"Your Majesty, the Northwest has won a great victory, and Cao Rengui has been completely wiped out in the first battle of Shazhou." On March 22, the fourth year of the Apocalypse, Hu Xiaosi and Xu Tianxiang came to the palace together, drawing Li Xuanqing's attention from the deployment and establishment of the northern industrial belt to the northwest direction. The battle report sent back by Wang Houchun was detailed and clear, not only the entire battle situation was recorded in detail during this time, but also the ambush battle on the Yizhou front line was also reported through the reports sent by Shi Jian and Wan Yi.

"Your Majesty, the Northwest side has almost turned the situation in Anxi in the first war, and we can rest assured from now on." Xu Tianxiang was also happy, the entire grand strategy in the northwest has finally obtained the most perfect harvest at this time, and the preliminary planning and the entire strategic layout in the medium term led by the General Staff show that the supreme command brain of the Tiance Army has become more and more mature, and can skillfully control this large-scale, long-term and multi-level strategic planning and implementation.

After reading Wang Houchun's report in detail and detail, Li Xuanqing also said with a smile: "It seems that Houchun's task in the northwest has been completed, and he can set off back when it is finally determined by Khotan, I think Tiancheng's burden can be shared with him, so that Tiancheng will not even have time to get married." "Yang Tiancheng and Xu Xingxia's sister had already made a marriage, but during this period of time, the Ministry of National Defense was established, and in addition to planning and deploying the war in the northwest, the General Staff also had the Navy's Liuqiu plan, Chen Fan's strategy for the three Koreas, and the Tibetan battle plan, so they were almost so busy that they ran between the cabinet and the General Staff every day, and they had no time to think about their own private affairs.

"I'm afraid Tiancheng won't be idle, Guo Chongtao and the boss of the navy are ready, a corps of the army plus 10,000 marines and seven Izumo-class warships have been training in Shantou for more than half a year, Tiancheng plans to go over and see the results." Xu Tianxiang shook his head and smiled bitterly. Chen Fan in the north basically doesn't need to worry about the General Staff, according to Chen Fan's temperament, as long as he thinks he can execute, then it is estimated that no one in the world will be able to win him. On the one hand, he stationed Nanzhao and other places, and on the other hand, he mobilized the construction corps and the cabinet to work together to improve the southwest straight road plan, and waited for the northwest side to start one by one as soon as it was settled.

Li Xuanqing was also very helpless about this, Chen Yu, a man from the northwest, was so obsessed with naval warfare, and the perfect rainforest operation originally arranged for him was also pushed to others, and he began to specialize in training and cooperation with the navy to carry out landing operations from sea to land. If it weren't for the fact that Guo Chongtao had already occupied the position of Minister of the Navy, I was afraid that Chen Yu would want to play the navy. However, in Li Xuanqing's expectation, the Marine Corps will become independent sooner or later, so there is no objection to Chen Yu's move.

"In this way, wait until Houchun comes back and immediately carry out the battle of the Eastern Expedition." Li Xuanqing ignored this, thought about it and said: "It's almost April, the southeast monsoon is coming, this doesn't have much impact on us, but for Qian Biao, who is entrenched in Liuqiu, their navy is basically sailboats, and the southeast monsoon is not a good wind direction for them." "Li Xuanqing didn't have much knowledge of sailing naval warfare, otherwise he wouldn't have done his best to develop iron-hulled powered ships before. Today's Datang Navy has developed to the second generation of ironclad warships, and the third generation of warships have also begun to move down from the design drawings to prepare for full-scale models. As the shipbuilding industry and the basic steel smelting and forging, as well as the tenon and rivet structure of steel plates, they have also gradually matured in the training again and again.

"Isn't the budget for you at this year's annual meeting already allocated? I remember that except for the northeast and Tibetan areas, the budget for Liuqiu has already been allocated. Li Xuanqing stood up and said: "Although Liuqiu is an isolated island, it is of great significance for the development of maritime trade and the navy going to the sea, and Ryukyu Island itself also has good development prospects. ”

"Your Majesty, don't worry, Shantou, Fujian is all ready. It can be started at any time after the Tiancheng assessment is completed. Xuan Yingwei will also provide necessary assistance when the time comes. Hu Xiaosi nodded and said: "We have placed people in Qian Biao's army, and we have developed rapidly on land in recent years, but Qian Biao's development is very slow. There were very few local inhabitants of the Ryukyu Islands, and most of them were uncivilized, and only a few residents near the sea came from the mainland before Qian Biao left. ”

Hu Xiaosi said that Li Xuanqing basically understands that the residents of Liuqiu and the local residents are basically Gaoshan people, and it is very good to be able to slash and burn in this era. Therefore, although Qian Biao successfully avoided being swept away by himself, if he wanted to rely on such a people's foundation to develop himself in this era of extremely low productivity, it was basically tantamount to a fool's dream. Fortunately, it is a tropical region, so grain production has finally caught up with the level of the Central Plains after Qian Biao left.

"The flow of the springboard represents the beginning of our navy from the current subordinate army to real independence, and it is also the beginning of our journey to the unknown world and exploration of the unknown. Let Tiancheng tell all the soldiers of the Eastern Crusade that this time they are tasked with the task of digging the wilderness and opening up the sky, leading Datang to the ocean and the future. After Li Xuanqing sent them back, he began to think about it, picked up a pen and began to write a draft document.

The next day, Xinhua Media Group issued a special issue for this, which spread all over the world in a very short period of time, this vernacular article signed by Li Xuanqing personally named "Towards the Ocean, Towards the Future", focusing on the description of the ocean, the significance of exploring the overseas world, and truly bringing the definition of the world to all the people of the Tang Dynasty, it can be said that after that, there has never been a concept of the world of the Tang Empire from top to bottom, because this article has gradually formed the initial global world view, The world and the country in the original Confucian doctrine gradually rose to the world.

In Li Xuanqing's article, the Tang Empire, which is now hyping and developing the economy, once again rose up to the novelty of the overseas unknown world, similar to the most primitive voyage exploration began to take root among the people, and many former big families began to dig out their previous records of the overseas world, and gradually shifted their attention and energy to it. Because the territory of today's Tang Empire in the southwest region has actually exceeded the historical record, and many places that are very vague in history have become their own territory at this time, so the long-distance travel driven by this has gradually become fashionable, and the tourism industry that has been cleverly and painstakingly wanted to popularize has gradually started, and the population flow within the empire has begun to accelerate, which has also indirectly smoothed out the hidden danger of division caused by the original geographical factors. So when he found Li Xuanqing with the latest performance list of the Royal Tourism Company he opened in Luoyang, Li Xuanqing suddenly understood this.

However, at this time, he could no longer understand Yang Tiancheng, who had arrived in Fuzhou, Fujian, and Yang Tiancheng was the busiest person in the entire imperial hierarchy since he became acting Minister of National Defense, not only to preside over the daily work of the Ministry of National Defense and form the working team of the Ministry of National Defense, but also to separate the part of the General Staff that belonged to the Ministry of Defense, to separate the daily affairs of the whole army from the wartime command tasks, and to implement the principle of the theater system of domestic troops put forward by Li Xuanqing. Counting it, he, the Minister of Operations and Minister of National Defense, is busier than Xu Tianxiang, Chief of the General Staff.

However, when he came to Shantou Port, he felt that it was time for the navy to go out and show his fangs after a year of development, and the whole seven Izumo-class battleships were neatly arranged on the military dock of Shantou Port, and the Izumo-class was painted with light gray paint because of Li Xuanqing's later ideas, so the same gray made Yang Tiancheng look very powerful and domineering.

"How many landing ships does your navy have prepared?" Yang Tiancheng began to listen to Guo Chongtao and Chen Yu report their plans after meeting them, but Yang Tiancheng was very curious about the number of ships and land forces that landed in the first wave, and the data quantitative analysis method promoted by the General Staff in each corps has recently begun to be tested in various corps, so Yang Tiancheng wanted to see if the two guys in front of him had used this method.

"We know through the information transmitted by Xuan Yingwei that the number of troops Qian Biao is currently circulating can basically be estimated to be between 60,000 and 80,000, so we will calculate it according to the number of 80,000 when we land and fight." After Guo Chongtao and Chen Yu glanced at each other, the latter spoke: "In the first wave, we have prepared 15,000 people, 10,000 combat troops, and 5,000 technicians, including artillery, medical guards, etc., to set up an advance post on the island in advance and hold out for a day. ”

"Fifteen thousand? With the armament and equipment, how many ships do you have now? Yang Tiancheng nodded and continued to ask.

"At present, there are 11 full-time landing ships, plus 20 transport ships. If we take into account the ocean-going transport ships we formed from the Xu family before the start of the campaign, we can increase the number of ships by fifteen to twenty. Guo Chongtao replied: "At present, a landing ship can carry 300 people, plus the weapons and equipment to which it belongs. This calculation can basically meet the needs. ”

Yang Tiancheng frowned, he knew the plan of the large ocean-going ship that Li Xuanqing was preparing, but according to the transport ships and landing ships currently equipped by the navy, the difficulty of ocean-going and large-scale is not ordinary, and once the ships are more and rely on seven Izumo-class escorts, I am afraid that it will be difficult to cover the landing mission while attacking the opponent's naval fleet.

"Please rest assured, although the Fuxing-class has been handed over to the coast guard for use, since this is our joint operation of sea and land and the first time to go to sea, I have already asked all the Fuxing-class to come back, so that the task can be completed by relying on the combat power of the Nanyang Fleet itself." Guo Chongtao saw Yang Tiancheng's hesitant expression, knew what he was worried about, and immediately replied: "After detailed calculations, when the time comes, the Izumo class will be responsible for the front to destroy Qian Biao's naval fleet, and the Fuxing class will be responsible for covering the landing operation and providing artillery support." ”

"When are you going to act?" Yang Tiancheng picked up Guo Chongtao's plan and read it carefully for a long time before asking. Before he came, he had heard that Chen Yu and Guo Chongtao had conducted a real simulation exercise, so he came to take a look and prepare to observe the latest combat techniques and methods of the navy on the spot. Although the names and forms are different, it is the first time that such a comprehensive battlefield simulation can be carried out, and this is the concept that Li Xuanqing brought from later generations plus the actual combat exercise rules written by himself and Xu Tianxiang for more than a year.

"Tomorrow, we have informed fishermen between Fuzhou and Shantou that they will not be allowed to fish in the waters between the Penghu Islands and the mainland for a few days." Guo Chongtao replied: "If the minister has no other questions, we can go directly to the Izumo command room, and the entire exercise will have the Izumo as the flagship." ”

Yang Tiancheng nodded, he came here to see how the naval exercises were carried out, to be honest, the naval exercises in this era, especially the naval exercises with ironclad warships as the main warships, had not been seen by anyone except Li Xuanqing and his wife. Therefore, Yang Tiancheng couldn't care about catching up with Chen Yu and Guo Chongtao and a group of admirals boarded their respective ships and began to retract the anchor and start the power cabin.

Chen Yu did not board the flagship with Yang Tiancheng, and as the commander of the landing operation of the exercise, he needed to stay in the port to organize the Marine Corps and Army units to board the transport ship in time, and arrange for all units and materials to board the ship. Because of the first exercise, neither Guo Chongtao nor Chen Yu found that there was no one in charge from the logistics department in the exercise they arranged. Although Yang Tiancheng was aware of it, he did not choose to break it at this time, and some things relied on them to find out and fill in the gaps in order to truly check and fill in the gaps and improve the entire system.

The Penghu Islands were chosen for the naval exercise, so when the Izumo arrived at the Penghu Islands with seven warships and 15 troop carriers, it was already the night of March 24 in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, so Guo Chongtao arranged for the fleet to stop ships near Qimei Island, the southernmost part of the Penghu Islands.

Early the next morning, the fleet set sail again, and the landing island was the main island of the Penghu Islands, and the navy had already arranged for the fishermen on the main island of Penghu to leave the island and go to live on Mudouyu Island in the north, turning this island into a real military island.

"The Izumi led the left flank fleet to patrol and attack sea targets, and the other warships followed the Izumo to shoot at close range and attack targets 1 to 3." Guo Chongtao saw Yang Tiancheng nodding and immediately began to arrange for the flag bearer to play the flag and horn, and the entire fleet began to quickly change its formation according to the flag and horn hand of the Izumo, and the three warships on the left flank led by the Izumo began to circle in a large circle and form a goose-shaped formation to cruise in the surrounding waters to search for potential hostile targets, while the Izumo quickly took the remaining warships and began to launch artillery bombardments according to the tidal flat positions on Penghu Island marked in advance. The follow-up troop carriers started the power compartment one after another to start warming up, waiting for the order to rush to the beach and land.