The Northeast Operation Plan formulated by the Army Privy Council Operations Department is to use cavalry as the absolute main force, infantry and artillery as the supplement, and gather a hundred thousand troops to kill all kinds of messy aliens entrenched in the Northeast in one fell swoop.
These alien tribes include not only tribes such as the Chahar tribe, but also other messy tribes and natives, etc. are all within the scope of cleaning up.
You must know that the military will be followed by a large number of immigrants organized by the Immigration and Reclamation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. If this does not expel those foreigners quickly, how can the people of the empire immigrate to the Northeast and develop the Northeast?
As for the policies of integration and co-optation that were used more in the past few years, they have now been officially abandoned by the empire.
When the strength of the empire is insufficient, it is necessary to win over, and then divide and win over, etc. But when the strength of the empire is enough, then these policies can be officially announced to withdraw from the stage of history.
The population of the empire is increasing, and more and more land is needed to feed the people of the empire!
Therefore, the empire’s foreign expansion policy in recent years has never been about conquering foreign races and integrating them into the empire, but simply occupying land and then immigrating!
Therefore, in the process of external expansion, foreign races will not be included in the rule of the empire!
Well, there are exceptions, that is, some foreign women who meet the aesthetic standards of the Empire's subjects can become Empire's subjects.
Nowadays, the empire's military, whether it is the army or the navy, has successively adopted propaganda slogans such as "fighting for the empire's living space" and "fighting to obtain land for the people of the empire".
The Holy Emperor also mentioned the empire's global strategic goal in the next hundred years in private. This goal is absolutely unprecedented and the greatest goal in human history:
One Earth, One Empire!
Therefore, the empire's foreign expansion policy cannot simply be understood as obtaining economic benefits, nor can it simply be understood as conquering enemies, or the like. It is even different from traditional colonization.
The core of the empire's foreign expansion policy from the very beginning, and for a long time to come, has been only one, which is to acquire more land to feed more imperial subjects!
This is based on the fact that the empire has too many and its population is growing.
Different from the foreign colonial activities of contemporary European countries, colonization is done to obtain more economic benefits.
The empire is expanding purely for the sake of land. As for the so-called economic benefits, can gold and silver be used as food?
Based on this, whether the empire is expanding in the north, expanding in the west, or colonizing overseas areas, it is mainly to occupy land and then immigrate.
The Northeast region is the next important expansion direction of the empire!
Unlike the grasslands, which can only be used for grazing, and continue to the north where there is ice and snow, although the Northeast is also cold, it is a plain area.
The large plains in the Northeast are very suitable for agricultural cultivation. If it can be completely captured and developed, the Northeast will become the new granary of the empire.
Li Xuan firmly believed in this point, because in later generations Northeast China was a very important granary in China.
In addition to granaries, Li Xuan also knew that the Northeast region has very rich mineral resources, including iron ore, coal mines and various other minerals, which are very useful for the development of heavy industry.
This is also a successful experience that has been proven in later generations. Li Xuan has no reason not to imitate it.
However, if you want to develop Northeast China, there are still many problems. First of all, strictly speaking, except for a few areas in western Liaoning, most of the other areas are still wilderness areas. There are no mature infrastructures, and even the population is small.
not a lot.
Although the empire has continued to immigrate to the Northeast for more than ten years, the local population is not large, and most of them are still concentrated in Liaoxi and Liaodong provinces. The Northeast Province further north now has a total population of only more than thirty
It’s only ten thousand, not even as good as a county in Jiangnan.
In addition, there are a large number of alien races living in the local area. These alien races are not easy to get along with. If these alien races are not cleaned up, there will be no way to carry out large-scale immigration, let alone large-scale development.
This is why Li Xuan asked the army to formulate relevant plans to completely pacify the Northeast.
To this end, the Army has formulated a large-scale combat plan that will mobilize more than 100,000 troops. The combat scope includes the traditional Liaohetao area, and also includes other northeastern regions. The combat targets include the Chahar tribe and other Mongolian tribes.
In addition, it also includes many local natives, such as the famous Jurchen tribe in later generations.
The Army's plan is very simple. It is to use its absolute superiority in troops, firepower, and even mobility to directly push forward, and then sweep across the entire Northeast region, eliminate local aliens, establish a safe zone, allow subsequent immigrants to follow, and then build cities and
roads, develop farmland, and finally bring these places completely under the rule of the empire.
In order to achieve this goal, the Imperial Army is preparing to deploy a large number of elite cavalry!
It is worth noting that these elite cavalry are to be mobilized from the Hetao area.
There is no way. Currently, most of the elite cavalry in the Tang Empire are concentrated in the Ninth Army. Although there are cavalry in the Northeast and other regions, their number is not large and their level of eliteness cannot be compared with the cavalry of the Ninth Army.
The army plans to concentrate at least 50,000 cavalry, and at least 20,000 cavalry from the Hetao area will be mobilized to participate in the battle, plus no less than 50,000 main infantry and artillery to cooperate, striving to win the battle in one battle and completely wipe out the Northeast region.
Li Xuan did not interfere too much with the plan proposed by the Army, but simply approved it.
Anyway, he has already set a goal, which is to completely bring Northeast China under the rule of the empire and not allow any foreign races to occupy. As for what plan to use to achieve this goal, that is a matter for the military.
When the news of pacifying the north and recovering Hetao and Fengzhouchuan spread throughout the empire along with the Tang Dynasty newspaper, Chen Lifu, who was far away in Shanghai, also got the news.
As the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture, he contacted Shanghai's industrial and commercial circles and held a celebration dinner. Celebrating was a name, but fundraising was a fact.
The purpose of raising funds is, of course, to reward military officers.
However, although it was a fundraising dinner held to pacify the North, the more than 50,000 yuan raised was not handed over to the army responsible for pacifying the North. Instead, it was handed over to the Navy as soon as it was transferred.
Why, because this amount is nominally a donation from the Songjiang Prefecture to the Navy for the newly commissioned 800-ton cruiser Songjiang. But in fact, it is Shanghai's thanks or encouragement to the Navy's use in Fuso.
A series of actions.
Why thank you?
The navy alone secured several places along the coast of Fuso, and at the same time conducted frequent attacks, obtaining the mining rights for many minerals for the empire.
The navy is an army. Naturally, if it obtains these minerals, it will not dig them by itself. Instead, it will lead domestic industrial and commercial enterprises to mine, although most of them will be eaten by enterprises directly under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises.
However, there are other expenses for mining equipment. Other ordinary businessmen can still benefit from the development of Fuso's many minerals.
The Navy worked hard to make money for everyone. As representatives of the domestic business community, Shanghai's business community naturally reciprocated the favor. Then the Navy had the opportunity to serve a new generation of cruisers, the Songjiang, and sent more than 50,000 yuan in support to the Navy.
money.
Although the money is not much, it shows an attitude that the domestic business community stands with the navy.
In other words, they stand with the navy that can bring benefits to you and them.
And this money is just the beginning. Many large companies in Shanghai have already united and are preparing to lobby the Navy to continue expanding its operations in the Fuso area.
Although Fuso is only a small place, it still has a population of several million and has many gold and silver mines and other resources. The money that can be earned from this is not small.
In fact, they are planning to lobby not only the navy, but also the army. However, the goal of lobbying the army is not to let them fight Fusang or Nanyang, but to let the army send troops to Annan and occupy the Guangning area.
Why?
Because the businessmen discovered that there was actually a large-scale open-pit coal mine that was very easy to mine. The quality of the coal here was very high, and there was also anthracite. The key was that the reserves were super large.
This attracted the attention of the imperial industry and commerce!
In recent years, the application scale of the empire's steam engines has increased year by year. At first, it was only used in mining areas, and later it was gradually used in major factories and docks. Although the steam engines used today are low-pressure steam engines, they cannot yet be mounted on battleships or ships.
Trains are used as transportation power.
However, its industrial application also brought the empire into the steam age. With more steam engines, the demand for coal mines would naturally increase.
In addition, making steel also requires a large amount of coal mines.
There is also an even larger civilian market!
Nowadays, in the empire, the briquette stove, which is said to have spread from the palace, has become popular all over the country.
The combination of civil and industrial use has resulted in the empire's demand for coal increasing day by day. Under such circumstances, coal mine exploration and development are being carried out almost all over the country.
Nowadays, many domestic coal mines have begun mining. Tangshan in Tianjin, parts of Shanxi, and Pingxiang coal mines in Jiangxi have all begun mining one after another.
However, the quality of the above-mentioned coal mines is more or less not very good, and there is basically no anthracite.
However, businessmen discovered in Guangning, Annan, that there was a coal mine with huge reserves. This coal mine actually produced top-quality anthracite, which made the empire's businessmen greedy to death.
Although at present, the merchants of the empire have begun to mine local coal mines through various means, but after all, it is not their own territory. Mining is very troublesome, and they have to deal with the local natives.
Under this situation, the merchants desperately hope that the empire will conquer this area!
As long as it is the territory of the empire, it will be easier and safer for merchants like them to mine it.
However, this is just the idea of businessmen. Whether to attack Annan or not requires a comprehensive consideration by the empire's senior officials.
At least so far, the empire has no plans to invade the Nanyang Peninsula on a large scale. That poor place is not easy to fight. Even if the Tang Army is an elite, fighting in such a poor place will still face great trouble.