Chapter eight hundred and ninety second shelling Kaifeng
Facing the Ming army in Kaifeng City, they were determined to defend the city, and even did not hesitate to use many residential buildings in the city as battlefields. This made Fang Xitong a little angry!
After arriving in Kaifeng City, the first day of the trial attack resulted in the loss of more than two hundred people. Although more than two hundred people were nothing compared to the tens of thousands of people in the Fourth Army, to be honest, Fang Xitong
I have never fought such an awkward battle.
In the past, it was either a frontal decisive battle in the wild, an encounter, or a siege battle, and siege battles usually took place at the top of the city. Often after one's own side captured the top of the city, the defenders inside the city collapsed. But this time,
The Ming army in Kaifeng City did not assign the focus of resistance to you at the top of the city, but placed it in the urban area.
This made the Tang army, accustomed to open and close fights, shrink back and forth. The vital heavy artillery firepower was of no use at all, and the muskets were also of little use, because the Ming army was not facing a head-on confrontation at all. They were all ambushing and fighting.
The scale of the battles is also relatively small, with dozens or hundreds of people fighting in small-scale battles.
However, although the fight was a bit awkward, Fang Xitong would not give up, let alone act recklessly. Although the soldiers of the Tang Army were also cannon fodder in the eyes of senior generals, cannon fodder could not be sacrificed casually.
Therefore, Fang Xitong directly brought all the artillery outside the city into the city, and directly distributed grenades on a large scale to the frontline troops. He did not care that these ordinary soldiers were not grenadiers, and directly distributed them on a large scale.
Then he arranged a strategy for steady advancement!
They did not take risks and passed directly through those streets, trying to force the Ming army in the city to surrender by controlling the main passages. Instead, they advanced step by step, compressed the activity space of the Ming army in the city, and then gathered together to annihilate them.
Fang Xitong didn't believe it. The city of Kaifeng was only so big. He relied on heavy firepower to advance step by step. How could the Ming army stop it?
So starting from the next day, the city of Kaifeng was filled with the roar of cannons, and it was also accompanied by very dense explosions!
At this time, Fang Xitong used the long-barreled field gun as a direct-aiming artillery weapon for demolishing houses!
When they found that the Ming army was hiding in some houses, without saying a word, they directly pulled out field artillery and blasted open the courtyard walls and doors. Then the infantry did not rush up in lines stupidly, but relied on the houses on both sides as cover, and then approached
Throw a grenade after dozens of meters.
At the same time, short-barreled howitzers are also used as long-range artillery for deep strikes. Their curved ballistics are quite useful in street fighting with complex terrain, but they are still a little inconvenient to use because they are too heavy.
When Fang Xitong commanded the troops to attack the city, he already wrote a handwritten letter, strongly requesting the rear to develop and provide a light-weight, moderately powerful howitzer, preferably under nine kilograms, and the overall weight should not exceed one hundred kilograms.
And it needs to be able to maneuver quickly.
This kind of requirement is actually the requirement of later generations for mortars!
A large number of artillery and grenades, coupled with the attack of small teams, and fire attacks when encountering stubborn resistance, finally allowed the Fourth Army to open up the situation!
In particular, the artillery bombardment made the buildings in the city look like paper, and could not serve as a defensive site for the Ming army. It should be mentioned here that most of the buildings in the cities of Huaxia today are brick and wood structures, which are easy to catch fire.
Not to mention, its defense against artillery shells is almost zero.
The Fourth Army did not dispatch a large number of heavily armored troops to engage in hand-to-hand cleanup operations as the Ming Army expected. Instead, it directly used a large number of firearms such as artillery and grenades as its main attack firepower. The main force of the offensive operations was not the assault battalion.
Not even spearmen, but ordinary musketeers, especially grenadiers!
Such an attack method was also not expected by the Ming army, let alone something they had never seen before!
As a result, their stubborn resistance strategy inevitably failed!
As one block after another was captured, more and more Ming troops were killed and injured. In the end, the remaining thousands of Ming troops were compressed into a few small blocks.
After two more days of attack, Fang Xitong finally lost his patience and directly ordered his troops to launch a large-scale fire attack. That night, a large number of rockets were fired at many buildings where the Ming army was hiding.
At this time, the Ming army hiding here finally couldn't hide anymore and began to break out, and then ran headlong into the encirclement of the Fourth Army!
It took the Fourth Army a full five days to capture the entire city of Kaifeng. It suffered more than a thousand casualties, and nearly 20,000 Ming troops in the city, including thousands of new troops, were killed.
If there are too many, the rest will be taken as prisoners.
Although Kaifeng City was captured, the casualties of up to a thousand people made Fang Xitong frown. If possible, he would rather adopt a siege method to resolve the battle. In this case, it would take him a month or two to defeat him.
All the Ming troops in the city starved to death, and their own casualties were enough to be controlled to less than a hundred people.
It's a pity that he didn't have so much time. Li Xuan's order to him was to capture Kaifeng, capture Luoyang, control the entire Henan, and then march into Shanxi and Shaanxi.
There was no way he could waste several months in a mere city of Kaifeng!
But at any rate, I finally got it!
After capturing Kaifeng, Fang Xitong continued to lead the main force of the Fourth Army to march westward. There was no doubt that his next target was Luoyang, Henan Province. His march route basically followed the Yellow River, and some tributaries of the Yellow River Basin
, is also his attack target, but it is not the main target.
Now for the Tang Dynasty, it is important to quickly control the important cities in Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, especially strategic points, such as Kaifeng, Luoyang, Chang'an, and Tongguan, and then go north along the Fen River and other tributaries to Shanxi to control Pingyang and Taiyuan.
etc.
In such a huge area, there is only one Fourth Army, and the current Fourth Army only has two infantry divisions with less than 30,000 troops, so the pressure is still considerable.
Now what Fang Xitong hopes is that the rear can recruit him as soon as possible, and then send a certain amount of garrison troops to Henan, preferably a mixed regiment, so that he can free up his hands to fight.
In addition, he also hoped that the Third Army heading north to Zhili could resolve the Youzhou War as soon as possible and then divide its forces to support him. At least Datong would be a bit reluctant to rely on itself alone.
As he waits later, his Fourth Army will become more and more dispersed. Perhaps after taking Tongguan, the troops he can mobilize to go north will only have one division at most. By the time he reaches Datong, it is estimated that there will be 5,000 troops.
There are a lot of troops.
You ask where the remaining troops went?
You have to stay behind to guard the city. You have to leave a certain amount of troops to garrison the city that was captured, otherwise it can be occupied by just a few cats and dogs. There are a lot of ambitious people these days, especially in Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places. In recent years, there have been many
There were many riots.
In the past, it was the Ming army that dealt with various rebellions caused by these careerists, but now, this task falls on the Tang army!
Therefore, the further you get to the back, the fewer troops Fang Xitong can use for front-line combat. There is only one way to solve this problem, and that is to send more troops to him from above. One mixed regiment is not enough, and two are not enough either.
To control such a large area, at least three or four mixed groups are required.
Not to mention other things, there are so many rebellions in Shaanxi alone. To maintain the local situation, at least two mixed regiments must be formed to garrison in important places separately. Otherwise, there will be trouble if you are not careful.
Big.
Suppressing local areas requires too many troops, which has always been a constraint on the Tang Army. The Tang Army originally had few troops, and when suppressing local areas requires a large number of troops, even fewer troops can be mobilized to participate in frontline operations.
But there was nothing that could be done. What Li Xuan could do was to continue to expand the number of mixed groups and ask the Privy Council to vigorously develop militia organizations.
Li Xuan's expectation is that for ordinary local repression tasks, such as dealing with small-scale riots, it is best to let the militia come, while the mixed regiments are dispersed to garrison in important places, such as strategic locations and transportation hubs.
In this way, it is possible to suppress various places even though the regular army has relatively few troops, and more main forces can be mobilized to participate in frontline battles.
It's just that although the militia organization of the Tang Dynasty has been developed for several years, it is still insignificant. In a southern province, especially in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou, the three provinces controlled by the Tang Dynasty for the longest time, it is better.
Because there are many retired soldiers in these three places!
The Tang Dynasty and the Ming Army have been at war for many years. It is now the sixth year of Xuanping. Many soldiers have been in the army for many years, and it is impossible for the Tang Army to keep soldiers fighting without letting them retire.
In the past few years, there was no way. There were few troops and the supply of soldiers was in short supply. However, in the past two years, the area controlled by the Tang Dynasty has become larger and larger, and the salary of joining the army in the army of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is quite good, so the supply of new soldiers has always been
There is no need to worry, a large number of new soldiers are recruited into the army every day.
So after marching into Jiangnan, the King of Tang Dynasty officially established the demobilization system!
First-class and private soldiers retire after three years in the army. Of course, we are currently in a war period, so the retirement date is postponed by one year, which means that the soldier's service period is four years.
The service period of non-commissioned officers is five years, and they will retire after five years. It is currently a war period, and non-commissioned officers are the backbone, so although there is a retirement system, retirement will not be actively arranged unless you apply for it.
As for officers, although the retirement and demobilization system has been established, it has not been implemented yet, and the retirement system has no practical significance, because it is stipulated that lieutenants must retire after they are fifty years old, and colonel officers must be sixty years old. As for general officers,
Then he is seventy years old.
Unfortunately, the average age of the officers in the Tang Dynasty's royal division is only around 20 years old, and it will take decades for them to retire.