There is only less than a month left before the end of the 13th year of Wanli. The weather in December is relatively cold, but it is located in Guangdong. No matter how cold the weather is, it cannot reach snow or freezing. The cold weather cannot stop the war.

After investigation by the Military Intelligence Department, Fang Nan had roughly determined the troops used by the Ming Dynasty to mobilize the People's Army for the second encirclement and suppression.

In the northwest of Huizhou Prefecture, that is, in Shaozhou Prefecture, there is a Ming army transferred from Huguang, with a force of about 10,000.

In the north of Huizhou Prefecture, which is the border between Jiangxi and Guangdong, there is a Ming army originally stationed in various parts of Jiangxi, with a force of about 10,000.

In the Chaozhou Fucheng area, there is a Ming army coming from Fujian, with a force of about 10,000.

In the Huizhou Fucheng area, more than 25,000 Ming troops have gathered here.

The total strength of the four Ming troops exceeded 55,000, which was more than three times the strength of the Ming Dynasty encircled and suppressed the People's Army last time. (It is only counted as the 15,000 Ming troops led by Ren Jianxiu himself)

Fang Nan could not determine whether more Ming troops would gather, or whether there were naval troops ready to land from the coast of Haifeng County.

The Ming army was mobilized frequently and I don’t know when it would launch an attack on the People’s Army. The People’s Army was also preparing.

The People's Army has a total of four mixed brigades, namely Wang Shengrong's first mixed brigade, Hu Zhuang's second mixed brigade, He Yan's third mixed brigade, and Zhou Yi's fourth mixed brigade.

At present, Wang Shengrong's first mixed brigade has five companies of firearms, four infantry companies and one artillery company, and fourteen regiments of cold weapons (including the first part of the camp), with a total of more than 17,000 people.

Hu Zhuang's Second Mixed Brigade had four companies of firearms, three infantry companies and one artillery company, and seven regiments of cold weapons, totaling more than 8,800 people.

He Yan's third mixed brigade had five companies of firearms, four infantry companies, one artillery company, one cavalry company, and eighteen regiments of cold weapons, totaling more than 22,000 people.

Zhou Yi's Fourth Mixed Brigade had two companies of firearms, one infringement company and one in artillery company, and the Cold Weapons had four regiments, totaling more than 5,000 people.

There were eleven counties under their rule, and each county was stationed in a battalion of cold weapons troops, with nearly a thousand new recruits assisting each.

When the People's Army raised the flag, there was only one regiment of the firearms unit, and the six regiments of the cold weapon units were more than one hundred,000.

It is barely considered to be the last three months since the People's Army raised the flag. The People's Army's firearms unit has a regiment of one and a half, and the Cold Weapons unit has as many as 47 regiments, with a total force of more than 58,000 people, and nearly 10,000 new recruits.

Not counting new recruits, during the First War between the People's Army and the Ming army, the People's Army had much less strength than the Ming army, especially Fang Nan led more than 4,000 people from the Third Mixed Brigade to fight Ren Jianxiu in Guishan County. The Ming army was more than three times the strength of the People's Army.

Now the gap in military strength has improved greatly. The four Ming corpses only have about 60,000 troops, and the total strength of the People's Army is also close to 60,000.

Of course, things cannot be calculated like this. Except for the more than 7,000 regiments of more than 6 regiments of more than 7,000 people who were trained for relatively long time, the other soldiers of the cold weapons army, except for the first part of the camp, the rest were recruited by the People's Army after raising the flag.

After a brief month of recruit training, the recruits were organized into the cold weapons unit. A few days ago, a group of thousands of people completed the training and were organized into the cold weapons unit.

There is no longer a distinction between the cold weapon troops of the People's Army. Every time a new regiment is formed, personnel are drawn from the old regiment to serve as officers in the new regiment, and then new recruits are filled. One by one, and the veterans of the old regiment have been scattered into various new regiments.

In addition, since the main task of Hutouzhai and the second arsenal in Yong'an County is to build firearms and make ammunition, and the output of cold weapons is not high, the People's Army equipped itself with the Ming army's weapons and equipment seized in previous battles. The People's Army's cold weapons troops are still mainly spears, but more and more soldiers use big swords.

Depending on the use of weapons, each unit of the People's Army will combine cold weapons, such as spear soldiers and sword and shield soldiers as a certain number, with sword and shield soldiers in front and spear soldiers behind on the battlefield.

Among the cold weapon troops, the strongest combat effectiveness is to climb the camp first. The total number of people who climb the camp first among the four mixed brigades is more than 4,000. The main source of troops comes from Ming army prisoners, bandit prisoners, guards of wealthy families who have been evil, and gangsters.

The current selection standards for the first camp are relatively high, which are much higher than the selection standards of other departments of the People's Army. Height, strength, speed, crime, etc. are all selection standards.

Under high standards selection, 100 people in the camp were killed or injured by only a few dozen people, and they could defeat 100 ordinary cold weapon troops, and even confront the elite Ming army.

However, if the number of people is hundreds or thousands, it is not enough to get into the camp first. The composition of getting into the camp first shows that no matter how much training is, it is not suitable for the military confrontation.

However, when chasing the enemy, siege the city, and fighting in chaos, the first-match camp, who dares to fight, can play a very important role.

The firearms unit of one and a half regiment is still the absolute main force of the People's Army. Twelve infantry companies, four artillery companies, and three artillery companies are equipped with twelve Folang machine cannons, and the artillery company of the Fourth Mixed Brigade is equipped with twelve tiger-head cannons.

The artillery in Haifeng County and the small towns of the coastal garrison are also used by the artillery company of the Fourth Mixed Brigade. It can be said that the number of artillery companies in the Fourth Mixed Brigade is almost greater than that of the other three artillery companies.

Faced with the three-sided siege of the Ming army, Fang Nan originally wanted to use the firearms troops in a concentrated manner, defeat the Ming army with one blow, and then draw the firearms troops to support the other two routes.

After careful consideration, Fang Nan gave up this plan for no other reason. The four Ming troops were equipped with a large number of firearms, and no matter how bad the Ming army was, they were better than the People's Army's cold weapons troops under the same number.

Even if the people's army guards the city, there will definitely be heavy casualties under the bombardment of Ming army artillery, and it is very likely that the firearm troops will not be able to return to the rescue.

In this plan, even if the People's Army wins the final victory, the People's Army will suffer heavy casualties and be unable to face the third encirclement of the Ming army.

In this case, Fang Nan chose to continue to disperse one and a half regiments of firearms into four mixed brigades. The firearms were matched with the cold weapon troops. Even if the firearms were scattered, the people's army could not quickly defeat the Ming army, and it would not be defeated by the Ming army.

At present, Wang Shengrong's first mixed brigade has been divided into two parts, one in Changning County and the other in Heping County, to guard against two Ming troops from Huguang and Jiangxi;

Hu Zhuang's second mixed brigade gathered in Puning County to guard against the Ming army from Fujian;

The third mixed brigade gathered in Guishan County to confront the Ming army in Huizhou Fucheng District;

Part 4 of the Mixed Brigade was in Haifeng County, and the rest were scattered into the small towns of the former coastal garrison troops.
Chapter completed!