Chapter five hundred and seventy-fifth, people are stupid and money comes quickly
After Li Xuan, who was sitting on the dragon throne, said this, he stopped talking.
Having been the emperor for so long, he also knows when to speak for himself and when not to speak. The next time no longer belongs to him, but to the many ministers below.
They will have extensive discussions and even debates on how to attack Guangzhou, and like every important imperial strategic meeting of this kind, the scene will be quite intense, and everyone will have their own opinions and have fierce debates about it.
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As for unified arguments, they rarely exist. Basically, multiple strategies will be proposed, and this is actually Li Xuan's deliberate decision. If there is only one strategy, what is the point of discussing? Just implement it directly.
In such a major battle, all aspects must be considered, various ideas must be put forward, and then an optimal plan must be selected.
Even Li Xuan himself would not make decisions easily on his own, but would fully listen to opinions before finally making a final plan and ordering his ministers to implement it.
However, before the formal discussion, Colonel Li Xinzhong, the chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Brigade who has been on the front line in Guangzhou and is familiar with the situation, will describe the current situation of the Guangzhou Campaign in detail.
He stood up from the rectangular table below, then bowed slightly to Li Xuan, and at the same time, holding a baton, he walked to the huge Guangzhou and surrounding battle map at the bottom of the rectangular table and said: "Your Majesty, gentlemen,
Colleagues, at present our army has completely surrounded Guangzhou City from land. Our army's current force deployment is as follows:
To the north of Guangzhou City is the main deployment direction of our army, including the 1st Infantry Brigade, the 1st Artillery Battalion, the 14th Garrison Regiment of the 7th Garrison Brigade, the 1st Cavalry Battalion and other units. To the east is the 3rd Garrison Brigade.
The main force to the west is the Fourth Garrison Brigade. In the direction of Nancheng, because it is too close to the Pearl River and within the coverage of enemy naval gunfire, our army did not deploy troops in Nancheng.
In addition to the various departments of the First Army and the Third Garrison Brigade, the various departments of the Guards Army and the Liuzhou Independent Regiment are currently hoarding in the north!
The task of maintaining our army's supply line in the rear is mainly the responsibility of the baggage troops of each department of our army, including the first baggage regiment of the First Army and the baggage regiment of the third garrison brigade. In addition, in order to prepare for the Ming army in eastern Guangdong to come for reinforcements, our army
The two garrison battalions of the 3rd garrison brigade were deployed twenty miles northeast of Guangzhou.
The defense tasks on the Zhaoqing front line will be handed over to the 5th Infantry Brigade, Antelope Gorge Independent Regiment and other units.
Among the above-mentioned ministries, the front-line troops participating in the siege of Guangzhou include 11,000 regular troops and more than 20,000 garrison troops. There are 3,000 peripheral troops, 5,000 troops maintaining the supply line in the rear, and 10,000 troops staying behind."
The above-mentioned troops are actually the main forces of the Tang Dynasty in Guangdong!
In the Guangdong area, the Tang Dynasty King's Division included the First Army, the Third Garrison Brigade, the Fifth Infantry Brigade, the Liuzhou Independent Regiment, the Antelope Gorge Independent Regiment, and the Guards Corps.
However, not all troops can participate in the Guangzhou Campaign. Among them, the 5th Infantry Brigade has not yet formed an army. At most, it is just guarding the capital from the rear, and the Antelope Gorge Independent Regiment is a fortress garrison that cannot be moved.
The Third Garrison Brigade and the Liuzhou Independent Regiment all arrived in Guangzhou. The Third Garrison Brigade was mainly responsible for the war in the east, including attacking the east wall of Guangzhou and defending the east of Guangzhou.
Naturally, Li Xuan and the others will be there for the Guards.
The troops of the First Army are quite divided. The main force of the First Infantry Brigade, the First Artillery Battalion, and the First Cavalry Battalion are under the city of Guangzhou, while their two garrison brigades and a temporary regiment are relatively scattered.
The temporary first regiment is currently on the front line of Shaozhou Prefecture, relying on less than 3,000 troops to support the war on the northern front of Guangdong.
The 7th Garrison Brigade has taken over the tasks of the previous 4th Garrison Brigade and is currently stationed in the western coastal areas of Guangdong, including Leizhou Prefecture, the southern coast of Zhaoqing Prefecture, and the southern coastal areas of Guangzhou Prefecture, including Foshan.
Even though a vast area was to be garrisoned, in order to support the Guangzhou Campaign, the 7th Garrison Brigade still dispatched a garrison regiment to join the Guangzhou Campaign.
It can be seen that in the Battle of Guangzhou, Li Xuan had actually brought down all the troops that could be mobilized. If he could not defeat the city of Guangzhou, then he had no choice but to hold off a few more.
We will wait until the 5th Infantry Brigade is formed and even more troops are organized before making any plans.
Colonel Li Xinzhong then explained the deployment of the Ming army. The deployment of the Ming army was quite simple, because the areas around Guangzhou were already controlled by the Tang Dynasty king's division. The Ming army basically hid in the city and defended it, even if they had water.
Teachers can come and go as they please, but they don't dare to log in easily.
There are more than 20,000 Ming troops in the city, and they have a lot of artillery and muskets. The city of Guangzhou is also relatively strong, so it is not easy to fight.
In addition, a very critical point is that although the Tang Dynasty King's Navy is a scumbag, it cannot completely blockade the Pearl River, which also leads to the inability to cut off all kinds of reinforcements that Guangzhou City can receive.
The Ming army could continuously replenish soldiers, food, ordnance, etc. through the Pearl River, and Wang Yue also relied on the Pearl River lanes to replenish his troops. Otherwise, he would not have been able to increase the number of remnants from only a few thousand soldiers before.
There are more than 20,000 soldiers.
And it is impossible for everyone in the city to remain calm now. They think that they are not short of food, all kinds of ordnance, and even lack of escape routes, so they are very calm. This also makes it more difficult for the Tang Dynasty King's Army to attack the city.
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After Colonel Li Xinzhong detailed the deployment of the enemy and our forces, and introduced the city defense of Guangzhou, Colonel Lei Wan, deputy director of the Operations Department, said: "Since the navy is unable to blockade the Pearl River, why didn't the army's artillery try?
In order to blockade the Pearl River, didn't the First Artillery Battalion incorporate purchased nine-pound heavy artillery? These artillery are quite powerful?"
At this time, the new battalion commander of the First Artillery Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Feng Wenying, said: "Our battalion has tried to set up field artillery on the riverside to block the river, but the Pearl River in Guangzhou City is too wide and our artillery cannot fully cover it.
There are many enemy naval guns on the river, so in the artillery battle, our artillery firepower is not enough to gain the upper hand!"
Although the Ming Army's army artillery is not very good, the Ming Army's navy still has a lot of artillery. Among the many heavy artillery of the Ming Dynasty, almost all of them are equipped by the naval divisions along the coast, especially the Folang machine artillery, which actually exceeds
Folang machine guns weighing more than 300 kilograms are basically concentrated on the city walls of major cities and on the bows of naval ships.
The largest self-produced artillery piece in the artillery battalion of the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty was only a seven-pound field cannon, but there were several purchased nine-pound heavy cannons (12 pounds).
However, although it has a range advantage over the shotguns widely used by the Ming army, it is actually very difficult to sink an enemy ship in a real fight. However, the enemy ship can rely on the cover of the hull to get closer and fight. After all, the Ming army's
Naval generals are not fools. Although they mainly engage in boarding battles and fire attacks, they can also play with cannons! It is still possible to use shotguns when they get close.
A mere artillery battalion's more than twenty field guns, ranging in size from 12 pounds to 6 pounds, play artillery battle with the Ming Navy fleet. This is basically an act of seeking death, unless it is in a natural waterway pass like Antelope Gorge.
, and at the same time, it is still possible if one's own side is protected by forts.
At this time, you may say that you should deploy the artillery far away from the shore, but this will make it even more impossible to cover the river surface.
The effective range of artillery cannot cover the river, so how can we block it?
Therefore, the Army Artillery Corps of the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty decisively gave up after a few days of trying to blockade the Pearl River.
After Colonel Lei Wan asked, he quickly shut up. Since the artillery battalion said it couldn't be done, it must be impossible, otherwise they would have done it long ago.
The following discussion is not a discussion of the entire plan, but a discussion of some details, such as how to deal with the heavy artillery on the top of Guangzhou City, especially the powerful naval guns purchased by Wang Yue from foreigners.
It's not small. Those twelve-pound naval guns are bigger than the largest 1,200-pound (seven-pound, nine-pound) field cannon produced by the Tang Dynasty. These naval guns purchased from foreigners
, quite powerful.
In the entire Tang Dynasty, only the five nine-pound (twelve pounds, two thousand three hundred pounds) naval guns in the First Artillery Battalion could compete with them. Why? Because in fact, these artillery pieces are from the same batch.
These twelve-pound naval guns were actually naval guns that a group of Portuguese people directly removed from several armed merchant ships. They were then purchased by the Tang Army and the Ming Army very interestingly. Wang Yue quickly bought four of them. The Tang Army later paid a high price.
I snapped up five doors.
"I think we should conduct an artillery battle in the early stage, using our seven-pound heavy artillery and the purchased nine-pound heavy artillery to destroy the heavy artillery on the top of these cities one by one!"
The nine-pound heavy artillery purchased from outside was actually the same type as the twelve-pound naval gun that Wang Yue had on hand. They were both purchased from foreigners. There is no reason why Wang Yue could purchase guns and cannon from outside, but the King of the Tang Dynasty could not!
After arriving near Guangzhou, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had already tried to make contact with foreigners and even nearby pirates. The purpose was very simple, which was to purchase artillery or muskets to make up for the shortage of the Tang Dynasty's own gun production.
However, there are many foreign merchant ships active near Guangzhou these days, and they are basically all armed merchant ships. However, powerful naval guns are not so easy to find. Even if they are found, they are not willing to sell them.
If these armed merchant ships did not have naval guns, they would be perfect targets when transporting goods. If they were targeted by pirates, they would be completely ruined.
But sometimes, compared with life and money, money is more lovely, so there are still armed merchant ships that put naval guns and even artillery for self-defense on the shelves, and then sell them to the Tang Army and Wang Yue, and the money they make makes them
They kept shouting: The Far East is indeed full of gold and silver, all they have to do is shout, "You are stupid, the money will come soon!"