Speaking of Malacca, several navy generals frowned!
In the past few years, most of the top people in the empire had basically known about the ambitions of the Holy Emperor Li Xuan.
Their beloved, great, eternal sage who is greater than the sun, the Son of Heaven, and the God Emperor Li Xuan wants to spread his grace throughout the universe so that the whole world can enjoy the emperor's grace and dew.
In order for many wild areas to enjoy the grace and dew of God Emperor Li Xuanhuang, they, the ministers, must also work harder.
For this reason, the senior leaders of the empire, or to be more precise, the ministers on duty in the Imperial Study Room, formulated a general policy for the expansion of the empire in the early years!
Going north, they want to regain the grasslands and even the far north, so that the wild northern plains can also welcome the light of the God Emperor.
To the south, they want to occupy the Southeast Asian islands and turn the fertile land there into farmland for the Chinese people!
To the west, they will follow the overland Silk Road, chasing the setting sun, spreading the rain and dew of the Holy Emperor to West Asia and even Europe.
Heading east, they want to cross the sea, bring glory to the troubled Fuso, and go to the legendary beautiful and rich America, turning it into the new granary of the empire and turning it into a paradise on earth!
Although this general policy of empire expansion has never had any formal document or even a specific plan, it does not prevent the empire from continuing to move forward towards this great goal.
In recent years, the empire's initial goal is to go north and south!
Or to be more precise, the empire's goal in recent years is to defeat the Tatars led by Anda Khan, and then wipe out the Oaras and Tubos.
Going south was to defeat the Portuguese, seize the Southeast Asian islands, and completely control the East Asian maritime trade, especially the spice trade, which could generate a lot of wealth.
Going north is a matter for the army and has nothing to do with the navy, so they don't care. Naturally, what the navy cares about is the strategy of going south.
And if you want to go south, it is inevitable that you will face the Portuguese!
There must be a battle between the empire and the Portuguese. This is the consensus of many naval generals.
For this reason, the navy has also formulated many war plans against the Portuguese, and these plans are all inseparable from one thing, which is to capture Malacca!
But is Malacca so easy to capture?
Absolutely not!
Malacca is the most important and even the only stronghold of the Portuguese in East Asia. It is self-evident that they attach great importance to Malacca.
Especially in the past five or six years, as the empire has encouraged maritime trade, the scale of maritime trade between the empire and the Portuguese has become larger and larger. The Portuguese have made countless money from it, so they have paid more attention to maritime trade in East Asia.
In addition, the empire has shown obvious intentions to expand southward in recent years. The Portuguese are not stupid, so they naturally know that Malacca will bear the brunt.
Therefore, in recent years, we have not forgotten to strengthen Malacca’s defense capabilities!
According to the intelligence obtained from the navy, the Portuguese are paying more and more attention to Malacca. Here, they have deployed a huge fleet.
In addition to the fleet, it is said that they also specially transferred local army soldiers, who have always been very valuable, from the mainland, numbering as many as a thousand.
You must know that the total population of the Portuguese is just this small. The population is small and the size of the army is also small. In addition, this is a maritime country with colonies all over the world. Whether it is army forces or maritime forces, they are quite scattered. Many colonies
The armed force is actually only one or two hundred people, no more than a few hundred people.
This mobilized a thousand local soldiers to Malacca, which shows that they attach great importance to this place.
And these thousand people are not all. You must know that most of the navies these days will carry marines. This is the case with the Tang Dynasty Navy, and the same is true with the Portuguese Navy. If the marines in their fleets also go ashore for defensive operations, then this
The number will increase by more than a thousand people!
In addition, the Portuguese's armed force has never been just their local soldiers. They will recruit soldiers in various colonies. This is also a common practice of many European colonial countries. In order to make up for the lack of local population, they usually recruit a large number of colonies
The young and strong served and formed the colonial army.
In Malacca, it is conservatively estimated that there are more than a thousand indigenous soldiers. Well, the composition of these indigenous soldiers is quite complex, including local Malacca natives, Indians, and people from West Asia and East Africa.
This means that if the Imperial Navy wants to attack Malacca, they first need to defeat the huge fleet of the Portuguese in Malacca. It is a huge fleet with several battleships and dozens of other small and medium-sized battleships. Its scale is not at all
Not small.
There is no other way. The Imperial Navy has shown an increasingly strong desire to attack in recent years. Naturally, the Portuguese will continue to mobilize troops from other places to reinforce Malacca in order to protect themselves.
After defeating the Portuguese navy in Malacca, they will have to face ground troops with a total of more than 3,000 people, maybe even more than 4,000 people. However, these ground troops will not come out to fight with you, they will hide.
In the fortress.
And this kind of fortress is a particularly helpless one!
Yes, the Portuguese built a fort in Malacca!
Why?
Because the empire took the lead in building such bastions in Banten and Luzon, and played a considerable role in resisting pirate attacks several times. In order to ensure its own safety, it was difficult to face the attack of the huge Tang Empire.
To be able to protect themselves, at least for a year and a half, waiting for reinforcements from the Indian Ocean or Africa to arrive, the Portuguese urgently needed a strong fortress.
So, they followed suit and built such a fortress in Malacca, and the scale was much larger than those built by the empire in Banten and Luzon.
By doing this, Malacca turned into a hedgehog, and it was also a hedgehog with sharp teeth and a sharp mouth, making it difficult to fight!
Anyway, the Navy felt that it was impossible to conquer Malacca with a few thousand marines. Although their marines were awesome, they were not so awesome that they could storm a city garrisoned by thousands of people.
Therefore, at the meeting, the navy generals showed a perplexed look and mentioned that it was not impossible to attack Malacca, but it would probably take a long time and require a long-term blockade and siege to make it possible.
But what they wanted to know was that the generals of the army were waiting for them to say this. After hearing Lei Wan's words, Hao Bainian said on the spot: "If the navy can't do it, then our army will do it!"
"It's just a bastion garrisoned by two to three thousand people. If our army randomly sends a division there, it will only take three to five days!"
Immediately, Hao Bainian formally turned to Li Xuan and said: "Your Majesty, I request you to send a division south to capture Malacca!"
As soon as these words came out, all the generals in the navy looked at him angrily!
Lei Wan even said sternly in front of everyone: "The Army is eager to fight for the country. We in the Navy are understandable, but don't go too far!"
Immediately, several other naval generals also said one after another: "Yes, going south is our navy's business. The army does not need to worry about it. You should just prepare for the war in the north. I heard that the Tatars were ready to move last autumn. At this time
Are you sending troops south to ignore the safety of the northern part of the empire?"
"That is, the army wants to expand the territory of the empire, which is a good thing, but it is simply impossible to organize a cross-sea landing of tens of thousands of people. I hope the army can realize the practical difficulties!"
This is said in a rather tactful way, while those who are not polite say directly: "We don't need to worry about the army when we go south. Our navy will take Malacca even if it sheds its last drop of blood!"
But Hao Bainian had been on the battlefield for several years. How could he, who was fighting in the north and south, be stopped by a few words from the naval general? He immediately said: "The northern defense line is very safe. Hundreds of thousands of our army's soldiers are at our side day and night."
Wait, whether they are Tatars, Oaras, Tubos or Northeastern barbarians, there is nothing to worry about. If our army had not been short of cavalry, we would have gone north long ago.
Now it’s better if we don’t take the initiative to go north, but they dare to go south!”
What Hao Bainian said is true. Since the Tang Dynasty defeated Zhang Yue in the southwest, the military center of the army has completely shifted to the north. From the northwest to the north and then to the northeast, there are four armies and twelve infantry divisions. In addition,
There are more than thirty reserve divisions, and the total strength of the northern defense line exceeds 400,000 people!
The overall quality of the officers of these troops stationed in the northern defense line is also top-notch. The officers above the rank of colonels have all experienced the Unification War. As for the generals, not to mention, most of them have noble titles.
A person with outstanding military exploits.
Most of the best of the Imperial Army is deployed on the northern defense line!
So Hao Bainian is not worried about the security of the north at all!
"As for tens of thousands of people crossing the sea to land, that is a problem. However, our army has another plan, that is, we do not need to trouble the navy. It is also possible for our army to go south by land!"
Immediately, other army generals spoke up and said, "That's right, our army can go south from Annan and then go straight to Malacca. This is much easier than organizing tens of thousands of people to land across thousands of miles!"
When the navy generals heard that Annan was mentioned again, their faces became even more ugly.
They still couldn't tell that these army generals were full of bad ideas. They talked openly about the problems of Malacca and the Portuguese, but secretly they had Annan's agenda in mind.
The Navy absolutely cannot agree to this!
The life and death of the Annan natives has nothing to do with the navy!
However, is it actually so easy to defeat Annan? Can a division be swept across it?
Just kidding, even if the Annamites don't resist, it would be great if half of your 10,000-man army can come back.
Why, because of injuries.
That damn place is just like Myanmar. The biggest enemy is not the local indigenous people at all, but the local climate and various poisonous insects!
Needless to say, if this fight breaks out, it will definitely be a quagmire. Even if the army can win in the end, it will definitely not be a matter of one division. It will have to send several divisions.
What impact will this have?
The Army will spend a large amount of military expenditures, thereby squeezing the military expenditures of the Navy!
When it comes to military expenditures, these are big issues, and they are issues of principle. Can we give in to this? Absolutely not!
When Li Xuan saw that the people from the army and navy were arguing again, he closed his eyes slightly, as if he didn't see or hear, but in his heart he cursed: Damn, they are arguing again!