These warships built by the Dachu Empire Navy were specially designed for maritime warfare.
The professional warships specially designed by the Naval Administration Department of the Navy are not the traditional warships under Zheng Zhilong that carry cargo and fight at the same time.
Even for these traditional warships, Zheng Zhilong actually had not many. Many of the ships he used for combat were actually ordinary merchant ships equipped with a small number of artillery.
In the face of professional warships, these lightly armed merchant ships are completely at a disadvantage. They are unable to run, fight, or withstand.
As long as the Dachu Empire has stepped up its personnel training in the past few years, first training a group of sailors and officers, then in two or three years, after these skilled sailors have obtained a large number of new warships, Zheng Zhilong's fleet will be nothing...
Even if you can't beat them one-on-one, the Da Chu Empire Navy can kill you with a heap at a ratio of two to one or even three to one.
Neither Luo Zhixue nor the generals of the Navy Department put their hope of defeating the enemy's navy in the superior combat effectiveness of their own single ships. Their thinking was very simple and clear.
Use more and better warships and more and better naval guns to kill the enemy alive!
No matter if your famous general is still alive and you can use your tactics well, I can blast you with hundreds of thousands of artillery pieces all the way and I will still blow you to pieces!
The Dachu Empire never competed with its enemies on tactics or anything like that, it was all about upright national strength!
Well, although the tactical abilities of many Ming army generals are not as good as those of the Chu army generals... Even if they really play tactics, the Chu army generals can now kill the half-hearted civilian generals in the Ming army!
However, the upper echelons of the Dachu Empire were still unswervingly on the path of winning with national strength and never making surprise attacks if they could push back evenly.
Just for stability!
Zheng Zhilong's fleet is just like that in the eyes of the Chu monarchs and ministers. They can't defeat it now, but they can definitely defeat him in as little as two years and no more than five years.
How? If a hundred warships are not enough, then let him send a thousand warships out and directly pile up Zheng Zhilong's fleet to death.
As for the past few years, even if Zheng Zhilong's fleet is still alive and kicking, it will not affect the Chu army's actions on the ground!
After all, no matter how powerful Zheng Zhilong's fleet is, he will not be able to get ashore. As long as their fleet cannot get ashore, it is impossible to stop the advancement of the Chu army's ground troops in southern Zhejiang and Fujian by relying solely on ground troops.
Taking over southern Zhejiang and Fujian is only a matter of time.
This time does not depend on how capable the Ming army or Zheng Zhilong's troops are, but on the Chu army's own marching speed and supply speed.
If the weather is good, the supplies are smooth, and the troops are replenished, the Sixth Division alone can fight all the way from southern Zhejiang to Fuzhou without the need for other troops.
Looking at the entire southern Zhejiang and Fujian, no Ming army can stop the main force of the Chu army like the Sixth Division.
The ground battle was stable. The only difference was that Fujian was captured a few months earlier or a few months later. In fact, the emperors and ministers of the Chu Empire didn't care much about this.
Anyway, southern Zhejiang and Fujian are both mountainous areas with complex terrain. This kind of place is not a land of plenty, nor is it a strategic location.
Therefore, the top leaders of Chu State have little interest in Fujian. They must win it, but a few months earlier and a few months later will not be a problem...
The battle plan to capture Fujian is not as high priority as capturing Ganzhou.
By capturing Ganzhou, the Chu Empire can continue to move south, then seize Nanxiong, then Shaoguan, and finally enter the Pearl River Delta Plain, seize Guangzhou, an important southern coastal port, and control the grain-producing area of the Pearl River Delta Plain.
Looking at the strategy of the Chu Empire, and looking at the terrain, output, location, etc. of several provinces in southern China, we will find that the Chu Empire has already controlled more than 80% of the essence of southern China, and the rest is leftovers. Although It is said that we should fight in the follow-up, but it doesn't matter if it is earlier or later.
To put it to the extreme, even if the Great Chu Empire leaves these areas alone for the time being and then attacks them again ten years later, there will actually be no fatal effects.
For the contemporary Chu State, the most important thing is not to capture Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other regions, but to accumulate strength to prepare for the Northern Expedition to seize the Xuhuai region, and then merge with the Northern Route Army stationed in Nanyangfuli, and to move in two directions at the same time advance suddenly and finally seize the entire area south of the Yellow River.
Advancing the battle line to the Yellow River area is an important strategic goal of the Chu Empire in the next stage. It is also for the purpose of further advancing into Beizhili, seizing Youzhou, and completely annihilating the Ming Dynasty.
But before this can be achieved, Yangzhou must be captured, and then a series of important cities on the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal such as Huai'an and Xuzhou must be captured, so as to ultimately control the entire southern section of the Yellow River of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.
Without the convenient replenishment of supplies through the canal, based on the huge consumption of ammunition and supplies by the army of the Dachu Empire, and considering the severe food shortage in the northern region due to natural and man-made disasters, if the army does not transport a large amount of food northward in time, then the army will be I'm afraid it will be difficult to defeat the enemy by then...
After all, the soldiers of the Chu army received very good rations. Basically, the rations for one soldier were equivalent to the rations for three ordinary soldiers in the Ming army.
At the same time, the main force of the Chu army also has a large number of mules and horses. These mules and horses do not only refer to the cavalry troops. In fact, the Chu army does not have many cavalry troops. These mules and horses mainly serve the infantry, artillery and baggage, especially In order to maintain mobility, the number of mules and horses in artillery troops and baggage troops is very large.
The artillery regiment of a main division alone has more than a thousand mules and horses used to transport artillery and ammunition.
And the food and grass consumed by these more than a thousand mules and horses is equivalent to thousands of infantry.
The Chu army's food and grass consumption to supply a main division was basically equivalent to the food and grass consumption of the Ming army of more than 50,000 people.
Guba
If several main divisions went north during the Northern Expedition, plus several garrison divisions that cooperated in the battle, it would be equivalent to the consumption of food and fodder for the Ming army's two to three hundred thousand troops.
With such a huge consumption of grain and grass, if the logistics are not smooth, we can still feed the enemy in grain-producing areas such as Jiangnan. If we go to the Central Plains and North China, where the ground is already full of hunger, it will be very difficult to feed the enemy. Much more.
The consumption of food and grass is high, as well as the consumption of ammunition and replacement of weapons. After all, the Chu army is fighting, and the Ming army knows that the guns and artillery will not stop during the war, especially when attacking a city, the artillery will continue to bombard for several days. .
There is not enough ammunition supply, but the Chu army's set of firepower crushing tactics cannot be used.
Therefore, in the opinion of the senior generals of the Chu Army, if the logistics cannot be guaranteed, the Northern Expedition would rather not be fought.
For the Northern Expedition, we must first solve the logistical supply problem.
Simply relying on land transportation is quite unreliable!
Relying on horse-drawn carriages, wheelbarrows, or even directly transporting such a huge amount of supplies to the north, the number of civilians who need to be mobilized is not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands.
And these civilians also have to eat and drink.
In the end, the Chu Empire sent out one hundred kilograms of grain, and only ten or twenty kilograms of grain arrived at the front line...
The consumption is too high and the cost is too high. Even though the Chu Empire has occupied large grain-producing areas such as the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, even if the Chu Empire has collected a large amount of money through confiscation and other methods, it cannot withstand such consumption.
If there is no other way, then you can only grit your teeth and do it, but now there is another way in front of the Da Chu Empire.
That is to seize the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, move north along the canal and the Yellow River, and use the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to transport logistics supplies in large quantities.
Based on these reasons, at the imperial military meeting held by Luo Zhixue in Jinling City on March 26, Chief of Staff Xu Zhixian formally submitted the Northern Expedition battle plan to Luo Zhixue.
The first step in this combat plan is to launch the Jiangbei Campaign.
The core of the Jiangbei Campaign was to capture Yangzhou, then Huai'an, and finally Xuzhou.
From the perspective of the art of war, this battle plan for the Jiangbei Campaign is unremarkable, even dull.
Because the entire combat plan has no artistry at all, just focus on superior troops and firepower, and then fight all the way north from Yangzhou along the canal and that's it.
However, Luo Zhixue attached great importance to this combat plan. At the imperial military meeting, he questioned Xu Zhixian and other senior generals in detail.
The angle of inquiry is not to talk about tactics or not, but to ask about logistics, supply, transportation, artillery preparation, etc.
Regarding these issues, the Army said that nothing was a big problem.
"We expect the 4th Division, 8th Division, 1st Guards Division, 1st Cavalry Brigade, 1st Mortar Regiment, 4th Mortar Regiment to be the main force in this battle, and the 13th Garrison Division, 14th The garrison division will cooperate with the battle."
"In addition, according to His Majesty's decree, the Second Guards Division will also send a reinforced regiment to the north to participate in the battle to test the actual combat effectiveness of rifles and new tactics."
"The total number of troops from the above-mentioned ministries participating in the entire Jiangbei Campaign is estimated to be 60,000!"
"In addition, in the direction of Chubei and Nanyang, Henan, the Second and Third Divisions, the First Defense Division, and the Fifth Defense Division will also go out according to the plan and conduct feint attacks on the troops on the front line of Ruzhou and Runing Prefecture to contain them. Enemy troops in that direction."
"After our army takes over the Fengyang and Xuzhou front lines, the North Route Army will engage in a pincer attack with various units in the north direction of the Yangtze River, striving to annihilate the main enemy forces in the above directions, especially Zuo Liangyu's unit, and capture the areas south of the Yellow River. Guide, Kaifeng, Henan Prefecture and other places."
As Xu Zhixian spoke, he pointed at the large map of China on the wall with his baton: "At this time, we can separate a main division to block Tongguan and restrict Sun Chuanting and other Ming armies from the east of Shaanxi. , while the main forces of the other ministries sent their troops to Shandong, and after capturing Shandong, they went straight to Youzhou along the canal!"
"This is the second stage of the Northern Expedition, the Hebei Campaign."
"It's worth noting that when we launch a large-scale Northern Expedition, the Eastern Banishers are very likely to take advantage of the chaos. In order to avoid subsequent troubles, our second phase of the operation must be fast. Even before we can capture Youzhou, we must first send troops to seal it off. To block the front line of Shanhaiguan, it would be best if we can capture the area. Even if we cannot capture it, we must build on the spot to block the Liaodong Ming Army and the Eastern Capture Army."
"Of course, even if we cannot control Shanhaiguan in time, it will not have a big impact on our final Northern Expedition strategy. If the Dongjie dare to enter the pass, we will directly look for opportunities to annihilate them in the area around Youzhou."
"No matter what, the entire Northern Expedition plan will be formulated smoothly and achieve the predetermined strategic goals. I have full confidence in this."
"If everything goes well, in the spring of next year, we can discuss how to send troops to Liaodong and quell the Eastern Conquerors!"
When Xu Zhixian said this, he looked very confident!
And his confidence comes from the national strength of the Chu Empire and the combat effectiveness of the Chu army.
He firmly believed that as long as his own logistics did not stretch, the army would not encounter any practical difficulties after moving north, and the capture of Beizhili would only take a year and a half.
Even if Dongli enters the pass, he can crush him directly!
