Chapter 645 The Pseudo Tang Who Digged His Own Grave
Powerlessness was not only the feeling of Zhang Yue and even Wang Yue, but also the feeling of many civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty who were on the front line against the puppet Tang thieves.
The puppet army of the Tang Dynasty was so fierce that ordinary guardsmen could not resist it. As a result, the Ming Dynasty's army, especially the local guardsmen, could only huddle in the city. It was difficult to protect themselves, let alone annihilate the rebels.
Woolen cloth.
However, in this general environment, there is still a steady stream of 'good news' sent to the capital.
What's the good news?
Many officials of the Ming Dynasty gradually discovered that although the puppet Tang bandit army opposite them was still strong, the number was much smaller, especially after they learned through some public information that the puppet Tang Dynasty had eliminated a large number of garrison troops and bandit capture camps.
, many officials of the Ming Dynasty believed that this was the pseudo-Tang Dynasty digging its own grave, and it suddenly eliminated nearly 100,000 people in its army of fake thieves. If this wasn't digging its own grave, what could it be?
They were unwilling to delve deeper into the fact that some of the backbones of the eliminated garrison and bandit camps had been selected and reorganized into regular armies. They even ignored these eliminated garrison and bandit camps. What would happen to them when they returned to the local area?
Turning into a labor force, whether it is farming or working in workshops and factories in major cities, it will bring more food and industrial products to the Tang Dynasty.
They just saw that the Tang Dynasty eliminated nearly 100,000 people at once, and the number of puppet Tang rebels quickly dropped from more than 100,000 and even close to 200,000 to less than 100,000.
Therefore, many people concluded that the Puppet Tang Dynasty must not be able to support such a large military expenditure, so it was forced to reduce its military expenditure. And if so many troops were eliminated at once, turmoil would definitely occur, and the Puppet Tang Dynasty would be devastated even if its military strength was not reduced.
The dynasty cares about the head but not the tail.
It can be judged from this that the Pseudo-Tang Dynasty has come to an end, and the Ming Dynasty is not far away from completely wiping out the Tang thieves.
But what is the actual situation?
The actual situation is that while the garrison brigades and bandit capture camps have been eliminated, the number of regular troops of the puppet Tang rebel army has continued to rise, from the previous 40 to 50,000 to nearly 100,000.
The combat effectiveness of the regular army is unmatched by the past robbery camps and garrison armies.
At the same time, the military expenditure saved has also greatly improved the equipment level of the regular army. Artillery, muskets and even armor are all fully equipped.
This also greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the regular army.
And such changes put even greater pressure on the Ming army!
Just 20,000 to 30,000 regular troops of the Pseudo-Tang rebels had already turned the entire southern Huguang situation upside down and made Zhang Yue very worried!
And now Zhang Yue doesn't even know that the Tang Dynasty is further improving the equipment level of the existing regular army!
After recapturing Haojing and repelling the Folangji, the navy suffered no losses. Well, this mainly refers to artillery!
This means that the Navy will no longer compete with the Army for the scheduled artillery share, and the Army's artillery regiment plan can be launched smoothly.
To this end, the Privy Council formally submitted the Army's plan to expand the artillery force to Li Xuan!
This plan had been planned by the army under Li Xuan's instructions for a long time. All preparations were complete and they were just waiting for the artillery to be in place, so Li Xuan officially approved the plan without hesitation.
In late January, the Army officially started the artillery unit expansion plan. Because the units were scattered in various places, and the troops on the front line were busy fighting, they could not rest and expand. Therefore, the first round of expansion still stayed at the rear.
For each unit involved in combat missions, the first batch of expanded units was the same as the original brigade-reformed division, starting from the 6th Infantry Division!
The Sixth Artillery Battalion under the Sixth Infantry Division was expanded into the Sixth Artillery Regiment. It temporarily consists of three artillery battalions, including one seven-pound artillery battalion and two five-pound artillery battalions. There will be a total of eighteen seven-pound artillery pieces.
, thirty-six five-pound artillery pieces!
At the same time, thanks to the success of the imitation work of the Jiujin artillery led by the Zhaoqing Arsenal, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industry, and the delivery of the process flow and imitation technology to various arsenals for production, the large-scale production of the Jiujin artillery is about to be realized, so the Army
We are also preparing for a rainy day, and are planning to establish an experimental Nine-Pin Artillery Battalion directly under the Privy Council, which will have eighteen Nine-Pin Artillery!
The above is the army's artillery expansion plan, and does not include the Guards!
Li Xuan positioned the Guards as a small but well-equipped unit with strong combat effectiveness, so the artillery strength naturally cannot be weak. The army has begun to expand its artillery units, so the Guards naturally cannot be left behind.
The Guards Artillery Battalion was also renamed the Guards Artillery Regiment. The organization of the artillery was roughly the same as that of the Artillery Regiment of the Army Infantry Division, with three battalions and three teams. However, it is worth noting that the Guards Artillery Regiment was directly under the jurisdiction of the Artillery Regiment.
There is an artillery battalion with nine-pound artillery, and then there are two five-pound artillery battalions.
In other words, the Guards directly replaced the seven-pound cannon with a nine-pound cannon!
While the Guards Artillery Regiment is expanding, the expansion of the infantry unit is also continuing, with plans to expand another infantry battalion to expand the number of Guards infantry battalions from the current four to five.
Nearly half of the infantry battalions of the Guards are musketeers, which means that the Tang Dynasty's musket production is enough to support the Tang Dynasty's further expansion and reorganization of its existing troops.
The Guards are all expanding their musketeers, and the Army naturally has a similar plan, and their plan is even bigger!
The core plan is to increase the proportion of musketeers in the existing army!
Specifically, the existing reserve battalions and pike regiments in each infantry division were reorganized into musketeer battalions, and the temporary regiments were reorganized into mixed regiments.
Although all the regular armies of the Tang Army are now fully staffed, the proportion of cold weapon troops is still too large. There are five battalions in a regular infantry regiment, but only three are musketry battalions, and the other two are reserve battalions.
.An infantry division has three infantry regiments, of which only two are musketry regiments and one is a spear regiment.
Even in the musketeer camp, there are only two musketeers!
In other words, there are only more than 600 musketeers in a regiment, and even the 100-man grenadier unit directly under the regiment headquarters only has more than 700 people.
Regarding this situation, the Army has long wanted to make changes!
The establishment of reserve battalions and spear regiments before did not mean that the Tang Dynasty needed these cold weapon troops, but that it was limited by the serious shortage of musket production at that time, but it had to maintain a certain size of troops, so it was made like this
A helpless act.
Now that the production of muskets has increased, and there is no need to expand new troops on a large scale, the Army immediately prepared to completely transform these cold weapon troops prepared during the transitional period into firearms troops.
In this way, the number of musketeers in the entire infantry division can be greatly increased, reaching 3,000 musketeers, plus 300 grenadiers!
Well, this does not include the muskets attached to the baggage, engineers, and artillery!
Even though the Tang Dynasty's musket production increased, it was not the turn of the baggage, engineering, and artillery units to carry out large-scale replacement of muskets. Therefore, the army's expansion plan did not significantly increase the proportion of musket equipment in these auxiliary units.
Although the plan to reorganize six infantry divisions and increase the proportion of musketeers is being formulated, it has not yet been implemented because the army feels that the current combat effectiveness of the infantry divisions is enough to cope with the current Ming army.
The expansion plan currently being implemented by the Army is to adapt the existing five temporary regiments. By upgrading all the infantry battalions in the temporary regiments to the level of regular infantry battalions, the five temporary regiments will also be upgraded to regular infantry battalions.
All will be adapted to a mixed group formation.
Moreover, in order to avoid a second reorganization, preparations must be made once and for all, that is, the five temporary regiments reorganized in the first batch will no longer have excessive establishments such as reserve battalions, but will all be organized into regular musketeers.
The battalion is combined with baggage, artillery, cavalry and other troops to form a mixed regiment.
Following the plan of infantry divisions, the Army's overall plan is to establish a main army force with six infantry divisions and eight mixed regiments.
Although the Army's current reorganization work on the five temporary regiments has a large demand for muskets, the Datang Ministry of Industry's current musket production is also increasing, which can fully meet the Army's daily combat and training losses.
Start the reorganization work of the existing five temporary groups.
It was even possible to divert part of the rifle production to supply the Guards to expand an infantry battalion.
Three years after entering Xuanping, the Ministry of Industry predicts that the output of various types of muskets will reach a new peak this month, the first month of the year, with the total reaching 1,500!
This is not a small number. The number of muskets currently equipped by an infantry regiment is less than 800. 1,500 can equip two infantry regiments. However, if the reorganization work of each infantry division also increases the schedule
If so, these outputs will still be difficult to meet the adaptation of each infantry division in a short period of time.
Therefore, the army's musket expansion plan is the same as the artillery expansion plan. It is to take it slowly, step by step, and make changes one unit at a time. Ultimately, it is impossible to complete the changes for all units. It will not be the same as in the second half of last year. In a short period of time,
In just a few months, the elimination of 100,000 garrison brigades and the reorganization of six infantry divisions were completed.
Li Xuan, who was in Zhaoqing, couldn't help but feel gratified when he looked at the plan submitted by the Ministry of Industry to expand the arsenal and increase production, and looked at the expansion and reorganization plans drawn up by the army and navy.
After several years of construction, the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty has finally transformed from the bandit army in the past to a regular army, and it will also become a typical modern army.
The Tang Dynasty also changed from a childish dynasty to a dynasty that truly divided several provinces.
How difficult it is to get to this point!
As for the person who led the Tang Dynasty to this point, even though he is still a little short of the eternal sage that Liu Bagou and the others talk about every day, he should not be far behind!