When Li Xuan left Jinling City, he also announced that the Southwest Campaign, which had been prepared for several months, had officially begun!
Li Xuan has not yet arrived in Jiujiang, and Yu Jia has just arrived in Dangtu County and inspected the Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant and other state-owned enterprises in Dangtu Industrial Zone. Several units of the Tang Army have already launched offensives. The main battle at present is
They are concentrated at the junction of Henan and Hubei, that is, the Sanguan area of Yiyang, as well as the Huguang and Qizhou areas.
Those responsible for the attack from north to south were not the troops originally planned to participate in this battle, but an infantry regiment from the 9th Infantry Division that directly belonged to the Fourth Army and the 16th Reserve Division stationed in Xinyang Prefecture. This unit
A fierce attack started from the front line of Xinyang Prefecture in southern Henan. The place facing them was the first section of the Dubiao Right Army stationed at the third pass of Yiyang, with about 10,000 people.
However, in this direction, the troops invested by both sides are not actually the main force. Because of the Dabie Mountains as a natural barrier, in southern Henan and northern Anhui, the Tang Army cannot invest before seizing the Yiyang Three Pass and other passes.
Heavy troops.
If you want to enter Huguang, the best way, or even the only way, is to first capture the Yiyang Three Passes and other passes.
However, in such an important military town, Zhang Yue naturally deployed heavy troops and took advantage of the pass to garrison tens of thousands of people, which was enough to block the Tang Army from marching south from Henan to Hubei.
If the Army of the Tang Dynasty really sent tens of thousands of troops to attack, Zhang Yue would be able to laugh out of his dreams, because he could send more troops to reinforce at any time, and then fight the Army of the Tang Dynasty at the Three Passes of Yiyang.
The teeth of the Tang Army can be broken at any time, which is much better than head-on confrontation with the Tang Army in other areas.
But the Army of the Tang Dynasty is not stupid. Although it boasts its ability to attack fortresses, it is not stupid enough to insist on fighting Zhang Yue at the Three Passes of Yiyang!
They can totally take another route!
Therefore, although the Yiyang Sanguan side seems to be important, in fact no one has invested heavy troops there, and it is considered a secondary front.
In the early stages of the Southwest Campaign, the real important front was actually the Qizhou area of Hubei Province, or more accurately the plains on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The main cities include Susong County in North Anhui Province, Huangmei County in Qizhou, Guangzhou
Ji County and Qizhou Prefecture City.
The above four cities are the most important line of defense deployed by Zhang Yue's supervisor in southeastern Hubei, guarding a narrow strip of land from the south of the Dabie Mountains to the Yangtze River.
If the Army of the Tang Dynasty wanted to directly attack Hubei from northern Anhui and Henan, but did not want to go over the mountains, it could only take two routes, one was through the Three Passes of Yiyang, and the other was through Qizhou.
Relatively speaking, although there are more Ming troops in Qizhou, it is easier for heavy firepower units like the Tang Army.
First of all, they can get the support of the navy on the other side of the Yangtze River, and can get a large amount of supplies at any time through river transportation, especially the supply of ammunition. Secondly, when the troops are fighting along the river, they can get the support of the Yangtze River Fleet's naval gunfire.
Now the Yangtze River Fleet has completely suppressed Zhang Yue's Dubiao Navy. Before the battle was launched, the Yangtze River Fleet had already fought several battles and annihilated many Dubiao Navy ships. Its ships were even able to
Navigating all the way to Wuchang, after taking advantage of the Yangtze River, it would be foolish not to take advantage of it.
The main two divisions of the Second Army plus two mixed regiments and several heavy artillery units and cavalry units, namely the 3rd Infantry Division, the 7th Infantry Division, the 4th Mixed Regiment, the 5th Mixed Regiment, the 1st Heavy Artillery Battalion, the 2nd
The heavy artillery battalion, the third heavy artillery battalion, the second cavalry detachment, and even a temporarily strengthened independent baggage regiment and other troops, a total of more than 50,000 people, rushed from the Taihu Lake line in northern Anhui to Susong!
Although Susong is a small place, it is the bridgehead of Zhang Yue Du Biao's defense line in southeastern Hubei. It is not weak in strength, with at least 15,000 people deployed. And since Du Biao regarded this place as a bridgehead, there has been no one at all.
He planned to leave the city and fight the Tang army, but focused on building various fortifications and deploying artillery.
As a result, although there are only 15,000 troops here, the artillery inside is far more than the 15,000-strong Supervisor. The ordinary Supervisor, with 15,000 men, would be equipped with two or three
Ten field guns are not bad, but here, there are at least fifty field guns.
As for bowl-mouth cannons, Folang machine guns and other shotguns, there are hundreds of them!
The artillery here is so densely packed that the small place of Susong is armed like a hedgehog. In the past two years or so, the Tang Army has tried to attack this place many times, but in the end they all failed.
Everyone knows Du Biao's plan. They don't expect a counterattack or anything like that. He just wants to put a nail in Susong so that the Tang army will not dare to attack Qizhou unscrupulously along the plains along the north bank of the Yangtze River.
The Tang Army could also choose to bypass this place, but in order to bypass this place, it would have to leave at least nearly 10,000 troops to contain the Ming army in the city, which was difficult to accept for the Tang Army's tight military strength.
But if you don't leave enough troops to contain it and you go around it, they will rush to Taihu Lake and take away Taihu Lake, an important supply base for the Second Army of the Tang Army.
It is also possible to attack the Second Army from behind.
In this way, the strategic situation will be extremely unfavorable for the Second Army.
In order to avoid accidents, the Second Army planned to solve the big problem of Su Song once and for all!
Facing such a fortified city like a hedgehog, there is nothing to say. We must attack by force, bombard it with artillery, dig tunnels and blast it. In short, we must prepare to crush the city's defenders with absolutely superior firepower.
For this reason, the Second Army has concentrated three heavy artillery battalions and two field artillery regiments. The field artillery regiments organized by two large battalions have concentrated more than fifty guns in the Second Army itself.
heavy howitzers, and more than 150 five-pound and nine-pound field guns.
And in order to attack the city, this time Wang Chaohong lost face and asked the navy for help, bringing four fourteen-pound ship-borne heavy guns from the navy!
That was a fourteen-pound ship-borne cannon. It was the main battleship of the Tang Dynasty and the main gun of the Lianzhou-class cruiser. Its power was indescribable!
The Navy did not postpone its request for the Army. After all, the Army previously hoped to equip fourteen-pound cannons as heavy siege artillery. However, due to the limited production of fourteen-pound cannons, the Navy needed to ensure the number of fourteen-pound cannons needed for cruisers.
We also asked the Army for help, saying that we should first meet the needs of the Navy, otherwise it would be embarrassing if the cruiser was built without artillery.
It was also promised at that time that if the army was in need, the navy would send heavy artillery units to help.
In order to fulfill this promise, the Navy temporarily transferred the main gun to be installed on a newly commissioned cruiser. Even the gunners were directly transferred from this cruiser to form a naval heavy artillery.
Team.
Of course, the navy only provides artillery and gunners. The horses and other supplies needed to pull the artillery onto the battlefield still have to be dealt with by the army.
It can also be seen from this that Wang Chaohong attaches great importance to attacking Susong!
This is a tough battle. There is nothing to say. It’s a head-to-head fight. Let’s see if your shield is stronger or my spear is stronger!
The puppet Tang thief army came from Taihu Lake. This news was quickly known to the Dubiao defenders in Susong City, and they quickly judged that the puppet Tang thief army was about to launch a general attack!
It is not a secret at all that the puppet Tang thief army is going to launch a general attack on the southwest. The Tang Dynasty newspaper will mention this once in a while. Even Zhang Yue has read it and knows that the Tang Dynasty is preparing to attack
General offensive in the southwest.
But when to launch the attack and where to launch the attack, that is their main attack area. These are top military secrets, and Zhang Yue and others naturally cannot know.
But now, when the Ming army saw more than 50,000 troops heading towards Susong, they immediately knew that the puppet Tang rebel army was going to use Qizhou as a breakthrough point to enter Hubei.
As a result, it didn't take long before the Ming troops from Huangmei, Guangji and Qizhou behind Susong also quickly reinforced their forces.
But that's not to say that they entered the city. The garrison forces from several places were combined and their strength reached more than 50,000. The place in Susong was too small to accommodate the original 15,000 people for a defensive operation.
Although more troops can be deployed, the increased effect will not be too great.
Therefore, they are planning to gather in Huangmei and then cooperate with the defenders in the direction of Susong to conduct a coordinated defensive operation. If there is a chance, they would not mind engaging in an internal and external cooperation to severely damage the Tang army.
Don't think that their reinforcements are only more than 50,000. Including Susong's 15,000 defenders, it is only more than 65,000. It is not much more powerful than the Second Army, but Zhang Yue's
Du Biao is just different from other Ming armies.
Since Zhang Yue established the supervisory standard, this army has been the most powerful enemy of the Tang Dynasty King's Division. There were various names in the Ming army, new armies equipped with guns and artillery, such as the bandit-breaking army, the new army in Jiangnan, Jiangbei
The new army, the military training in the northern provinces, the new Beijing camp, and the new frontier army are all not as good as those under Zhang Yue's supervision.
The bandit-breaking army inside could be compared with Du Biao in the early days, but the number was too small, and they fled all the way from Fujian to Zhejiang, and then to Anqing, basically losing more than half of their combat effectiveness!
On the other hand, Zhang Yue's supervision becomes more powerful as he gets older!
That's right, although Du Biao didn't win a single large-scale battle against the Tang Dynasty King's Division, it got stronger as it got older!
Not only has its military strength expanded from tens of thousands in the past to hundreds of thousands now, but it is also the only New Army unit with complete firearms among all the Ming armies. In some small and medium-sized battles, sometimes
Still able to win.
The hundreds of thousands of new Dubiao troops gave Zhang Yue, other Dubiao generals, and even King Jing the confidence to fight against the Tang Dynasty King's division!
And now, what the Imperial Master of the Tang Dynasty has to do is to defeat Du Biao, shatter all their confidence, and let them know that fighting against the Tang Dynasty is a dead end!