After Bao Yifen returned to the naval headquarters, he immediately gathered the heads of the navy and prepared to discuss a strategic plan to combat piracy.

At the internal meeting of the Navy, Vice Admiral Bao Yifen relayed the close concern of Li Xuan, the Sage of the Ages, for the coastal people and passing merchant ships, and the great importance he attached to coastal security.

When Bao Yifen solemnly said that His Majesty the Emperor attaches great importance to maritime security, many admirals have already begun to frown.

Although Bao Yifen did not say anything about His Majesty's anger, a very important message was revealed between the lines, that is, Li Xuan was already very dissatisfied with the Navy's inaction.

All of you here now know that with Your Majesty's attention, the navy will probably not be able to passively arrange warships to escort the merchant fleet and conduct daily patrols in the future.

Because it's not enough!

Fleet escort, which means that the navy cannot protect those merchant ships that travel alone, and daily patrols mean that they will not take the initiative to attack.

In order to change this situation, it is inevitable that the navy will take the initiative to annihilate the main pirate force along the coast of the two provinces, and then completely control the security of this sea area.

But it's not so easy to take the initiative.

At present, the main task of the Datang Navy is to control and defend the safety of the estuaries of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, and to be ready to intercept the Ming naval divisions heading south from the northern waters such as the Shandong coast at any time.

You must know that although the Ming army in the south has been destroyed, the Ming army still retains a large amount of sea power in the northern seas, and after the loss of Jiangnan, it has accelerated the enhancement of the northern sea power.

In the future, the navy still needs to cooperate with the army's plan to go north, gradually move north along the coastline, and provide a sea supply channel for the army going north.

And these strategic tasks have contained a large amount of strength of the Tang Navy.

However, the task assigned by His Majesty himself cannot be ignored, and it must be completed with hard work, and it needs to be completed, otherwise, if Your Majesty is angry, no one present can afford it.

After briefly introducing the purpose of today's meeting, Vice Admiral Bao Yifen said: "Staff Officer Song, you are usually in charge of escort affairs, and you are familiar with pirates, so let's briefly talk about the situation of coastal pirates. ”

At this time, a young major general stood up, and then spoke: "Ladies and gentlemen, in the past six months, the sea areas where we have been attacked and disturbed, mainly the waters of Zhejiang and Fujian, especially the two areas of Zhoushan and Dayuan Strait (Taiwan Strait), where the situation is complicated and there are many islands, are even more frequent pirates, so in the past six months, our navy has sunk a total of 13 pirate ships, captured 23 ships, and arrested more than 500 pirates in the above-mentioned sea areas, but piracy activities in the above two sea areas are still rampant.

According to our judgment, these pirates must have one or more pirate gathering points in the Zhoushan sea area to Dayuan Island (Taiwan ~ Bay Island), the year before last Zhejiang pirate Xu Dong's old nest Shuangyu Port was surrounded and suppressed by the Ming officers and soldiers at that time, dispersed into multiple activities in the waters of Fujian and Zhoushan.

According to some of the information we have now, the big pirates have Wang Zhi, Chen Sipan, Lu Qi, Shen Jiu and others, but these pirates are also different, such as Wang Zhi, like Xu Dong before, is more supportive of our open sea policy, and most of the time it is also a rule to participate in our foreign trade, but the other pirates are mainly looting! ”

"In the looting activities in the past six months, more than 80% of the looting activities were carried out by pirates such as Chen Sipan, Lu Qi, and Shen Jiu, but although Wang Zhi and my Datang have maritime trade activities, his people cannot restrain his subordinates, and his subordinates have also plundered coastal merchant ships and even coastal villages and towns many times!"

"According to incomplete statistics, there are at least more than 100 ships in the above-mentioned pirates, of which Wang Zhi's fleet alone has no less than 20 sea ships!"

Listening to Staff Officer Song's introduction, a group of people who were low: "Then have we found their lair?" ”

Staff Officer Song said: "The detailed situation is not yet known, but we judge that it must be in the waters of Zhoushan, and there must be their base on Dayuan Island, as for the specific location, as long as it is gradually cleared and searched, it is not difficult to find out!" ”

At this time, Bao Yifen said: "Your Majesty has already said that you will set up a government on Dayuan Island, and recapturing and completely controlling the island is also a task that our navy must complete!" ”

Li Xuan said this to Bao Yifen in today's report, in fact, Li Xuan had thought about setting Dayuan Island as a separate administrative region before, but the Tang Dynasty did not directly control the island, so the establishment of an administrative region was just an empty word, but now, he didn't want to wait any longer, and if he waited any longer, it was estimated that Dayuan Island would completely become a pirate home.

After listening to the brief briefing, everyone began to discuss how to deal with these huge numbers of pirates scattered everywhere, some proposed to be appeased, saying that pirates like Wang Zhi could still be appeased, while others suggested that they must be suppressed with the most severe attitude, shouting 'Those who dare to violate the Tang Haijiang will be killed!' 'Radical slogan.

However, some people believe that the current naval strength is insufficient, and it should be done gradually, first organizing the main force to patrol dangerous sea areas, and then looking for an opportunity to annihilate them one by one.

There are all kinds of opinions, but after discussion, Bao Yifen found that no matter what method is used, it is necessary to transfer some capital ships, and if the number is small, it will not be able to end the war quickly, and this will greatly affect the main strategy of the navy: to cooperate with the army's Northern Expedition!

In the end, he said: "If the main force of our navy comes out, and the First Fleet and the Second Fleet cooperate with each other, will they be able to wipe out the pirates in the above-mentioned waters in a short period of time?" ”

"The main force is out?" Hearing Bao Yifen's words, several other navies all looked puzzled.

The navy's task is so heavy now, how can it be possible to dispatch capital ships just to eliminate pirates, although piracy is rampant, but it is just a trivial matter, and the Ming army on the opposite side is the real henchman.

Turning back and waiting for the navy to free up its hands, this pirate will destroy them in minutes, in the waters of East Asia, there is no sea force that can withstand the attack of the current twenty or so warships of the Datang Navy!

On these 20 or so warships alone, there are more than 450 naval guns on board!

Moreover, the Datang Navy has more than just these 20 warships, as well as several Galen converted armed merchant ships, and many armed merchant ships converted from traditional Chinese merchant ships.

The main force is exhausted, even if it is not counting the ships in the Yangtze River fleet, but the Datang Navy is estimated to be able to pull out at least sixty ships that can be used for sea operations.

But if the main force is exhausted now, will the Pearl River estuary and the Yangtze River estuary still be necessary?

Especially at the mouth of the Yangtze River, if the Ming army and sailors take the opportunity to rob and go south, wouldn't it be doomed.

However, although they were surprised by Bao Yifen's decision, everyone still made their own answer: "If the main force is transferred to sweep away pirates, depending on the situation, if it goes well, it will be enough to clear the pirates in the waters of Zhoushan and Dayuan Island within a month, even if it is not very smooth, but two months should be enough." However, with the strength of our navy itself, there is no problem if it is only a sea battle, but if we want to fight ashore, we are afraid that the number of our marines is not enough, and we need the cooperation of the army! ”

"Two months? Well, I'll give you two months! Bao Yifen stood up: "In two months, the Zhoushan Islands will be completely taken down, and Dayuan Island will also be completely taken down, our navy will not only control and defend the maritime frontier for Your Majesty, but also open up the territory for Your Majesty, this Dayuan Island is the first step!" ”

Bao Yifen, as the head of the Military Command Department, is the first person in the power sequence within the Navy, and after he gave the order, he no longer cares about the follow-up meetings, and the follow-up meetings are the affairs of the General Staff.

At the beginning of July, the Datang Navy suddenly issued an internal emergency mobilization order, demanding that pirates on Zhoushan and Dayuan Island be eliminated within two months.

It didn't take long for the naval warships anchored at Wusong Port, Ningbo Port, Nanao Island, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, and other places to set sail, and the navy left behind one cruiser and three frigates at the mouth of the Yangtze River just in case, and the rest of the main warships all sorted, and at the same time, the inland river and coastal fleets also sent a large number of Guangzhou ships and sand ships to cooperate in the operation.

The mission of these armed merchant ships is not to fight wars, but to search for the main force of pirates!

At the same time, the army also cooperated with the dispatch of many troops, boarded the navy's transport ships, and prepared to cooperate with the shore operations to eliminate the pirate bases.

The main forces of the Navy almost poured out of the nest, and the movement was extremely fast, and there was no information revealed beforehand.

After the main force of its first fleet went to sea, it directly attacked several ports suspected of being pirate bases, and they really let them discover a few small bases, needless to say, these ports found were naturally pirate bases, not to mention, the main fleet directly blocked up and shelled!

Nearly ten capital ships, plus more than a dozen armed merchant ships to cooperate with the operation, are enough to blast any pirate ship that dares to resist to pieces!

When the naval artillery bombarded, the transport ships that followed also landed with the infantry, and then there was nothing to say, the infantry charged, and these pirates were basically finished.

At sea, maybe these pirates can still exert a little combat effectiveness when they jump gang battles, but on land, it is almost impossible to be the opponent of the Datang Marines.

Several times even the Marine Battalion has not fully landed, but the pirates on the island have completely collapsed!

When the Datang Navy paid attention to it and began to exterminate pirates on a real scale, these pirates who were awesome and coaxed on weekdays were almost completely powerless to fight back!