Chapter 524 The biggest enemy of the Tang Dynasty is not the Ming army
As soon as the city of Wuzhou was basically cleared, Li Xuan couldn't even wait for the troops to completely clean up Wuzhou, and he already held a strategic meeting before the emperor.
However, at the first imperial strategy meeting that morning, the opinions of all parties were so different that no agreement was reached at all. Therefore, the meeting was temporarily adjourned near noon. After a group of people had a meal and rest, they held another imperial meeting at 2:30 in the afternoon.
Strategy meeting!
And this time, many generals inevitably had disagreements again about the direction of the follow-up army!
This kind of disagreement is particularly serious among the middle-level generals. The opinions of several regiment commanders are almost all seriously opposed. The new and third commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment, Zhu Xu, who has just been promoted to Army Colonel, is
He strongly advocated continuing the main force to march eastward to Zhaoqing and even Guangzhou. Taking advantage of the fact that the retreating Ming army had not yet deployed intensive troops to build a complete city defense in Zhaoqing and the Guangdong area had not yet raised a large number of young men, they could pursue the victory and seize Zhaoqing and Guangzhou in one fell swoop.
Foshan and other places laid the foundation for complete control of Guangdong.
As for the Huguang direction, especially the 30,000 Ming army that has marched into Xingquan Prefecture, the Second Army of Guizhou can continue to resist. If necessary, Xingquan Prefecture and even most of Guizhou can be abandoned. As long as Liping is ensured
As long as the house is not lost.
He even proposed that even if Liping Mansion was lost, he would not hesitate as long as the Second Army retreated to Liuzhou.
Anyway, Guizhou is barren and has no development potential at all, but the Guangdong and Guangxi regions are different. Although Guangdong and Guangxi in this era are still not as prosperous as Jiangnan, there are still several productive plains and a lot of mineral resources. At the same time,
You can also directly contact overseas to obtain the most scarce sulfur, saltpeter, and even many other strategic materials.
In short, their core point of view is that they would rather lose Guizhou than capture Guangdong!
However, Colonel Xu Ke of the Second Infantry Regiment, Major Lu Yuzhi of the Second Cavalry Battalion, and others believed that although Guizhou was barren, Xingquan Prefecture was the land of Longxing. Even the land of Longxing, the ancestor of the ancestors, was lost. This made the world
How do people view their Tang Dynasty!
This potential political impact cannot be ignored.
At the same time, Guizhou, especially Xingquan Prefecture and Liping Prefecture, are the gateways to Liuzhou. Only by guarding these two places can Liuzhou be prevented from being threatened by the Huguang Ming Army. Only when Liuzhou is safe can the hinterland of central Guangxi be preserved.
And then protect Guangdong and Guangxi.
In addition, they also believed that the Ming army in the Guangdong direction was currently weak and did not have much strength at all. They could send a partial division to capture Zhaoqing and Guangzhou, while the main force should move northward.
However, they also have differences among themselves on where to go north. Some people think that they should return to Liuzhou, and then return from Liping Prefecture to Xingquan Prefecture to resist the Ming army. Some people think that they should go north to Guilin, capture Guilin, and then fight northeastward to capture
Jingzhou, Huguang, directly cut off the retreat of the 30,000 Huguang People's Army who had already marched into Xingquan Prefecture.
Once again, everyone was having a heated debate about the follow-up strategic direction. Even the core combat command center of the Tang Dynasty, the staff of the Privy Council's Operations Department, had serious disagreements about this.
For a while, it turned out that it was impossible to come up with a perfect plan that all parties agreed on.
In this regard, Li Xuan's idea was very simple. He directly asked the Operations Department to formulate the above three strategic plans as backup.
In fact, at present, Li Xuan already feels that the situation of the Tang Dynasty has been greatly improved. Whether it is to advance eastward, northward to Huguang, or return to Guizhou, it is actually possible, and the result is unlikely to be too bad.
As for which one is better, that's hard to say.
Because the prospects are relatively optimistic, Li Xuan does not plan to directly interfere with the work of the Operations Department and these senior generals this time. After all, they are more professional in matters such as fighting.
As for himself, Li Xuan can be proud to say that his knowledge in science is better than anyone in the contemporary era, but he dare not say that he is better than these people in fighting.
Furthermore, no matter how good a person's idea is, there may be something he has not thought of, and if more than twenty people meet to discuss it together, even if the discussion process is full of quarrels, it also means that various possibilities will be met.
was proposed, and the battle plan was improved as much as possible to avoid unexpected possibilities.
Li Xuan sat at the top with peace of mind, closed his eyes, and seemed to ignore the arguments of the people below, but of course this was impossible, he had been listening.
It's just that in order to maintain a transcendent saint state, I showed an attitude of disdain to listen.
At this time, among the people below, the mid-level officers had been arguing fiercely for a long time. Although they still could not be persuaded to sleep, the basic idea was already clear, which was to go eastward, go north to Guilin, and return to Liuzhou.
That's all.
And after discussion, the advantages and disadvantages of these three paths and even many details have been proposed and improved. Now all that is left to do is to make a choice.
At this time, Hao Bainian, Chen Keqiao, and Zeng Ziwen were sitting together and talking in low voices!
Just listen to Chen Keqiao saying: "The three options have their own advantages and disadvantages, but from the perspective of Datang's future strategy, I still prefer to go eastward to Guangdong. Even if I don't send all the main forces to Guangdong, at least I will
To send an infantry brigade, half of the artillery and cavalry have to be brought in. Only in this way can we capture Zhaoqing and Guangzhou as quickly as possible!"
Having said this, he continued: "The rainy season is coming. According to the current weather, we still have half a month at most. If it exceeds this time, we will not have enough time to capture Zhaoqing and Guangzhou. If we miss it
After this period of time, if we use the power of guns and artillery to attack places like Zhaoqing and Guangzhou, it will be at least three months later!"
The rainy season in Guangdong and Guangxi comes several months earlier than the rainy season in Jiangnan, because in the Huaxia region, the rainy season first appears in the southern regions such as Guangdong and Guangxi, and then gradually moves northward, so there will be such a scene. When the rain falls in the south,
At that time, it was still snowing in the north.
When it rains continuously in the Jiangnan area, the sun is already shining brightly in Guangdong!
This kind of regional climate difference means that if the Tang Dynasty Wangshi does not rush south to Guangzhou, there will be a headache in the rainy season, and the impact on the battle will be very great. By then, the Tang Dynasty
The biggest enemy of King Division will not be the Ming army, but the continuous rain!
So Chen Keqiao said: "So I think it is better to go south as soon as possible and conquer Zhaoqing and Guangzhou with lightning speed. After taking these two places, it will be easy to control other places in Guangdong. We, Datang
Master Wang’s strategy of going south can be considered truly completed!”
However, Zeng Ziwen said at this time: "Since we are talking about the rainy season, what if the rainy season comes a few days earlier, or our army is blocked under Zhaoqing City, or is blocked under Guangzhou City for a few days?
, then our army will be extremely passive!"
At this time, Chen Keqiao said: "If our army sends 10,000 regular troops south, and then brings a garrison of 10,000 people, 20,000 troops will be enough to attack the city. Zhaoqing, which is only guarded by thousands of defeated soldiers, will not be able to survive."
It’s impossible to resist our army’s attack!”
At this time, Hao Bainian also spoke: "Judging from the current situation of Datang, it is necessary to continue to advance eastward, and we must attack decisively and quickly. The current situation in Guangdong is very good, and we need to seize the time to consolidate the results.
Prevent Zhaoqing from becoming the next Wuzhou!"
"However, the Ming army in Huguang cannot be ignored. I heard that Zhang Yue, who went to Huguang this time, is very experienced and has very sharp methods. Otherwise, he would not have been able to defeat many officials and generals in Huguang in such a short period of time.
Thirty thousand Ming troops were sent eastward to Xingquan!"
"So this trip to the north is also necessary!"
Hao Bainian paused slightly when he said this, and then said: "So this division of troops is inevitable. Our First Army has a huge force. Regardless of whether the rainy season will come or not, Guangdong will not be able to use the First Army.
A main force of ten thousand people!”
As Hao Bainian said, the First Army has strong strength, including the First Infantry Brigade, the Third Infantry Brigade, the Liuzhou Independent Regiment, two artillery battalions, two cavalry battalions, a Guards Corps, two baggage regiments, and additional
Two garrison brigades.
Even though more than 5,000 people were killed and injured in the Wuzhou Battle, the military department of the Tang Dynasty King's Division was not just for food. They had already begun to prepare in advance to recruit soldiers for the possible large casualties in the Wuzhou Battle. Although the Privy Council now
The Training Department has not yet completed the training of this batch of soldiers who are expected to be added to the First Army.
But for this kind of thing, the Tang Dynasty also had rich experience early on. If the one-month training was not completed, then a group of the best-quality recruits who had not completed the training would be selected and directly added to the regular army, and then in
Training continues in the regular army.
Although doing so will inevitably lead to a decline in troop strength, this decline is controllable. After all, there cannot be too many new recruits.
Especially among the main forces of the existing First Army, the Sixth Infantry Regiment has a serious shortage of personnel, and other losses are relatively small. The Sixth Infantry Regiment is still a purely cold-weapon unit.
The damage was extremely severe, so it is unlikely that it will undertake an important combat mission for the second time in a short period of time.
As for the replenishment of the garrison brigade, it is even simpler. They captured 20,000 people in Wuzhou, and even some of them were selected as elite forces to supplement the regular army.
There are also some who are probably unwilling to surrender to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and fight for the eternal sage Li Xuan.
But even so, according to usual experience, out of the 20,000 people, at least 15,000 should be able to select to serve the Tang Dynasty King Master, well, including those who are willing at the beginning and those who are unwilling at the beginning, but are willing later.
people!
These people are enough to fully replenish the two existing garrison brigades, and two more garrison brigades can be organized.
These extra Ming army troops will form the 6th garrison brigade and the 7th garrison brigade.