"Your Majesty, the Navy Commander also believes that capturing Lushun Pass is the best choice!" The speaker was Qiu Rong, the right minister of the Ministry of War.
Now the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty has two ministers on the left and right. The left minister is in charge of the military and political affairs of the army, and the right minister is in charge of the naval affairs. They are in charge of the navy, not the military affairs of the navy.
Therefore, the Military Command Department in charge of naval military orders is a subordinate of the Right Minister of the Ministry of War. The Military Advisor's Office, which is in charge of army military orders, is an office at the same level as the Ministry of War, and has no reporting relationship with each other.
The reason for this arrangement was of course to prevent the Army Minister (Zuo Shangshu) of the Ministry of War from gaining too much power and posing a threat to the future imperial power.
As the Minister of the Navy (right minister) has few soldiers to dispatch on land, he is unlikely to pose any threat to the imperial power, so there is no need to impose too many restrictions. Therefore, the Minister of Military Affairs of the Navy became a subordinate of the Minister of the Navy.
The real power of the Navy Minister is therefore much greater than that of the Army Minister!
"Lushunkou is a natural port that can dock large-scale high-sea sailing ships, and it is also a port that does not freeze all year round." Qiu Rong said, "At the same time, it is also a military port for the Qingyao Beiyang Navy. Although the defense is tight, the port facilities are relatively complete. Once it is The large soft-sailed ships I own that cost more than 10,000 stones can sail directly into the port, and the efficiency of transporting troops and food can be greatly increased!"
The so-called 10,000-stone ship refers to a ship with a load capacity of 10,000 shi, which is about 600 deadweight tons, and a displacement of about more than 1,000 tons. . The long-sea ships currently owned by the Nanyang Trading Company and the Ming Dynasty Military Department are basically of this level, and their "ancestor" is the Great Eastern, which was hijacked by Zhu Heji many years ago and then forcibly bought... This In Europe, this large-scale ship has long been obsolete, but now it has finally been taken over by the shipyards in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Songjiang.
Qiu Rong continued: "If we don't take Port Arthur, but land in a place without a big port, even if it is easy to capture, the subsequent transportation of troops and food will be a big trouble. It is better to be harsh at the beginning and take away Port Arthur. Got it!"
Zhu Heji nodded: "Since the navy and the Dengzhou camp have this intention...then take the capture of Lushunkou as the first goal after the war begins!"
The matter of the surprise attack has been settled with one stroke!
But it's not time to end the meeting and go back to each other's homes, because Zhu Heji still wants to play bigger.
"Qingyao has stationed 60,000 troops in Liaodong. If we don't mobilize some, it will be difficult for us to launch a surprise attack, right?" Zhu Heji looked at the Liaodong Peninsula on the big map with burning eyes, "Then how should we mobilize Liaodong? Qingyao?"
"We can attack Ningyuan first!" Zhao Zhongyi said, "Qingyao has been preventing us from attacking Liaodong, so all the soldiers are in Liaodong, and there are not many garrison troops in western Liaoning. At the same time, there are many fortresses left by the former Ming Dynasty in western Liaoning. If we capture a few and establish a firm foothold... it will be equivalent to dividing Qingyao's three major armies: the Liaodong Army, the Beijing-Tianjin Army, and the Kouwai Army. Kang Mazi will definitely counterattack with all his strength. .”
What he is talking about now is the strategy that Dengzhou Camp has been preparing for two years. It already has a fairly complete plan, but it does not suit Zhu Heji's wishes.
Zhu Heji asked: "Is it just Ningyuan?"
"Isn't one Ningyuan enough?" King Zhu Tian was stunned, "Our Dengzhou camp has a total of more than 70,000 people, and we have to guard against the Qingyao attack from Shandong. If we can send 60,000 people to the northern expedition to Liaodong and Western Liaoning, it will be overwhelming. If we want to attack Ningyuan to lure the enemy, Ningyuan must send at least one town, and the remaining three towns can be attacked at Lushunkou... If we divide our troops to attack elsewhere, there will not be enough troops to attack Lushun."
Zhu Heji shook his head, "Regardless of the soldiers in Dengzhou...the four towns are all concentrated in the Lushunkou area!"
"No division of troops?" King Zhu Tian asked, "Then how to mobilize Qingyao's Liaodong Army?"
"They are not divided into Dengzhou troops," Zhu Heji said, "We can send troops from elsewhere!"
"From somewhere else?" King Zhu Tian still didn't understand what his son meant. "Is it necessary to go directly from the south of the Yangtze River to the Bohai Sea by sea?"
"If you don't enter the Bohai Sea, why enter the Bohai Sea?" Zhu Heji shook his head, "Let's enter North Korea!"
Enter North Korea?
This time it was not King Zhu Tian who was stunned, but everyone in the map room was stunned.
In fact, everyone has suggested more than once in the past two years that Zhu Heji should attack North Korea...at least to destroy the Qing Dynasty's "concession" Haizhou Port on North Korea's territory.
Moreover, people in North Korea have been secretly contacting Ming Dynasty, hoping to ask Ming Dynasty to quickly send troops to help North Korea drive away the Tartars.
However, Zhu Heji could only talk but not act. He sent envoys to North Korea and asked King Li Yin of North Korea to expel the Qing and foreign barbarians from Haizhou. On the other hand, it did not send any troops to North Korea, and even rejected the navy's proposal to send warships to attack Haizhou Port.
Due to Zhu Heji's "gentlemen talk but not take action" and Kangxi's decisive dispatch of troops, the "Northern Expedition Faction" in North Korea has long lost power. Now the ministers assisting King Li Zhen are almost all "Shiqing Faction".
You guys originally thought that Zhu Heji's intention was to pacify the country first before fighting against the outside world. Unexpectedly, now that a civil war is about to start, he is thinking of sending troops to North Korea... This is King Zhu Daming's plan, guys. It's becoming increasingly difficult to understand.
"Your Majesty," Zhuge Sanhe, who was good at calculating and calculating, was a little confused about Zhu Heji's thoughts, so he frowned and reminded, "This country of Korea joined the Sixteen-Nation Alliance under the pressure of Qing Yao. ...Although most of the sixteen countries are quite far away from North Korea, Japan may still send troops under the instigation of the Netherlands and Spain. If we want to take action against North Korea, we'd better find a way to mobilize Let’s go to Japan.”
Right Prime Minister Yu Zhongxian also echoed: "Your Majesty, Tokugawa Mitsuki, a disciple of the great scholar Zhu Shunshui, is now in a high position. Who is the deputy general of the shogunate? Perhaps Mr. Shunshui can be asked to come forward and persuade the Tokugawa shogunate to be on good terms with me and withdraw from the Ten Six Nations Alliance.”
Zhu Heji nodded and said with a smile: "That's fine, you can ask Mr. Shunshui to work hard. But on the Ryukyu issue, we can't waver at all!"
Zhuge Sanhe and Yu Zhongxian both frowned a little. If the Ming Dynasty did not give in on the Ryukyu issue, how could the shogunate withdraw from the Sixteen-Nation Alliance?
In fact, the Tokugawa shogunate was drawn into the Sixteen-Nation Alliance by the Dutch and Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty because the Ming Dynasty always used the Ryukyu issue to stimulate them.
They joined the alliance not so much to oppose the Ming Dynasty, but rather to use their alliance as a bargaining chip to engage in diplomacy with the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, if Ming Dynasty used thunderous means to capture Ryukyu earlier, the Tokugawa shogunate would hold its nose and admit it... Ryukyu is not the territory of the Tokugawa shogunate, but the territory of the Satsuma clan.
After the Satsuma Domain took possession of Ryukyu, they used Ryukyu's special status to circumvent the Tokugawa Shogunate's seclusion order and secretly trade with foreign barbarians and the Ming Dynasty, which did not benefit the shogunate's rule at all.
But now that the shogunate is under pressure from public opinion, it is difficult to cede Ryukyu to the Ming Dynasty... and the Ming Dynasty is just "talking". In this case, even if Tokugawa Mitsuhiro is willing to help, the shogunate will probably not withdraw. Sixteen-Nation Alliance.
Not only will they not withdraw, they may even send three to five hundred warriors to station at the Japanese Pavilion in Busan to show toughness when the Ming Dynasty sends troops to Korea.
Zhu Heji paused and then asked Zuo Chunqiu: "Commander Zuo, how are we going to start the situation in North Korea? Is there any record in the Military Counselor's Office?"
"Report to your Majesty," Zuo Chunqiu replied, "Now there are two factions in Korea: the Confucian Party and the Confucian Party. The leader of the Confucian Party is Yin Yin, the original leader of the Northern Expedition and the Southerners Party. He After being squeezed out of the center by the North Korean king Li Yin, he colluded with the old and out-of-power Westerner Party leader Song Shiyeol. Both wanted to squeeze out the Confucian Party around Li Yin and return to the North Korean center... We can provide assistance to the Confucian Party in North Korea, let them start an uprising in Seoul, the capital of North Korea, and try to control the North Korean monarch, so that we have an excuse and support to send troops."
"Okay!" Zhu Heji nodded, "That's it! But we can't keep Li Yan!"
