As Wang Yue led thousands of remnants of his army to retreat to Nanao Island, it could be announced that except for a few islands in the Liangguang region, all other places had fallen under the control of the Tang Dynasty.

Even though there are still many Ming troops entrenched in the Guilin area, the troops left behind in Guilin by the Fourth Army have adopted a steady strategy and firmly controlled most of the cities.

At the same time, through the continuous clean-up operations, the Ming army in the Guilin area was forced to have a smaller and smaller range of activities, and at the same time, in the clearing operations that lasted for several months, the Ming army in the area also suffered a lot of losses, and it was difficult to replenish them, and at present, according to the judgment of the defenders of Guilin's defense, the number of Ming troops active in the Guilin area was less than 3,000 people.

About two or three thousand of them were lost in the continuous battle with the Tang army, and some of them retreated to Huguang, leaving less than 3,000 men.

Except for some remnants of the Ming army in Guilin, there is no other place in the mainland area of Liangguang where there are large Ming troops entrenched.

However, it is worth noting that except for a very small number of the islands in the coastal area of Guangdong, the others are still under the control of the Ming Dynasty, such as Nanao Island, Qiongzhou Mansion (Hainan Island), and most of the islands in the Pearl River estuary.

The reason for this situation is naturally because the strength of the Tang Navy is too scummy to expel the Ming army sailors entrenched on the coastal islands.

In this regard, the Tang Dynasty also took targeted measures, such as setting up forts at various critical estuaries, and the Humen Fort began to be built in this context.

In addition to the coastal defense batteries, it also began to vigorously prepare for the construction of naval forces.

In order to develop maritime power, according to Li Xuan's idea, it is naturally the best to have strong ships and guns.

However, large warships cannot be built for a while, and a large number of maritime forces are needed to maintain the security of the sea in a short period of time, so the Datang Navy is focusing on other aspects.

For example, armed merchant ships converted from civilian ships and warships converted from merchant ships can barely be used, and in addition, the traditional mode of maritime warfare is vigorously developed.

What is the traditional naval combat mode of this era, one is fire attack, the other is gang jumping!

As for directly sinking the enemy's warships with naval guns and thus winning naval battles, although this is the main development direction of future naval warfare, this requires too high the power and quantity of naval guns.

Unless it is a battleship equipped with dozens or more, it is difficult for a small number of naval guns in an ordinary warship or an armed merchant ship to complete the task of directly sinking the enemy ship.

This is also the reason why the Datang Navy has begun to pay attention to fire attack and gang warfare in its recent development strategy.

In order to supplement the lack of naval artillery firepower, the Datang Navy imitated many water forces in the Far East, including the Ming Army's naval divisions and other maritime forces in East Asia, and prepared a large number of small ships.

In order to block the major estuaries and prevent the Ming army's naval divisions from entering the Pearl River and Xijiang River, the Tang Dynasty Wang Division was preparing to arrange a large number of small ships under the cover of the forts while building forts along the coast.

At the same time, in order to improve the strength of gang jumping, the navy has carried out targeted training for sailors, so that they also have the ability to jump gang warfare, and at the same time, like many maritime forces in this era, they are ready to be equipped with special marines on warships.

The Marine Corps, which is not as uniform as the Army, because the number of Marines attached to it varies according to the size of each ship and the different missions.

Marines on a ship can be a dozen, dozens, or hundreds.

Therefore, at present, the establishment of the Marine Corps is based on a platoon of 16 people as the core, and according to different combat missions, several platoons are formed into a team to carry out tasks on ships.

However, if there is a large ship of more than 1,000 tons, the number of people on board may also be several hundred, and a special battalion-level unit will be established, or it will carry out land combat missions alone, or it can be temporarily integrated.

But it's still too early.

At present, the Marine Corps of the Datang Navy has a unified platoon-level establishment, but there is no unified team-level establishment, let alone a battalion-level establishment

The equipment is mainly muskets, waist knives, shields, and grenades, and is not equipped with spears and armor, and it is required to be able to use muskets and grenades, and it is also required to be able to use waist knives and shields for hand-to-hand combat.

The efforts of the Tang Navy were only to control the Xijiang River and the Pearl River estuary, but also to recover the last state capital in Guangdong that was not included in the Tang Dynasty: Qiongzhou Mansion.

Previously, because the strategic position of Qiongzhou Mansion was not too important, and there were not too many Ming troops on the island, and the strategic forces of the Tang Dynasty were all contained by Guangzhou, Shaozhou Mansion, Huguang, and northeast Guizhou, so although there were troops to take Leizhou Mansion at that time, there was only a strait separated from Qiongzhou Mansion, but they still did not dare to act rashly.

Because the Ming army sailors on the side of Qiongzhou Mansion also have a lot of ships, if they land on a large scale, it is easy to die at sea.

Therefore, the landing in Qiongzhou Mansion was mentioned from the beginning of the year to the summer, and then it was still not possible to make the trip until July.

However, with the capture of Shaozhou Mansion and the strategic confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and the Huguang Ming Army on the Yichang front, Li Xuan felt that he should draw enough strength to take Hainan Island.

Otherwise, if the Ming Dynasty reacted and then stationed a large naval division and army force on Hainan Island, I am afraid it would become a dagger of the Tang Dynasty, and it would be only a finger away from the heart.

In order to make the rear stable and avoid accidents, both the navy and the army believed that the other small islands along the coast of Guangdong could be left alone, and let the Ming army occupy them first, but the Qiongzhou Mansion must be taken first.

This Qiongzhou Mansion is not a small island, but a large island, if it is ignored and let the Ming army operate for a few years, it will pose a mortal threat to the Tang Dynasty in the future.

For this reason, this time the army and navy have shown a rare unanimity, and both believe that Hainan Island should be taken first.

Li Xuan also thinks deeply of this, Hainan Island is such a big place, if it is developed, it will also be a good place for three crops a year, and there are a lot of various resources on Hainan Island.

In order to attack the Qiongzhou Mansion, Li Xuan specially instructed the Privy Council and the Navy Command, that is, the army and the navy, to jointly establish a Qiongzhou Mansion Operational Command in the new round of strategic meetings.

After all, to fight the Qiongzhou Prefecture, it is inseparable from the navy, and it is also inseparable from the army, and the two sides must work together.

Therefore, after the establishment of this naval and army combat command, Li Xuan appeared here, and then personally listened to the first combat meeting, and like the previous meetings, he sat directly on it after he came in, and then began to close his eyes and recuperate, listening to the discussion of the people below.

Everyone was also accustomed to Li Xuan's appearance, and sometimes in a meeting that lasted for several hours, Li Xuan would not say more than ten sentences.

But if someone thinks that Li Xuan is just a puppet and can't even say a word, then it is a big mistake, and outsiders don't know, but some high-level people actually know that no matter how the meeting is held, it is His Majesty who finally makes the decision and determines the final plan.

Sometimes, these plans were originally intended by His Majesty, but they were only said through the mouths of others.

With the current system of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xuan's own prestige, his power can be regarded as reaching its peak in the Tang Dynasty, without Li Xuan's authorization, Zeng Ziwen, the so-called bigwigs, cannot mobilize a team's troops, let alone implement any battle plan.

"To fight Qiongzhou, it is difficult to land across the sea, and it is difficult to supply follow-up materials, if it is a simple land operation, our army does not think it is a big problem!"

Speaking on behalf of the Army, it was naturally Zeng Ziwen, the Minister of Operations of the Privy Council.

And when he said this, especially when he said the last sentence was not a big problem, he was full of confidence.

It's no wonder that he is confident, it is really the enemy in Qiongzhou Mansion that the army really can't pay attention to, judging from all aspects of intelligence, although there are several guards in Qiongzhou Mansion, but the strength is very average.

"As long as our army can successfully go ashore, one regiment is enough to sweep through Qiongzhou Mansion!"

"You don't need one regiment, two battalions are enough, the enemy troops on the island are only two or three thousand, and they are all weak, and two battalions are enough!"

However, when Zeng Ziwen said this, Bao Yifen on the opposite side said with a sad face: "Two battalions, that's a thousand people, this boat to transport a thousand people is enough, but it's not easy to get over!" ”

Hearing Bao Yifen say this, Zeng Ziwen frowned slightly, although the army's combat power is unparalleled, but if it can't go ashore, it can only stare dryly.

Immediately, he said: "On the navy side, how many land forces can be escorted to Qiongzhou Mansion?" ”

Bao Yifen said: "This problem is a bit complicated, and it is not easy to decide in one word!" ”

At this time, a naval officer next to him said: "How many people can be sent when crossing the sea, or whether they can be sent up, depends on where the main force of the puppet Ming Naval Division is!" ”

Without waiting for others to speak, Bao Yifen continued: "As we all know, in terms of sea power, the enemy is strong and we are weak, if it is forced to cross the sea to fight, it is impossible for the puppet Ming sailors to be indifferent, once they go to sea to intercept, I am afraid there will be a fierce battle!" ”

Hearing this, many army generals frowned, if they met the pseudo-Ming Shui Division, they would definitely not be able to beat the navy's small sampans, and the navy would be finished, and these landlubbers in their army would become dead ducks, and this kind of thing was not fun at all.

"And what are your navy's plans?" Zeng Ziwen didn't believe that the navy had no way at all, otherwise, how would this fight Qiongzhou Mansion!