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Chapter 1504 Conquering the Empire (50)

Zhao Hu, who formally worshiped him, shocked the five southeastern provinces. Look at Haiquan, the coastal provinces fell into Zhao Hu's hands so quickly. Everyone knows how powerful Zhao Hu is. Look at Zhao Hu in the name of the governor of the two provinces. Annexing the two provinces with ease, everyone knows that the governor of the five provinces in the southeast must definitely come to a veritable governor of the five provinces.

Two of the governors of the five provinces have been confirmed, and the remaining three provinces are believed to soon fall into the hands of Zhao Hujun.Not only were the provinces in the southeastern region extremely resistant to Zhao Hu's army, but even the surrounding provinces, or the dignitaries in other words, were extremely wary of Zhao Hu.

There is no way not to be vigilant, because even if Zhao Hujun accepts the opponent's surrender or surrender, he will eat the opponent into his stomach and digest him, and he will never allow the opponent to have an independent consciousness.

Think about the original time, no matter who came to power, the rich and powerful like me could still beat civilians, rob civilian women and blackmail merchants.Life is very comfortable.And in Zhao Hujun's territory, if you don't have enough status, you can't even walk around on the street!
If you commit a crime, you will be arrested directly.People like myself can only climb up from the bottom if they take refuge in the past, and the hundreds of years of hard work of their ancestors have been in vain.Who can accept such a thing!

Therefore, the dignitaries with vested interests are absolutely unwilling to rely on Zhao Hu as a last resort.

Since the dignitaries in other provinces have such a mentality, let alone Haiguang and Haiwu provinces that have been unified for many years.

Through the overseas trade of the imperial fleet, through the manufacture and sale of sea ships monopolized by technology.These two provinces are really rich.Because of the civil strife in the empire, it often took in troubled people from other places, so the smallest dignitaries in these two provinces formed a brigade of armed forces.

It can be said that just counting all the noble private soldiers in the two provinces, the number has reached a frightening number, and coupled with the Imperial Marine Corps, which is many times more than the conventional one, it is even more terrifying.

Metropolitan Government of the Coastal Province

"My lord, this is information from Haiping, Haiguang, and Haiwu."

Zhou Wen handed a stack of information to Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu didn't pick it up, he just chopped the knife, turned around and kicked sideways, and said at the same time, "Read it."

Knowing that his master didn't care about these things, Zhou Wen took out a document and read: "Yes, Haiping Province is the province with the most flat farmland among the five southeastern provinces. Even now when most provinces are short of food, the food in Haiping Province is also It is enough to support, but apart from food, there are no other specialties in the whole province.

There are no foreign warlords, and the twelve warlords in the entire province are all from local tyrants. Because they are all from local tyrants, they have sufficient sources of troops, and each warlord can pull up more than one division of troops at once.

However, because of his family background, there is an extreme shortage of officers, and there are no grassroots officers. It is just a general, a few lieutenants, and a dozen partial generals with tens of thousands of people.

Also because of the identity of local tyrants, the equipment is also extremely lacking. A warlord can only equip one regiment of Imperial Army weapons at most, and other soldiers can only use inferior weapons made by themselves. Therefore, the secret guard confirmed that although Haiping Province has sufficient troops, it is Among the five southeastern provinces, the force is the weakest. "

Zhao Hu said: "So our first goal is Haiping Province. Although we have made great efforts to control agriculture, the days are short and there is no result. There is still a shortage of food like other places. The food is from the southeast peninsula. Those who support it over there, in order to avoid accidents, even if Haiquan Province is annexed, Haiping Province must also be taken!"

Zhou Wen said with a smile: "My lord, this Haiping Province will definitely let us take it easily. If we can't even defeat these Wutai people, all the commanders of our army will buy a piece of tofu and kill them!"

Zhao Hu couldn't help laughing when he heard the words: "Okay, just let them not be careless, let's continue."

Zhou Wen immediately said: "Yes, Haiwu Province specializes in manufacturing warships. The first and second fleets stationed in Haiwu Province are the most powerful fleets in the navy. The two ships have the same number of warships, 320 ships. That is to say, Haiwu Province has a total of 640 warships and more than 20 sailors!
In addition, the first and second fleets each have three brigades of marines.Including the private soldiers in the officer's manor and the private soldiers of the local tyrants, the number of private soldiers in Haiwu Province reached 30, but the strong land soldiers only had nearly six brigades of marines.

Haiguang Province specializes in manufacturing merchant ships, so the Fourth Fleet and Fifth Fleet are armed merchant ships, which are definitely not rivals to real warships, but the number is definitely more than that of Haiwu Province.The Fourth Fleet has more than 540 armed merchant ships, and the Fifth Fleet has nearly [-] armed merchant ships.

There are more than 40 sailors, and because Haiguang saves a lot of money, the Marine Corps has eight brigades and all of them are equipped with the best equipment. The fighting power of private soldiers in China is definitely much stronger than that of Haiwu Province. " Zhou Wen said.

Zhao Hu frowned and asked, "According to your calculations, Haiwu Province has 640 standard warships, 20 sailors, 7 marines, 30 private soldiers, and 40 armed ships in Haiguang Province." Merchant ships, 10 sailors, nearly 20 marines, and 130 private soldiers. The permanent troops in these two provinces add up to nearly [-] million. What is the population of these two provinces? Isn’t this all males? Ding is a soldier?"

"Yes, my lord. Because of Haiguang and Haiwu's wealth and wealth, all the men in the province either join the sailors or become private soldiers. Among them, the outstanding ones become the marines." Zhou Wen nodded and said.

Zhao Hu said: "That is to say, all the women, children, and children in the whole province are the family members of the enemy army. If we attack Haiguang and Haiwu provinces, then the whole people will be enemies? From this point of view, if we attack these two provinces, all the people will be soldiers. Provinces with a lot of money and people are not so easy to do."

"Your Majesty, you don't need to worry. You only need the secret guards to kill the officers of the four major fleets and make them into a mess. Naturally, we can easily capture the two provinces," Zhou Wen said nonchalantly.

"It's easy to conquer, but what will we do when the time comes? According to the rules, all the people in these two provinces will become slaves. There are millions of slaves, which is more than the people we have under our command now. If they rebel, we will How to solve it? Kill them all?" Zhao Hu shook his head and said.

"Uh." Zhou Wen frowned, and he was right. It can be said that according to the rules, everyone in Haiguang and Haiwu provinces would be demoted to slavery.

Because they are all family members of the enemy army, without the monitoring of a large number of vested interests in the country, these millions of slaves are really troublesome.

"First send the [-]st Infantry Division to attack Haiping Province, the [-]nd Infantry Division is on guard, and the [-]st Cavalry Division is waiting at the border to see if you can lure a group of enemy troops from the two provinces to come out and fight a few victories first. , break the morale of the enemy army, and say that before the general offensive is launched, some people can join us in advance." Zhao Hu said.

"Yes, the minister will also send secret guards to stir up dissension, to see if we can absorb a group of local forces to join us before the war."

Zhou Wenfuran knew what Zhao Hu meant, which was to let the two provinces lose their hope of winning, and let them know that they could only fall into the hands of Zhao Hujun after being frustrated, and let them choose in advance whether to be slaves or Shangmin, as long as they have a certain base If there are more people, then these vested interests will be able to monitor the slaves who have been blinked.

At this moment, a secret guard suddenly appeared in front of Zhao Hu, and said: "My lord, the four major fleets of Haiguang and Haiwu provinces suddenly mobilized half of the ships to prepare for the expedition. The targets are Haiquan and Haibin provinces. The third fleet Ready to intercept."

"Oh, did they strike first? Didn't Liu Ming cause trouble for the Imperial Navy during this period?" Zhao Hu asked with a relaxed expression.

"The Chief of the Navy has been busy training his troops during this period. Not only did he not cause trouble for the Imperial Navy, he even did not block the maritime business routes of the Imperial Navy, let alone collect taxes."

Zhao Hu didn't care about it, but sighed: "We don't understand the navy. Since the chief of the navy has been practicing, it means that our navy has not yet reached the point where it can compete with the imperial navy. But this time it is difficult not to fight. Yes, after all, they came to the door.

"Yes, what is the strength of the Third Fleet now?"

"The Third Fleet has 75 Helm Qiao-class armed merchant ships, 140 large warships, 320 medium-sized warships, more than 1000 small speedboats, a brigade of marines, and a total of more than [-] sailors."

"so much?"

Zhao Hu was stunned for a moment. He hadn't paid attention to his own navy for a long time. He didn't expect to have reached this number. Especially there are 75 Helmet Joe-class armed merchant ships. How powerful are these modified armed merchant ships? Zhao Hu Tiger is very clear.

"That's right, our navy is so powerful that the chief of the navy is still not satisfied, and has been training troops." Zhou Wen said dissatisfied.

Zhao Hu waved his hand, and said without hesitation: "Although I don't understand naval warfare, I also know that there is no ship or navy. It is estimated that it is difficult to find suitable candidates for the captains of these 75 armed merchant ships. Soldiers of water can do it."

Seeing that Zhao Hu still had such trust in Liu Ming, Zhou Wen had no choice but to nod in agreement, but he secretly decided in his heart that if Liu Ming dared to betray the trust of the Lord, then he must make him live or die!
Zhao Hu pondered for a while, and began to order: "The Imperial Navy has already gone to battle, then transfer the Second Infantry Division back to the coast to garrison, order the First Infantry Division and the First Cavalry Division to attack Haiping Province in one go, and order the reserve troops from all over the country to enter State of alert. Order secret guards to step up intelligence collection."

"Yes!"

Zhou Wen immediately passed on the order.

(End of this chapter)