When Xiao Yungui got the report of the Zhaoqing Battle, it was already the third day after the end of the battle. The information transmission of the pigeons of the Intelligence Department still did not meet Xiao Yungui's expectations. The lag in the news was Xiao Yungui's biggest dissatisfaction with this era without a mobile phone. At least there should be a telegraph machine without a mobile phone. Okay, there is a telegraph machine, but the current telegraph still needs to be transmitted online, and wireless telegraph has not yet been released.

Xiao Yungui looked at the casualties and material consumption numbers in the battle report of Chen Yucheng and others with some amusement, and killed 825 people, injured 1,278 people, and suffered more than 2,000 casualties. These are all elite soldiers of the newly formed First Army. When did the new army in the West Palace suffer such a loss?

Xiao Yungui had always had high expectations for the newly formed First Army. He was equipped with the world's most advanced guns and cannons at this time, and his tactics and soldiers' fighting will were second to none, but he did not expect such a large casualty.

Xiao Yungui looked at Li Kaifang with a stern face and said, "What did Chen Yucheng do? How did they command? This battle must be conducted in a profound post-war review!" After the start of the Guangzhou Battle, the Taiping Army had never suffered heavy casualties. Xiao Yungui also secretly used several major battles fought by the Qing army and the British and French coalition forces in history as a reference comparison. The British and French coalition forces suffered dozens of casualties in the Baliqiao Battle, dozens of casualties in the Zhangjiawan Battle. The casualties of the British and French coalition forces in the entire Second Opium War were only hundreds of casualties. The largest casualties came from the Second Battle of Dagukou, with more than 300 casualties.

All of these are not as great as those of the casualties in the Zhaoqing Battle. Xiao Yungui's face was very bad. Could it be that the Taiping New Army that he worked hard and carefully trained was not as good as the expeditionary force of the British and French coalition forces? Then, if he really started a war with the foreign devils in the future, how can he fight this battle?

Li Kaifang also saw that Xiao Yungui looked bad and said carefully: "Chen Yucheng's battle report said in detail about the process of this battle. The main reason for the huge casualties is that the street fighting and night fighting is unfavorable. The Chu Yong of the Zhongyuan tribe of Qingyao Jiang is also a powerful force that is desperate to fight. They used night and the complex terrain of the streets and alleys to approach our army, launched a raid with cold weapons, and attacked wildly during the war without hesitation of casualties, so our army suffered such great casualties. Jiang Zhongyuan used street fighting and night fighting to offset the firepower advantages of our army, which is indeed worthy of our army's reflection on the future combat methods. Chen Yucheng and his team also mentioned it in the battle report. Commanding generals and staff officers at all levels made post-war reviews."

Xiao Yungui snorted, his face looked a little better. Indeed, in the history of war, one side with the disadvantaged equipment rarely defeated the advantageous equipment except using the night and terrain. In the later war of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, the volunteer army of the disadvantaged equipment used night to fight nightly to offset the firepower advantages of US aircraft and cannons. In addition to using night to fight, the soldiers' fighting will is also quite important. Even if you can use the night to approach the enemy, the soldiers' lack of strong combat power and fighting will be defeated. Unfortunately, Jiang Zhongyuan's Chu Yong happened to be a difficult character.

The Chu Yong led by Jiang Zhongyuan was experienced in many battles. After Jiang Zhongyuan withdrew from Nanchang to retreat to several prefectures and counties west of Jiangxi, he actively recruited troops and was more strict with Chu Yong's training. Chu Yong's combat effectiveness even exceeded Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army. Fortunately, this Chu Yong's army was not large, with more than 15,000 people. After this battle, only less than 4,000 people escaped. It can be said that this Chu Yong was crippled.

"Night battles, street fighting, hum. Is Chen Yucheng not smart enough? Can the hundreds of cannons outside the city be arranged? Will he not flatten the city of Zhaoqing? What is the war report saying that it may accidentally hurt the civilians. How can there be no reason for the war to die?"

Li Kaifang coughed and whispered: "Your Highness, although Chen Yucheng wrote this way, you can tell the reason by looking at the consumption of materials."

Xiao Yungui looked at the material consumption statistics table again, and snorted heavily, "What is the logistics for? Why cannon shells not be supplied? Is life more expensive or cannon shells more expensive?"

Xu Naizhao also wiped the sweat from his forehead: "The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works have tried their best to allocate ammunition. However, since the start of the Guangzhou Battle, the Battle of Huizhou, the Battle of Shaozhou, the Battle of Chaozhou, and the Battle of Meizhou, the consumption of huge amounts of supplies and ammunition everywhere, and the transportation of materials and ammunition in sea ships in the south is also affected by the sea weather. Therefore, sometimes there will be problems with the guarantee."

Xiao Yungui sighed lightly, the hot weapons troops rely heavily on logistics supplies. As the saying goes, a cannon fires, a thousand taels of gold is the most important part of the combat test of hot weapons. The military industry and logistics transportation capabilities of this regime are the railways in Fujian and Jiangxi. The cost of transporting materials and ammunition by land is too high. Although the cost of transporting by sea is small, sea weather, wind and waves and other factors will affect sea transportation.

In addition, since the war in Guangdong started, the New Army has generally used Xu Jin's tactical test of the troops' tactics, which is based on the concept of ammunition consumption that is not so simple. Xiao Yungui touched his chin. It seems that it is still an unattainable dream to imagine the American army in later generations to play saturated bombing like that. Xu Jin's tactics are indeed very useful, but this tactic requires strong logistics as a support.

Xiao Yungui snorted softly and said, "These are not reasons. If you want to find difficulties, you can find a hundred reasons, but things still have to be done! Since I suffered a loss in street fighting and night fighting this time, the Ministry of War will increase the experience of street fighting and night fighting, so that the troops can increase the training of tactics in this area and reduce casualties! Oh, by the way, when the troops consolidate their positions or station them in the future, barbed wire and trenches must be arranged in front of the positions. Qing Yao is not a fool. They have died so many people and lost so many times. They will always find ways to fight us. This time, it is also a reminder for us. Don't think that if you have the advantage of firepower, you will be careless and underestimate the enemy!"

Li Kaifang naturally nodded and said yes. He also noticed this. Li Kaifang is a very good minister of the Ministry of War. He has visited many troops and talked about the changes of the Qing army with grassroots soldiers. Recently, he had just talked with the wounded soldiers transported back from the Guangzhou front line. He found that the Qing army had at least begun to know how to prevent artillery. After the Taiping Army's artillery bombardment, he saw that the dead Qing army was lying on the ground, without any injuries, but the internal organs were shattered by the shell explosion because of their chest and abdomen on the ground. However, after the attack, the Qing army began to die. Moreover, the recessed anti-aircraft artillery holes were found in some trenches dug by the Qing army, which shows that the Qing army was also learning how to save their lives in the war.

The Taiping Army's hot weapons troops were indeed majestic when they appeared, but as the war continued, people were also learning and improving. It seems that the Taiping Army could not rely on equipment alone. Flexible tactics and strategies were the main factors for reducing casualties.

Then Li Kaifang reported the combat plan re-formed by Chen Yucheng and others. Although the plan formulated by the General Staff was issued by the Ministry of War, as a combat commander, he has the right to modify the combat plan and can be reported first and then.

After listening to the deployment of Chen Yucheng and others, Xiao Yungui came to the map and looked for a long time and said, "Since Jiang Zhongyuan can build cities in Luodingzhou and Deqingzhou, the key passes are used as defense lines, and Wuzhou will definitely defend itself when it is close to Guangdong. Chen Yucheng cannot defeat Wuzhou and can only quickly detour westward, disrupt the deployment of the Qing army and raid the logistics supply line of the Qing army. This strategy is indeed very good. There is no need to give too much hope to contact Zhu Hongying, He Goujian and other rebels. Everything depends on yourself. It is good for those rebels to protect themselves. Don't expect them to provide any help!"

Qian Jiang from the Intelligence Department stepped forward and said, "Your Highness the Western King, Guangxi was harmed by Jiang Zhongyuan's dog thieves using the Baojia system this time. The intelligence personnel of the Intelligence Department and Bai Zetang suffered a lot of losses. The information there was not smooth transmission, and this problem also needs to be faced."

Xiao Yungui shrugged and said, "Chen Yucheng's trip is to muddle the water behind the Qing Dynasty. As long as they make trouble in the hinterland of Guangxi, the powder keg buried by Jiang Zhongyuan will sooner or later detonate. Jiang Zhongyuan killed so many people in Guangxi. Do you think it can be suppressed for a long time? Chen Yucheng's combat plan has been approved. The General Staff sees what needs to be improved and immediately reminds the enemy's generals to pay attention. The ammunition problem is to increase the shipping capacity of sea transportation, and at the same time, let the Guangzhou Military and Political Department purchase a batch of ammunition from foreigners on the spot as a supplement, and it is also worthwhile to deal with it."

Xu Naizhao continued Xiao Yungui's words: "Guangzhou Military and Political Secretary Lu Xianba submitted a memorial today saying that a batch of bullet manufacturing equipment ordered by Qing Yao from foreigners had arrived in Guangzhou. Guangdong Customs has deducted it. Lu Xianba once proposed to buy this batch of equipment at an additional 20% of the price, but the foreigners insisted that they would fulfill the contract, and the protest note was estimated to arrive in a few days."

Xiao Yungui asked, "Which country's equipment is it? Didn't Qing Yao declare war with Britain and France? Does anyone dare to buy things for Qing Yao?"

Xu Naizhao said: "This batch of equipment was ordered by Ye Mingchen from the Prussia at the beginning of the year. The Americans were the ones who matched it. Qing Yao spent almost twice the amount of money to buy it. However, this batch of equipment was shipped to Guangzhou after several months. Foreigners did not expect that Guangzhou had changed hands, so they still came to Guangzhou to deliver the goods according to the contract."

Xiao Yungui smiled and said, "Does Prussia have a consulate in Tianjin? Where can they send a message to protest? Ignore them, and these machines and equipment will be detained. Let Lu Xianba build an Ordnance Bureau on site in Guangzhou. After Guangzhou also has an Ordnance Bureau, the logistics pressure will be much smaller."

Xu Naizhao uh said, "The one who signed the contract with the Qing Dynasty was an American business, which was ordered by the American business. The American business might send a notice of protests."

Xiao Yungui said angrily: "These fucking Americans are so poor that they are crazy about their own country, and they also help others to buy machinery! The American Minister Levitra also went north to Dagukou, which clearly showed that they were going to negotiate with the Qing Dynasty."

Zuo Zongtang, who had not spoken on the side, suddenly said: "We can give a message to Britain and France in this matter first. The British and French will definitely not be happy to see the Americans carrying them to trade arms with the Qing Dynasty. After all, they and the Qing Dynasty are still in a state of war."

Xiao Yungui smiled bitterly and sighed: "The note can be sent to the ministers of Britain and France, but I am very worried. Maybe this battle between Britain and France and the Qing Dynasty cannot continue..."
Chapter completed!