Speaking of Malacca, several admirals of the Navy frowned!

During the past few years, the highest level of the empire has basically known about the ambition of the Holy Son of Heaven Li Xuan.

Their beloved, great, greater than the sun, the ancient saint, the son of heaven, the god emperor Li Xuan wanted to spread his blessings all over the universe, so that the whole world could enjoy the emperor's grace and rain.

In order to allow many wild areas to enjoy the rain and dew of the God Emperor Li Xuan, they must also work harder as courtiers.

For this reason, the top leaders of the Empire, or more precisely, the ministers on duty in the Imperial Study, also formulated a general policy of imperial expansion in the early years!

To the north, they want to recover the grassland, and even the far north, so that the wild northern plains will also usher in the light of the God Emperor.

To the south, they want to occupy the islands of Southeast Asia and let the fertile land become the farmland of the Chinese people!

To the west, they will follow the overland Silk Road, chasing the sunset in the west, and spreading the rain and dew of the Son of Heaven all the way to West Asia and even Europe.

To the east, they will cross the sea to bring glory to the calamity-plagued Fuso, and go to the legendary beautiful and rich America, turning it into the new granary of the empire, turning it into a paradise on earth!

This general approach to imperial expansion, although there was never a formal document, or even a concrete plan, did not prevent the empire from continuing to move forward towards this great goal.

And in recent years, the initial goal of the empire has been to go north and south!

Or, more accurately, in recent years, the empire's goal has been to destroy the Tartars led by Altan Khan, and then destroy the Warats and Tibetans.

To the south, the Portuguese were to take the Portuguese down, seize the islands of Southeast Asia, and completely control the maritime trade of East Asia, especially the spice trade, which could make a lot of money.

Going north, that's the army's business, and it has nothing to do with the navy, so they don't care either, the navy naturally cares about the southward strategy.

And if you want to go south, it is inevitable that the Portuguese will come to the top!

There will be a war between the Empire and the Portuguese, this is the consensus of many admirals.

For this reason, the navy has also formulated many war plans against the Portuguese, and these plans are inseparable from one point, that is, to seize Malacca!

But is Malacca so easy to capture?

Definitely not!

Malacca, as the most important, if not the only stronghold of the Portuguese in East Asia, speaks for themselves.

Especially in the last five or six years, as the empire encouraged maritime trade, the scale of maritime trade between the empire and the Portuguese has become larger and larger, and the Portuguese have made countless money from it, so they have paid more attention to the maritime trade in East Asia.

In addition, the empire has shown obvious southward expansion intentions in recent years, and the Portuguese are not stupid, so they naturally know that Malacca is the first to bear the brunt.

Therefore, in the past few years, we have not forgotten to strengthen the defense force of Malacca!

According to the information received by the navy, the Portuguese are paying more and more attention to Malacca, where they have deployed a large fleet.

In addition to the fleet, it is rumored that they also brought in the always invaluable native army soldiers from the mainland, numbering as many as a thousand.

You must know that the population of the Portuguese is so small, the population is small, the size of the army is also small, plus this is still a seafaring country, colonies all over the world, whether it is army or sea forces, it is quite scattered, and the armed forces of many colonies, in fact, are only one or two hundred, and the more is only a few hundred.

This mobilized 1,000 native soldiers to Malacca, which shows the importance they attach to this place.

And this thousand people is not all, you must know that most of the navies in these years will carry marines, the Tang Navy, the same is true of the Portuguese navy, if the marines in their fleet also go ashore for defensive operations, then this number will increase by more than a thousand!

In addition, the armed forces of the Portuguese were never only their native soldiers, they would recruit soldiers in various colonies, which was also the common practice of many European colonial countries, in order to make up for the lack of native population, they usually recruited a large number of colonial young men to serve and form a colonial army.

In Malacca, it is conservatively estimated that there are also more than 1,000 indigenous soldiers, well, the composition of these indigenous soldiers is quite complex, there are local Malacca natives, there are also Indians, and there are also West Asian and East African people.

That is to say, if the Imperial Navy wanted to attack Malacca, they would first need to defeat the huge Portuguese fleet in Malacca, which was a huge fleet with several battleships and dozens of other small and medium-sized warships, which was not small at all.

There is no way, who has made the Imperial Navy show a stronger and stronger desire to attack in recent years, and the Portuguese will naturally continue to reinforce Malacca from other places in order to protect themselves.

After defeating the Portuguese navy in Malacca, they will have to face a total of more than 3,000 and possibly even more than 4,000 ground troops, and these ground troops will not come out to fight you in the field, they will hide in the fortress.

And this kind of fortress is still a particularly helpless fortress!

That's right, the Portuguese built a fortress in Malacca!

Why?

Because the empire took the lead in building this kind of fortress in Banten and Luzon, and played a considerable role in resisting pirate attacks several times, in order to ensure its own security, in the face of the huge Tang Empire's attack, it was able to have self-protection, at least for a year and a half, waiting for reinforcements from the Indian Ocean or Africa and other places to arrive, and the Portuguese urgently needed a strong fortress.

So, they did the same, and built such a fortress in Malacca, and it was much larger than the scale of the empire built in Banten and Luzon.

In this way, this Malacca has become a hedgehog, and it is also a sharp-toothed hedgehog, which is not easy to fight!

Anyway, the navy felt that it was impossible to conquer Malacca with a fleet of thousands of marines, and although their marines were awesome, they were not strong enough to storm the edge where thousands of people were stationed.

Therefore, at the meeting, the admiral of the navy showed a look of embarrassment, and said that it was not impossible to fight Malacca, but I am afraid that it will take a long time, and it will take a long time to blockade and besiege it.

But they thought about it, the generals of the army were waiting for them to say this, and after Hao Bonian heard Lei Wan's words, he said on the spot: "The navy can't do it, then our army will come!" ”

"It's just a fort garrisoned by two or three thousand people, and our army will send a division over at will, and it will take three or five days!"

Immediately, Hao Bonian officially turned to Li Xuan and said, "Your Majesty, please send a division south to capture Malacca!" ”

As soon as these words came out, all the generals of the navy glared angrily!

Lei Wan even said sharply in front of everyone: "The army is eager to fight for the country's merits, and our navy is understandable, but don't go too far!" ”

Immediately, several other admirals also said one after another: "Yes, going south is our navy's business, the army doesn't have to worry about it, you still have to prepare for the north with peace of mind, I heard that the Tatars were already ready to move in the autumn of last year, at this time you transferred troops to the south, do you want to ignore the safety of the northern part of the empire?" ”

"That is, it is a good thing that the army wants to expand the territory of the empire, but it is simply impossible to organize a cross-sea landing of tens of thousands of people, and I hope that the army can realize the practical difficulties!"

This is still a relatively tactful statement, and the unkind person said directly: "Don't worry about the army when you go south, even if our navy sheds the last drop of blood, it will take Malacca!" ”

But Hao Bonian has been on the battlefield for several years, how can this southern and northern war be blocked by a few words from the admiral, and he immediately said: "The northern defense line is very safe, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers of our army are waiting day and night, whether it is the Tatars or the Warats or the Tubo people or the northeast barbarians, there is no need to worry, if it were not for the lack of cavalry in our army, we would have gone north long ago."

Now it's good that we don't take the initiative to go north, they dare to go south! ”

What Hao Bonian said is the truth, since the Tang Dynasty defeated Zhang Yue in the southwest, the military center of the army has completely shifted to the north, from the northwest to the north to the northeast, there are four armies, twelve infantry divisions, and more than thirty reserve divisions, and the total strength of the northern defense line exceeds 400,000 people!

The overall quality of the officers of these troops stationed in the northern defense line is also top-notch, and the officers above the rank of colonel are all experienced in the war of reunification, and as for those generals, not to mention, most of them are distinguished military achievements with noble titles.

Most of the essence of the Imperial Army is deployed in the northern defense line!

Therefore, Hao Bonian is not worried about the safety of the north at all!

"As for tens of thousands of people crossing the sea and landing, this is a problem, but our army has another set of plans, that is, it is not to trouble the navy, and our army can also go south by land!"

Immediately, other army generals accosted: "That is, our army can go south from Annam and then go straight to Malacca, which is much easier than organizing tens of thousands of people to land across thousands of miles!" ”

As soon as the admirals of the navy heard the sermon and talked about Annan again, their faces became even more unsightly.

They still can't see that these army generals are all bad-hearted, talking about the problems of Malacca and the Portuguese on the surface, but behind the scenes, they are thinking about Annan.

The Navy absolutely cannot agree to this!

The life or death of the natives of Annam has nothing to do with the navy!

However, it is actually so easy to beat Annan, and a division can be swept after it passes?

Just kidding, even if the Annam people don't resist, it's good that half of your army's 10,000 people can come back in the past.

Why, because of injuries.

That ghost place is the same as Myanmar, the biggest enemy is not the local aborigines at all, but the local climate and all kinds of poisonous insects!

If this is a fight, needless to say, it will definitely be a quagmire, and even if the army can take it in the end, it will definitely not be a matter of one division, and it will have to send several divisions.

What are the implications?

The army will spend a lot of military spending, thus crowding out the military spending of the big navy!

When it comes to the issue of military spending, it is a big issue, and it is a matter of principle, can this be backed down? Absolutely not!

When Li Xuan saw that the people of the army and navy were arguing again, he closed his eyes slightly, as if he hadn't seen or heard, but he scolded secretly in his heart: Ma Dan, quarrel again!