Valley Emperor

After Li Xuan, who was sitting on the dragon chair, finished speaking, he stopped talking.

After being the emperor for so long, he also knows when to speak by himself and when not to speak, and the time to take over no longer belongs to him, but to the many courtiers below.

They will have extensive discussions and debates about how to attack Guangzhou, and as with every important imperial strategy meeting of this kind, the scene will be quite heated, everyone will have their own ideas, and there will be heated debates about it. .

As for a unified argument, it is almost rare. Basically, there will be multiple strategies proposed, and this is actually what Li Xuan deliberately did. If there is only one strategy, what is there to discuss? Just implement it directly.

Such a major battle must take all aspects into consideration, put forward various ideas, and then choose an optimal plan.

Even Li Xuan himself will not easily make decisions on his own, but will fully listen to opinions before making a final plan and ordering his officials to implement it.

However, before the formal discussion, Colonel Li Xinzhong, chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Brigade, who has been staying on the front line in Guangzhou and is familiar with the situation, will give a detailed account of the current situation of the Guangzhou campaign.

I saw him stand up from the rectangular table below, and then bowed slightly to Li Xuan, while holding a baton, he walked to the huge Guangzhou at the head of the rectangular table and the surrounding battle map: "Your Majesty, all adults, Colleagues, our army has completely surrounded Guangzhou City from the land. Now our army is deployed as follows:

To the north of Guangzhou City is the main deployment direction of our army, including the 1st Infantry Brigade, the 1st Artillery Battalion, the 14th Garrison Regiment of the 7th Garrison Brigade, the 1st Cavalry Battalion, etc. The east is the 3rd Garrison Brigade The main force in the west is the fourth garrison brigade. In the direction of Nancheng, because it was too close to the Pearl River and within the coverage of the enemy's naval artillery fire, our army did not deploy troops in Nancheng.

In addition to the divisions of the First Army and the Third Guard Brigade, the divisions of the Guards and the Liuzhou Independence Regiment are also hoarding in the north!

The maintenance task of our army's supply line in the rear is mainly responsible for the baggage units of our army, including the first baggage regiment of the first army and the baggage regiment of the third garrison brigade. In addition, in order to prepare for the aid of the Ming army in eastern Guangdong, two garrison battalions of the third garrison brigade of our army were deployed twenty miles northeast of Guangzhou.

The defense mission of the front line in Zhaoqing will be handed over to the Fifth Infantry Brigade, Antelope Canyon Independent Regiment and other troops.

Among the above-mentioned departments, the front-line troops participating in the siege of Guangzhou consisted of 11,000 regular troops and more than 20,000 garrison troops. There are 3,000 troops on the periphery, 5,000 troops in the rear to maintain the supply line, and 10,000 troops in the rear. "

The above-mentioned troops are actually the main troops of the Tang Dynasty in Guangdong at present!

In the Guangdong area, the strength of the Datang Wang Division includes the First Army, the Third Guard Brigade, the Fifth Infantry Brigade, the Liuzhou Independence Regiment, the Antelope Canyon Independence Regiment, and the Guards.

But not all troops can participate in the Guangzhou campaign. Among them, the Fifth Infantry Brigade has not yet formed an army. At most, it is just guarding Gyeonggi in the rear, and the Antelope Gorge Independent Regiment is an immovable fortress garrison.

The 3rd Guards Brigade and the Liuzhou Independence Regiment all arrived in Guangzhou. The 3rd Guards Brigade was mainly responsible for the war in the east, including attacking the east city wall of Guangzhou and defending the east of Guangzhou.

The guards were naturally Li Xuan and they went there.

The troops of the 1st Army were relatively divided. The main 1st Infantry Brigade, the 1st Artillery Battalion, and the 1st Cavalry Battalion were under the city of Guangzhou, while the two garrison brigades and a temporary regiment it belonged to were relatively scattered.

The provisional first regiment is currently on the front line of Shaozhou Prefecture, relying on less than 3,000 troops to support the battle on the northern front of Guangdong.

The seventh garrison brigade took over the task of the previous fourth garrison brigade. It is currently stationed in the western coastal areas of Guangdong, including Leizhou Prefecture, the southern coastal areas of Zhaoqing Prefecture, and the southern coastal areas of Guangzhou Prefecture, including Foshan.

Even if it is to be stationed in a large area, in order to support the Guangzhou campaign, the 7th Garrison Brigade still dispatched a garrison regiment to join the Guangzhou campaign.

It can be seen from this that in the first battle in Guangzhou, Li Xuan actually pulled down all the troops that could be mobilized under the city of Guangzhou. If he could not defeat the city of Guangzhou, then he had no choice but to drag a few more. Yue waited for the Fifth Infantry Brigade to become an army and even to train more troops before making plans.

Colonel Li Xinzhong then explained the deployment of the Ming army. The deployment of the Ming army was quite simple, because the surrounding areas of Guangzhou were already controlled by the king of the Tang Dynasty. The Ming army basically hid in the city and defended it, even if they had water Teachers can come and go freely, but they do not dare to land easily.

The Ming army in the city has a total of more than 20,000 people, and has a lot of artillery and muskets, and the city of Guangzhou is also relatively strong, and it is not easy to fight.

In addition, a very crucial point is that although the navy **** of the Datang King Division was unable to completely block the Pearl River, it also led to the inability to cut off the various reinforcements that Guangzhou City could obtain.

Soldiers, food, ordnance, etc., the Ming army can be continuously replenished through the Pearl River, and Wang Yue also relied on the Pearl River roadway to replenish, otherwise, he would not have been able to increase from the previous thousands of remnants all the way. The soldiers numbered more than 20,000.

And it is impossible to keep calm in the city now, thinking that they are not short of food, all kinds of ordnance, or even lack of escape channels, so they are very calm, which also makes it more difficult for the king of the Tang Dynasty to attack the city. .

After Colonel Li Xinzhong gave a detailed account of the deployment of the enemy and our troops, and then introduced the city defense of Guangzhou, Colonel Lei Wan, deputy director of the Department of Operations, said: "Since the Navy is unable to block the Pearl River, why hasn't the Army's artillery attempted to do so? In order to block the Pearl River, isn't the first artillery battalion integrated with outsourced nine-jin heavy artillery, these artillery are not bad?"

At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Feng Wenying, the new battalion commander of the 1st Artillery Battalion, said: "Our battalion has tried to set up field artillery on the riverside to block the river, but the Pearl River scene in Guangzhou City is too wide for our artillery to completely cover it. The river surface, and the enemy has a lot of naval artillery, in the artillery battle, our artillery firepower is not enough to gain the upper hand!"

Although the army artillery of the Ming army is not very good, there are still quite a few artillery pieces of the naval divisions of the Ming army. Among the so many heavy artillery pieces of the Ming Dynasty, almost all the naval divisions along the coast were equipped with them, especially the Folang machine artillery. The Folang cannons of more than 300 catties are basically concentrated on the city heads of the major cities and the bows of the navy.

The largest self-produced artillery in the artillery battalion of the King's Army of the Tang Dynasty was only seven jin field artillery, and there were a few outsourced nine jin heavy artillery (twelve pounds).

However, although it has a range advantage over the shotguns widely used by the Ming army, it is actually very difficult to sink the enemy ship for a while, but the enemy ship can rely on the cover of the hull to directly approach and fight. After all, the Ming army's The navy generals are not fools. Although they mainly play side-by-side battles and fire attacks, they can also play with cannons! It's still possible to shoot with a shotgun when you get close.

More than 20 field guns ranging from 12 pounds to as small as 6 pounds in a mere artillery battalion are playing gun battles with the Ming army navy fleet. This is basically an act of courting death, unless it is a natural waterway like Antelope Canyon. , At the same time, it is still possible if you still have fort protection.

At this time, you may say that the location of the artillery deployment is far from the shore, but this will make it even more impossible to cover the river surface.

The effective range of the artillery can't cover the river surface, what about blockade!

Therefore, the army artillery unit of the Datang King Division tried to block the Pearl River for a few days and then decisively gave up.

After Colonel Lei Wan asked a question, he quickly closed his mouth. Since the artillery battalion said it couldn't do it, it must have been impossible, otherwise they would have done it long ago.

The following discussion is not a discussion of the whole set of plans, but a discussion of some details, such as how to deal with the heavy artillery on the head of Guangzhou City, especially the dozen or so naval artillery that Wang Yue purchased from foreigners. It’s not small. Those 12-pound naval guns are bigger than the largest 1,200-pound (7-pound, 9-pound) field gun that the Tang Dynasty can produce. These naval guns purchased from foreigners , is quite powerful.

In the entire Datang Wang division, only the five nine-jin (12-pound, 2,300-jin) naval guns in the First Artillery Battalion can compete with them. Why? Because in fact these guns were originally the same batch.

These twelve-pound naval guns were actually dismantled by a group of Portuguese from several armed merchant ships. They were then purchased by Tang Jun and Ming Jun respectively. Wang Yueshou quickly bought four, and Tang Jun later bought them at a high price. Bought five doors.

"I think it is still an early artillery battle. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com will use our seven-jin heavy artillery and the purchased nine-jin heavy artillery to destroy the heavy artillery on these cities one by one!"

The outsourcing of 9-pound heavy artillery is actually the same as the 12-pound naval gun that Wang Yue has on hand. They are all purchased from foreigners. There is no reason why Wang Yue can outsource guns, but Master Wang of the Tang Dynasty cannot!

After arriving in the vicinity of Guangzhou, the Master of the Tang Dynasty had already tried to make contact with the foreigners and even the pirates in the vicinity. The purpose was very simple, which was to purchase artillery or muskets to make up for the insufficient production of guns in the Tang Dynasty.

However, it is true that there are no foreign merchant ships active near Guangzhou these days, and they are basically armed merchant ships. However, the powerful naval guns are not so easy to find. Even if they are found, people are not willing to sell them.

If these armed merchant ships don't have naval guns, they will be a real target when transporting goods. If they are targeted by pirates, they will be completely finished.

But sometimes, money is more lovely than life and money, so there are still armed merchant ships that put naval guns and even artillery for self-defense on the shelves, and then sell them to Tang Jun and Wang Yue. They kept shouting: The Far East is indeed full of gold and silver, and they were about to shout, 'People are stupid and money is coming quickly'!