Naturally, it is impossible to convene a meeting of the entire navy's top brass without a little preparation, and then discuss and settle it.

Prior to the convening of this Imperial Naval Reform Conference, Colonel Bao Yifen had actually visited His Majesty many times on behalf of the Navy to listen to His Majesty's opinions and requirements on the development of the Navy, and Bao Yifen also put forward some ideas and ideas and difficulties on behalf of the Navy.

The development of the navy is not only a matter for the navy itself, but also has something to do with the army, and it is even more inseparable from the support of various cabinet departments.

The development of the Datang Navy needs to be arranged in a unified manner according to the military, political, and economic conditions of the entire Datang Dynasty, and it definitely does not mean that the navy can do whatever it wants.

I thought that the development of the navy was bound to be subordinated to the overall development of the Tang Dynasty!

After all, the navy is the navy of the Tang Dynasty, not an independent existence!

The Datang Navy is only a part of the many institutions of the Datang Dynasty, and the Datang Navy is only one of the many military forces of the Datang Dynasty.

In the many exchanges with His Majesty, Bao Yifen can also perceive His Majesty's expectations or requirements for the Navy.

Although His Majesty did not understand too clearly and did not say anything in detail before, Bao Yifen could feel from His Majesty's words that His Majesty's requirements for the navy were not limited to repelling the Ming army and naval divisions and recapturing the mouth of the Pearl River.

Your Majesty has higher and farther expectations for the Navy!

From the perspective of unifying the country, His Majesty seems to want to make the navy completely coastal areas of China, and use the huge sea power as a support to attack many coastal locations in the north.

For example, His Majesty once told him a strategic idea: if the Tang Navy can completely control the sea power, then under the cover of the navy, it will directly transport a large number of troops across the sea to directly launch a landing operation in the Jiangnan region, seize the prosperous Jiangnan region, or even directly land in Beizhili, and directly attack the most important political and military center of the Ming Dynasty: the capital!

After hearing this strategic concept, Bao Yifen felt for the first time that the navy under his control could be used in this way, sending troops across thousands of miles, and directly killing the enemy's most critical lair.

If it can really be done, I'm afraid this Ming Dynasty will have to be completely messed up!

Of course, as for whether the army can beat the Ming army after the navy escorts the army ashore, this is not something that Colonel Bao Yifen should worry about, it is the army's business, and judging from the current combat effectiveness and past achievements of the Tang Army, if it really reaches this point, it is very likely that it will gain a firm foothold after going ashore.

When the navy becomes an important support for long-distance projection of forces, the strategic role of the navy will become much larger, and I dare not say that it is on an equal footing with the army, but it should be possible to score three or seven points.

In addition, His Majesty also said that he would use the navy to attack the South Seas, seek to seize many rich areas in the South Seas, plunder various strategic resources, control sea routes, and obtain a large amount of sea trade profits.

Hearing these in Bao Yifen's ears can be said to be an eye-opener for him, and it also made him realize for the first time that the decision to change from the army to the navy was correct, and I am afraid that it is the most correct decision he has made in his life.

However, although His Majesty's words made his blood boil a little when he listened to them, he also knew that it was not ordinary difficult to realize the grand ideas in His Majesty's mouth.

Today's Datang Navy can be said to be extremely weak, and the largest tonnage warship is still a sand ship converted from a civilian ship, with a load of no more than 200 tons.

The main battleships were nothing more than a few Weilong-class battleships of more than eighty tons.

More are more than 20 tons of Jiaolong-class warships.

This is really going to be fought, even the Ming army at the mouth of the Pearl River can't beat the Guangdong Naval Division, and any group of medium-sized pirates who go to sea can destroy the Tang Navy.

There is still a long way to go!

This is Bao Yifen's sigh about the situation facing the navy today!

Just as Colonel Bao Yifen sighed, suddenly a voice came from outside the door: "Your Majesty has arrived!" ”

As soon as these words came out, many officers of the navy who had been talking in a low voice stood up in unison and set their eyes on the door of the conference room.

Immediately, everyone first saw two Hanlin Academy attendants wearing civilian official clothes push open the door of the conference room, and then a young man wearing Confucian clothes and embroidered dragon pattern yellow robe strode into the conference room.

Everyone immediately bowed down in unison and said, "The minister knocks to see Your Majesty!" ”

Li Xuan didn't answer, and directly crossed the crowd to sit down in front of the dragon chair that belonged to him, and then raised his hand slightly: "Well, sit down!" ”

Li Xuan finished speaking, and everyone immediately said: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for giving me a seat!" ”

Then, a group of naval generals sat down on both sides of the rectangular table in front of them, and when they sat down, they all sat upright, raised their heads and chests, and their hands hung down on their thighs, showing the true colors of the Tang Dynasty soldiers.

After everyone sat down, Li Xuan nodded slightly towards a young scholar of the Hanlin Academy standing beside him, and immediately this attendant bachelor said loudly: "Since the first year of Xuanping, when I went south to Liangguang, through the brave battles of the army and navy officers, we have now recovered two vast parts of the region, and a month ago, we have recovered Guangzhou, an important city at the mouth of the sea.

Your Majesty is deeply pleased with the courageous fighting of our officers and men and the spirit of serving the country with loyalty.

However, although our Tang Dynasty has seized most of Guangdong, there are still puppet Ming sailors flowing in the lower reaches of the Xijiang River, and the Pearl River estuary is still occupied by puppet Ming sailors, blocking the waterway, and the people are not able to make a living. ”

After the waiter next to him finished speaking, he consciously closed his mouth, his words were just the beginning, and the next thing had nothing to do with him.

And as the emperor, Li Xuan can't say a word, in most of this kind of pre-imperial strategic meetings, Li Xuan listens, and rarely goes down to express his opinions in person.

At this time, Colonel Bao Yifen, director of the Navy Department on behalf of the navy, immediately got up and went out of the ranks, and then bowed and said: "The navy failed to wipe out the puppet Ming Navy, so that the puppet Ming Navy Division invaded the sea frontier, and the crime is unforgivable, please punish Your Majesty!" ”

Li Xuan waved his hand slightly: "Why did Bao Aiqing say this, the enemy is strong and I am weak, and I know the difficulties of the navy!" ”

Colonel Bao Yifen straightened up and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty for your grace of not sinning, the emperor's grace is good, and the minister should remember it!" ”

"Regarding the matter of annihilating the puppet Ming Shui Division entrenched in the mouth of the Pearl River, the minister has a charter to submit, and I respectfully ask for holy reading!"

Immediately, Bao Yifen handed over a small fold, and the waiter took it and then gave it to Li Xuan, Li Xuan simply looked at it and put it down, and then said: "Everyone Aiqing should also take a look!" ”

The contents of this excerpt presented by Colonel Bao Yifen were actually known to Li Xuan in advance, and even many of them were privately told by Li Xuan to Bao Yifen.

Today's Bao Yifen is actually a mouthpiece, and Li Xuan needs him to talk about his many ideas on the development of the navy, and then discuss them at today's meeting.

Immediately, someone naturally distributed the backup of the folds prepared in advance to the more than ten admirals present, and everyone looked through them in unison.

In fact, most of these people know part of the content of this excerpt in advance, but they only know some of the content related to themselves, but they don't know the whole content.

There is not much ink in this excerpt, but there is a lot of content!

The excerpt says that in order to pacify the Ming army and naval divisions, the navy needed many measures, including following the example of the martial arts academy and the imperial academy, and preparing to build a naval academy to train naval officers.

The Ministry of Industry or the Navy itself shall set up large shipyards dedicated to the construction and repair of warships, and shall be used for the construction and repair of large warships, especially ocean-going warships.

It is requested that funds be allocated for the construction of ships to be used for the construction of a number of large warships that can be truly used in naval warfare, and that according to the situation of the Ming army's naval divisions and foreigners' naval divisions, five large warships with a tonnage of more than 500 tons, 10 medium warships of 200 to 300 tons, 20 medium-sized warships of 100 tons, and a number of auxiliary warships of various types below 100 tons will be prepared in the early stage.

And it is required to have enough naval guns for all levels of battleship!

As for the ultimate goal, Bao Yifen put forward the so-called 33 plan, that is, a super-large fleet with more than 300 warships, more than 3,000 naval guns, and more than 30,000 personnel!

That's right, Li Xuan went directly to the Spanish Invincible Grand Fleet, the most powerful in this era, to formulate a naval expansion plan!

It doesn't matter if it can be completed or not, in short, let's make a grand goal first!

The quantity and quality of this ship made a group of naval officers ecstatic when they saw it, but they soon pondered, it must be a good thing that this ship has more cannons, but how to build this ship?

Is it possible to benefit the ship? But even if it is a lucky ship, there is no way to transfer too many guns, and with the small size of the Tang Dynasty, it is not easy to build such a large warship, and it takes a long time.

Fortunately, in the next excerpt, some compromise transition plans are also proposed, and the semi-finished products in various private shipyards are directly purchased, that is, those ships that have been half built for refitting.

Directly purchase a civilian ship with a usable hull for refitting!

This plan of directly refitting civilian ships is actually feasible, because most of the merchant ships that went to the open sea in these years were armed merchant ships, which were designed to be equipped with artillery in addition to carrying goods, otherwise unarmed merchant ships would be a dish in the Far East seas full of pirates.

Therefore, it is actually feasible to adopt the hull of a civilian merchant ship for modification!

This idea is also eye-catching, but if it is directly modified with a civilian ship, the hull can be solved, but where is the naval gun? Where did the sailors come from?