Seven hundred and twentieth chapters fire Hengyang
According to the current march-related regulations of the Tang Army, at the normal marching speed of the troops, when the official roads and other roads are good, an infantry regiment or a cavalry battalion or a five-pound field artillery battalion will march for about six hours a day.
The march was about twenty kilometers.
But this only applies when the roads are good. If the roads are ordinary and you need to ensure that you march twenty kilometers a day, then this time will increase to eight or even ten hours.
If the road conditions are very bad, then this time will increase to more than twelve hours!
At the same time, if it is a baggage unit and a heavy artillery unit, the march time will be greatly extended. If the road is good, it will take more than eight hours to march 20 kilometers. If the road condition is poor, it may take fifteen hours.
If the road conditions are extremely bad, it will take twenty hours or more to cover twenty kilometers.
If the army is marching, it is impossible to walk all day long. The soldiers need to be given time to rest, and the troops need to be left with time to form a team. To put it simply, walking for seven or eight hours a day is basically the limit.
, any more will greatly deplete the physical fitness of the soldiers and greatly affect the combat effectiveness of the troops.
In order to ensure the speed of this march, the First Army, based on the intelligence from previous reconnaissance and the situation of the last attack on Changsha, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Second Army, Brigadier General Li Xin, formulated a very detailed plan, down to the specific number of miles to be walked on a given day.
Marching plan to ensure timely arrival in Changsha.
The road conditions on this section of the road leaving Shaoyang were better, and there was no need to worry about the enemy ambushing halfway, so the marching speed was faster. The advancing speed reached more than 25 kilometers each day in the first three days.
Of course, this is only limited to infantry and other combat units. The Jiujin Field Artillery Battalion in the rear carries a large amount of baggage troops and the civilian transport group behind them, and their speed is slower.
In order to ensure that the main force could arrive on time, Hao Bainian could not expect to arrive outside Changsha with heavy artillery and baggage troops. This was unrealistic, so he took the main force and rushed forward first, leaving the heavy artillery and baggage troops behind.
Chase slowly!
While the First Army was rushing towards Changsha, Li Chunjing led the Second Army towards Changsha slowly!
After Li Chunjing captured Yuezhou, he left the Fourth Mixed Regiment to garrison Yuezhou and then led the main force southward. Because Yuezhou was relatively far from Changsha, only over a hundred kilometers away, he was not in a hurry.
When the army went south, it took its baggage, heavy artillery and even civilians with it. The marching speed was only a little more than ten kilometers per day. This means that the road conditions from Yuezhou to Changsha were better. If the road conditions were worse, it would probably be faster at this speed.
Slower.
This is not because Li Chunjing wants to go slower, but because he cannot go faster!
His Second Army does not have any supply lines, and all the baggage must be carried along with it during the march. If the baggage troops are abandoned and run away, and if there is any mistake in the baggage troops, the Second Army will immediately have to
collapse.
Moreover, the number of artillery pieces of the Second Army far exceeds that of the First Army. Many of them are nine-pound field artillery and forty-eight-pound heavy howitzers. Not only are the artillery heavy and not fast, but because of the large number of artillery, the ammunition they carry is also
There are many, so the marching speed cannot actually be increased.
If it weren't for the restriction of heavy baggage, the Second Army's attack on Yuezhou would not have taken more than twenty days!
Li Chunjing's various strategies may seem risky, but in terms of detailed tactics, they are always steady and steady. When the Second Army attacked Yuezhou before, there was no division of troops from beginning to end.
After taking Yuezhou, they did not say that they would go straight to Changsha regardless, but left the fourth mixed regiment to garrison Yuezhou.
And now he is not in a hurry to advance rashly, using tactics such as blitzing Changsha City. He is marching southward step by step, and tens of thousands of troops are gradually pressing towards Changsha.
A large army is pressing down on the border, and not only the second army of the puppet Tang Li thief who came south from Yuezhou, but also the first army of the thief Hao from Shaoyang are moving!
After knowing this situation, the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty in Changsha almost panicked!
A few days ago, they were still arguing over whether to reinforce Yuezhou, and in the next few days they were arguing over whether to counterattack Yuezhou. However, after arguing and arguing, they could not come up with any good solution.
And the most precious few days were wasted by them arguing!
Yuezhou is finished, the bandit army is heading towards Changsha!
How to do this?
Send out an attack to defeat the rebel armies in the south and north?
Or should we dispatch together with the army from Hengyang to destroy the Hao Thief's First Army over there first?
Or is he desperate to defend Changsha?
Many methods were proposed and then rejected one by one.
The thought of going out to attack is quite beautiful. If you go north to fight Li Thief's Second Army, are you sure that the more than 30,000 soldiers and horses in Changsha can defeat Li Thief's Second Army?
Without several times the strength advantage, even the Dubiao New Army did not have the guts to fight against the puppet Tang bandits in the wild!
If we don't go north, the troops from south and Hengyang will attack Hao's first army. I'm afraid that as soon as they leave Changsha, Li will take Changsha without any blood. This clearly means that he wants to give Changsha city to the puppet Tang army.
Ah, whoever dares to do this is an open traitor!
After much discussion, they finally decided that the advantage of Changsha's city defense could not be given up, and a large amount of food and ammunition were stored in the city. If there were enough troops, it would be possible to defend it for a year and a half.
But where will the troops come from?
There are only more than 30,000 Supervisory Biao New Army and Changsha Training Army in Changsha City. They are not sure whether they can hold Changsha with these troops alone!
Finally, the decision was made to abandon Hengyang and concentrate our forces to defend Changsha!
Although this tactical choice may lead to the suspicion of giving Hengyang to the puppet Tang rebel army, in terms of the current dilemma faced by the Ming army, it is actually their best and only option.
Otherwise, you will end up being defeated separately!
From Changsha to Hengyang, if it is a large army marching, even if it is a light march, it will take at least ten days. However, for Pegasus Express, which simply transmits orders, a little more than one day is enough for the orders from Changsha to reach Hengyang.
Over there.
The atmosphere in Hengyang City in the past two days was not much better than that in Changsha City, because anyone with a little knowledge knows that the main force of the puppet Tang thief army is now plotting to seize Changsha, and once Changsha is finished, Hengyang has no reason to survive.
, this is what the lips are cold and the teeth are dead.
After receiving the order from Changsha, the Ming army in Hengyang City was also decisive and resolute. They rushed out in full force early the next morning, directly abandoning the city they had held for more than a year.
Moreover, they left in a hurry. In order to rush for time, they basically did not carry much baggage. They only brought a month's worth of food and ordnance and weapons. The army of about 30,000 people left in a hurry, but they did not leave Hengyang intact to the puppet Tang Dynasty.
The thieves’ plan!
Before leaving, the Ming army set fire everywhere, not only burning the mountains of food and grass in the city, but also burning all the ordnance and ammunition that could not be taken away!
That would be fine if it was just like this. What’s even worse is that they set fires everywhere in the city, so that a huge fire broke out in the city!
That day, dozens of Tang cavalrymen who were monitoring the situation in Hengyang City outside the city saw with their own eyes the entire Hengyang City with flames shooting into the sky and thick smoke billowing!
The next day, when an infantry battalion stationed nearby arrived outside Hengyang City and tried to enter the city, it encountered no resistance. Not a single Ming soldier came out to resist in the city, and even the local officials could not be seen!
Moreover, the fire in the city was still fierce. The infantry battalion, which belonged to the third mixed regiment, did not dare to act without authorization. On the one hand, it began to organize the remaining people in the city to put out the fire, and on the other hand, it controlled the situation in the city.
On the third day, the main force of the third mixed regiment arrived in Hengyang. Because there was no resisting Ming army in the city, Du Biao and Hengyang Lianjun had all withdrawn, leaving only the whole city in the fire.
of people.
So after the third mixed regiment entered Hengyang, what they saw was still a sheet of billowing smoke and countless people burned by the fire!
So after the third mixed regiment arrived in Hengyang, their mission was not to fight, but to put out fires!
With the joint assistance of the military and civilians, the fire in the entire Hengyang City was extinguished. At this time, almost the entire Hengyang City was filled with thick smoke, and dust continued to fall from the sky!
This fire directly caused more than half of the city to be burned down, especially the area near the granary and ammunition depot, which was in a mess. Moreover, there was an extremely violent explosion in the ammunition depot, which almost swept away the nearby streets.
But all this has nothing to do with the soldiers of the third mixed regiment, because after they extinguished the fire, they quickly evacuated Hengyang, which had been reduced to ruins, and continued northward!
The subsequent disaster relief and reconstruction of Hengyang City will naturally be taken over by the civil servants of the Tang Dynasty!
Although most of Hengyang is now in ruins, at least the city that once blocked the Tang Dynasty for more than a year has finally fallen under the control of the Tang Dynasty!
And this also means that the Tang Dynasty King's Division can finally pass through Hengyang and use the Xiangjiang River to transport supplies to the north on a large scale.
Through the Xiangjiang River, the supply fleet of the Tang Dynasty King's Division was able to reach Changsha, which greatly solved the problem of logistical supply difficulties.
The third mixed regiment went as far north as possible. The Hengyang Ming Army, which escaped from Hengyang City and headed north along the Xiangjiang River to Changsha, was intercepted by thousands of Tang Army troops!
They are the forward troops of the First Army composed of the First Infantry Regiment and the First Cavalry Detachment led by Major General Wang Chaohong, Chief of Staff of the First Army!