As for choosing the Third Garrison Brigade as the first unit to reform the garrison, on the one hand, it is because the Third Garrison Brigade can be regarded as a model among the current garrison units. It has relatively strong combat effectiveness. During the reform, it does not need to be eliminated too much.
Too many unqualified troops.
At the same time, there are still thousands of Ming troops in Guangzhou who can replenish the 3rd garrison brigade after reducing its unqualified troops.
Of course, there is a more important task: the 3rd Garrison Brigade currently has no combat mission.
The Third Garrison Brigade is currently stationed in the Pearl River Delta region. Although this area is occasionally invaded by the Ming Navy, there is no large-scale Ming Army threat, so it can be reorganized calmly.
After Li Xuan's reorganization order was issued, the Third Guard Brigade quickly entered the reorganization state.
First, the soldiers of the 3rd Garrison Brigade were assessed one by one. Unqualified soldiers who did not meet the physical fitness standards and did not obey orders on weekdays were all arranged to retire and allowed to return to their hometowns to work in the countryside.
Because the overall quality of the Third Guard Brigade is relatively good, the number of retired soldiers is not large, only about 30%. However, even so, the Third Guard Brigade with a strength of 10,000 people quickly dropped to less than 7,000.
arrive.
The remaining 7,000 soldiers of the 3rd Garrison Brigade will undergo an intensive training period to strive to make these 7,000 soldiers reach the quality of regular army soldiers. At the same time, the 3rd Garrison Brigade and the designations of each garrison regiment will be abolished. The above-mentioned recruits will be reorganized into
The first division-level unit of the Tang Army, the Sixth Infantry Division.
Why the division-level troops were established at this time is partly due to the continuous expansion needs of the troops, and also because after the garrison is reorganized, the remaining garrison soldiers will become regular army soldiers, and according to the plan, these recruits will
Replenish those entering the regular armies.
In order to retain combat effectiveness and integrate it into the existing troops faster, the simplest way is to downsize the existing garrison brigade into a purely cold-weapon infantry regiment, and then directly add it to each infantry brigade.
After adding this pure cold weapon infantry regiment, it is no longer appropriate for the infantry brigade with three regiments to continue to be called an infantry brigade. Naturally, it is better to change it to an infantry division.
Abolition of the garrison, selecting elite backbones from the garrison to supplement the regular army, and then taking the opportunity to expand the infantry brigades into infantry divisions. This is a plan that the Army has been planning for a long time.
When the Sixth Infantry Division is established, it means that the previous five infantry brigades will be expanded one by one into the First to Fifth Infantry Divisions.
This kind of division-level force, according to Li Xuan's plan, will have two musketry regiments equipped with muskets, and one spear regiment equipped primarily with spears, supplemented by swords, shields, and bows and arrows.
At the same time, various auxiliary units such as artillery battalions, baggage regiments, and cavalry battalions originally assigned to each army will also be directly integrated into each division.
According to this new division-level organization, there will be two musketry regiments, a pike regiment, a baggage regiment, a cavalry battalion, an artillery battalion and various auxiliary units.
If the troops are fully established, the total strength should be 12,500. Of course, the Tang Dynasty today cannot fully equip each unit because there are always not enough cavalry. A full cavalry battalion should have
There are four hundred cavalry, but in fact the First Cavalry Battalion and the Guards Cavalry Battalion, which have the most cavalry, only have three hundred cavalry.
On the other hand, there will be no shortage of infantry, but musketeers and heavy armor units.
Because in such an infantry division, there are only less than 1,300 ordinary musketeers and 200 grenadiers, and the total number is only 1,500. And the 6th Infantry Division adapted from the 3rd Garrison Brigade has
There are neither musketeers nor grenadiers, so we can only form three pike regiments first, and then slowly equip the muskets later.
The total number of heavy armored spearmen and heavy armored sword and shield soldiers is about 800.
The heavy armored units are actually fine, but the number of musketeers is too small!
But there is nothing we can do about it. Although the output of muskets in the Tang Dynasty is small, it will not be available for a while from outside. Foreigners in the Pearl River Estuary have bought all the muskets they can buy, and foreigners now have none.
According to this division-level organization plan, after completing the reorganization of the six infantry divisions and adding other troops, the total strength of the Tang Army should be able to reach about 80,000 people. Compared with the current army strength of more than 130,000 people,
There was a direct reduction of 50,000 people. However, although the number of troops was reduced, military expenditures increased instead of decreasing.
However, since the army dares to do this, it is naturally confident. The garrison's combat power is weak. One infantry brigade of the regular army can definitely defeat more than three garrison brigades, and it is a garrison brigade like the third garrison brigade. As for other ordinary garrison brigade,
The garrison brigade, to be honest, has no use other than being cannon fodder.
Therefore, the army would rather maintain expensive regular troops than waste military expenditures on maintaining garrison troops.
In this environment of downsizing garrison troops and training infantry divisions, the original five temporary regiments will not be directly abolished. Although the temporary regiments have reserve battalions and garrison troops of the regular army, these five temporary regiments
Most of the regiments have their own exclusive combat missions, and it would be difficult to arrange for them to be directly revoked. Therefore, although these five temporary regiments will also be reorganized, they will still retain their temporary regiment numbers.
The only mixed regiment in the Tang Dynasty, the First Mixed Regiment, is still retained because the First Mixed Regiment was originally a regular army unit and had nothing to do with the garrison.
If the Army's reorganization work can be successfully completed in the second half of the year, the Army will have six infantry divisions, one mixed regiment, and five temporary regiments, with a full strength of about 80,000 people.
And this, of course, does not include the Guards. The Guards do not belong to the army system, but directly belong to the royal family. To be precise, they directly belong to the direct management and command of the emperor. The Guards are from recruitment to
Ordnance procurement is carried out independently, and its military expenditures do not go through the total military expenditure channels of the army and navy, but are spent directly from the royal family.
The Guards are positioned as Li Xuan's direct bodyguards. The scale will not be very large. There are thousands of people now and tens of thousands in the future. It is impossible to slowly expand to hundreds of thousands or even like the army.
of millions of people.
Because the Army of the Tang Dynasty is still at war with the Ming Army, it is impossible to complete the reorganization work all at once. The only option is to let the troops in the rear who have no combat missions be reorganized first, and then the troops on the front line can be reorganized during the rest period.
adaptation.
According to the Army's convenient plan, the reorganization plan has already been formulated. For example, the 3rd Garrison Brigade was reorganized into the 6th Infantry Division, and the 5th Infantry Brigade, which is still in training, was expanded into the 5th Infantry Division. These are all comparative
Simple, a task that can be completed with just a few adjustments.
The Third Army is also easier, because the Third Army is in Guangxi. Although it also has combat missions in Yunnan, the tasks are not heavy, so it can be reorganized when the various units take advantage of the opportunity to rest.
On the other hand, the reorganization of the various units of the First Army, Second Army, and Fourth Army was more troublesome, because these units were continuously fighting against the Ming Army in northeastern Guizhou, southwestern Huguang, and northern Guangdong, so it was more difficult to reorganize them.
It can only be adapted during the rest period, and it also requires the cooperation of the rear troops.
For example, after the Sixth Infantry Division is initially formed, it will move north, first taking over the combat tasks of the First Army and continuing northward. The First Army will rest and reorganize on the spot, and then be reorganized into the First Infantry Division and the Third Infantry Division on the spot.
.
The subsequent defense of the entire Guangdong will be handed over to the Fifth Infantry Division and the Guards.
The Fourth Army is more troublesome, because it is on the front line and there are a lot of enemy troops in front of them, so it is more difficult to adapt, but it can only be done slowly.
In the same situation as the Fourth Army, the Second Army was also the main force fighting the Huguang Ming Army and could not move arbitrarily.
Therefore, the units of the Second Army fighting in Guizhou were the last to be adapted.
At the same time, a new policy was also set for Ming army prisoners. Instead of directly recruiting them into the garrison regardless of their merits as in the past, qualified soldiers would be recruited and directly added to the regular armies after a complete month of training.
Because it is a war period, there is not so much time for wrangling or repeated research. When the 3rd Garrison Brigade was the first to be reorganized into the 6th Infantry Division, the other armies outside also received orders to reorganize. But when will the reorganization be completed?
It depends on the specific development of the situation.
However, according to the Army's estimates, the 5th Infantry Division and the 6th Infantry Division can be reorganized within two months, and the various units of the Third Army should also be able to be reorganized into the 4th Infantry Division within three months. As for the First Army,
The reorganization of the Second Army and the Fourth Army cannot be accurately estimated, and it is planned to completely complete the reorganization within three to six months.
How long it will take depends on how intense the fighting is on the front lines.
When the order to adapt came down, Cai Erhu, who was in Guangzhou, was happy and a little depressed at the same time, because since he served in the 3rd Guards Brigade, his luck has begun to skyrocket, and he actually has the rank of Army Major General, and now
He is about to become the commander of an infantry division.
But what made him depressed was that among the six infantry divisions that the military planned to expand, his Sixth Infantry Division was the only one with a pike regiment without a single musket.
In other words, his Sixth Infantry Division is not comparable to the other five infantry divisions, and the value of his army major general division commander cannot be compared with other division commanders.
Although he was depressed, he was also very satisfied. He was now a major general and division commander, but Wang Shanxu and Fang Dongquan were still army colonels.
Compared with them, I am still lucky!
But he didn't know that in this round of army reorganization, he was not the only lucky person, there was also Wang Shanxu, and Wang Shanxu would be even luckier than Cai Erhu!