Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 58 Xia Zhen Defense Line
"Uncle Jingnan." Chongzhen looked at Huang Degong.

Huang Degong immediately bowed his hands and said: "The minister is here."

Chongzhen said: "You will lead the general troops of the ten towns to garrison Xia Town."

Speaking of this, Chongzhen pointed at Xia Town on the map with a long wooden pole.

"Ah?" Huang Degong said in disbelief, "The frontier army from Ten Towns is guarding a small Xia Town?"

The commanders of more than twenty towns around were also dumbfounded. If they were guarding Xuzhou or Pizhou City, it would not be surprising to use ten towns to defend the city, but it would be speechless to defend a small Xia Town.

Xia Town is just a small market town, probably only about a hundred paces in length and width, can it accommodate fifty thousand people?
However, Chongzhen sighed softly. There was no way to use ten towns and fifty thousand people to guard a small Xia town, because the fighting power of the Ming army was really unflattering.

That is Huang Degong's army.

Replaced by Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo's old department,

Even Chongzhen of Twenty Towns is not at ease.

As mentioned earlier, the Xuzhou defense line is the focus of the Huanghuai defense line, and the Xiazhen defense line is the most important, so Xiazhen must be defended. Once Xiazhen cannot be defended, the Huanghuai defense line will collapse directly.

Then Chongzhen's strategic conception became a spectacle.

Therefore, Chongzhen did not hesitate to pile up people's heads to defend Xiazhen's defense line.

"Yes, the ten townsmen are all for a small Xia Town!"

"After Aiqing arrives in Xia Town, the most important thing is to build a Western gun platform."

"Not one or two Western blunderbusses, nor ten or twenty."

"Instead, there are more than [-] Western blunderbusses in total. I will share with you the style of the Western blunderbusses later."

Speaking of this, Chongzhen pointed to the model placed next to him, and said: "The more than five hundred Western blunderbuss platforms are centered on Xia Town, arranged in a circle from the inside to the outside, and the distance between adjacent blunderbuss platforms is 150 steps. should."

"Because this distance is just within the range of the Tiger Crouching Cannon or the Franco Cannon."

"Your Majesty." Huang Degong couldn't help but interrupted, "How should we lay out so many Western blunderbuss platforms?"

"Oh yes, I forgot to give you the map of Xia Town's defense line." Chongzhen patted his forehead and said to Gao, "Gao Banban, where is the map of Xia Town's defense line hand-drawn by me?"

"Here." Gao Qiqian hurriedly presented the map.

But it is a plan drawn on the yellow silk.

Huang Degong and the general soldiers of the ten towns under his command surrounded him one after another.

Chongzhen pointed to Huang Ling and said: "Look, Uncle Jingnan, the center of the map is Xia Town, and a large hexagonal or octagonal star tower with a diameter of 150 steps can be built. The shape can be enlarged according to the model just now. Taiwan not only garrisons but also stores food, and it is best to have a wharf for the water supply division at the intersection of the three rivers in the center."

"With Xia Town as the center, draw a circle with a diameter of 300 steps. This circle is the first circle."

"Build 9 Western blunderbuss platforms along the circumference of the first heavy circle, with an interval of about 100 steps between them, and they can support each other through tiger squat guns and Francophones."

"With Xia Town as the center, draw a circle with a diameter of 600 steps. This is the second circle."

"Build 15 more Western gun platforms along the circumference of the second circle, with an interval of about 120 steps between them. They can still be supported by tiger squatting guns and Francois machine guns."

"With Xia Town as the center, draw a circle with a diameter of 900 steps. This is the third circle."

"Build 21 more Western gun platforms along the circumference of the third circle, with an interval of about 128 steps between them, and they are still within the range of the tiger squatting gun and the Franco machine gun."

"Continue to draw circles outwards until the twelfth circle."

"The diameter of the twelfth circle is 3600 steps, and 75 gun platforms need to be built along the circumference of the twelfth circle. The distance between them is about 144 steps, and they are still within the range of the tiger crouching gun and the Franco machine gun."

"Up to here, there are a total of 504 small gun platforms, which are divided into twelve circles from the inside to the outside."

"That is to say, if Jiannu wants to take down Xia Town, no matter which direction the attack is launched from, he must pull out the outer twelve layers of Western gun platforms one by one, and he must pull out all of them."

"Moreover, when Jiannu attacks any gun platform, he not only has to face the firepower of the gun platform in front of him, but also needs to face the shells from the left and right sides and the gun platform deep in the position."

"Firepower? Shells?" Huang Degong said, "Your Majesty is talking about using firearms?"

"Yes, use firearms." Chongzhen nodded and said, "This is what I imagined,"

"There are more than 90 small blunderbusses, and one sentry ([-] people) is reserved for each blunderbuss."

Speaking of this, Chongzhen sighed again. If the performance of the firearms can keep up, or the quality of the Ming army is better, in fact, it is enough to keep a team (30 people) for one gun platform.

In this way, two-thirds of the troops can be saved.

It's a pity that there is no way to reduce it to this level right now.

After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "For the sentinels guarding the gun platform, 30 are gunners, 30 are spearmen, and the rest are gunners, equipped with three tiger squatting guns or Flang machine guns."

Huang Degong counted with his fingers, and finally said: "My lord, there is no problem with the spear, but according to what you said, you need a total of more than 15000 bird guns and more than 1500 tiger squatting guns or Francois machine guns, which is not that much. A maximum of 5000 firecrackers of various types can be assembled, a maximum of 150 tiger squat cannons, and none of the Frangji."

In the Ming Dynasty, the equipment rate of firearms has been greatly improved compared with before.

For example, Marshal Qi's Jizhen soldiers have a matchlock gun equipment rate of 40%.

Each infantry (450 people) is equipped with 6 tiger squatting guns or Franco machine guns.

The cavalry is even more exaggerated. A battalion (2200 people) dares to be equipped with 60 tiger squat guns.

The rate of firearms in border towns such as the Guanning Army was quite high, but as the government’s financial expenses became increasingly tight, the rate of easily damaged firearms began to decline gradually because there was no time to replenish them.

For example, Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo, Gao Jie and other border towns lost all heavy firearms such as tiger squat guns and Franji guns, and there were very few matchlock guns left, which were basically reduced to decorations.

It would be nice for Huang De to scrape together 5000 matchlock guns and 150 tiger squat guns.

But Chongzhen had already prepared for this, otherwise what kind of Huanghuai line of defense would be built?Lie flat.

Chongzhen said: "You don't have to worry about this. I have already ordered the cabinet to regard the supervision of the production of tiger squatting guns, Fran cannons, bird guns and gunpowder as the first military and state affairs. All kinds of firecrackers, tiger squat guns, and Franco machine guns from the division were transported to Xuzhou, the quantity should be enough, but the time may be a little longer."

After a pause, he continued: "Fortunately, Jiannu will not go south to Xuzhou so soon, so after Aiqing leads the frontier army from ten towns to Xiazhen, just build the 504 small blunderbuss platforms and the big blunderbuss platform in Xiazhen first. stand up."

Huang Degong nodded, and said again: "My lord, what kind of shape is this gun platform?"

Chongzhen then signaled Gao Qiqian and Lu Jiude to disassemble the gun platform model and show the section.

"Huang Aiqing and everyone, please take a look." Chongzhen pointed to the disassembled model and said, "This is a small gun platform, in the shape of a hexagonal star, and the diameter of the outer circle is 30 steps (48 meters)."

"The inner platform of the gun platform is the horizon, just tamp it down."

"A trench was dug around the gun platform. The trench was 5 feet (1.6 meters) deep and 30 steps (48 meters) wide."

"The trenches are generally in a circular shape around the gun platforms, but the trenches of each gun platform need to be opened up, which can be used to withdraw the garrison in the front gun platform, and can also be used as a shooting interface for the rear gun platform."

"The perimeter of the gun platform is reinforced with a tight fence. The wooden fence is 1 foot high and 5 feet higher than the inner platform. The gunner can just put the bird gun on the fence and shoot."

"The tiger crouching cannon can also shoot outside."

[Tiger squatting gun is a flat-fire gun, but the ballistic has a large arc]

"The wooden fence on the back half of the gun platform can be disassembled. Once the situation is unfavorable and the defense must be abandoned, the defenders of the gun platform can remove the wooden fence and use it as a shield, and at the same time, the internal platform of the gun platform can be exposed behind. Under the firepower of our blunderbuss platform, even if Jiannu occupied the blunderbuss platform, it would be difficult for him to gain a foothold."

"If the wood is not enough, the first half can be replaced by a parapet."

"But the second half has to use a detachable wooden fence."

"There is a bunker dug inside the gun platform, which can be used to garrison troops, store ammunition and a small amount of rations."

"The soil dug out from the ditch was piled up in front and compacted to form a low slope protection, the top height of which was the same as the height of the gun platform wooden fence, or slightly lower than the wooden fence."

Chongzhen's explanation temporarily came to an end.

Tian Xiong, the commander-in-chief of Huang Degong, asked: "Your Majesty, it is advisable to build a fortress at a height higher than the flat ground, and the higher the better, so as to be condescending and conducive to killing the enemy, but why is the height of the gun platform higher than the ground?" Even? Wouldn’t that lose the condescending advantage?”

Chongzhen sighed, and said helplessly, "Because Jiannu has Hongyi cannons."

"Your Majesty is right." Huang Degong said, "Since Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi defected to Jiannu, Jiannu has owned a large number of red barbarian cannons. Fortified cities such as Ningyuan and Jinzhou can't bear the red barbarian cannons. We The blunderbuss platform that was built in a hurry may not be able to hold a single shot, so it can only be preserved by hiding it under the ground."

"That's the reason." Chongzhen said, "There is no way to have both in the world. In order to avoid Jiannu's Hongyi artillery, you can only sacrifice your condescending appearance. But fortunately, there is a 30-step-wide trench outside the gun platform. If I want to directly attack the blunderbuss platform, our defenders will still have the advantage of condescending."

A chief soldier asked, "Can the trench be made deeper? The fence also be made higher?"

Chongzhen nodded and said: "If there is enough time, the trench can of course be deeper and wider, and steps can even be dug in the trench to force the Jiannu to crowd on the narrow steps and attack our army's fence. If so, it will definitely greatly increase the difficulty of Jiannu's attack."

"This is a good idea." Huang Degong said.

Chongzhen said again: "However, we must first ensure that the overall shape is formed."

"The minister leads the order." Huang Degong cupped his hands and said, "The minister will set off now."

"Huang Aiqing wait a moment." Chongzhen hurriedly said, "Is there enough food and grass in the army?"

Huang Degong said: "The grain and grass carried by the army can last for another three to five days."

"That won't work." Chongzhen said, "It's better to wait for the grain to arrive before leaving."

Well, in fact, we want to keep Huang Degong in charge, because the army has to be reorganized.

PS: There are several easter egg chapters in this chapter, and the easter egg chapters displayed on the page are not complete. You need to click the full display button in the upper right corner to see the full picture.

(End of this chapter)