Chapter 817 The Navy also wants to expand its territory
After Bao Yifen returned to the Naval Headquarters, he immediately gathered all the heads of the Navy together to discuss a strategic plan to combat piracy.
At an internal meeting of the Navy, Vice Admiral Bao Yifen recounted the eternal sage Li Xuan’s close concern for coastal people and passing merchant ships, and the great importance he attached to coastal security.
When Bao Yifen solemnly stated that His Majesty the Emperor attached great importance to maritime security, many naval generals had already begun to frown.
Although Bao Yifen did not say anything that made His Majesty angry, a very important message was revealed between the lines, that is, Li Xuan was very dissatisfied with the Navy's inaction.
Now all those present here know that with His Majesty's concern, the navy may no longer be able to passively arrange warships to escort merchant fleets and conduct daily patrols.
Because this is not enough!
Fleet escort means that the navy cannot protect those merchant ships traveling alone. Daily patrol means that it will not take the initiative to attack.
To change this situation, the navy must take the initiative to annihilate the main pirate forces along the coasts of the two provinces, and then completely control the security of this sea area.
But it is not that easy to take the initiative.
Today, the main task of the Tang Dynasty Navy is to guard the safety of the Yangtze River and Pearl River estuaries, and to be ready to intercept Ming naval forces heading south from the northern seas such as the coast of Shandong at any time.
You must know that although the Ming Navy in the south has been considered destroyed, the Ming Army still retains a large amount of maritime power in the northern seas, and after the fall of Jiangnan, it accelerated the strengthening of the northern sea power.
In the future, the Navy will still need to cooperate with the Army's plan to move north, gradually move north along the coastline, and provide sea supply channels for the Army moving north.
These strategic tasks all restrained a large amount of the Tang Navy's power.
However, the tasks assigned by His Majesty personally cannot be ignored, and they must be completed diligently and beautifully. Otherwise, if His Majesty becomes angry, no one present will be able to bear it.
After briefly introducing the purpose of today's meeting, Vice Admiral Bao Yifen said: "Commander Song, you are usually responsible for escort affairs and are relatively familiar with pirates. Let's briefly talk about the situation of pirates along the coast."
At this time, a young major general stood up and said: "Siring officers and colleagues, in the past six months, the sea areas that we have been harassed are mainly the Zhejiang sea area and the Fujian sea area, especially the Zhoushan sea area where the situation is complex and there are many islands.
The two areas of the Strait (Taiwan Strait) are even more frequented by pirates. Therefore, in the past six months, our navy has sunk a total of 13 pirate ships, captured 23 pirate ships, and arrested more than 500 pirates in the above-mentioned waters. However,
Piracy activities in the above two sea areas are still rampant.
According to our judgment, these pirates must have one or more pirate gathering points in the Zhoushan waters and Da Yuan Island (Taiwan Island). The year before last, after the Shuangyu Port, the home base of Zhejiang pirate Xu Dong, was besieged and suppressed by the then Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers,
It is scattered into multiple activities in the waters of Fujian and Zhoushan.
According to some of the information we have now, the big pirates include Wang Zhi, Chen Sipan, Lu Qi, Shen Jiu and others. However, these pirates are also different. For example, Wang Zhi among them, like Xu Dong before, has
Our policy of opening up the sea is relatively supportive, and most of the time we participate in our foreign trade according to the rules, but other groups of pirates mainly focus on robbery!"
"In the past six months, more than 80% of the robberies were committed by pirates such as Chen Sipan, Lu Qi, Shen Jiu, etc. However, although Wang Zhi has maritime trade activities with Datang, other He was unable to restrain his subordinates, and his subordinates repeatedly robbed coastal merchant ships and even coastal villages and towns!"
"According to incomplete statistics, many of the pirates mentioned above have at least a hundred ships. Among them, Wang Zhi's fleet alone has no less than twenty ships!"
Listening to Staff Officer Song's introduction, a group of lowly people asked: "Then have we found their lair?"
Staff Officer Song said: "The detailed situation is still unknown, but we judge that it must be in the waters of Zhoushan, and there must be their base on Dayuan Island. As for the specific location, we only need to gradually clear it and search. If we want to It’s not difficult to find out!”
At this time, Bao Yifen checked: "His Majesty has already said that he will set up a government on Da Yuan Island, and retaking and completely controlling the island is also a task that our navy must complete!"
Li Xuan made this comment to Bao Yifen in today's report. In fact, Li Xuan had thought about setting up Da Yuan Island as a separate administrative region before. However, the Tang Dynasty did not directly control the island, so it established an administrative region. It's just an empty talk, but now, he doesn't want to wait any longer. If he waits any longer, Damuan Island will probably become a pirate home.
After listening to a brief introduction to the situation, everyone began to discuss how to deal with these pirates, which were large in number and scattered everywhere. Some suggested appeasement, saying that pirates like Wang Zhi could still be appeased, while others It was suggested that suppression must be carried out with the most severe attitude, and the radical slogan "Those who dare to violate the Tang Dynasty's maritime borders will be killed without mercy!"
Some people believe that the navy is currently insufficient in strength and should proceed gradually, first organizing the main force to patrol dangerous sea areas, and then looking for opportunities to annihilate them all.
There were various opinions, but after much discussion, Bao Yifen found that no matter what method he used, it was necessary to mobilize some of the battleships. If the number was small, the war would not be able to end quickly, and this would be a huge disaster. The main strategy affecting the navy: Cooperating with the army in the Northern Expedition!
Finally, he said: "If the main force of our navy is deployed in full force, and the first fleet and the second fleet cooperate with each other, can the pirates in the above-mentioned sea areas be wiped out in a short time?"
"All the main force?" After hearing Bao Yifen's words, the other navy's faces looked puzzled.
The navy's current tasks are so heavy, how can it possibly deploy main ships just to eliminate pirates? Although pirates are rampant, it is nothing more than a trivial matter, and the Ming army opposite is the real serious problem.
Waiting for the navy to free up its hands, the pirates will destroy them in minutes. In the East Asian waters, there is no maritime force that can withstand the attack of the more than 20 warships of the Tang Navy!
Just these two dozen warships carry more than 450 naval guns!
Moreover, the Tang Dynasty Navy had more than these twenty warships, there were also several armed merchant ships modified by Galen, and many armed merchant ships modified from traditional Chinese merchant ships.
With all the main force deployed, even if the ships in the Yangtze River Fleet are not counted, the Tang Navy is estimated to be able to pull out at least 60 ships that can be used for maritime operations.
But if the main force is used now, will the Pearl River estuary and the Yangtze River estuary still be needed?
Especially here at the mouth of the Yangtze River, if the Ming Navy took the opportunity to rob and move south in a large scale, wouldn't it be doomed?
However, although they were surprised by Bao Yifen's decision, everyone still gave their own answer: "If the main force is deployed to clean up pirates, depending on the situation, if everything goes well, it will be enough to eliminate the pirates in Zhoushan waters and Dayuan Island within a month.
Even if it doesn't go well, two months should be enough. However, with the strength of our navy, there is no problem if we only fight at sea, but if we want to fight ashore, our marines may not be enough in number.
, we need cooperation from the Army!"
"Two months? That's good, I'll give you two months!" Bao Yifen stood up: "In two months, we will completely take down the Zhoushan Islands, and also completely take down Dajuan Island. Our navy
We must not only control and defend the sea territory for His Majesty, but also open up the territory for His Majesty, and this Dajuan Island is the first step!"
As the head of the Military Command Department, Bao Yifen is the well-deserved first person in the hierarchy of power within the navy. After he issues the order, he no longer cares about subsequent meetings. Subsequent meetings are the business of the staff department.
In early July, the Tang Dynasty Navy suddenly issued an internal emergency mobilization order, requiring that pirates on Zhoushan and Dayuan Island be eliminated within two months.
And it didn't take long for the naval warships parked in Wusong Port, Ningbo Port, Nan'ao Island, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and other places to set sail. In addition to leaving a cruiser and three frigates at the Yangtze River estuary, the navy left just in case,
The rest of the main warships all attacked. At the same time, the inland rivers and the coastal fleet also dispatched a large number of large ships and sand ships to cooperate with the battle.
The mission of these armed merchant ships is not to fight, but to search for where the main force of pirates is!
At the same time, the army also cooperated and dispatched many troops to board the navy's transport ships, preparing to cooperate with the ashore operations to eliminate the pirate base.
Almost all the main force of the navy came out in full force, and their actions were extremely fast, with no information revealed at all beforehand.
After the main force of its first fleet went to sea, they attacked several ports suspected to be pirate bases, and they actually discovered several small bases. Needless to say, these ports discovered were naturally pirate bases.
Directly block the main fleet and bombard it!
Nearly ten capital ships, plus more than a dozen armed merchant ships cooperating in combat, are enough to blow any pirate ship that dares to resist into pieces!
When the naval guns were bombarded, the transport ship that followed also landed with infantry. There was nothing to say next. The infantry charged and these pirates were basically finished.
At sea, these pirates may still be able to exert some combat effectiveness when joining gangs, but on land, they are almost impossible to match the Tang Marine Corps.
Several times, even the Marine Battalion had not yet fully landed, but the pirates on the island completely collapsed!
When the Navy of the Tang Dynasty paid attention to it and began to exterminate pirates on a large scale, these pirates who were usually awesome and coquettish were almost completely powerless to fight back!