I want to be emperor

Chapter 406 The new main force of the Chu army
Hearing Lu Xingye asking himself, Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Just like what the adults said before, if you directly send a fleet to the north to land, it is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg. It is difficult to continue to block the attacks of the Ming army again and again!"

"If you capture an island first to hoard troops and supplies, and then land nearby when the time is right, then the feasibility will be much greater!"

"As for this island, you can choose Yuzhou Island in Haizhou in the early stage. This place is located in the hinterland of the Xuhuai coast, just across the river from the land. Later, you can march inland from here, or you can use the nearest army to attack here Provide supplies."

"Although it is only separated by a river, the strength of our navy is enough to prevent the enemy from crossing the river to counterattack. It is not a big problem to take it down!"

Zheng Zhilong has been on the sea all his life, and he has a clear understanding of the situation in various coastal areas. Although he has set foot in relatively few waters north of the Yangtze River estuary, and his fleet is mainly active in the seas of Fujian and Zhejiang, but he has a good understanding of the surrounding waters. Still know more.

Lu Xingye asked him where it would be more suitable to land, and he directly mentioned Yuzhou Island as an alternative.

Lu Xingye said: "Yuzhou Island is a good option, but the distance is still a bit closer, and the effect will not be too great. With the combat power of those in the army, once the Jiangbei offensive is launched, it will not take long to take Jiangbei. When the time comes, we will take Jiangbei." The role that Lower Yuzhou Island can play is probably limited!"

Speaking of this, Lu Xingye glanced at Zheng Zhilong and said: "Your Majesty means to choose a foothold in the northerly direction to prepare for the subsequent landing in Youzhou, Tianjin Wei, and even Liaodong!"

Liaodong?

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he was a little stunned. He didn't expect that the Great Chu Empire hadn't even taken Yangzhou, so he made his idea to Liaodong.

Why go to Liaodong, it must be to go to the east to take captivity!

It's just that there is still a Ming court between Dongyao and the Great Chu Empire.

Although the Ming court now seems to be in the midst of the Great Xia, even if no external force is used to attack, it may not last for a few years, but at least it still exists, and Chongzhen is still well in front of his Ming emperor.

Under such circumstances, the Great Chu Empire did not consider how to take the Xuhuai area in the north of the Yangtze River, and then marched into Zhili in the Northeast of Shandong Province. Instead, it directly set its sights on the Dongyao in the direction of Liaodong.

Are you saying that he is taking a long-term view?Or are they arrogant?
Although there are doubts in my heart, even puzzled, but I want to keep a low profile and show respect, so as not to be a Zheng Zhilong who was brought across the river and demolished the bridge by the kings and ministers of the Chu Dynasty. If you land in the north, you will be in the Yellow Sea. There are not many islands in the Yellow Sea, and there are few near the mainland!"

"A more suitable one should be Changshan Eight Islands in Dengzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. There are Changshan Island, Dazhu Island, Xiaozhu Island, Hei Island, Shamen Island, Huangcheng Island and other islands, and the north of Changshan Eight Islands is Liaodong Island. Jinzhou on the peninsula, and Penglai in Dengzhou Prefecture in Shandong to the south, have been the throat of the Yellow Sea since ancient times and are very important.”

"In addition, there are more or less people living and living on these islands, especially the relatively large islands have water and fields. After capturing these places, it is more convenient to replenish food and fresh water."
"Changshan Island is very close to Penglai, the capital of Terengganu, and the sea route is only about ten miles away. If we use this place as our forward base in the future, it will not be difficult to land in the capital of Terengganu."

When Zheng Zhilong was speaking, Lu Xingye also searched on a large chart on the desktop. Although the chart was very crude, the position of Changshan Island could still be seen on the chart.

After estimating the distance between Changshan Island and Dengzhou Prefecture, Tianjin, Jinzhou and other places, Lu Xingye nodded slightly and said, "This island is not bad!"

When Lu Xingye himself was studying this chart, he also saw Changshan Island marked on the chart, but how should I put it, Lu Xingye himself has never even seen the sea...

So you asked him to finalize the battle plan directly on the sea chart. To be honest, he was still a little worried.

Lu Xingye has not had the courage to formulate a battle plan just by looking at the sea chart and then launch a large-scale landing operation.

And that's why he called Zheng Zhilong to attend the meeting. Apart from other things, Zheng Zhilong is really familiar with East Asian waters and naval warfare.

A high-level naval meeting basically finalized the strategic policy of seizing several coastal islands as a forward base, but what islands to seize, when to fight, and how to fight, all need to be discussed.

In order to obtain more information, Lu Xingye ordered the Beiyang Fleet to organize a reconnaissance fleet to go northward along the coastline to some islands such as Haizhou Yuzhou Island and the coast of Shandong to actually investigate the situation and prepare for the subsequent real landing.

When the Beiyang Fleet sent a fleet of more than 20 warships to the north for reconnaissance, the navy was simultaneously preparing for the follow-up cross-sea landing operations, including the deployment of warships and land forces.

At the same time, it also needs to coordinate with the army. After all, the navy's own land combat strength is not large. It is no problem to fight a dozen small-scale ground battles, but it is unreliable if it is a large-scale battle.

Therefore, in a real fight, the army also needs to send troops to accompany the fleet northward.

Regarding the navy's combat plan, the army also expressed its approval. After all, the navy can capture the northern coastal islands and threaten Shandong, the northern Zhili coast and other places, and it can contain a group of Ming army forces. , the resistance encountered will be smaller.

Therefore, the Army stated that the Army will send a mixed brigade to cooperate with the navy to fight, and will let this mixed brigade conduct a series of adaptive training such as sailing by boat, landing operations and anti-landing operations in advance.

The navy is a little worried. There is only one mixed brigade with a total strength of 5000. Is it a little less? You must know that once it goes north and lands, this brigade may have to go deep alone. It is easy to suffer from a small number of troops.

Regarding this, Lieutenant General Xu Zhixian of the army laughed: "There is no need to worry about this for the navy. This mixed brigade will definitely not let the navy down!"

Lu Xingye asked doubtfully, "Oh? Could it be that you are going to send a brigade from the First Division? Or is it that His Majesty wants to send the First Guards Division to participate in this combat mission?"

Xu Zhixian shook his head slightly: "No, it's the new No.15 mixed brigade."

"We just decided to transfer some troops from the Tenth Division and the No.11 Division to form a new mixed brigade, which is the No.15 Mixed Brigade."

As soon as he heard about the Tenth Division and the No.11 Division, Lu Xingye immediately understood why Xu Zhixian was so confident.

"Are you going to send out new-style troops to fight? Didn't you say that these new-style troops are the main force of the Northern Expedition and cannot be easily transferred?"

Although Lu Xingye is a member of the navy, he has some understanding of the situation of the army next door. Since last year, the army has begun to produce and equip new types of flintlock guns, and according to the new type of suifa, he has established the second guard division, Tenth Division, No.11 Division, several main forces.

The reason why there are only these few troops is because the production capacity of flintlock guns is limited. Until now, the monthly output of flintlock guns in Hantian Armory is only [-] pieces.

The newly built Dangtu Arsenal is still in the trial production stage because a large number of projects have not been completed, and the monthly output is only a few hundred.

The Xiangyang Arsenal and Changsha Arsenal don’t even have production lines for flintlock guns, and they still produce matchlock guns. After all, the main rifles in the Chu army are still matchlock guns, and the demand for matchlock guns in various troops is still very large.

Considering cost and production capacity issues, it is impossible for the Great Chu Empire to stop the production and equipment of matchlock guns at once and switch to flintlock guns in an all-round way.

Therefore, it is also very necessary to retain the necessary matchlock gun production line.

The flintlock rifles produced before were mainly used to equip the four new main forces of the Second Guards Division, the Tenth Division, the No.11 Division, and the No.15 Mixed Brigade.

In addition, the Royal Palace Guard and other garrison troops were also equipped with flintlock guns.

However, these few units equipped with flintlock guns have been organized successively since last year, but they have not been transferred to the front line to participate in combat. They have been conducting various exercises in the barracks in Jinling City and Jiangpu for a long time to prepare for the Northern Expedition.

From the very beginning, these main forces were prepared for the Northern Expedition. The army had no intention of using these main forces in other directions before, so they have been made to undergo hard training, even if it is the earliest second in the army. The same goes for the guards.

Except for these five troops, no other troops are equipped with flintlocks.

Due to the insufficient production of flintlocks and the continuous increase in the demand for the main force on the front line, in the past year, the Chu army has successively expanded several mixed brigades equipped with flintlocks to alleviate the plight of too few main forces.

From this, it can be seen that the focus of the Great Chu Empire Army's army building has been fully shifted to and prepared to build the main force of the flintlock.

Now the army plans to send out the No.15 mixed brigade equipped with flintlocks to cooperate with the navy. More importantly, it wants to let this kind of main force fight first, and test the effect of flintlocks and the tactics of the new book through actual combat. To avoid any problems when the Northern Expedition really starts, it will be really troublesome.

After finalizing the No.15 mixed brigade to go out to sea with the navy, the army started the refitting plan of the first division non-stop.

Although the production capacity of flintlock guns is relatively limited now, after so long, it is still barely possible to squeeze out more than 1 flintlock guns for the first division.

After all, the first division has always been the number one ace unit in the Chu army, and its combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the two guard divisions.

Replacing them with new flintlock guns can better play the role of their ace troops.

The army hoped that the refitting of the First Division would be completely completed this winter, and wait until next year...

It's time for the Northern Expedition next year!
(End of this chapter)