In addition to the 1st Supplementary Brigade, which can free up the 1st Infantry Division, the 2nd Supplementary Brigade sitting in the vicinity of Liping Province and Xingquan Province is also able to take a break from the heavy tasks of maintaining law and order in the rear and supply lines, and focus on the battle with the main force of the Ming army.

The 3rd Supplementary Brigade would also free up the 4th Infantry Division to concentrate on fighting in the western regions of Yunnan and Guizhou.

Therefore, although these three supplementary brigades cannot go to the battlefield yet, they can allow more main forces to come out and go to the battlefield, so their value far exceeds that of several new battalions, and this is one of the main reasons why Li Xuan wants to engage in supplementary brigades.

However, although Li Xuan has high hopes for the supplementary brigade, the high-level officials of the army are actually not very optimistic about the supplementary brigade, and in their opinion, in order to expand the army, it is best to follow the model of two mixed regiments, directly transfer a part of the troops from the main force into a system, and then supplement a part of the recruits.

The old units that have transferred veterans can also directly replenish the new recruits, and although it will temporarily affect the combat effectiveness of the old troops, the actual impact is not great.

Now this supplementary brigade is purely superfluous!

Li Xuan was speechless, the main purpose of this supplementary brigade is not to expand the army, but mainly to train new soldiers, the expansion of the army is just a side effect, if it is simply to free up the main force, he might as well directly establish a second-line army, such as the former garrison, the thief hunting camp and the like.

Moreover, there is a huge difference between the cost of the main force and the cost of the supplementary brigade, whether it is the salary of personnel or the cost of equipment, the equipment used in the supplementary brigade is the equipment that is eliminated in the main force, and there is basically no need to spend money on additional purchases, and this alone can also save a lot of expenses.

The second is the salary of personnel, the soldiers of the supplementary brigade are all new recruits, and the military rank is only the lowest rank of private, the number of non-commissioned officers is not large, and they are all transferred from the main force to serve as instructors, and most of the officers are rookie officers who have just graduated from the martial arts academy, warrant officers and second lieutenants, and middle and senior officers are the same as non-commissioned officers, shouldering the task of teaching.

Therefore, the number of high-ranking soldiers in the supplementary brigade is far lower than that of the regular army, so that a lot of personnel salary expenses can be saved.

After the reorganization and reform of the Datang Army, a private's monthly salary is one or two or eight yuan, which is all they can get, as for his other living expenses in the army, including food, clothing, combat tools, etc., but the troops are all inclusive, if these are counted, in fact, the expenses provided by the Datang Army for each soldier can basically get about four taels of silver.

Well, the food cost is the big one!

The salary of a first-class soldier can be increased to two taels of silver per month, and the salary of a non-commissioned officer is higher, and the corporal needs four taels of silver.

In the regular army, the proportion of first-class soldiers is very high, and they basically complete the training of recruits, and after participating in a battle in the army, they can basically be promoted from second-class to first-class soldiers.

Even the proportion of non-commissioned officers is very high, for example, in an infantry platoon, there will also be more than one non-commissioned officer, and some will have two non-commissioned officers.

As for the technical arms, such as artillery, the proportion of non-commissioned officers is higher, as for the cavalry, it is all non-commissioned officers, at present, a qualified regular cavalry in the Tang Dynasty, its lowest rank is a non-commissioned officer, and the ranks of second-class soldiers and first-class soldiers are often the ranks of cavalry in the training stage of recruits.

There is no doubt that the model of supplementary brigades will save a lot of military spending compared with the regular army, which is why Li Xuan wants to engage in supplementary brigades.

With the supplementary brigade as a supplement, several main infantry divisions on the front line also got rid of the original various messy tasks one after another, began to assemble on a large scale, and prepared for a large-scale offensive this winter!

In the second year of Xuanping, in late November, although the Zhaoqing and Guangzhou areas were still warm as autumn, Shaozhou Mansion, especially the northernmost part of Shaozhou Mansion and the front-line confrontation area near Huguang Yichang, was already relatively cold.

At the gate of Shaozhou Mansion, Hao Bonian looked at the somewhat gloomy sky, then wrapped the black satin army coat on his body, and then looked back at Shaozhou Mansion, and then turned back decisively and said: "Let's go!" ”

As he stepped and turned on his horse, a group of officers behind him also turned on their horses, and more soldiers were already carrying their muskets on their backs, and their spears began to move north on both sides of the road.

Hao Bonian, former commander of the First Infantry Brigade and concurrently commander of the First Army, did not change much in his position after the reorganization of the army in the second half of this year, and changed from the First Infantry Brigade to the commander of the First Infantry Division.

However, the current First Army is different from the previous First Army, and the current First Army naturally has no messy garrison army, and there is only one First Infantry Division, and the Third Infantry Division under the command of Major General Chen Keqiao is also under the jurisdiction of the First Army.

The two divisions and two provisional regiments were fully manned, so that the main force under the command of Hao Bonian had an unprecedented number of more than 30,000 people, of which the full strength of the two infantry divisions was 25,000 people, plus two temporary regiments with nearly 3,000 people, the total strength was no more, no less, just 31,000 people!

The First Army, which had two divisions and two provisional regiments, was the main force of the northward Huguang operation.

This is also the troops that belong to him Hao Bonian can command, he knows very well that although there are many troops in the Tang Army, there are more places where troops need to be used, and almost everywhere are troops that need to be garrisoned, even if it is the overall northward strength and other troops, but he knows that whether this can take the south of Huguang and create a new situation depends on his own first army.

The Second Infantry Division will also participate in the Huguang operation, but this Second Infantry Division will not be under the command of the First Army for the time being, but will operate independently, and the front that the Second Infantry Division will be responsible for will include the northeastern part of Guizhou and the southern part of Huguang, and will mainly cooperate with the First Army.

In other words, the troops that the Tang Army was preparing to participate in the Huguang operation were a total of three divisions and two provisional regiments, with a total strength of about 43,000 troops.

As for other directions, there are not too many troops, the Sixth Infantry Division is still stationed in the entire Pearl River Delta region, before the threat of the Ming Army's naval division is not eliminated, the Tang Dynasty must deploy heavy troops in the Pearl River Delta region at all times.

The Fifth Infantry Division, which had just formed the army, was finally fighting for the first time after more than half a year of training, and their operational direction was to go to the northeastern region of Guangdong, that is, the northern part of Huizhou Prefecture, and the main subsequent combat direction was Jiangxi.

The first mixed regiment, after supplementation, continued to be stationed in the area of Chaozhou Prefecture, and confronted the Ming army in the direction of Nanao Island and Fujian, their main task is not to attack Fujian or hit Nanao Island, but to prevent the Ming army from killing from this direction, so their task is actually strategic defense, in addition to a provisional fifth regiment to cooperate with them to fight.

The defense area of the Fourth Infantry Division in the Guangxi direction has become relatively large, and the entire Guangxi, including some of the southwestern areas of Yunnan and Guizhou, belongs to the defense area of the Fourth Infantry Division, because the control area is too large, and it is very difficult for the Fourth Infantry Division to concentrate at present, and it is often difficult for a battalion in one place or a battalion in that place to concentrate even the strength of an infantry regiment.

However, there were not many Ming troops on the Western Front, and they were relatively scattered, so the impact was not too great.

In order to cooperate with the Fourth Infantry Division to garrison the huge Guangxi and southwestern Guizhou, and at the same time to free up troops for the Fourth Infantry Division to continue to attack Yunnan and even Sichuan, there are also many provisional regiments in this direction, and the provisional Second Regiment and the Provisional Third Regiment are all here.

It is worth mentioning that Guiyang, which had been besieged for many months, finally couldn't hold on, and was taken by the Tang Dynasty in October.

The last provisional Fifth Regiment is the Lien Chau Prefecture stationed in the Beibu Gulf, and the main direction of response is Vietnam, and the main task is to cooperate with the Second Mixed Regiment to consolidate the defense of the coastal area around the Beibu Gulf.

The above-mentioned units, including the Sixth Infantry Division, the Third Infantry Division, and two mixed regiments and provisional regiments, also need to undertake the task of strategic reserve of the Tang Dynasty's division.

As for the guards in the Tang Dynasty's division, they have never participated in the deployment of the army, although the size of the guards has reached more than 6,000 people, and it is still increasing, but if nothing else, this guard army should always be stationed in Zhaoqing City, unless Li Xuan leads the army to fight again, he will go to the front again.

On November 28, Hao Bonian, who arrived at the front line in Yichang, accepted the angel's decree, and then decisively issued the order for the First Infantry Division to attack.

Limited to the relatively poor communication ability in these years, Li Xuan wrote in advance the battle plan for capturing the southern part of Huguang and capturing Changsha as the core goal, and sent special envoys to carry them to various places, mainly to bring orders to Hao Bonian, Fang Xitong, Chen Keqiao and other high-ranking generals, and agreed to launch an attack at the same time on 28 November.

So today, not only the 1st Infantry Division launched an attack, but the 2nd Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, and the two temporary regiments all launched a fierce attack on the Ming army in front of them on the same day!

One day, just one day, the Huguang Ming Army declared an emergency on the whole front!