Chapter 727: The Pseudo-Tang Bandit Army of Shrinking Heads and Turtles
Wang Chaohong's self-confidence did not come from nothing, but was based on the strength of the Tang Army itself!
Since the rise of the Tang Dynasty and its sweeping sweep of Zhengtai County, the army of the Tang Dynasty has never been afraid of direct battles with the Ming army in the wild, and many times they have defeated more with less.
This situation reached its peak when it entered Guangdong and Guangxi and went north to Huguang!
When the Tang Army marched into Guangdong and Guangxi, the Huguang Ming Army attacked Xingquan Prefecture and besieged it for a time. Although they initially relied on their absolute superiority in military strength to achieve considerable results, they even captured Zhengtai, the Longxing land of the Tang Dynasty.
county.
But then the Fourth Army of the Tang Dynasty attacked Huguang, and then fought two consecutive field battles. More than 30,000 Ming troops were wiped out, and even more than 30,000 Ming troops who entered Xingquan Prefecture were almost surrounded.
.
However, although this Ming army was not surrounded, it was still frightened and fled north in embarrassment, and the siege of Xingquan Mansion was lifted!
During last year's autumn and winter offensive, the Tang army marched northward to Huguang on a large scale. At that time, the Ming army planned a large-scale active counterattack, mobilizing more than 100,000 troops. Both sides surrounded Yizhang, Chenzhou, Guiyang, Hengyang and other places.
Several large-scale battles were held in an area hundreds of miles away.
The results of it?
The Ming army never won even once!
When Chenzhou's more than 10,000 Ming troops left the city, they were intercepted by the predecessor of the Fourth Mixed Regiment, the temporary Fourth Regiment. The more than 10,000 Ming troops were defeated miserably at the hands of the temporary Fourth Regiment, which only had less than 4,000 men.
The 8,000-strong army of Yizhang came out of the city and prepared to cut off the food route of the Tang Dynasty army going north. However, they were intercepted outside the city of Yizhang. After a battle broke out between the two sides, the entire 8,000-strong army was annihilated!
Thousands of Ming troops who came to reinforce Yizhang from the west were also intercepted a few days later, and the entire army was also wiped out!
The more than 10,000 Ming troops who attacked Guiyang Prefecture were also intercepted by the main force of the First Army. They lost half of their troops in the frontal battle in the field, and only half of the remaining soldiers fled back to Guiyang Prefecture in embarrassment.
The result of this series of battles was that Yizhang, Chenzhou, Guiyang and other places were captured by the Tang army. The Ming army suffered heavy losses and had to retreat to Hengyang and Changsha, and the huge area south of Hengyang was captured.
Give in.
This series of field combat tactics scared the Ming army. Wei Yan, the governor of Guangxi at the time, said that "the Tang thieves are absolutely invincible" was widely circulated privately within the Ming army, and even achieved
We have reached a consensus that if it is not absolutely necessary, then we should not engage in field battles with the puppet Tang rebels!
Therefore, until later on, the Ming army avoided field combat with the main force of the Tang Army, and instead resolutely implemented the strategy of defending the city.
He stood firm.
But when the Ming army began to act like a tortoise and began to train its troops on a large scale and build guns and cannons, the Tang Army invested great enthusiasm in studying various city-breaking tactics in order to pry open these tortoise shells.
The most enthusiastic thing is the large-scale equipment of heavy artillery. Not only the nine-pound field artillery began to be equipped on a large scale, but also heavy howitzers, a large number of field artillery and heavy howitzers were produced. Outside the city, the Tang Army attacked the city.
Sharp weapon!
In one fell swoop, they defeated the Ming army's bridgehead in Jiangxi, the Luling City of Ji'an, which had complete fortifications and a large number of artillery.
All the above can prove that in the field of field operations, except for the number of cavalry that was not as good as that of the Ming Army, the Tang Army had great advantages in other aspects.
Among them, the 1st Infantry Division is the leader in fighting such frontal decisive battles in the wild!
The core force of the forward troops under Wang Chaohong is the First Infantry Regiment, which belongs directly to the First Infantry Division, and is the undisputed ace unit in the Tang Army today.
Relying on the full strength of the 1st Infantry Regiment, which was strengthened by artillery, cavalry and other units, and operating defensively, Wang Chaohong was confident of keeping the enemy out of the fort.
And he doesn't need to defend alone for long, he only needs to defend for three days!
Three days later, the third mixed regiment pursuing from the direction of Hengyang will arrive, and at the same time, the main force of the First Army will also arrive.
By then, the nearly 30,000 Hengyang Ming army in front of them would not be able to escape even if they wanted to, let alone go to Changsha.
Obviously, the Hengyang Ming Army was also aware of the crisis they were facing, so they did not delay much. They abandoned the ship and landed ashore overnight, and then rushed directly to the position of the First Army's forward troops in the dark, and at the same time began to build artillery positions.
Prepare to attack!
Early the next morning, this small highland on the edge of the Xiangjiang River rang out with intensive rumbling cannon fire!
This time, the Hengyang Ming Army obviously wanted to attack in one go, and directly used more than 20 five-pound and seven-pound field cannons, and almost hundreds of various types of shotguns (bowl-mouth cannons, Folangji).
After moving out, even because of the rush, many artillery pieces were fired without even building any artillery positions.
On the forward side of the First Army, there is a temporarily reinforced artillery battalion with six five-pound field guns, six seven-pound field guns, and nine five-pound field guns from a cavalry artillery unit that belongs to the cavalry detachment.
A total of twenty-one field guns!
The Ming army's field artillery was also mainly five-pound field artillery, supplemented by some seven-pound field artillery. The total number was larger, almost forty.
The two sides combined to have more than 60 field artillery shelling each other from a distance of four to five hundred meters. The solid shells continued to fly over the open space of both sides' positions, and then fell into the opponent's position!
However, after shelling for more than half an hour, the Ming army generals looked a little unhappy, because although their own artillery had more guns, they were not accurate enough.
After this fierce bombardment for more than half an hour, two artillery pieces exploded on the spot!
And this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that our shelling did not cause any actual damage to the puppet Tang rebels on Xiaogao Mountain!
Those pseudo-Tang rebels didn't know if they were from marmots, but they actually dug trenches on the entire mountain. After the bombardment started, the infantry of the pseudo-Tang rebels hid in those trenches.
Although their own artillery shells continued to fall into their positions, they had no actual results.
The opponent's artillery position was also built extremely solidly. In front of each artillery piece was a thick ring of civil engineering works, and the artillery shells were blocked when they hit it.
Unless you are very lucky and hit one of the circular fortifications continuously, you can cause damage to the artillery of the puppet Tang rebel army behind the fortifications!
These pseudo-Tang thieves have actually begun to act like cowards!
The effect of our own artillery fire was not great, but the rebel artillery fire caused a lot of casualties to our own side. Although our own infantry group was still behind at this time, only the artillerymen with more than 40 field guns in front stepped forward to fight.
, but even these artillerymen suffered a lot of casualties.
The casualties are still small, but if the artillery bombardment is fruitless, it will be difficult to provide cover for the subsequent infantry attack!
But there is nothing we can do about it. The shelling has no results. We can't continue to waste ammunition and time like this. The battle will always be fought!
Immediately, the Ming army moved, and the infantry of the large groups began to line up, and in front of these infantry groups, there were numerous shotguns of various types!
In this battle, the largest number of artillery pieces on both sides was actually shotguns on both sides.
On the Tang Army side, because the two-pound shotgun technology is mature and generally made of iron, the cost is very low. Although the range is only a mere 150 meters and the lethality is only average, it cannot be said to be cheap.
, so the scale of equipment has always been increased.
In the earliest period, an infantry regiment was only equipped with six two-pound shotguns, but later the number was increased to eight. During the reorganization period, according to the latest establishment of the Tang Army, an infantry regiment already had one
The expanded infantry and artillery team has nine two-pound shotguns and three three-pound shotguns, a total of twelve shotguns!
These shotguns, a two-pound shotgun only weighs tens of kilograms, and a three-pound shotgun only weighs a hundred kilograms. Moreover, the barrel and base can be separated, so they can be maneuvered with the infantry at any time.
As for this, the Tang Army is actually not satisfied yet. They are also preparing to equip the infantry regiments with small and medium-caliber short-barreled howitzers. Unfortunately, the technology is not up to par yet and they have not been developed yet.
In fact, not only the infantry regiments are equipped with shotguns on a large scale, but the army's baggage, artillery, cavalry and other arms are more or less equipped with some shotguns to act as auxiliary firepower.
Two-pound shotguns and three-pound shotguns are currently the most numerous artillery pieces in the Tang Dynasty, the navy, army and guards. In terms of quantity, they are much more than field cannons. In this vanguard force,
The two-pound and three-pound shotguns add up to more than thirty.
The same situation actually happened to the Ming Army, and there were more. On the one hand, the Ming Army itself was equipped with a large number of shotguns such as bowl-mouth cannons. In addition, it also developed a lot of new things in the past two years.
Although they are still called bowl-mouth cannons, they still cannot break away from the standard division of the Tang Army's ordnance, although they all copied the Datang Army from organization to ordnance and even tactics.
The shotguns in the Dubiao New Army include one-pound bowl-mouth cannons, two-pound bowl-mouth cannons, three-pound bowl-mouth cannons, and even five-jin bowl-mouth cannons. There are many more types than the Tang Dynasty Army's shotguns.
There is also more equipment.
The reason is naturally not that they like these bowl-mouth cannons, but that they cannot obtain more field cannons and can only retreat and build and equip more shotguns.
The large-scale production of field artillery is a big problem even for the Ministry of Industry of Tang Dynasty, which has initially adopted machinery, let alone the Ming Dynasty, which can only produce it by hand!
After all, relying solely on craftsmen to make them by hand, even if they could be mass-produced, it would only take a few months or even a year or two. The Ming army would not be able to obtain a large number of field artillery in a short period of time.