Chapter 828: Suppressing the thieves Anmin - Northern Expedition!
After sending away the bunch of idiots from the tax department who thought they didn't have to pay back the borrowed money, Li Xuan just figured out how to spend the five million taels of silver he borrowed, and invested it directly in military expenses. That wouldn't be good.
It's not that military spending is enough, but that military spending is already a lot, and other departments are tight. Especially after Jinling City was established as the capital, the Tang Dynasty was on the right track, and everything had to spend money.
And these all cost money!
Therefore, part of the five million can be reserved for military expenses, but the other part must still be distributed to various cabinet ministries.
Some should be paid for water conservancy construction, some should be given to the Department of Transportation, some should be reserved for the Department of Education, and some officials should be compensated appropriately, as well as other miscellaneous expenses. After the final calculation, Li Xuan discovered that,
Oh my god, these five million are so worthless!
And even after the money was spent, there didn't seem to be much improvement. Each department still complained about poverty every day, which made Li Xuan upset!
Later, I simply gave it up. I had survived the hard times in the past few years, and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to survive it now. I just had to endure it slowly. There would be bread, and good days would eventually come.
The small turmoil caused by the national debt went away as quickly as it came. Li Xuan was soon forgotten and focused on armaments.
On September 2nd, Li Xuan left the palace and went to the outskirts of the city, preparing to inspect the newly formed Eighth Infantry Division and other units of the Second Army.
After arriving at the training ground on the outskirts of the city, Li Xuan, accompanied by a group of civil and military officials, boarded the viewing platform and watched the Eighth Infantry Division's drills with binoculars, while Zeng Ziwen introduced to Li Xuan:
"The Eighth Infantry Division began preparations at the beginning of the year. With reference to the preparations for the Seventh Infantry Division last year, some backbones were directly transferred from the Fifth Infantry Division and other units. The core of its infantry unit is three people transferred from the Fifth Infantry Division.
An infantry battalion, the core of the artillery regiment is an artillery battalion from the 5th Infantry Division, and some troops have been transferred from other troops!"
"Subsequently, a large number of new soldiers were recruited, weapons were replenished, and intensive training was conducted. In the past two months since its formation in July, it has been undergoing intense adaptive training. At present, the division has officially become an army."
"The division, like other main forces, is composed of three infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a baggage regiment, a cavalry battalion, an engineer battalion and other auxiliary troops. The total strength is 15,000 people. It has 6,000 muskets.
, thirty-two five-pound field guns, eighteen nine-pound field guns, and forty-eight two-pound and three-pound shotguns."
"In terms of strength and weapons and equipment, this division is already the same as the First Infantry Division, the Fifth Infantry Division and other powerful armies!"
Li Xuan naturally knew that now the Army has completely completed its reorganization, and the organization of each infantry division is the same. Except for the difficulty of replenishing the Fourth Infantry Division, the other infantry divisions basically have the same strength and the same equipment.
But in terms of strength and equipment, it is actually difficult to distinguish the combat effectiveness of these troops. However, the combat effectiveness of a unit is also important, but when the strength and equipment are the same, the quality of the officers and soldiers
It will also cause a huge gap in combat effectiveness between troops.
Among the many units of the Tang Army, currently, the two units with the strongest combat effectiveness are the First Infantry Division and the Fifth Infantry Division. Secondly, although the Fourth Mixed Regiment is only a mixed regiment, it has a tough style and can fight.
It's a tough fight, and the combat effectiveness is not weak either.
To be honest, new units such as the 7th Infantry Division and the 8th Infantry Division have only average combat effectiveness.
Eight infantry divisions and ten mixed regiments are the current core field force of the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, the Army also has some independent heavy howitzer battalions, mainly equipped with 48-pound and 24-pound heavy short-barreled howitzers. This kind of howitzer is mainly used for siege. Usually, due to difficulty in maneuvering and relatively short range, deployment is difficult.
It is difficult to supply ammunition, so its daily use is actually average, far less useful than the five-pound field gun.
Yes, the most useful artillery in the Tang Army today, which is also the core of the army's artillery firepower, is not the powerful heavy howitzer, nor the long-range and powerful nine-pound field gun, but the poor performance.
five-pound field cannon.
Why, because the five-pound field cannon is made of iron, has low cost and is easy to produce, the Tang Army was equipped with a large number of such artillery.
When the number increases, it will be difficult not to act as the core force of artillery!
The senior generals of the Datang Army have a soft spot for the current five-pound field artillery. Its low cost, simple production process, and large output mean that the Army can purchase more of this artillery within limited military expenditures.
.
Without this cheap iron-cast five-pound field gun, the Army's ambitious artillery regiment plan would have been impossible to take shape.
When watching the drill of the Eighth Infantry Division, Li Xuan also expressed his recognition of the quality displayed by the Eighth Infantry Division. He turned to Zeng Ziwen and other army senior officials and said: "It can be seen that you have put a lot of thought into this.
Yes, good!"
Although this is just a drill, it does not mean that the 8th Infantry Division will be able to perform like this on the battlefield, but if this drill cannot be done well, there is no hope of doing well on the battlefield.
Judging from the drill, the 8th Infantry Division performed quite well, with tight formations, quick formation changes and not chaos. The artillery's live ammunition shooting hit rate was also quite good.
As for the true test of whether this unit has strong combat effectiveness, or how high it can withstand casualties, it cannot be tested. However, there are many new recruits in it, and they are probably far inferior to those of the 1st Infantry Division and the 5th Infantry Division.
The infantry division is a veteran and strong force.
But after fighting a few more battles, many of the new recruits inside will quickly become veterans. The veterans who have been baptized by the flames of war will have their combat effectiveness greatly improved!
With the Eighth Infantry Division, the Northern Expedition plan has another guarantee!
The day after returning from the training ground on the outskirts of the city, the Privy Council Operations Department formally submitted the plan for the Northern Expedition across the Yangtze River to Li Xuan!
When Li Xuan got the plan, he didn't read it carefully because it was divided into more than a dozen books. Each book ranged from dozens to hundreds of pages, and many of them were full of details.
Naturally, Li Xuan doesn't need to look at sexual things. What he wants is the overall plan.
So what he looked at was the general outline at the front!
After reading it, Li Xuan did not go to see Zeng Ziwen, Hao Bainian, Li Chunjing and other senior officials, but carefully considered the pros and cons of the plan.
Although the plan proposed by the Army has many details, it can generally be divided into three stages. In the first stage, the Army plans to seize Hanyang, Anqing, and Yangzhou, the three cities strategically defended by the Ming Army, and use this to
As a basis for completely controlling the Yangtze River, opening up the Yangtze River waterway, gaining access to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and advancing the war to the Huaihe River Basin.
The second stage is to advance the front to Shandong and Henan.
The third stage is to completely seize Shandong and Henan, advance into Beizhili, and seize the capital of the puppet Ming Dynasty.
To put it simply, this is a strategic plan with the ultimate goal of seizing the capital of the puppet Ming Dynasty. The reason why it is divided into three stages is because the distance is long and the time consumption will definitely be very long. Even if everything goes well with the entire plan, I am afraid that
It also takes more than a year!
Not to mention anything else, it would take several months just for the troops to walk from Jinling City to the capital of the Puppet Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, the Ming army is not a fool. If they wait for you to kill you without resisting, if you resist a little bit in the middle, the time will be extended by a month. This is why the Privy Council divided the entire plan into three stages for implementation.
The above three stages are only rough plans. As for the detailed plan, the First Army is responsible for attacking Hubei on the west route, including Hanyang. The Second Army is responsible for the middle route and attacks on the western part of Jiangbei.
The central part, that is, Anqing, Luzhou, Fengyang and other vast areas.
The Third Army is responsible for the eastern part of Jiangbei, mainly Yangzhou and Huai'an.
Basically, each army is responsible for solving a tough problem: Hanyang in the first army, Anqing in the second army, and Yangzhou in the third army.
Of course, although the troops are divided into three groups, they are also prioritized and prioritized. Therefore, the troop deployment and even the supply of logistical supplies of the above three armies will be readjusted.
The biggest adjustment is that in a series of operations, capturing Yangzhou is definitely the top priority, so we are preparing to increase the deployment of troops of the Third Army. Not only the newly formed Eighth Infantry Division will be incorporated into the Third Army
, and at the same time, the Fifth Infantry Division, a force with a tough style and good at fighting tough battles, will be transferred from the Second Army to strengthen the Third Army.
The heavy howitzer battalion will also be assigned to the Third Army first, in order to get a good start, seize Yangzhou first, and completely open the Yangtze River channel for the Tang Dynasty.
As long as Yangzhou is captured, many subsequent logistics transport ships of the Tang Dynasty will be able to directly enter the Yangtze River to transport supplies to Jinling and even the suburbs of Anqing. At the same time, they can also enter the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to provide logistical supplies for the troops that penetrate deep into the Huaihe River.
Therefore, Yangzhou is the first strategic target that needs to be conquered!
As for Anqing, it can be postponed for a while, and as for Hanyang, it can also be postponed.
Li Xuan spent a whole day discussing with the top generals of the army. The next day, he held an enlarged meeting of the army and invited almost all the generals above major general in Jinling City to discuss the army.
Discuss.
On the third day, he held a strategic meeting in front of the imperial court, attended by all senior navy and army officials. At the meeting, he formally approved the first phase of the cross-river and northern expedition plan, and regarded this phase of the operation as this year's autumn and winter offensive.
After the imperial strategy meeting, Li Xuan selected more than a dozen officials from the Hanlin Academy as angels to patrol the troops fighting abroad on his behalf.
The senior generals also left Jinling City and rushed to the war zones respectively!
On the fourth day, Li Xuan held a cabinet meeting and asked all cabinet ministries to cooperate with the upcoming autumn and winter offensive, do a good job in comforting the families of soldiers, do a good job in recruiting new soldiers, do a good job in replenishing various supplies, etc.
At this juncture, these civilian officials naturally did not dare to drag the military and Li Xuan back. They all patted their chests and said that they must settle the rear and provide the most powerful support for the frontline troops.
Liu Bagou, on behalf of the cabinet officials, solemnly said to Zeng Ziwen and Bao Yifen, two representatives of the navy and army: The soldiers on the front line can fight bravely with peace of mind, and the cabinet will provide all support to solve their worries!
On the fifth day, the latest issue of the Tang Dynasty newspaper published a message to suppress thieves and bring peace to the people, vowing to wipe out the traitor army of the Ming Dynasty in order to bring peace to the hundreds of millions of people in the world!
When the Tang Dynasty published this message to suppress thieves and pacify the people, the Third Army of the Tang Dynasty officially launched a landing operation in Tongzhou, Jiangbei, under the cover of the navy!