My life skills in Daming Liver

The fighting on the Xuzhou front line finally stopped on the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month.

The Fifth Brigade on the southeast side withdrew from the front line. After confirming that the southeast had withdrawn, Li Chengliang, who was stationed in Yutai County, finally breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the entire army to return to Jeju for the New Year.

The new troops in the Ming court were jubilant and praised Li Chengliang one after another, but Li Chengliang was not happy.

The officers under his command were dejected, the morale of the soldiers was low, and a huge amount of military rations and supplies were consumed, but in the end there was no victory at all.

Although there was no result at all, everyone from the officers to the soldiers in the Ming court were exhausted, as if they had experienced a life-and-death battle.

But such a long and tiring confrontation really yielded no results at all.

Since the beginning of the war, the two sides have only fired artillery at each other at the frontline positions in northern Shandong, and then fired a few symbolic shots. No useful charge has been launched by either side at all.

But even so, it would cost a lot of money to fire artillery every day.

But the southeast side fired artillery. If Mingting didn't fire artillery, it would also be a big blow to morale.

Therefore, after the opposite side fired three times, the Mingting New Army would also fire once in response.

In the words of the new army of the Ming Dynasty, this is to greet each other by firing cannons at each other.

If it only consumes some artillery and ammunition, then forget it. This can be regarded as stimulating the development of the military industry here in Mingting.

Immediately afterwards, the First Southeast Brigade conducted a landing raid on the coast of eastern Shandong. The local regiment training in Shandong could only defend the city to protect itself, and did not dare to pursue the southeastern army.

When Li Chengliang took the troops from the third town to support, the navy in the southeast disappeared again.

The Third Town was slipped around the Jiaodong Peninsula by the Southeast Navy, and the war ended inexplicably.

After four months of extreme pulling, he was pulled like a dog to eastern Shandong, and then back to northern Shandong.

Compared with the previous battle to pacify Liangshan, this inexplicable battle in Xuzhou can be said to be very frustrating.

Obviously, the strength of the three towns of Mingting was several times greater than that of Southeast's fifth brigade. It was obvious that Li Chengliang spent a lot of financial and material resources to build a large number of bastions, and in the end, Southeast was leading the way.

In comparison, the cost paid by the southeast side is much smaller.

The biggest cost of the Shandong defense line is the bastion on the border.

In order to defend against attacks from the southeast, Li Chengliang built a large number of bastions, each of which required a large amount of manpower and material resources to maintain.

The southeast did not build a large number of bastions like the Ming Dynasty. If it only relied on trenches, it would set up a defense line.

In addition to trenches, there is also a special kind of defense in the southeast - barbed wire.

Barbed wire fences made of wooden piles and wires, combined with trenches, can have a strong defensive effect.

Not only artillery and infantry, but cavalry also had difficulty breaking through these barbed wire fences.

Trench and barbed wire are much easier to prepare than bastions. The cost of industrialized manufacturing of barbed wire is also very low, and the defense line can be modified at any time according to the situation on the front line.

Li Chengliang also wanted to learn how to use barbed wire and trenches for defense in the southeast, but his craftsmen told him that there was no way in the Ming Dynasty to manufacture so much iron wire at a low cost. If it was made by hand, the cost would be horrifyingly high.

Li Chengliang could only give up the idea of ​​using barbed wire and obediently use the bastion for defense.

In addition to bastions, artillery was also a significant cost.

Not to mention the cost of shells and gunpowder, another cost comes from the psychological suppression of Ming Ting soldiers by Southeast Artillery.

The mobile artillery can fire at any time. The soldiers of the Ming Ting New Army are under great psychological pressure and must be careful of artillery shells coming from various directions.

The southeast side has already mastered the detailed map of Mingting's defenses, and already knows the location of each cannon.

However, due to the backward artillery technology, the Mingting side could only install fixed cannons on the bastion, and could not use mobile artillery like Southeast.

The angle at which Mingting's artillery can be adjusted is very small. As long as the southeastern soldiers on the opposite side build fortifications within the artillery attack range, they don't have to worry about artillery shells coming from other directions.

This alone makes the pressure on the southeastern front line much less intense.

It was also a round of artillery bombardment. The Mingting side had to huddle in bastions and trenches, carefully avoid shells that might come from all directions, and also need to constantly repair the fortifications destroyed by the southeastern artillery.

On the southeast side, it is only necessary to regularly reinforce the fortifications within the range of Mingting's artillery fire. The soldiers on the rear defense line can even stick their heads out to let out wind.

The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty had to huddle together, endure the roaring shells above their heads, and bury their heads in the mud pits of the trenches to wait for the opponent's artillery fire to stop.

The mental state of the soldiers in the southeast is obviously better than that of the soldiers in the Ming court. Another factor is the railway.

The high-profile construction of the railway in the Southeast could not be hidden from others. When Li Chengliang started the construction of the Xuzhou Railway, he knew that the Southeast was extravagantly laying rails on the ground and building a huge project called the railway.

By using horse-drawn rail cars to pass on the railway tracks, a large amount of troops and materials can be transported with a small amount of human and animal power.

The railway connected the three strategic fulcrum cities of Peixian, Xuzhou and Xiapi, which happened to be the frontline cities in the confrontation with the Ming army.

The railway can transport artillery shells and food, making it very easy to supply food to the New Army in the Southeast.

Although Li Chengliang also had canals for transportation, he still needed to use human and animal power to cross the uninhabited land with strong walls and clear wilderness, and recruited a large number of civilians from Shandong to maintain supplies on the front line.

As for the coastal battle on the Jiaodong Peninsula, the consumption of the Ming army during the movement was even greater.

These four months of war destroyed all the wealth Shandong had accumulated this year. In the end, it was only through the Ming court's vigorous blood transfusions that it was able to survive.

Trains not only save the cost of material transportation, but more importantly, they greatly improve the mobility of the army.

The Fifth Southeast Brigade had 5,000 people in front of the station. After the war began, Chen Lin began to expand the army, increasing the number of the Fifth Brigade to 10,000.

These 10,000 people may seem like a lot, but actually they are not that many at all in the light of Xuzhou's long defense line.

You must know that the new army of the Ming Dynasty is also expanding. The three-town new army under Li Chengliang now has 25,000 people. Together with the local troops assisting in defense, Li Chengliang has more than 40,000 people on the front line.

In the timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Xuzhou could accommodate a million troops for the decisive battle. This number of people scattered on such a long defense line was simply not enough.

However, the Fifth Southeast Brigade relied on these 5,000 veterans and 5,000 recruits to defend the entire defense line so impregnably that Li Chengliang could not find any flaws.

This is the improvement in mobility brought by trains.

It's not that the train is very fast. The speed of the Southeast train is not as fast as the cavalry, or even as fast as the infantry on the march.

But with trains, soldiers can rest in the carriage while moving to the target location, saving a lot of physical energy.

On the confrontational defense line, your Ming Dynasty army can make rapid marches and complete several large-scale mobilizations to reach the combat location.

However, after a rapid march, you always have to take a rest before launching an attack. By this time, the soldiers from the southeast had already taken the train, appeared on the position in high spirits, and could immediately engage in defensive operations.

Li Chengliang mobilized like this several times, trying to break through the southeastern defense line, but Chen Lin quickly used the railway to deploy troops and firmly defended it.

By the later stage, Li Chengliang's men were already complaining and were not willing to conduct such useless raids anymore.

On the contrary, the southeast side trained the recruits through frontline confrontation, allowing the recruits to quickly complete the transformation on the battlefield.

This time, Li Chengliang could no longer hold on to the ceasefire, so he secretly sent an envoy to request a ceasefire from the southeast.

The southeast side also accepted the ceasefire request, and both sides withdrew their troops and returned to the cities where they were stationed.

After Li Chengliang returned to Jeju City, he immediately expressed his merits to the Ming court in the capital and praised his "epic victory."

Although he didn't advance an inch of his position and didn't achieve any results, the opponent didn't advance his position either!

Among the many battles that the Ming Dynasty fought against the Southeast, this battle of Xuzhou can be said to be an "epic victory" in a sense.

After Zhang Juzheng received Li Chengliang's disclosure document, although he also knew what was going on on the front line, he immediately asked the Ming court newspapers to start cooperating in publicizing this "big victory."

This is not because Zhang Juzheng and Li Chengliang have a strong relationship, but because the Ming court really needs such a "big victory" to stabilize people's hearts.

Since the war between the Ming Dynasty and Southeast, there has never been such a draw, let alone a victory.

Su Ze, the rebel leader in the southeast, personally supervised the battle in Xuzhou and deployed a large number of troops but failed to capture a single area of ​​Shandong. This kind of propaganda could indeed make the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty have a peaceful new year.

Under the propaganda of the Ming court, Li Chengliang became a godly general with decisive command, and defeated this "unprecedented" attack in the southeast.

Not even an inch of land was occupied in the southeast. The three towns of the New Army led by Li Chengliang firmly held their positions and repelled the opponent's fierce attacks many times.

And all of this is just the result of the New Deal that Zhang Juzheng has just implemented in less than half a year in power.

In other words, as long as Zhang Juzheng continues to implement the New Deal, relying on the Ming court's larger territory and more abundant manpower, he will definitely be able to reverse the disadvantage against the southeast, and he can immediately counterattack the southeast.

Under this set of propaganda, scholars in the capital immediately became excited and wrote articles praising Zhang Juzheng.

Scholars in the capital even said in disgusting terms that he was the current Duke of Zhou and would definitely be able to lead the Ming Dynasty to put down the rebellion of the southeastern thieves.

This non-existent "big victory" on the Shandong front line finally added a bit of joy to the Spring Festival of the third year of Longqing in the Ming Dynasty.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Juzheng also announced that he would organize an Aoshan Lantern Festival in the name of this cabinet to celebrate Li Chengliang's "great victory" in Shandong.

Compared with the jubilation of the Ming court, the Southeast did not publicize the battle of Xuzhou too much.

Many places are not even aware that such a war broke out in Xuzhou.

On the 18th of the twelfth lunar month, Chen Lin and other officers of the Fifth Brigade returned from the Xuzhou front line. Su Ze did not let them return to Nanjing for vacation, but directly let them live in the Nanjing Army School.

Next to Chen Lin stood Song Qian, the chief of staff of the fifth brigade. In this battle, the staff office of the fifth brigade also played a big role.

Whether it is intelligence analysis, formulating combat plans, or arranging logistics supplies, these tasks are all broken down into the staff office and completed by different combat staff members.

This is not to say that Chen Lin, the brigade commander, has no role. The successful conclusion of the Xuzhou Battle this time has a lot to do with Chen Lin's steady command.

Chen Lin said to Song Qian, who was also very nervous:

"The Governor asked us to return to Nanjing to summarize and exchange experiences in the Battle of Xuzhou. You graduated from the military academy, so this little battle is not a problem for you."

Song Qian forced out a smile that was uglier than crying. After the Battle of Xuzhou, the Fifth Brigade Staff Office summed up experience day and night. The materials alone filled a carriage.

This is not because Song Qian and other staff members are formalistic and want to make a fuss over the sea, but because there are so many things worth summarizing about this battle.

After Chen Lin and Chief of Staff Song Qian reported to the military academy and settled in, they were immediately led to an auditorium.

When Chen Lin and Song Qian walked into the auditorium and saw the people sitting below, they were so frightened that they almost ran away immediately.

Including Su Ze, almost all the generals of the Southeast New Army gathered in this auditorium and looked directly at Chen Lin and Song Qian.

The first thing Chen Lin thought was, could it be that the Governor wants to kill me? What kind of plot is this about Lin Chong accidentally entering the White Tiger Hall?

Unexpectedly, when Su Ze saw Chen Lin and Song Qian, he stood up immediately and said:

"Let us welcome the two heroes of the Battle of Xuzhou."

As everyone applauded, Su Ze stood up again and pulled Chen Lin and Song Qian into the auditorium.

"This time, we have to ask Brigadier Chen and Chief of Staff Song to teach everyone a lesson."

Song Qian was so nervous that he almost fainted, but Su Ze pulled him and said:

"In this battle of Xuzhou, the Staff Office played a big role."

"You may not be aware of the significance of this change, but I want to say that the staff system will be an important change that will lay the foundation for the way of war in the next few hundred years. If future generations want to study the history of war, they will never be able to avoid this Battle of Xuzhou. .”

"Chief of Staff Song, please tell us what your staff office did during this Xuzhou battle."