I want to be emperor

Chapter 316 The inevitable eastward advance

The Guard Division, this unit is very special in the Great Chu Empire. This division was gradually expanded from Luo Zhixue's personal troops.

From the Guards, to the Guards Battalion, to the Guards Regiment, Guards Brigade, and Guards Division.

This Luo Zhixue personal army expanded with the gradual expansion of the Great Chu Empire.

However, it has expanded to the size of the Guard Division, but the Guard Division still maintains its original essence: Luo Zhixue's personal guard unit, with the highest purpose of protecting his personal safety.

Every time Luo Zhixue went out to fight in person, he would bring the guards with him. Similarly, if Luo Zhixue didn't go to the front line, the guards wouldn't go to the front either.

Of course, with the expansion and regularization of the Guard Division, the current Guard Division has been biased towards the regular army in terms of attributes. As for the daily personal security of Luo Zhixue, it has been handed over to the guard room.

Normally, when Luo Zhixue was not on the front line, the Guard Division was mainly responsible for the defense of Wuchang City and even the Imperial Palace.

The particularity of the Guards means that Luo Zhixue attaches great importance to this army.

Therefore, after the development of the two-year-style flintlock rifle, Luo Zhixue planned to build the first large-scale main force equipped with the two-year-style flintlock rifle, which was the Guards.

He planned to draw elite backbones from the existing Guards Division to serve as the backbone of the new Second Guards Division, and at the same time the original Guards Division was renamed the First Guards Division.

After the backbone of the Second Guards Division is built, the recruits specially recruited for the Second Guards Division will be able to complete the early recruit training.

After some of these recruits start to be in place, the mass production of flintlock guns should also start. At that time, while training recruits, they will be equipped with firearms, and strive to organize the Second Guards Division into an army in March next year. , and then began to expand and train the Tenth Division expanded from the temporary Fifth Mixed Battalion.

That's right, after the Second Guards Division, Luo Zhixue's plan to expand the main force of the Suifu Gun will be the Tenth Division expanded from the provisional Fifth Mixed Battalion.

Even though the staff department has no plan to train the Tenth Division, this does not affect Luo Zhixue's own expansion plan.

The Fifth Mixed Battalion is temporarily organized. As the army's flintlock test unit, this unit will definitely continue to expand in the future. After the follow-up, the Fifth Mixed Regiment will be temporarily organized. When the time is right, it will directly expand to the No. [-] Mixed Battalion Ten divisions.

According to the development and production progress of the flintlock gun, Luo Zhixue basically arranged the production capacity of about [-] flintlock guns in the first half year after it was put into production.

It is these two divisions, and arrange some flintlock guns to equip the cavalry units. Well, that's basically it.

This also means that at least until March next year, it is impossible for the Chu army to get a large-scale main force equipped with flintlock guns to participate in the battle.

Before that, the Chu army still had to rely on the existing main force equipped with matchlock guns to fight.

Including the crucial eastward campaign.

As for why not wait until March next year, or even after June, to dispatch new troops such as the [-]nd Guards Division and the [-]th Division to participate in the Eastward Campaign, so as to have a greater grasp.

The first reason is self-confidence!
Whether Luo Zhixue or the military generals of the Great Chu Empire, they all had great confidence in the Eastward Campaign.

When Xu Zhixian told Luo Zhixue about the preparations for the Eastward Campaign, he was full of confidence: "For the Eastern Campaign, we have prepared as many as six main divisions alone, even if two of them are new divisions that are not yet fully staffed." , but we also have the confidence to fight through.”

"It is true that the puppet Ming army has deployed heavy troops in Jiujiang, and according to intelligence, they have also deployed at least twenty Hongyi artillery on the head of Jiujiang City, and there are hundreds of other types of old short robes, but our artillery troops are even more powerful. powerful!"

"Referring to the Battle of Linxiang and the Battle of Changsha in the Battle of Southern Chu, the puppet Ming army paid more attention to artillery fortifications and the use of artillery in the battle of defending the city. Correspondingly, we have further strengthened the artillery force!"

"According to the plan, when the Eastward Campaign is launched, we will gather at least [-] field guns and [-] mortars on the front line of Jiujiang, for a total of [-] artillery pieces."

"Including at least thirty nine-pound field guns, fifty five-pound field guns, and 72 48-pound mortars!"

"The rest are two-and-a-half-pound field artillery and eighteen-pound mortars."

"The above is only the artillery of the ground forces, and does not include the navy participating in the battle. When the battle starts, the navy's Yangtze River Fleet will also be equipped with certain artillery and assist in the battle."

"In addition, this time we will use four larger [-]-jin siege artillery."

"These four fourteen-jin heavy siege artillery are the first batch of large-caliber long-barreled artillery manufactured by Hantian Arsenal. The large warships over there haven’t been completed and put into service so soon, and at the same time, the Battle of Jiujiang also required this kind of large-caliber siege artillery, so these four heavy artillery were diverted first, and after being equipped with field gun mounts, they were used for siege operations.”

"We have tested that this fourteen-pound heavy artillery is very powerful when it is used to bombard the city walls. Some weaker city walls can be directly blasted away, and thicker city walls can also be bombarded repeatedly to collapse the city walls. "

"But even this kind of heavy artillery is still powerless against the big city walls that are seven or eight meters thick at the top, but it can also be used as long-range pressure firepower."

Luo Zhixue said: "Use this fourteen catty heavy siege artillery if you have it. It's best if it can knock down the city wall. It doesn't matter if it doesn't break down. At least it can suppress the enemy army."

The eastern city wall is different from the western city wall. The eastern city wall, especially the thick city wall in a big city, is not a wall in essence, but a mountain...

For a city wall with a thickness of seven or eight meters at the top and a thickness of 30 to [-] meters at the bottom, the kinetic energy brought by the mere front-mounted artillery is too limited. The city wall collapsed.

Well, it's just a collapse, even if the city wall is still a hill after the collapse...

However, there are not many such thick city walls, even in places like China that are keen to build this kind of thick city wall system, and they are basically famous big cities.

For ordinary cities, there are no such thick walls.

Xu Zhixian also said at this time: "This fourteen-pound artillery can be regarded as a bonus. The main artillery for the siege battle must still rely on our mortar troops."

"Relying on the huge production capacity of Xiangyang Arsenal and Hantian Armory, we have produced a large number of 48-jin mortars in the past six months, and at the same time temporarily transferred 48-jin mortars from other mortar regiments, making the first mortar regiment, The Sixth Mortar Regiment, these two mortar regiments, are all equipped with 48-jin mortars, and each regiment is assigned to four battalions, each battalion has twelve guns."

"The 48-pound mortar regiments equipped in the two mortar regiments add up to 72, which is double the number when they stormed Linxiang and Changsha before."

"Even though Jiujiang's artillery fortifications are better, they will definitely not be able to stop our powerful mortar bombardment."

When Xu Zhixian said this, he took a deep breath: "Relying on a large amount of artillery fire, mature siege tactics, well-trained soldiers who have experienced many battles, this time we will directly attack Jiujiang City in this eastward campaign. Siege the city with firepower and exert pressure to force them to abandon Jiujiang City and retreat, as long as they retreat, the follow-up field battle will be much simpler."

"If the opponent doesn't retreat, then we will attack directly in Jiujiang City to encircle and annihilate them."

"Taking a step back, even if we can't conquer Jiujiang City in a short time, we can still besiege Jiujiang, and then send some troops south to other northern Jiangxi regions to capture Nanchang and other cities in order to obtain money and food.

Get money and food!

This also involves the second main reason for the Chu army's eastward advance: lack of money!
In the first half of the year, we attacked southern Chu and captured the densely populated areas and production areas around Dongting Lake and the Xiangjiang River system.

In the second half of the year, they went east to Jiangnan, captured northern Jiangxi, Jiangnan, and even went to northern Zhejiang if the war went well, also in order to seize this rich land on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Why would such a battle plan be formulated?
In addition to military strategic considerations, more economic issues are taken into consideration!

From a purely military point of view, there is actually no big difference between the Great Chu Empire's eastward advance this year and next year's. Even strictly speaking, it is more certain to wait until next year, because at that time the Second Guards Division and The Tenth Division has also formed an army, and it has a greater advantage in fighting.

But from a financial point of view, the Great Chu Empire could not bear it.

Luo Zhixue clearly told Xu Zhixian who was in charge of formulating the eastward campaign plan: "This time the eastward expansion is not only to solve military problems, but also to solve economic problems!"

"This year, our country's fiscal expenditure budget has reached 100 million taels!"

Speaking of this, Luo Zhixue took a special look at Xu Zhixian: "Among them, your military's military budget has 500 million taels, and the temporary combat budget has another 500 million taels. This adds up to 2000 million taels!"

Feeling Luo Zhixue's gaze, Xu Zhixian lowered his head consciously!

This 500 million taels of temporary war expenses was obtained by Xu Zhixian on behalf of the military, who made all kinds of harsh words and even threatened the civilian group headed by Guo Quanshu.

To put it bluntly, most of the current financial difficulties of the Great Chu Empire are caused by the military's transitional military expansion and the policy of elite soldiers.

Of course, the financial expenditure of the Great Chu Empire is not only military expenditure, but also various administrative expenses and relief expenses.

Various administrative expenses also cost several million taels, and relief expenses, mainly to restore people's livelihood in northern and southern Chu, restore local farming, and work for relief, etc., also cost about 200 million taels.

Military expenses plus administrative expenses plus relief and restoration funds, the expenditure of more than 3000 million taels of silver a year is on the top of the heads of the monarchs and ministers of the Great Chu Empire.

(End of this chapter)