New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 102 Future Route Planning

Liu Yulong then said, "Okay, since there are no problems, let's proceed with the arrangements."

"Let's formally establish an American military command to oversee these troops and combat operations in the Americas."

"Let Marquis Li Anbang of Weihui be the general—"

Li Anbang was the son of Li Wencheng, the leader of the Bagua Sect, and one of the earliest followers of Liu Desheng.

All the soldiers and governors present bowed and accepted the order, while the military commander and secretary were responsible for recording Liu Yulong's arrangements in detail.

Then, Zhang Tingju, a military advisor, stepped forward to inquire about some details: "Your Majesty, please instruct us on how the specific operational objectives should be formulated for this expedition of 60,000 troops to the Americas?"

The Military Advisory Office can formulate plans based on operational objectives, or it can draft specific operational objectives on its own, but it is best to have the emperor provide a clear direction.

Otherwise, if the draft you propose doesn't suit the emperor's wishes, it will be sent back and repeatedly argued over and redone.

Liu Yulong is used to making his thoughts clear. In military decision-making, Liu Yulong's role is more like that of a chief of staff than a general: "The primary objective is to defend against attacks from the United States and eliminate attacks and interference from the British."

"To hold onto the lands on the west coast of America currently occupied by immigrants."

"The key to this mission is to prevent the armies of both countries from landing on the west coast of the Americas."

"If neither country has a stronghold on the west coast, it will be impossible for them to persist on the west coast of the Americas and fight against the Han Dynasty for a long time."

"They have to go around the entire Americas to transport supplies, which is less efficient than transporting supplies from the Han mainland."

"Then the secondary objective is to seize California and deter Mexico."

"Make Mexico relinquish the California region and prohibit it from providing support to the United States and Britain."

"Mexico is the only country that can quickly send personnel and supplies to the west coast."

"But looking at it the other way around, after the Great Han established a foothold on the west coast of the Americas, it had the opportunity to directly attack the countries in the core of their homeland."

"After sending the generals and officers of the American military to the Americas, they should thoroughly investigate the current military and political situation in Mexico and determine whether there is an opportunity to invade the Mexican mainland and occupy the Mexican capital and the silver mining areas."

"This will force Mexico to submit, subjugate the Mexican military leaders, landowners, and mine owners, and turn Mexico into a de facto vassal state of the Han Dynasty."

"Considering the public opinion of such an independent country, it is not necessary to publicly declare that it is a vassal state."

"These people can accept official titles conferred by the Han Dynasty, thus facilitating the long-term stationing of the Han army in the area."

"If direct control is not possible, the conservative goal is to prevent Mexico from cooperating with the United States and Britain."

"As long as Mexico doesn't cooperate with them, they won't be able to stir up any trouble on the west coast of the Americas."

The recruits wrote down Liu Yulong's arrangements and prepared to use these ideas as a guide to quickly formulate several operational strategies.

Liu Yulong once considered supporting Mexico's confrontation with the United States, allowing Texas to maintain its independence in the long term, and preventing Mexico from being ceded to the United States.

However, according to the information brought back by businessmen and intelligence personnel, Mexico is currently too useless, and more importantly, it is a useless country that cannot be easily supported.

The process of Mexican independence was actually a process in which the colonial elite broke away from the central government, seized control of their own territory, and occupied local resources.

Mexico did not complete a social revolution during its independence, nor did it redistribute social resources and wealth.

Therefore, the lives of Mexico's lower classes did not actually improve, and the indigenous people, who made up 60% of the total population, had not yet gained political status.

Mexico's economy at that time was extremely singular, mainly consisting of silver mines and large plantations.

Both mining and plantations are primary industries with strong regional characteristics and do not require cooperation with counterparts in other regions.

This has led to extreme divisions within Mexico and a severe imbalance in development across different regions.

This division and imbalance is the root of Mexico's chaos.

Large silver mine owners and plantation owners control Mexico's economic lifeline, using privately employed armed forces to interfere in and control politics, and expressing their political demands through coups.

After seizing power in a coup, they aggressively pursued their interests, only to be ousted by another coup shortly afterward.

The central dynasty, with its extensive political experience, was actually capable of helping Mexico change its current situation.

However, that would require too much resources and effort.

From the perspective of safeguarding the interests of the Han Dynasty, instead of trying to reform, support, and protect this useless person, it would be better to directly seize the places that the Han Dynasty needs.

Then turn the rest of Mexico into a puppet state or vassal state of the Han Dynasty.

Just like the United States in history, which seized more than two million square kilometers of Mexican territory through a relatively small war.

They later seized control of the Mexican military leaders, turning Mexico into a de facto vassal state.

In the war between the United States and Mexico, the United States mobilized a total of 60,000 troops to participate in the war, and only more than 1,700 people were killed in action, but more than 10,000 were non-combat casualties.

Now that the Han Dynasty has dispatched 60,000 troops to fight in the Americas, it should have a chance to achieve similar results.

After Liu Yulong finished explaining the combat objectives, he got up and went to the globe: "Sailboats are still too slow. In the future, we will still have to rely on steamships for fast transportation to and from the Americas."

"According to the tests conducted by the Institute of Geology, a pure steamship without sails can maintain a speed of 40 to 60 miles per hour for continuous sailing."

"This way, the time required to travel to and from the Americas can be reduced by more than half compared to sailing."

"But steamships need to be refueled with coal regularly, which requires occupying a suitable island in the ocean and building a coal refueling station."

The new Han system uses one hundred millionth of the Earth's circumference as one chi, which is approximately equivalent to 40 centimeters in the modern metric system.

In addition to the basic unit of the foot, there are also auxiliary units of different sizes.

Ten feet make one zhang, one hundred feet make one ren, and one thousand feet make one li. Therefore, one han li is equivalent to four hundred meters in the modern metric system.

When conducting research at the Institute of Natural Sciences, researchers are accustomed to using only two units: chi (尺) and wan chi (万尺). However, in everyday speech, people are used to using various intermediate auxiliary units.

Liu Yulong was not prepared to spend too much energy on sailboats and wanted to move directly into the steamship era as soon as possible.

The Pacific and Indian Oceans are too far from the North Atlantic coasts, making it too difficult and costly for Europeans to build coaling stations in these areas.

The key issue is that the land occupied by Europeans here was all colony, so they had no incentive to quickly build the necessary coaling stations.

That's why their efficiency in building coal stations was so low, and why pure sail-powered cargo ships continued to operate for decades even after steamships had become widespread.

The current territory of the Han Dynasty is located in the middle of the two oceans, and the areas directly occupied by the Han Dynasty are considered to be its homeland.

If the Han Dynasty were to build the coal stations, it would probably take about ten years, meaning clipper ships would not have a chance to be used on a large scale.

Liu Yulong began by making sure the military commanders present understood his intentions, then continued: "According to the data currently compiled by the Institute of Geology, a cargo ship with a displacement of 20,000 shi (1280 tons) has a reserve of 5,000 shi (320 tons)."

(tons) of coal.

"Steam was provided by a coal-fired fire-tube boiler, and the ship was driven by a multi-expansion reciprocating steam engine with a propeller, and cruised at a speed of fifty miles per hour (20 kilometers per hour)."

"The driving range is approximately 15,000 to 20,000 miles (6000 to 8000 kilometers).

"To ensure the safety and controllability of the voyage, steamships also need to have sufficient range margin."

"Therefore, the distance between two overseas coaling stations should ideally not exceed 10,000 li, and at most should not exceed 15,000 li."

"Based on this situation, we will plan air routes and coal refueling stations from the mainland to the west coast of North America."

"If we only consider the distance of the route, the best route is to start from the Yangtze River estuary, pass the southernmost tip of Sakhalin Island, the southernmost tip of the Aleutian Islands, and finally reach the area around the Gulf of America."

"This route is only about 24,000 li in total, which is almost a straight line between two points on the Earth's surface, and is very close to the shortest path."

"Moreover, by building only two coal refueling stations, one at the southern tip of Sakhalin Island and the other at the southern tip of the Aleutian Islands, three safe shipping routes, each no more than 10,000 miles long, can be formed."

"A trip only takes about 20 days. If it's just transporting people, it can be a round trip in two months."

"However, the North Pacific winter winds are strong and the waves are high, which is not enough for a ship carrying 20,000 shi of grain. This route can only be used for six to eight months."

"We must plan another route that can operate year-round."

"To cross the Pacific Ocean in winter, one can only go through the central Pacific and avoid the raging winds and waves of the North Pacific."

"Sailing eastward from the mouth of the Yangtze River, passing the Ryukyu Islands, the Ogasawara Islands, the Midway Islands, and the Hawaiian Islands, eventually reaching the Gulf of America or the California region."

"The entire journey is about 30,000 li (approximately 15,000 kilometers). At cruising speed, it would take about 30 days to arrive. If only personnel are being transported, a round trip can be completed in 70 days, and five round trips can be made throughout the year."

(Approximate routes for the two air routes.)

At this point, Liu Yulong gestured roughly around the location of Midway Island in the northwest corner of Hawaii: "According to the map left by Emperor Taizu Gao, there should be several small islands at the end of the Hawaiian Islands, which extend to the northwest of the Hawaiian Islands."

"This place is basically the midpoint between the Han Dynasty mainland and the Americas, so it was called the Midway Islands by Emperor Gaozu."

"If we find a suitable island here and build a coal refueling station, we can cross the entire Pacific Ocean in just two 15,000-mile routes."

"But the Midway Islands are probably very small and would be difficult to sustain in the long term."

"Therefore, it would be best to occupy the Hawaiian Islands as a naval base in the central Pacific region of the Great Han, and then divide the shipping route into three or four segments, ensuring that each segment is within 10,000 li."

"At the same time, the shortest shipping route to the north is being developed to occupy several islands in the Aleutian Islands, which are currently within the sphere of influence of the Rakshasa Kingdom."

"There may be trading posts of the Rakshasa people in the area, and some conflicts with the Rakshasa people are inevitable."

"However, the Rakshasa people should not have the strength to fight the Han Dynasty here."

"And then there's Ryukyu. We need to prepare to send troops there, build ports, and station them there permanently. We'll turn the Ryukyu Kingdom into an internal vassal state and drive out or kill the Japanese on the island."

"The military headquarters also prepared several operational plans for these three aspects."

Liu Yulong spoke slowly, deliberately pausing and speaking in short sentences, so that the clerks from the Military Command, the Secretariat, and the Military Advisory Office would take notes in turn.

After hearing Liu Yulong's final instructions, everyone bowed and replied, "Your subject obeys."

Liu Yulong spun the globe again, placing it in the southeastern part of the South Pacific islands.

Pointing to the southern side of the peninsula at the eastern end of New Guinea, near the historical Port Moresby: "Find a suitable location here where the mountains, plains, and coast meet to build a coaling station."

"This area forms a large triangle with the coal-filling station at the northern tip of the Luzon Islands and the southernmost tip of Sumatra."

"With these three main coaling stations, steamships will be able to sail continuously throughout the entire South Pacific island region."

"After occupying Sumatra this year, the next phase of our operations in Southeast Asia will be to occupy large, undeveloped islands such as Sulawesi, the Spice Islands, and New Guinea."

"Then, based on the port of New Guinea, we will continue to explore those scattered islands in the eastern part of the South Seas, but that's for later, so let's not talk about it today."

"The New Year is just around the corner. Apart from the matters concerning the American military, which need to be prepared immediately, let's make detailed plans for everything else after the New Year."

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