Chapter 581 The Sharpest Spear and the Hardest Shield
When Xu Yingwei rushed back to Nanjing, it was already three days later.
For the past three days, Chongzhen has been watching the war games among the scholars in Yilun Hall. One moment, he divided his troops into two groups according to Zheng Sen's plan, another moment he followed Chen Zilong's canal push, and another moment he followed Yan Yingyuan's Dagukou beheading strategy.
Then carry out repeated war games based on different tactical ideas. If once is not enough, then do it twice. If two times is not enough, then do it three times.
"Xu Yingwei, I'm just waiting for you." Seeing Xu Yingwei, Chongzhen waved and said with a smile.
"Your Majesty, Xu Yingwei, please bow to the Lord Jin'an." Xu Yingwei bowed to Chongzhen, and then said, "I delayed the military flight due to personal matters, and please be punished by the Lord."
"Hey, it's nothing to delay any military aircraft."
Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "There is no rush for the Northern Expedition."
"Gah?" Xu Yingwei looked at Chongzhen in astonishment.
The Northern Expedition is not urgent at the moment? Then you are so anxious to call me back to Beijing?
Is it easy for me to finally spend some time with my wife and children?
"Youzhen, don't mind." Chongzhen patted Xu Yingwei on the shoulder and said with a smile, "After this battle is over, I will give you half a year's leave, no, one year's leave, so that you can spend time with your parents, wife and children."
After a pause, he added: "As for now, let's work with everyone to perfect the plan for the Northern Expedition."
"I accept the decree." The emperor said so, what else could Xu Yingwei say? Of course he must accept the decree.
Chongzhen briefly introduced the situation to Xu Yingwei, and Xu Yingwei immediately participated in the war game.
However, in addition to the three tactics of Zheng Sen, Chen Zilong and Yan Yingyuan, Xu Yingwei proposed a fourth set of tactics.
"Your Majesty, and colleagues, I think so." Xu Yingwei said, "The troops are divided into two groups from Liaodong and Shanxi to form an encirclement against the Jiannu in the capital. Not only is the pressure on logistical support high, but also they will be defeated by the Jiannu one by one.
, the great defeat in the Battle of Sarhu taught us a painful lesson: we must never divide our forces when facing a powerful enemy!"
"Advancing along the Grand Canal, you will have to face countless cannons and fortresses."
"In this way, the Northern Expedition will inevitably be protracted, and it may take a year."
"After all, it is more than 1,500 miles to fight all the way from Xuzhou to Beijing."
"According to the information provided by the Secret Reconnaissance Section, Jian Nu has built hundreds of gun tower communities along the Grand Canal. The number of gun towers and forts exceeds 100,000! It is not easy to destroy so many gun tower fortresses.
."
"It is only more than three hundred miles from Dagukou to Beijing, but Dagukou is also the focus of Jiannu's defense."
"From Dagukou to Tianjin and then to Beijing, Jiannu has built no less than 3,000 gun towers along the Wei River, and the scale of these gun towers is much larger and stronger than the gun towers on both sides of the canal! The gun towers on both sides of the canal
The platform is only made of rammed earth, but the gun platform in Dagukou is mixed with glutinous rice juice and straw, and its strength cannot be measured."
"Therefore, if we attack from Dagukou along the Wei River, we will inevitably fall into a protracted battle."
Speaking of this, Xu Yingwei walked to the map, took the long wooden pole from Yan Yingyuan, pointed to the mouth of the Chaohe River about fifty miles north of Dagukou, and said: "So my opinion is to land here, and then go up the Chaohe River to reach
Sanhe County, this means that logistic baggage and artillery can be transported via the Chaohe River waterway with minimal cost and speed."
"After arriving at Sanhe, Beijing will be close to Chichi."
Hearing this, the scholars in Yilun Hall suddenly burst into flames.
Because Xu Yingwei provided a new idea that had never been seen before.
Chongzhen also nodded happily, Xu Yingwei is a kid who is smarter than others.
Most of the other scholars couldn't break out of the old ideas or frameworks. They either didn't care about logistics support at all like Zheng Sen, or they only knew how to march along the canal. Among these many scholars, Xu Yingwei was the only one who thought of marching along the Chaohe River.
Because the waterway of the Chaohe River can also transport baggage and cannon.
Yan Yingyuan sighed sincerely: "By marching troops from the Chaohe River, we can not only bypass Jiannu's gun towers at Dagukou and both sides of the Weihe River, but also carry out a decapitation operation against Beijing. This idea is much smarter than mine."
After a pause, he turned to Xu Yingwei and said, "I might as well be honest."
"Brother Gao Heng said something serious. I just like to think about things when I have nothing to do."
"When it comes to making decisions before the battle, I can't compare to Brother Jianheng."
"Okay, you two should stop flattering each other." Chongzhen interrupted with a smile.
After a pause, he continued: "Let's make another deduction according to Youzhen's method. This time, Qianheng will defend and Youzhen will attack, and the most extreme conditions must be followed, that is, hypocrisy, slavery, Oirat Mongolia, and Kabul."
When Erkha and Mongolia joined forces to fight, the Pseudo-Shun sent 100,000 elite troops to leave Guguan Pass, while Inner and Outer Mongolia sent 200,000 cavalry to enter Juyongguan Pass!"
Hearing this, the scholars in Yilun Hall suddenly looked at each other, how could such a thing happen?
Isn't it too unreasonable for the Holy Spirit to assume such an assumption? It is absurd enough that the Pseudo-Subsect will join forces with the Jiannu, but it is even more absurd that the Oirat Mongols will send troops from distant Qinghai-Tibet.
Chongzhen smiled and said: "This is just a war game."
Xu Yingwei echoed: "What the Holy One said is absolutely true. In any war, you need to be fully prepared and prepare for the worst. If our Ming Dynasty can defeat Jiannu under such extreme conditions, then the Northern Expedition will be victorious!"
"Then let's start." Yan Yingyuan said, "I can't wait."
Jiang Tianyi quickly took several soldiers from the Staff Section to the sand table to place war games.
Ma Mingluan and a group of soldiers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs hurriedly gathered around, saying that this battle would definitely be exciting, because Yan Yingyuan and Xu Yingwei could be said to be the two most skilled soldiers in the Ming Dynasty.
If Yan Yingyuan is the strongest shield of the Ming Dynasty, then Xu Yingwei is the sharpest spear.
Now there is a direct contest between the sharpest spear and the strongest shield, look forward to it.
Chongzhen also had some inexplicable expectations. It looks good, and this war game will definitely be exciting.
As the offensive side, Xu Yingwei first began to arrange his troops: "Qin Butang led 130,000 soldiers from Huguang Town to occupy Chengtian Mansion, and beware of the puppet troops in the direction of Hanzhong."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Empress Li led 70,000 native soldiers from Sichuan Town to guard Meizhou and frighten Zhang's rebel soldiers."
"Dubutang controls Xuzhou and has more than 300,000 soldiers returning to Germany to guard the front line of Kaifeng. It can resist the puppet troops in the direction of Luoyang to the west, and can contain the slaves of various prefectures in Hebei to the north to practice their bravery."
"With these three towns plus Yunnan Town, Jingying, and Caojiang soldiers, we can ensure the safety of the rear."
All the scholars nodded. There is nothing much to say about this. The strategies for guarding the rear are basically the same. Except for Zheng Sen’s plan, which mobilized 100,000 soldiers from Xuzhou Zhentai, the other plans of Chen Zilong and Yan Yingyuan only used
The new army was formed, but not a single soldier was drawn from the four towns.
It is even more impossible for the Beijing camp soldiers and Cao Jiang soldiers to move.
Chongzhen must be commended here for being able to raise such a huge army in just four years, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers in these four towns was quite strong, and they did not need to pay for it.
The soldiers in the Beijing camp and the soldiers in Caojiang do not need to be paid.
Because the Jingying soldiers and the Caojiang soldiers also made reforms, they were given rewarded fields and did not have to pay taxes.
Therefore, the Jingying soldiers and the Caojiang soldiers have actually become the fifth Zhentai, that is, the Nanjing Zhentai.
So now, in addition to recruiting troops and the Navy needing to pay their troops in the Ming Dynasty, the troops stationed in the five towns of Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, Yunnan and Nanjing do not need to be paid.
Therefore, the monthly military salary expenditure is actually not much, less than 500,000.
Moreover, even if there is a war, military salary expenditures will not increase significantly, because Chongzhen has canceled military and war salaries, and large sums of reward money will only be needed after the battle is over.
But if we really want to recapture the capital Beizhi, reward money will not be a problem at all.
The 80 million acres of cultivated land in Beizhi alone could be sold for more than one billion!
Closer to home, after talking about the rear deployment, Xu Yingwei is about to send troops.
"The Northern Expedition is related to our national destiny for the next century, so we must devote all our efforts."
"All 270,000 new troops will be deployed in the Northern Expedition. The Ming Dynasty General Chamber of Commerce will be responsible for raising enough ships to ensure that 100,000 new troops plus supporting equipment and baggage can be transported ashore at a time."
"The Navy will be responsible for escorting the transport fleet throughout the entire process."
"If it is winter, the navy and transport fleet can only reach Dengzhou."
"From Dengzhou to Beitang at the mouth of the Chaohe River, the new army needs to march on ice."
"So the best time for the Northern Expedition is early April, after the North Sea thaws."
"When the North Sea thaws, not only will the new army be able to disembark directly from the Chaohe River mouth, but at the beginning of the landing, the navy can also use naval guns to provide artillery support to the army."
Upon hearing this, Chongzhen immediately expressed his position and said: "Then we will tentatively set it as early April."
"Okay, let's officially start." Xu Yingwei nodded and said, "Before the official dispatch of troops, I will move in the direction of Xuzhou, Dagukou and Gaizhou, and at the same time send Brother Damu and Brother Renzhong through multiple channels.
Brother Jie Jianheng's tactics were leaked to mislead the slaves, causing them to waste national power in the wrong direction."
Upon hearing this, Chongzhen immediately said: "Today's discussion is top secret, and no one is allowed to reveal a word!"
"According to the order!" Ma Mingluan and all the scholars present at the meeting agreed, their faces full of solemnity. From Chongzhen's reaction, they already knew that the next year's Northern Expedition would most likely adopt Xu Yingwei's tactics.
Chongzhen said to Yan Yingyuan again: "Jianheng, it's your turn to deal with it now."
Yan Yingyuan bowed to Chongzhen and said to Xu Yingwei: "Brother Youzhen's use of troops is like an antelope hanging its horns. There is no trace of it, but it cannot be separated from its origin. I only need to grasp one thing, that is, the convenience of water transportation!"
"Therefore, the Ming army's Northern Expedition will inevitably advance through the Grand Canal or sea route."
"So, no matter what Brother Youzhen says, I will only guard the Grand Canal and the Beihai strictly."
"Cannons have been built all along the Grand Canal, but there is no danger. The only thing we can worry about now is the Beihai."
"The entire North Sea coast stretches for thousands of miles. It is impossible to build beacon towers all over the place, but it is possible to build beacon towers every few miles along the coast."
"The beacon tower certainly has no defensive power."
"But at least it can provide early warning in time."
