The military command system of the Tang Dynasty was different from the traditional feudal dynasty, but it was also very different from the modern countries of later generations. Even compared with modern countries, it was still very different.
The military command system of the Tang Dynasty was a command system that was comprehensively considered based on the characteristics of the Tang Dynasty and the limitations of the era.
This kind of command system, on the one hand, increases the authority of the central government, and on the other hand, it also increases the personal authority of the emperor in order to guard against the ambitions of military generals. On this basis, it can improve the command efficiency of the troops as much as possible.
Therefore, the current command system of the Tang Empire emerged.
This system cannot be said to be good or bad, but there is no doubt that it is a command system that is more suitable for the Tang Empire at present, and it is also a command system that Li Xuan can accept.
The best choice under balance!
Under this command system, Admiral Chen Pengming had great authority during the Malacca Battle, but there were also many restrictions.
In terms of tactics, Admiral Chen Pengming has great authority, but it is limited to this. He has no authority to decide matters other than tactics, let alone matters other than military affairs.
Luo Yuanjian, the first secretary of the Hanlin Academy Secretariat who accompanied the army, was ordered to supervise the army. He was responsible for ensuring that Chen Pengming's authority was limited to the war in Southeast Asia and India, and could not interfere in other aspects.
However, Admiral Chen Pengming did not feel any restraint due to the presence of the supervisory army, because Luo Yuanjian would not make any suggestions to Chen Pengming on military issues.
In other words, as long as Admiral Chen Pengming honestly leads his troops to fight in Southeast Asia and India, then basically nothing will happen to Luo Yuanjian.
Only when Chen Pengming disobeyed the decree and disobeyed orders would Luo Yuanjian use his power to control Admiral Chen Pengming and force him to escort Chen Pengming back to Beijing to report on his duties.
However, it was also to prevent the possibility of civilian interference in the military, so Luo Yuanjian's authority was limited to this. Even after Chen Pengming finally violated orders and disobeyed the decree, Luo Yuanjian used his imperial envoy authority to restrict Chen Pengming.
, it is not his turn to intervene in the command of the Nanyang army. When the time comes, he must escort Chen Pengming back to Jinling City to report on his duties.
Luo Yuanjian did not have the authority to directly accuse Chen Pengming or any other soldier. The authority he had was to force Chen Pengming back to Jinling City to report on his duties based on the authority granted to him by the imperial edict.
As for whether Chen Pengming is guilty or not, it will not be his turn to judge, but Li Xuan will judge!
After Luo Yuanjian takes Chen Pengming back to Beijing to report on his duties, the command authority of various Nanyang troops will be extended in accordance with the consistent tradition of the Tang Dynasty military.
Delayed according to military rank and position!
In the Tang Empire, it would never be possible for civilian officials to command troops, nor would it be possible for civilian officials to directly judge a soldier for any crime.
Therefore, as long as Chen Pengming does not do anything treacherous and unethical, Luo Yuanjian, the imperial envoy overseeing the army, is nothing, and he will not even appear in the combat meeting.
When Chen Pengming waited for the joint landing fleet, he ordered the joint landing fleet to prepare for the official landing tomorrow. In order to ensure the smooth landing operation, the main fleet of the Indian Ocean Fleet will risk approaching the Malacca port and block the Malacca port nearby to avoid entering the port.
The Portuguese fleet rushed out and interfered with the landing fleet's landing operations.
Early the next morning, on the coast several kilometers north of Malacca Port, a large number of Datang Joint Landing Fleet ships gradually sailed to the beach. This beach was a specially selected beach, and the landing conditions were relatively good.
.
However, there are also troubles with this kind of landing, that is, if you go directly to the beach, large ships cannot dock at all, and heavy equipment cannot dock. You can only wait for the pontoon to be built before docking and unloading the heavy equipment, especially
It's a lot of artillery.
Therefore, the early landings were actually very primitive. They were to put down many small boats from the Daxing transport ship, and then these small boats carried soldiers for beach landing.
This kind of primitive landing can hardly allow the landing troops to carry artillery and too many supplies ashore immediately. They can only go ashore lightly. For this reason, the fire cover at the landing site relies entirely on the fleet's naval guns.
provided.
In order to provide fire cover for the landing force, the two frigates took the risk of running aground and forced their way closer until they arrived about a hundred meters away from the coastline.
There are many battleships, cruisers, and frigates in the rear anchored two to three hundred meters away to provide fire support to the landing troops. At this distance, when their artillery fires, their range must be increased to
Above the daily effective range, you have to shoot at least 500 meters or even 600 meters before you can barely provide fire support.
For shelling at such a distance, basically no hit rate is expected, so the fire support fleet also does not expect any hit rate. They are prepared to use dense barrages to make up for the lack of hit rate. When hundreds of artillery are shelling
At that time, the hit rate of a single artillery was actually not important anymore.
In addition, there are three coastal transport ships that arrived with the fleet. Because their drafts are shallower and their tonnage is smaller, even if they are stranded, they can more easily break free at high tide. For this reason, they carried soldiers and rushed directly.
The joint landing fleet originally brought these three coastal transport ships because they had shallow drafts and planned to forcefully beach them.
In order to allow these three coastal transport ships to become fire support points for the landing fleet after they washed up on the beach, in addition to carrying a large number of soldiers preparing to land, these three coastal transport ships also carried numerous naval guns.
Because the plan was to directly beach the ship, there was no need to consider issues such as the recoil and stability of the artillery fire. It was just piling up the artillery pieces on the deck.
In this way, these three coastal transport ships, with a tonnage of only a few hundred tons, were forced to carry a total of more than 20 artillery pieces, and these artillery pieces were basically deployed on the deck and could fire at the beach.
Just the number of artillery guns carried by these three transport ships that washed up on the beach were even stronger than the firepower that the two frigates that risked running aground could provide when supporting the land.
It is worth noting that the officers and soldiers on these three transport ships, even the sailors, do not belong to the navy, but to the army!
The sailors and officers on the transport ship are officers and soldiers of the Army's maritime transport force, and the artillery and gunners piled on the deck are not naval guns or naval gunners, but artillery and gunners from the 19th Infantry Division Artillery Regiment.
.
After the landing force is deployed and preliminary pontoon bridges and other facilities are built, the artillery of the 19th Infantry Division Artillery Regiment on these three transport ships will be the first batch of artillery units to be unloaded ashore.
The mighty joint landing fleet of sixty to seventy ships landed about five kilometers away from Malacca City. As long as the people in Malacca City were not stupid, they could see countless ships on the northern coast from the city wall.
However, when all the preparation work of the landing force was in vain, the Portuguese in Malacca had no intention of going out of the city to conduct a beachhead attack. They were still huddled in the city.
Even Admiral Chen Pengming could see through a high-magnification telescope that the Portuguese fleet in the port was unloading a large number of artillery pieces from the ship and preparing to go ashore for defense.
Have they given up on their breakout?
Should we directly move the naval guns into the city, then evacuate the gunners and sailors in the fleet to the city, and rely on Malacca's strong city defense for defense?
Chen Pengming frowned slightly when he saw this. This was certainly a good thing for the navy, because the enemies had given up breaking out and were waiting to die in the port, but for the army, this was probably not a good thing.
The Portuguese in Malacca originally had 3,000 local ground combat troops and 5,000 indigenous troops. The fleet in the port also had a large number of sailors, and more importantly, there were a lot of artillery in the fleet!
If the Portuguese moved all the artillery in the fleet ashore to serve as city defense artillery, then the number of artillery in Malacca would be terrifying.
Originally, the total number of artillery they had in the city and on the fort was only a few dozen. At most, this number was as many as the number of artillery pieces on a thousand-ton battleship.
However, if the Portuguese now move all the artillery in the fleet, the number will increase to hundreds in an instant.
The Portuguese fleet has at least two battleships and many medium-sized battleships. The total number of artillery pieces is at least two to three hundred. If they are all moved ashore, the Army people may have to jump.
Sure enough, an army liaison officer soon walked up to Chen Pengming. He was an army brigadier general and the deputy chief of staff of the Army's Seventh Army. However, at this time, he was serving as an army liaison officer on the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet.
, to coordinate operations between the army and navy.
He said in a worried tone: "The Portuguese are moving a large number of artillery pieces from the fleet and preparing to deploy them on land. There are too many of these artillery pieces. If they are all successfully deployed at the head of Malacca City,
It will pose a major threat to our army's subsequent siege!
Hopefully the Navy can prevent this from happening, the Army would be grateful!"
The city of Malacca that the army needs to conquer is already an extremely strong fortress. If the Portuguese get hundreds of naval guns in, it will be nothing. No matter how powerful the army is, it will not be bombarded by hundreds of naval guns.
If you attack the city from below, you will definitely suffer heavy casualties.