Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 723 Six Attacks
In March of the 16th year of Chongzhen, Li Jing suddenly issued six combat orders at the same time.

The six commands are:

First, with Cao Wenzhao as the commander-in-chief, Chen Dahu, Liu Erleng, and Li Dingguo as the deputy commanders, commanding 15 troops, they launched an attack on the Mobei area.

Second, with Hong Chengchou as the commander, Zuo Liangyu and Sun Hutou as the deputy commanders, with a command of [-] troops, they launched an attack on Turpan, Yilibali and other places.

Third, Lu Xiang was promoted to the commander in chief, Huang Degong was the deputy commander, commanded [-] troops, and launched an attack on the Wusi Tibetan area.

Fourth, with Zhang Chu as the commander, Qin Liangyu and Zheng Zhilong as the deputy commanders, commanding 20 troops, and launching an attack on the Siam area.

Fifth, with Sun Meng as the commander, Li Guozhu of the navy, and Zheng Sen's assistance, commanding [-] troops, launched an attack on the Malay Islands.

Sixth, with Sun Chuanting as the commander-in-chief, Zhou Huhu and Xiao Wu as deputy commanders, commanding [-] troops, and launching an attack on the Wa Kingdom.

As soon as these six orders came out, the whole country was in an uproar inside and outside the Ming Dynasty, and many people thought Li Jing was crazy.

Because fighting against so many countries and regions at the same time requires countless money, and Daming has been fighting almost every year these years, and the country is not rich. If Li Jing made such a decision, what is it if he is not crazy?
However, Li Jing did not explain anything to those who questioned him. It is useless to explain some things, just like when he sent troops to Luzon, Myanmar and other countries.

Of course, there are still some people who support him. First of all, the army supports Li Jing, because all the soldiers know that only when they are fighting can they have the opportunity to make meritorious deeds, and meritorious deeds means rewards and promotions, and it also means that their descendants have the opportunity to enter the army. Elite schools.

In addition, the important ministers of the cabinet and the officials of the household department supported Li Jing.

It is said that war needs money, and the Ministry of Households is in charge of money, so the Ministry of Households should oppose sending troops to fight.

But the fact is just the opposite. Now the household department is also the most supportive of Li Jing's sending troops to fight.

Because now every time Daming occupies a region, it will generate a large amount of money for the treasury, although most of this money is used for military pay.But the war did not pay a penny from the Ministry of Households, but you can still make money. Where can you find such a good thing?
There was no objection from the household department, so other people's opinions naturally meant little, not to mention that Li Jing's order had already been issued, and there was no way to stop it.

Although Li Jing issued combat orders to the generals at the same time, due to the distance between the capital and various places, the time when the generals received the orders was of course different, and there were orders to be executed first and then later.

The troops of Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng were the first to take action.

Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng were located closest to the capital, and they were the first to receive Li Jing's order.

The two of Hong and Lu had been preparing for the dispatch of troops two years ago, and their preparations had already stopped, and they only waited for Li Jing to give the order to fight.

Now that Li Jing's order finally arrived, the two of them did not hesitate, and led their troops to attack the Moxi and Wusi Tibetan areas on the day they received the order.

In contrast, although the troops of Zhang Chu, Qin Liangyu, and Zheng Zhilong were all in combat, they were much farther away from the capital than Hong and Lu. When they received Li Jing's order, Hong and Lu had already expanded. It's hundreds of miles away.

As for Sun Meng, it was even worse, because Sun Chuanting was involved in a transfer, and he also had to dispatch Zheng Sen's fleet to join Sun Meng's war zone to participate in the Malay Islands campaign, which delayed a lot of time.

But when Sun Chuanting made all the arrangements and returned to Shandong, and then shipped Zhou Huhu's troops to Japan, the Battle of Siam and the Battle of the Malay Archipelago had already started.

The worst were Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng.

Although these two people knew that Li Jing would definitely send them to lead the army in the Battle of Mobei, they never thought that Li Jing would directly ask Gao Qi to issue the appointment. None prepared.

These two people can be said to be the most powerful local officials in Ming Dynasty. Naturally, they can't just pat their buttocks and leave. After the two of them have finished explaining what they have in hand, they will rush to the capital with their direct troops. It has been a while since Li Jing's order was issued for several months.

In this regard, Li Jing is also very helpless. Even though Li Jing is from modern times, due to limited conditions, he cannot solve the problems of communication and army mobilization.

Because there were no telegraphs and telephones at this time, the transmission of orders could only be delivered by people, and the fastest means of transportation was horses, and since it was difficult and expensive to raise military horses, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to equip millions of soldiers with horses. , Most of the troops marching and fighting can only rely on walking.

If the combat area is small and the front line is short, the messenger can quickly convey the command of the commander to the front troops on horseback, and the army can also be quickly transferred to the designated position. At this time, there may not be any difficulties in communicating and mobilizing the army.

But once the combat distance is widened, troubles will come. It takes many days to convey an order, and it will naturally take longer to mobilize the army.

You must know that opportunities are fleeting on the battlefield. If the people below come up with enemy intelligence, the commander will make a decision after making a judgment, and then pass on the order, and then the mobilized troops will gather in place, and the day lily may be cold.

In order to avoid this problem, the armies at this time will generally be assembled together, and even if they are not assembled, the distance will not be too far apart so that they can be mobilized at any time. trend.

Because of this, when the ancients fought wars, it was often a large-scale battle involving tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of people, and often the final result could be determined after one battle was completed.

However, there are many situations in wars. One is that both sides actively seek a decisive battle. In this case, the two sides are generally evenly matched or not much different.

One is that one side is strong and the other is weak, and the weak will naturally not engage in a strategic decisive battle with the strong, so the strong can only find weak troops and strive to wipe out the enemy in one battle.

Another is that one side is too strong and the other side is too weak. The weak ones can't fight at all and can only run around.

The latter two situations are troublesome. The transmission of military orders and the transfer of troops are very troublesome, and the farther the distance, the more troublesome.

For Li Jing, it was obviously more troublesome.

Because the distance of the Ming army's battles is too far. It can be said that in history, except for Genghis Khan's expedition to Europe and Lan Yu's troops to the North Sea (Lake Baikal) in the early Ming Dynasty, the attack distance was farther than that of Daming this time. The combat distance is farther, and basically no dynasty has sent troops to attack such a far place.

Moreover, even Genghis Khan did not launch a war against these multiple regions at the same time as Li Jing did. Genghis Khan only sent a group of troops to carry out an expedition at most, but Li Jing sent all four directions from Mobei, Moxi, Wusizang, and Siam. Each of these four groups of troops attacked at a distance of more than thousands of miles.If you add the two troops that attacked the Malay Archipelago and the Japanese country across the sea, it will be six groups of troops.

These six groups of troops, including the logistics troops, used a total of more than 150 million people. With so many people and such a long distance, it is difficult to convey orders alone. Therefore, Li Jing cannot command the front line at all. troops to fight.

Therefore, Li Jing only does one thing, and that is to formulate strategies, tell the generals below the strategic goals, and let them arrange the specific tactics themselves.

This has extremely high requirements for the generals below. They must not only be able to implement tactics, but also understand Li Jing's strategic intentions.

Of course, Ming Dynasty did not lack high-level generals, whether it was Cao Wenzhao, Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, or Qin Liangyu, Zu Dashou, Wu Sangui, Li Dingguo, etc., were all famous generals in the late Ming Dynasty. There is no doubt about it.Coupled with Gao Qi, Sun Meng, Zhang Chu and others who grew up with Li Jing step by step, it can be said that the senior generals of Ming Dynasty are full of talents.

However, with the development of the Ming army's weapons, the Ming army's ability to fight individually has become stronger and stronger. The previous combat mode that involved tens of thousands of people is becoming less and less suitable for the current army.

Now the Ming army usually fights in units of battalions, and a combat unit only has about a thousand people.

It is precisely because the combat units are reduced and can attack in all directions, it only took about three years to occupy so many countries and such a large territory.In fact, if it were not limited by logistical supplies, the attack speed of the Ming army would be even faster.

If a corps of tens of thousands of people is formed and advances in several ways, not to mention fighting, just walking around the occupied territory, you don't know that you will go to the Year of the Monkey.

However, since all the ministries are small groups of troops scattered to fight, the front-line commander, like Li Jing, cannot directly command the troops to fight. In fact, the generals who command the troops in the front are basically doing the same things as Li Jing.

If there is a difference, it is that what Li Jing formulates is a national strategy, what they formulate is a local strategy, and it is those mid-level military officers who implement the local strategy.In other words, it is not the commander-in-chief of the war zone who actually commands the troops in the Ming army, but the mid-level officers below. The task of the commander-in-chief is to dispatch these mid-level officers well.

If Ming Dynasty had no shortage of high-level generals, then there was no shortage of mid-level officers. Over the years, the military academy founded by Li Jing had trained a large number of low-level officers, and these officers quickly grew up after being honed in actual combat.

It can be said that Li Jing had the courage to fight on all sides because of the large number of mid-level officers with actual combat experience.

However, since Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng have been dealing with local government affairs for these years, there are not many mid-level officers with actual combat experience in their troops. Fortunately, Li Jing has already prepared for them.

Before Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng entered Beijing, Li Jing asked Cao Wenzhao to transfer a group of mid-level officers with actual combat experience from the Northern Army.When Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng entered Beijing, these officers were incorporated into their troops.

Li Jing not only prepared a large number of mid-level officers for the two, but also equipped them with a deputy. These two deputy were Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui.

(End of this chapter)