I want to be emperor

Chapter 521 Seven Years of Chengshun: The Eve of the Great War

In December of the sixth year of Chengshun, taking advantage of the last days of this winter, Luo Zhixue held a strategy meeting in Jinling City for the upcoming Northeast Campaign next year.

At the same time, strategic affairs in other directions were also discussed in the meeting.

The basic core is to concentrate on destroying the Dongcap first when other external conditions are basically stable.

For this reason, the strategy meeting also required a certain degree of restraint in other directions, and if we want to fight, we must control the scale.

For example, in the past year in western Sichuan, northern Yunnan and other areas in Sichuan, there have been many conflicts between the army garrisoned there and the chieftain forces in the Kham area.

The current situation in Khamba and Tibet is very complicated. In addition to the local chieftains, there are also various local temples, various sects, and the Moxi Mongolian branch of the descendants of the Wala people entered the area.

Because the situation was quite chaotic, even the Great Chu Empire couldn't figure out the specific situation on the other side.

However, this chaotic situation also allowed the local Chu army to see an opportunity to increase the actual control area. Therefore, in the past year, the Chu army forces in Sichuan and Yunnan have gradually tested and controlled many Kangba areas, which has also attracted local forces. The resistance of the chieftain troops led to armed conflicts.

Well, that's right, the small and medium-scale conflicts in the Khamba area did not mean that the chieftain on the opposite side was so bold that he dared to take the initiative to attack Sichuan and northern Myanmar under the control of the Great Chu Empire, but was caused by the expansion of the Great Chu Empire.

At this strategic meeting, the high-level officials demanded restraint and control of scale, in order to let the armies in these places maintain restraint and not fight too hard, causing the situation to be completely space-time, and then set off a large-scale war on the western front.

Myanmar, Vietnam and other southern routes, there is no external threat to this place, and the Chu army is not interested in going through the tropical jungle for the time being...

Well, it's not that Chu Jun doesn't want to, but the local geography and climate are really bad.

When attacking the remnants of the Western Ming Dynasty in Yunnan, the Chu army had chased the remnants of the Western Ming Dynasty into Burma, captured several small towns of the Burmese, and pushed the border of the empire to the south by tens of kilometers... But this time There were not many combat casualties in the pursuit operations, but the non-combat casualties were huge.

Huge non-combat casualties made it difficult to maintain the garrison locally, let alone continue to increase the force for expansion. Therefore, since this pursuit operation, the local Chu army has extinguished the idea of ​​continuing to expand southward!
This kind of broken place can't stand it...

Based on this, on the whole, there is no problem with the border defense in the south and southwest. If there is, it is because the Chu army is bullying others...

As for the sea, earlier the Great Chu Empire clashed with the Portuguese because of the Macau issue, and later because of the Fusang trade issue, it had a relatively fierce conflict with the Spaniards and the Dutch, and finally because of Dayuan Island and the The Spaniards and the Dutch had a lot of conflicts.

However, these conflicts have calmed down for the time being. The main reason is that the interests of maritime trade are too huge, which makes everyone reluctant to tear their faces directly.

Secondly, although the Great Chu Empire took back Macau, it also began to expel the Spaniards and Dutch on Dayuan Island, which led to the poor relationship between the Great Chu Empire and the above three countries.

But at the same time, the Great Chu Empire adopted a policy of liberalizing maritime trade.

Many coastal ports such as Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Ningbo have loosened trade restrictions, allowing foreign merchant ships to enter and trade legally.

Whether it is the Portuguese, the Spaniards, or the Dutch, their direct purpose of engaging in these things along the coast of China and occupying Macau or Dayuan Island is not to expand the territory, they are not arrogant enough...

Their purpose is to conduct maritime trade with the Great Chu Empire and Fusang!
The Dutch and the Spaniards have unanimously chosen to establish a colony on Dayuan Island in recent decades, just to better trade with China and Fusang.

Because the early Ming Dynasty banned the sea, and the maritime trade along the coast was basically monopolized by the pirates represented by Zheng Zhilong, the Spaniards and the Dutch could not directly go to China's ports for trade.

Why didn't the Portuguese occupy Dayuan Island before, because they have a territory in Macau and can trade directly!

To put it bluntly, people are here to make money.
Under such circumstances, when the Great Chu Empire expelled their forces, although they encountered some resistance, their determination to resist was not very great. They are currently trying to solve the problem through negotiations, and it is precisely because they thought they His attitude has softened, so the Great Chu Empire has also maintained a certain degree of restraint.

At present, the relationship between the empire and the above-mentioned three countries is maintained in a situation of fighting without breaking. As for the issue of Dayuan Island, if nothing else, it will be resolved through negotiations in the near future.

The reason for this situation is purely because the relationship between the Great Chu Empire and these three countries is very complicated, and it cannot be judged simply by enemies or friends.

Everyone needs each other to maintain maritime trade, and at the same time, the two sides are also competitors in maritime trade, especially in the hugely profitable Fuso trade and Nanyang trade.

Based on the current maritime situation, the coastal security of the Great Chu Empire in the south can also be guaranteed, and the top management of the empire does not need to pay too much attention to this direction.

On the western front, the Yarkand Khanate, which currently controls the west of Jiayuguan, has good relations with the empire. The empire has continuously obtained many war horses from them, especially some excellent war horses and even stallions and mares from Central Asia.

At the same time, in order to support this relationship with the empire, um, it can be said that it is currently the only foreign country that has actively made friends with the empire to resist the invasion of the western Moxi Mongolian Zhungeer. Export licenses for some firearms and ironware were issued.

A large number of armor, cold weapons such as swords and spears, and matchlock guns from the Great Chu Empire have begun to enter the Yarkand Khanate and are used in internal suppression wars and against the Zhungeer invasion.

On the whole, as long as the Yarkand Khanate survives, the overall situation on the western front can be maintained, and the Zhungeer tribe, which is the most threatening in Moxi Mongolia, will not be able to survive.

In this way, the external environment of the empire on the western, southern, southwestern and coastal areas has been guaranteed security, and there is no need for large-scale use of weapons.

In this way, the Great Chu Empire will be able to concentrate its efforts to bring down the Dongcap people!
In order to better launch the campaign against the Dongbang people, it is also to further adjust the already somewhat chaotic systems of field army, frontier defense command, campaign command, and provincial garrison command.

The frontier command and campaign command with strong regional attributes and local names were reorganized into the group army.

At the same time, a large number of second-class divisions and other frontier defense forces that originally belonged to the Frontier Defense Command and the Campaign Command did not have mobile combat capabilities were handed over to the provincial garrison headquarters.

From then on, each group army will focus on field operations, and the troops under its jurisdiction will be first-class divisions or second-class divisions with mobile combat capabilities.

The provincial garrison command, on the other hand, focuses on internal repression, border guard patrols, and garrison at key locations.

At the same time do not belong to each other!

This one does not belong to each other, and there are also considerations of guarding against the emergence of local feudal towns and balancing military power!

If this is the idea of ​​inconvenient communication and transportation, if Luo Zhixue creates a local military authority that governs all the troops in the area, it may cause big troubles in the future.

Based on better external expansion in the future, it will change the current situation where the authority is somewhat chaotic, and at the same time, it is also to check and balance the military power in the fringe areas and avoid the situation where one family dominates.

Luo Zhixue finalized this reorganization principle, according to this plan.

The Shaanxi-Gansu Frontier Defense Command was reorganized into the First Group Army, responsible for commanding the first-class divisions in Shaanxi and Gansu and some second-class divisions with mobile combat capabilities.

The Xuanda Frontier Command was reorganized into the Second Army.

The Northeast Campaign Command was reorganized into the Third Army.

Subsequently, in Sichuan in the south and northern Myanmar, the Fourth Army was established to govern the local troops and be responsible for the war in the Kham area.

In southern Yunnan, southern Guangxi and other regions, the Fifth Group Army was established to govern the local field forces and be responsible for wars in Myanmar and Vietnam.

In the Pan-Jiangnan area, the Sixth Army was established.

In the Huguang Henan area, the Seventh Army was established.

Under each group army, there are field forces such as corps or directly-controlled divisions, brigades, and regiments.

The 27 first-class divisions of the Great Chu Empire Army, eighteen second-class divisions with mobile combat capabilities, fifteen cavalry brigades, and seven independent field or heavy artillery regiments will be organized into the above-mentioned seven group armies.

Among them, the 27 first-class divisions and eighteen second-class divisions, according to the current jurisdiction area, the enemy or potential enemy they are facing, with a force of 5 to [-], two or three divisions, and some cavalry , the independent artillery regiment is the basic principle, and a total of [-] field armies have been formed.

According to this policy, if any large-scale military operations are launched in these directions in the future, then the six armies can be used to directly attack the enemy, instead of having to contact the provincial garrison headquarters and various It is very troublesome to coordinate with the army.

In this series of reorganizations, it is actually not very troublesome, because there will be no changes in troop locations, tasks, let alone changes in organizational tactics, and only the high-level command system will be changed.

Luo Zhixue only needs to issue a few imperial decrees and basically adjust the high-level command authority.

After the reorganization of the high-level command system this time, the Great Chu Empire has also entered the final stage of war preparations against the captives.

During the Spring Festival of the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue hosted a banquet for the officials in the newly renovated Jinling City Palace. During the banquet, Luo Zhixue once again emphasized the importance and necessity of recovering Liaodong and other regions.

On the [-]th day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue held an enlarged meeting of the imperial defense industry in the meeting hall of the Royal Court of Jinling City. At the meeting, Luo Zhixue asked all the arsenals under the Ministry of Industry and the supporting defense enterprises to give full play to their initiative and enthusiasm , expand the output of national defense products, ensure the quality of national defense products, let the soldiers use good guns, wear warm clothes, and sleep well!
On the 23rd of the first month of the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue summoned several major officials from the taxation department and the finance department in the back garden of the Jinling City Imperial Palace. Budget, during the conversation, Luo Zhixue said that every copper plate and every grain in the national treasury is provided by the hard work of the people of the empire, we must put an end to extravagance and waste, and we must resolutely not spend it if we can. There should be no fiscal deficit, and it is even more important to have money and food in hand at all times.

No matter what kind of trouble you encounter, you must be able to come up with enough money and food to solve the trouble at the first time.

The God of Wealth of the Great Chu Empire, the money bag of the emperor, Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Counseling of the Imperial Study, said on the spot: It has been a lot of money from confiscation in the past few years, and the treasury has been in a state of surplus. At the same time, post-war relief expenditures have declined, and this year's fiscal surplus is expected to further expand.

In addition to the various expenditures in the fiscal expenditure budget this year, the financial system has reserved at least 3000 million taels of funds, which can be used for any possible accidents at any time.

On the 26th of the first month of the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue summoned the staff of the Ministry of Ethics and Education and talked about the development of the Dibao. The content of Chu Di Bao is positive, healthy and uplifting, while still being interesting. It wants to become a newspaper that is popular with the public and conveys healthy values ​​to the public.

On the 29th of the first month of the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue summoned the person in charge of the Great Chu Empire Grain Corporation. To get food, farmers should also be asked to sell their food at a good price.

It is necessary to coordinate law enforcement agencies such as patrol police, tax patrol police, and internal affairs departments to severely crack down on grain hoarding and reluctance to sell, and crack down on illegal activities such as driving up grain prices.

On the third day of February in the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue crossed the river and went to the north bank to review and inspect the First Guards Division who had completed the change of clothes and had undergone half a year of hard training. They were about to go to the northern front line on a naval ship.

And they are also the last main force going north.

During the review process, Luo Zhixue was wearing a dark blue military uniform with dragon patterns that belonged to him alone. He wore a military hat on his bare head, but with a shorter brim and a hard-top gold silk military cap. He is holding a tall brown-red Central Asian horse that the Yarkand Khanate paid tribute to.

Slowly riding his horse through the queue in the winter sun, Luo Zhixue looked at the soldiers and nodded slightly from time to time!

And the soldiers looked up at Luo Zhixue, their eyes were full of fanaticism!

But the whole process was silent, only the light hooves of the horse under Luo Zhixue's crotch echoed in the playground!

Finally, Luo Zhixue turned his head back to the high platform in front of the formation. Still on his horse, he looked at Major General Miao Chengshan, the new commander of the First Guards Division, and said, "I am waiting for your success report!"

The young Major General Miao Chengshan replied loudly: "I will live up to your majesty's expectations!"

-

On the third day, the soldiers of the First Guards Division set sail from Jinling City on a large number of ships, together with their equipment and a large amount of ammunition and other logistics supplies, and then all the way to the north by sea!

At the same time, in Shanhaiguan, where the former Northeast Campaign Headquarters is now the Third Army Headquarters, a meeting of senior generals is also going on.

The former second commander of the Northeast Campaign and the current commander of the Third Army, General Zuo Yingzhe, presided over the meeting. The subordinate deputy commanders, chiefs of staff, commanders of various armies, and some division commanders all participated in the meeting. Army Commander Bai Yangrong always took a navy ship across the Bohai Sea in advance and rushed to Shanhaiguan to attend this meeting.

Lieutenant General Song Qilin, Chief of Staff of the Third Army, was using a baton in his hand to introduce the situation to everyone facing the large military map on the wall.

"As of now, according to the situation detected by our army in various aspects, it can be basically confirmed that the enemy's military deployment is currently concentrated in two places, one is the Liaoxi Corridor area opposite us, and the other is in the Liaodong Peninsula area. Although there are troops deployed in other directions, there are not many, and the grassland area north of the Great Wall is mostly composed of local Mongolian tribes, and they are in a nomadic state, and they will not gather unless there is a large-scale war!"

"And our main enemy is the heavy enemy group along the West Liaoning Corridor!"

"They took Jinzhou City as the rear and Guangning as the strategic frontier, deploying a large number of troops along the western Liaoning corridor."

"They don't have many troops on the front line of Jinzhou, mainly because they were attracted to the Liaodong Peninsula by the Seventh Army. The remaining local troops are estimated to be around 2."

"And the Guangning Zhongqian Institute, which is directly opposite us, is their strategic frontier. There are at least 8000 troops deployed, with many guns and about [-] cavalry."

"The rear of the Guangning Zhongqian Institute, that is, the Guangning Qiantunwei, is the core of their frontline strategy, with at least 5 troops deployed."

"They have deployed at least 10 troops around these two frontier cities, together with the many surrounding fortresses!"

"In addition, once we launch an attack, there will be at least [-] troops in the Ningyuan area behind Guangning to reinforce them at any time. Judging by the distance and the speed at which they assemble their troops, they will be able to reinforce them within three days at the latest. .”

"That is to say, once we launch an attack on Ningyuan, then we need to face at least 13 enemies!"

"In terms of the composition of the troops, there are not only the main force of their Manchu Eight Banners headquarters, but also the Han Eight Banners composed of the Western Liaoning armies that have been incorporated by them and the Ming army that surrendered before, and the Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry to assist in the battle!"

"What is worthy of vigilance is that the total number of cavalry in this direction is expected to be no less than [-]. About half of them are composed of the Mongolian Eight Banners. A small part is the original Liaoxi cavalry, that is, the Han Eight Banners, and some are full of the Eight Banners. cavalry."

"There are no fewer than two hundred long-barreled artillery of various types. Most of their artillery units and most of the units equipped with muskets are Han Eight Banners."

"Based on our experience in fighting the Ming army in the past, our colleagues in the Army Staff Department agreed that in the battle, the Eight Banners of Han will be our important breakthrough point, as long as the guns of the Eight Banners of Han, especially their artillery If the troops are destroyed, it will be easier to fight in the future.”

"Without the support of artillery firepower, no matter how many heavy infantry or cavalry they have, they will definitely not be our opponents!"

Speaking of this, Lieutenant General Song Qilin, the chief of staff of the Third Army, showed a smile: "Not to mention us, even the frontier troops of the Ming army, with the support of a large number of light artillery, can also hang cavalry with pure cold weapons. .”

"Considering the need to fight against the enemy's cavalry after annihilating the main force of the enemy's guns, we have also followed the example of the Ming army in the past, increasing the number of equipment and mobility of two and a half catties of field artillery, and at the same time increasing the number of equipment for carriages. "

"So the core of this battle is to quickly and decisively destroy their artillery units in the early stage. As long as their artillery forces are destroyed, the follow-up will be simple!"

"Of course, the premise is that they take the initiative to come out and fight us in the field. If they don't come out, but choose to defend the city, then it's still the old rule to blast them all the way with heavy artillery!"

After looking around, Lieutenant General Song Qilin continued: "According to the enemy's deployment of troops and our strategic goals, our deployment of troops has also been adjusted accordingly!"

(End of this chapter)