Datang Hubei Province, Wuchang City.

This place is the location of the headquarters of the First Army, but it is not the core command center of this southwest campaign, the core command center of this battle is Jiujiang!

Because Jiujiang is where the newly established Southwest Campaign Command of the Privy Council is located this time.

Because of the huge scale of the Southwest Campaign, the number of troops participating in the battle reached three armies and a number of other troops, with a total strength of more than 150,000 troops, and it was no longer possible to simply rely on the actions of each army and division to complete the campaign as before, but needed a higher-level headquarters to be responsible for directing the detailed battle.

This kind of thing was actually the same in the previous Northern Expedition campaign, when there were not so many troops participating in the Northern Expedition, but Li Xuan still led almost half of the Privy Council to the north to coordinate the combat of all troops.

The scale of the Southwest Campaign is even larger, Li Xuan originally didn't want to go on another personal expedition, and he was tired of running around, but he really couldn't rest assured, and with such a large scale of the campaign, to be honest, there was no suitable candidate to serve as the commander-in-chief of the Southwest Campaign in the Tang Dynasty at present.

Hao Bonian is suitable in terms of ability and prestige, but for the sake of balance, after Hao Bonian made great contributions during the Northern Expedition, it was impossible for Li Xuan to let him serve as the commander-in-chief of the Southwest Campaign.

And the talent and ability of Li Chunjing, the commander of the First Army, are also extremely prominent, but this person's combat style is too radical, the Southwest Campaign is very important in a series of strategic concepts of the Tang Dynasty, and it has an advantage in all aspects, the Privy Council does not plan to take risks in the past, but is ready to fight steadily, if Li Chunjing is allowed to command, he is very likely to win a super victory, but it is also very likely to be a fiasco!

This is unacceptable to Li Xuan!

As for Fang Xitong, his prestige and ability are a little worse, although he is loyal, but loyalty cannot completely replace his ability.

As for Wang Chaohong and Chen Keqiao, their prestige and qualifications are not enough, and it is unrealistic for the two of them to command Li Chunjing to fight, because both of them have fought under Li Chunjing before.

Not to mention Lei Wan, it's okay to sit in the Privy Council, command more than 100,000 troops to fight, many people will not be convinced!

Zeng Ziwen has already withdrawn from the front line, although he is the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, he basically does not hold an actual position, and Li Xuan has no intention of reactivating him, even if he does, this person's ability is not enough to command hundreds of thousands, affecting the battles of several provinces.

In the end, there was no way, Li Xuan could only wear a military uniform again and prepare for the expedition in person!

If he can't find a suitable candidate, he can't watch the hundreds of thousands of troops fighting on their own, and finally lead to a situation where the boat capsizes in the gutter!

However, this time Li Xuan did not plan to come to the front line in person, this time the Southwest Campaign, unlike the Anping Battle in the Northern Expedition, is unlikely to have a super-large-scale decisive battle to determine the outcome of the victory, and it is very likely that the victory will be achieved through a series of medium and large-scale battles.

Therefore, Li Xuan's focus is not only on the side of the First Army, but also on the Second Army, the Fifth Army, and even the Fourth Infantry Division, the Seventh Mixed Regiment and other troops, as well as logistics affairs that need to be watched.

In this battle, what Li Xuan had to do was to act as a banner to suppress the arrogant soldiers below, and let them obediently obey the orders of the Privy Council Operations Department to fight.

Yes, the actual commander of the Southwest Campaign this time will not be him Li Xuan, nor will he be Li Chunjing and other generals who are leading the army abroad, but will be the Minister on Duty in the Imperial Study, the Minister of Operations of the Privy Council, and Lieutenant General Lei Wan!

Or to be more precise, Lei Wan is just a person on the surface, and the people who actually plan and command specific battles will be dozens of operational staff officers in the War Department!

Just like many large-scale battles experienced by the Tang Dynasty in the past, the Privy Council War Department will play a decisive role!

In the early years, Li Xuan established a staff system in order to solve the problems of middle and senior generals who were too young, inexperienced, and limited in ability.

However, with so many years of development, the staff system of the Tang Dynasty has been gradually improved, especially the operational staff officers in the Privy Council Operations Department, which can be said to have undertaken the large-scale campaign planning and strategic command of all the Tang Dynasty!

And this also makes the gold content of the operational staff officers in the war department higher and higher, these combat staff officers, who are all the best officers selected from the whole army, are all from the imperial academy.

Under the War Department, there are various departments, the most critical of which is the General Staff Department, which is usually concurrently served by the Deputy Director of the Operations Department, that is, the Deputy Minister of Operations, and the Deputy Minister are two concepts.

The deputy chief of operations, with the rank of major general of the army, is usually held by people who have served as chief of staff of the army and commander of an infantry division, and the staff officers in the staff department have senior combat staff officers, usually school officers, most of whom have served in field units, especially those who have served as battalion commanders and regiment commanders, while intermediate combat staff officers are lieutenants, usually new graduates of the Imperial Academy, of course, even if they are new graduates, but most of them have served as captains and deputy battalion commanders before.

In other words, the people in the General Staff Department of the War Department are all from field units, have experience as commanders of troops, and are also from the Imperial Academy, have received a relatively complete military education, and in terms of overall quality, they are definitely among the middle and low-ranking officers in the whole army, and they are also among the top ranks.

With such a group of people concentrating on strategy, it may not be possible to make a very amazing battle plan, but the chance of error is also very small.

Before Li Xuan officially set off for Jiujiang, Major General Chen Xiong, the deputy director of operations of the Operations Department, had already arrived in Jiujiang with more than a dozen operational staff officers and personnel from several other departments of the Privy Council, and they would form the initial composition of the Southwest Campaign Command here!

At the same time, in Jinling City, Li Xuan is also preparing for another personal expedition, this time the preparation for the personal expedition is simpler than the previous Northern Expedition, because Li Xuan only plans to go to Jiujiang to sit in the town, not to direct the battle in person, so although the Guards will also go together, but the Guards who really participate in the war will only have one temporary brigade.

Li Xuan's own words were to take the 10,000 Guards with two Guards infantry regiments as the core to Jiujiang, and left a Guards Infantry Regiment as the core of the 5,000 Guards Army to guard Jinling City.

If nothing else, the 10,000 guards brought by Li Xuan will not have the opportunity to participate in the battle, and their existence is only to guard Li Xuan's personal safety.

Except for the Guards, everything else is even simpler!

The courtiers of the Tang Dynasty have been accustomed to the ancient sage's personal expedition, they have all experienced it many times, and in the early years, they would say something like thinking twice about His Majesty, but now, basically no one said it, Li Xuan said that he wanted to prepare for the personal expedition, and those courtiers didn't ask why, they just went to prepare.

It seems that this matter is as common as eating and drinking, which makes Li Xuan sigh a little, the Tang Dynasty that he created is a little abnormal from top to bottom, and he thinks about fighting every day, even if Wenchen has many contradictions and conflicts with the military, he is also very welcome to fight.

In particular, the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Taxation are very supportive of the war acts of expanding territory and opening up the trade market.

For example, the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, although most of the enterprises are engaged in the national defense industry, but in the final analysis, it is still an enterprise, which naturally needs industrial raw materials and markets.

The same is true for the Ministry of Commerce, which cannot lack industrial raw materials and markets if it wants to develop domestic industry and commerce.

The Ministry of Agriculture didn't support it much before, but recently they have added a resettlement and reclamation department, which is used for what it does, it is for immigration, and domestic immigration and foreign immigration are their business.

This is not expansion, does not occupy new territories, how can they emigrate to the past, to solve the problem of more people and less land in some parts of the country?

Not to mention the Ministry of Taxation, they don't care how to spend money in the country, anyway, as long as Li Xuan agrees, they will give money!

But how to collect money they will care, now with the development of industry and commerce is more and more prosperous, maritime trade is also more and more prosperous, all kinds of commercial taxes, tariffs are continue to increase substantially, and this is also inseparable from industrial raw materials and markets.

Of course, some other departments of the cabinet are not very supportive, especially those that cannot bring them obvious benefits from external expansion, such as the Ministry of Rites, no matter how much this external expansion is, it is useless for them, and people mainly run education and engage in etiquette, at most they are to promote Chinese culture to overseas barbarians!

On the whole, however, the cabinet has maintained a supportive attitude towards expansion, and this is true for expansion, let alone unification of the country.

The cabinet prepared quite quickly, and soon it was the Northern Expedition before the fire, and the cabinet was basically divided into two, and the ministers on duty and the ministers on duty in the imperial study were also divided into two.

Some will drive to Jiujiang, and some will stay in Jinling.

The main person in charge of staying in Jinling will still be the minister on duty in the imperial study, the scholar of the Jianji Palace, and the secretary of the household department Liu Bagou, and one of the three scholars of the Tang Dynasty, Qian Mengjiu, the secretary of the Ministry of War who is also the minister on duty in the imperial study, will accompany him.

The weight of other people is not so sufficient, some are driving, and some are staying in Jinling, but no matter what the circumstances, if a department stays behind, then Zuo Shilang will definitely stay with him, and if Shangshu is driving, Zuo Shilang will definitely stay.

After all, Shang Shu, Zuo Shilang, and these two people are the main and secondary heads of one organization, and Shang Shu and Zuo Shilang have to be separated, and one person is responsible for one side.

After everything was ready, Li Xuan reluctantly suspended the guidance of the various dances of the palace dance troupe, and once again embarked on the road of pro-conquest!

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