The Tang Dynasty began to expand its artillery and troops in the rear, but this would not affect the troops on the Huguang front. Although the troops under Hao Bainian would continue to receive various ordnance supplies transported from the rear, along with muskets and even
With the increase in artillery, the number of firearms assigned to the troops has exceeded the rated establishment, but the army's reorganization plan is still nothing like the various units of the First Army.
Now Hao Bainian doesn't pay attention to these things. The place he pays attention to is still in Huguang, Hengyang City and Changsha!
After arriving at Hengyang City, Hao Bainian launched a small-scale exploratory attack on Hengyang City, which was mainly artillery attack. However, what people did not expect was that the Ming army on top of the city also brought out a large number of artillery, and
These artillery pieces also have a large number of large-caliber artillery pieces!
Through the telescope, Hao Bainian saw with his own eyes no less than twenty large-caliber artillery pieces. It was obvious at a glance that these artillery pieces were all five-pound artillery pieces.
Why?
Because of this, the large-caliber artillery of the Ming Army on the top of Hengyang City is almost exactly the same as the five-pound artillery of the Tang Army. Considering that the Ming Army has begun to imitate the artillery of the Tang Army on a large scale, it can be judged that
These artillery pieces must have been copied by the Ming army from those of the Tang army.
Even the names are exactly the same, they are all called five-pound artillery!
These Ming troops brought out more than twenty five-pound artillery pieces and placed them at the top of the city, as well as at least hundreds of bowl-mouth cannons, Folang machine cannons, etc. All of this proves that Hengyang City's defense power is absolutely huge.
It was the most powerful Ming army city that the Tang Dynasty encountered.
So Hao Bainian just conducted some artillery fire tests, and after being counterattacked by the Ming army's artillery fire, he decisively gave up the plan to storm Hengyang City!
It’s not that I’m worried about not being able to capture Hengyang City, but I’m worried that it will take a long time and cause heavy casualties!
Under such circumstances, after Hao Bainian hesitated for a day, he decisively chose to withdraw his troops!
Hengyang City is a tough nut to crack!
It is better to take advantage of the opportunity when the Ming army is huddled in Hengyang City and cannot come out, and move west to capture Shaoyang first. Although the Ming army here is also quite large, there are not so many main Ming troops. They are all just a few.
It's just a guard force. The main force of the First Army will kill them. It won't be a big problem to capture Shaoyang.
As for if the Ming army in Hengyang City dared to come out and try to play a pincer attack, then Hao Bainian wouldn't mind setting up an encirclement point for reinforcements!
As long as the Ming army in Hengyang City comes out of the city and he is not surrounded by more than 100,000 troops, Hao Bainian will have nothing to fear. He even hopes that the Ming army in Hengyang City can come out. In this case, these people can be eliminated through field battles.
The Ming army is the main force.
While advancing westward to capture Shaoyang, Hao Bainian ordered the temporary Fourth Regiment and the Third Infantry Regiment that stayed behind to cooperate and capture the cities of Chenzhou and Guiyang.
The Ming army in these two places had already lost troops and generals, and they had been besieged for nearly a month. It was still possible to defeat them. Even if they had to pay some casualties, it would be like having nearly 10,000 people in these two armies dragged in.
There.
At the same time, Hao Bainian also requested the First Supplementary Brigade to coordinate operations. Of course, the First Supplementary Brigade will never go to the battlefield unless it is absolutely necessary. They are just new recruits. If they go directly to fight a tough battle, the losses will be too great and the gain will not be worth the loss.
.
Requesting the assistance of the First Supplementary Brigade is to ask the First Supplementary Brigade to help them maintain their supply lines and provide them with a certain amount of cover!
In a small village outside Chenzhou City, more than a dozen middle- and senior-level officers of the Tang Dynasty Army sat together. The leader of them was a middle-aged man with the rank of Army Major General.
This person is Army Major General An Zihe, deputy commander of the 1st Infantry Division. Although the infantry divisions have been expanded one after another, and some officers have frequently performed meritorious services, Li Xuan has also been promoted to a number of Army Major Generals one after another!
An Zihe was officially promoted just a week ago. He is the deputy commander of the 1st Infantry Division. However, as the commander of the 1st Army, Hao Bainian is said to be concurrently the commander of the 1st Infantry Division, but in fact he is not the commander of the 1st Infantry Division on a daily basis.
The work has been handed over to An Zihe.
In the recent Battle of Guiyang Prefecture, An Zihe actually commanded the main force of the First Infantry Division to defeat more than 10,000 enemy troops from Guiyang Prefecture and achieved a great victory. Later, he did not follow Hao Bainian to continue northward, but was
Hao Bainian stayed and commanded the 3rd Infantry Regiment and the temporary 4th Regiment in the siege of Chenzhou and Guiyang Prefecture.
In addition to An Zihe, a major general in the army, Li Xuan has been promoted to a number of major generals. However, so far, Li Xuan has not awarded the rank of lieutenant general in the army. Li Xuan regards the rank of lieutenant general in the army as a reward. In the future,
Whoever has made great contributions will be given first, and Hao Bainian, Chen Keqiao, Fang Xitong, Li Chunjing and others all have opportunities.
Of course, with An Zihe's qualifications and military exploits, he is naturally far away from the rank of Army Lieutenant General!
Below An Zihe, the officers of each unit were sitting respectively, including the temporary commander of the fourth regiment, Colonel Gu Shizhong, the commander of the third infantry regiment, and the deputy commander of the first supplementary brigade, Colonel Kang Yilin.
, then several lieutenant colonels and more than a dozen majors.
Such a group of people cannot be said to be a gathering of stars, but they are also the core middle and high-level members of the Tang Army!
An Zihe is a bit older. He is already in his forties. He was a member of the Ming Army, but that was in Zhengtai County. He surrendered with Zeng Ziwen. I really want to say that.
Come on, those are also the earliest senior generals from Conglong.
His expression was dull, and Kang Yilin, the deputy commander of the 1st Supplementary Brigade, was talking: "My Supplementary Brigade does not have many troops in Huguang. There is only one supplementary regiment. Even if they are all mobilized, it will probably be difficult to surround the army.
There’s no way out!”
When he said this, Kang Yilin didn't have an embarrassed expression on his face. After all, no one knew him. The troops under his command were just a group of new recruits. Strictly speaking, the supplementary brigade was just a training camp for new recruits.
And we can’t expect a group of new recruits to shoulder actual combat missions!
At this time, An Zihe said: "It is indeed difficult to block the tens of thousands of puppet Ming thieves in Guiyang Prefecture with only the supplementary brigade. However, I don't need you to defend. You only need to let the pseudo Ming thieves on the opposite side
The army knows that it is enough to have three thousand troops in front of them!"
"A bluff?" Kang Yilin immediately said: "If it's just a bluff and the enemy misjudges, my supplementary brigade can complete the task, but since it's a bluff, can we also transfer some civilians from the transportation group?
, if you let them put on military uniforms and hold swords, I believe the Ming army will not be able to judge for a while!"
Hearing what Kang Yilin said, An Zihe also nodded slightly and said: "This is a good idea. We will recruit two thousand civilians and gather five thousand people and place them outside Guiyang City. I don't believe that they dare to come out to reinforce Chenzhou!"
"How about just adding more? There are a lot of civilians in the transportation group, and there are also a lot of military uniforms and swords!" Kang Yilin continued: "It's not a big problem to have tens of thousands of people!"
However, An Zihe shook his head and said: "No need, there are too many people, it is easy for the other party to see the flaws!"
"Our Tang Dynasty King's Division has very few troops. This is a well-known fact, and the puppet Ming rebel army naturally knows it as well. If there are tens of thousands of troops, the puppet Ming rebel army will probably be suspicious at the first moment.
Don’t let them think about it, don’t let them ponder it, because once you think about it carefully, it will easily make them suspicious!”
An Zihe continued: "Three thousand supplementary troops plus two thousand civilians are no more or less. It just so happens that the Ming army in Guiyang Prefecture should not be able to find it in a short period of time. It is estimated that they do not have the courage to come out to test the battle!
"
At this time, he paused for a moment and then said: "Five thousand real thieves are enough for them to weigh!"
Hearing An Zihe talk about five thousand real thieves, everyone burst out laughing. The frontline generals naturally knew that the pseudo-Ming thief army called our side scornful and divided our side into real and fake thieves.
I will get angry when I hear it, but sometimes I will laugh when I hear it.
Now, of course, it’s time to burst into laughter!
At this time, Gu Shizhong, the temporary commander of the fourth regiment, said: "With the help of the brothers from the supplementary brigade, we can gather the main forces of the two regiments, plus the artillery and muskets sent by the Privy Council, this Chenzhou
It can be beaten!”
Although the Privy Council has no plan to reorganize the existing infantry divisions, the reorganization plan for the temporary regiment has already begun, and the temporary fourth regiment is also the first temporary regiment to receive equipment.
At present, the regiment has successively received about 500 rifles, six five-pound artillery pieces, and three seven-pound artillery pieces.
The received batch of muskets allowed the temporary fourth regiment of musketeers to directly expand to 700 people. Adding in the 100 grenadiers, the number would be 800, slightly more than the musketeer regiment.
After receiving this batch of artillery pieces at the same time, the artillery team under the temporary fourth regiment was also directly expanded into a battalion, with nine five-pound artillery pieces and three seven-pound artillery pieces. This is not yet the full establishment. According to the full strength of the mixed regiment,
According to the organization, this mixed regiment should have six nine-pound artillery pieces and twelve five-pound artillery pieces.
There will also be three three-pound shotguns and six two-pound shotguns.
The temporary fourth regiment, whose strength has been greatly increased, is also the main force attacking Chenzhou City!
However, the commander of the Third Infantry Regiment, Colonel Ying Songbai, was not to be outdone and said directly: "Yes, our Third Infantry Regiment is already well prepared. The first wave of siege will be left to us!"
Hearing that everyone under his command was full of confidence, An Zihe said: "Well, it seems that everyone is very confident. We will win Chenzhou and Guiyang Prefecture soon!"
Then he stood up and said with a serious expression: "Everyone obeys the order!"