In the battle to conquer Luling City, although the heavy artillery unit only had twelve pieces, its actual effect was greater than that of the more than one hundred field artillery pieces. The combat staff of the Second Army judged that in the artillery battle,
, at least 60% of the battle results were achieved by those twelve heavy howitzers.
A hypothesis was even put forward: If there were no heavy howitzers to assist in this battle, the casualties of the Second Army in this battle may exceed 5,000 people, and the time required to siege the city may be delayed to five or even ten days.
Therefore, the operational staff of the Second Army suggested to Li Chunjing: In the subsequent siege campaign, design siege tactics with heavy howitzers as the core!
Naturally, Li Chunjing would not ignore the suggestions given to Li Chunjing by the combat staff of the Second Army. Even he himself saw this tendency, so he also actively applied for more heavy howitzers from Zhaoqing.
It is best to have more forty-eight-pound heavy artillery. If there are not enough of these heavy artillery, twenty-four-pound cannons can also be used. As for smaller-caliber ones, the explosive power of the shells fired will be limited, and their use in offensive operations will be limited.
, but he also suggested that medium-sized howitzers weighing 18 pounds can be appropriately developed. As long as the quantity is large enough, it can also have a certain effect.
Li Chunjing's note was quickly delivered to Zhaoqing via Pegasus and appeared in Li Xuan's hands.
After reading the battle report, Li Xuan said to a group of generals in the Privy Council: "It seems that the effect of this howitzer is good. The army must send the howitzer up as soon as possible!"
Zeng Ziwen said: "Your Majesty, the Army has also accelerated the training of the Second Heavy Artillery Battalion, and has also begun preparations for the establishment of the Third Heavy Artillery Battalion. However, due to the production of heavy artillery, the artillery of the Second Heavy Artillery Battalion is not yet fully staffed.
, I’m afraid we won’t be able to send them to Jiangxi to fight during this period!”
Li Xuan said: "You don't have to worry about the issue of heavy artillery production. I will personally take care of it. Within ten days, I must see the second heavy artillery battalion set off for Jiangxi!"
Li Xuan said there was no need to worry about the output of heavy artillery. Zeng Ziwen had nothing else to say, so he naturally nodded in agreement!
"There are also medium-caliber howitzers. What do you think about this? Does the Army have an equipment plan?" Li Xuan said: "If the effect is good, we need to speed up the equipment. The enemy will not give us too much time!"
"Now Puppet Ming has begun to imitate us in making guns and artillery to build a new army. Zhang Yue's supervision is an obvious example. Puppet Ming has more strategic resources than us, and the speed of making guns and artillery will not be faster than ours. I'm afraid it won't be necessary.
How soon will we see not 40,000 supervision standards, but 80,000 or even 100,000!"
Zeng Ziwen said: "After I return, I will immediately start organizing relevant tests!"
"Well, I am still relieved about the Army. You must do a good job in dealing with the aftermath. Meritorious officers must be promoted as soon as possible, and injured officers must be treated with all their strength. These are veterans. They must recover from their injuries and return to the battlefield as soon as possible.
The pensions for the fallen soldiers must also be arranged as soon as possible, and the comfort work of the families of the fallen soldiers must be done well, so as not to let the military families feel cold!
These are soldiers who fight for me and the empire, we cannot treat them badly!"
Zeng Ziwen said: "My lord, obey the order!"
"Okay, let's go back to work!"
After Li Xuan asked a group of army generals to go out, they were not idle, but were preparing to start his second strategy meeting today: the naval strategy meeting.
After Zeng Ziwen led a group of army generals out, he happened to see Bao Yifen coming with five or six navy generals. Bao Yifen immediately stepped forward and said: "Congratulations to the army, I heard you won the battle in Ji'an!"
Zeng Ziwen said with a smile: "It's just a small victory, but it's not worth mentioning. This battle also required the strong support of the Navy's Ganjiang Squadron. Zeng Mou, on behalf of the Army, would like to thank you!"
Bao Yifen seemed to be in a good mood and said immediately: "It's all trivial matters. If the Army needs it in the future, please speak up as soon as possible, and the Navy will do its best!"
These two senior generals, who each represent the Land and Navy in the imperial center, are smiling and their tone is very friendly to each other. People who don't know really think that the army and navy of the Tang Dynasty are one family.
But in fact, the two big bosses were having a great time chatting with each other, but their respective subordinates had serious faces and did not even look at each other. It is estimated that many people were calling each other a bumpkin.
After a brief chat, Zeng Ziwen said goodbye to Bao Yifen, and then led the people away. When they were far away, Zeng Ziwen showed disdain and said: "A bunch of rustics, if it weren't for the subsequent Jiangxi Battle, they would still be of use.
Where they are, I don’t even bother to pay attention to them!”
Coincidentally, after Bao Yifen left, he also spat: "What the hell? If His Majesty hadn't personally given the order, you would still want to command our navy to attack!"
Soon, Bao Yifen led his subordinates into the conference room. After saluting Li Xuan who was sitting on top, seven or eight naval generals took their seats!
Then Bao Yifen began to report on a series of recent naval battles.
The navy's battle was far more complicated than that of the army, and even took longer. Although it had recaptured Lantau Island and annihilated the Ming Navy fleet stationed on Lantau Island, it still continued to fight off the Pearl River Estuary.
In the battle to attack Lantau Island, the Tang Navy relied on suddenness to directly surround the port of the Ming Navy with a large number of small fireships, and then launched a fire attack. The main fleet carried out artillery fire on the periphery to suppress it.
The Ming Navy also tried to break out, but there were not many Ming Navy ships stationed on the island, so they were quickly beaten back. In the end, the navy transported the army ashore smoothly and captured the island. The Ming Navy ships sank.
Many were killed, and some surrendered and were captured.
The more than 2,000 Ming army and naval forces on the island were annihilated by the army and navy working together!
After recapturing Lantau Island, the Tang Navy's forces were divided into three groups. The Pearl River Fleet returned to defend the naval base and the estuary of the Pearl River Xijiang River. The First Squadron continued to clear some small islands off the Pearl River Estuary. Some of these small islands were occupied by
The Ming navy occupied some of them, some were simply occupied by pirates, and the Fo Langji people also occupied several small islands.
However, these small islands are relatively small, and it is impossible for the enemy to station too many troops, ranging from dozens to hundreds. They were quickly swept away one by one by the First Squadron.
But the Second Squadron sailed directly to sea and cruised outside the Pearl River Estuary!
However, due to limited communication methods, it is currently difficult for the Navy to contact the Second Squadron after it goes to sea. It can only know their approximate position through communication clippers a few days apart. Because of the operations of the Second Squadron,
The mission is to patrol the sea, and then clear out the Ming army, the Flemish fleet, and even pirates in the outer sea. Therefore, the scope of the patrol is quite large, from the Qiongzhou Strait to Nan'ao Island, all belonging to the Second Squadron.
Patrol combat range.
The pirates are also smart people. They will not challenge the Tang Navy at this time, especially in offshore areas. Their purpose is not to challenge the Tang Navy's sea power. They are just for money.
There is no half-cent advantage in fighting warships, so when they approach the coast of Guangdong, they will all turn into ordinary maritime merchants!
The Tang Navy also turned a blind eye to this. Anyway, all maritime merchants these days are basically related to pirates. In the port, they are merchants, but after going to sea, they become pirates.
.
As long as they were not blatantly confronting the Tang Navy or plundering under the nose of the Datang Navy, the Datang Navy would pretend they had not seen it.
Otherwise, there are so many pirates that we can’t control them at all, and if we kill all the pirates, it will be equivalent to killing all the maritime merchants. Who will come to Guangzhou and Lianzhou to do business!
What the Tang Dynasty Navy needed was to maintain maritime order along the Guangdong coast. As for these pirates or merchants plundering each other after leaving the coast, that was beyond the Datang Navy's control.
After the Second Squadron was dispatched to patrol, the results of the battle began to come frequently. They had sunk several Ming Navy warships and captured three Ming Navy warships and more than 200 sailors.
Bao Yifen said that in the future, the navy will patrol the sea on a regular basis!
At the same time, the Navy is also preparing to intercept the counterattack of the Ming Navy at any time.
But what is strange is that the Tang Navy has been at sea for many days and has not seen the main force of the Ming Navy coming from the direction of Nan'ao Island!
What they don't know is that the Ming army on Nan'ao Island is also suffering terribly now!
This pirate, which is very close to the land, has little output. There are more and more Ming troops on the island. At first, there were thousands of remnant soldiers from Guangdong and Guangxi, and later they were reinforced by more than 3,000 Ming troops from Fujian.
Then, together with the Ming Navy's several thousand-strong navy and the original army of Nan'ao Island, more than 10,000 people gathered on this small island.
The food, ordnance and other materials needed by these more than 10,000 people all need to be transported by sea. But now the focus of the Ming Dynasty is not on Nan'ao Island, but on Huguang and Jiangxi. A large number of resources are
After being sent to the above-mentioned areas, even if there are some leftovers, they are sent to Fujian.
As for Nan'ao Island, it seems to have been forgotten. Although food and salary are sent every month, it is not much.
Not to mention there is a shortage of food and pay, and there is no one capable of commanding the army on the island!
Since Wang Yue, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was captured and returned to Beijing to await trial, all the Ming troops there were under the command of Qin Zhifu, the commander-in-chief of Nan'ao Island.
But this Qin Zhifu is not a subordinate of Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, nor is he a general from Fujian. He, the commander-in-chief of Nan'ao Island, actually exists independently. However, he does not have many direct troops under his command, which leads to the fact that they don't care about it at all.
Not only the remnant soldiers from Guangdong and Guangxi, but also the reinforcements from Fujian, and even the Navy ignored him.
The dignified commander-in-chief of Nan'ao Island was actually ignored by the three parties.