Chapter 560 Learn from the Master of the Tang Dynasty!
After suffering enough from the firearms of the puppet Tang rebels, the Ming army now has high praise for firearms, especially those on the front line. They believe that the puppet Tang rebel army was able to capture three provinces so quickly and defeat the official army.
, just because they have the advantage of firearms.
And once you have firearms, you will definitely be able to double the combat effectiveness of the army. Moreover, the foundation of the Ming Dynasty is not comparable to that of the Pseudo-Tang Dynasty. If the Pseudo-Tang rebels can make one musket, then the Ming Dynasty can make ten.
Rods or even hundreds of muskets.
So now many Ming army generals have set off a trend of learning from the Tang Dynasty king!
For example, Wang Yue urgently purchased a batch of firearms from foreigners, and then urgently copied a small number of firearms on his own, and after cobbling together hundreds of muskets and a dozen artillery pieces, he felt confident.
With this batch of firearms as a foundation, he can prepare a firearms army. Coupled with the tens of thousands of other cold weapon troops in Guangzhou City, Wang Yue has great confidence to defend Guangzhou City until the Huguang Ming Army or Jiangxi
, Ming troops from Fujian and other places came to Guangdong.
By then, Wang Yue will not only be able to get rid of the negative political impression caused by his previous consecutive defeats, but he may also be able to receive a reward for his meritorious service in holding on to Guangzhou.
Even if he can't get a reward, he will be satisfied as long as he can stay in his original position.
If you can't defend Guangzhou, you will be in big trouble. The court will definitely settle old and new accounts together, and your end will definitely not be too good. There is no chance of being demoted or exiled, but it is a huge possibility.
He would be beheaded directly by the angry Emperor Zhengde and his cabinet bosses.
You might even hurt your family!
Naturally, he couldn't bear this result, so he worked hard to strengthen Guangzhou's defensive power!
The collected firearms and artillery were placed on the top of the city, together with the original bowl-mouth cannons of the Ming Army, and a number of Folang machine guns transferred from the navy, which served as the main firepower for the defense of the city.
As for the hundreds of matchlock guns that he copied or purchased directly from foreigners, he organized them into a firearms camp.
This battalion is not a specific organization like the battalion in the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty, but the designation of an independent unit, which is generally similar to a certain army.
This firearms battalion, which he personally commanded, has a total of 1,200 people. In addition to the auxiliary troops of about 200 people, the main force is about 500 musketeers equipped with muskets and 500 spearmen equipped with spears.
The spearmen in the front row of these spearmen were all equipped with armor and shields that he had finally gathered from all the armies.
It can also be seen from this that the firearms battalion built by Wang Yue not only imitated the regular army of the Tang Dynasty King's Division in equipment, but even the organization was similar.
This firearms battalion consists of four musketry teams. The size of each musketry team is exactly the same as the size of the musketry team in the regular army of the Tang Dynasty King's Division. One is no more and the other is less.
Even the four spear teams are organized according to the size of a hundred-man team.
Not to mention these establishments, even the names are imitated, such as the Musketeers and Spears, and they are also imitated. If Li Xuan knew about it, he would definitely call him shameless!
Of course, officers' titles and military ranks cannot be learned. The Ming Dynasty still wanted to be proud, and not everything would be imitated. But what is very interesting is that the Ming army officers in this firearms camp are definitely highly qualified.
The battalion commander is Yu Dayou, the deputy commander-in-chief of Guangdong, who is also the battalion commander Qian Shi.
Then the captains of each team are all Qianhu. This is Qianhu, not a big cabbage. If it were placed in the Ming Army Guards Army, it would be a mid-level and senior officer commanding a Qianhu. But in this
In the firearms camp, you can only serve as the leader of a team.
The soldiers of the battalion were drawn from various guards and recruiters, and were given relatively high treatment. The lowest-level auxiliary soldiers, that is, non-combat soldiers such as cooks, all had one to two or eight coins.
The monthly salary for soldiers such as musketeers and spearmen is two to five cents of silver.
And this is just the basic salary, because in order to improve morale, Wang Yue offered a high reward for killing the puppet Tang thief. The head of a puppet Tang thief is worth five taels of silver. If this puppet Tang
If the bandit army is still a musketeer or a heavily armored soldier, then the reward will be ten taels of silver.
At the same time, because it is difficult for combat units such as firearms battalions to distinguish individual detailed results, these bounties are distributed among the combat soldiers.
If the battalion can kill and injure a thousand rebels in a big battle, then they will be able to share a profit of at least 5,000 taels and a bounty of up to 10,000 taels of silver. If they win a few more battles, then even ordinary soldiers will be able to earn a reward of at least 10,000 taels of silver.
At the end of the year, I can earn dozens or even hundreds of taels of silver.
The newly established firearms camp and the more than ten heavy cannons and dozens of large and small bowl-mouthed cannons on the city gave Wang Yue unprecedented confidence. He even felt that if he had such sharp weapons in Wuzhou,
Without firearms, it would be impossible for the puppet Tang bandit army to conquer Wuzhou.
Unfortunately, there is no if!
As Guangzhou's Wang Yue got closer to the coast, he could get a batch of firearms from foreigners for emergency use, but that didn't mean that the Huguang Ming Army could do the same. Although Zhang Yue also asked craftsmen to start imitating the muskets of the pseudo-Tang rebel army, but for a while
You can't imitate much in a while, and it's even more impossible to imitate artillery quickly.
The only comforting thing is that Zhang Yue used his personal connections to get some Folan cannons from the navy in the Jiangnan area. Now Tan Rong has eight of them. This Folan cannon can
They were not the small 100-pound Folang machine guns used by the northern frontier army, but the cannons used by the navy. The lightest of them weighed 150 jins, and more than half of them were 300-pound Folan machine guns.
Although the range of this kind of breech-loaded shotgun is not very good, the firepower within a hundred meters is still quite fierce, not much worse than the 150-pound shotguns batch-equipped by the Tang Dynasty.
However, the Folan cannons in Tan Rong's hands are the same as those bowl-mouth cannons. Because the range is too short, they can only be used to attack enemy infantry and cannot be used for pseudo-long-distance suppressive fire.
Of the 15,000 people sent out to rescue Jingzhou, fully half of the Fo Lang machine guns were taken away. This made Tan Rong slightly uneasy, thinking that even if they were intercepted by the main force of the puppet Tang rebel army on the road,
Without the cooperation of the Jingzhou garrison, these fifteen thousand people could still fight.
As for winning, well, Tan Rong is not so arrogant. He does not think that these 15,000 men alone can completely defeat the 7,000 main force of the puppet Tang rebel army.
However, he did not need to defeat the main force of the 7,000 puppet Tang rebels. He only needed to push back the puppet Tang rebels slightly and maintain the supply line.
In another ten days and a half, the bandits in Xingquan Mansion will definitely starve to death. Even if they don't starve to death, I'm afraid they will be at the end of their war effort. By then, I will launch a fierce attack and seize Xingquan Mansion City. It should not be a problem.
.
Then I will have nearly 20,000 more mobile troops on hand that I can use, whether to march westward to Liping Prefecture or to return to Jingzhou to aid.
By that time, you will have the final say on the trend of the entire battlefield.
Tan Rong has his own strategic plan, and Fang Xitong and Chen Keqiao also have their own strategic plans!
When Fang Xitong received the military intelligence report from the Fourth Army, he looked at the map for a long time, and then sighed: "This Chen Keqiao is very courageous. He wants to treat himself as a stubborn rock in the flood."
ah!"
He could tell at a glance that Chen Keqiao's strategic plan was very simple and crude, which was to cut off the Ming army's logistics supply line from Jingzhou to Xingquan Prefecture, and even block it and annihilate the Ming army's returning reinforcements.
Conception.
But doing so is very risky. If you are not careful, you will fall into a double attack by the Ming army, or even be surrounded.
After all, the total Ming army in Jingzhou and Xingquan Prefecture totaled more than 60,000 people. Even if Tan Rong sent 10,000 to 20,000 troops to return reinforcements, plus the defenders in Jingzhou, there would still be 30,000 people.
If a fight breaks out, the Fourth Army, which has only 7,000 men, will be more dangerous.
However, since Chen Keqiao has made such a risky plan, no matter what the final outcome of the Fourth Army is, he has successfully created an opportunity for the Second Army to understand the siege of Xingquan Fucheng.
And this opportunity may last only a few days. If you take into account the time the military intelligence report was delayed on the road, there will be even less time left for the Second Army, so Fang Xitong spent only one day.
Don't be prepared to waste.
After all, when Fang Xitong received the information from the Fourth Army, four days had passed since the Fourth Army had actually cut off the Ming army's supply line. Tan Rong even knew about it two days earlier than Fang Xitong. Now the reinforcements sent by Tan Rong have already
He was heading towards Jingzhou.
As a result, there is not much time left for Fang Xitong!
So after he received the news, he immediately issued a mobilization order for the entire army, and ordered the entire army to set off early tomorrow morning, with the target: Xingquan Mansion.
After this period of rest and replenishment, although Fang Xitong's troops still have not returned to their peak condition, they are still much better than when they returned from the defeat. Now the core troops under his command are the third
Although the infantry regiment received a bit too many new recruits, it has finally returned to full strength, and the number of ordnance has also been urgently replenished and returned to full strength.
In other words, Fang Xitong now has a fully-staffed Third Infantry Regiment. Well, there are just a little more recruits in it. At least a quarter of them have just been recruited from the recruit camp.
Yes, it seems a bit unreliable, but other troops are even more unreliable!