I want to be emperor

Chapter 375
The Northern Expedition, this is the top priority of the Great Chu Empire in the next few years.

If the Northern Expedition is successful, China can be unified, and the Great Chu Empire will truly become the new master of the land of China.

If the Northern Expedition is unsuccessful, then the dream of unifying China in a short period of time will come to naught. We can only accumulate strength again and launch the Northern Expedition in a few years.

Based on the importance of the Northern Expedition, once the Great Chu Empire launches the Northern Expedition, it will definitely use all its forces for the Northern Expedition, not only the main force of each department, but more importantly, all strategic materials will be inclined to the Northern Expedition.

At that time, the supply of materials on all fronts in the south will inevitably be greatly weakened, and once the supply of ammunition and other materials is lacking, then the few main divisions that seem to be in dire straits now may be unsustainable by then.

A gun without ammunition is nothing more than a pile of scrap metal.

Even for cold weapons such as swords, spears and armor, there will be a lot of wear and tear during the continuous combat process. These worn cold weapons and equipment need to be repaired or even replaced.

And this also requires sufficient logistical support.

However, on several fronts in the south today, although the Chu army has an advantage and is in a strategic offensive situation, they still have not been able to completely capture Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other regions, let alone the Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan regions.

On the eastern side of Sichuan, it was directly blocked by Qin Liangyu's troops on the front line of Badong. Without using a large number of main forces, and without spending a lot of effort to transport a large amount of heavy artillery and ammunition, relying only on the strength of the garrison division and a small number of main forces, it was impossible to take No less than Wushan area.

Yunnan, Guizhou and parts of Guangxi, these places are not easy places to march and fight.

Due to the limited terrain and the difficulty in supplying materials, the Chu army's actions in the Yunnan-Guizhou area were very slow and costly.

This cost is not only the logistical materials, but also the loss of personnel.

Fighting against the Ming army in places with complex terrain, especially the various local chieftain troops who are familiar with the terrain, to be honest, the main force of the Chu army is not used to it. They want to find the enemy's main force for a decisive battle, but the Ming army also Not stupid, basically avoiding you, or hiding in pass cities that are easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Then they often send small-scale troops to attack the scattered small-scale troops and logistics troops of the Chu army.

In the end, there were still a large number of non-combat casualties.

Areas such as Yunnan and Guizhou are not well-developed densely populated areas, but are covered with a large number of deep mountains and big trees, and there are many poisonous insects. At the same time, the climate is very different from that of the Central Plains.

Unacceptable conditions inevitably appeared in the Chu army, resulting in a large number of non-combat attrition in the Chu army.

But it doesn't work if you don't fight!
If this is ignored, when the Great Chu Empire concentrates all its forces to launch the Northern Expedition, the logistics supply of the various troops fighting in the southern provinces will inevitably be seriously affected. Before the logistics is insufficient, the combat effectiveness of the local Chu army will be further reduced.

At that time, if the Ming army fights a wave of counterattacks, if they retreat for a while, then a large number of Ming troops may enter the grain-producing areas currently controlled by the Chu army.

The terrain in these places is generally flat, and once the enemy breaks through, it is easy to cause a chain crash reaction.

Even if this possibility is not high, the upper echelons of the Great Chu Empire have to consider this possibility.

Therefore, at the latest strategic meeting before the Imperial Army at the end of March, Xu Zhixian of the General Staff Department proposed that before officially launching the Northern Expedition, some forces should be concentrated to solve several dangers in the south.

In terms of preparation, there are four places in southern Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.

As for the Yunnan-Guizhou and Sichuan regions, the General Staff suggested very straightforwardly to fight these places in the later stage, or even after taking Hebei or even killing the Eastern Captives.

In Yunnan-Guizhou, limited by the terrain and climate, there is no way to fight quickly, but to grind slowly. The most important thing is that if this place is not taken down for the time being, the impact will not be great.

Relatively speaking, Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian and Zhejiang are easier to fight, but also more important.

First of all, these two places do not have too powerful Ming troops, and although there are many mountains in the terrain, they are still well-developed land, and the climate is relatively easy to adapt to. are mostly influenced by the local climate.

If the Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian and Zhejiang regions are captured, most of the Great Chu Empire south of the Yangtze River will be connected into one piece, thus completely solving the threat in the southeast coastal direction.

Follow-up in these directions, it is only necessary to deploy some garrison divisions to garrison the coastal cities, and actively develop the navy to deal with the maritime threats brought by Zheng Zhilong's troops.

Even if they can't defend the coastal areas, losing a few cities will not have much impact. After all, Zheng Zhilong's ground power is very limited, and their strength is only the fleet.

And the battleship cannot go ashore.

There may be losses, but such losses are within the tolerable range.

According to the scale of the General Staff, Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong and Guangxi will be taken first, and then the Yunnan-Guizhou front line will be slowed down. It doesn't even need to use too many main forces, just a few more garrison divisions to fight.

On the other side of Sichuan, let’s continue the stalemate, and don’t expect the fight to pass for the time being, but on the other hand, if the Chu army can’t get into Sichuan, Qin Liangyu’s troops will have no chance to capture Badong and other places, and fight all the way to Huguang.

In Sichuan, it is difficult to get in, and even harder to get out.

The direction of Shaanxi will also continue to maintain the current situation. This is not to say that Shaanxi and Gansu in the northwest have been smashed. Ten thousand taels of silver...

The fight for the world has reached the point where the ruling cost is no longer valued by the top of the Great Chu Empire, because apart from the current control areas of the Great Chu Empire, there are other places that count as one, and all of them are not good places.

Either the southeast and southwestern provinces with less land and more people, or the northern provinces that have been plagued by bandits, officers and soldiers, and captives for many years.

Purely from the point of view of money and food, hitting these places is all a loss-making business.

However, if you want to unify China, you have to take down even a piece of bad land. You can't just because the Great Chu Empire replaced the Ming Dynasty and became the new generation of central dynasty in China, the land area will shrink by more than half, right...

Therefore, the cost of ruling is no longer an important consideration when the Great Chu Empire expanded, but more out of military and political considerations.

The important reason for not sending troops to Shaanxi now is that there is a Sun Chuanting in Shaanxi, and this Sun Chuanting is quite powerful.

The Shaanxi New Standard Army he created, that is, the New Qin Army is quite special. It not only has a large number of guns like other New Standard Army, but also has a considerable number of cavalry. At the same time, this New Qin Army has a large number of mules and horses. , the maneuverability is quite good.

In the area of ​​Guanzhong Mansion, the Chu Army's second garrison division started last autumn, and it has already suffered many times under the hands of the new Qin Army.

Relying solely on the defenders, they cannot defeat them...

As for the main division, the main force on the front line in Hanzhong is actually only a mixed regiment, and its strength is somewhat insufficient.

Therefore, during the Northern Expedition, according to the plan of the General Staff, the operations in Shaanxi will still maintain the status quo, fight if you can, and defend strategically if you can't.

As long as Yunyang City is not lost, the Chu army will not change its established plan in this direction.

On the whole, once Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Guangxi are captured, the entire western front, including the three fronts in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, will be in a low-intensity stalemate.

And most of the power of the Great Chu Empire, to be precise, the supplies will be fully used in the Northern Expedition.

Luo Zhixue quite agrees with the staff's idea of ​​going from south to north to avoid too much pressure on multiple fronts at the same time.

Although Luo Zhixue also really wanted to launch the Northern Expedition now and directly hit Youzhou City, but if he acted rashly, all the fronts in the south might overturn, and then shake the safety of the Great Chu Empire in the hinterland of the Yangtze River.

Furthermore, once the Northern Expedition was launched, according to Luo Zhixue's thinking, it was necessary to fight decisively and quickly to Shanhaiguan.

Dongyao wants to enter the customs and wants to go crazy, even if he can't enter the Central Plains, but going to Beizhili to rob another wave will be a big benefit to Dongyao.

In addition, and more importantly, don't overestimate the patriotism of the warlords in Liaodong, especially after the collapse of Chongzhen and the Ming Dynasty they are loyal to, don't think that Luo Zhixue's body will be shaken, and a large number of towns in Liaodong will accept their heads Bye.

In history, Li Zicheng entered Youzhou City, and the Ming army in Liaodong turned around and surrendered under the leadership of Wu Sangui.

Don't believe that Wu Sangui became a concubine in a fit of rage, this man has big ambitions.

At that time, Li Zicheng had arrested Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, and sent people to bring money and food to recruit him to surrender. He also offered a good price and promised to be a marquis.

Ordinarily, the conditions for sealing the Marquis are not too bad.

But they were even more ruthless in captivity, and directly offered the conditions for being king, and they were still sealed, promising to give Wu Sangui a piece of land to be king after entering the customs.

Anyway, Dongyao hadn't entered the customs at that time. In order to be able to enter the customs smoothly, if necessary, Dongyao could even promise Wu Sangui to come and rule the river. As for whether Wu Sangui believed it or not, whether Dongyao would regret it afterwards? It's something else.

In short, the Dongkui used the land they had not yet obtained to recruit Wu Sangui... Wu Sangui will need to lead his own troops to fight in the future!

As a result, Wu Sangui still failed to resist the temptation of Fengwang, and directly lured Dong into Shanhaiguan.

The whole thing is that today I have no storage cabinets and I was born as a member of Daming, and when I die, I am a ghost of Daming. For the sake of my loyalty, Mr. Chongzhen, you don’t hesitate to give me money and food.

Tomorrow, when the situation changed, he knelt down in front of Huang Taiji and shouted: I am willing to be the vanguard of Wang Shi's entry...

Shameless stuff!

(End of this chapter)