Dragon Sea Empire

During the few days in early September of the 45th year of Wanli, the Ming court successively issued emergency edicts, dispatching [-] conscripts from Xuanfu in the northwest, Datong, Shanxi, Yansui, and towns, Ning, and Gu in Gansu to join forces in Jizhen. To mobilize the chieftain soldiers from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, recruit troops in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Sichuan, and send them to the theaters in the north and the south. People with a discerning eye can see that in order to deal with the Taiwan pirate chaos, the imperial court has actually mobilized the whole country. However, these nationwide mobilization It may be impossible for all the soldiers and horses to gather at the designated frontline positions within half a year, but can the imperial court watch the Chinese army occupy Nanjing, Tianjin Wei and other important places for half a year?

The commander-in-chief of the northern army was Wang Keshou, who was then Zuo Shilang and the censor of Youqin capital, governor Ji Liao, and Baoding. He was awarded the Shangfang Sword and served as Tianjin Economic Strategy. The Chinese Army claims to have a total strength of 45. In fact, besides the 3 troops in Jiliao and Shanhaiguan, there are also unreliable troops in the three major battalions of the Beijing Division. On the march.

The soldiers gathered by the Ming army came from all kinds of people, from the north and the south. Some were recruited and some were recruited. This caused countless problems in the management of the command. What's more, the soldiers who worked for the king in various places needed their own food for thousands of miles. The long-distance march had already exhausted them From the point of view of its equipment, the troops from afar intend to fight in a coordinated manner, but in fact, the troops have never conducted cooperative training with each other, and there are no coordinated exercises of the various arms. In fact, the soldiers of the various branches of the Ming army rarely trained.

This is also really impossible: in the First World War in Nanjing, the Nanjing garrison had collapsed, and the Ming army in most of the south of the Yangtze River had collapsed. There was no other way to regain Nanjing except to mobilize troops from various places.

On the northern line, Wang Keshou, governor of Jiliao, was disappointed to find that the three major battalions of the Beijing Army had lost much combat power, and the Tianjin Guards had basically been wiped out. Only troops were transferred from the Nine Sides.

"Wang Keshou, styled Yixu, nicknamed Jingfeng, Sanpan Jushi, was born in Wangge, Dushan, Huangmei, Hubei. Zuo Shilang is also the censor of the capital of the right, and the governor of Jiliao. He now has 1 troops from Shanhaiguan General Jun Jun, 5 Baoding General Wang Xuan, and more than 1 soldiers directly under the governor. , more than 3000 battalions led by Xiping Beiyu Xu Chengming and Jiadu Si Li Ketai, "

Zeng Qing, the northern chief of the Ministry of Military Intelligence, is reading an intelligence summary to Chen Zhongji and the leading officers on the northern front. Zeng Qing is the nephew of Zeng Jiayuan's house. Following the Chinese army on the northern line, they returned to the Jinqu area, and reconnected with the hidden piles and secret work that had been ambush.

Those present were all senior officers of the Chinese Army on the Northern Front: Colonel Chen Zhongji, Chief of the Northern Front March, Fan Tao, Commander of the First Fleet of the Navy—Northern Fleet, Yang Liu, Commander of the Ryukyu Corps of the Sailor Musketeers, Mai Haisheng, Supervisor of the Ryukyu Corps, cavalry Lu Xiaotian, commander of the regiment, Lin Feiyang, commander of the artillery regiment, and Cao Tai, the commander of the Northern Front Army. the troops.

Zhao Tie was blown to the southeast coast of Shandong by the hurricane on the clipper ship Sea Urchin, and the mast and canvas were seriously damaged. After all, this area has always been the place where the Chinese Army fleet received the refugees from the famine in Shandong. The Chinese Army has a good reputation, so in With the help of the fishermen in this area, the Sea Urchin was finally able to return to the sea and continue to go north. It was not until the Chinese Army captured Tianjinwei that Zhao Tie came to Penglai and joined the Chinese Army Sailors and Musketeers stationed in Penglai.

After returning to his own army, Zhao Tie immediately followed the etiquette of his subordinates to refer to Chen Zhongji, the chief of the army. The change of command of the first division did not cause any reaction at all. The most powerful tool of the Chinese Army has made the system of the Chinese Army completely get rid of the bad habit of generals raising private soldiers in traditional culture.

This is the former Weisuo Army drill ground in the west of Tianjin Acropolis, and now it is the old battalion of the Chinese Army's Northern Front Army.

Chen Zhongji set up a big round table in his big tent, and all the senior generals sat in front of the round table regardless of priority. From the Western missionaries, he heard the story of the ancient English king Arthur and the twelve knights of the round table. , he deliberately wants to imitate it here. Of course, he also wants to reflect the difference in status between himself and Yin Feng in his barracks: most of the generals around him and him are military schoolmates of the same age, and Chen Zhongji does not want to highlight his own status.

Chen Zhongji flipped through the documents in hand and said: "Here is the information delivered by the company's business intelligence department the day before yesterday: It is said that the imperial court appointed Huang Jiashan, Minister of the Ministry of War, as the director of the army, and Zhao Xingbang was praised by the Ministry of War for Tianjin's economic strategy. What's going on? Tianjin Economic Strategy Wang Keshou has already appointed President Qin Wangjun and the Beijing Army, and then appointed his boss, Minister of the Ministry of War, as the supervisor of the army, and one of the ministers as the supervisor. At the same time, I saw in the Tang newspaper, There is also Guo Guangfu, the governor of Liaodong, and Wang Shaoxun, the general manager of the Guantundu Division, who are in charge of transporting food and grass from all walks of life. Could it be that the military rations of the imperial army come from Liaodong? The army is so chaotic, the entire command system is stacked with each other, and there are many branches of the government to check each other, and all the troops are still on the way to Beijing, so they can only fight us in the year of the monkey."

Everyone heard the words and discussed, and Zhao Tie's voice was the loudest: "Ji Zai, Mr. Chen, you can't drag it on like this. The weather is getting colder every day. Most of our Chinese army are from the south. The winter in the north is so cold that you will lose your ears." Yes, how to fight then, "

Lu Xiaotian, head of the cavalry regiment, laughed loudly: "Brother Zhao, the Liaodong border will freeze your ears off. I am from Shandong. I have been to this area in the past. As long as I protect myself well in winter, it will be fine. When it snows heavily, it will be icy and snowy everywhere, and it will be very difficult to walk and run, and it will be impossible to fight wars.”

Zhao Tie rubbed his nose and frowned: "Could it be possible to wait until the beginning of next year to fight a big battle, Director Chen, hasn't the staff drawn up some winter combat plan?"

Chen Zhongji spread out a piece of paper, and chuckled: "The winter combat plan of the staff department is actually a plan to stick to it and wait for changes. In my opinion, the imperial court's action is too slow. We must send troops to force them, whip them, and let them act quickly,"

"Fight the capital," Yang Liu yelled, stood up excitedly and said, "Let's take the lead. Our sailors and marines are fast. We will arrive at the capital in one day and one night from Wuqing County."

"There is still Tongzhou in the middle, how do you get there?" Lu Xiaotian immediately pointed out the problem in Yang Liu's plan.

"The Tongzhou garrison consists of more than 6000 officers and soldiers from the left and right guards of Tongzhou under the Miyun Army. Our original plan was not to attack Tongzhou. We wanted the officers and troops to use Tongzhou as a rallying point so that we could meet the army brigade along the Baihe River. "Chen Zhongji stood up and spread out a map, pointing at the map and said: "Now it seems that the royal soldiers of the imperial court are all assembled in Jizhou, and the Beijing army guards the capital without going out of the city gate. It seems that Tongzhou has been ignored by the imperial court."

Yang Liu jumped up and shouted again: "Take down Tongzhou, this will clear the obstacles on the way to the capital, let's go..."

Zhao Tie patted the table: "Lao Yang, your Sailors and Musketeers are very popular. Our First Division has not fought a decent battle since it was sent out. Of course, our infantry brothers are the most responsible for the work of sieging cities and looting land." Appropriate, Mr. Chen, Ji Zai, you have to let me do this job."

Chen Zhongji sat down and smiled, raised his right hand and said, "Okay, brothers, don't be in a hurry, everyone has a task, the logistics manager An Heping, and the logistics department's reserve army director Lu jointly sent me a letter, saying The No. 20 regiment newly organized by the Zhuang Ding team was assigned to our northern line troops, with new camping field steel guns, and it will arrive in Penglai in about ten days. Siraya's Taiwan native regiment is swapped, and the Taiwan regiment is going to guard Jinzhouwei. The student army will be assigned to my direct standard battalion, and the rest of the sailors will be assigned to Jian. Brother Yang Liu, your immediate task is to harass the surrounding areas. The farther the better; pay attention to avoid fighting tough battles, and don’t get entangled with the officers and soldiers, brother Zhao, the main force of the first division is ready to go, and go to the capital to go around and scare the old man of the emperor.”

He turned to Lu Xiaotian and said, "Commander Lu, your task is to train your thieves well, and then your troops will be of great use."

After the cavalry regiment landed, there was a fierce battle with the cavalry of the official army, and more than 100 brothers were lost. However, after Lu Xiaotian led the team south to harass Shandong, his thieves brothers who died and lived in seclusion in the mountains came one after another after hearing the news. Lu Xiaotian's cavalry originally had many Shandong thieves participating, but now it has more than doubled in size suddenly, and the total strength of the light cavalry exceeds more than 2000 people. Tian was so happy that he laughed all day long.

Lu Xiaotian patted his chest and said: "Don't worry, sir, I have been training them according to the military discipline of my Chinese army, and those who can't adapt will be expelled. As long as I give me another month, I can train them to be able to compete with the old brothers." fought together,"

Chen Zhongji turned to other people and said, "Just in case, we still have to prepare for the winter. Although the logistics department has already shipped cotton coats, we still need to solve some cotton coats and heating materials on the spot, and let the brothers in the north of the army teach the rest. Brothers, we can’t spend the winter sitting in the Tianjin Guard, we have to create an area suitable for defense.”

Chen Zhongji pointed to the map: "Starting from Tianjin, ending in Dezhou, Binghejian, Cangzhou, and the Military and Wei Yousi, we must control all these locations, find some places suitable for defense and set up fortresses, and then use the fortresses to delay the march of officers and soldiers, so that Our army mobilized mobile troops to fight back,"