Hearing Lu Xingye ask himself, Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, and then said: "As the adults said before, if we directly send the fleet to the north to land, it is tantamount to hitting an egg with an egg against a stone. Even if it can temporarily defeat the local Ming army, it will still be a disaster." It’s difficult to continue to block the Ming army’s attacks again and again!”
"It would be much more feasible if we first capture an island to stock up on troops and supplies, and then land nearby when the time is right!"
"As for this island, you can choose Yuzhou Island in Haizhou in the early stage. This place is located in the hinterland of the Xuhuai coast, just across a river from the land. You can then march inland from here, or you can also be nearby for the army that will attack here later. Provide supplies.”
"Although it's only separated by a river, the strength of our navy is enough to prevent the enemy's cross-river counterattack. It won't be a big problem to capture it!"
Zheng Zhilong has been traveling at sea all his life, and he has a clear understanding of the conditions along the coast. Although he has rarely set foot in the waters north of the estuary of the Yangtze River, and his fleet mainly operates in the waters of Fujian and Zhejiang, he has no knowledge of the conditions in the surrounding waters. Still know more.
Lu Xingye asked him where it would be more suitable to land, and he directly mentioned Yuzhou Island as an alternative.
Lu Xingye said: "Yuzhou Island is a good option, but the distance is still a bit close, and the effect will not be too great. With the combat effectiveness of those in the army, once the Jiangbei offensive is launched, it will not take long to capture Jiangbei. By then we will have The role that Xiayuzhou Island can play is probably limited!"
Speaking of this, Lu Xingye glanced at Zheng Zhilong and said: "Your Majesty means to choose a foothold further north to prepare for subsequent landings in Youzhou, North Zhili, Tianjin Wei and even Liaodong!"
Liaodong?
When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he was a little stunned. He didn't expect that the Chu Empire had not even taken Yangzhou, so he decided to move to Liaodong.
Why are you going to Liaodong? You must be going to capture the East!
However, there is still a Ming court between Dongluo and the Dachu Empire.
Although the Ming Dynasty seems to have become the general of the Xia Dynasty, even if it is not attacked by external forces, it is estimated that it will not survive for a few years, but it still exists at least, and Chongzhen is still taking care of his Ming Emperor.
Under such circumstances, the Chu Empire did not consider how to capture the Xuhuai area in the north of the Yangtze River and then march to Zhili in the northeast of Shandong Province. Instead, it set its sights directly on the eastward capture in the east of Liaodong.
Do you think he is taking a long-term view? Or are they arrogant?
Although he had doubts and even puzzlements in his heart, Zheng Zhilong, who wanted to keep a low profile and show obedience to avoid being burned by the Chu Dynasty monarchs and ministers, still brushed aside these doubts and immediately thought about it and said: "If it is to If you land in the north, you will be in the Yellow Sea. There are not many islands in the Yellow Sea, and there are few close to the mainland!"
"A more suitable one should be the Changshan Eight Islands in Dengzhou Prefecture, Shandong. There are Changshan Island, Dazhu Island, Xiaozhu Island, Heidao, Shamen Island, Huangcheng Island and other islands. To the north of the Changshan Eight Islands is Liaodong Island. Jinzhou on the peninsula, with Penglai in Dengzhou, Shandong Province to the south, has been the throat of the Yellow Sea since ancient times and is very important."
"In addition, there are more or less people living on these islands. In particular, several of the larger islands have water and fields. After capturing these islands, it will be more convenient to replenish food and water."
"Changshan Island is very close to Penglai, Dengzhou Prefecture, and the sea route is only about ten miles. If we use this place as a base for advancement, it will not be difficult to land in Dengzhou Prefecture."
While Zheng Zhilong was talking, Lu Xingye also searched on a large chart on the desktop. Although the chart was very crude, he could still see the location of Changshan Island on the chart.
After estimating the distance between Changshan Island and Dengzhou Prefecture, Tianjin, Jinzhou and other places, Lu Xingye nodded slightly and said: "This island is good!"
When Lu Xingye himself studied this chart before, he also saw Changshan Island marked on the chart, but how can I put it, Lu Xingye himself has never even seen the sea...
So if you ask him to directly finalize the battle plan based on the sea chart, to be honest, he is still a little worried.
Lu Xingye was not so bold as to formulate a battle plan and launch a large-scale landing operation just by looking at the sea chart.
And this was also the reason why he called Zheng Zhilong over to attend the meeting. Putting aside everything else, Zheng Zhilong was really familiar with the East Asian waters and naval warfare.
A high-level naval meeting basically finalized the strategic policy of seizing a number of coastal islands as advance bases. However, the specific islands to seize, when to attack, and how to attack all still need to be discussed.
In order to obtain more information, Lu Xingye ordered the Beiyang Fleet to organize a reconnaissance fleet to go north along the coastline to some islands such as Haizhou Yuzhou Island and Shandong Coast to conduct actual surveys and prepare for the subsequent actual landing.
When the Beiyang Fleet dispatched a fleet of more than 20 warships to the north for reconnaissance, the navy was also preparing for subsequent cross-sea landing operations, including the deployment of warships and land combat forces.
At the same time, coordination with the army is also needed. After all, the navy's own land combat strength is not large. It is okay to fight a dozen small-scale ground battles, but it is unreliable if it is a large-scale battle.
Therefore, for a real fight, the army also needs to send troops to accompany the fleet northward.
The Army also expressed approval for the Navy's combat plan. After all, the Navy captured the northern coastal islands and threatened the coasts of Shandong and Beizhili. It could contain a group of Ming forces. This way, when the Army launches a large-scale Northern Expedition, , the resistance encountered will be smaller.
Therefore, the Army stated that the Army will dispatch a mixed brigade to cooperate with the Navy in operations, and will allow this mixed brigade to conduct a series of adaptive training in advance such as boat navigation, landing operations, and anti-landing operations.
The navy is a little worried. If there is only one mixed brigade with a total strength of four to five thousand people, is it a bit too small? You must know that once it goes north to land, the brigade may have to go deep alone. It is easy to suffer losses if the force is small.
In response to this, Lieutenant General Xu Zhixian of the Army chuckled: "There is no need for the Navy to worry about this. This mixed brigade will definitely not let the Navy down!"
Lu Xingye was confused and asked: "Oh? Are you going to transfer a brigade from the First Division? Or is your Majesty going to send the First Guards Division to participate in this combat mission?"
Xu Zhixian shook his head slightly: "No, it is the newly formed 15th Mixed Brigade."
"We just decided to transfer some troops from the 10th and 11th Divisions to form a new mixed brigade, which is the 15th Mixed Brigade."
As soon as he heard about the 10th and 11th Divisions, Lu Xingye immediately understood why Xu Zhixian was so confident.
"Are you going to send out new-style troops to fight? Aren't you saying that these new-style troops are the main force of the Northern Expedition and cannot be easily mobilized?"
Although Lu Xingye is from the navy, he is somewhat familiar with the situation in the army next door. Since last year, the army has begun to produce and equip new flintlock muskets, and based on the development of the new type, it established the Second Guards Division, The 10th Division, the 11th Division, and several main forces.
The reason why there are only these few troops is because the production capacity of flintlock muskets is limited. Until now, the monthly output of Hantian Arsenal has only been 5,000 flintlock muskets.
The newly built Dangtu Arsenal is still in the trial production stage because a large number of projects have not been completed, and its monthly output is only a few hundred.
Xiangyang Arsenal and Changsha Arsenal do not even have production lines for flintlock muskets, but still produce matchlocks. After all, the main rifles in the Chu army are still matchlocks, and the demand for matchlocks in various troops is still huge.
Considering the cost and production capacity issues, it is impossible for the Da Chu Empire to stop the production and equipment of matchlock guns and switch to flintlock guns all at once.
Therefore, it is also very necessary to retain the necessary matchlock production lines.
The flintlock rifles produced previously were mainly used to equip the four new main forces of the Second Guards Division, the 10th Division, the 11th Division, and the 15th Mixed Brigade.
In addition, the palace guards and other garrison units also changed to flintlock muskets.
However, these units equipped with flintlock muskets have been gradually formed since last year, but they have never been deployed to the front line to participate in combat. They have been conducting various drills in the military camps in Jinling City and Jiangpu for a long time in preparation for the Northern Expedition.
From the very beginning, these main forces were prepared for the Northern Expedition. The Army had never planned to use these main forces in other directions, so they had been subjected to hard training, even if they were the earliest second-ranked troops in the army. The same goes for the Guards Division.
Except for these five troops, no other troops are equipped with flintlock muskets.
Due to the insufficient production of flintlock muskets and the continuous increase in the demand for main troops on the front line, the Chu army has successively expanded several mixed brigades equipped with flintlock muskets in the past year to alleviate the dilemma of too few main troops.
It can be seen from this that the focus of the army of the Chu Empire has been fully shifted to the preparation of the main force of fusiliers.
Now the Army plans to send out the 15th Mixed Brigade equipped with flintlock muskets to cooperate with the navy. More importantly, it wants to let this main force fight first to test the effectiveness of the flintlock muskets and new tactics through actual combat. In order to avoid any problems when the Northern Expedition is actually launched, it will be really troublesome.
After it was finalized that the 15th Mixed Brigade would go to sea on a ship with the Navy, the Army started the refitting plan of the First Division without stopping.
Although the current production capacity of flintlock muskets is relatively limited, after such a long time, it is still possible to squeeze out more than 10,000 flintlock muskets for the first division.
After all, the First Division has always been the number one ace unit in the Chu army. Its combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the two Guards Divisions. It is such an ace unit with rich combat experience, high military career, and relatively high individual soldier quality.
Equipping them with new flintlock guns can better bring out the role of their ace troops.
The Army hopes to completely complete the refitting of the First Division this winter and wait until next year...
It’s time for the Northern Expedition next year!
