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

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

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

Luo Zhixue would take the Guards Division with him every time he went out to fight in person. Similarly, if Luo Zhixue did not go out to fight in person, the Guards Division would not go to the front line.

Of course, with the expansion of the Guards Division and its gradual formalization, today's Guards Division has become more biased towards the regular army in terms of attributes. As for Luo Zhixue's daily personal security, it has been handed over to the Guard Office.

Normally when Luo Zhixue is not on the front line, the Guards Division is mainly responsible for the defense of Wuchang City and even the palace.

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

Therefore, after the development of the 2-year-old flintlock rifle, Luo Zhixue planned to build the first large-scale main force equipped with the 2-year-old flintlock rifle, which was the Guards.

He plans 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 will be renamed the First Guards Division.

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

After some of these new recruits have begun to arrive, the mass production of flintlock muskets should also begin. At that time, the new recruits will be trained and equipped with fusillade muskets, and we will strive to organize and train the Second Guards Division into an army by March next year.

, and then began to expand, organize and temporarily organize the Tenth Division, which was expanded from the Fifth Mixed Battalion.

That's right, after the Second Guards Division, the main force of Suifa Gun that Luo Zhixue plans to expand will be the Tenth Division expanded from the temporary Fifth Mixed Battalion.

Even though the staff department has no plan to train the 10th Division yet, this does not affect Luo Zhixue's own expansion plan.

The fifth mixed battalion is temporarily organized. As the Army's fusilier test unit, this unit will definitely continue to expand in the future. When the follow-up is completed, it will be temporarily organized into the fifth mixed regiment. When the time is right, it will be directly expanded to

10th Division.

According to the development and production progress of the flintlock gun, Luo Zhixue has basically planned the production capacity of the flintlock gun in the first half year after it is put into production, which is about 25,000 pieces.

Just these two divisions, and then arrange some flintlocks to equip the cavalry units, well, that's basically it.

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

Before this, the Chu army still had to rely on the existing main force equipped with matchlock guns to carry out operations.

Including the crucial eastward campaign.

As for why we don’t wait until March next year, or even after June, before dispatching new units such as the Second Guards Division and the Tenth Division to participate in the eastward campaign, in order to have greater control.

The first reason is confidence!

Both Luo Zhixue and the military generals of the Chu Empire 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 Eastward Campaign, we prepared as many as six main divisions, even if two of them were new and did not have enough personnel.

Teacher, but we are equally confident to fight through."

"Although the Puppet Ming Army deployed heavy troops in Jiujiang, and according to intelligence, they also deployed at least twenty Hongyi artillery pieces on top of Jiujiang City, and hundreds of other types of old t-shirts, but our artillery troops are more

Powerful!"

"Referring to the Linxiang Battle and Changsha Battle in the Chunan Campaign, the Puppet Ming Army paid more and more attention to the use of anti-artillery fortifications and artillery in the city defense operations. Correspondingly, we further strengthened the artillery power!"

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

"These include at least thirty nine-pound field guns, fifty five-pound field guns, and seventy-two forty-eight-pound mortars!"

"The rest are two and a half kilograms of field guns and eighteen kilograms of mortars."

"The above are only the artillery of the ground forces, and do not include the navy that is cooperating in the war. When the battle is launched, the navy's Yangtze River Fleet will also be equipped with certain artillery and assist in the war."

"In addition, this time we will also use four larger 14-pound siege artillery."

"These four fourteen-pound siege artillery are the first batch of large-caliber long-barreled artillery manufactured by Hantian Arsenal, with a barrel diameter of twenty-four times. These four were originally scheduled to be assigned to the navy's new generation of large warships.

However, the navy's large warships have not yet been completed and put into service so quickly. At the same time, the Jiujiang War also requires such large-caliber siege artillery, so these four heavy artillery were first appropriated and equipped with field gun mounts for use in siege operations."<

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"We have conducted tests and found that this fourteen-pound heavy artillery is extremely powerful when used to bombard city walls. Some weaker city walls can be directly blasted open, and thicker city walls can also be bombarded multiple times and then collapse the city wall.

”

"But even this kind of heavy artillery is still powerless against large city walls with seven or eight meters of thickness on top. But it can also be used as long-range pressure firepower."

Luo Zhixue said: "These fourteen kilograms of heavy siege artillery are useful. It is best if they can knock down the city wall. It doesn't matter if it doesn't collapse. At least it can suppress the enemy."

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

For a city wall that is seven to eight meters at the top and 20 to 30 meters thick at the bottom, the kinetic energy brought by the front-mounted artillery is too limited. Unless you persist and continuously fire heavy artillery shells at a certain part, then it is possible to pass the water mill.

Blow down the city wall.

Well, it was just a demolition. Even after the demolition, the city wall was still a hill...

However, there are not many such extremely thick city walls even in places like China that are keen on building such thick city wall systems. They are basically famous large cities.

An ordinary city would not have such a thick wall.

Xu Zhixian also said at this time: "This fourteen-pound artillery can be regarded as a supplement. The main artillery in the siege battle will definitely need to rely on our mortar troops."

"Relying on the huge production capacity of Xiangyang Arsenal and Hantian Arsenal, we have produced a large number of 48-pound mortars in the past six months. At the same time, we also temporarily transferred 48-pound mortars from other mortar regiments, making the first mortar regiment,

The two mortar regiments of the Sixth Mortar Regiment are all equipped with forty-eight-pound mortars. Each regiment is assigned four battalions, each battalion has twelve guns."

"The forty-eight-pound mortar regiments equipped in the two mortar regiments totaled seventy-two, which was double the number when they stormed Linxiang and Changsha."

"Even though Jiujiang's artillery defenses are better, they can never 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, in this eastward campaign, we will directly attack Jiujiang City, through powerful

Attack the city with firepower and exert pressure to force them to abandon Jiujiang City and retreat. As long as they retreat, the subsequent field battle will be much simpler."

"If the opponent does not retreat, then we will directly attack Jiujiang City and encircle and annihilate them."

"To take a step back, even if Jiujiang City cannot be captured in a short time, we can still besiege Jiujiang, and then send partial troops south to other areas in northern Jiangxi to capture Nanchang and other cities in order to obtain money and food.

Get money and food!

This also involves the second main reason why the Chu army marched eastward: lack of money!

In the first half of the year, we attacked southern Chu and captured the densely populated and productive areas around Dongting Lake and along the Xiangjiang River system.

In the second half of the year, we will march eastward to the south of the Yangtze River to seize northern Jiangxi. If the war goes well, we will go to the south of the Yangtze River and even to the north of Zhejiang. The purpose is also to seize this rich land on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Why was such a battle plan formulated?

In addition to military strategic considerations, economic issues are also considered!

From a purely military perspective, there is actually not much difference between the Chu Empire's eastward advance this year and next year's. Strictly speaking, on the contrary, it is more certain to delay the attack until next year, because at that time the Second Guards Division and

The 10th Division has also formed an army, giving it a greater advantage in fighting.

But from a financial perspective, the Chu Empire could not afford it.

Luo Zhixue clearly told Xu Zhixian, who was responsible for formulating the eastward march plan: "This eastward march is not only to solve military problems, but also to solve economic problems!"

"This year's fiscal expenditure budget of our country has reached 31 million taels of silver!"

Speaking of this, Luo Zhixue also took a special look at Xu Zhixian: "Among them, your military's military budget is fifteen million taels of silver, and the temporary combat budget is another five million taels of silver, which adds up to twenty million!

”

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

This five million tael of temporary war expenses was only obtained by Xu Zhixian, on behalf of the military, by making harsh words and even threatening the civil service group headed by Guo Quanshu.

To put it bluntly, the current financial difficulties of the Chu Empire are mostly caused by the military's excessive military expansion and the policy of elite troops.

Of course, the financial expenditures of the Dachu Empire were not only military expenditures, but also various administrative expenses, relief expenses, etc.

Various administrative expenses also cost several million taels of silver. Relief costs, mainly to restore people's livelihood in northern and southern Chu, restore local farming, use work for relief, etc., also cost about two million taels of silver.
Chapter completed!