During this Northern Expedition, a total of three troops participated in the war: the Zuo Military Academy Weibu, the Central Military Academy Weibu, the Hou Military Academy Weibu, and the Nine Battalions of Assault Cavalry.
There were approximately 20,000 participants in this battle, making it the largest military operation of the Taishan Army to date.
But don't forget, this is just the number of soldiers. There are also a large number of baggage troops and supplementary troops.
After the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans all joined the Taishan Army under the leadership of Ji Sun, the elite Hercules Battalion supplemented the main combat troops of the Taishan Army's Fifth School Lieutenant Division, most of which were baggage troops and supplementary troops.
This part of the heavy troops is roughly around 10,000 people. These Qingzhou Yellow Turbans can also fight and kill, but their combat skills are not as good as those of the main battalion.
In other words, if the Taishan Army is absolutely devastated, it will be able to pull out at least 60,000 soldiers by pulling out the field guards and heavy baggage troops, which is already a very terrifying existence.
It's just that this kind of force scale is unsustainable for today's Taishan Army. The Taishan Army does not have enough human resources to carefully manage such a large-scale military force.
The current size of the field army of 30,000 will be almost the upper limit of the Taishan Army's capabilities.
Why is it so difficult?
Because the reason why the Taishan Army was able to fight was not because of the brave soldiers, but because of the rogue bandits.
The Taishan Army's combat strength advantage is systematic, that is, they are a well-organized army.
Take the Taishan Army No. 1 Military Academy as an example.
Its standard establishment is five battalions, which is an establishment of 5,000 soldiers. In addition, there are about 2,000 heavy troops. Each battalion has an establishment of about 1,000 people, including 200 crossbowmen, 200 longbowmen, and 6 armored soldiers.
Hundred.
The 5,000-strong School Lieutenant Department also has its own staff establishment, which is divided into military department staff and battalion department staff.
The military staff is naturally the staff structure of a separate senior colonel.
Its basic components are the long history, the counselor, the secretary, and the four chiefs of warehouse, armor, soldiers, and law.
Among them, the commander of the army, Shi, was the chief of staff and was in charge of all non-military assets. He was an important assistant to the military captain and also the target of suppression. Because every commander of the army had the power to send a secret letter to Zhang Chong, and could report all the situations in the general.
Today's long history grew up during the Lao Taishan period and is a continuation of the Taoist system. It can be said that everyone from the top to the first army and the bottom to the first village has its own long history.
The counselor is very simple. He is a military staff talent assigned by Zhang Chong to a certain military academy. He is the chief general and counselor Ji Yi, and the number of them ranges from three to five.
In addition, the military staff also had secretaries. The name of this in the Han Dynasty was Jishi, which was responsible for the work of writing secretaries and secretaries.
Counselor and secretary are relatively noble positions, while the four chiefs of Cang, Jia, Bing, and Fa are responsible for fixed functional affairs and are important positions.
The so-called warehouse chiefs are responsible for military supplies and logistics. Because the Taishan Army implements the holy treasury system, these are also called holy treasury chiefs. They are not only in charge of wartime seizures, but also have the authority to command the baggage and heavy troops. They are one of the few with military power.
's staff.
The Chief of Jia Cao is responsible for the management of Jia Wei Ying.
When the army is stationed, all the armors and stomachs need to be stored in warehouses and managed. The army cannot have armors except during wartime. As the armors and stomachs are important weapons of the military, you can imagine how important the position of the armor and cao commander is.
On the side of the Han Dynasty, these positions were basically held by the eunuchs around the emperor, while on the side of the Taishan Army, only those who came out of the cross-collision team were qualified to serve as commanders of the Jiacao.
As for the sergeant commander, he is responsible for the management of the military register. This functional department is responsible for the recruitment, discharge, promotion, and merit calculation of sergeants.
And the final chief of the law is even more important. In a unit at the Weibu level of the military academy, the chief of the law has twenty legal officials and a hundred law enforcement officers, all of whom are elites in the army. They are responsible for all military and legal matters stationed in the wartime.
.
The Taishan Army has implemented the policy of military law and military management since the Xue Shibi period, and it can be said that it has been very perfect until now.
Therefore, the number of staff at the military department level, from Chang Shi to Si Cao, ranges from more than fifty to more than one hundred.
A military headquarters is not only composed of military divisional staff, but also battalion divisional staff at the battalion level. Because the units of the Taishan Army that can act independently are battalion-level units, which are organized into two units, five tunes, ten tuns, and twenty brigades.
Although the staff of the Battalion Division is small, its establishment is generally the same as that of the Staff of the Military Division. They all have a long history, counselor, secretary, and four divisions.
This is the guarantee of the Taishan Army's combat effectiveness, relying on a large number of staff to conduct refined management.
How refined is this kind of refined management?
It is a unit that has been able to move down to the team level, that is, every 50 people in the army have a staff, but these staff still have military operations.
For example, for a team general, there is one person holding the flag and one person in the deputy team. The so-called flag holder is the one who is responsible for holding the flag. He is used to mobilize troops and contact other teams to cooperate with the attack. The deputy team is specialized in advocating documents.
Reward for merit.
Take this Northern Expedition as an example.
The officers and soldiers of the Taishan Army will first hand over the captured heads to their respective deputy teams for inspection. The qualified and valid records will be sent to the Tun Deputy. The Tun Deputy will make a summary and then send it to the Qu Deputy. After the Qu Deputy makes a summary, it will be sent to the Department Deputy.
, then go to the Yingsi.
The military clerk of the battalion department will summarize the results, and then randomly select them from each team to inspect the first-level merits. Only if they are correct will they be reported to the final military department.
From here we can also see why Zhang Chong has only now begun to reward the generals for their merits.
However, although such meticulous management can greatly improve combat effectiveness, the cost is indeed too high.
Most of the current staff of the Taishan Army are children from poor families from all over the country, and there is no way out for those who are educated. However, after so many years of accumulation, the Taishan Army can only allocate sufficient staff for the field legion of 30,000 people.
Regarding the staff, there is another difference between the Taishan Army and the Han Dynasty.
That is, most of the staff of the Han Dynasty were recruited by the commander-in-chief, while all the staff of the Taishan Army were appointed by the shogunate's military department.
The generals of the Han Dynasty were able to form their own shogunate when they led troops on expeditions, and all their staff members were recruited by themselves. Therefore, whenever there was a war, powerful men rushed to join the shogunate. They didn't even have to go, they just had to name themselves.
Also because these staff members were personally recruited by the generals themselves, these people were very attached to the generals personally, which is why they were called lords.
This was intolerable to Zhang Chong, so he specifically put the shogunate's military department in charge of this matter.
Even if a general encounters excellent staff, he only has the power to recommend them but not to recruit them.
All these recommended staff members must register with the Military Division of the shogunate, undergo an assessment, and then be uniformly assigned to various armies by the shogunate.
What is a master of classics? This is a master of classics. All kinds of things have rules and regulations to follow, and there are dedicated people to handle them.
Therefore, the current five-service system of the Taishan Army is already very mature and is the core of the entire military system. Even if the army is expanded in the future, it will be built according to this framework. For example, the five divisions and five aspects.
Now, most of the people who are preparing to receive honors in the palace are the officers and soldiers of the central guard army, left and rear captains, while there are not many officers and soldiers of the assault cavalry system.
The flying army system of the Taishan Army is not the same military system as the Five Armed Forces.
Everyone in the army knows that with the same rank, the Feijun is two levels higher than the officers and men of the Fifth Army. In other words, the generals in the Feijun are equivalent to the first level of battalion generals in the Fifth Army. They can stand alone.
one side.
Many people have no concept of 500 Cavalry and think that the number of 500 Cavalry is very small and insignificant. But in fact, an organized 500 Cavalry can dominate a battle and is a real military weapon.
According to the laws of the Taishan Army, when a military school captain goes out on an expedition, he must be equipped with two battalions of thousands of assault cavalry to protect and control the battlefield.
This time during the Northern Expedition, Guan Yu led Zuo Xiaowei's troops and equipped them with two cavalry battalions: Feilong and Feihu. This was the regular system.
In terms of the use of cavalry, the Taishan Army compared it with Youzhou's sudden cavalry and also absorbed the regulations of Neijun operations.
In the inner counties of China, the Han army generally used military chariots and infantry to fight in a square formation with antlers. The Youzhou cavalry used cavalry as a complete organization to fight as a large cavalry regiment.
Zhang Chong drew on the strengths of the two and established the current sequence of ten battalions of assault cavalry.
It can be divided into battalions to cooperate with the Fifth Military Academy and Lieutenant Headquarters in operations, or it can be organized into an army for group cavalry operations. In short, it can be separated or combined.
When the assault cavalry cooperates with the Fifth Military Academy Lieutenant Headquarters, they are usually deployed behind the military formation. On the one hand, they can dismount and fight on foot as a second-echelon force. On the other hand, they can serve as assault cavalry to pursue the victory and expand the victory. Rarely
It is used to directly attack the enemy's strong formation.
However, there are exceptions. Zhang Chong's heavy cavalry can be used to charge directly into the formation, but it is not cost-effective. The death of a general will be equivalent to the loss of a hundred-man general, so it cannot be charged.
It is also because the assault cavalry generally fights smoothly, and it is easy to capture important enemy commanders during the post-war pursuit. For example, if Zhao Yun was not a member of the assault cavalry, would he be able to capture Guo Dian, the governor of Julu, after the war?
Therefore, the officials of the Fifth Army were generally not interested in the sudden cavalry, which can be seen from the clearly distinguished seats in the palace.
People like Li Hu, Xu Huang, Xi Shen, Li Fu, Li Bi, and Ma Wu all sat in a group and rarely greeted the nearby officials of the Fifth Army. Guo Liang, on the other hand, had been a member of the Fifth Army system before.
I also chatted with acquaintances from time to time.
This time, in addition to the officers and soldiers of the five armies and the assault cavalry system, there were also some officers and soldiers who came to reward the troops.
Most of these heavy troops were from the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, and most of the old heavy troops of the Taishan Army were retained as garrison troops.
At this moment, these heavy soldiers were sitting behind their old officers, Ji Sun and Xu He.
When they saw the people singing in front of them to report their merits, they were itching to hear them, and they also looked forward to this time's military achievements.
Yes, the baggage soldiers also had military exploits.
As a logistical support for marching operations, baggage and heavy troops are also very important to a war.
Especially this time, Guan Yu was trapped on the north bank by the spring water because he was not familiar with the water conditions. If not for the heavy troops at the rear who fought tirelessly to ensure the safety of the grain road, Guan Yu's troops might have suffered a big setback.
In addition to these military exploits, they also performed extremely well at their jobs.
There were almost 20,000 soldiers in the Northern Expedition, and they could get 5,000 shi of corn per day. The war lasted for more than a month, plus the losses on the road. In other words, these heavy troops transported at least 300,000 shi of corn.
Frontline. Converted to ox-carts, that is 10,000 vehicles.
Therefore, the military officials in the heavy equipment system can naturally participate in this glorious moment and share the glory of this battle with the soldiers.
In addition to heavy baggage troops, foreign military systems with flying troops carrying flags also came to receive honors.
The Taishan Army's flying army carrying the flag is a very complex military system. After several adaptations, it now forms an internal army for internal inspection and a foreign army for exploring the enemy externally.
Among them, the foreign army is also divided into two systems: detective spy and youyi.
Spies are directly subordinate to the shogunate, and whether they are dispatched or reported, they are directly responsible for the Feijun Foreign Affairs Bureau under the shogunate.
You Yi was established in the shogunate, but the specific deployment was in the Military Department of the Fifth Army. Because You Yi's role is to serve as a sentinel and guard during the march and garrison process.
The soldiers of the Fei Army first came from Shanliao in the Taishan area, and they were good at tracking and lurking. Later, they were all trained by Zhang Chong and taught the most systematic sentry. It can be said that the professionalism of the Fei Army was much better than that of the Han Army.
.
This has been proven many times in the Taishan Army's battles.
In the Taishan Army, there has been a corresponding system since the old Taishan period.
Among them, there are two riders for five miles, four riders for ten miles, eight riders for fifteen miles, and twelve riders for thirty miles.
According to the regulations of the Taishan Army, each march must be sent out for thirty miles.
Once the sentinel sees a thief, he will wave the flag behind his back. If the sentinel detects no thief, he will ride back. These riders are all in succession during these thirty miles. Once they see the flag, they will immediately turn around and pass.
Report.
Therefore, the Taishan Army can often obtain information one step ahead of the Han Army, and then either set up a formation or ambush, taking the initiative on the battlefield.
And this time the people who came here were mainly those from the Youyi series, and those from the spy system would not appear on such an occasion due to lurking issues.
They are the true unsung heroes.
In addition to those from the military system, there were also officials from the craftsman camp and the medical general camp, who also participated.
The outstanding performance of the craftsmen battalion in the siege of Xiangguo, and the stone-making carts and giant nest carts they manufactured made great contributions to the capture of Xiangguo.
Not to mention the Medical Craftsman Camp.
This medical camp founded by Zhang Chong can be said to be the pinnacle of surgery in this world and the greatest wealth of the Taishan Army.
From the Taishan period to the present, it has trained more than 500 medical craftsmen and 2,000 medical apprentices. These people are generally placed in military-level units of the Fifth Military Academy, because only the military commander has enough strength to protect these medical craftsmen.
In every battle, the injured Pao Ze was carried on a stretcher from the battlefield to the army headquarters for treatment by doctors.
During this Northern Expedition, the Taishan Army suffered more than 2,000 casualties. Among them, more than 1,300 were rescued by medical craftsmen. It can be said that the most beloved soldiers in the army are these medical craftsmen.
Of course, the riders love the veterinarians even more. After all, if the war horses are injured, they point to these veterinarians for treatment.
It's just that Zhang Chong doesn't understand veterinarians, so the level of veterinarians in the army is slightly better than that of the Han army, but not outstanding.
All in all, the award received on April 13, the first year of Chengtian and the first year of the Republic, was the largest award received by the Taishan Army after the Battle of Xingyang.
Although it cannot satisfy everyone, the wide scope involved can be said to have been considered to the extreme by the shogunate.
However, this was a hardship for the You Military Academy Lieutenants and former Military Academy Lieutenants who stayed behind in Yecheng. This time they could only watch helplessly as the officers made great achievements, allocated good fields, and were promoted to beautiful positions.
Take our Ding Sheng as an example. He had already screamed with red eyes:
"Next time the vanguard is determined, no one can compete with him!"
In short, after this reward, everyone in the Taishan Army was happy to hear the battle, like wolves and tigers.