Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1566 Advance and Retreat (Part [-])
In the second half of the meeting, the secretaries of the secretariat and Luo Yuan, the captain of the left-wing light cavalry, also joined in. Gao Wushi discovered an interesting phenomenon: apart from Gao Mo, the oldest participant was Gao Guoyan, who was three years old. In his teens, the rest are all under 30 years old, while his concubine brothers Gao Wuzheng and Gao Wuruo are only 19 years old and Gao Wuruo respectively.

After the meeting started, Luo Yuan first reported the situation of the Luzon Islands campaign in public.After Luo Yuan paid tribute to Gao Wushi and others, he released a report: "After several months of fighting, as of the date when I left Luzon and returned to Beijing, this combat operation has basically come to an end.

On October [-]th last year, our expeditionary army, navy and land armies completely defeated and wiped out the remnant Spanish enemies and Spanish subordinate tribes on Luzon Island and marched south; then our army was divided into four groups, attacking Mindoro all the way, attacking squadrons all the way Nai Island, attacked Masba Island all the way, and attacked Samar Island all the way. On November [-], our army completed the four islands.

On November 29, our army set off again after a short rest. The troops were divided into three groups, one to attack Negros Island, the other to attack Wright Island, and the other to attack Mindanao, the southernmost island of the archipelago.On November [-], the main force of our army defeated about [-] Spanish troops in Mindanao, and the main force of the Spanish army lost most of it. Our army regained Mindanao for the Kingdom of Luzon.

So far, our army has completed the siege of the last stronghold of the Spanish colonial army, that is, the island of Cebu Island, where it invaded Luzon.

Before returning to the north, Commander Gao Zhenxin of the Expeditionary Army Fleet and Gao Yimin, the temporary first township of the Expeditionary Army, conducted a detailed investigation and found that Cebu City, as the last stronghold of the Spaniards, was very easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Commander Gao Zhenxin said that due to the range of the artillery, the fleet was unable to launch an effective attack on the city's defense system. He believed that unless the naval guns were disassembled and transported to the city, the fleet would not be able to provide effective assistance.However, since we received news that the Portuguese traveled frequently on the Malacca-East Timor route, our fleet could not determine whether the other party was hostile, so it was inconvenient to dismantle the shipboard artillery, and there was nothing we could do to help with the siege.

Gao Yimin's control side believes that because Cebu City is a standard bastion with a large scale and relatively complete facilities, a strong attack may cause our army to suffer unnecessary heavy casualties.Therefore, he believes that unless the provisional first town is supported by at least twenty No. [-] guns and sufficient gunpowder and projectiles, it is not suitable to launch a storm.

Gao Yimin suggested that although Cebu City is a militarized fortress, most of the defenders in the city fled back from north to south, and the process of fleeing back was quite hasty, so the food and other living materials in Cebu City Or if it is not enough, our army can consider adopting the method of long-term siege to make it self-defeating.

In addition, Gao Yimin submitted two maps, one is the overall situation of Cebu Island, and the other is the situation of the Cebu City Bastion and the general deployment of the Spanish garrison. Please have a look at it, Mrs. and Madam. "

Gao Wushi looked at the two maps and saw that the pages of the maps were quite large, so he simply asked Luo Yuan to hang them up for everyone to see together.

In fact, he himself has always been not good at specific tactical command. In field battles, he can rely on the psychological judgment of the enemy's general to show his strength, but he really has no good ideas for siege warfare—according to his usual The way of thinking, siege is to use bombardment, specific tactics and so on... It's really a layman.

After everyone had watched it for a while, Gao Wushi asked, "What do you guys think? Is it possible to capture this city as soon as possible under the current strength of the temporary first town and end the Luzon campaign?"

He originally thought that with the experience of Huang Zhiting and Liu Xin, most of them would be the first to express their opinions, but who knew that Erde Mutu would be the first to speak.

The Jinghua Secretariat has three military secretaries, one of whom is concurrently held by Liu Xin, and the other two are Erde Mutu and Ruan Fuyuan.However, Ruan Fuyuan is mainly in charge of the navy. Since Gao Zhenxin has said that the fleet will not be able to help unless the artillery is dismantled, Ruan Fuyuan will naturally not talk too much.

Erdemutu felt that he could not keep silent—this was the first time he had participated in such a meeting, and he thought it was a test for him, so how could he not speak?
So he was the first to speak and said: "Teacher, as shown in the picture, the city is located on the coastal plain in the south of Cebu Island, with mountains to the west and north, sea to the south, and plains to the east. Our army is currently occupying Cebu Island. The eastern plain of the city, and built a temporary port here.

This means that as long as our land division continues to occupy this place and the fleet blocks the southern coast, the Spanish defenders will be unable to fly... Under such circumstances, since Gao Yimin's command judged that the city's supplies are not sufficient, it should be said that the siege is indeed true. It is the best deployment to reduce the loss of our army but achieve the combat objectives.

However, what the teacher asked was whether the city could be captured as soon as possible, so the students suggested that they might as well build plank roads to cross Chencang secretly, while making a long-term siege posture, while building a condescending fort on the mountain, so as to increase the artillery while avoiding the crossfire of the bastion range.

However, these two are open lines. The students also suggested that in addition to this, they should find ways to dig tunnels, use the corner detonation method, collapse a corner of the city wall, and then forcibly break through the city. "

Gao Wushi nodded, then turned to look at Liu Xin, and asked, "Is there anything the Secretary-General can add?"

Liu Xin thought for a while, then pointed to a river near Cebu City on the map and asked Luo Yuan, "How is the hydrology of this river? Is it possible to block the water and build a dam like the battle of Manila, and then divert the water to flood the city?"

Luo Yuan clasped his fists and said, "Return to the Secretary-General, I'm afraid it will be difficult. This river is not wide, and the water flow is relatively slow... The key is that there is no terrain suitable for water storage nearby. If we rely on manpower to build a water storage dam, I'm afraid it will take time and effort."

Liu Xin frowned and said, "The idea of ​​Erde Mutu is not bad, but if tunnels are dug in the coastal plain, groundwater may be dug out within one foot. If this is the case, it will be difficult to achieve blasting under the wall."

As soon as this remark came out, everyone realized that the terrain conditions were ignored, and they couldn't help but fell into thinking.Huang Zhiting thought for a while and said, "Since it is inconvenient to attack the city, is it possible to consider attacking the heart?"

She glanced at Gao Yushi and said: "Master had predicted before that the Spaniards' expedition to England in Europa would most likely fail and suffer heavy losses. Under such a situation, it is impossible for the Spaniards in Cebu to wait for local reinforcements." In other words, they are now basically an abandoned army, and because their sea power in Luzon is almost completely lost, they can't even get supplies.

In such a situation, I think it is entirely possible to try to contact them and let them surrender decently—or use a more decent way: they hand over Cebu City to us in exchange for our leniency towards them. "

In essence, Erdemutu is not very happy to end the battle in this way. Although he is a highly pragmatic student, he is a Mongol after all and the eldest son of Tumet Chechen Khan. He subconsciously hopes that End the Luzon campaign with a complete victory.

But now the conditions have been stuck, Gao Yushi obviously does not want to continue to add troops to Luzon or allocate another batch of heavy artillery, and he hopes to end the battle quickly, so since it is difficult to get it quickly, the best way is to let the Spaniards themselves surrender.

The morale of the Spaniards is definitely low now. Once they find that reinforcements are impossible, there is a high probability that this depression will become a collapse.

Gao Yushi finally issued an order, requesting that the first goal is to attack the heart, on the condition that Spanish military personnel are allowed to leave the entire Luzon Islands, and other unarmed personnel can be allowed to stay in Manila, Cebu and other places for trade.As for the Catholic missionaries, he also allowed them to preach freely, but made a requirement that they should not accept any land donations without authorization.

At the same time, Gao Yushi also ordered that if the Spaniards are stubborn, they are allowed to temporarily form the first town to implement the combat plan.The battle plan is based on Erde Mutu's proposal, allowing Gao Yimin to make adjustments according to the actual situation.

After discussing this matter, Gao Wushi introduced the situation in Japan to the participants, and then said: "In Luzon, there is no need for the main force of our Beiyang Fleet to be stationed for a long time, and the maritime defense will be handed over to Nanyang in the future. The fleet took over, so that part of the force could be transferred to Japan first.

Coincidentally, in order to prevent Toyotomi Hideyoshi from viewing our Beiyang Fleet as the biggest threat, I don’t intend to send the main force of the fleet, so I plan to form a squadron. This squadron cannot even be called the Japanese Squadron... I plan to form The Kanto Squadron of the Beiyang Fleet, the obvious goal is to protect the must-take Misaki Castle-especially the city island. "

Luo Yuan's heart skipped a beat, before he had time to think about it carefully, he heard Gao Wushi say: "Luo Yuan."

Luo Yuan got up quickly: "Here!"

"Appoint you as the commander of the Kanto Squadron, but your flagship is still the 'Left Wing Light Cavalry', and there are thirty armed transport ships under your command."

"Yes, the humble official takes orders!" Luo Yuan replied loudly.

Gao Wushi nodded, and said again: "I want to remind you that Japan not only has many so-called 'naval armies', but also that Toyotomi Hideyoshi bought [-] armed transport ships from Jinghua. The strength is no different from these ships under your command.

As for those naval forces, even though they are small boats in a single sense, they are too large to support them. According to insider reports, the Kumano Navy alone has three to four hundred warships..."

Luo Yuan raised his chin proudly, and said: "Master, don't worry, I have met these navy troops face to face. With their strength, unless I am so stupid that they attack the port with a fireboat, I will be safe. As for the port, I don't know if the master has Arrange for Master Lu to cooperate with the humble staff?"

"Yes, but not for cooperation." Gao Yushi said: "I will give you a marine battle standard, about 800 people (actually 1756 people), the standard is called Gao Yunping, and the standard will directly accept your command."

Luo Yuan was startled when he heard this, and hesitated, "Gao Yunping... is Gao Biaotong on Taiwan Island?"

"Yes, it's him." Gao Wushi smiled slightly: "Why, have you heard of his name?"

Luo Yuan scratched his head, and said: "I have heard that he is the favorite general of the fourth master (Gao Wujian), and he is... well-known in Taiwan."

Gao Wushi scolded with a smile: "What's the reputation? It's not bad. But you don't have to worry too much. Although he is a bit murderous, the fourth brother said that he is still very firm in carrying out orders, and he never bargains. In this way A subordinate should be very helpful to your mission."

Gao Yushi said that there is a reason for Gao Yunping's reputation as a villain. He was the leader of the first batch of marines. He used tough methods in the process of opening up Taiwan's "base area". Killed all of them directly.

Especially when Gao Wujian arrived in Taiwan and took over the "civilization" task, because of his young age, the local promotion methods were also very bloody, which made Gao Yunping even more dependent.

With the support of Gao Wujian, this person once set a shocking record of "killing seven ministries in six days", killing blood in Heliwu, Chailidou (roughly in the south of central Taitai in later generations) and other places, and killing the local people. Dahe Zhuoshui Creek turned into Blood Water Creek, which instantly made the local natives change face when they heard of its name, almost equating it with the god of death.

However, the reason why Gao Yushi chose him to go to Japan was not because he was serious about murder, but because this person's record showed that he was very good at leading small-scale elite operations. The defense experience of the land is also very rich, which is very suitable for guarding an important place like Misaki Castle.

Originally, Huang Zhiting thought that Misaki City should be guarded by [-] to [-] troops, but Gao Wushi felt that the transfer of so many troops might over-irritate Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so he meant to send nearly [-] well-defended land battle targets first. To secure the island of Misaki Castle.

If Toyotomi Hideyoshi acquiesced in the move of the Hojo family to "lease" Misaki Castle to Jinghua, then Misaki Castle itself would not need too many troops to ensure its stability; In the case of Misaki City, then Luo Yuan and Gao Yunping can also rely on their strength to ensure that the city island is not lost, and then wait for Gao Pragmatic's follow-up reinforcements or other plans to be implemented.

You must know that the long-distance garrison across the ocean is very expensive after all without controlling the local political power. Gao Yushi thinks that it can be saved if it can be saved.

However, this matter is not only a matter of fighting, but more importantly, it is actually a matter of negotiation.One of the important reasons why Gao Wushi likes Luo Yuan is that he was quite smart in the previous battle, and after coming to Beijing to report the battle twice, Gao Wushi also found that he is indeed a smart person with good eloquence, very suitable for fighting Hojo and Toyotomi negotiated.

Therefore, after the appointment was over, Gao Wushi began to point out some key points in his negotiations with the two companies. Fortunately, Luo Yuan is a member of the Beiyang Fleet and has been to Japan many times before. Pragmatic guidance saves a lot of tongue.

At the end of the meeting, Gao Wushi arranged for Ruan Fuyuan to be in charge of deploying the ships of the squadron for Luo Yuan. Everyone found that the people who had not interrupted were all members of the Gao family: Gao Wuzhong, Gao Qi, Gao Wuzheng, and Gao Wuruo.However, everyone knew that Gao Yushi asked them to attend the meeting, probably just to let them learn more and improve their qualifications by the way. As for participating in serious discussions, Gao Yushi probably has no such plan.

Just after the meeting, news came from the Qianqing Palace, saying that the emperor had received the five cabinet elders, and withdrew his order to appease the cabinet, but the specific situation is not very clear—because the emperor drove away all the other irrelevant people during the meeting. out.

And the news that came out at the same time really included the conversation between the empress dowager and the emperor in the Palace of Compassionate Ning.Hearing the conversations between the queen mother and the emperor, Gao Wushi fell into thought for a moment.
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(End of this chapter)