I want to be emperor

Chapter 515

When the Chu army started a large-scale bombardment, a battle broke out that was beyond the expectations of the two warring parties. Well, it was actually incorrect to say that it was a battle, because the soldiers of the Chu army hadn't come up yet.

The first infantry of the Chu army was also 300 meters away, and their task was not to attack the city, but to step forward to protect the howitzer troops and prevent the enemy from actively attacking and destroying the artillery positions.

The protagonist of the Chu army's battle is the artillery, the more than 100 various artillery pieces, especially those large-caliber howitzers.

As for the Dongyao people... they haven't even seen the appearance of the soldiers of the Chu army.It was hundreds of meters away, and the artillery positions of the Chu army were basically covered and sloped. Even on the condescending city wall, it was not easy to see the soldiers of the Chu army clearly...

But these Dongbang people hadn't even seen the appearance of the soldiers of the Chu army clearly, they had already been bombarded intensively, and they were directly stunned.

When Bai Yangrong heard the chief of artillery staff under his command say that this round of shelling is expected to kill and wound at least 2000 enemy troops, and that the enemy troops have already withdrawn from the city, and the conditions are ready to dispatch infantry to attack the city, he himself It's all shocking...

How come this Donghu people are less beaten than the Ming army's new standard army...

The bombardment lasted only one hour, and the shells fired would only last two to three thousand rounds. If this level of bombardment was replaced by the Ming and Xin standard troops, it is estimated that the opponent's general would not even frown.

It's not that the soldiers of the New Standard Army are braver, but that they generally have thick anti-aircraft fortifications...

As long as the anti-blasting hole is dug deep enough, even a 48-jin grenade is still scum!

In the past, when the Chu army and the Xinbiao army were fighting, it often happened that after one's own artillery bombarded wildly, the opposite side looked like ruins, which was very tragic...

Inexperienced generals will think that the shelling effect is good, but when the Chu army sends infantry to kill directly, the new standard army on the opposite side will get out of the artillery fortifications like mice, and then use various matchlock guns, the old style Short robes and even bows and arrows to fight back...

Disgusting!

Therefore, the Chu army also learned to be smart later, and it took several days to prepare for the shelling during the battle. Don't expect the Chu army to send infantry to attack the city if you don't fire tens of thousands of shells first!
Today's shelling, for Bai Yangrong, was a dessert before dinner, he fired thousands of shells, slightly suppressed the enemy, and then deployed closer to let the infantry dig a trench, tunnel or something, for tomorrow The formal mass bombardment and preparations for the siege.

But it never occurred to him...it was just a foreplay-like bombardment, and the other party just knelt down.

He felt that he had either met a fake Dongbang, or the Dongbang was cheating, wanting the other party to show weakness, and wanting to lure him to send infantry to the city, and then an ambush or something like that.

The possibility of fake Dongbang people is very small. The Dongbang people on the opposite side are all with rattails, and in the previous small-scale cavalry confrontation, our side also captured a few enemy cavalry alive, and asked a lot of information Well, all the people stationed in Fuzhou city are the regular regular army of the Eastern captivity.

Among them, two to three thousand people belong to the Eight Banners, and five or six thousand belong to the Eight Banners of Han Dynasty.

Regardless of whether it is the Manchu Eight Banners or the Han Eight Banners, these are the regular Eight Banners of the Eastern Captives.

Therefore, the enemy troops in the city are undoubtedly the real Dongren, not some ordinary civilians who are young and strong.

Since it is not fake, then the other party must have a conspiracy.

Anyway, he didn't believe that the other party collapsed after only one hour of shelling... If the Dongyao people were so careless, their Great Chu Empire would have pushed the Liaoxi Corridor flat and captured Da Yu'er alive.

According to the reality of the information transmitted from Ji Liao, the Dongyao people are still very capable of fighting, their morale is relatively high, and they are more brave in charging.

This information does not match the current performance of these Eastern captives!
But, it is obvious that the opponent suffered heavy casualties and had already given up the city.

This made Bai Yangrong hesitate, and after careful consideration, he said: "Let the artillerymen fight for another half an hour to see!"

"Let the 89th regiment prepare for an assault. If the opponent is really a soft-legged shrimp, then don't wait for tomorrow, and attack the city today!"

"By the way, if you really attack the city later, let the grenadiers put on their armor and go up to see the situation. Don't send the main force in all at once, so as not to deceive the other side!"

Bai Yangrong was very cautious here, even though the opponent seemed to be collapsed, he still didn't easily launch a general attack.

Ever since, the sound of explosions continued to ring out in Fuzhou City!
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Bai Yangrong could only see the scene of his own howitzer shelling, but he had never personally experienced the scene of being bombarded by howitzers continuously.

In fact, it is difficult for him to feel the panic when a large number of howitzers are shelled!
At the same time, Bai Yangrong actually commanded howitzers for the first time in actual combat when he was carrying out this combat mission on the Liaodong Peninsula.

After all, the howitzers of the Great Chu Empire have not been developed for a long time. It was only successfully developed and produced last year. It was only during the Western Front Campaign last year that the howitzers were put into actual combat for the first time. Only forty doors.

This howitzer is actually not much for the artillery unit of the Chu army, which has hundreds of cannons at every turn.

In most cases, the Chu army still relied on field artillery and mortars to resolve battles.

In the subsequent Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou battles, the Chu army also invested in howitzers, but the number was still small.

Although the Great Chu Empire produced a large number of guns, they couldn't support the Great Chu Empire's army fighting on multiple fronts. There was one battalion of howitzers here, and one battalion there.

In the past, although Bai Yangrong had heard about the actual combat performance of howitzers, he had never personally commanded them.

After Bai Yangrong was transferred to be the commander of the Seventh Army, in order to strengthen the combat capability of the Seventh Army, to ensure the absolute superiority in firepower when crossing the sea and landing and facing a large number of enemy counterattacks, the superiors began to prioritize howitzers and equip the Seventh Army. military.

At the same time, during the spring and summer of this year, the howitzer production lines of many arsenals in the Great Chu Empire were also successfully put into production, and more howitzers were able to be produced, especially the more powerful 24-pound light howitzers and [-]-pound howitzers. The Seventh Army also received more howitzers than its allies at the same time.

In the two main first-class divisions under the Seventh Army today, the divisional artillery regiment is the latest artillery establishment, and it is fully staffed.

Each artillery regiment has three artillery battalions, and each artillery battalion has two five-pound field artillery posts, one nine-pound field artillery post, and one eighteen-pound light howitzer post. Each post has four artillery pieces, totaling ten six doors.

Adding up the three artillery battalions, there are 24 five-pound field artillery, twelve nine-pound field artillery, and twelve eighteen-pound light howitzers.

At the same time, each infantry regiment and baggage regiment have four two-and-a-half-jin field guns and four nine-jin light howitzers.

The divisional cavalry regiment has two two-and-a-half-pound field guns and two nine-pound light howitzers.

The whole division has a total of eighteen two-and-a-half-pound field guns, 24 five-pound field cannons, and twelve nine-pound field cannons; the howitzers include eighteen nine-pound light howitzers and twelve eighteen-pound light howitzers.

At the same time, all kinds of field mortars were completely dismantled, whether it was a 24-jin mortar, an [-]-jin mortar, or a nine-jin mortar.

In this way, a main first-class division of the Great Chu Empire Army has 54 field guns of three different calibers, and thirty howitzers of two calibers, a total of 84 pieces!

As for the larger caliber 24-pound cannon, 48-pound howitzer and [-]-pound howitzer, they are incorporated into the independent artillery unit and are directly under the jurisdiction of the field army or the frontier defense\campaign headquarters.

The Seventh Army has a heavy artillery regiment with twelve 24-pound cannons, twelve 48-pound howitzers, and twelve [-]-pound howitzers. Because of poor mobility, the regiment can only be deployed for defense. Combat, or a relatively long time-consuming battle.

This time when he came to Fuzhou City, Bai Yangrong only brought the relatively mobile 24-jin howitzer. As for the cannon and the 48-jin howitzer, he brought them here and stayed at the Jinzhou defense line.

On the one hand, it is not easy to transport these heavy artillery. On the other hand, it is because the Jinzhou defense line is more important. It does not matter if they cannot defeat Fuzhou City, but if they are attacked by the enemy and lose the Jinzhou defense line, it will be over.

Even so, the Seventh Army who came to Fuzhou City still carried nearly [-] artillery pieces.

Even if the two-and-a-half catty field guns and the five catty field guns are not equipped with grenades for the time being, they are not very useful in this kind of siege operations, but they can be used as an aid to some extent.

In addition, the nine-pound field artillery can fire grenades, and with the addition of dozens of howitzers, there are quite a few artillery pieces that can fire grenades. In addition, the Chu army has always been less concerned about the consumption of ammunition and how much they can fight. Just hit as many as possible, so after the bombardment started, the number of grenades fired by the Chu army was very large.

Bai Yangrong himself didn't feel much about this...

However, the Dongyao people on the opposite side stunned them as if they had been bombarded by dense thunderstorms.

Although the people from Dongyao also know that the Chu army has explosive bombs, in fact, before the Battle of Liaodong, even the Liaoxi side fought with the Chu army several times before, but in fact they have never been hit by such intensive howitzers. .

Because the Chu army didn't have so many howitzers in western Liaoning before...

Now after being subjected to intensive shelling, they couldn't stand it at all, and were forced to voluntarily abandon the city.

Even so, the cautious Bai Yangrong let the artillery unit fire shells for another half an hour...

Finally, after confirming that the Dongyao people had abandoned the city and did not want to plot, the Chu army's infantry went up cautiously.

And they didn't launch a large-scale attack, just let a few grenadier posts approach to test, but the result of this test is very strange...

The three grenadier posts sent up did not encounter enemy counterattacks from the beginning to the end, and climbed up to the top of the city smoothly all the way!

After the grenadiers directly opened the city gate, there were scattered Dongyao people in the city trying to rush up to fight back.

And at this time, even the most cautious Bai Yangrong had already ordered the 89th Regiment to launch a general attack.

After the 89th regiment launched a general attack, the Dongyao people also broke out towards the north gate, and under the cover of the Dongyao cavalry began to break through and escape to the north.

When he saw his own black dragon flag flying above the dilapidated city gate of Fuzhou, Bai Yangrong still couldn't believe it: "Is it so easy to win?"

On the other hand, the logistics staff officer muttered in a low voice: "Couldn't it be so simple... You ordered so many grenades to be fired, and these grenades could kill them directly if they were exchanged for silver."

These days, gunpowder is very expensive, and iron materials are also very expensive. The fuze in the grenade is also expensive because of the complicated process.

The combination of these factors has led to the high cost of the grenade.

The Great Chu Empire produced the most and also used the most nine-pound grenade, um, that is, the 110mm standard grenade for the nine-pound field gun, nine-pound cannon, and nine-pound light howitzer plus its propellant pack. Adding up the procurement cost of the army is eight taels of silver.

It is basically equivalent to three months' salary of ordinary workers in the middle and lower levels!
You have to know that a nine-pound field gun made of bronze is only more than 800 taels of silver... basically the same as the cost of a hundred shells.

This is outrageous!
Looking around the world, there is probably no other army that dares to equip hundreds of howitzers at every turn like the Chu army, and fires tens of thousands of grenades at every turn.

Even so, the huge military expenditures squeezed out a large amount of fiscal revenue of the Great Chu Empire.

In the six years of Chengshun, the estimated central government revenue is only about 7000 million taels of silver. This revenue includes agricultural tax, commercial tax and other regular taxes, and also includes the profits of government-run enterprises under the Ministry of Industry. The profit turned over is the bulk.

Looking around the world, this fiscal revenue is also the best in the world!

However, the financial expenditure of the Great Chu Empire was the same. In order to kill the captives and completely solve the threat from the north, Chengshun's military budget reached 4000 million taels of silver in six years!

The military budget of 4000 million taels... If Huang Taiji knew about it, he would have to wonder if the world was joking with him!

And how did so much military expenditure be spent?
Well, just like when they attacked Fuzhou City just now, the shells were spent as if they didn’t need money...

But Bai Yangrong doesn't care about these things, he only leads soldiers to fight, since the ammunition is sent later, wouldn't it be silly not to use it?

The Battle of Fuzhou City fully demonstrated the arrogance of the Great Chu Empire Army, allowing the Chu Army to take down Fuzhou City with only a few dozen casualties.

And these casualties basically occurred in sporadic battles after entering the city.

As for the siege stage, the infantry of the two sides did not actually fight each other seriously because the Dongyao people voluntarily gave up the top of the city, and then took the initiative to break through after the Chu army's large-scale attack.

This battle is very simple, that is, the artillery of the Chu army opened fire, the captives ran away, and the infantry of the Chu army went up to take over the city!

That's why Bai Yangrong sighed 'so simple'!

While Bai Yangrong was sighing, the Dongyao people, who had successfully broken through under the cover of two or three thousand cavalry, headed north dejectedly. After discussing with several Dongyao generals, they wrote an urgent battle report and sent messengers to urgently Sent to Shenyang.

Reporting the fall of Fuzhou City is secondary, and the focus is to urgently gather more troops in the rear to prevent the Chu army from continuing to go north.

Otherwise, these Chu thieves will go to Gaizhou in the future. Once Gaizhou is lost, Haizhou in the back is close at hand, and behind Haizhou is Shenyang.

If you don't want the Chu army on the Liaodong Peninsula to go northward like a broken bamboo, you must deploy heavy troops to stop them.

In the end, they repeatedly mentioned the number and power of the Chu army's explosive bombs, saying that they were hard to defend against, and had a greater impact than the old red cannons, and asked other friendly troops to guard against the Chu army's explosive bombs.

After receiving this battle report, the Eastern Captive Center in Shenyang was shocked by the ruling and opposition parties!
In order to reverse the crisis in the Liaodong Peninsula, keep the Chu army south of Gaizhou, and even try to drive the Chu army back into the sea, Huang Taiji moved extremely quickly.

On the same day, he urgently ordered the deployment of [-] main troops from the front line in western Liaoning to reinforce Gaizhou, and at the same time urgently dispatched [-] cavalry from southern Mongolia to reinforce them.

The next day, he personally ordered more than [-] garrison troops in many places in Liaodong to gather in Gaizhou, and he himself will go south to Gaizhou to guard against the southern Chu thieves from continuing to go north!
On the way, I haven't forgotten to convene emergency personnel to ask and discuss how to deal with the Chu army's explosive bombs.

When he was busy with these things, he naturally did not forget a piece of edict, beheading several front-line generals in the Liaodong Peninsula who voluntarily gave up Jinzhou and Fuzhou, and sent other generals to take over Fuzhou Crushed!

They gave up on Jinzhou without even fighting, causing the Liaodong Peninsula to lose its forefront, and it was also a front-line fortress that was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Forget it, Huang Taiji is not someone who cannot understand his subordinates and generals.

He also knew that the Chu thieves were coming fiercely, and they sent thousands of troops to land behind Jinzhou. If the Jinzhou defenders did not give up Jinzhou, they would be attacked by the north and the south, and the entire army would be wiped out.

However, during the Battle of Fuzhou, they even ignored the advantages of the Chu army's flowering bullets, and did not dig trenches and build bulletproof fortifications in advance, so that the Chu army could not hold on for half a day after attacking the city... This is intolerable .

It's not the first day that the Chu army used flowering ammunition. They had used it a few years ago. When they were on the battlefield in western Liaoning, the Chu army had already used flowering ammunition on a large scale.

Although the report said that the explosive bombs used by the Chu thief were different from the previous ones, but the explosive bombs were the explosive bombs, and they would kill people if they exploded.

The Eastern captive defenders on the front line in western Liaoning basically learned from the previous Ming army to build fortresses and dig trenches, but the defenders in the Liaodong Peninsula turned a blind eye to this change. Being lazy or underestimating the enemy, or really not knowing how to deal with it is all the fault of the senior generals defending the Liaodong Peninsula.

If Jinzhou or Fuzhou had perfect anti-artillery fortifications, Huang Taiji didn't think that the Chu army could take it so smoothly, and it would be possible to wait for the reinforcements to arrive even if the front line persisted for ten days and a half months.

It's not like it is now, and I can't even hold it for half a day!
Such a waste, what's the use of not killing it!

If Huang Taiji is courageous and cunning, after a fierce operation like a tiger, the war machine of the entire Eastern Captive Qing Kingdom began to run at high speed!

A large number of troops and food and supplies began to gather towards the Liaodong Peninsula from all directions!

Even several Mongolian tribes located in Liaohetao in Monan Mongolia, which is relatively far away, sent a large number of cavalry southward in just a few days after receiving Huang Taiji's call-up order.

The various changes of the Dongcap people were also noticed by the spies of the Military Intelligence Department of the Great Chu Empire.

It's impossible not to notice it... such a large-scale military mobilization, almost the entire Qing Dynasty was swept away, and troops were mobilized everywhere. It was impossible to hide such a large-scale movement.

After the news reached Shanhaiguan, the Chu army also moved!

The Chu army immediately dispatched a division and with the cooperation of two cavalry brigades, quickly attacked a fortress of the Dongyao people.

This also forced the Dongbang people not to dare to act rashly on the front line in western Liaoning, at least they could not ignore it and directly bring a large number of main forces back to the defense.

Avoid Huang Taiji's sudden deployment of 10,000+ or ​​more troops to the Liaodong Peninsula, which poses too much threat to the Seventh Army.

However, the Chu army in the direction of Shanhaiguan can only do this.

After all, there is a primary and secondary issue here. The Seventh Army of the Liaodong Peninsula, their mission is to attract a large number of captive troops and create a favorable opportunity for the Chu army to attack the Liaoxi Corridor next year, instead of attracting the enemy in the Liaoxi Corridor. Force, let the Seventh Army fight all the way to Shenyang.

This involves many issues such as cross-sea transportation and plain combat.

The upper echelons of the Chu army never thought of letting a group of infantry-based troops foolishly walk on the plains to attack Shenyang.

Not to mention that the Seventh Army had no cavalry support, even in Jiliao, where most of the Chu Army's cavalry was hoarded, the Chu Army was still at a disadvantage in terms of cavalry.

Therefore, the high-level strategy of the Chu army is still to use cavalry as a supplement, infantry and artillery as the main force, directly fight steadily, directly push across, and strive to fight a few battles in the Liaoxi Corridor to wipe out a large number of effective enemy forces.

Therefore, after taking down a frontier fortress in a small way, there will be nothing to do when the Dongyao people get nervous again.

As for Bai Yangrong, they didn't go directly north to Gaizhou as the Dongyao people expected...

He didn't really go to Shenyang, let alone Gaizhou, he didn't even want to stay in Fuzhou!
This place is about [-] kilometers away from the sea. Although there is a Fuzhou River passing by and flowing into the sea, winter is coming. It is so cold this year, let alone the Liaodong Peninsula, it is snowing in Guangzhou...

When the cold winter comes, the Fuzhou River freezes every minute, and then it will be impossible to escape directly by boat in Fuzhou.

Moreover, it is difficult to get fire support from a large number of naval artillery while staying in Fuzhou.

When Bai Yangrong heard that the Dongyao people in the north were coming towards the Liaodong Peninsula from all directions like hornets that had been stabbed in a hornet's nest, he even sent a mixed regiment and the 24 howitzer battalion back to defend the Jinzhou defense line. Come to Fuzhou and go directly to the Golden State defense line.

With a mixed regiment plus a second-class division and an entire heavy artillery regiment, as well as naval artillery ready to support, the Jinzhou defense line is just so-so.

At the same time, it was ordered to dispatch engineers to the small port of Yanggongbao on the south coast of Fuzhou City, and to recruit young and strong local civilians to build docks, camps, and various fortifications.

He didn't intend to use Fuzhou City as a strategic support point for defensive operations. It was only an outpost at most. The real strategic defensive support points were the coastal port camps behind and Changsheng Island further back.

Changsheng Island serves as the main garrison station, while Yanggongbao serves as a beachhead!

At that time, you can attack or retreat!
You can also get powerful fire support from the navy at any time. Even if you lose a battle and the situation is critical, you can just escape by boat!

It's not much better than guarding a Fuzhou City alone!
When Bai Yangrong was carrying out the construction of Yanggongbao and Changsheng Island with his troops, Huang Taiji also rushed to Gaizhou with his troops!
He finally arrived at Gaizhou before the Chu army arrived, and stabilized the situation. After a little relief, Huang Taiji waited for more than ten thousand Mongolian Eight Banner cavalry, and then led his army south to Fuzhou in early October!

On October [-]th, when it was snowing outside the city of Fuzhou, the forwards of the Eastern Captives also killed dozens of miles outside of Fuzhou. Hundreds of defenders of the Chu army fled watching the wind, and they all ran away on horseback...

Before leaving, they even set fire to Fuzhou!
On October [-]th, the frontrunners of the Eastern Captives went to the port of Yanggongbao. They launched an attack in the light snow. They were immediately counterattacked by heavy artillery fire and bullets from the Chu army. As it got thicker, the Dongbang people had to stop attacking.

On the [-]th, Huang Taiji led thousands of personal guards to the front line of Yanggongbao!
At this time, more than 50 captive troops gathered in Yanggongbao, including tens of thousands of cavalry, and more than [-] red cannons or field artillery!

When Huang Taiji braved the light snow and took a group of generals up the small mountain to look at the Yanggong Castle in front, the more he looked, the more he frowned!
This ghostly place doesn't even have a proper city wall, but it gave him a feeling that he couldn't talk about it, because those Chu troops almost dug up the surrounding area... There are fortresses and trenches everywhere... , parapet, distance horse and other fortifications.

Moreover, there are a lot of Chu army warships moored beside them. Even if they are a little far away, they can't see clearly, but they can tell with their toes that there must be a lot of artillery on these warships, and the Chu army's defensive position is on the seashore. It is always supported by naval fire from the rear.

How to fight this?
On October [-]th, the weather in Yanggongbao did not improve, but the snow fell even more. After a few days of light snow, and this heavy snowfall, the snow on the ground quickly reached half a foot thick.

Because the snow was so thick, let alone attacking at this time, it would be very troublesome for the Dongbang people to transport food, ammunition and other supplies.

On this day, Huang Taiji was forced to withdraw to Fuzhou City!
They can't imitate the Chu army and spend the winter by the sea!They have a large number of field barracks and fortifications prepared in advance, but the kidnappers have nothing...even because they came in such a hurry that they didn't even have enough tents.

On this day, in the imperial courtyard of Jinling City, Luo Zhixue, Emperor of the Great Chu Empire, officially approved the construction plan of the 'Songjiang Prefecture Industrial Base in Jiangnan Province'!

(End of this chapter)