Zeng Ziwen continued to point to the simple and abstract maps on the wall, which fully demonstrated the art of abstract painting, and said:
"Liping Prefecture is located to the east of our Xingquan. If you start from Zhengtai County, you can enter Liping Prefecture. However, the road is difficult and the mountain road is rugged. If you go west on a large scale, the pressure on logistics supply will be very high.
As for Liuzhou Prefecture, there is a mountain between Xingquan Prefecture and Liuzhou Prefecture. The mountain road is rugged and difficult to pass for the army. If we want to march to Liuzhou Prefecture, we can only go west to Liping Prefecture and then go south to Liuzhou via Liping Prefecture. Therefore, we can go south to Liuzhou within a short time.
It is unrealistic. We can only go south to Liuzhou Prefecture after capturing Liping Prefecture.
If we advance eastward, we will reach Jingzhou in Huguang. If we advance to Jingzhou, we will also face difficulties in mountainous areas!"
Listening to Zeng Ziwen's words, everyone including Li Xuan frowned.
Their Xingquan Prefecture is just sandwiched between the three state capitals of the three provinces, and is surrounded by mountainous terrain on three sides, making it difficult for large armies to pass through.
In fact, if they had a satellite map in front of them, they would find that not to mention their Xingquan Prefecture, the entire southwest region is actually a vast mountainous area, and the road is very difficult to walk.
If the troops move and fight in a small area, it will be fine, but if they have to fight across hundreds of miles, the logistics line alone can drag the entire Datang New Army to death.
Because the New Army of the Tang Dynasty now relies heavily on firearms for combat operations, and firearms are not like food that can be eaten by the enemy. Weapons and ammunition have to be transported from Xingquan Prefecture. If the logistics line is long, it will not be maintained at all.
In terms of terrain, whether you are going west or east, or south or north, they are actually pretty much the same. They are all mountainous, making walking very troublesome.
Nowadays, what restricts the direction of the new army of the Tang Dynasty can only be determined by the deployment of the Ming army in surrounding state capitals.
"Through the intelligence we obtained from passing business travelers and spies, since we took over Xingquan Prefecture, Liping Prefecture has been in great panic and is recruiting a large number of young men to strengthen the city defense. However, the number of regular troops will not be very large, because before we
Among the annihilated Ming troops, two thousand households were transferred from Liping Prefecture. Now Liping Prefecture's regular army is relatively empty!
However, the provincial capital Guiyang must have raised a large number of troops. If they march to Liping Mansion next, they will most likely encounter a large number of Ming troops to intercept them!
In contrast, although Liuzhou Prefecture and Jingzhou in the south have a lot of regular troops, Guangxi and Huguang provinces have not yet begun to mass their troops on a large scale. Our main attack speed in the early stage is fast enough, and it is very likely that we will attack in these two provinces.
The Ming army captured these areas before they could react.
But in this way, all the officers and soldiers from Huguang and Guangxi provinces will be attracted. At that time, what we need to face is not just Guizhou province, but the encirclement and suppression by troops from the three surrounding provinces. There are even some troops from the Puppet Ming Dynasty.
It is possible that troops from the three provinces will be gathered together to attack our army."
Speaking of this, Zeng Ziwen said in a cautious tone: "Our new army of the Tang Dynasty has not completed all its expansion. Facing the attacks of soldiers from three provinces at the same time, I am afraid that it is not enough!"
Li Xuan also agreed with Zeng Ziwen's words. Although his Tang Dynasty has captured Xingquan Mansion, which has caused shock in Guizhou's officialdom, but in a big way, this is just a local state capital for the Ming Dynasty.
It was just a small-scale rebellion. The Ming Dynasty had to suppress such small-scale rebellions several times a year.
Some data show that by tomorrow, on average, one out of every twelve state capitals will have a rebellion. Note that this data refers to every year!
For these small-scale rebellions, no matter it is the Ming Dynasty or other traditional feudal dynasties, they are actually not surprised.
The rebellion of the Tang Dynasty did not panic the Ming Dynasty so much that it even sent some highly respected ministers to lead troops from several provinces to suppress the rebellion. At most, they only ordered Zhu Zhihai, the governor of Guizhou, to put down the rebellion as soon as possible.
But if the new army of the Tang Dynasty advanced into Guangxi and Huguang, the resulting political impact would be different. A rebellion in one province and one state capital would be completely different from a rebellion in several state capitals in several provinces at the same time.
Different concepts.
Attacking Liuzhou Prefecture or Jingzhou now, regardless of whether they can capture these places quickly, but doing so is definitely equivalent to poking two more super hornet's nests. It is really difficult to predict what kind of reaction the Ming Dynasty will have in the future.
Therefore, Li Xuan was unwilling to provoke the Ming army from the two provinces before he had sufficient strength or was forced to do so.
Let’s lay a solid foundation first and then talk about subsequent expansion to the three provinces.
Zeng Ziwen had naturally received Li Xuan's instructions a long time ago. Naturally, he would not say anything about attacking Huguang or Guangxi today, so he continued to analyze the situation in Liping Mansion.
By the time Zeng Ziwen finished explaining the situation of his own troops and the surrounding situation, especially the situation in Liping Mansion, two quarters of an hour had passed.
After introducing the details, it was naturally time to formally discuss where to enter and how to attack.
At times like this, the imperial strategy meeting would turn into a wet market, filled with all kinds of arguments.
When everyone was arguing, they gradually divided into three rows. The first row was to march eastward to Huguang. These people were mainly Wang Shanxu and a few others. They believed that although marching eastward to Huguang would have political consequences and attract many Ming troops, they
They also believe that as long as they act quickly enough, they can quickly capture Jingzhou and even Baoqing Mansion, and then expand their troops by fighting to support war while marching. The final strategic goal is to capture Changsha. As for after capturing Changsha,
Naturally, we go east along the Yangtze River to Wuchang, then to Jiujiang, and finally all the way east to the prosperous place south of the Yangtze River.
Just listening to their strategy, you can tell that they have already given up on Xingquan Mansion and even Huguang they captured along the way, and are heading towards the prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River.
However, Hao Bainian and Fang Xitong were seriously opposed to this plan, saying that their new army of the Tang Dynasty relied heavily on firearms and without a stable territory to serve as a logistics base, the troops simply could not support long-term operations. This abandoned Xingquan Prefecture.
Finally, probably before they reached Changsha, the eastward marching troops of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty ran out of ammunition and food!
Hao Bainian wanted to fight steadily, using Xingquan Prefecture as a base to capture Liping Prefecture, and then continue westward to capture Guiyang and bring most of Guizhou under his control.
Based on the entire Guizhou Province, it then marched westward to Sichuan to seize Sichuan, a rich, easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack region.
But the same strategy was to fight steadily, but Li Chunjing and Hao Bainian were different. Li Chunjing's plan was to pass through Liping Mansion. After capturing Liping Mansion, he would go directly south to Liuzhou Mansion and Guilin in Guangxi, and then seize Wuzhou along the Xijiang River system of the Pearl River, killing all the way.
Go to Guangdong to capture Zhaoqing and Guangzhou.
These three plans of advancing eastward, advancing westward, and going southward each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and regardless of the fact that they are only attacking the surrounding prefectures and counties at the moment, they actually involve the overall strategy for the next six months or even one year. Even Li Xuan
Unable to make decisions easily.
If a wrong decision is made, then the Tang Dynasty will not only suffer losses, but may also fall into irreversible disaster, so no matter how cautious it is, no matter how cautious it is.
Everyone was arguing endlessly, and naturally the day's strategy meeting ended without any resolution. After everyone retreated, Li Xuan stared at the map for a long time!
Finally, he set his sights on the south on the map and secretly made the decision to go south!
The reason is very simple, because there is the sea there!