Princess Huichen is fifteen years old this year, and she looks completely different from when her family fled to Huangzhu Mountain five years ago.
The biggest obvious change is that she has grown taller, her face is rounder, her waist is also rounder, and her weight has successfully climbed to the standards of Queen Mother Bai.
This time has passed quickly enough. In five years, Huichen has grown up, and Li Xuan himself has also changed from a sixteen-year-old boy to a twenty-one-year-old young man. Touching his sparse beard, Li Xuan
Xuan sighed a little: Time makes people grow old!
After lunch, Li Xuan drove the people away, took a nap first, and then started working in the afternoon.
When Li Xuan appeared in the conference room, everyone in the navy was already waiting. When they saw Li Xuan coming in, they naturally stood up one by one and began to salute. Li Xuan bowed slightly and sat on his
The exclusive dragon chair, and then a slight nod, Bao Yifen and other naval admirals below are the beginning.
Today's naval meeting is mainly to report on the effectiveness of the Tang Navy's suppression of bandits in the past two months, and also to discuss some issues that have been exposed during the suppression of bandits.
"In the past month or so, the Navy has dispatched four cruisers, 13 frigates, and 56 armed merchant ships, transport ships, supply ships and other auxiliary vessels. A total of 69 vessels of various types have been deployed
Participate in the anti-bandit operation.”
"During the operation, we destroyed sixteen pirate strongholds, sunk and burned more than forty pirate ships, captured more than a hundred ships of various sizes, killed more than 3,000 pirates, and captured more than 5,000 pirates!"
"The captured pirates have been treated according to the past methods. After trial, they were all dried in major coastal ports to serve as a warning to future generations!"
"In addition to ships and other ordnance, we also seized some trophies, mainly gold, silver, and various goods. The total value is initially estimated to be no less than two million taels of silver. It has been handed over to the tax department for disposal!"
"After the thunderous strikes of our navy, there are still no large-scale pirates on the coasts of Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces. There are only sporadic pirates operating. The navy is currently actively eradicating them, but I am afraid it will take a long time."
"In the future, our navy will normalize patrols along the coast and continue to maintain the fleet escort system to ensure the safety of passing merchant ships!"
Listening to what the navy said about the suppression of bandits, Li Xuan nodded slightly. This time the navy had put in a lot of effort in suppressing the pirates. The scale was even larger than when it attacked the Ming Navy in Nan'ao.
And the effect is very obvious.
Only in this way can we not waste huge sums of money to build a navy!
The navy spends more money than the army. A cruiser costs more than 100,000 taels of silver. Even a frigate costs 50,000 to 60,000 taels of silver. If such an expensive warship cannot play its role in protecting the Tang Dynasty's waters, then it will be useless.
wasted.
After the navy officials finished reporting on the pirate affairs, Li Xuan also asked about the navy's current preparations.
The preparations were naturally for the Northern Expedition.
The Navy stated that the major battleships have already begun to return to major ports for maintenance and supplies. Preliminary preparations will be completed in about half a month, and the Northern Expedition will definitely not be delayed.
Li Xuan nodded after hearing this and said nothing more.
After all, the time and even the strategy of the Northern Expedition have not yet been determined. A group of senior army generals and even the middle- and senior-level staff officers in the operations department are arguing every day, and a complete plan has not been finalized yet.
There were many conflicts within the army, and Li Xuan did not intend to intervene. Anyway, the Northern Expedition was certain, and the general route of the Northern Expedition was basically determined. It was nothing more than taking Anqing and Yangzhou, and then fighting all the way north.
The general direction is set, but the Army is now debating specific tactical details, including where and when a certain division will fight.
These were matters involving tactics, and Li Xuan had always ignored them and allowed the army to debate them on their own.
After all, the Northern Expedition is a huge military operation. The Army will dispatch at least 100,000 main troops to cross the Yangtze River for the Northern Expedition, and the Navy will basically all come out to cooperate with the Army.
This huge-scale battle was the largest since the founding of the Tang Dynasty!
Although in the past when the Tang Dynasty still had a garrison, tens of thousands of people participated in battles, the garrison at that time was not very good, and the real main force was usually only tens of thousands.
Even in the original Huguang Battle, when Li Chunjing and Hao Bainian joined forces, the total number of participating troops in the First Army and the Second Army was only 60,000 to 70,000.
By the time of the Jiangnan Campaign, the Second Army actually only had 40,000 men. As for the Third Army, it only had 20,000 men, and it was still fighting in a scattered manner. Speaking of scale, it was actually not as good as the original Huguang Changsha.
Battle of Hengyang.
But now, at least 100,000 troops are crossing the Yangtze River for the Northern Expedition. This is a very severe test for the military command system and logistics supply of the Tang Dynasty. The command system is okay. Li Chunjing and Hao Bainian have both fought for several years and experienced many experiences.
He is a veteran of the war, and he has a large group of generals cooperating with him, so there shouldn't be any major problems in commanding him.
The real big problem is logistics!
Putting aside the super big problem of how to transport supplies to the front line, just supplying a hundred thousand troops to sustain the battle is an insurmountable task.
Even now, the major arsenals under the Tang Dynasty are working overtime every day to produce various types of ordnance and ammunition, but they are still unable to provide enough supplies for the navy and army of the Tang Dynasty.
According to the estimates of the Logistics Department of the Privy Council, at least enough ammunition and various types of food and grass to support the troops for three months must be stocked at various supply transfer stations on the south bank of the Yangtze River before the campaign is launched.
Only in this way can we have enough supplies to continue transporting northward after the Northern Expedition. Otherwise, if we transport them directly from Guangdong, Guangxi and other hinterlands of the south, we will not be able to catch up.
At that time, it may even appear that there is a lot of ammunition and supplies in the rear, but they are all on the road, but the frontline troops are seriously short of ammunition!
It is necessary to reserve a large amount of ammunition, grain and grass in advance. In addition to grain and grass, the logistics department is also worried about how to send the large amount of ammunition, grain and grass stored in advance to the front line. Relying on the military's own baggage troops, it is impossible to carry too much material. It must be
Relying on a large number of civilian workers organized by the logistics department for transportation.
But how many civilian laborers are needed for this?
The Logistics Department made a simple estimate. If it was impossible to seize the canal and rely solely on land transportation to sustain the army's operations, it would reach Fengyang Prefecture and Huai'an Prefecture, rely on the army's own baggage troops, and then mobilize 50,000 troops.
Civilians can basically be satisfied.
But if we want to kill Shandong and Henan, the number of civilians needed will increase exponentially. One hundred thousand people will definitely not be enough, at least 150,000 people will be needed.
If we want to fight all the way to Beizhili, the total number of civilians required will exceed 300,000!
And this, this does not include the section from the Guangdong and Guangxi regions to the Yangtze River, because this section will all take the sea route, and it will not require too many civilians.
Therefore, the Logistics Department has already put forward very important opinions: Logistics supply routes must not all be taken by land, otherwise, the number of civilians used will be too large.
Even if these civilian laborers are recruited temporarily and do not need to be paid, you still have to give people a mouthful of food. Just eating hundreds of thousands of people for a few months is a huge number.
Therefore, the senior army officials in the Privy Council made a preliminary decision, which was to divide the troops into separate lines and advance at the same time.
As for the crucial logistics supply line, the Huguang side is naturally based on land routes. There is no choice but to rely on land transportation, and land transportation is difficult. At the same time, in the early stage, the Yangtze River was blocked by the Ming Navy, and the Tang Dynasty
It is also difficult to transport supplies on a large scale to the troops in the direction of Wuchang through the Yangtze River.
Therefore, in the early stage, the supply in this direction mainly relied on self-produced ammunition in Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, mainly the ammunition stockpiled, supplemented by some ammunition supplemented by Guangxi, and the quantity was not large.
Insufficient ammunition naturally resulted in the northward plan in this area being secondary and not the main offensive route of the Tang Army's Northern Expedition.
So where is the main attack route?
Jiangbei in southern Zhili is the Huaihe River Basin to be precise.
At this time, the Yellow River entered the sea from the Huaihe River, which meant that if the estuary of the Huaihe River and the section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal from Huai'an to the Yangtze River could be controlled, the inland river fleet of the Tang Dynasty could reach Huai'an directly.
However, using the Huaihe River as a transit point, passing through the Yellow River, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal advances to Henan in the northwest and Shandong in the north.
In this way, the difficulty of logistical supply is greatly reduced.
However, the Ming army is good at it, and they naturally know the importance of this area. Otherwise, why would they set up Jiangbei general troops in Yangzhou and Huai'an? The total number of Ming troops in this area is at least more than 150,000, and
The main force of 100,000 troops marched up.
Yangzhou was built like a bridgehead, with strong troops and numerous artillery. It was not an easy task to conquer it forcefully.
The accumulation of materials is slow and logistical supplies are difficult. In addition, many troops are being reorganized and trained.
At the same time, there were many differences within the army, so the Northern Expedition was planned from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year, but it was already in the autumn. From the current look, Li Xuan estimated that there would still be no complete plan in a short time.
Therefore, the Northern Expedition is still being prepared. At least it is unknown when the preparations will be completed.
The Tang Dynasty was preparing for the Northern Expedition, and the Ming Dynasty was not idle either. Emperor Zhengde no longer cared about the balance between imperial power and the cabinet, let alone the risks of frontline generals taking the opportunity to gain power.
They tried every means to increase the defensive power on the Jiangbei and Huguang front lines.
In this context, Zhang Yue became more and more powerful. After the crown prince Shaobao, Emperor Zhengde promoted him to the title of prince Taibao. And this was not over yet. Emperor Zhengde officially sealed Zhang Yue in the Mid-Autumn Festival in August.
Yue was Pingnan Bo, which directly bypassed the marquis and directly made him an earl. This kind of thing is extremely rare.
What's even more interesting is that when Emperor Zhengde conferred the title of uncle on Zhang Yue, he was still receiving constant suggestions to impeach Zhang Yue.
In the past few years, all the rumors about Zhang Yue's impeachment were probably worth less than one thousand or eight hundred. However, Emperor Zhengde kept them all in check and demoted many officials who impeached Zhang Yue.
For a time, the popularity of Ping Nanbo and Zhang Yue has surpassed that of many cabinet bosses of the Ming Dynasty. There is no way, who can let them have soldiers in their hands, and they are still hundreds of thousands of elite main force!