In Guang'an City, Deng Liang'an, the commander of the Third Division, finally breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the enemy troops outside the city gradually retreat.
Ever since the enemy troops from Quyang Prefecture launched the attack, Deng Liangan was under great pressure.
At the beginning, although the enemy had not yet launched a large-scale attack, the frequent small-scale attacks also made the Third Division uncomfortable. This discomfort did not mean that the defense line was breached, but that the ammunition was consumed too much.
After the enemy launched a general attack, although the Third Division resisted tenaciously and killed a large number of enemy troops, its ammunition was completely exhausted.
When the Third Division deployed the northern defense line, it had reserved some ammunition. However, the ammunition supply of the South Korean Navy had previously given priority to the eastern front. Therefore, after the ammunition was quickly consumed, it could not be replenished for a while.
In the end, they were forced to withdraw from the Luohe Gorge and voluntarily abandoned the Luohe Gorge, the bridgehead of the northern defense line.
During this retreat, Deng Liangan was under great pressure.
Although he had received an order from Lin Ziran before, allowing him to fight and retreat in order to delay the enemy's march southward until reinforcements arrived, instead of having to die in the Luo River Gorge.
However, even so, the Third Division he led became the first unit of the South China Navy in the past year or so that failed to hold its defense line and was forced to retreat.
Ever since the Southern Navy broke out from Lianguan County, they have been fighting in the north and south. They have always fought and won consecutively. Most of the time, they have taken the initiative to attack others. They have rarely been attacked by others, let alone beaten.
was forced to retreat.
And the third division set a precedent!
Although the friendly forces would not say anything and knew the difficulties of the Third Division, this still could not change the fact that the Third Division became the first main force in the South China Sea to be beaten and forced to retreat.
After retreating to Guang'an City, Deng Liangan held his breath and wanted to change the situation. He had to let others, especially Lord Zhou Ling, know that he, Deng Liangan, was not a runaway general.
Therefore, after arriving in Guang'an City, he commanded his third division and part of the assisting third garrison division to deploy a defensive line. When reinforcements from the security brigade and part of the artillery unit arrived, he became more confident.
Not only did reinforcements arrive, but the Third Division also urgently needed ammunition.
The arrival of these reinforcements and ammunition allowed Deng Liangan to conduct a beautiful defensive operation when he commanded the troops to conduct defensive operations.
More than 50,000 enemy troops launched simultaneous attacks from different directions, but they were all defeated by our own troops. They even launched multiple local counterattacks, severely damaging some of the enemy's attacking troops.
By the time the enemy gave up the attack and retreated, they had already paid the price of at least thousands of casualties in front of the South China Sea's defense line!
The Third Division led the Third Division's garrison brigade to form a brigade, a garrison brigade, and a regiment of independent artillery units. After a beautiful defensive operation in Guang'an City, the current situation on the northern front was initially stabilized.
Although the enemy's forwards were numerous, they still did not dare to attack!
The next day, Xu Zhongshu led the first division to successfully reach Guang'an City.
At this time, Guang'an City's front line has gathered about 35,000 main troops of the South China Sea, and there are also about 5,000 second-line garrison troops, with a total strength of about 40,000.
The increase in military strength is not a big deal. The most important thing is that a large number of ammunition transported by ships have successfully arrived!
This time, the logistics department of the South China Sea Navy organized and transported a huge amount of ammunition and other materials. Counting from the arrival of the first material transport ship, in just three days, the logistics department organized and transported more than 2,000 tons of various materials.
A large number of supplies arrived in Guang'an City, many of which were ammunition.
This allowed the Third Division to replenish sufficient ammunition for the first time after being low on ammunition for many days.
And there are more transport ships on the way.
At this moment, all the arsenals under the control of the South Navy, including Qingshan Machinery Factory, Luoan Arsenal, Fuyuan Ordnance Factory, and Nanzhou Machinery Bureau are working overtime to produce various weapons. It is difficult to guarantee that it is the Hetai Arsenal that has just been under control for a few days.
It is also undergoing emergency renovation. After the renovation is completed, this small and medium-sized arsenal will be the same as the current Qingshan Machinery Factory, focusing on the production of bullets and artillery shells. It will also produce some equipment with less technical content and maintain some repairs.
Gun capabilities.
The production of major weapons was handed over to Fuyuan Ordnance Factory, Nanzhou Machinery Bureau and Luoan Arsenal.
Fuyuan Ordnance Factory is the main manufacturer of rifles, while Nanzhou Machinery Bureau produces artillery.
Luoan Arsenal produces both rifles and artillery, but its output is not large.
The above-mentioned arsenals are working overtime to produce weapons and ammunition. The weapons and ammunition produced, especially the ammunition as soon as it is produced, are transported directly to the dock, and then loaded onto the transport ships of the logistics department, and allocated to different regions.
Only in this way can the ammunition consumption of the South Korean Navy be maintained on multiple fronts.
However, the military was happy with such large-scale production, but Lin Ziran had a headache when he looked at the bills submitted by the Finance Department.
This money is spent too much!
Even though these arsenals are already under their own control, the military purchases weapons and ammunition directly at cost price, but these new weapons are inherently expensive and the quantities purchased are huge!
In the past month alone, the army and navy purchased artillery shells worth more than 10 million yuan!
Note, it’s just cannonballs!
The artillery shells currently used by the South Korean Navy are new cylindrical artillery shells specially designed for breech-loading rifled guns. The production cost of this thing is relatively high.
At present, even the 75mm grenade with the largest production volume, which can dilute the production cost in large quantities, costs 20 yuan each.
As for large-caliber artillery shells, they are even more expensive.
A 150mm artillery shell, the purchase price of this thing is 180 yuan.
And these artillery shells are not just purchased and used, they can also be transported to the front line, and the transportation costs are actually quite high.
The Southern Navy's current operations rely heavily on artillery. In the previous battle of Chongguang City, more than three million yuan worth of artillery shells were consumed in a single battle...
Although other battles consumed less artillery shells, they were still a very large amount.
Cannonballs cost money, bullets cost money, food also costs money, and various other materials cost money, and transportation costs are also quite high.
Finally, there is personnel salary, which is also a large expenditure. Even if there is no fighting for a month, it will cost several million yuan.
Added up, the current expenses of the South China Sea Navy are very scary!
Since the northern campaign at the beginning of the year, the Southern Navy has spent more than 30 million hengyuan in military expenditures, and plans to allocate an additional 20 million hengyuan in military expenditures.
And it has only been a short time, just over two months, and more than 50 million has been spent before my eyes.
If this situation continues, I'm afraid we will have to prepare another 40 to 50 million yuan in the next few months to be enough.
But the problem is that Nanhai Prefecture does not have so much money!
Now Lin Ziran finally knew why the Daheng Empire completely collapsed financially because of the Heng'ao War, which in turn led to the collapse of the entire empire.