This island is still under the control of the indigenous people. Although the Portuguese also established a stronghold here, they did not attach too much importance to it. The Datang Western Trading Company also established a stronghold in the northern part of the island.
The plan for the second phase is to completely capture the island. Of course, this complete capture does not mean fighting with the local indigenous people, but to remove several Portuguese strongholds and replace them.
Then rely on the stronghold on this island as a strategic transit point, then stockpile troops and combat supplies, and then transport them to Western India to prepare for the capture of South Africa.
After the ground forces captured several strategic strongholds of the Portuguese in South Africa, the next step would be easy. The navy could use South Africa as a base to directly accumulate a huge fleet and completely strangle the Cape of Good Hope.
Just like what these Portuguese people did in the past.
After the second phase of the plan is successfully completed, the subsequent Indian Ocean war will only require simple cleanup work. As long as these two vital routes are cut off, the Portuguese strongholds along the Indian Ocean will be destroyed.
Cut them up and isolate them, and the Tang Empire will have enough time and energy to slowly deal with them.
In addition, what the navy is actually looking forward to more is that, whether in the process of attacking Ceylon or South Africa, the Portuguese will gather their fleets together and then engage in a decisive battle with them!
In this way, the Tang Navy could directly defeat their main fleet through a decisive battle at sea. It would be even more perfect if they could block their concentrated fleet in a certain port, and whether it was defeated or blocked in a port, it would be
This is a good thing that can be solved once and for all. Without the fleet, the Portuguese colonial strongholds are nothing more than rootless duckweeds. It will be a matter of time to take them down, and it will be very easy, just like the capture of Malacca.
I don’t know if the Portuguese will give them this opportunity. If the Portuguese refuse to fight them to the death and insist on small-scale scattered operations, the Tang Navy will have no choice but to wait for the army to capture several of their important strongholds.
, and then blocked important routes.
The biggest difference between this Indian Ocean decisive battle plan and the previous one is that in the past, the military always thought of fighting all the way, first expelling the Portuguese on the eastern coast of Myanmar and India, then Ceylon Island, southern India, and then western India and West Asia.
, East Africa, fight slowly all the way, and finally reach South Africa.
The previous plan was to fight steadily and fight all the way, which could effectively ensure logistics and reduce risks. However, doing so would take too long. The battle for each colonial stronghold spanned such a long distance.
Even if everything goes well, it would be very good to capture a stronghold in two to three months.
How many strongholds do the Portuguese have along the Indian Ocean? There are dozens at least. These are the kind of fortresses where troops are stationed. If we only talk about those pure supply ports, there are even more.
Basically, from the Cape of Good Hope all the way to East Africa, then to West Asia, and then to Myanmar, there are Portuguese strongholds on all the coastlines.
This is the demand of contemporary navigation. After all, ships need to sail along the coastline to avoid getting lost and at the same time provide timely supplies.
Regarding the navy's plan, Li Hao felt that they were too risky. Although it sounded like they only needed to control two places, or even strictly speaking, only South Africa needed to be controlled, it was extremely difficult.
The navy of the Tang Dynasty knew that these two places were important, and so did the Portuguese people.
Just like Malacca, the Portuguese were heavily guarded in these two places. Not only did they have a large fleet, but more importantly, they also had a large number of ground combat troops.
It is not easy to seize the island of Ceylon and the ports in southern India, let alone South Africa.
Such a distant expedition was very difficult even for the behemoth of the Tang Empire!
It would be fine if they were just pure naval operations and engaged in naval battles. However, in this combat plan, it was not just as simple as engaging in naval battles. They also had to seize their colonial strongholds so that the navy could use these strongholds as bases to station and blockade them for a long time.
Otherwise, there would be no difference from now. Nowadays, the ships of the Tang Navy frequently travel to these sea areas to carry out blockade strikes, but they think that they cannot maintain a long-term blockade, so the effect is very small.
If you are not careful, you will risk being caught by the Portuguese, who will then concentrate their main fleet to annihilate them.
Li Hao thought it was risky, but his father Li Xuan didn't think so.
Because when he saw this plan, he basically remembered the leapfrog tactic used by the US military during World War II. He jumped over the enemy's outer defense line and went directly into the enemy's hinterland. The enemy's hard-worked perimeter defenses instantly evaporated into nothingness.
In Li Xuan's opinion, this strategic concept has merit. The only trouble is whether such a large-scale expedition can be organized.
Because after the Navy proposed this plan, the Army also made calculations based on limited intelligence. To completely seize Ceylon Island and several Portuguese strongholds in southern India, at least 10,000 ground combat troops would need to be mobilized at the same time.
Although this number is small, it is actually very large for the Indian battlefield. The long distance and difficulty in supplying make it impossible for the Tang Empire to maintain too many troops in this sea area. The same is true for the Portuguese.
A battle of 10,000 people is already extremely large-scale. In order to maintain the battle of 10,000 people, the price the empire needs to pay is no less than using more than 100,000 troops in the northwest region.
First of all, these 10,000 troops cannot be directly transferred from the Indian battlefield. Considering the situation on the Indian Ocean battlefield, it would be good to squeeze out two to three thousand troops, because troops are needed everywhere on the Indian battlefield and there are simply not so many mobile troops.
This also means that at least seven to eight thousand additional troops must be sent from the Southeast Asia or the mainland to the Indian waters, or even more, possibly tens of thousands.
Ten thousand troops, not even a division, at most a mixed brigade, which the Tang Empire could afford.
But to maintain the extra 10,000 troops in combat, more shipping power needs to be invested. This is a very severe test for the empire's maritime transportation capabilities!
For the troops fighting in the Indian Ocean today, the ammunition they use needs to be supplied by sea from the rear. Other food and other food can be collected directly in India, but there is no way around ammunition and weapons. They must be transported from the mainland. .
It was not easy to maintain a combat force of 30,000 people originally. Now that there are another 10,000 people, this may squeeze out the empire's ocean transportation capabilities.
At the same time, more warships are needed to transport these personnel and supplies. The Portuguese are not vegetarians, and they cannot defeat your warships. But when you see the merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty, even if they are armed merchant ships, you will see them fighting one by one.
of.
Finally, the Navy may have to continue to deploy warships from China to replenish the Indian Ocean.
It's fine if it's just the internal deployment of troops within the Navy. This also involves the Army. The Navy does not have these extra 10,000 ground combat troops. Although the number of Marines in the Navy is not small, it is absolutely impossible to mobilize such
There are so many ground combat troops, and this requires the cooperation of the Army.
The army, on the other hand, is unwilling to take risks. They would rather be slower than risk going directly into the enemy's hinterland, where the entire army could easily be annihilated.
Of course, the Army's reluctance is also related to the Army's selfishness!
In overseas operations, the leader is the navy. Their army can only attack at best. Even though they captured the city of Malacca, the limelight of the Nanyang War was still stolen by the navy.
The army worked hard to capture Malacca, but many courtiers at home were full of praise for the navy's attack on the port of Malacca, blocking the enemy's fleet in the port and destroying it.
I think that in the Battle of Malacca, the navy had already established the victory, and the army was just the finishing touch.
This made the Army quite dissatisfied. In order to conquer Malacca, their Army killed and injured more than a thousand soldiers. In the end, they only got the sentence that the Army was just a finisher. This made many big bosses in the Army unhappy.
Many army generals are very resentful and say that if they have the ability, your navy will attack them to see if your warships can go ashore and capture the city of Malacca.
However, the navy generals were not to be outdone and sneered directly, if our navy had not handed over the credit to your army step by step, how could you still have attacked the city of Malacca?
Without our navy blocking the enemy's fleet at the port and destroying it, your army's transport ships would have been sunk by the Portuguese fleet long ago, and tens of thousands of soldiers would have been fed to fish.
Anyway, in the Battle of Malacca, both the army and the navy claimed that they had made great contributions and that the other side was just a handyman, and neither side accepted the other's orders.
Later in the Indian Ocean, the Army simply changed its strategy. They did not listen to the Navy. They took boats every day and then went to work as Marines to build out some coastal port strongholds. Now the Army itself is more interested in conquering the Indian Peninsula itself.
The Army's forces deployed in the Indian Ocean War, namely the 19th Division, are actually stationed on the Indian Peninsula. The main force is staying in Gohe State. They are fighting with the local indigenous people and conquering cities and territories. How can they be interested in joining the Navy?
Fight the Portuguese.
The generals of the army even said, "What's the point of attacking the port and seizing a few small colonies? It's too petty."
Stop engaging in sea raids and allocate all maritime transportation forces to our army to transport supplies. Our army will then reinforce two divisions in India to form an army. By then our army will be able to directly conquer the Indian peninsula.
By then the entire Indian peninsula will belong to our Tang Empire, and there will be no need to care about a few colonial strongholds.