On the front line of Yichang in Huguang, in the frontline headquarters of the First Army, Hao Bainian and a group of officers of the First Army were discussing on a large military map surrounding the table.
There is also a larger military map hanging on the wall of the headquarters. The military map on the wall covers the entire southern Huguang area, and also includes Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou areas. It is marked in detail.
Locations of major cities and even small towns, as well as mountains and rivers.
However, in this map, the area under the control of the Tang Army is very detailed, but the map in the area controlled by the Ming Army is not so detailed.
This military map is also the most detailed map of the junction area of Huguang, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Guangdong provinces currently in the hands of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. In order to draw this detailed military map, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty deployed close to the front line
The middle and low-level officers in each unit and the staff of the division headquarters traveled to almost all places and drew these maps by hand.
In addition, the staff of the Drawing Section under the Privy Council Operations Department also hid their identities and personally visited the areas controlled by the Ming Army. They spent almost half a year drawing maps of the areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty, especially the map of the southern Huguang area.
the key of.
After a lot of efforts through various channels, we have compiled such a detailed map of the four provinces. At the same time, this map is also the most detailed military map in the Tang Dynasty and even in the world.
, although due to the lack of manpower, many areas are still missing, but compared to the abstract map in the past, which only resembles in spirit but not in form, it is naturally a full 10,000 times better.
In addition to the large military map on the wall, there is also a smaller but more detailed map of the southern Huguang area on the table surrounded by everyone.
It is mainly located in Chenzhou, Hengzhou Prefecture and Yongzhou Prefecture, supplemented by a small number of areas in northern Guangdong and northeastern Guangxi.
In this area, the locations of the existing towns are marked in detail, as well as the deployment of one's own forces and the Ming army's troop deployment learned from intelligence.
Now, Lei Wan, the former deputy director of the Operations Department who had accompanied him to Guangzhou and actually served as the chief of staff of the various units in the Guangzhou Campaign, was holding the command list and pointing at the map to explain.
Lei Wan, because of his contribution in planning the Guangzhou Campaign, when the Army and Navy were separated and the Privy Council departments were upgraded to ministries, he also took the opportunity to serve as Deputy Minister of Operations. Later, the Army was reorganized and the First Army also carried out corresponding reforms.
, he served as the chief of staff of the reformed First Army and was promoted to the rank of major general of the army.
Nowadays, all the armies in the Datang Army except the First Army have been revoked one after another. Therefore, the status of the First Army in the Datang Army is still quite high. The commander is Hao Bainian and the chief of staff is Lei Wan.
Responsible for.
As for the staff team of the First Army, most of them were recruited from the Privy Council, and the senior combat staff officers were all graduates of the Royal Academy.
At this time, Major General Lei Wan stood in front of the map and said: "After the past two days of raids, various departments of our army have successively occupied many peripheral positions in Yizhang. Now the nearly 10,000 enemy troops in Yizhang can only stick to Yizhang.
The county seat, but it is worth noting that the First Cavalry Battalion also discovered a large number of Ming troops galloping in the direction of Chenzhou. It was obvious that they had received news of our army's raid and reinforced Yizhang from Chenzhou City. This part
The enemy’s strength is probably no less than ten thousand!”
"Isn't this just right? We can bypass Yizhang and attack Chenzhou directly to cut off the logistics supply line in Yizhang!" Someone immediately said: "Or, we can simply come to a encirclement point for reinforcements and defeat the enemy one by one.
As long as the enemy's reinforcements are dealt with, taking Yizhang will be just around the corner!"
"I'm afraid it's unrealistic to surround the point for reinforcements. These Ming troops from Chenzhou are very cautious. Although they are slow, they attack steadily. If the main force of our army bypasses Yizhang and goes north, I'm afraid they will shrink back to Chenzhou!"
"If they don't come, we will continue to attack Yizhang!"
"However, this consumes too much time. Yizhang has been occupied by the enemy for several months, and there are many fortifications. Moreover, our muskets and artillery have been reinforced specifically to take advantage of our guns and artillery. Some important locations are even more
One man can guard the gate and ten thousand men cannot open it, so the gain of attacking Yizhang outweighs the loss!"
"We are playing into the enemy's hands by storming Yizhang. Now these pseudo-Ming thieves have learned to be smart. They don't fight with us in the wild at all. They all retreat into the city, and they will hoard a large amount of food and ordnance in the city.
If we defend to the death, even if our army has sharp guns and artillery, we may not be able to capture Yizhang in a short time, let alone cause a large number of casualties."
"And Yizhang is going to be attacked by force. Should Chenzhou be attacked by force in the future? And Hengzhou in the future, should we be attacked by force? There are so many cities in southern Huguang. If we go through them one by one, let alone take Changsha before the spring and summer rainy season.
I'm afraid we can't even take Hengzhou. We must use more flexible combat methods to drive these pseudo-Ming rebels out of their turtle shells and strive to defeat them in a decisive battle in the wild!"
"But how is this possible? Although these pseudo-Ming thieves are less powerful, they are not stupid. How could they come out and fight us in the wild!"
"It's not impossible to lure them out. If we attack the enemy and save them, it won't work unless they come out!"
"Yes, this is feasible. We can completely ignore Yizhang, or even Chenzhou, and attack Hengzhou in the north. I don't believe that these Ming troops are unmoved. If they still don't come out, the worst we can do is attack Hengzhou first and put them away.
Let’s take it down to Hengzhou!”
"Although the force of the puppet Ming rebels is large, it is not infinite. According to our previous estimates, there are no less than 50,000 puppet Ming rebels in the passes in Chenzhou City, Yizhang and other counties.
Moreover, the puppet Ming rebels deployed heavy troops in Linwu and Guiyang in the south of Hengzhou Prefecture, Ningyuan in Yongzhou Prefecture, and Fucheng in Yongzhou Prefecture.
A rough estimate shows that the total number of puppet Ming rebels in this part of the southernmost part of Huguang is no less than 100,000. This also means that their rear is empty. If we can successfully bypass Yizhang and Chenzhou, we are not expected to be in Hengzhou.
No matter how many enemy troops we encounter in Fucheng, once we capture Fucheng in Hengzhou, the Ming armies south of Hengzhou will be trapped by us sooner or later. They will not fail to see such a dangerous situation, so if we attack Hengzhou, they will have a great chance.
The big ones may come back to help!”
"As long as they return reinforcements, things will be much easier to handle. We can completely surround the points to provide reinforcements, and select one or two of them to defeat them!"
"But what if they draw reinforcements from Changsha and Baoqing areas, and cooperate with the Ming armies south of Hengzhou, I am afraid they will gather more than 100,000 or even more Ming armies. Although our army has extraordinary combat power, it must
One against ten, I’m afraid it’s still too much!”
Listening to the discussion among a group of officers under him, Major General Lei Wan said: "If we attack Hengzhou, I am afraid that before we arrive in Hengzhou, the Ming troops from various departments in Hengzhou will move, but they should not
They will advance in batches to carry out refueling tactics. I estimate that they will most likely gather their various units and conduct interception operations on our way to Hengzhou. Once such a situation occurs, the enemy's strength must be quite large.
It is estimated that there will be at least 50,000 troops!"
"In addition, everyone must note that once the main force of our army bypasses Yizhang and Chenzhou continues to move north, the enemy forces in these two directions can directly attack and cut off our army's logistics supply line. In this way, the main force will be unable to
To obtain continuous supplies, we can only rely on the supplies carried by the army, and the supplies carried by the army, with the current baggage carrying capacity of our army, can only sustain 15 days of rations and ammunition for two large-scale battles."
"In other words, in half a month, or after two large-scale battles, my main force heading north will run out of ammunition and food!"
Hearing what Major General Lei Wan said, the group of people below who were clamoring to bypass Chenzhou and attack Hengzhou Palace immediately shut up!
The Ming army is not stupid. They are huddled in Yizhang and Chenzhou. That is because their main force is there. If they can't defeat them, they will hide their heads in a turtle shell. But once your main force goes north, believe it or not, they will divide it.
Killed out in minutes.
If you can't defeat the main force of the Puppet Tang Dynasty, it's hard to beat your logistics and transportation troops. The transportation troops of the Tang Army are actually a group of ordinary civilians, and there is no essential difference between them and the logistics and transportation civilians of the Ming Army.
Moreover, the supply line for the attack on Hengzhou was so long that even the Ming army did not need to have many troops. They could cut off this supply line by just sending tens of thousands of people.
The Datang Army, especially the reorganized infantry divisions, has stronger firepower and combat effectiveness, but it is also more dependent on logistics. There is no stable logistics supply line, even for the First Infantry Division, the trump card of the Datang Army.
The troops also turned into soft-legged shrimps within minutes!
Everyone discussed again around the logistics supply line, the attack on Hengzhou, etc., and in the end, the dozen or so officers present had reached two relatively consistent plans.
The first plan is the simplest. Attack Yizhang first and then Chenzhou. After taking Chenzhou, go north to Hengzhou. However, the shortcomings of this plan are also very obvious. It takes a lot of time. Let alone win it before the rainy season next spring and summer.
After Changsha, it is a question whether we can capture Hengzhou, and the casualties will be very high.
The second plan is more radical. The main force of the First Infantry Division directly bypasses Yizhang and Chenzhou and rushes to Hengzhou. However, a temporary regiment will be left behind to maintain the supply line.
However, Hao Bainian didn't want to use either of these two plans. He, Hao Bainian, didn't like the combat plan with its obvious advantages and disadvantages!