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Chapter 1141 The Veteran Comes into Action 3
It is understandable that he led the army in person, but he left the nearby Dagukou military port unused and had to go to Weihai Port on the Jiaodong Peninsula to board a ship. Could it be that he did this just to show that he rode, lived and ate with the officers and soldiers and loved them like his own sons?
Absolutely not. With Hong Tao's cunning personality, he would rather lose his reputation than take risks. He had no choice. Dagukou was not usable in all seasons. It was frozen for about 3 months every winter.

Even if the navy sends ships to travel back and forth day and night to prevent the sea from freezing, it can only guarantee a very narrow channel that can only accommodate ships with smaller displacement and shallower draft.

In the winter when the north wind was raging, the risk of going out to sea in a small boat was no less than being assassinated. After careful consideration, Hong Tao chose the latter between the possibility of freezing to death and the possibility of being killed.

But he did not give up on adding extra insurance to himself along the way. The person sitting in the eight-wheeled imperial carriage was not himself, but his seventh half-brother, the Prince Duan of the Ming Dynasty and the commander of the gendarmerie, Zhu Changying.

However, the trick of hiding the truth from the world could no longer be used at the port. No matter how worried he was, the generalissimo had to be brave and fearless in front of the army and navy. Even if there were thousands of people gathered at the dock, he had to bite the bullet and take firm steps, greeting the officers and soldiers nearby while walking, and occasionally giving them a friendly greeting.

"Have I made any progress on Plan B?" After just over 200 meters, Hong Tao had already broken out in a cold sweat, and he could not breathe a sigh of relief until he entered the hanging basket.

"My servant has done a poor job and still has no clue."

Upon hearing this, Wang Chengen quickly admitted his mistake. The so-called Plan B was to find a substitute for the emperor. A few years ago, one was found, but unfortunately, as time went by, the substitute became an old man in his fifties, while the emperor was still as old as in his thirties, so he could no longer be used.

"I don't have a green face and fangs, is it that difficult?" Hong Tao didn't think it was difficult to find a substitute, mainly because Zhu Changluo's appearance was very ordinary, without any obvious features.

"Your Majesty is the supreme ruler, with a majestic appearance and a majestic aura without even getting angry..." This question forced Wang Chengen to rack his brains to come up with a word.

"Okay, okay, forget it. Keep looking. Don't be too demanding in terms of exact similarity. It's enough if they can be confused from a distance." Hong Tao didn't want to hear a single word about these adjectives. He didn't need anyone to tell him what he looked like. Just look in the mirror and he'll know everything.

Three years ago, Liuguangzhai had already mastered the silver-plating process for flat glass. After transparent colored glass wine sets and tea sets, mirrors of various sizes became the best-selling luxury goods. The factory price of a full-length mirror as tall as a person was 30 silver coins, which was almost equal to the annual salary of two factory workers.

“No need to be polite… I still need to discuss the battle plan with the generals, so I won’t chat with you any more. The sea journey is long, and we have plenty of time… Why are you sweating so much? Are you feeling unwell? Flathead, take him to the medical cabin for a checkup!”

In a blink of an eye, the basket rose to the deck. Hong Tao immediately put on a smiling face again and greeted the officers and soldiers on the side of the ship kindly, but he did not stop and walked towards the cabin door while talking.

When passing by Settle, he suddenly stopped, not because he recognized Settle, but because he questioned Captain Cao's condition. At this time, the flat-headed brother was standing between the two of them without making a sound, and he could block any unusual movement with just his arms and legs.

"Grand Marshal, he is fine, he is just nervous." Although Settle did not like the nagging Captain Cao, he was a colleague and junior after all, and he must not abandon him at the critical moment, so he mustered up the courage to help plead for mercy.

"…Whether it's abnormal or not, there's no harm in checking it out. I see you're not nervous. What's your name? Where did it come from?" An officer took the initiative to speak, and it was obviously inappropriate to ignore him. Hong Tao had to suppress his impatience and asked with a smile. "Borjigin Setel, 24th term of the Sea House Division, currently the captain of the Han-class battleship of the 3rd Squadron of the Indian Ocean Fleet, has received an order from the Navy General Staff to cancel his leave and return to the base to prepare for war!"

"Oh... what a coincidence, I met your brother before leaving Beijing. Come to the captain's cabin after dinner, I have something to ask you." The twenty-fourth issue, not the twenty-fourth issue, but the twenty-fourth year of Yangyang.

Counting on his fingers, eleven years have passed in the blink of an eye. Hong Tao has long forgotten what this Mongolian boy who can't even speak Chinese fluently looks like, but he can immediately remember who he is when he hears his surname.

Unfortunately, this is not a place for casual chatting, and there is no time for chatting. As a commander-in-chief, I have happened to be witnessing the first large-scale joint operation between the army and navy, and there are still many things waiting for me to decide.

According to the plan of the General Staff, this expedition would mobilize six guard armies, plus a small number of auxiliary personnel, such as ordnance divisions, surveying and mapping personnel, intelligence personnel from the Army Statistics Department, and engineering teams, totaling 4 people.

However, the number of army units mobilized for this purpose reached 14, most of which were transferred from the south to the north. The army units participating in the expedition came from the central and eastern, central, central and western, northern and western regions, because they were more adapted to the climate of the grassland, Gobi, desert and plateau.

In addition to the army, the navy will also deploy at least 30 combat ships, most of which will be used to blockade the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and a small number will be responsible for providing protection for transport ships and ports.

The most active ones were the armed cargo ships of the Maritime Command and the three major fleets of the Navy. In order to transport 4 army troops and corresponding weapons and ammunition supplies, more than 300 ships were needed.

Neither the Maritime Transport Command nor the Navy could provide so many ships at one time, so the General Staff set its sights on civilian ships, and the astronauts planned to rent ships from merchants through the court.

The merchants did not say they would not rent the ships, but they were wondering what price to settle the bill at, how to organize these civilian ships to set out in formation, what to do if an accident occurred on the way, and which ports to stop at along the way. All of these required a large number of very professional personnel to coordinate and dispatch, and the workload was enormous.

Fortunately, with the great assistance of many large enterprises such as Sun Moon Bank, Snow Flower Group, Empire Shipbuilding Group, Luanzhou Heavy Industry Group, Handan Heavy Industry Group, and Haihe Machinery Group, some ships were provided, some people were offered, and some ships were borrowed from Annan, Luzon, and North Korea, which was barely enough.

Hong Tao did not need to worry too much about these aspects. There were a series of departments such as the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of War, and the Customs, each performing their duties and working together. The emperor could only look at the summary report and then make timely instructions.

But as a general, he had to do it himself. In addition to keeping an eye on Persia and the Ottoman Empire, he also had to keep an eye on the dynamics of neighboring countries. In addition, in order to prevent someone from taking advantage of the situation to commit malfeasance, the deployment of troops in the Southeast Peninsula and the Western Regions must not only not be weakened, but must be strengthened.

(End of this chapter)