Days pass day by day, sometimes faster and sometimes slower.
In this season that is about to enter autumn, some people feel that time is disappearing without a trace inadvertently, while some people feel that the days are like years, and every day is so long.
For Yu Dayou in Fuzhou, this time passed quite quickly, and he even felt that it was not enough. He wanted to strengthen the city defense and evacuate the people and materials that should be evacuated in advance, and these were all needed
Time, but what he lacks most now is time.
He has already received the report that the Puppet Tang Dynasty rebel army coming from Quanzhou is only three days away from Fuzhou. What does this mean? This means that in three days, Fuzhou will face the Puppet Tang Dynasty rebel army.
threaten.
However, for Yu Dayou, there was not enough time, but for the Ming army in Nanping City, they felt that every day was extremely difficult.
Since the puppet Tang rebel army officially launched the general attack the day before yesterday, the Ming army in the city has finally felt the powerful siege ability of the puppet Tang rebel army, or to be more precise, the sharpness of the puppet Tang rebel army's guns and artillery.
At the beginning, the puppet Tang rebels only used five-pound, nine-level field artillery for bombardment. Although the Ming army in the city was a little shocked that the puppet Tang rebels outside the city had so many long-barreled heavy artillery, the Ming army and the Tang army fought.
It has been many years, and the Bandit-breaking Army is one of the few new armies with a name in the Ming army, so it is naturally no stranger to new guns and artillery.
The Bandit-breaking Army itself was equipped with a large number of guns and artillery, and even purchased several nine-pound heavy cannons from those foreigners.
However, there are only about twenty of these new field artillery pieces in the bandit army. The cannons placed on top of Nanping City only have seven or eight, and most of them are old-style bowl-mouth cannons.
But the puppet Tang thief army on the opposite side pulled out more than fifty of these long-barreled cannons, including eighteen nine-pound cannons and thirty-six five-pound cannons.
.
According to the latest artillery organization of the Tang Army, the artillery regiment under the infantry division has four artillery battalions, one nine-pound field artillery battalion and two five-pound field artillery battalions, with a total of fifty-four field guns.
The infantry regiment under the infantry division also has an additional large-scale infantry team with nine two-pound shotguns and three three-pound shotguns, for a total of twelve shotguns.
The mixed regiment has an artillery battalion, which has one team of six nine-pound field guns, and two teams of six five-pound field guns each, for a total of eighteen field guns.
In addition, the mixed regiment also has a shotgun team, which like the infantry regiment has nine two-pound shotguns and three three-pound shotguns.
To a certain extent, the mixed regiment is actually an infantry regiment that strengthens a field artillery battalion, a baggage battalion, a cavalry and other auxiliary units.
Before marching into Fujian, the Sixth Infantry Division had just completed the reorganization of its new organization. Not only were the three infantry regiments more powerful, but the Sixth Artillery Regiment was also fully equipped.
Fifty-four field guns were placed outside the city, completely overwhelming the Ming army in the city in terms of firepower!
And this does not include half a battalion of six short-barreled heavy howitzers that Cai Erhu borrowed from the Second Army.
In fact, the casualties caused to the Ming army were more caused by these six short-barreled heavy howitzers. Because the Ming army defending the city had not experienced such short-barreled heavy howitzers before, they all followed the defense solid
Later, a large number of defensive troops were deployed on the city head and near the city wall.
And when one grenade after another exploded at the top of the city, the people on the top of the city suffered heavy casualties in an instant.
Just one day after the artillery battle, the Ming army on the top of the city thought they had suffered heavy casualties and could not stay in large numbers on the top of the city.
What's more serious is that the Ming army's artillery troops deployed at the top of the city also suffered heavy casualties, and even some light bowl-mouth cannons were directly destroyed by the powerful nine-pound artillery.
Although those field artillery were good, they could not hold up the artillery and suffered heavy casualties.
With the heavy casualties of the artillery, there were naturally not enough manpower to operate these artillery pieces. Artillery requires professional artillery to operate, not ordinary soldiers.
So in fact, during the artillery battle on the first day, the Ming army's artillery units in the city, especially the field artillery with a relatively long range, actually lost their ability to fight back.
However, the Sixth Infantry Division did not rush to launch a strong attack. Instead, they continued to attack the city rigidly according to the previously formulated plan. They began to dig tunnels and prepare to blast. At the same time, they also wanted to continue to use artillery to kill the Ming troops in the city and destroy them.
morale.
Under this situation, even though the city has not yet been breached, the more than 10,000 Ming troops in the city have lost all their courage. No matter who, the enemy's shells keep flying overhead from time to time, and even explode.
Are some of our own soldiers killed or wounded in the shelling? If you are unlucky and a large number of people are killed or wounded, morale will not be that high.
What's more important is that they can only be beaten without being able to fight back!
Although the Ming artillery unit defending the city still had some intact artillery on hand, the gunners suffered heavy casualties.
Because on the first day of the artillery battle, a large number of artillery of the Sixth Infantry Division concentrated on the artillery positions of the Ming army, and all the howitzers hit those artillery positions of the Ming army.
With the Ming army's gunners suffering heavy casualties, they naturally could not have enough gunners to operate the remaining artillery.
Moreover, the bombardment of the puppet Tang rebels was so sharp that even the remaining gunners did not dare to risk going to the top of the city to operate artillery to counterattack.
Seeing that the Ming army on the top of the city was completely suppressed by his own artillery, Cai Erhu also sighed: "Wars these days are dominated by guns. If there are not enough cannons in this battle, this battle may not be good."
beat!"
"No wonder that guy Butcher Chen decided to become an artilleryman early. He's still far ahead of me!"
Chen Tufu is now living a more unrestrained life than Cai Erhu. As a former artilleryman who changed his career early and worked hard, Chen Tufu, although he was not as good as Cai Erhu and Wang Shanxu in terms of promotion in the early days, he has been working steadily and has become a
The commander of the artillery battalion and the commander of the artillery regiment was later transferred back to Zhaoqing and served as the artillery director.
Director of Artillery, this position is quite special. It was a position established by Li Xuan only in the first half of the year. It belongs directly to the Privy Council, but it does not belong to the various departments of the Privy Council. It exists independently. Its responsibility is to shoulder the development of artillery. To say it is a bit exaggerated.
It is not an exaggeration to say that he was the artillery commander of the Tang Army.
The same goes for the Commander-in-Chief of Cavalry.
Compared with Chen Tufu, Cai Erhu felt that although the two had the same military rank, his own family knew his own affairs. With his own ability, he could barely serve as a regiment commander, but as a division commander like now, it was no longer possible.
Otherwise, he would not have delegated almost all combat command of the 6th Infantry Division to the staff team, and he would have only acted as a rubber stamp to issue final orders.
Many people know about my situation, and His Majesty is even more aware that he is able to be the commander of the 6th Infantry Division because he has already occupied the early position of Conglong and worked hard without complaint. However, it is basically impossible for him to reach the position of division commander in this way.
That's the end. It's almost impossible to go one step further and become a military commander.
Even if Li Xuan asked him to be the army commander, to be honest he would not dare to go!
Now in the Tang Dynasty, if there are still a few mediocre officers at the levels of division commander, mixed regiment, and regiment commander, then at the level of army commander, they are almost all the ones with the highest strategic and tactical skills in the Tang Army.
A lot of people.
Hao Bainian, Li Chunjing, and Wang Chaohong, the names of these three people are not only famous within the Datang Army, but also in the Datang Dynasty. Even Mr. Zhengde knows their names, and they are
Quite familiar.
Without sufficient prestige and qualifications, and without strong enough strategic and tactical capabilities, it is basically impossible to serve as the commander of an army in today's Datang Army.
Sometimes, Cai Erhu actually misses the early years. Although there were guns and cannons at that time, their role was not so great. It was also the time when he and Butcher Chen were the most dazzling.
Wearing heavy armor, holding a sharp blade and leading the heavily armored soldiers into the enemy's array, as if entering an uninhabited land, this is what Cai Erhu is best at.
It's a pity that this situation is gone forever. Even the Tang Army has equipped plate armor on a large scale and has almost reached the pinnacle of all dynasties in terms of armor. However, the heavy armored troops can play
The battles that play a decisive role can only be city offensive and defensive battles, or more accurately, hand-to-hand battles at the top of the city. At other times, the heavily armored troops can hardly decide the direction of the battle with the power of a single blow.
However, even so, only after our own artillery has gained an overwhelming advantage can the heavy armored troops have a chance to play a role. Otherwise, the heavy armored troops of the assault battalion will be attacked by artillery on the way to charge.
Completely shattered.
No matter how thick the armor is, it can't stop bullets, let alone cannonballs.
Cai Erhu lamented the end of the heavy armor, sword, and shield soldiers, but soon became happy again!
Although the heavy armored sword and shield soldiers were outdated, the Tang Army had a powerful artillery unit!
Dozens of heavy artillery were deployed outside Nanping City and fired for two days. The Ming army inside Nanping City could only huddle behind the city wall.
Relying on its absolute artillery superiority, the 6th Infantry Division launched an almost crushing attack on Nanping City. It started with an artillery battle, and then carried out three large-scale explosions in succession.
When the soldiers of the assault battalion wearing plate armor rushed to the top of the city, the critical battle came to an end.
After five days, the 6th Infantry Division captured Nanping City with an absolute advantage, nearly annihilating the Ming army in the city, and suffered less than 500 casualties.
After taking Nanping, it was announced that Fuzhou had opened its arms to the 6th Infantry Division. Immediately, Cai Erhu led the 6th Infantry Division to continue southward, preparing to return with Wang Chaohong's troops who had arrived at Fuzhou City.
Prepare to launch the final general attack on Fuzhou. As long as Fuzhou is captured, it will basically be declared that Fujian has been included in the rule of the Tang Dynasty.