As Wang Yue led thousands of remaining soldiers to retreat to Nan'ao Island, it can be declared that except for a few islands in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, all other places have fallen under the control of the Tang Dynasty.
Even though there are still many Ming troops entrenched in the Guilin area, the troops of the Fourth Army staying in Guilin adopted a steady and steady strategy and firmly controlled most of the city.
At the same time, through continuous suppression operations, the Ming army in the Guilin area was forced to have a smaller and smaller scope of activity. At the same time, during the several months of suppression operations, the Ming army in the area also suffered considerable losses and was difficult to supplement. Currently, according to Guilin
The defending defenders judged that the number of Ming troops active in Guilin was less than 3,000.
About two to three thousand of them were lost in the continuous battle with the Tang army, and some of them retreated to Huguang, leaving only less than three thousand.
Except for the remnants of some Ming troops in the Guilin area, there are no other places in the mainland of Guangdong and Guangxi where large Ming troops are entrenched.
However, it is worth noting that, except for a very small part of the islands in the coastal areas of Guangdong, the others are still under the control of the Ming Dynasty, such as Nan'ao Island, Qiongzhou Prefecture (Hainan Island), and most of the islands in the Pearl River Estuary.
islands.
The reason for this situation is naturally because the strength of the Tang Navy was too poor to expel the Ming Navy that was entrenched on the coastal islands.
In this regard, the Tang Dynasty also took targeted measures, such as setting up forts at key estuaries, and it was against this background that the construction of the Humen Fort began.
In addition to coastal defense forts, we also began to vigorously prepare to build up naval power.
To develop maritime power, according to Li Xuan's idea, the best thing is to have strong ships and powerful guns.
However, large warships could not be built for a while, and a large amount of maritime power was needed to maintain maritime security in a short period of time, so the Tang Navy focused on other aspects.
For example, armed merchant ships converted from civilian ships and warships converted from merchant ships can barely be used. In addition, traditional maritime combat modes are vigorously developed.
What are the traditional maritime combat modes of this era? One is fire attack, and the other is gang warfare!
As for directly using naval guns to sink enemy warships to win naval battles, although this is the main development direction of future naval battles, this requires too high a power and quantity of naval guns.
Unless it is a battleship equipped with dozens or more guns, it is difficult for an ordinary warship or a small number of naval guns in an armed merchant ship to complete the task of directly sinking an enemy ship.
This is also the reason why the Tang Dynasty Navy began to focus on fire attacks and gang-hopping warfare in its recent development strategy.
In order to supplement the lack of naval gun firepower, the Tang Navy imitated many maritime forces in the Far East, including the Ming Navy and other maritime forces in East Asia, and prepared a large number of small ships. What are these small ships used for? Naturally they are used
Come and prepare for a fire attack.
In order to block the major entrances to the sea and prevent the Ming navy from entering the Pearl River, Xijiang River, etc., the Tang Dynasty King's Division built forts along the coast. At the same time, under the cover of the forts, they prepared to deploy a large number of small ships. As long as the enemy came to attack in large numbers,
Don't do anything else, just set the boat on fire.
At the same time, in order to improve the power of gang-hopping warfare, the Navy has conducted targeted training for sailors so that they can also have the ability of gang-hopping warfare. At the same time, like many maritime forces of this era, it is preparing to assign specialized land forces to warships.
Team.
The Marine Corps is not as highly unified as the Army, because depending on the size of each ship and its different tasks, the number of attached Marines is also different.
The number of Marines on a ship may be a dozen, dozens, or hundreds.
Therefore, the current establishment of the Marine Corps is based on a platoon of sixteen people. According to different combat tasks, several platoons are combined to form a team and board the ship to perform tasks.
However, if there are large ships with more than a thousand tons in the future, they may carry hundreds of people, and special battalion-level troops will be established, or they may carry out land combat missions individually, or they may be temporarily integrated.
But now, it's still too early.
Currently, the Marine Corps of the Datang Navy has a unified platoon-level organization, but there is no unified team-level organization, let alone a battalion-level organization.
The equipment is mainly muskets, sabers, shields, and grenades. No spears or armor are required. It is required to be able to use muskets and grenades. It is also required to be able to use sabers and shields for close combat. The individual quality requirements for soldiers are relatively high.
All the efforts of the Tang Navy were aimed at controlling the Xijiang River and the Pearl River Estuary, and at the same time they were also aimed at regaining the last state capital in Guangdong that was not included in the Tang Dynasty: Qiongzhou Prefecture.
In the past, because the strategic position of Qiongzhou Prefecture was not too important, and there were not many Ming troops on the island, and the strategic power of the Tang Dynasty was previously restrained by Guangzhou, Shaozhou Prefecture, Huguang, and northeastern Guizhou, so although at that time,
With the troops taking over Leizhou Prefecture, they were only separated from Qiongzhou Prefecture by a strait, but they still did not dare to act rashly.
Because the Ming Navy in Qiongzhou Prefecture also had many ships, it would be easy to die at sea if there was such a large-scale landing.
Therefore, the matter of landing in Qiongzhou Prefecture was mentioned in the summer at the beginning of the year, and then it was still not possible until July.
However, with the capture of Shaozhou Prefecture and the strategic confrontation between the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty and the Huguang Ming Army on the front line of Yichang, Li Xuan felt that he should have mobilized enough power to capture Hainan Island.
Otherwise, if the Ming Dynasty reacted and stationed a large navy and army on Hainan Island, it would probably become a dagger to the Tang Dynasty, only an inch away from the heart.
In order to stabilize the rear and avoid accidents, both the navy and the army believed that other small islands along the coast of Guangdong could be left alone and allowed to be occupied by the Ming army, but Qiongzhou Mansion must be captured first.
This Qiongzhou Mansion is not a small island, but a big island. If it is ignored and allowed to be run by the Ming army for a few years, it will pose a fatal threat to the Tang Dynasty in the future.
For this reason, this time the army and navy rarely showed unity, and both believed that Hainan Island should be captured first.
Li Xuan also deeply agrees with this. Hainan Island is such a big place. If it is developed well, it will be a good place with three crops a year, and there are many various resources on Hainan Island.
In order to attack Qiongzhou Prefecture, Li Xuan specifically instructed the Privy Council and the Naval Command, that is, the army and the navy, to jointly establish a Qiongzhou Prefecture combat command in a new round of strategic meetings.
After all, if we want to attack Qiongzhou Prefecture, we cannot do without the navy, nor can we do without the army. Both sides must cooperate.
Therefore, after the Navy and Army Combat Command was first established, Li Xuan appeared here and listened to the first combat meeting in person. Like previous meetings, he came in and sat directly on it, and then began to close his eyes and relax, listening.
The people below are discussing.
Everyone was used to Li Xuan's appearance. Sometimes, during an entire meeting that lasted several hours, Li Xuan would not say more than ten sentences.
But if anyone thinks that Li Xuan is just a puppet who can't even say a word, then they are completely wrong. Outsiders don't know, but some senior executives actually know that no matter how the meeting is held, they will finally make the decision and determine the final plan.
All are Your Majesty.
Even sometimes, these plans are His Majesty's original intention, but they are just expressed through other people's mouths.
With the current system of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xuan's own prestige, and his power can be considered to have reached the peak in the Tang Dynasty. Without Li Xuan's authorization, so-called big guys like Zeng Ziwen, a team
The troops cannot be mobilized, let alone implement any combat plan.
"To attack Qiongzhou, it is difficult to cross the sea and land, and it is difficult to supply follow-up supplies. If it is a purely land operation, our army does not think it will be a big problem!"
Naturally, the person speaking on behalf of the Army was Zeng Ziwen, Minister of the Privy Council's Operations Department.
And when he said this, especially when he said the last sentence, it was not a big problem, he was full of confidence.
It's not surprising that he was confident. In fact, the enemies in Qiongzhou Mansion were too much for the army to pay attention to. Judging from all aspects of intelligence, although there were several guard posts in Qiongzhou Mansion, their strength was very average.
"As long as our army can successfully land ashore, one regiment is enough to sweep across Qiongzhou Prefecture!"
"You don't need a regiment, just two battalions are enough. The enemy troops on the island are only two to three thousand people, and they are all weak. Two battalions are enough!"
However, when Zeng Ziwen said this, Bao Yifen, who was opposite him, looked troubled and said: "Two battalions, that's a thousand people. This ship is enough to transport a thousand people, but if you want to get over, it will be difficult."
It’s not easy!”
Hearing what Bao Yifen said, Zeng Ziwen frowned slightly. Although the army had unparalleled combat power, it could only stare blankly if it could not reach the shore.
He immediately said: "As for the Navy, how many troops can be escorted to Qiongzhou Mansion?"
Bao Yifen said: "This issue is a bit complicated and cannot be solved in one sentence!"
At this time, a naval officer next to him said: "How many people can be sent across the sea, or whether they can be sent up, depends on where the main force of the Puppet Ming Navy is!"
Without waiting for others to speak, Bao Yifen continued: "As we all know, in terms of maritime power, the enemy is strong and we are weak. If it is a forced cross-sea battle, the Pseudo-Ming Navy cannot remain indifferent. Once they go out to sea to intercept, I am afraid there will be a
A fierce battle!"
Hearing this, many army generals frowned. If they encounter the pseudo-Ming Navy, they will definitely not be able to defeat it with just a few small sampans of the Navy. If the Navy is finished, they, the landlubbers of the Army, will become
Damn it, this kind of thing is not fun at all.
"What's your navy's plan?" Zeng Ziwen didn't believe that the navy had no solution at all. Otherwise, how could it attack Qiongzhou Prefecture?