sent it to Wang Yue, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, hoping that the government troops would also imitate the muskets and even artillery of the puppet Tang rebels.
Moreover, Wang Yue, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, also paid great attention to this and dispatched craftsmen. Although Wang Yue scolded Wei Yan severely before, Wang Yue still had the magnanimity of a governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and still gave a memorial to the court.
Try your best to absolve Wei Yan of the responsibility, otherwise, the imperial envoys who would have dismissed him from office and even escorted Wei Yan to Beijing to await trial would have been on the way.
It is said that Wang Yue has quickly sent the two muskets of the pseudo-Tang rebel army obtained through various small means to the hands of craftsmen for them to imitate.
However, the time is still relatively short, and although it is not difficult to imitate this musket, it will still take a certain amount of time to produce it on a large scale.
At this time, Li Xuan didn't know that the Ming Dynasty in Guangdong and Guangxi had already begun to imitate his muskets. If he knew about it, he would definitely be extremely worried!
The Tang Dynasty had few advantages over those of the Ming Dynasty, one of which was the advantage of firearms. If the dynasty copied and equipped muskets on a large scale, the advantages brought by these muskets would quickly disappear.
And since muskets can be imitated, this artillery can also be imitated.
No way, the muskets and artillery equipped by the Tang Dynasty actually didn't have much technical content. If the craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty could make them, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty could naturally make them too.
In fact, even if the Tang Dynasty had not appeared, in a few years' time, the Ming Dynasty would have started to imitate muskets, well, shotguns, and there would have been tens of thousands of them, which was much more impressive than the Tang Dynasty.
However, imitating the muskets and artillery of the puppet Tang rebels, or even using the Franco machine guns of the border troops and the navy, would not quench the thirst of the nearer.
Tens of thousands of puppet Tang rebels have already moved south, and it won't take long for them to reach Wuxuan City. How should I resist them then?
Wei Yan thought about it for a long time but couldn't find any good way. In the end, he could only continue to strengthen the city defense, especially the city walls. Secondly, he continued to recruit young men and train troops, and then he asked the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi to the king.
The more we ask for help.
Wei Yan bluntly stated in his letter asking for help that more than 50,000 Tang traitors had gone south. It would be difficult to survive with more than 10,000 officers and soldiers relying on military propaganda alone. He also hoped that the Governor would lend a helping hand and send 30,000 more reinforcements. Only in this way could there be rent.
To stop the thieves, use military propaganda to cut off the Tang thieves' eastward advance and protect the people of Guangdong and Guangxi.
Thirty thousand reinforcements? Impossible, Wei Yan also knew that, but he thought, if the request for reinforcements is not made more serious, the Governor will not see the seriousness of the problem. If he exaggerates, then the Governor will be more or less
Reinforcements should be sent eventually. If not thirty thousand, ten thousand might as well be sent!
Even if it's just three to five thousand people, it's always better than no reinforcements!
In addition to these military preparations, Wei Yan also hoarded a large amount of ordnance and food in Wuxuan City, and also arranged three iron cables on the Qianjiang River outside Wuxuan City to block the river to prevent the puppet Tang rebels from bypassing it.
Wu Xuan continued to advance eastward.
Then the fleet under his command also prepared, preparing to cooperate with the city's defenders to defend the city!
But that's all he can do. He doesn't know whether Wu Xuan can hold on to it. It depends on the actual number and strength of the puppet Tang rebel army marching eastward!
The puppet Tang rebel army went south, and while the defense was preparing for war, the people were in panic, not only in Wuxuan, but also in Wuzhou!