Everyone turned their heads and saw that the person who spoke was Fang Guozhen's son and Fang Mingqian's cousin. Fang Li, who was serving as a staff general and commanding the three navy guards this time, suddenly became convinced.
In fact, on their way to the Weiyuan today, they all wondered why He Rong would hold this meeting. Although He Rong had not held a formal meeting to discuss this matter before, the topography of Annan was there, and the two
The position of Beijing was placed there, and everyone discussed privately that it was best to land in Yi'an; they later learned from the Jin Yiwei sent to Annan that there was a natural harbor thirty miles north of Yi'an city, and it was not available at this time.
Since it has not been developed by the Annamites, the landing site must be near this natural harbor. This does not require a meeting to determine.
So after He Rong asked the question, the generals did not answer for a while because they were not sure what he meant. It was not until Fang Li stood up and spoke, and said such a common thing, that everyone understood why.
He Rong is accumulating credit for Fang Li! This is a formal meeting, not a private discussion. If He Rong adopted Fang Li's advice and won the battle, it can be recorded as a contribution to Fang Li. If it happens later
If Fang Li makes some meritorious deeds during the march and battle, he may be rewarded for his merits after the war and may be granted the title of hereditary commander, appointed as the commander of the capital, or even the commander of the capital.
The reason why he takes care of Fang Li in this way is also very simple: the Fang family is very powerful in the Navy. Together with the Yu family, it is almost the most powerful family in the Ming Dynasty Navy. Fang Mingqian is in a legitimate position, so he naturally has to take care of Fang Mingqian.
Li. If his younger brother or son becomes a general in the Navy in the future, the Fang family will also take care of them.
In particular, after Yunxi became the emperor's grandson, he paid more and more attention to the "professionalism" of the military: not only did he create a special naval class when he established the martial arts hall, but after he succeeded to the throne, he also proposed that land generals should not command naval battles, and the naval guards in various places were
The three major naval divisions were merged and established, and even the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion was rebuilt and all naval garrison stations were moved to the same Governor's Mansion. It was just because the expedition against Annan was delayed. All this can be shown that although it can still be done by them now
These princes and noble families serve as commanders of naval battles, but in the future, only naval generals will inevitably serve as commanders.
This gave He Rong an opportunity. He Rong knew that there were countless outstanding generals in the Lu Division, and he himself could only be ranked at the bottom. His brothers and sons were all mediocre people, and there would be no future in continuing to hang out in the Lu Division.
I was worried about this. It happened that at this time the emperor was promoting the separation of the navy and the army, and most of the noble families were unwilling to let their children join the navy; so he decided to let his younger brothers, sons, and nephews transfer to the navy. Now the navy
There is a shortage of talents. After studying in the martial arts hall, they will be considered high-end talents. With the support of the Fang family, it will not be difficult for them to succeed in the Navy.
Not everyone present could understand this truth, but they all knew clearly that He Rong was taking care of Fang Li; as for the reason for taking care of him, it was probably because the Fang family was currently in His Majesty's use.
"Fortunately, Xue Xiran is just a member of a thousand households now. No matter how biased He Rong is, he cannot be allowed to participate in such a meeting. Otherwise, he should be the one to say something that even children understand today." Someone complained in his heart.
Naturally, He Rong didn't know what everyone was thinking. After Fang Li finished speaking, he said, "Commander Fang is right, and I think so too? Do the generals have any objections?"
After everyone expressed no objection, He Rong said: "In that case, we will land at a place called Pingzhang five miles north of the natural port. If the first batch of soldiers to land are not Annan on the beach,
The soldiers will be on guard, and they will immediately go south to occupy the natural port; if there are soldiers on guard, they will defeat the garrison and seize their camps to resist the incoming enemy forces. The other troops will go south to occupy the natural port and serve as the navy's base in Annan.
station."
"Commander Lu, you command two guard posts including the Elephant Guard, and together with 5,000 wolf soldiers, 5,000 Yao soldiers, and 5,000 local soldiers, you will be the first batch of landing troops to land in Pingzhang."
"Yes, General He." Lu Xian stood up and said.
"Commander Cao, you command the Wuchang Guard and two other guard posts, together with five thousand Wolf Soldiers, five thousand Semu Army, three thousand Li Soldiers, two thousand Fusang Army, and three hundred Gaoshan Soldiers from Taiwan Town.
The second batch of landing troops landed in Pingzhang. If the first batch of landing troops are fighting with the Annan people, you immediately go south to occupy the natural port; if the first batch of landing troops did not encounter the Annan generals, you will be in Pingzhang.
Set up a camp to prepare for the Annan army that is coming soon."
"Yes, General He." Cao Tai stood up and agreed.
He Rong then ordered everyone's responsibilities one by one. After completing the instructions, he asked: "Do you have any questions, generals?"
"General He, according to the news, the Annamese people laid more than 700 miles of wooden stakes on the seashore to defend against the Ming Dynasty soldiers coming across the sea. Among them, Thanh Hoa and Ngai An are the key defensive areas, with wooden stakes stretching for dozens of miles.
There is no break, and it is only less than two feet below the water. Unless it is a small boat with less than 100 pieces of material, it will be difficult to pass."
"And according to the news sent back from Zhang Shuai, the Annan people already have muskets and artillery. The muskets are just that. Although the penetration of armor is very powerful, the range is not as high as that of crossbows. You can use crossbows to deal with them; but cannons have a longer range.
Even a thousand-pound cannon can shoot a shell two miles away. Our small boats cannot carry artillery. What if the landing troops encounter the Annamite artillery?" one person said.
He Rong turned his head slightly and looked in the direction where the voice came from, and saw that it was the general of the Fusang Army, Wo Laiye, who spoke.
The Fusang Army is an army composed of people drawn from Fusang after I came to ask for orders from Yunxi. They are not many in number, only more than 2,000 people in total, but each has martial arts. If they fight one-on-one, the Ming Dynasty will not be able to fight.
Among the hundreds of thousands of troops heading south, few could defeat them.
But everyone immediately discovered their shortcomings: they hardly understand the military formations of large-scale armies. Once the number of people increases, it is easy to lose the organization and fall into a situation of fighting independently. One person of the Fuso Army can defeat several soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and a hundred
Humans can defeat the Ming army of two to three hundred people, but the Fusang army of more than two thousand people will not be the opponent of the Ming army of more than two thousand people.
It is said that such soldiers are most suitable to be scouts. He Rong also had plans to assign them to various armies as scouts; but firstly, most of these people did not know how to ride horses, and secondly, they were unwilling to separate. He Rong
In the end, I could only let go of my thoughts.
Although the Fusang Army is small, it is an independent army after all, and it is not a Semu people, so He Rong also called me to this meeting.
He Rong was stunned when he saw it, and then said: "Of course the general knows what you said, but since the Annan people had no known artillery before, it can be seen that their number of artillery must not be many.
.Now that our army is confronting them in Duobang City, the Hu family and his son must leave artillery to guard the two capitals. How many cannons can be left to defend other places? Even if there are artillery in Yi'an City, we heard that our army landed in Pingzhang.
If they pull the cannon over again, our army has already occupied that natural port."
"But even if our army occupied the natural port, we would not be able to clear a waterway that could accommodate large ships to enter the port for a while. It would take more than ten days. If the Annamites brought the artillery over to bombard our army, our army would
There is still no way to counter them." I Laiya added.
He Rong was a little impatient: "Our army has 150,000 people. How many soldiers can the Hu family and his son leave to garrison in Yi'an? Cannons are not easy to transport, and the land in Annan is soft, so it is almost impossible to transport them during a war. If
If the Annamites dared to take their cannons out of the city, they sent troops to seize their cannons and use them to attack the city."
"General He, as far as I know, Annan's combat power is not weak. Under the bombardment of artillery, our army may not be able to capture their artillery." I Laiya said again.
"Shut up, you underestimate the combat power of our Ming army! The little Annan people would have been crushed by the army led by Zhang Shuai if it were not for their honor and geographical location. If our army defended the port and the enemy came to attack, the status of host and guest would be reversed, and our army
We will win." He Rong said.
Hearing this, I did not dare to say anything more and could only sit down in disbelief. There were people present who had similar views to me and had some objections to He Rong's battle plan, but they did not dare to correct them at this time.
Seeing that no one said anything after what he said, He Rong said, "Since no one has any objection to this, it's settled."
He gave a few more instructions, stood up and left the cabin. The generals also stood up one after another to return to the ship they were on. They still needed to convey orders to the next-level generals. Although there was still half a day left, they still had to wait until they arrived.
It is not easy to send orders at sea. If the order is passed down one level at a time, half a day may pass, so they have to return to their original ship as soon as possible.
Lu Xian walked out of the cabin and walked towards the right bow. He had previously led troops to station in Hepu, Lianzhou Prefecture, so the Ningyuan he was riding was to the north of the Weiyuan.
His face was full of joy at this time. He was appointed as the commander of the first batch of landing troops this time, which was equivalent to the vanguard. As long as the battle went smoothly, the first prize would definitely be his, so how could he not be happy?
Another general walking beside him secretly wondered: Lu Xian is not an ordinary person. He is the Prince Consort, and his wife is Princess Runing, the fifth daughter of Zhu Yuanzhang. It is said that she should have a high status and have no shortage of opportunities to fight.
Why are you so happy to be a pioneer?
In fact, this general did not understand Lu Xian's situation. Although Lu Xian's father was a marquis and his wife was a princess, in the 23rd year of Hongwu, his father Lu Zhongheng was implicated in the Hu Weiyong case and was not only deposed as a marquis but also executed. Fortunately, he
His father was killed only because Zhu Yuanzhang needed to 'clear out' some of the heroes. He was also the Prince Consort, so he was not implicated. He still lived a wealthy life, but he lost the opportunity to go out to fight.
Fortunately, after Yunxi succeeded to the throne, some people involved in the Hu Weiyong case were partially rehabilitated. Although they did not overturn their charges, they pointed out that these people's merits outweighed their faults, and their descendants re-conferred hereditary positions. Lu Xian even restored the titles of his father and ancestors.
, although he is just a Liuhou.
But even so, people like Lu Xian are still not reused and are just living in the capital.
Therefore, Lu Xian cherishes this hard-earned opportunity to go on the expedition. He was so happy when he learned that he was appointed as a forward.
'When I win this battle, your majesty may be happy to make me a prince, which will completely restore my father's glory. Even if the credit this time is not enough to make me a prince, I can continue to go out to fight in the future. One day
Can restore Spyker.'
Just as Lu Xian was thinking about it, someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder. He immediately turned around and saw Cao Tai, Marquis of Xuanning, who was also a general like him. Cao Tai had previously been an unsuccessful noble like him, and the two of them
The friendship was not bad, so he stopped and said, "Cao Tai, what's the matter?"
Cao Tai pulled him aside, looked at no one around, and said to him, "What do you think of He Rong's plan this time?"
"Is there something wrong with He Rong's plan?" Lu Xian immediately realized what he meant.
"Although He Rong is a meritorious general and has led troops to fight as early as the early years of Hongwu. He has been fighting for thirty years and has rich military experience, but this time he had too many distracting thoughts and did not see the matter clearly."
"Thang Long City is on the south bank of the Red River, not far from Do Bang City. If Do Bang City falls, Thang Long will definitely not be able to hold it. The Hu family and his son will not leave any troops behind in Thang Long."
"The cities that the Hu family and his son must defend are only the four cities of Duobang, Xidu, Yi'an, and Haiphong. The rest can be abandoned. Annan has a total population of nearly seven million, and at this time there are four to five million troops.
Strangely, it is possible to deploy a hundred thousand troops in Yi'an City and nearby cities. Although they are not in the right time, they have the advantage of the location, and at least the number of people and people can be equal to our army. From this point of view, our army may not necessarily be able to defeat Yi.
If He Rong, an Annan man from An, directs the war with his current thoughts, he will probably suffer a big loss." Cao Tai said sadly.
Although Cao Tai did not have a high official position due to his young age, he was quite capable. Historically, during the Lan Yu case, he was regarded as Lan Yu's accomplice and was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang. So he could tell at a glance what He Rong's current mental state was.
There were problems and the plans we made were not well thought out, so I was a little worried.
Although Lu Xian is not as capable as him, he is not an easy person. After hearing his explanation, he immediately understood that his worries were justified. However, "But Cao Tai, let's go and persuade He Rong at this time. What do you think?"
Will he accept it?" he said.
"Hey." Cao Tai sighed. Given He Rong's current situation, he would definitely not accept it.
"In my opinion, you might as well relax for the time being. No matter how many troops the Annamites have in Yi'an or how likely they are to win, it is impossible to guess where we will land, so there will be no setbacks in the landing battle."
"When we seize the natural port later, or when the attack on Yi'an City suffers a slight setback, we can persuade He Rong. He should have calmed down by then, and it should be effective," Lu Xian said.
"What you said makes sense. Anyway, let's do it like this." Cao Tai said: "I hope the Annan people don't happen to arrange many troops in Pingzhang."
"The Hu family and his son are not immortals. How could they predict where they would land and arrange for troops to garrison them?" Lu Xian said with a smile.