At the beginning of the battle, it was quite good when we were attacked by enemy cavalry. Although there were a lot of enemy cavalry, they still used breech-loading rifles to attack.
However, the cavalry regiment under Cui Xiangde was also equipped with Nanhai rifles, and the infantry under Cui Xiangde was also equipped with breech-loading rifles. Therefore, they suffered some losses at the beginning, but after stabilizing the position, there was no loss.
But when the enemy's infantry and artillery came up, everything changed.
Even before we saw the enemy's infantry rushing up in formation, our artillery position was beaten to pieces!
Cui Xiangde watched with his own eyes as his artillery regiment was completely destroyed by the enemy's long-range artillery before firing a single shot!
The artillery suffered heavy casualties, and even though most of the artillery remained intact, they were unable to play any role.
After losing the artillery support, Cui Xiangde immediately asked the infantry troops to rely on the terrain, and even dug trenches on the spot to resist.
He did not foolishly fight in line, but directly ordered the troops to form a dense formation, and then rushed forward with guns in hand.
But even so, it couldn't stop the fierce attack of the Luoan garrison on the opposite side!
After holding on for only a few hours, Cui Xiangde's Fourth Division had already suffered heavy losses and could no longer sustain itself. By the afternoon of that day, the left wing was broken through by the enemy, forming a roundabout encirclement. Then the entire Fourth Division's defense line was built on the spot.
Completely collapsed.
In less than a day, the fourth division will be finished!
Cui Xiangde didn't even have time to lead his troops to Luohe and cooperate with the fleet. During the eastward march, he was attacked by the first division, the first cavalry brigade, and the first battalion of the experimental artillery regiment of the Luoan garrison.
He was intercepted by the troops and completely defeated in this wild encounter.
In the evening, Cui Xiangde saw that the entire army had collapsed and was surrounded. He had no choice but to order the entire division to surrender to avoid meaningless resistance that would only increase casualties.
Even though he was ordered to surrender, Cui Xiangde still couldn't understand how he was defeated, and he was defeated so cleanly, without any suspense, and even without the slightest sense of unwillingness.
He desperately wants to know why?
Why is the opponent's artillery unit capable of destroying its own artillery regiment from a distance? Why is the opponent's artillery fire so powerful when it bombards the defense line? It can't be that they have dozens of heavy mortars.
Also, why was the opponent's infantry fighting method so weird? From the beginning to the end, Cui Xiangde never saw the opponent's infantry line up to attack. They were all hiding and looking very scattered.
However, no one would give him an answer, because after surrendering, he became a prisoner of war, and was thrown into a prisoner of war camp with other officers under his command. That night, he was escorted back to the rear. If nothing unexpected happened later,
He should be like the other captured Luo Hai officers on the Northern Defense Line.
He was imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp and contributed to the infrastructure construction of Luoan and Luohai counties!
When Cui Xiangde was imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp, his opponent Xu Zhongshu just accepted his surrender in a hurry and continued to go about his own business.
Xu Zhongshu was busy, leading the First Division south to fight. There had just been a big battle before, and now he was quickly moving south to intercept the Fourth Division.
After these two battles, the casualties and ammunition consumption of his first division were relatively large, and they were in urgent need of replenishment.
"Commander, this time we have sacrificed more than 200 soldiers again, and with more than 300 injured, the strength of this battalion is gone!" Ge Yongbing, the chief of staff under Xu Zhongshu, looked very worried at this time.
: "When the front went south, our first division was also the main force of the attack, and the first regiment was the arrowhead of the entire army. The casualties were not small. There were more than 800 casualties before and after. The total casualties of the two were more than 1,200.
People!"
After hearing this, Xu Zhongshu said: "One more thing, I will naturally report it to your lord. Don't worry, our first division is the main force of the ironclad. If the number of soldiers is reduced, no one will be missing us!"
Dr. Ge Yongbing said: "It's just that it's easy to replenish soldiers, but I'm afraid they will directly replenish the current batch of surrendered recruits!"
"Master Commander, you know that although most of the surrendered recruits are veterans and have basic tactical literacy, in the final analysis they are still not as good as the recruits we recruit and train ourselves!"
"If the superiors really want to directly recruit more than a thousand surrendered recruits, I'm afraid it will have a relatively large impact on our combat effectiveness!"
Hearing this, Xu Zhongshu also frowned, but he still said confidently: "I will personally write to your Excellency to try to replenish the new recruits trained by the Training Department!"
Xu Zhongshu also knows that if we talk about new recruits, they must be directly recruited recruits who have been thoroughly trained, because these recruits have been trained according to the new tactics of the Luoan garrison from the beginning, and they adapt very quickly, as long as a few
After a few months or a few battles, you can become a qualified veteran.
As for the new recruits who have surrendered, although most of them are veterans and their individual quality is not bad, their previous training was in line tactics, and their acceptance of new infantry tactics is not even as good as that of pure recruits.
Besides, it’s not easy to take care of the veteran soldiers who surrendered in these feudal towns.
But even so, most of the troops needed to expand the Luoan garrison are surrendered recruits, not those newly recruited pure recruits.
Because the population resources are almost scarce, qualified soldiers have been recruited long ago. If you don't surrender the new recruits, there will be no one left.
In this regard, the Luoan garrison was helpless. They could only make detailed selections. After selection, they would conduct adaptive training for these new recruits who had surrendered. During the training process, some of the veterans would be eliminated, and the rest would be replenished to each unit.
In the past few months, the reorganization of the Luoan garrison has actually been done.
But this kind of situation that takes several months to reorganize can only be done in peacetime. Now, when the army goes south, there will always be casualties in the war.
At the same time, tens of thousands of prisoners of war were captured. Most of these prisoners of war were willing to continue serving as soldiers to feed themselves, so sometimes they would directly select some surrendered soldiers to replenish the troops.
However, Xu Zhongshu wanted to recruit as many new recruits as possible to maintain the combat effectiveness of the First Division.
In this regard, Lin Ziran did not refuse Xu Zhongshu's request. He still valued the First Division very much.
With so many troops under his command, the 1st Division is the most capable and has the most combat experience. The officers in it are all from the camp academy. Many of them shamelessly call Lin Ziran their teacher.
How should I put it? The first division is actually Lin Ziran’s die-hard direct troops!
So even if Xu Zhongshu doesn't say anything, Lin Ziran will try his best to maintain the combat effectiveness and purity of the First Division.