Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2643 The Tang Emperor's Plot, the Jin Army Lands

Last winter, Li Shimin had already accepted Li Yishan's plan to relocate the people of the several counties of Youzhou that they had captured to the Li Tang homeland, carrying out the most thorough scorched earth policy, and preparing to turn half of Youzhou into a blank slate.

However, although they did move, the number of deaths and injuries along the way was even greater than they had anticipated, given how hastily they had moved.

At this time, the counties of Youzhou were basically only left with the troops of the Tang army used for defense. The remaining civilians were few and far between, and they were mostly the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

The defense of Youzhou was entrusted to Li Guangbi, a general of the Tang Dynasty, by Li Shimin.

As for him personally, he confronted Qi Jiguang's navy.

Of course, Li Shimin oversaw the naval battles from the land, leaving the naval affairs to Yi Sun-sin.

Li Shimin did not intend to rashly engage in a naval battle with the Great Jin Dynasty, but rather to keep the enemy forces outside the peninsula.

If it were to be a naval battle, their chances of winning would be slim.

The Tang dynasty benefited from being less affected by the pandemic, and thanks to Li Shimin's governance over the years, it was not like the north at that time, which had not yet recovered.

If the entire Li Tang dynasty were to mobilize its forces, it would be possible to muster 200,000 troops.

Among these 200,000 troops, there were also 50,000 naval troops.

However, even with 50,000 naval troops, it was still insufficient compared to the forces under Qi Jiguang's command.

Even after excluding the troops responsible for logistics and food supply defense, Qi Jiguang was still able to field 80,000 naval troops in the war.

With 50,000 against 80,000, the disparity was significant, both in terms of troop strength and the number of warships.

Moreover, the fact that there were 80,000 naval troops does not mean that Qi Jiguang's warships only had 80,000 men.

This figure of 80,000 only represents the combat configuration of the navy, excluding maintenance personnel and sailors. If all other factors are considered, the actual number of 80,000 naval personnel would definitely exceed 100,000.

Of course, the same applies to the Tang Dynasty; 50,000 does not mean there were only 50,000 people.

At the same time, their warships were also inferior in quality.

Although the Tang dynasty had tortoise-shell ships brought by Yi Sun-sin and ironclad ships brought by Kuki Yoshitaka, both of these warships were originally warships from the Ming dynasty, and were naturally more advanced than warships from the late Eastern Han dynasty.

However, the problem is that Qi Jiguang's warships were not from the late Eastern Han Dynasty either.

The treasure ship's draft was far superior to those of these two warships.

The size of warships was still a very important factor in naval warfare during this period.

In a direct confrontation, Li Shimin believed that his navy had little chance of winning.

If their navy suffers too many losses in a direct confrontation, then once Qi Jiguang captures a landing point, the enemy can transport troops with impunity.

With insufficient troops, they were no longer able to pose a threat to the Jin army's logistics.

In particular, the national strength of both sides is also an important factor to consider.

If they were to engage in several direct battles, the Li Tang dynasty would be far inferior to the Jin dynasty in terms of the speed at which they could replenish their warships.

With the strength of the Great Jin Dynasty, if they wanted, they could launch warships like dumplings being dropped into the sea. But could the strength of the Li Tang Dynasty support that?
Therefore, from any perspective, he could not rashly wage this war when the enemy was strong and he was weak. Li Shimin was very bold. Since he was limited by naval power and could not stop them from leaving the mainland, he simply let them boldly come ashore to fight, and voluntarily gave the enemy a crossing point as a bridgehead and a landing base.

Even if the Jin army were extravagant, it would never use its navy as the main force for siege warfare. The navy takes too long to train, and few people would use such a troop type as a consumable.

Therefore, Qi Jiguang would most likely employ a combined land and sea strategy, similar to their northern campaign. After the navy opened a breach in northern Qinghai, the main force that landed would still be the infantry troops that Xue Rengui had assigned to him.

Li Shimin guessed that after Qi Jiguang captured another landing base, the next step would inevitably be to transport the main infantry and cavalry forces of the Jin army to participate in the battle.

If Qi Jiguang were to do this, he would inevitably have to mobilize a portion of his troops and warships back to the homeland of the Great Jin to transport the main infantry and cavalry forces to the rear.

In other words, at this time, Qi Jiguang's navy, which Li Shimin was about to deal with, no longer had 80,000 troops.

Moreover, since Qi Jiguang had occupied part of the ferry crossings, he would inevitably have to defend them.

At this point, Li Shimin used a combined land and water strategy to annihilate Qi Jiguang's troops at this ferry crossing.

This was an open scheme targeting Qi Jiguang, and Li Shimin was not afraid that Qi Jiguang would not fall for it.

Both sides were gambling on the time difference in which Qi Jiguang transported the main infantry and cavalry forces.

Moreover, even if we take a step back and assume the worst, the Jin army actually made such a grand preparation for these two ports, meaning they were putting all their logistical and transportation pressure on the sea routes.

Therefore, as long as their naval forces remain intact, they will always be a threat to the enemy's supply lines.

Therefore, he chose to deal with Qi Jiguang's army personally, rather than Xue Rengui and Li Mu's army in Youzhou.

As for Youzhou, those counties were in a state of "defend if you can, abandon if you can't" from the very beginning for Li Shimin.

In particular, with that incident on the grasslands, the expected reinforcements were no longer possible, and Li Shimin had even less hope for those counties in Youzhou!

Therefore, in Youzhou, Li Shimin only instructed Li Guangbi to deplete the enemy's forces as much as possible.

Meanwhile, the Jin army's warships were about to approach the coastline, but the Li Tang navy had not yet appeared. Qi Jiguang himself was also an outstanding military strategist. Even if his basic command system was not as high as Li Shimin's, it was still 100 points.

He had a pretty good idea of ​​Li Shimin's intentions.

To put it bluntly, Li Shimin's strategy was inherently an open scheme, not difficult to predict. Most people in this world who enjoy intrigue are low-class. Those of their caliber don't rely on elaborate schemes; they primarily use open strategies, with intrigue as a secondary tactic.

However, Qi Jiguang still stepped inside.

He has to get involved in this situation.

After all, it's impossible for him to become hesitant to act once the Li Tang dynasty has opened its defenses.
Could it be that because this is a setup, they're not going to fight this battle?
"General Huan, General Zhang, you two will lead 20,000 naval troops and 40,000 warships back to pick up the follow-up troops!"

Standing on the land of the Li Tang dynasty, even though he was in a crisis, Qi Jiguang was still calmly issuing orders.

The fact that these two men had a combined 20,000 naval force with 40,000 warships was obviously because 20,000 men were going to land.

The empty warships can be used to transport more troops.

Of course, a navy of 20,000 would need to be equipped with 40,000 warships, which means that each warship would be allocated fewer troops.