I want to be emperor

Chapter 615 The Nanyang Threat Theory

Wars are full of surprises most of the time, and almost all wars cannot develop completely in the direction expected by the generals.

Because war is not a one-sided thing, but two or even more parties involved.

And you can't control everyone's thoughts, including your own!
Therefore, in actual combat, many senior generals seem to have formulated a perfect battle plan, and it seems that as long as they follow the plan, they can win.

But in reality, battles often don't proceed according to the plans made in advance, and various accidents occur midway due to changes in the enemy or simply friendly forces, or subordinates.

Zhuote Babatur just felt that the retreat plan he made was perfect, but it turned into a mess when it really arrived on the battlefield.

Not only did Zhungeer's operations deviate from the plan, in fact, even the Chu army also greatly deviated from the original combat plan.

At least, the Chu army hadn't made too much preparation for this large-scale battle outside the city before. Many people didn't even think that these Zhungeer barbarians gave up their good city and ran out to fight with themselves decisive battle.

So much so that after the hasty battle, although some battles were achieved, in fact, not much effect was achieved in the follow-up pursuit operations, at least the direct troops under Zhuote Babatur were not left behind.

This is because the Chu army was rushing to fight fortified positions at the beginning...

According to Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo and many other senior generals, the Zhungeer people should not be stupid, and they would not be ignorant of the Chu army's field battles, especially the strength of the frontal decisive battle. After all, the Dongyao people have fully experienced it many years ago It has surpassed the powerful field strength of the Chu army.

At that time, there was a large-scale cavalry battle between the Chu army and the Dongyao people. There were tens of thousands of cavalry on both sides. The result was that the Dongyao cavalry led by Hauge suffered a disastrous defeat. In some subsequent field battles, the Dongyao people also ended in disastrous defeat. .

In these situations, the Zhungeer people don't even need to work hard to collect all kinds of information, they can know... After all, these wars at the beginning almost spread throughout the grasslands and even the entire East Asian region.

The powerful Dongyao was completely killed by the Chu army in just one or two years, which shocked a lot of people's jaws.

These are all enough to prove the Chu army's field combat capabilities, especially the formidable ability of frontal battles.

Why did the Dongyao people play the same defense as the previous Ming army? It was not because they couldn't fight in the field, so they had no choice but to defend the city.

Under such circumstances, as long as the Zhungeer people are not stupid, they will not easily play a decisive battle with the Chu army.

According to this idea, Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo's battle plan was to prepare for the storming of Hami City. Otherwise, what would he do with the Second Infantry Division, a first-class combat readiness division, for the purpose of attacking the city?

But I didn't expect that Zhungeer didn't follow the routine, and dared to take the initiative to go out of the city and fight the Chu army head-on in the field.

Dismissed, although Chu Jun also won a big victory, but always felt that something was missing...

Although Zhuote Babatur was defeated, all he lost was cannon fodder and other tribes. His own headquarter had more than 5000 cavalry and the thousands of people who belonged to the Zhungeer tribe were all doing well.

In other words, in fact, the Chu army's strategic concept of annihilating Jungar's main force in the eastern region through the Battle of Hami has come to nothing.

But to say the least, Hami City was successfully taken down.

Although the city is already an empty city, not only the population and supplies were taken away by Zhungeer in advance, but even some buildings in the city were set on fire.

But what the Great Chu Empire wanted was not the city itself, but the oasis around Hami City.

Therefore, in terms of overall strategy, the Chu army still achieved a great victory.

As Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo's success came back to Jiayuguan, soon, a large number of materials needed for the construction of fortifications and reclamation, including various tools, grain seeds, and livestock, set off from Jiayuguan, ready to go to Hami City for military reclamation.

Together with a large amount of supplies, there are thousands of young and strong people from the reclamation camp.

Gansu governor's yamen had prepared relevant materials and young adults for reclamation early on, and waited for the front-line military to take the Hami oasis before going to develop the reclamation.

Next, Hami and the area east of Hami will enter a state of intensive reclamation, in anticipation of next year, a large amount of food will be produced on the spot to supply the local reclamation youth and the garrison.

As long as the military settlements in Hami, Guazhou, and Shazhou can be successful, the logistical pressure on the Chu army in the direction of the Hexi Corridor will be greatly reduced by next year.

When the logistical pressure is reduced and there is no need for the rear to continue to use a large amount of manpower and material resources for large blood transfusions, it means that the Great Chu Empire has gained a firm foothold in the western part of the Hexi Corridor, that is, the Kansai region.

As for now... it's just rootless duckweed. Once there is a problem with the Hexi logistics line, the tens of thousands of troops on the front line will have to go hungry.

Based on such a strategic situation, Lieutenant General Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo also suspended his continued westward offensive, and began to order the garrison in the direction of Hami to build a defense line, set up a peripheral patrol cordon, and send small and medium-sized cavalry troops to sweep and intercept the periphery.

At the same time, it also cooperated with the Yamen of the prefect of Hami to carry out reclamation and land reclamation!
In order to strengthen the local defense capabilities, Lieutenant General Liao Hongpo applied to his superiors and mobilized a batch of artillery to Hami for deployment.

The Chu army seems to have mobilized a large number of artillery to station, but the actual cost will not increase too much, because these artillery will be deployed in a fixed manner after mobilization, and will be used for defensive operations, and will not be easily used for mobile operations.

Although artillery is expensive, it depends on who and how to use it.

For the Chu army, the cost of the artillery unit is mainly divided into three parts. One is the maintenance cost on weekdays, which is simply the cost of eating horses; the other is the cost of ammunition for combat and training, and the last is the purchase cost of the artillery itself.

If it is a field artillery unit, the maintenance cost on weekdays is very high, and there are many mules and horses, which is several times higher than that of an infantry unit of the same strength.

But if it is a defensive artillery unit, the cost of this thing is much less, mules and horses can be used, logistics personnel can also be greatly reduced, and even the members of the artillery crew can be reduced.As for artillery of a defensive nature, live ammunition is occasionally fired during training on weekdays. As for combat, it is only useful if the enemy takes the initiative to fight over.

Therefore, the artillery units permanently deployed in the forts and forts are actually not expensive.

As for the cost of the artillery itself... this thing is actually very cheap compared to maintenance costs and ammunition costs.

A high-quality bronze 115mm field gun costs only six or seven hundred Chu Yuan. It doesn’t seem cheap at first glance, but you must know that this is the Great Chu Empire...

A huge empire with an annual military expenditure of tens of millions of Chu Yuan!

And these fixedly deployed artillery basically don't need to consider mobility, and can tolerate greater weight, so iron cast artillery can also be used, and for iron cast artillery, the cost can be further reduced to one or two hundred Chu yuan.

An iron-cast 115mm field gun worth two to three hundred Chu yuan is not as high as the food expenses of the artillery crew members for a year.

Therefore, in the Great Chu Empire Army, there is no shortage of artillery, what is lacking is the military expenses to maintain the mobile combat capabilities of these artillery...

Therefore, the use of artillery by the Chu army is quite special now. The mobile artillery uses advanced artillery if it can use it. Anyway, the same maintenance cost, then it must exert greater performance.

And a large number of second-class divisions are also equipped with a large number of artillery, but these artillery are basically fixed deployments and lack mobility.

Therefore, don't think that the weapons and equipment of the second-class divisions of the Chu Army are poor. In fact, they are not bad. The only difference is their mobility.

The deployment of a large number of artillery in the direction of Hami is out of this consideration.

Anyway, artillery is not expensive, and fixed deployment does not cost much, so deploy it in large quantities.

Liao Hongpo raised his head and applied for hundreds of cannons in one go for the fixed deployment of Hami City and the surrounding fortresses.

And these hundreds of cannons are all medium-caliber or even large-caliber cannons. Even the largest caliber cannon equipped in the army, that is, fourteen-pound cannons, that is, four 130mm cannons, were brought in.

The 130mm cannon is a typical long-barrel cannon. It has a long range and great power when firing solid shells. It is a combat weapon in the Army's independent heavy artillery unit. It is usually used for siege operations or fortress defense.

It's just that after these artillery arrived in Hami, they were thrown into fixed forts everywhere. There were not many supporting mules and horses or even logistical forces, and they basically did not have mobile combat capabilities.

If you want them to gain mobile combat capabilities, at least a few thousand draft horses must be mobilized.

And the amount of logistics transportation required to maintain the rations of thousands of horses is enough for the army to maintain the garrison of tens of thousands of infantry in Hami.

Based on various realities, such a wonderful thing will happen.

If this is changed to other countries, there is a high probability that it will be impossible to see it, because for many countries, guns, especially this kind of advanced artillery, are difficult to cast, expensive, and low in output.

In the Great Chu Empire, the production capacity of the arsenal was too much to be honest... The Ministry of State-owned Enterprises has not allowed the major arsenals under its command to expand their production capacity for a long time.

The current production capacity is too much. If it is expanded, why make so many artillery...

In order to solve the production capacity problem and also to make money, major arsenals are now actively contacting major trading companies in an attempt to further expand the share of arms exports.

Although the military does not allow flintlock guns, advanced artillery, and shrapnel exports, it does not impose too many restrictions on matchlock guns and artillery that are a generation behind.

Relying on exports will prevent the empire's major arsenals from stopping production due to the reduction in orders from the military.

And this is also the horror after the unification of China and the start of industrialization.

It may be difficult to say per capita, but relying on a huge country and a huge population, the total amount of various industrial products can reach a level that is difficult for other countries to match.

This is just a few years after the reunification, and the industrialization is still in the Great Chu Empire with water power equipment!

If the era of steam engines is successfully launched, the industrial production efficiency of the Great Chu Empire will increase exponentially, and by then, the industrial strength of the Great Chu Empire will be even more terrifying.

Other countries don't know, but the Zhungeer people are the first to appreciate the powerful national power of the Chu army.

Since Zhuote Babatur withdrew from Hami, the Jungar people have not been too far away from Hami. They still have troops stationed not far to the west to monitor the Chu army in Hami City and try to attack and destroy it.

The Zhungeer people can't just watch the Dachu people play peacefully in Hami!

If the people of Great Chu settled in Hami for a few years, the war situation would be even more unfavorable for Goer. Let alone the counterattack against Hami, it would be very difficult to stop the Chu army who continued to advance westward from Hami.

But when Zhungeer sent troops to attack, trying to destroy the Chu army's reclamation in the oasis outside Hami, they were intercepted and blocked by a large number of small checkpoints and fortresses on the periphery.

These small fortresses seem to be small, and the garrison is only a hundred or even dozens of people, but almost every small fortress has deployed artillery.

These fortresses also existed alone, but often several small fortresses were not far apart, and in the middle was a simple city wall built by the Chu army on the spot. This simple city wall was actually very thin, only about two or three meters high.

It is not a city wall, but an obstacle and a convenient passage connecting the fortress.

In this way, multiple small fortresses can be linked together to support each other in operations.

The Zhungeer people sent troops to attack these fortresses several times, but they were all beaten in disgrace. Sometimes they were killed and injured by the opponent's artillery without even building a figure of the Chu army.

As for bypassing these small fortresses and directly going deep into the hinterland of the oasis to destroy, then you have to worry about being shut down and beaten.

From a military point of view, bypassing the fortress and going deep into the enemy's hinterland is tantamount to handing over one's back to the enemy.

You said that the Zhungeer people have a lot of cavalry, and they can run fast... It seems that the Chu army has no cavalry. The Chu army garrisoned around Hami has three cavalry divisions and a division-owned cavalry regiment.

Therefore, Zhungeer tried several attacks and failed. After losing hundreds of people, they gave up the attack completely. They were not willing to do this loss-making business.

Under such circumstances, the fighting in the Hami area also gradually calmed down, Zhungeer retreated westward and stopped attacking, and the Chu army had no plans to continue westward due to logistical problems.

For a while, the war between the Chu army and the Zhungeer people seemed to have stopped.

But many people know that the current pacification is only the prelude to the next war.

Because in mid-October, the Great Chu Empire officially rejected the Jungar people's request for peace talks, even though the Jungar people recognized the Great Chu Empire's occupation of the area east of Hami, and were even willing to pay a certain amount of compensation for it.

The Great Chu Empire still rejected the Zhungeer people's request for peace talks, and demanded that Zhungeer fully withdraw from the territory of the Great Chu Empire, that is, the territory of the former Yarkand Khanate.

The refusal of the peace talks this time also means that the ambitions of the Great Chu Empire are far from being satisfied.

Zhungeer was also dumbfounded by this... They also didn't expect that the Great Chu Empire would have such a big appetite. After taking down the Kansai Qiwei area, they would not be satisfied.

This shows that they want to completely enter the Western Regions.

It is estimated that it will not be long before the soldiers of the Great Chu Empire will appear in Turpan!
Not only did the Great Chu Empire not want peace talks, but in fact the opinions within Zhungeer were not unified, especially the Zhungeer people were greatly interfered by Russia.

The reason why the Russians support Zhungeer is not because they think that Zhungeer and the Great Chu Empire will work together to reduce Russia's pressure on the Eastern Front.

If Zhungeer and the Great Chu Empire ceased fighting, their plans would come to naught. This is not in the interests of the Russians.
Therefore, Russia has been agitating inside Zhungeer, wanting to let the Zhungeer people and the Great Chu Empire continue to fight.

Therefore, the situation in the Western Regions may remain chaotic for several years.

However, although the two sides did not have peace talks or a truce, in fact, the Great Chu Empire and Jungar did not intend to continue to launch large-scale attacks due to their respective problems.

The Great Chu Empire settled in Hami, and Zhungeer is preparing to build a real line of defense in Turpan, hundreds of kilometers away!

Although the cloud of war still hangs over the Western Regions, at least there is no large-scale war breaking out.

As for the Great Chu Empire, seeing that the situation in the west has stabilized slightly, the high-level officials of the empire are too lazy to pay attention to the situation in the Western Regions. Anyway, if they want to fight again, they will have to wait at least two years or even longer until Hami’s reclamation yields results before continuing. conduct.

As for now, there are many things that the high-level empire needs to be busy with, especially recently there have been a lot of troubles on the Strait of Malacca, especially the aboriginals in some areas under the control of the Dutch have boycotted Chinese businessmen, causing the empire There were also voices from high-level officials who increased their troops in the Nanyang region, took the opportunity to completely take down the city of Malacca, and fully controlled the Strait of Malacca, and even squeezed the Dutch out of Nanyang.

Especially the Navy, recently they have been advocating the importance of the Strait of Malacca, the threat of the Dutch, etc. every day, catching people and saying that many ministers of counselors and co-organizers are annoyed...

Your navy wants to fight Nanyang, and we have no objection if you want to fight the Dutch. If you want to fight, you can fight... As long as you don't come to ask for military expenses, what does your navy like...

But the reason why the navy is so happy recently is to take advantage of the situation in Nanyang to try to get some extra military spending. Their navy recently plans to build a few first-class battleships, and they are short of money for a while, so they want to get some extra military subsidies.

These civil servants actually told them to go to war without military expenses. How could there be such a reason in the world? Their navy is not a bunch of idiots like the army.
However, the cabinet is unwilling to pay extra military expenses, which makes the navy powerless. It can't drive the warship and shoot the naval guns at those damn cabinet members, right?

However, military expenditures have not increased, and the navy's plan to expand the first-tier battleships does not want to stop.

The navy has always wanted to build a few more first-class battleships. Since the Guangzhou-class first-class battleship was completed and put into service, its powerful combat effectiveness has fascinated the navy's senior management.

With a standard displacement of [-] tons and hundreds of naval guns of various calibers, the Guangzhou-class battleship is a veritable maritime supremacy in the contemporary era. It has almost no opponents in the Eastern Seas. Even if it is placed on the European side, it belongs to the top level. .

For this kind of warship, the navy wants to build a few more ships, and then form a battleship formation of several first-class battleships to play line combat, instead of the current situation, only a few first-class battleships serve as the main fleets. Flagship only.

The side of the navy suit thinks that first-class battleships are built to go to the front line. During battles, they are at the forefront to play line-ups and bombard the enemy's battleships.

Rather than only serving as the command flagship of senior generals.

It's just that there are only two first-class battleships in service today, and two more are under construction. The number of battleships is not enough to form a line of battleships.

So the navy plans to make more, not too many, four more ships, and then a group of four ships can be formed into a battle squad of two first-class battleships.

It is more flexible and convenient to use in this way, and its actual combat value is also higher.

But the first-class battleship is expensive, not only the ship itself is expensive, but also the artillery on it is mostly heavy artillery, and a large number of heavy artillery is also quite expensive. After all, the price of heavy artillery is much more expensive than the small artillery used by the army.

Furthermore, battleships are larger and require more crews, so they are also expensive to maintain.

If it is a replacement, then the pressure is not too great, but the problem is that what the Navy wants is not a replacement, but an expansion.

The navy has always been ambitious, and wants to build at least sixteen first-class battleships, and hundreds of third-class battleships to form a huge battleship fleet.

However, this also means huge naval military expenditures. The cabinet has been pressing to prevent military expenditures from overspending. Naturally, it is difficult for the navy to obtain more military expenditures.

There is no way to expand without military expenses.

In this way, there is a situation where the navy advocates the threat of Nanyang and the Netherlands.

It's a pity that the navy's plot was seen through by the cabinet at a glance...

It’s not that the civil servants in the cabinet know the situation very well. They know that the navy is just bragging. The situation in Nanyang is very stable now. The natives are all very well-behaved. Maintain the situation in Nanyang.

However, civil servants are too lazy to care about the situation in Nanyang, they just look at one point: do you want extra military spending!

If you want extra military expenses, no matter what your reasons are, get out of here!

How should I put it, unless the Dutch seriously damaged the empire's overseas interests, or simply hit the empire's mainland, don't expect the cabinet to pay even a copper coin for extra military spending.

As for small-scale armed conflicts, Tang Fengze, who has been very active in the imperial political arena in the past two years and is very powerful, is in charge of taxation and financial affairs. costs of armed conflict.

If the military does not agree with this statement, then you will deduct several million from regular military expenditures, and then replenish your military when there is a conflict.

Facing the new God of Wealth in charge of taxation and finance of the Great Chu Empire, although the military hated it, they dared not say that the tens of millions of regular military expenditures every year did not include the daily conflicts.

If you really want to say this, the cabinet will definitely have to use a knife on military spending again.

Since the unification of the empire, especially after the killing of the Eastern captives, the high-level officials of the empire have called for cutting military expenditures every year.

Under such a big background, once the military expenditure is reduced, unless a large-scale war breaks out, don't expect it to rise again.

Therefore, it is the bottom line of the military to keep the current military expenditure quota. Although the amount is still huge, and although the cabinet scolds them every day as prodigal sons, none of the senior generals of the military will hear them.

You can scold if you want, but you can't afford less money...

Of course, although the total military expenditure has not been reduced, it has not increased in recent years. At the same time, with the economic development of the Great Chu Empire, the central fiscal revenue has gradually increased. The expenditure ratio is gradually decreasing.

In the 14 years of Chengshun, which has entered the second half, the total military expenditure of the army, navy and guards was about 4000 million Chu Yuan, and the expenditure budget of the Chu Army for that year was more than 600 million.

Military expenditure accounts for 30.00% of fiscal expenditure.

This ratio is already very low for the Great Chu Empire. In the early days of the unification war, military expenditures reached more than 90.00% of fiscal expenditures.

Even during the Eastern Captivity War, military expenditures accounted for more than 50.00% of fiscal expenditures.

After the end of the Eastern Captivity War, although the total military expenditure did not decrease, the proportion of fiscal expenditures decreased year by year.

It is estimated that by next year, this ratio will have to be reduced to 30.00% or even lower.

And this is also an important means for the cabinet to control military expenditures, that is, although the total amount of military expenditures does not decrease, it does not increase with economic development, and strives to reduce the proportion of military expenditures to 20.00% or even lower.

In this regard, Luo Zhixue, the supreme ruler of the empire, maintained a tacit attitude.

Of course, Luo Zhixue only acquiesced to the cabinet doing this, but Luo Zhixue did not express his support, even Luo Zhixue would never talk about reducing military expenditures in public or private, nor would he talk about controlling military expenditures in public. .

There are things you can do, but you can't say.

And there are some things that even Luo Zhixue can't do, and can only be done by others.

Military spending is a super sensitive matter.

Luo Zhixue is very clear that maintaining a high proportion of military expenditures for a long time is abnormal and will seriously damage domestic construction, but Luo Zhixue will not do it, nor will he talk about cutting military expenditures.

This is related to Luo Zhizai's prestige and control in the army.

In short, we must not let the military's grievances be aimed at ourselves...

Therefore, it is necessary to find a scapegoat, and the civil servants in the cabinet are natural scapegoats... What's more interesting is that the civil servants are happy to take the blame for controlling military expenditures, and even take pride in it, and regard it as their own political achievements. What about publicity?

This has led to the gradual confrontation between the cabinet civilian officials and the military generals in recent years, swearing at each other every day...

As for Luo Zhixue, he sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and watched the world with a smile!
(End of this chapter)