Chapter 697 Situation in the coming year
Foreign envoys were invited to watch this amphibious landing exercise. It was not that the Haihan Ordnance Industry Department was preparing to sell them any new weapons. It was simply that the military thought it was time to routinely demonstrate combat effectiveness. After all, Haihan has not invited foreign military observers to participate in any major military operations in the past two years, and it is rare to have such an opportunity to demonstrate military power. It is necessary for Haihan to use this method to let allies confirm that the combat effectiveness of the Haihan Civilian Army is still in a strong position in the military alliance.
Tactics like artillery cover and landing were used many times by the Haihan militia when they participated in the Annan Civil War. Both the Annan people and the Portuguese had witnessed the amphibious capabilities of the Haihan militia on the battlefield, and the Portuguese Back then in Hoi An City, I was really beaten up by the Hai Han militia. But they found that the situation they knew was still the same as two years ago, and it was still somewhat different from the tactics used by the Haihan Militia in exercises.
Although there is no exact measurement, it can be confirmed with the naked eye that the range of the Haihan artillery has been significantly improved compared to two years ago. The firepower strike distance of the ship-based artillery is enough to cover the Army's calm implementation of the landing. If the defender hopes If long-range weapons are used to fire against the landing troops, they will probably find in despair that this method is completely ineffective in the face of the new artillery equipped by the Haihan Militia. Haihan's new landing ship can ensure that soldiers and heavy equipment can land ashore in a very short time. The time required to build a beachhead seems to have been shortened a lot compared to two years ago. Although the Haihan Militia only used two new landing ships in the exercise, anyone who is not a fool can imagine what it will be like when such warships appear in large numbers on the battlefield.
However, after watching the exercise, Tao Donglai's words somewhat comforted the anxious envoys: "The increased military power of Haihan Militia can not only protect Haihan's own interests, but also protect allies when they are threatened by the outside world. At this time, Haihan will also consider whether to use force to assist.”
The envoys believed that Tao Donglai's statement was not just rhetoric, because just a few months ago, the Haihan people sent troops to Fujian to assist the local government in defeating the coalition forces of the Dutch East India Company and the pirate gang Shibazhi, and this time An important reason for sending troops was that Fujian General Xu Xinsu was one of Haihan's allies. Haihan's positive attitude on this matter indeed gave other allies great confidence. Moreover, the upgrade of Haihan's weapons may not be a bad thing for the allies, because it means that Haihan's arms sales list is on the list
Three days later, in the Victory Fort conference hall, Ning Qi was explaining to the members of the executive committee some of the major events that would happen in the coming year in the original history. Such a lecture will be arranged at the end of each year so that the Executive Committee and relevant departments can formulate response strategies in advance. Of course, for some major historical events, this preparation period will be longer. For example, in order to prevent Shibazhi from gaining control of the sea in Fujian, Haihan began to make corresponding arrangements from the beginning of the crossing.
"Our focus this year is still on the mainland. There is good news and there is not so good news." Ning Qi said on the podium: "Let me talk about the good parts first, so that everyone can relax Some.”
Ning Qi took a sip of water and began to narrate: "First of all, what I want to say is that in the original history, the next year in Fujian will also be an uneven year. Pirate leader Liu Xiang... Yes, it was 1628. Liu Xiang, who was defeated by us at the Pearl River Estuary at the end of the year, would successively attack the coastal towns of Fuzhou and Guangzhou in September of this year, and many Ming officials would be killed or captured. However, this scene is probably unlikely. It will appear next year, and Liu Xiang can only retreat in Penghu now, without the ability to attack the coast of Fuguang.”
"I hope he can come out boldly. It would also be good to kill a few leaders of Shibazhi before attacking Penghu." Wang Tom responded.
"Fujian will definitely not be able to make big waves. After taking Penghu next year, we will basically control the southeastern coast." Ning Qi is also extremely optimistic about the situation and expressed his attitude without hesitation.
"As for the bad news, it is mainly concentrated in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty." Ning Qi changed the topic and returned to the topic: "There are two things that deserve our attention this year. One is the Dengzhou Rebellion, and the other is the Dengzhou Rebellion. It’s the peasant army rebellion in Shanxi.”
The protagonist of the Dengzhou Rebellion was Kong Youde, who was a miner from Liaodong. He joined the army during the Tianqi period and served under Mao Wenlong, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong. In the first year of Chongzhen, Yuan Chonghuan supervised Liaodong and took the opportunity to execute Mao Wenlong. After that, a series of civil strife broke out in his old department. Kong Youde and others later led his troops to leave Pidao and crossed the sea to join Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai.
In August 1631, the troops led by Kong Youde mutinied due to supply problems on their way to the northeastern front for reinforcements, which soon turned into a mutiny. Kong Youde named himself Marshal of the Capital and no longer obeyed the orders of the Ming court. In the following months, Kong Youde led his troops to plunder places in Shandong, coerce the people, and wage guerrilla warfare.
In the first month of 1632, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming cooperated internally and externally, captured Dengzhou, and captured governor Sun Yuanhua, guard Song Guanglan, sub-inspector Wang Mei and other officials alive. Afterwards, Kong Youde led troops to attack Huangxian, Laizhou and other places. Taking advantage of the Ming court's slow response, he seized the time to expand the size of the rebel army, making it impossible for the Ming court to quell the rebellion in a short time, and Shandong had half of the province. As a result, they all fell into war, and countless people were killed, injured, and fled their homes.
"For us, the Dengzhou Rebellion has two main points. One is the large number of refugees caused by the war. If possible, we'd better try to accept them. This is probably a major way to introduce immigrants in the coming year. The second is Kong Youde In the second half of the year, they will flee across the sea to the Liaodong Peninsula due to unfavorable conditions in the war, and finally defect to the Tatars outside the customs. This is something we must try our best to prevent." Ning Qi briefly introduced the Dengzhou Rebellion and then made a decision. summary.
"I have seen some claims before that Kong Youde's defection brought the Ming Dynasty's artillery and artillery technology to the Tatars. Is it because of this that we should stop him?" Wang Tom asked.
"It's not just the leakage of advanced military technology." Ning Qi explained: "This man has been in the army for many years and is familiar with the deployment of the Ming Dynasty's military power. Later, he caused a lot of trouble for the Ming Dynasty. In 1636, he was made king by the Tatars, and then He led the Qing army to attack North Korea, and finally defeated North Korea to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, so that Ming Dynasty lost the power to contain the Qing army from the east. Later, this guy entered the Pass with the Qing army and fought all the way to Guangxi. He killed a lot of Han people. .”
"So we want to snipe Kong Youde, actually to save the Ming Dynasty?" Wang Tom suddenly said: "But it is not easy to achieve this goal, you must know that our current scope of influence only reaches Fujian, and is still far away from Shandong. At such a long distance, the risk of sending a small force on an expedition is too great, and sending a large force will cause supply problems. I personally do not agree with direct intervention. "
"I just raised this issue first. It is up to your military to make the final decision on whether to intervene and how to solve it." Ning Qi had no intention of arguing with Wang Tom on this issue. "Let's talk about the next question." Tao Donglai didn't intend to let the military make a decision immediately at this time, urging Ning Qi to continue explaining the issue.
"Another problem is the chaos in Shanxi." Ning Qi explained: "The Central Plains region has actually been in chaos for several years. Natural disasters and man-made disasters have led to more and more peasant armies suppressing them. In the second half of the next year, Gao Yingxiang, Luo Rucai, Zhang Xianzhong and other peasant armies will gather in Shanxi. You can imagine what kind of chaos there will be. What I want to say is that if there are no proper channels for handling the local refugees, they will either be coerced by the peasant armies, or they will be trapped. If possible, we should still try to accept more refugees. After all, this kind of acceptance does not require us to pay any political costs or exchange conditions, but it can gain a good reputation. "
"This is more difficult than Shandong!" As soon as Ning Qi finished speaking, Yue Zhiyun's voice rang out: "If it's a coastal area, we can still find a way to organize a fleet for rush transportation, but Shanxi is inland. The war is in chaos, do we still need to organize a rescue team to fight all the way in? ”
Ning Qi shrugged and said: "As I said just now, I am only responsible for identifying issues that need attention. As for how to deal with them, I still hope that everyone can make decisions through joint discussions."
"You are only responsible for creating problems, not solving them!" Tao Donglai said with a smile: "If you talk, other departments will have to break their legs!"
Ning Qi said sternly: "I'm not suggesting that we must interfere with these two things, but if we can use the chaos here to seek certain benefits for ourselves, I think we can still give it a try."
"With all due respect, this is really difficult to do." Sun Changmi, another head of the Shipping Department, also said: "Assuming that we can successfully capture Penghu next year, then even if we use Penghu as a base, we can reach Jiaodong The voyage to the peninsula is also nearly a thousand nautical miles, and during this voyage we have no stable and reliable supply point at all. It would be fine if it was a small group of people. After all, we still have two fast sailing ships, but we want to transport a large number of people. It is necessary to use a large fleet. Such a long voyage, the destination is a war zone, and there are no supply points on the way. This is really too risky.”
Wang Tom also agreed with Sun Changmi's statement: "Our external expansion has always been preceded by the military. Even when we went to Annan to collect refugees, we were escorted by the military. A voyage as far as Shandong would have been difficult without equipment. If armed ships are escorted, safety along the way will indeed become a problem, but if equipped with armed ships, the cost will be greatly increased. I think a more feasible way is to have at least one stronghold near the Yangtze River estuary before considering heading north. Expand routes. As for matters in Shanxi, I really don’t recommend getting involved. It’s too far away to ensure our own safety.”
"It's better to proceed slowly and steadily." Tao Donglai also prefers a conservative opinion: "We are taking every step very steadily now. Although the population growth cannot be said to be very fast, the annual increase is not bad. There is no need to take such risks." Big risk in trying to bring in immigrants from thousands of miles away.”
"But Ning Qi just talked about Kong Youde, I think our staff can make a good plan." Yan Chujie did not express his position on the immigration issue, but talked about another concern: "If Kong Youde succeeds in defecting to the Qing Dynasty, then indeed It will have a certain negative impact on the situation in Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty collapsed too quickly, which is actually not good for us. Even if we finally come out to clean up the mess and defeat the Qing army, we will just pick up a mess and spend a lot of money after the war. time to rebuild. I think the ideal situation is to let the Tatars continue to bleed the Ming Dynasty outside the pass, but cannot break the Ming Dynasty's northern defense line, so that we can make full use of the southern region. market to accumulate strength for its own development.”
"But don't forget that the battlefield you are talking about is 3,000 kilometers away from Sanya." Gu Kai, who also knew the history of the late Ming Dynasty, expressed doubts: "When Kong Youde fled to the Liaodong Peninsula, the Ming Dynasty was in Huang Long, the guard of Northeast Pi Island, also organized a wave of interceptions and led thousands of troops to fight. However, they were unable to intercept Kong Youde locally, which shows that they had a lot of troops when they fled. If we organize an army to go north, In addition to issues such as supplies, the number of troops is also a big issue, right?”
"If necessary, we can send the main battleships north. Judging from the previous battles in Fujian, the Majestic class will not have much problem in dealing with more than ten or twenty Ming Dynasty warships at sea at the same time. Moreover, Our ship has a very obvious advantage in speed, whether it is chasing the enemy or leaving the battlefield, it can be achieved relatively easily," Yan Chujie expressed his opinion.
"No matter how powerful the Majesty-class warship is, it still needs supplies. Especially for steam propulsion, supply ships carrying fresh water and coal must follow them all the time. If there is no reliable port in the area, our supplies will become a problem. "Gu Kai once again emphasized possible problems.
Ning Qi shook his head and said: "You don't need to argue too much about this issue. If we really want to send troops, we actually have other ways to think about how to obtain supplies."
"How do you say this?" Tao Donglai asked.
"Don't send troops in the name of Haihan. Let the governor of Fujian write to the court and ask for orders to send troops." Ning Qi put forward an idea that he had been considering for a long time.
(End of chapter)