At this time, the lights in the Guangyuan Hall were bright, the cabinet and the military attachés of the Sima Mansion and the Taiwei Mansion gathered in the outer hall to discuss, and the King of Xian purchased office facilities in the outer hall, and the huge map of the Central Plains was hung on the north wall of the main hall.

"Chen Baili Yan see the king."

"Yongxing Hou is exempt, the armpit fleet appeared on the coast of Sangbei County, Yongxing Hou thought it was a sign."

"Can the king give the letter from General Ye Xin to the ministers first."

The words fell, and King Xian handed over Ye Xin's urgent report to Bailiyan. After taking a closer look, Bai Liyan came to the map of Xianguo, his eyes fell on Sangbei County and Guangxin, and he thought for a moment and asked Lu Gao

"General Lu, what does the Lu Senate recommend?"

"The Lu Senate believes that it may just be a feint attack on Sangbei, and the focus is still on Guangxin. However, the four counties of Xianxi, Beihai, Dongyuan, and Jiangdong have been in operation for several years, and there are many fortifications along the coast, and there are many artillery, so the armpit fleet should not land on our mainland, so it should attack the weaker to Sangbei County, and the king also thought so. ”

At this time, King Xian said

"Yongxing Hou agrees with the theory of the Lu Senate's feint."

"Back to the king, there is a core focus of the armpit man's tactics, which is to destroy the elite resistance of the human army, and under this principle, they will give priority to the elimination of the army that poses the greatest threat to the human race. At present, there is no greater threat to them than our Xianguo, and it is the navy that can directly threaten them. Therefore, after the defeat of the armpit men in June, the focus this time was to lure the main force of our navy.

Therefore, the discussion of the Army Senate to feign an attack on Sangbei and attack Guangxin is only one thing, and the second is to lure the elite of our infantry army to rush to the aid of Sangbei, and at the same time mobilize the main force of our navy to rush to the waters off Sangbei to intercept and block its landing.

However, the minister suspected that the armpit fleet currently floating on the coast of Sangbei County was not its main force, and there should be a more elite fleet in the open sea waiting for reinforcements from our navy, and then annihilated in one fell swoop. At this time, the main force of our infantry army has been concentrated in Sangbei County, and at this time they will pounce on Guangxin again, and it will be very difficult for our army to reinforce Guangxin. ”

King Xian did not agree with what Bai Liyan said, he said

"Guangxin is as solid as a rock, artillery is like a forest, and the armpit ships are just wooden ships, how can they break through Guangxin from the sea, not to mention that mines and mines have been laid along the coast, how can they go ashore."

"Your Majesty, we can't stand in our position and ideas to infer what people are thinking. Although the armpit people were shocked by the combat power of our country, they still greatly underestimated the strength of our country, so the armpit people were still too conservative in their estimation of our country. ”

At this time, Taiwei Zhang You asked

"How can the Marquis of Yongxing see that the armpit people greatly underestimate our country."

King Xian answered

"The captain is reasonable, how can I see that the armpit people greatly underestimate our army."

"King Qiyu, first of all, communication, armpit people probably do not know that our country has a telephone, perhaps they themselves do not have, although the telephone has not yet been spread to Sangbei, but our army has thousands of horses and Jianbao, the fastest post station can run 1,500 miles a day, so it does not take two days from Sangbei to Guangxin.

And the armpit man must estimate the speed of our army's transmission with the eldest grandson horse, so even if it is 600 miles to fly urgently, it takes six days for a one-way trip, and twelve days for a round trip. This is only from Sangbei to Guangxin, and the armpit people obviously do not know where our country is, so they will increase the estimated number of days.

At the same time, it takes time to get the news, to decide how to respond, to issue an order to mobilize the army, even if it is only five days, plus the twelve days of round-trip, it is seventeen days. During these seventeen days, the garrisons had not yet received orders.

And if the infantry army is mobilized, based on the national assembly of 300,000 soldiers and horses, grain and grass, and a daily march of 80 miles, it will take at least 20 days for the whole country to complete the assembly, and if it is a cavalry time halved, but the armpit people will not think that our country can gather 200,000 horses, because they know nothing about the interior.

Therefore, the time required for China to gather troops to Sangbei and complete the deployment is about 40 days. However, our navy does not need 40 days, and it can arrive in more than 10 days. Combined with the time of the sea battle, it was almost forty or fifty days.

When the armpit people completed the encirclement and annihilation of our navy, they went south to attack Guangxin, our country will have no main infantry at this time to mobilize, to mobilize the infantry from Sangbei to Guangxin, often march on foot for at least 20 days, ordinary cavalry also need to day, this is still a straight line march, in fact, you need to detour and cross the bridge and cross the river, it may be longer, so they have enough time to attack Guangxin. ”

Bai Liyan thoroughly analyzed the evolution of the situation, King Xian and the others felt a deep crisis, and Jiang Yu asked again at this time

"How long can Guangxin last?"

"It depends on the number of ships and artillery of the armpit man. Judging from the news sent back one after another by the officers of our army sent to Changsun, the armpit infantry army was equipped with rapid-fire artillery with breech loading, and it cannot be ruled out that the armpit fleet that attacked Guangxin earlier was not its latest main fleet.

Because the equipment and upgrading of artillery requires a cycle and financial investment, after encountering our country's rapid-fire artillery, if there are ships equipped with rapid-fire artillery, they will definitely be sent to fight a decisive battle with us. ”

When King Xian heard the news, the ironclad ship was taken aback

"Iron can build ships!"

"Yes, not only can you build ships, but you can also build big ships, and in the future all ships will be built of steel. However, the king does not need to worry, judging from his current situation, even if there is an ironclad ship, it will not be very powerful, and the minister has already prepared and made a batch of special iron-piercing shells. ”

"That being the case, how is the Marquis of Yongxing going to deal with the armpit people's feint attack in Sangbei County."

"First of all, the armpit people may think that humans are not familiar with naval warfare and landing operations, so they will carry out a feint attack in Sangbei. But for it to attack land in a big way, it must have large ports and berths. However, there is no natural harbor or deep water area in Sangbei County.

Therefore, Changsun has been operating for hundreds of years, and has not built a large port, only a small wharf can be berthed, but it is not enough for large ships to dock and replenish. In addition, there are many tidal flats along the coast of Sangbei County, and there are no areas suitable for landing, and even fewer areas that can land in large quantities.

But the minister thought that the calculation should be calculated. Let the armpit people believe that our country is fully reinforcing Sangbei County, but secretly gather troops to the four counties of Xianxi, Guangxin, Jiangdong, and Dongyuan. At the same time, China's fleet is stubbornly guarding the waters near the Qinjiang River and resolutely refuses to fight.

If it is discovered by an armpit reconnaissance ship, it will avoid entering the inland river and use the batteries on both sides of the Wangqin River estuary to block the river and the coastal sea, forcing it to be unable to attack, so as to gain more time for the restoration of naval strength.

After the armpit people found out about the plan in Sangbei County for a long time in January or February, they either collected their troops and temporarily retreated to regroup and fight again in the coming days, or strengthened the landing in Sangbei, forcing our country to feint and turn into a real move, and they attacked Guangxin again. If this is the case, it will be of great benefit to our army, and it is very unclear that it will rashly divide troops and land without knowing the strength of our army. ”

"According to the words of Yongxing Hou, there may still be a vicious battle in Sangbei?"

"It's not just Sangbei County, he suffered such a big loss before, losing more than 300 ships, I'm afraid it's the first time he has been so embarrassed since he bullied humans all over the world. And at present, it has just gone south for more than three months, and the infantry army will definitely not have too many troops, so if Sangbei suffers another loss, most of them will not continue to attack in the short term, and when they gather more troops from the south from the mainland, they will continue to attack us.

Therefore, our country must buy more time to drag the main force of their infantry army in the country of Changsun, and at the same time speed up the construction of the navy and put together a main fleet as soon as possible. ”

"But at the moment, there are only more than 50 warships, and I am afraid that in a year or two, it will not be possible to do what Yongxing Hou wants."

King Xian had a conservative attitude, but Bailiyan was more pessimistic than him

"I'm afraid not three or two years, at least five or six years. Only 25 of the 31 damaged ships of our army can be repaired, and the remaining seven keels have been cracked and cannot go to sea, so they can only be reinforced for training and inland river defense.

Seven newly-built warships were launched from June to August, and eleven more will be received by the end of the year. Another 50,000 merchant ships are being renovated at the Jiangdong and Yongxing shipyards, which are expected to be completed early next year, but the artillery will need to be equipped until May next year.

Therefore, our army will be able to recover to 150 ships in June next year, and at the end of next year, the year after next year, and the year after the Great Queen, there will be 24 10,000-stone warships, six 20,000-stone warships launched, and more than 100 merchant ships in each of the three years.

Therefore, the minister intends to increase the construction of warships next year and reduce the construction of merchant ships, but it will not be launched until at least three years later. Therefore, according to the current production plan, China will not be able to have more than 400 warships until five years, of which 70 percent are 10,000 stone warships and 30 percent are 20,000 stone warships. In this way, it will be barely enough to maintain the maritime security of our country at our doorstep. ”

"Then why don't you turn all merchant ships into warships, fight with them, and damage them hard."

King Xian's tone was very big, but Baili Yan felt powerless, he said

"Most of the merchant ships were bought by the merchants, and now they are requisitioned by the imperial court, the marquis of Lu, the marquis of Xuanting, the ministers, and some of the Wanshi ships attached to the imperial court boat gang, and most of the merchant ships built every year were sold to other countries to earn gold and silver to subsidize the construction of warships and the maintenance of the navy.

Therefore, to requisition the merchant's ship, it is necessary to pay a certain amount of money, one is not much, ten hundred is very much, if it is forcibly requisitioned, it will lose the credibility of the imperial court.

In addition, there are not many railways at present, and Cao Yun is still the lifeblood of commercial goods in the Central Plains. Therefore, the larger the ship, the more cargo it loads, and vice versa, the smaller the ship, the higher the transportation cost, and the less freight volume.

Now that all countries are preparing for war, the demand for water transportation is only increasing, and our country must not do anything that criminalizes the future of the merchants, so it can only build itself. ”

"What Fang Cai Yongxing Hou said can build an ironclad ship, can my country make it now?"

"The minister had already ordered people to study two years ago, and it was only a matter of time before it was built, and once the manufacturing method was mature, it could be manufactured in large quantities, and the cycle was shorter than that of wooden boats. But it will also take time to verify and accumulate experience, so there will be no real change in the strength of the Navy in two or three years.

The above conclusion is based on the fact that if our navy has no losses in the next five years, the results may deteriorate if there are major engagements during this period.

In addition, the industrial scale of the axillary people far exceeds that of our country, and its construction speed is far above our country, if the sinking speed cannot exceed its construction speed, it will build more and more warships. Moreover, the armpit people are far more powerful than humans, so they can build a ship of ten thousand stones faster than humans."

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