Chapter 506: Wu Xuan, who sticks to the last moment
After the main force of the Tang Dynasty King's Division was separated from the guests, Li Xuan personally led the first army to continue southward. This time going down the river was much faster than going upstream when he came before.
It only took two days for the army to arrive at the intersection with the Liujiang River and join up with the nearly 10,000 troops who had been staying here before. After a short rest, they continued to set sail and march eastward along the Qianjiang River!
This time, the various units of the First Army led by Li Xuan, except for the two special arms of cavalry and artillery, which were unable to be fully staffed, all other units were considered to be fully staffed.
The subordinate units include the 6,000-strong First Infantry Brigade, which is the most elite main force in the Tang Dynasty Army. It is fully equipped with muskets and artillery. After all, this unit has always been the priority of the Tang Dynasty King's Division.
It is natural for the troops to be fully equipped.
Next is the 6,000-strong Third Infantry Brigade. Although this infantry brigade is also full, only the muskets and artillery equipment of the Fifth Infantry Regiment are full. The Sixth Infantry Regiment is still a pure cold weapon unit, with only a small number of them used.
The muskets and old bowl-mouth cannons that came for training.
Next up is the 6,000-strong Third Guard Brigade. This garrison brigade is considered to have the most combat experience in the Tang Dynasty King's Division. After many reinforcements, its soldier quality and equipment level are considered top-notch among a group of garrison troops. Its strength ratio
The Ming army was even taller.
Then there is the 4th Garrison Brigade, which has more than 5,000 people. The strength of this 4th Garrison Brigade is much lower. Many of its soldiers are surrendered soldiers of the Ming Army who have just been captured. They have not undergone complete training and are not well adapted to the current Tang Dynasty.
The Wang Division's combat style and equipment are not as good as those of the Third Guard Brigade, and its combat effectiveness is worrying.
The above four brigades also constitute the main infantry currently used by the Tang Dynasty King's Division to attack Wuxuan and even Wuzhou and even march eastward to Guangdong.
As for the temporary first group, they are still stuck in Guilin.
Next are the various auxiliary units. The two cavalry battalions together have about 500 cavalry. The two artillery battalions together have five two-pound field guns, twelve five-pound field guns, and three seven-pound field guns.
Artillery, as for the Second Artillery Battalion's original equipment of multiple three- to four-hundred-pound bowl-mouth cannons captured from the Ming Army, they have been handed over to the newly established Third Artillery Battalion, a subordinate of the Third Army.
Then several infantry regiments also had twelve two-pound cannons and eight hundred-jin bowl-mouth cannons captured from the Ming army.
Thirdly, there are the baggage troops, the first baggage regiment and the second baggage regiment. Each regiment has a full strength of 1,500 men. In other words, the first army has 3,000 men in the baggage troops alone.
, and these three thousand people are not civilians, young and strong, but professional troops, whose responsibility is to be responsible for the transportation of materials on the front line.
As for the transportation of materials in the rear, that is the matter of the Logistics Department and has nothing to do with the First Army. In order to bear the eastward advance of the First Army and the westward advance of the Third Army, the Logistics Department has currently recruited about 15,000 civilians.
, transporting various supplies for the army.
In addition to these troops that directly belong to the enemy, there are also chieftain soldiers who are independent of the First Army: Liuzhou Independent Regiment, Li Xuan's personal bodyguard unit, the Guards!
Before leading the army to leave Xiangzhou, Li Xuan officially issued a training order to change the infantry team of the Guards Battalion into the First Guards Battalion, the cavalry team was reorganized into the Guards Cavalry Battalion, and continued to accept new recruits over there in Liuzhou
, a total of training, and at the same time, the second and third battalions of the Guards, which are responsible for protecting Queen Mother Bai and other royal family members, form a total of the Guards.
According to the order, the main responsibility of the Guards is to protect the royal family and is independent of the army.
Of course, when necessary, such as when Li Xuan personally conscripts, the Guards will also go to the battlefield.
There are not many Guards troops marching eastward. There are only 150 Guards Cavalry Battalion and more than 400 people in the First Battalion of the Guards. And its infantry probably won't participate in the battle very much, because they are supposed to protect Li Xuan.
Safety is our top priority and we will not easily participate in frontline battles.
The Liuzhou Independent Regiment composed of chieftains and soldiers has not yet been fully replenished after the huge losses in Liuzhou City in the last time and the small losses in the Laibin Battle. The full strength of 1,500 men is currently only 1,300.
In addition to the above-mentioned army, there are eight warships directly belonging to the navy and more than 140 transport ships. Although these ships are all small boats, these densely packed ships are enough to cover the entire river. Among these ships, there are directly belonging to the navy.
There are more than 1,300 officers and men in the navy.
Well, these people are actually not enough to operate these ships, but the army also helped out and sent soldiers to help sail the ships.
To summarize the above, Li Xuan personally led the troops for the eastward march, with a total strength of about 30,000, and this number almost included most of the elite forces of the Tang Dynasty King's Division. To be honest here in Guangxi,
It is already difficult to find an opponent.
The Ming army on Wuxuan's side, including the young and strong, was only more than 20,000 people. The Ming army on Wuzhou's side was even larger, but now it was only 20,000 to 30,000 people.
After continuous expansion, especially after accepting a large number of prisoners from the Ming army, although the ratio of hot weapon and cold weapon troops in the Tang Dynasty King's Division was constantly declining, the total force was increasing. In the past, it was more than the Ming army.
There are still very few, but now they have begun to equal the Ming army in terms of numbers, and can even form a strength advantage in some areas.
However, the cost of doing so was also extremely high, that is, the food consumption was almost unbearable for the Tang Dynasty!
With so many troops in Guangxi and Guizhou provinces combined, they consume an extremely huge amount of food every day. But here in Guangxi, with a total of more than 40,000 troops, they consume several hundred dan of food every day.
Even with the food supplied by the Cen family in Huaiyuan County, it was still a drop in the bucket. If it hadn't been for the capture of a lot of Ming army rations in the battles in Xiangzhou, Liuzhou, and Laibin, the Tang Dynasty would have been out of food.
But Li Xuan still felt that he could not continue to expand so uncontrollably, otherwise he would starve to death sooner or later. Not every battle could capture a large amount of food.
Moreover, although the troops of the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty continued to expand, most of the expansion was in the garrison, while the regular army actually expanded very little.
The 4th Infantry Brigade is just a dead end. The 6th Infantry Regiment in the 3rd Infantry Brigade still has no guns to use. Strictly speaking, in fact, the number of regular infantry regiments in the Tang Dynasty King's Division that can be fought is not much more than before.
There are still only three or four infantry regiments.
The large-scale expansion of cold weapon units such as the garrison and reserve battalions will not increase the combat effectiveness of the troops very much, but it will also cost a lot. Li Xuan thought that after taking Guangdong and initially stabilizing the situation in Guangdong and Guangxi, he would start
Control the expansion of the garrison and focus on expanding the size of the regular army.
Such a huge Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty, shamelessly divided into two provinces, with hundreds of thousands of troops, still only has a few thousand muskets and more than 20 field cannons. This would make other time-travelling peers laugh.
front teeth!
Some of the army sat on boats and went down the river, while others marched on the shore. This speed was not fast, but it was definitely not slow either.
In just three days from Xiangzhou, the forward force of the Tang Dynasty King's Division, consisting of approximately 3,000 men, consisting of the 5th Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Cavalry Battalion, arrived at the foot of Wuxuan City.
As soon as they arrived, countless people in Wuxuan City shouted in their mouths and hearts: The puppet Tang traitor army is coming!
Wei Yan immediately ran to the top of the city to look at the pseudo-Tang rebels in the distance. When he saw these pseudo-Tang rebels, he frowned slightly, because he saw the pseudo-Tang rebels in the distance, wearing
He is wearing a blue jacket and red trousers, and this outfit is the authentic military uniform of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty bandit army!
The Puppet Tang thief army marched south to Guangxi last year. Wei Yan also learned about the Puppet Tang thief army from many channels. He knew that the Puppet Tang thief army was divided into regular troops and garrison troops. The regular army was the authentic Puppet Tang thief army, which was equipped with a large number of equipment.
The thieves with firearms, and the garrison, are surrendered troops.
Looking at the 3,000 bandits in front of them, all wearing blue clothes and red trousers, they are the real bandits of the Pseudo-Tang Dynasty!
Immediately, Wei Yan ordered the city gate to be closed tightly. He even ordered the city gate hole to be blocked directly in order for the city gate to be breached.
Then we must take strict precautions to avoid being attacked by the puppet Tang bandit army.
As for what to do next? One word: run!
Waiting for the puppet Tang bandit army to attack, and then stubbornly resisting and defending on your own, you are just looking for ideas!
In fact, Wei Yan had originally planned to defend Wuxuan.
But as time went by, the Ming army learned more and more about the puppet Tang rebel army, especially after hearing the report from the scout cavalry. Although the puppet Tang rebel army going south was divided into troops, there were still at least 50,000 soldiers marching eastward.
Count (the Ming army’s reconnaissance cavalry also includes the civilians following the army).
Among these 50,000 thieves, there are at least 20,000 real thieves. Well, real thieves and fake thieves. This is what officials here in Guangxi have recently called the regular army and garrison of the Tang Dynasty. The regular army is the real thieves, and the garrison is
For a fake thief.
There are 50,000 thieves in the army, and there are 20,000 real thieves among them. This is not easy to fight. Let alone whether Wu Xuan can hold it, Wuzhou may not be able to hold it.
Wang Yue, who was anxious, quickly regretted it and sent back thousands of troops that had been sent to reinforce Wuxuan. At the same time, he also sent a letter to Wei Yan, asking him to strictly guard Wuxuan. If thieves come to attack, he should act according to the opportunity.
Reckless!
This basically means telling Wei Yan directly: Why don't Wu Xuan give in? Hurry up and bring the army back to Wuzhou for me!
Wei Yan was naturally able to understand what his immediate boss Wang Yue said, and since reinforcements from Wuzhou had not been seen for a long time, Wei Yan already knew that the Governor had given up on Wu Xuan completely.
However, he still had some illusions. For example, he had expected the guest to be able to defend it for ten days and a half. Unfortunately, the guest was breached before he could hold on for even a day.
This situation scared Wei Yan. After all, the guests had tens of thousands of troops, and they couldn't defend it for a day. Although Wuxuan had reinforced the city defense, in the end it was just a small county town, and the city wall was no higher than the guests.
How many.
If you keep it this way, I’m afraid you won’t be able to keep it!
But it would be outrageous to run away before the rebels arrived. He didn't know how many people would impeach him for this, so he had to stay in Wuxuan until the day when the puppet Tang rebels arrived.
And now, the vanguard of the pseudo-Tang rebel army has appeared, which means that it is time to leave!
I have defended Wuxuan for two months for Long Live Lord and the Ming Dynasty. The soldiers also held on until the last moment. Now, it is time to retreat!