I want to be emperor

Chapter 656 Mobei Province

In June of the 19th year of Chengshun, at the height of summer, the Great Chu Empire Army officially launched a large-scale offensive against Zhungeer.

It was not the Chu army in the Hami direction that launched the first action, but the Second Cavalry Army of the Great Chu Empire Army located in the western region of Monan Mongolia.

The Second Cavalry Army, this cavalry army directly belongs to the Second Group Army, which is composed of young and strong cavalry from various tribes in Monan who surrendered to the Great Chu Empire in the early days. It was the main cavalry force during the Eastern Captive War.

After the end of the Eastern Captivity War, the cavalry units of the Great Chu Empire, including the returning cavalry units, were reorganized into [-] cavalry divisions, and ten cavalry corps were stationed separately.

The Second Cavalry Army was stationed in the naturalization area, and later moved to the Mobei area. During this garrison process, the soldiers of the Second Cavalry Army had already been replaced from the returning cavalry in the early years to the cavalry mainly composed of herdsmen's children who had been recruited normally. .

Two years ago, the Second Cavalry Army was transferred back to the west of Monan for garrison, and in the process, the equipment and horses were changed.

The Second Cavalry Army after refitting is equipped with various new weapons, including the latest models of cavalry flintlock pistols, quick-fire pistols, 65mm and 90mm cavalry field guns, 115mm cavalry howitzers and a batch of the latest models of new artillery .

At the same time, it is equipped with cavalry plate armor with better defensive capabilities, including various breastplates, light half body armor, etc., which are specially prepared for cavalry and mainly used to resist bows and arrows.

As for the horses, there are also large-scale distribution of Hexi horses and Liaohe horses.

After a large-scale refit, the Second Cavalry Army has a new look in all aspects, its combat effectiveness has been greatly improved, and it also has a relatively rare heavy cavalry unit.

The Second Cavalry Army consists of three cavalry divisions, and each of these three cavalry divisions has a heavy cavalry regiment, two of which are standard cuirassier regiments, but the other is a rare half-armored lancer group.

This half body armor is actually a lightweight half body armor specially prepared for cavalry. Its core idea is to use new steel materials to create a half body armor with a larger protective area but a correspondingly thinner armor thickness.

The main defense is not guns, but the bows and arrows that are still widely used in nomads.

This situation is actually very common in infantry...

The infantry of the Great Chu Empire Army seems to have used their flintlock guns to play line combat, but in fact they still haven't given up their armor... In addition to the heavy full-body armor equipped in the grenadier troops, the flintlock gunners also According to the situation of the enemy, light half armor will be selectively distributed.

If the enemy is an army that uses a large number of guns, especially muskets, then the infantry of the Chu army will not be equipped with armor, and they will go out naked and play line battles with the enemy...

If the enemy uses a large number of cold weapons, and the infantry's long-range firepower is still dominated by bows and arrows, then the flintlock gunners of the Chu army will have a lightweight half-body armor.

The reason why there is such selective equipment is purely because of the armor. Even the steel plate armor equipped by the Chu army has a very poor defense against muskets. If the enemy uses a large number of muskets, the generals of the Chu army would rather have mobility than There is no protective ability for anything.

However, no matter how lightweight the armor of the Chu Army's lightweight design is, it is quite effective against bows and cold weapons. If the enemy uses a large number of bows and arrows, then the generals of the Chu Army don't mind turning their fusiliers into heavy weapons. The fusiliers... rely on their armor to carry the enemy's bows and arrows forward for tens of meters, and then shoot the enemy with a volley in the face, directly blowing them up.

The words of the Zhungeer people are very special. Even though they use a large number of guns, they continue to use bows and arrows.

This also led to the Chu army still widely equipped with armor on the western front to deal with the threat of bows and arrows from the Zhungeer people.

But sometimes, the cavalry of the Chu Army after wearing armor is useless against Zhungeer's guns, but will hinder mobility... Therefore, they often fall into a very embarrassing situation. If the armor is not , don't and don't.

Faced with this situation, the frontline generals of the Chu army finally figured out a way after several years of trial and error, that is, the light cavalry directly threw away the armor and emphasized the ultimate mobility.

As long as you run fast enough and play pursuit combat, the opponent's bow and arrow will be useless... What can you do if you can't catch up?

If it is a large-scale battle between the two sides, face to face, the cavalry of the Chu army said that as long as you dare to play horseback riding and archery with me, I will dare to charge up in a dense formation and teach you how to be a man with a saber.

Well, this move was often used by the frontier cavalry of the Ming army and cavalry from the east to deal with the pistol cavalry of the Chu army in the early years... Whenever the Chu army dared to engage in semi-circular combat of the pistol cavalry, they would dare to wave their sabers directly All kinds of messy weapons, such as carbine guns and even three-eyed guns, rushed up directly, and the pistol cavalry of the Chu army couldn't take care of themselves.

Why did the Chu army almost completely abandon the pistol cavalry now, even after switching to a newer type of quick-firing pistol, they still did not continue to engage in pistol cavalry? up...

Now, the cavalry of the Chu army is also using the enemy's method to deal with the Zhungeer people.As long as the opponent dares to put on a horse-shooting posture, the Chu cavalry will rush out without hesitation, and directly chop and chop with sabers...

And it also improved the enemy's saber charge in the early days... Because the cavalry of the Chu army generally charged in a dense formation, the Chu army cavalry, which was called the wall charge by the outside world, charged more powerfully and fought more powerfully.

All of this has led to the fact that the current light cavalry units of the Chu Army have basically given up armor, not even lightweight breastplates, and directly fight on horseback. Most of the time, they prefer to fight with sabers. Dismount from horses and fight in arrays of muskets, which is usually in defensive operations.

As for the sudden fire pistol or something, this thing is a self-defense weapon and decoration.

However, the Chu army cavalry did not completely give up their armor, but the Chu army transferred the armor to the heavy cavalry units.

After developing the breastplate heavy cavalry in the early years, the Chu army cavalry has successively emerged half-body armor heavy cavalry in recent years.

These heavy cavalry have a relatively clear way of fighting, and that is to charge in formation!
With tall horses, wearing thick armor, braving the enemy's arrows, rushing up to fight the enemy in formation, or using it to fight against the enemy's light cavalry units, etc.

Formation charge is their only way of fighting.

Moreover, the impact ability of the array is extremely powerful. If the opponent does not have perfect gun firepower, it is impossible to block such a heavy cavalry impact.

From the military point of view of later generations, the armor coverage of the cavalry is getting smaller and smaller, but the development of the cavalry armor of the Chu army has been repeated.

In the early years, I played traditional full body armor, then half body armor, and then more radical unarmored light cavalry and cuirassier heavy cavalry.

But after playing for a few years, now I'm starting to get half armor back.

This is obviously backwards.

However, military development sometimes does not depend on oneself, but on the opponent... If the opponent was all guns, the Chu army would have thrown away the armor long ago.

But the problem is that the opponents don't have a lot of guns, and they are still using cold weapons such as bows, arrows, swords and spears on a large scale.

Against these cold weapons, armor can still bring soldiers superior protection.

Specifically, on the side of the Second Cavalry Army, among the main cavalry under the Second Cavalry Army, there is one half-armored heavy cavalry, two breastplate heavy cavalry, and the rest are hussars with lightweight breastplates.

Whether these cavalry wear armor on the battlefield depends on the situation... It depends on whether the Zhungeer cavalry on the opposite side are mainly equipped with bows and arrows or muskets.

But no matter what, it's always right to put on the armor first.

The Second Cavalry Army took the lead in launching in June, with nearly 2 troops carrying more than 6 war horses or service horses.

They also pulled dozens of cavalry artillery and a large number of four-wheeled and two-wheeled carriages, marching westward from the west of Monan Mongolia.

There are more than 8 people and horses acting on the grassland. The momentum is so great that even if the Zhungeer people on the opposite side are blind, they can still hear the hooves of a large number of horses galloping on the grassland.

Almost immediately, the Zhungeer people on the opposite side had already got the news, and quickly passed the news to the rear.

Approaching the front line, while grazing and monitoring the Chu army on the opposite side, several small tribes who were the first line of defense in Zhungeer immediately let go of their feet and ran back.

These are just small tribes sent to the front line, even if the old and young, women and children add up, there are only a few thousand people, which is not as strong as the cavalry of the Chu army on the opposite side...

Their duty is to monitor and report the Chu army's attack as soon as they discover it. It does not mean that they really want to block the Chu army's attack on the front line.

Several small tribes in Zhungeer along the way fled, and the Second Cavalry Army did not send troops to catch up. Instead, they marched westward at a leisurely pace, and even spread out slightly to expand their coverage.

This is to further expel, squeeze the strategic space of Zhungeer, and force the main force of the enemy to appear and fight with one's own side.

Therefore, the actions of the Second Cavalry Army in the early stage were not mainly to fight the enemy, but to set up a formation to expel the enemy tribes along the way, squeeze their strategic space, and force them to fight.

As for large-scale battles with the enemy, there is a high probability that they will not be able to fight in a short period of time. If we are optimistic, I am afraid that the main force on the opposite side will not appear until the Chu army penetrates deep into the hinterland of Zhungeer, and then they will launch at the right time. attack or intercept.

Fighting on the vast grassland is like this. There is no place to defend, no strategic location, and there is no such thing as a rear.

If the enemy doesn't want to fight with you, and keeps avoiding you, in fact, you have nothing to do...

Therefore, the method of the Chu army is to gradually oppress, occupy more territory through the superiority of troops, and then force the enemy's vital forces to a certain area, so that they have to fight!
Gradually compress the space and find the enemy's main force to defeat it. This is the strategy implemented by the top Chu army against the vast grassland area.

Of course, that's what I said, but it's not so easy to actually do it.

Still the same sentence, the grassland is so big, the 2 soldiers of the Second Cavalry Army of the Chu Army can't control a large area, and the opponents are nomads. With the tent in one hand, the cattle, sheep and horses can leave in minutes. people.

So much so that the Second Cavalry Army has been dispatched for half a month, but they haven't even encountered any enemies...

Of course, the few scouts who came forward could occasionally find some scattered Zhungeer cavalry, or even some small tribes, and even some sporadic battles broke out between the scouts.

But the problem is that these sporadic battles cannot affect the battle situation.

According to the traditional concept, the Chu army's combat method may be to run out for a few months, but they can't find an enemy to fight. army.

But...that's the traditional army.

But Chu Jun is different!
Before the Chu army marched in, it was extremely heavy logistics and transportation issues. It can even be said that in this battle to destroy Zhungeer, the top leaders of the Chu army were most concerned about logistics issues.

Including reclamation in areas such as Hami several years in advance, it is essentially to solve logistical problems.

Although there is no way to carry out reclamation on the prairie, the Chu army has also transported a large amount of supplies to the frontline areas in the past few years, and established a number of garrison cities in advance, and hoarded them in these garrison cities. A large amount of food, ammunition and other logistical materials.

The combat supplies hoarded by the frontline alone are enough for the frontline army to use for more than half a year.

Not to mention, there are continuous carriages in the rear to transport supplies to the front line.

When it comes to transport convoys, we have to mention a series of freight carriages equipped by the Great Chu Empire Army.

The Chu army has a large number of two-wheel and four-wheel freight carriages. These carriages are equipped with springs, and the supporting structure is still a wrought iron carriage.

Among them, the four-wheeled carriage can carry more than one ton, and the two-wheeled carriage can also carry hundreds of kilograms. Moreover, standard-sized boxes are used to transport materials for better and faster loading and unloading. These standard boxes can also be stacked when necessary. Stand up as a defensive parapet or something.

A large number of carriages gather together to act, and they have excellent protection capabilities, so there is no need to worry about being attacked by enemy cavalry.

With a large number of carriages and supplies, coupled with the many material transfer stations established on the front line, the Second Cavalry Army does not need to worry too much about logistics and transportation. Let alone a few months, even if it is wandering on the front line for more than a year, it will not be present. What about supply issues.

And this series of material transfer stations and transport convoys are all based on the strong national power of the Great Chu Empire.

Only with a strong national power can we mobilize tens of thousands of people to continuously transport materials in the rear, and be able to withstand the huge loss during such a long distance material transportation process.

This is why the conquests of the northern grasslands or the Western Regions in the past dynasties basically occurred after the dynasty was unified and the people's livelihood was developed for decades.

Because in the early days of the dynasty, after decades of stable development, the national strength has been greatly improved, so that it can withstand the great loss of foreign wars.

If the national strength is slightly weaker, it is impossible to withstand the loss of this scale.

Well, even the Great Chu Empire launched the war of annihilation against Zhungeer only after more than ten years after the unification of the Guannei area and ten years after the defeat of the Eastern Captives.

In more than ten years, it was the time for the Great Chu Empire to develop people's livelihood and accumulate national power.

You let the Great Chu Empire break out of Jiayuguan and play a decisive battle with Zhungeer more than ten years ago. It doesn't mean that you can't fight, but the gain outweighs the loss, which will greatly hinder the development of domestic people's livelihood.

Money and food are limited, if you use it for war, then domestic development will naturally be slowed down.

But now, the national strength of the Great Chu Empire is booming, the industrial productivity has been greatly improved, and the industry has brought about the improvement of agricultural tools. At the same time, the domestic situation continues to stabilize, the population is gradually increasing, the labor force is increasing, and there are more and more wastelands that continue to be developed.

What these ultimately brought about was that the national power of the Great Chu Empire was at least several times higher than that in the initial stage of unification.

This can be seen from the central fiscal revenue of the Great Chu Empire.

When the Eastern Captives were defeated, the central fiscal revenue of the Great Chu Empire was only tens of millions more, but it has increased year by year.

Up to now, it has reached a giant of [-] million Chu Yuan, and it is still maintaining a momentum of rapid growth.

Why can the central finance increase so much?It is because the GDP is higher, and it is also caused by the doubled increase.

Only the Great Chu Empire with strong national power can support 20 troops to fight on the front line, and the second cavalry army, the main cavalry force, can go deep into the grasslands in the northwest to fight for a year or more.

It is precisely because of this confidence that the Great Chu Empire was able to launch the war of annihilation against Zhungeer in order to regain the Western Regions.

All confidence is based on strength.

----

After entering July, the Second Cavalry Army continued to linger in the western part of Monan Mongolia, continuing to oppress the enemy's living space in a leisurely manner, and covering the rear engineering and infantry units to build fortresses in some strategic locations as fortresses. Material transfer station.

Since the Zhungeer people didn't run over, they naturally didn't rush to fight. They just advanced gradually, and then built a fortress to cover the rear and improve the logistics supply line.

At the same time, there were more than 2 Chu troops in the direction of Mobei, that is, the Sixth Cavalry Army advancing westward. The predecessor of the Sixth Cavalry Army was actually the coalition forces of the Mongolian tribes in Mobei.

However, it is no longer appropriate to call it the tribes of Mobei Mongolia, because after more than ten years of assimilation, coupled with the strong attraction of the Great Chu Empire and the continuous pressure brought by the Russians, the tribes of Mobei Mongolia The leaders have long recognized the reality.

All of them honestly accepted the titles conferred by the empire, and then brought the whole family to settle in Jinling City, and even changed their surname to Yifu to recognize their ancestors...

These people who wear Hanfu and grow long hair can no longer tell what kind of Mongolian nobles they are.

Even now, if you want to say that they are barbarians, they can turn against you on the spot... I am a serious descendant of Yanhuang, not a barbarian.

The leading nobles in the tribe all went to Jinling to enjoy the world of flowers and flowers, and the remaining ordinary herdsmen naturally accepted the administrative rule of the empire.

Now the tribes in the Mobei region have fully accepted the administrative transformation of the empire.

The empire established Mobei Province locally, dispatched the governor to Urge (Kulun), and set up five prefectures, large and small, with administrative agencies at the county and town levels under the prefectures.

And imitated the nomads in Monan Province, Liaohetao area of ​​Liaodong Province, and the western area of ​​Monan Province in Gansu Province, and adopted the method of fixed herding to rule.

The fixed herding of the Great Chu Empire was to directly change the nomadic organizational structure from tribes to administrative units. Generally speaking, small tribes were changed to towns, and large tribes were changed to counties. At the beginning of the reform, large-scale mutual penetration and differentiation would be carried out.

Then dispatched officials led the collective units of these towns and counties to go nomadic.

During the nomadic process, the grassroots administrative officials accompanied the herdsmen to herd and wandered, and handled office work at any time.

Then go to the predetermined grazing point for grazing.

This fixed-grazing spot is generally chosen to be suitable for reclamation, and its strategic position is relatively important, and most of it is a place for herdsmen to spend the winter.

The official will build a city here, send county-level officials and even government-level officials to manage the surrounding herdsmen, and will also station troops.

At the same time, it will rely on the garrison, foreign immigrants, businessmen, etc. to establish reclamation, education, medical care, and industrial and commercial systems.

As a result, a number of small cities appeared one after another on the grassland where even cities were rarely seen before. They were small in scale and basically existed as prefectures and county towns, with settlements and farming gradually appearing in the surrounding areas.

In this way, although the herdsmen on the grassland still maintain the nomadic tradition, they all follow a fixed route and spend the winter in a fixed place.

In this way, the herdsmen can continue to nomad, and the Great Chu Empire can implement a certain degree of rule through cities and fixed herding points.

This mode of governance can be considered to have completely changed the tribal nomadic mode that had lasted for thousands of years on the grasslands, making the nomads, a group that was separated from the traditional feudal dynasty of the Central Plains, gradually included in administrative notices.

And this has a very important strategic role for the Great Chu Empire to completely control the grassland area.

The Great Chu Empire never thought of recovering a few tribes, and then let the grassland continue to maintain this unstable tribal model.

The establishment of administrative rule is an important part of the Great Chu Empire's control of the grassland.

Gradually improving the administrative rule of the grasslands has also led to the development of local animal husbandry... Because the wool spinning industry in the Great Chu Empire is developing at a high speed, the demand for wool can be said to be endless, as much as there is, which also drives the development of local animal husbandry. Motivated local herders to raise sheep in large quantities and sell wool to make money.

Not to mention that the large demand for all kinds of working horses in the Great Chu Empire also allowed the local herdsmen to obtain more income.

In addition, because these places also belong to the mainland of the Great Chu Empire, naturally there is no such thing as the so-called mutual market in ancient times. Any merchant can bring a large number of goods needed by herdsmen to go deep into the grassland to sell them.

This inevitably also led to the cost of cotton cloth, tea, ironware and other living materials for local herdsmen.

This increases income, reduces the cost of living, and naturally improves the quality of life.

On the whole, in the grassland area, whether it is in the south of the desert or the north of the desert, the income of the local herdsmen has increased to a certain extent after being brought under the rule of the empire, and their lives are better than before.

This is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire was able to successfully carry out administrative rule in the local area, and at the same time made the tribes in Mobei willing to completely naturalize. For this reason, they were even willing to give up their surnames and other so-called traditional customs.

Because these so-called traditions are not worth mentioning in front of a full meal.

The Great Chu Empire allowed these herdsmen to have enough to eat, so they were willing to become citizens of the Great Chu Empire, and they were willing to join the army and fight for the empire.

This is why there are a large number of herdsmen's children in the cavalry unit of the Great Chu Empire Army.

These herdsmen's children all voluntarily joined the army and fought with great enthusiasm.

Because for the herdsmen's children at the bottom, just like the poor farmers' children at the bottom of the empire, joining the army has become their best choice to get ahead!

Joining the army can eat and drink enough, get the opportunity to study in the military night school, and also get some professional technical training.

Not to mention the various job transfer arrangements after retiring, even if you don't have to transfer jobs and just take your retirement money to find a job, it will be easier because you have a degree certificate.

In this way, they can get rid of poverty and hunger and start a new life!
(End of this chapter)