In Zhaoqing, at the Third Guard Brigade station about twenty miles outside the city, Cai Erhu ushered in the second most important turning point in his life.
The first turning point in his life was that he decisively chose to surrender to the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty and became a general in the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty. This allowed him to get rid of his previous identity as a bandit and step out of the mountains to see the outside world.
world.
From then on, like many high-ranking generals who came from bandits in the Tang Dynasty, he saw a wider world and came into contact with people and things that he had never been able to come into contact with before.
In this process, most of the generals who came from bandits perished!
Their past knowledge and concepts limited their future path. When the Tang Dynasty grew rapidly step by step, they were unable to keep up with the rapid expansion of the Tang Dynasty.
Most of the last group of people are either held high and unable to hold real power. For example, Huang Xueren and Fang Dongquan are typical examples.
However, the other group of people were even worse. They were first arranged to serve as a supply unit, then a second-line unit, finally a garrison unit, and finally a bandit camp.
Most of the bandit officers in the Huang Zhushan era, especially those who were bandit leaders from the beginning, have now been assigned to serve in the bandit camps, let alone the regular army, even those who stayed in the garrison.
few.
There are actually very few people who can really keep up with the rapid development of the Tang Dynasty. Strictly speaking, there is only one person, Chen Tufu. Now Chen Tufu is doing a very impressive job in the artillery force.
In addition, there are Wang Shanxu and Cai Erhu. Although they are said to be lacking in ability and have poor learning ability, they have been persisting.
Wang Shanxu has great ambitions but limited abilities. He has always wanted to stay in the main force and develop, but he is far behind the brigade commander, so he has always been the commander of the Fourth Infantry Regiment. Now he is defending the city in Xingquan Prefecture. If
If this battle is won, Wang Shanxu will probably slowly get back on track. It is also possible to lead a main brigade in the future.
Let's not talk about Chen Tufu. Although his current military rank is not high, he is only a lieutenant colonel, and he does not have many troops. He only has an unsatisfied First Artillery Battalion.
But everyone knows that the reason why Chen Tufu was not promoted was only temporary. Even if the Tang Dynasty did not have a higher-level artillery unit, it was the same. After all, no one stipulated that officers with artillery background must command artillery.
You can also command a regiment or even a brigade.
At the same time, he can also be transferred to serve in the Privy Council. Xie Ziwei, the former commander of the First Artillery Battalion, was transferred to the Privy Council.
After the Battle of Wuzhou, Xie Ziwei was promoted to colonel, and now serves as the director of the Artillery Department of the Privy Council, in charge of artillery development, training and other work. Although he works in the rear, he can be said to be the artillery commander in the Tang Dynasty.
As long as there are no accidents in the future, Butcher Chen will be able to climb up steadily. Unlike others, he still needs various opportunities and military exploits.
Cai Erhu is much simpler and simpler, but this simplicity and simplicity also reveals shrewdness. He has already served in the garrison because he has long known that he cannot climb up in the main force. The lines of the modern army
He doesn't know how to fight at all.
What he is best at and the only thing he can do is to lead the soldiers to fight hand-to-hand from above, so instead of feeling desolate about guarding the troops, he is actually quite happy doing so.
Under his leadership of daring to fight and dare to kill, the Third Guard Brigade gradually formed its own unique combat style. Finally, it stood out among a group of garrison troops in the Tang Dynasty, and finally established a great foundation in the Battle of Wuzhou.
of credit.
Even though the 3rd Garrison Brigade was just a cannon fodder unit at that time, it was not easy to become a successful cannon fodder unit.
Such a third garrison brigade ushered in a rare opportunity after the Battle of Wuzhou. It first needed to rest and replenish. This kind of rest and replenishment was not simply to replenish some troops and equipment, but to prioritize replenishment and the quality of the replenished personnel and equipment.
It's much better than other garrison units.
After arriving in Zhaoqing, Li Xuan continued to strengthen the Third Guard Brigade and even arranged some auxiliary troops. From these auxiliary troops, many people could see that after this reorganization and strengthening, the Third Guard Brigade
, I’m afraid it will have the ability to fight independently.
There was no precedent among the many garrison brigades of the Tang Dynasty.
The garrison brigades of the Tang Dynasty did not have the ability to fight independently. There were two lonely garrison regiments in a garrison brigade, and there were only five garrison battalions under the garrison regiment.
But there are no artillery, cavalry, baggage and other auxiliary units.
Because in the Army of the Tang Dynasty, the position of the garrison was to assist the main force in fighting. To put it bluntly, it was used as cannon fodder. There was no need for these auxiliary forces, nor did they need to fight independently.
However, the Third Garrison Brigade received the configuration of these auxiliary troops during the reorganization and supplementation. Although these auxiliary troops were garrison soldiers transferred from surrendered soldiers of the Ming Army, rather than regular army soldiers, this is still the first time that they have appeared.
.
After welcoming a group of dozens of cavalry yesterday, today we welcomed an imperial envoy again!
The young imperial envoy sent by the Hanlin Academy read out the first imperial edict in front of Cai Erhu and a group of senior generals of the Third Guard Brigade. The wording of the imperial edict naturally made Cai Erhu look stunned.
But it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. The Third Guard Brigade also has literate officers. His deputy is also his right-hand man. Lieutenant Colonel Sun Xiancheng, the staff officer of the Third Guard Brigade, after the imperial envoy read out the imperial edict, spoke in Cai Erhu’s ears.
Bian explained: "They also said that not only the auxiliary troops that were added to our Third Guard Brigade some time ago will be a fixed establishment under our Third Guard Brigade from now on, but we will also be given an infantry battalion establishment.
His Majesty also said that our Third Garrison Division will fight independently in the future, and I hope we can achieve greater feats and live up to His Majesty's high expectations!"
"Add another infantry battalion to fight independently?" He is not surprised that the Third Guard Brigade wants to fight independently, because if His Majesty does not allow the Third Guard Brigade to fight independently, he will not allocate these auxiliary troops to the Third Guard Brigade, but
Cai Erhu himself was a little surprised when he heard the term infantry battalion!
As one of the senior officers of the Tang Dynasty, he naturally knew the names of various establishments in the Tang Dynasty. They were both battalions, but infantry battalions and garrison battalions were two completely different things.
There are many battalion-level establishments in the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty, including infantry battalions, artillery battalions, cavalry battalions, baggage battalions, garrison battalions, reserve battalions, robber battalions, engineer battalions, transportation battalions, etc. The infantry battalions are generally
It refers specifically to the infantry battalion in the regular army. This infantry battalion is generally equipped with muskets and spears. The infantry battalion with line tactics as its core is the core combat strength of the Tang Army.
How core?
There are only three such infantry battalions in an infantry regiment!
There are only six in an infantry brigade!
At present, among the four armies, even if they are fully established, each army still only has six. The third army does not even have one, and the fourth army now only has five.
In the entire Tang Dynasty Army, there were a total of seventeen such infantry battalions. Even if the three of the Guards were included, there were only twenty.
It seems unlikely that such an infantry battalion would be assigned to the 3rd Garrison Brigade. This is no longer a matter of whether we pay attention to it, but because the combat methods and tactics are completely incompatible.
Although the garrison, even the strengthened 3rd garrison brigade, has escaped the fate of cannon fodder, it will still be a force equipped with cold weapons and using hand-to-hand combat as its main fighting method, just like the Ming army.
The Ming army was also equipped with a lot of artillery, but they were still a typical cold-weapons melee army, and their combat mode was completely different from that of modern armies.
However, his chief of staff Sun Xiancheng quickly explained: "This kind of battalion is the previous reserve battalion!" "If it is a reserve battalion, this makes sense!" Cai Erhu nodded slightly after hearing this.
Give him a regular infantry battalion. To be honest, he doesn't know how to use it, but the reserve battalion is much better. The reserve battalion is the cold weapon battalion of the regular army. Although the soldiers and quality are better than the garrison, the combat style is also different from the garrison.
It's the same, but it's still a cold weapon unit after all, and it can still be used if he uses it.
After all, the current garrison regiments themselves have regular military establishments. Each garrison regiment has two teams of about 200 regular troops, mainly spearmen, sword and shield men and archers. The main purpose is not to fight.
, but act as a supervisory team to suppress those soldiers who surrender.
If the third garrison brigade has one more regular infantry battalion equipped with cold weapons, then the number of troops will already be close to ten thousand people. The second imperial edict that followed did not cause too many surprises. This was promotion.
Cai Erhu was awarded the rank of Army Major General.
When the Third Garrison Brigade was expanded, everyone had guessed it, and Li Xuan did not hide it. He had already asked the Hanlin Academy, the Ministry of War and the Privy Council to prepare relevant documents. Cai Erhu was about to be promoted to Army Major General.
It has already spread throughout Zhaoqing.
Even Cai Erhu himself knew that he would be promoted in the past few days.
But when he put on a brand-new general's uniform and took over the 'Royal-given Gold-plated Command Sword' that represented his status as a general, there were only five swords in the Tang Dynasty before, but now the one in his hand was the sixth one; when
When the Imperial Envoy, His Majesty Li Xuan, pinned the epaulettes of Army Major General on him, he couldn't help but jump wildly. At the last moment, he finally became a general.
He is not the kind of general who boasts in name only, but a general who truly commands tens of thousands of troops!
And he was also the sixth general in the Tang Dynasty system!