Lei Hu was a cavalryman. There were two cavalry divisions that participated in the operation to wipe out the Huai army. China hadn't had a decent cavalry unit for a long time, and Vézé knew very little about it. Artificial insemination of horses came from a long joke on the Internet, and the Cuirassier Cavalry came from some articles about the Napoleonic era.
At first, the cavalry divisions of the Liberation Army were dragoons. The troops relied on the mobility of warhorses, and the main force was basically dismounted. The final establishment of the cavalry divisions came from the "visiting group" sent by the Liberation Army to the University of France. During the Napoleonic era, the cavalry divisions usually consisted of two to three brigades, two regiments, three to four squadrons, and a cavalry company.
In theory, a cavalry regiment had 800 to 120 people, but the number would decrease during the war, usually around 300 to 600 people. The number of squadrons varied from 75 to 250 people. For example, in 1889, there were 299 squadrons, with an average of 139 people per squadron.
Therefore, a cavalry division usually consisted of one to two thousand men. However, there were special circumstances. For example, between 1812 and 1813, some regiments had six or even eight squadrons under their command. General Walter's cavalry division had four brigades under its command. Together with the division's artillery, the total number of cavalry divisions was as high as 5900 men. Many cavalry divisions of the Russian Expeditionary Army had close to three to five thousand men.
In addition, there were differences between different cavalry units. For example, the Cuirassier Cavalry Brigade usually had one Cuirassier Cavalry Regiment.
The Liberation Army relied on the open-hearth steelmaking technology and the high-quality ore from the Shilu Iron Mine in Jingzhou, so the quality of the steel was good. After adopting the stamping technology, one of the standard equipment for all cavalry was armor made of leather and multiple layers of thin steel plates. The full armor in front of the body became a "steel bra" that only protected the chest.
In order to produce enough good horses, the entire grass-roots unit of the new government took action to find large mares. However, the tradition of China's cavalry had been declining for too long. Even though the new government had spent a lot of effort, they had only managed to gather a little more than 500 good military horses. In fact, the total number was not that small. The mares were all breeding in the horse farms, and the horses that went into battle were all male horses. This kind of gender discrimination also led to the lack of horses at the front line.
It was not until the Xiang Army defeated the Nian Army's infantry that Lei Hu learned that the Xiang Army had run to Chenzhou. While ordering the cavalry to intercept the Xiang Army's retreat, Lei Hu hurriedly reported to the military commission that he was going to wipe out the Xiang Army in Henan.
The telegram was sent at the highest level, and the reply was received on the same day. The Central Military Commission agreed to Lei Hu's plan and temporarily placed the Anhui Military Region under Xuzhou Military Region.
Nanjing was the capital. According to tradition, Jiangsu should have become a province, but the division of military districts could not be done this way, so the Xuzhou Military District was created. In fact, Jiangsu was divided into two, with Nanjing as the center of the southern part of Jiangsu as a garrison military area. The southern part of the southern part of the Army was divided into two parts. Fortunately, the Anhui Military District had originally been a part of the Huai River Defense Command. It had only been separated from the Huai River Defense Command after the capture of Xuzhou. Now that it was under Lei Hu's control, there was no problem.
There were ten armies in total, five on each side. When the Huai army was wiped out, two armies were sent out. Now that the Huai army had been taken care of, the enemy had no chance to fight back. The four armies in Huaibei came out and went straight for Ceng Guofan's army.
However, when the main force arrived at Chenzhou, it was empty. Ceng Guofan's Xiang Army was very agile. They didn't stay in Chenzhou at all. On the third day of victory, they broke camp and fled north. When the Xiang Army entered Chenzhou, it was a rapid march and didn't bring any supplies. Now, they were rushing back and ran 120 li in two days. When the cavalry division found Ceng Guofan's army on the third day, Ceng Guofan had fled to the north of Xuchang.
The situation became very interesting. If the Liberation Army continued to chase, they could probably catch up to Ceng Guofan's army when they reached Zhengxian or Kaifeng. The Yellow River had changed its course ten years ago. Originally, it went south from Kaifeng to Xuzhou. Now, it continued east from Kaifeng to Shandong. If Li Hongzhang really wanted to surrender, the Liberation Army would deal with the Xiang Army in the Kaifeng area. Then, Lei Hu, the original commander of the Huai River defense line, would become the commander of the Yellow River defense line.
Lei Hu felt that it was a big deal and immediately reported it to the Military Commission. The Military Commission didn't expect the situation to change so drastically and couldn't reply immediately.
"With the Yellow River as the boundary, four-fifths of Henan will be in our hands!" Vézé said, looking at the map. Henan was a large province with a vast land and a large population. Moreover, it had been ravaged by war in the past few years. It would take a year and a half to settle such a large territory. After occupying Henan, they naturally couldn't let go of southern Shandong.
The original war plan wasn't so radical. At that time, the Liberation Army's wishful thinking was to take care of Huaibei, occupy southern Henan, and then make a few months of preparation. At sea, they would imitate the British's route in the War of Two Ravens. They would use the navy to attack the Bohai Sea and occupy Tianjin. The sixth army would attack Dezhou and threaten Beijing. If this kind of focused attack plan was changed to a flat attack plan, the initial deployment of troops would be completely wrong.
A focused attack would require at most six armies of 100,000 people. Now, just solving the problem in Henan alone would require six armies. Including the troops attacking southern Shandong, the total number of troops would be 12 armies, with 200,000 people. The cost of mobilizing 200,000 people couldn't be simply multiplied by two. Based on everyone's experience, the logistical pressure had to be multiplied by at least three.
Hu Chenghe said unhappily to Vézé, "Commander-in-chief, can we not let the State Council get involved this time? Just give an order and directly allocate the budget. "
In fact, Vézé also had this impulse. If they could turn the original security war into a war of annihilation, from another perspective, they could also save a lot of money on the war budget. It was just that there weren't as many plans for the northern expedition this year. In the next few years, the military budget would not be reduced at all. It was just a matter of spending it sooner or later.
Resisting the strong impulse, Vézé said to Hu Chenghe patiently, "This rule is set by me. Once it's set, it must be followed. I will hold a meeting to discuss this issue. The Military Commission will do what it needs to do now. I feel that the most important thing now is to quickly mobilize troops from other provinces. "
Hu Chenghe let out a long sigh. In fact, he knew that with Vézé's persuasiveness, if he really had to "convince" his comrades, he would definitely be able to do so. What he was most displeased about was that Vézé insisted on going through this formality. However, Vézé's attitude was firm, and Hu Chenghe couldn't insist on opposing him. He said, "Veterans usually retire in August, and the official retirement will be in September. We can give the order to delay the retirement this time, and we will immediately have enough troops. The troops of the various provinces will be directly commanded by the provincial military region. Further north, the new recruits will be responsible for the security of the provinces. It's only 200,000 people, and the number of retired troops will be just enough to make up for this gap. "
"Let Lei Hu do his job well. Don't let us make such a big fuss and fail in the end. That would be a joke! "Vézé said almost casually.
It took two days to persuade the Politburo and the State Council, and the State Council finally agreed to expand the budget. However, as soon as Bi Qingshan drafted and signed the document to the Ministry of Finance, Lei Hu's telegram came. The Xiang Army found that something was wrong, so they didn't go to Kaifeng at all. Instead, they went straight to Zheng County. The Xiang Army stationed in Zheng County was ready. They collected a large number of ships and the Xiang Army crossed the river at Huayuankou. The cavalry of the Liberation Army annihilated more than a thousand troops south of the Yellow River who didn't have time to cross the river. The main force of the Xiang Army actually escaped the Yellow River at the last moment.
Vézé's words were just a casual remark. He didn't want his "prophecy" to come true at all. After annihilating the Xiang Army north of the Yellow River, the last three fighting forces of Manchu Qing, the Huai Army, the Xiang Army, and the Mongolian Eight Banners were all destroyed. What was left was the legendary Eight Banners Army of forty to fifty thousand men, who were said to be undefeatable if the entire army was less than ten thousand men. These ridiculous troops were experts at creating military jokes on the battlefield. The Northern Expedition became very easy.
Ceng Guofan didn't expect the Xiang Army to be the Xiang Army. At this time, he was not confused at all. The timing he chose to retreat was really impeccable. If he had been one day late, the Xiang Army might have been annihilated south of the Yellow River. But on such a day, the Xiang Army escaped.
Now the problem became that the Liberation Army was thrown south of the Yellow River. As one of the basic conditions for expanding the war budget, the annihilation of the Xiang Army south of the Yellow River completely failed. Vézé was not a shameless guy. He made a promise to the Politburo, but the reality mercilessly made Vézé's strategic prediction go to waste for the first time. This made Vézé so angry that he kicked a chair down for the first time and rushed out of the door angrily.
The secretaries were dumbfounded. It was the first time they saw the Military Governor Vaize do such a thing. Not only were they shocked, but they also felt scared. Vézé was very different from Vézé when he was angry. There was a reason for him to be angry, and the main reason was from the outside. Anger was a completely different thing. That kind of emotion came from the inside. At least for a moment, Vézé was like an angry lion, fiercely attacking any living thing that could be seen around him.
Just when the secretaries looked at each other in fear and didn't know what to do, they saw Vézé stride back into the office with a dark face. Picking up the chair that he kicked down, Vézé sat down on it. He rubbed his face hard and forced a smile. He said to the secretaries, "Don't tell anyone that I kicked the chair today. Do you hear me?"
The secretaries looked at each other. They didn't know if Vézé was speaking from the heart or out of anger. Seeing that the secretaries didn't understand, Vézé could only continue to explain, "This time I'm not angry because of Political Commissar Lei Hu. It's normal to not expect a war. I'm angry because I didn't think about this problem. I treated something that didn't happen as something that already happened. It's not that Political Commissar Lei Hu embarrassed me, but I embarrassed myself. If you dare to tell anyone that I kicked the chair, what will happen? "
The secretaries listened to Vézé's serious words. They felt that Vézé didn't lose his rationality. However, the muscles on Vézé's face twitched a little. It was obvious that he was angry. Everyone lost confidence in their own judgment. Therefore, no one dared to answer Vézé's question.
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