Because it was located in the south, the Tang Dynasty was always in short supply of horses.
The lack of horses will definitely affect the troops' operations, not only the cavalry, but also the artillery and baggage troops.
In order to solve this problem, the Tang Dynasty also adopted a variety of methods.
On the one hand, we need to increase the cultivation of Southwest horses. Although Southwest horses are not suitable as riding horses, or even draft horses, they are still more suitable as horse horses. In addition, when there is no other choice, Southwest horses should be used as horses.
Using a horse as a draft horse or even a riding horse is also an emergency measure.
At present, the Tang Dynasty has expanded its original horse farms in Guizhou on a large scale. In addition, it has set up horse farms in Hunan and Guangdong and Guangxi, mainly for the large-scale breeding of Southwest horses. At the same time, it has also begun to try to breed Mongolian horses.
However, this still cannot fundamentally solve the problem of lack of horses in the Tang Army!
This can be seen from the fact that the Tang Army has always lacked large-scale cavalry. At present, the full-time cavalry of the Datang Army includes cavalry battalions of infantry divisions, cavalry teams of mixed regiments, and reconnaissance cavalry under each infantry regiment.
Inside, the total number of cavalry was only over 6,000.
Most of the horses used were Mongolian horses captured from the Ming army, and a small number were collected from civilians.
Of course, this does not mean that there are only more than 6,000 horses in the Army of the Tang Dynasty. In fact, the total number of horses owned by the Army of the Tang Dynasty has exceeded 20,000, and most of them are draft horses used to pull cannons.
It pulls ammunition wagons, supply wagons, and some horses.
However, this is still far from enough. In order to make up for the shortage of draft horses, the Tang Army now requisitions a large number of mules, donkeys and other livestock from the private sector for logistical transportation.
In addition, a large number of civilians were used to transport supplies. Whenever the army launched a fierce battle on the front line, there would be countless civilians pushing wheelbarrows in the rear to transport countless supplies.
This situation became even more obvious after the Second Army crossed the river. After the Second Army crossed the river, there was no way to use the river for river transportation. Most of the logistics supplies of the 7th Infantry Division and the Temporary Guards Brigade were
They are all transported overland via horse-drawn carriages and wheelbarrows.
But now the Ming Army's cavalry is a very big threat, which forces the Second Army to use a large number of carriages. However, horses are insufficient, so the Royal Institute of Technology has given a seemingly contradictory design requirement.
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Since a large amount of goods were transported and it was necessary to defend against the impact of cavalry, it also required the use of a smaller number of horses.
In the end, the students at the Royal Institute of Technology thought about it and came up with a solution that surprised even Li Xuan, which was to directly use rail carriages.
The carriage created in this way has a large enough cargo capacity, and it is also fast!
But when the Army asked, how long would it take to lay the rails? How much would be the investment? Then the Royal Institute of Technology said that for 100 kilometers, it would cost at least three million taels.
Then the Army was completely speechless. Three million? With that kind of money, our Army would have planned to build two more infantry divisions and go directly to Henan. We still have to worry about the logistical supply lines being attacked.
If the railway could not be built, the senior students at the Royal Institute of Technology just had no interest and asked a few juniors to design several carriages for the Army to choose from.
There are two plans, one is a two-wheeled carriage, and this plan was rejected by the Army as soon as it was proposed. You are still asked to design the two-wheeled carriage. Now our army uses a large number of two-wheeled carriages. Although it is convenient to use,
I am not picky about roads, but the transportation volume is too small. When transporting at the same time, it is difficult to transport some relatively large materials, such as artillery shells, especially 24-pound and 48-pound grenades. This thing is big and heavy, and two-wheeled
It is difficult to load a large number of carriages, and the number of horses required is not low.
The latter type is a four-wheeled carriage. The carriage itself has a huge cargo capacity. Of course, how much cargo is loaded depends on how many horses are used to pull it. It is important to note here that in ancient China, there were not only two-wheeled carriages, but actually two-wheeled carriages.
Four-wheeled carriages have always been around, and they are widely used. Not to mention their use as chariots during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Later, four-wheeled carriages were mostly used for freight, but rarely for carrying people.
Of course, since it is a carriage designed by the Royal Institute of Technology, it is naturally not a traditional two-wheeled or four-wheeled carriage. The appearance looks similar, but the internal design is completely different.
Whether it is a two-wheeled carriage or a four-wheeled carriage, they all draw on many of the designs of the Royal Institute of Technology’s railway carriages, including spring damping structures, steering structures made of high-strength steel, and even the wheels are specially designed.
Wheels with large broad sides of iron structure.
Of course, they only designed the carriage chassis. What to do with the chassis is the Army's own business. The students at the Royal Institute of Technology are very busy and don't have time to do all this mess.
During the test, this prototype vehicle only used two horses to pull an entire carriage of goods, and because of its wide wheels, it had better passability on complex roads. If the horse could not move, several people would be forced to move.
The soldier helped push him, and then he was able to continue running forward.
Moreover, this kind of carriage has a very good stopping ability. It can stop directly when the cavalry is attacked, and then the carriages approach each other. The coachmen do not even need to get out of the car, and can directly rely on the carriage to shoot back.
After the people from the Army Logistics Department saw it, they immediately decided that they needed four-wheeled freight carriages like this. Not too many, let’s get 500 of them first!
Of course, two-wheeled carriages will continue to be used.
After all, four-wheeled carriages have relatively high requirements for roads, and two-wheeled carriages can only be used on some impassable roads.
However, even with four-wheeled carriages and two-wheeled carriages, the main means of transportation of the Tang Army was still the wheelbarrow!
The unicycles used by the logistics department of the Datang Army today are also high-tech products, designed and developed by the Royal Institute of Technology. The style is no different from traditional unicycles, but the size of the wheels, the size of the body, the location of the cargo, etc. have all been modified.
Carefully calculate to save effort when pushing the cart.
At the same time, there are also wheelbarrows specially designed to transport artillery shells, such as 48-pound grenades, which are very heavy. Wheelbarrows transporting such artillery shells need to be specially designed.
To put it bluntly, in places where there is no river transportation, the logistics department of the Datang Army used countless wheelbarrows to transport a lot of supplies to the frontline army!
Although the four-wheeled carriage has been designed and purchased by the military, it will not be used for a while. Therefore, the 7th Infantry Division and the Temporary Guards Brigade can only advance slowly in groups, but even if
Despite the harassment from the Ming army's cavalry, they still arrived in Hefei successfully.
There were no big surprises in the subsequent offensive operations. The 7th Infantry Division took an absolute advantage and captured Hefei, where more than 20,000 Ming troops were stationed. They annihilated more than 1,000 enemy troops on the spot and captured more than 3,000 people.
As for the remaining more than 10,000 Ming troops, they ran away when the battle just started!
After taking Hefei, the 7th Infantry Division did not continue to launch a large-scale offensive. Instead, it established contact with the Third Army troops in Fengyang Prefecture in the north, and began to regain some states and counties, consolidate the results, and establish defense lines.
Because at this time, the Second Army's logistics supplies were completely inclined to be provided to the Anqing troops, and the Seventh Infantry Division had to save ammunition like the Third Army.
Outside Anqing City, the Second Army gathered here the 3rd Infantry Division, the 4th Mixed Regiment, the 5th Mixed Regiment, two heavy artillery battalions, the 3rd Assault Battalion, and the 4th Assault Battalion, a total of nearly 30,000 troops.
In addition, there is also the main fleet of the Yangtze River Fleet of the Navy to assist in the battle!
The strength of Yu Dayou's troops in the city is not bad. There are more than 40,000 people. They are all nominally part of the bandit-breaking army. Of course, the core main force is not that many. The main force is only about 20,000 at most, and the remaining
The 20,000 people under the banner are all wearing the name of breaking the bandit army, but in fact they are still ordinary new troops.
However, no matter what, the 40,000-strong army is genuine!
In addition, the Ming army still had about fifty field guns in Anqing City, some of which were artillery from the Anqing Fort. However, as the Yangtze River Fleet came over and the Second Army successfully crossed the river, Yu Dayou simply
The forts outside the city were abandoned, and the artillery and artillery were withdrawn into the city.
This is almost a replica of Yangzhou City. Although it is smaller in scale and has fewer artillery, the Second Army that attacked Anqing did not have as many troops as the Third Army that attacked Yangzhou!
However, Wang Chaohong is not worried about this. When his second army successfully crosses the river, Anqing has already fallen into his palm. Next, he only needs to fight step by step, and Anqing can be taken.
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Wang Chaohong's tactical style is similar to that of Hao Bainian. They are both a steady and steady type and will not be too aggressive. Therefore, when the main force of the Second Army arrived at Anqing City, a long preparation time began!
Dig trenches, prepare artillery positions, dig tunnels and prepare for blasting, and then contact the navy to bring up naval guns to assist in the battle.
Then hoard a large number of artillery shells and conduct intensive bombardment.
These all take time, and Wang Chaohong was not in a hurry. Li Xuan did not rush him too much anyway, and gave Wang Chaohong a full three months.
Three months to capture Anqing, Wang Chaohong thinks this is enough!
In fact, in Wang Chaohong's own plan, it is only one month at most. If everything goes well, maybe half a month will be enough!
The main force of the Second Army was stationed outside Anqing City, and the distant Jinling City also ushered in the Spring Festival of the sixth year of Xuanping!
On New Year's Eve this year, Li Xuan held a state banquet as usual in previous years to entertain important ministers and nobles. At this state banquet, the emperors and ministers of the Tang Dynasty enjoyed themselves very comfortably.
Not only because the situation in the world was very good for the Tang Dynasty, and it would take less than a few years to completely unify China, but also because Li Xuan gave his ministers another round of salary repayment before the year, although it was not much,
It was just a reissue for two months, but this time there was no national debt, only cash.
When they received their salaries, all the ministers were so moved that they almost cried!
After so many years, I can finally get paid and have a good year!