Section 57 Guiding Principles of War
The venue finally gradually became quiet. [Full text reading] Xiao Zishan first read the full text of the telegram from Guangzhou. The general assembly was then asked to discuss the issue.
Of course, convening a conference is not to discuss whether there is a war, nor is it to discuss how to win. With the power of the Crossing Group, it is not a problem to defeat the 10,000 to 20,000 crusade troops. The main purpose of this meeting was to decide the scale of the war and what to do after the battle was won.
Of course, the determination of the senators is unanimous, that is, if they don't fight, they will be defeated. If they fight, they will cripple the Ming army and break their courage. This makes it no longer possible to covet the high political power and achieve the purpose of forcing peace by force.
But there was once again a big debate at the meeting on the issue of how far to stop the fight.
Finally, three mainstream propositions were formed:
The first is to maintain the current situation of no fighting, no retreat, no care. In the future, the Ming army will be completely defeated and eliminated, and it will end, and they will continue to occupy Lingao.
Supporters believe that the advantage of this is that it will not completely break up with the Ming Dynasty, it can still ensure the smooth flow of maritime trade channels with the Ming Dynasty, and it will also help ensure the safety of the Guangzhou and Leizhou stations. As long as the Guangdong officials did not lose the prefectures and counties, they could still conceal their defeat and talk about victory after a disastrous defeat. In other words, keep your underwear for the Guangdong government.
The second is to take advantage of the great victory to pursue the Ming army to Qiongshan, destroy the Ming army in Baisha Water Village, completely eliminate the main force of the Ming army in Hainan, and then conduct a raid on the states and counties in Hainan to quickly occupy the entire island. This enables the entire Hainan Island’s human and material resources to be fully utilized by the Crossing Group. The situation of separatist control of Hainan was formed.
The third is an upgraded version of the second, advocating not only occupying all of Hainan, but also conducting a punitive expedition against Guangzhou. Some people proposed using the Holy Ship to bombard the city of Guangzhou with heavy artillery on the deck, creating panic throughout Guangzhou; others proposed dispatching a special reconnaissance team to carry out an operation to kill officials in Guangzhou who advocated the use of force against Lingao - there were many People suggested that Wang Zunde's family should be killed directly.
Each of the three plans has a group of supporters, who are at loggerheads with each other at the conference and refuse to give in to each other.
Generally speaking, the second and third types are actually the difference between fifty steps and one hundred steps. The third type received active support from Skade, who proposed a complete strategic plan:
1. Seize the whole of Hainan. Anyway, the Ming government is at odds with each other, so we must take the opportunity to seize the whole of Hainan. Otherwise, the crossing country cannot be developed.
2. Strive to completely annihilate the Ming army on land, not just repel it at sea. In this way, the Ming Dynasty will be unable to attack in three or four years. And there will be a large number of captives used as labor and bargaining chips.
3. Moderately counterattack the mainland, strive to seize the surrounding areas of Guangzhou, and even temporarily surround the city of Guangzhou to fully deter the Ming Dynasty. However, it is not appropriate to capture Guangzhou, as the traveling country is not yet ready to compete in the mainland.
4. Pay attention to publicity and protect private property. Our policy is to oppose the unprovoked suppression campaigns by the Guangdong government and to oppose corrupt officials who use the campaign as an excuse to plunder people's wealth and kill good people while taking credit for their merits. But do not oppose the imperial court (either internally or externally), leaving room for peace talks. Protecting private property can win over the people.
5. To force peace with war, Lingao is not afraid of the Ming Dynasty coming to fight, but he does not want to cut off trade with the Ming Dynasty within a few years. Therefore, after the war, peace talks were the main policy for the Ming Dynasty for the time being. If we couldn't negotiate, we would go to war again.
In addition to these five points, Skade clearly requested to create panic in Guangzhou: He proposed to follow the British model of burning Copenhagen, firing Congreve rockets on a large scale, or occupying Baiyun Mountain and mounting artillery on it to bombard Guangzhou official offices. .
Ma Qianzhu made a speech.
He walked up to the podium: "Fellow elders, after defeating the Ming army, whether to occupy the whole of Hainan or whether to bombard Guangzhou must first be subject to our political needs - the so-called military is the continuation of politics." He coughed, "In our Before discussing how large the scale of the war should be, I suggest that everyone sort out the political and economic demands of our group in recent years."
The so-called political demands are directly related to the economic demands of the crossing group.
"For now, we are still heavily dependent on the resources, population and sales market in the areas controlled by the Ming government." Ma Qianzhu said, "If we use too fierce war methods, not only will Ming not obey us out of fear, Will, on the contrary, will cause the Ming Dynasty to implement a comprehensive political and economic blockade against us, and it will inevitably be accompanied by continuous military attacks. Even if such military attacks are completely ineffective, the Ming government will continue to carry out such offensives to maintain the pursuit. face."
"The Governor is advocating his turtle technology tree theory again." Someone whispered in the seat.
"He's right. Of course it's nice to fight, but you have to wipe your butt afterward."
Skade immediately stood up and objected: "When we mount the cannon on Baiyun Mountain, I think Wang Zunde is still tough enough, so if he can't do it anymore, he will fire 10,000 Congreve rockets from the Pearl River to burn Guangzhou."
Lin Shenhe frowned below: Ten thousand. This group of people really comes with their mouths open. The No. 1 weapons design team had already developed the rocket, and even used it to set off fireworks. Up to now, although the Congreve rocket has not been used yet, it has been included in his list of weapons to be eliminated. The first team has test-fired several Hale rockets of different calibers. This rocket is much more advanced than the Congreve and does not require long stabilizer rods.
"The Ming Dynasty is not the Qing Dynasty, and there are no officials like Qi Shan who understand the overall situation and take the overall situation into consideration." Ji Tuisi snorted, "If we want to do this, just wait for the imperial court to collect money and start a war with us every year."
"Are we still afraid that the Ming army will fail? To prove that the imperial levy is not seeking death and aggravating the collapse process?" Skade said.
"That's right, but Ming's economy and population are a hundred times larger than ours. If the other side wants to be serious and send someone like a cabinet bachelor to supervise the division, fighting all day long will be very detrimental to industrial upgrading." Ma Qianzhu Keep standing up for your opinion.
"What does war have to do with it? The army has to fight it." When Wei Aiwen heard that there was going to be a war, he was already excited and made an army expansion plan. He speculated that the Ming Army's navy was not good enough, so the 6th Division must be the main force. This was a good time for the 6th Army to shine. Moreover, the Ming army had tens of thousands of people, and the total number of auxiliary troops of the 6th Army was less than 4,000. After discussion, some members of the Young Officers Club decided that this was a good opportunity to ask the Senate to pass a resolution on large-scale military expansion.
The foreign enemy is at the forefront, and the Army is coming again. If the Army does not expand, who will expand it? This is what Wei Aiwen and Zhang Bolin had in mind.
"War costs money and consumes materials. It is a kind of pure consumption. Our war mode is different from the army in this time and space. It is a typical high-consumption war. If we cannot occupy the territory and population, this kind of war will not be worth the gain. ." Ma Qianzhu was not enthusiastic about the suggestion of war.
"I think it would be better to take this opportunity to occupy Guangzhou and then control the entire Pearl River Delta. With this territory, we need people, people, and supplies."
"Use four thousand soldiers to occupy the entire Pearl River Delta? Guarding Hainan has the support of the navy, which can offset the enemy's numerical advantage. This amount of troops will not be enough on the mainland."
"That's why we need to expand the size of the Army." This is what Wei Aiwen was waiting for.
"I firmly oppose investing too many resources into military projects at this critical moment of industrial upgrading." Wu De immediately expressed his opposition, "Occupying the Pearl River Delta region will inevitably involve us in a long-term large-scale military conflict. Excessive consumption of our limited strength."
Qian Shuiting also objected: "The size of the Sixth Army is already sufficient to meet the current tasks. Even for this battle, appropriate temporary recruitment of troops and supplemented by militiamen will be enough. There is no need to blindly expand the number of the standing army. And given our situation, we cannot Too many troops are needed..."
"What did you say?" Wei Aiwen jumped up - in his opinion, this statement was a public humiliation of the Army, "You are slandering the Army."
"I don't think this is a slander." Qian Shuiting did not give in. "The size of the army must be consistent with the existing economic scale. I oppose any blind expansion of military operations."
"You are short-sighted..."
Xiao Zishan banged the gavel: "Please be careful with your words and please refrain from personal attacks."
The motion to occupy the Pearl River Delta was quickly rejected, as most elders believed that it exceeded the existing strength of the Crossing Group. Premature occupation of densely populated areas in the absence of military and administrative personnel will inevitably require a large number of old ruling personnel and institutions. Moreover, the Guangdong region is an important source of fiscal revenue for the Ming government, and the Ming government will never sit idly by.
Once caught in continuous military operations, it will seriously hinder industrial upgrading. This will in turn affect subsequent development. This is unacceptable especially for those working in industrial areas. Although the personnel in the industrial port very much hope to see the guns and weapons they manufacture put to use on the battlefield, they also hope to see a modern large-scale industrial system established in their own hands.
As for the agricultural group headed by Wu Nanhai, they strongly opposed the expansion of the scale of the war - the agricultural group was more worried about their own affairs than the industrial group - the industrial group's altars were fortified after all, and agricultural land, irrigation systems and other farmland The basic construction cannot be defended at all, and he is also worried that the farmers and workers he has finally trained will be dragged away to fight.
Therefore, Agricultural Exporters held the most conservative views at the meeting. Just ask to be able to repel the Ming army's attack. Of course, Wu Nanhai also demanded the complete annihilation of enemy troops in order to transform prisoners into agricultural workers.
But most people believe that the time has come to occupy all of Hainan. If we are limited to Lingao, our future exhibition space will be very limited. And it also left a lot of trouble. It is always possible for the imperial court to use local political institutions and resources to launch encirclement and suppression campaigns. Moreover, the orthodox status of the imperial court always lies with the Ming Dynasty. The people in Lingao will feel like "following thieves". Once the situation becomes slightly unstable, the people's hearts will probably collapse. Investigations by the General Administration of Political Security show that many people who "got rich first" are worried about their future.
Ma Qianju saw that the atmosphere at the meeting place clearly disapproved of the plan of only keeping Lingao, so he decided to abandon Plan A of only keeping Lingao and switch to Plan B.
"First of all, do we need to maintain the superficial peace with Ming Dynasty?" Ma Qianzhu said, "From a strategic perspective, this is very necessary.
"If we want to maintain economic and trade relations with the mainland and continue to import people and materials from the mainland, it is crucial to maintain a superficial state of peace with the Ming government." Ma Qianzhu said, "So I oppose any expansion of the war to What we did on the mainland. Once the war spreads to the mainland, Ming Dynasty will definitely cut off trade and population flow with us. "
Of course, judging from the Ming Dynasty's administrative execution and limited maritime operations capabilities, this blockade is definitely incomplete. Moreover, Chuan Chuan Group does not have to worry about finding enough agents to serve itself, and the Shanhai Road business-intelligence system under construction can also play a supplementary role. However, such "smuggling" activities far exceed normal trade in terms of scale and cost.
"The methods we use must be strategic to a certain extent - we must let the Guangdong government leave a fig leaf so that Wang Zunde, Li Fengjie and others can continue to fudge the blame."
To achieve this goal, the Crossing Group cannot use too drastic means - it cannot engage in large-scale killing operations, nor can it bombard Guangzhou, or even openly occupy the administrative offices of various prefectures and counties in Hainan. In short, we must give the Guangdong local government face and a reason to take responsibility.
"Secondly, do we want to occupy all of Hainan?" Ma Qianxu said eloquently, "I think this is necessary."
Someone below was muttering: "Isn't this different from the Governor's attitude a few days ago?"
It is too slow to increase the population simply by recruiting refugees from the mainland. Occupying all of Hainan will allow the Crossing Group to control at least 200,000 Han people and an unknown number of Li and Miao people - the latter numbering at least 50,000 to 60,000. This is much faster than the immigration of hundreds to thousands of mainland immigrants every month. Moreover, the number of refugees in Guangdong is unstable and cannot provide a stable long-term supply. Before developing other sources of population, establishing local population is a good way to save time.
By occupying all of Hainan, we can promote the "Lingao experience" on a larger scale and carry out reforms in the civil affairs system. This is also an experiment, but the scale has expanded from a mere Lingao County to the entire Hainan Island. This is a test for the indigenous staff trained by the Crossing Group over the past few years. The Crossing Group also needs to use this to summarize the experiences and lessons learned in training indigenous personnel and local administration to prepare for future rule over a wider area.
"It is too difficult to occupy all of Hainan without maintaining superficial peace with the Ming government." Some people questioned, "Losing a county is a major event that needs to be reported to the court, not to mention losing a palace. Wang Zunde and Li Fengjie may not be able to pretend You are so deaf and dumb."
"So I suggest that the Lingao model be maintained throughout Hainan. That is to wipe out all subordinate officials in various places and let our indigenous administrators take over. We will bypass local officials and establish our actual rule over Hainan. The taxes and grain needed by the court will be based on quotas. Regular payment.”
Qiongzhou Prefecture is located in a remote place, and the foundation of Ming Dynasty's rule is extremely weak. Except for Danzhou, Lingao, Qiongshan, and Wenchang counties, which are relatively mature, the existence of local governments in Changhua, Yazhou and other places is very weak. Basically, government orders never leave the city gate. There are several counties where there have been no county officials for a long time, and miscellaneous officials are acting as county administrators. It is quite easy to take over the power by insulating the county officials - many places do not even have any county officials in the first place.
Jiang Shan remained silent at the meeting. He felt that this plan was a bit wishful thinking. It's okay for Lingao County to agree, but it will be very difficult for Qiongzhou Prefecture to do this. There are several yamen in Qiongzhou Prefecture: Qiongzhou Prefecture, Qiongshan County, Hainan Province, Chief Secretary’s Branch Office, Coast Defense Counselor...
With so many officials, it is not as simple as in Lingao. If there is a stupid young man who is unwilling to live his life and is sidelined, he must work hard to achieve something. It will be difficult to sideline the local government like Lingao. As high as perfect.
Moreover, there is also a garrison in Qiongshan County. If we want to continue to maintain the apparent existence of the Ming Dynasty, will the more than 2,000 ships of the Qiongya Coast Defense Admiral be allowed to continue to be stationed? This is the imperial court's administrative department, not the already decadent guardhouse. Even if it was destroyed in battle, it would definitely be rebuilt. Is it allowed for such a group of people to exist on the side of the bed?
Jiang Shan thought that the most difficult thing was: once the counterattacking army navy troops came to Qiongzhou City and broke through Baisha Water Village, the officials of Qiongzhou Prefecture and Qiongshan County would either surrender or commit suicide and die for their country. No matter which approach is taken, the news of the fall of Qiongzhou Fucheng will inevitably spread. Wang Zunde and others will definitely not have the courage to lie that the Fucheng has not been lost.
But he does not plan to question these issues face to face - there will be a special meeting to discuss the matter when it is implemented. In any case, whether maintaining "surface peace" or completely breaking up, he is in favor of occupying all of Hainan.
Although some people question whether this "maintaining superficial peace" can be achieved, most of the elders are still very enthusiastic about occupying all of Hainan - Lingao is still too small after all. Many people have a vague hope that once the political power is extended to the whole of Hainan, everyone will be able to stand alone - or even take up a position as chief executive of another county.
Finally, the Senate passed three principles guiding the war:
1. Completely annihilate the invading Ming army and other enemies, and at the same time eliminate the effective strength of the Ming army in Hainan.
2. Occupy the entire Hainan under favorable conditions.
3. The war will be limited to Hainan Island and the surrounding sea areas, and shall not be extended to the mainland and other sea areas - unless approved by the Senate.
This operation was named the "Second Counter-Encirclement and Suppression Operation."
Skade continued to advocate for postwar peace talks with the Guangdong local government.
The specific plan was to quickly release several high-level prisoners back to Guangzhou after the war, try to contact the leading figures in the Guangdong government, and request peace talks with them. Then send special personnel to negotiate.
The peace talks can be held in Macau, with the Portuguese ensuring the safety of both parties. If the Portuguese are unreliable, they can also choose other remote locations. a! ~!
