Night falls over the sea. The darkness of the pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info stopped the originally hot fight. The battle ended, and shortly after nightfall, Jiang Xiu forced his way out with his fleet. This time, he could be said to have suffered heavy losses, and the one hundred and twenty warships that had just been brought out during the day were only thirty-eight after the day's naval battle. Worried that he would be completely surrounded and annihilated by the other party on this sea area on the second day, Jiang Xiu took the risk and made the decision to sail at night. He didn't want to be surrounded there again, so he turned back to the southeast, as if he wanted to go to Quanzhou. It was the location of the first port of the Sun Wu Navy.

In the face of Jiang Xiu's detachment, Shihong, who also suffered heavy losses, did not launch a pursuit. He couldn't afford to fight any more. Of the sixty warships, twelve were lost in the battle, and only forty-eight were left, which were still more or less smoking, and looked so desolate. Although the number of losses of the battleship itself is not much, and it seems that it still has a huge combat power, the personnel who operate the battleship are much less. After today's battle, the remaining personnel of the entire Second Fleet were less than 60 percent of the original number, only to the point where they could move the battleships, but it was impossible to fight. After searching and rescuing some of his comrades who could still hold on to the present, Shihong's fleet also left here, but in a different direction from Jiang Xiu, he did not return to his Qinzhou military port in the south, but went north against the sea breeze to Vladivostok in Liaodong. It was a piece of coastal land that Datang got from the Fuyu people in Liaodong with the utensils of the Central Plains more than ten years ago, and after more than ten years of development, it has become a fulcrum of Datang in Liaodong and the location of the largest shipyard in the navy.

Since eight of the fleet's ten warships had suffered heavy damage, and the fleet needed to replenish its manpower, it seemed that it was no longer appropriate to stay where it was, and to get to Qinzhou, it would have to pass through the narrow Ryukyu Strait, which was mostly within the range of Sun Wu, but it was also not very appropriate. Therefore, the only way to get to the north is to get there.

The fleet sailed north from the Ryukyu Sea and continued its voyage at a port in the Tang Dynasty's overseas territory of "Han Tu" (i.e., the original "Kyushu" of the Wa Kingdom) to replenish some fresh water and grain, and finally arrived at Vladivostok before the harbor froze. Because of the headwind, this section of the voyage was naturally very long. During this journey, in addition to fulfilling his duties as a general, re-invigorating the morale that seemed to be a little low, and comforting the wounded on the fleet, Shihiro set out to write a proposal report for the people of the Ordnance Division to consider whether to modify the existing warships to enhance the battleship's white-knuckle combat capabilities: "...... I understand that it is a trend for long-range artillery battles to replace close-range white soldier battles...... But it can be taken into account that the current artillery is not very powerful, the rate of fire is too slow, and the firing range is insufficient...... It seems that white-knuckle warfare cannot completely withdraw from the stage of war...... The fleet of large warships has thousands of guns, and its salvo can naturally sink the opponent's warship, but for medium and even light warships, the power of their guns is often not enough to destroy the opponent's warship in a very short time...... This is extremely disadvantageous to our army, which has completely eliminated the skills of naval white-knuckle warfare. In order to change this situation, I suggest: 1. Should a one-story tower be added to the middle of the battleship so that the white-knuckle soldiers can be quickly deployed? 2. Can there be an appropriate increase in the training of seafarers in martial arts? 3. It is recommended that the battleship be equipped with some weapons for close combat, such as small bed crossbows, repeating bows, etc.......

A report, Shi Hong wrote a lot, during which there were many additions, deletions and modifications, until near Vladivostok, Shi Hong completed this important report. Because this report was so important, as soon as he got off the ship and went ashore, Shihong quickly handed over the report to Bai Yi, who was in charge of intelligence, and they tried to submit it to the Jinghai Governor's Office and the Ordnance Department for discussion.

“…… This is all about the development of our navy as a whole. With Shi Hong's impatient entrustment, the man in white passed this report along with the battle report of the Second Fleet's operation in two ways: one was by land, across the grassland to Liangzhou, and then from Liangzhou to CD, and the other was by water, and directly south through the East Ocean to Qinzhou by merchant ships.

Because the matter of delivering the report was in charge of Bai Yi, it was Yi Shihong who completely repaired it after sending things out, except for recruiting a new group of sailors and repairing his own warship, he didn't have much to do, that is, to deal with some daily affairs of Vladivostok Military Port. Because of the poor communication flow, the admirals had much more autonomy than the army generals, and apart from the fact that they could not arbitrarily change the number of warships in the fleet and collect customs taxes, the admirals of the navy basically could do whatever they wanted, including the jurisdiction and construction of ports. Of course, these things are also supervised, but as long as they don't do anything particularly excessive, the admiral is basically equivalent to a "king" in his own jurisdiction, a "boss".

From late November to early March of the following year, the military port of Vladivostok was unusable, so the Second Fleet had to obtain a rare period of long-term repair time in the military port. And Shihong, who has always felt a little tired, also waited for the feedback order from Yizhou during this time.

Everything passed in peace, and for Shihiro it was like this. But for those who received Shihong's war report, it was a different story. Shihong wrote so many suggestions freely, it looks very simple, and it sounds very reasonable, but it is actually a troublesome thing to deal with, and more importantly, if it is really completed according to Shihong's suggestions, then it will definitely take nearly a year to complete the modification of the entire fleet. This would have been a dispensable thing in the previous two years, but now, when a war of unification is about to be launched, it is difficult for people to decide whether or not to interrupt the deployment of the entire war for such a thing.

"It's a headache! Are we really going to slow down for a year? That's a big loss, and we've been preparing for more than a year. If you give up like this, I'm afraid that everything I prepared before will ......," said Xu Shu, who was a staff officer in the imperial court of the CD, with a frown. After receiving Shihong's report and the battle report of the Second Fleet, the masters of the Tang Dynasty began to discuss. However, since each had its own reasons, no decision was made in this discussion. There was no way, knowing that this matter was extremely important and did not dare to drag it out any longer, Li Sheng had to order this court meeting to be convened and hand over the matter to the hundred officials for discussion.

Speaking of Li Sheng's court, the court meeting held by the court was a bit like the court meeting of the Ming Dynasty in later generations, which was divided into several levels, the most common of which is the so-called cabinet meeting, or the provincial and ministerial meeting, some daily things, generally important affairs, and problems that need to be solved quickly are basically solved at this meeting, because most of the people who participated in this meeting are people above the ministerial cabinet, and the place where the meeting was held was in the cabinet of the Great Interior, so this meeting is also called the cabinet meeting and the provincial and ministerial meeting. This is the lowest level of political council, but it is also the most useful and confidential; As for the one level higher than the cabinet meeting, it is the current court meeting, which is customary to be held at the first hour of the first and fifteenth hours of each month in the Qinzheng Hall of the Imperial Palace, which is generally to deal with some issues that have a greater impact and make people uncertain and listen to the work of the provinces and ministries in the past half a month. This is a meeting that is usually held only once a year according to the convention, mainly to announce this year's policy plan, discuss the gains and losses of the past year, calculate the budget for this year's various expenditures, etc., generally held on the 16th day of the first month of each year, from the 16th day of the first month to the 20th day of the first month, open for five consecutive days, and all officials in Beijing must go to the Jinluan Hall of the Imperial Palace to attend the meeting. Although the meeting was held in the Jinluan Palace, there were only about 1,000 people who could stand in the Jinluan Palace, which was still quite insufficient for the number of officials in the capital who were 2,000, so those officials who were below the fifth rank basically stood in the square outside the Jinluan Palace, and they could not enter the hall until someone called their names. Because the main issues were resolved at the Golden Luang Temple, this meeting was also called the Temple Meeting. This was the highest-level, lowest-attended, and least secrecy meeting of the Tang Dynasty established by Li Sheng. In many cases, such meetings are just for the presentation of some major decisions, and there is nothing really important to discuss in this meeting three.

Of course, at some special times, for some special purposes, the emperor or more than half of the provincial officials may request the convening of the church and the temple council. However, such meetings, because of the importance of the topics discussed, have been given more staff to work confidentially. Just like the meeting in front of him, because it was requested by Emperor Li Sheng, and the discussion was about his own strategic issues in the next section, everyone was locked up in this airtight palace of diligence in broad daylight, and all around were guarded by Li Sheng's Praetorian Guards, which were also mixed with many white-clothed characters. Come to think of it, Li Sheng will never allow everything in this meeting to be known to outsiders, after all, it is too important.

“…… As you said, Shihong's advice is relevant to our current weaknesses. In this matter, we were a little underestimated. I thought that we could defeat the pirate army in the decisive battle by only dispatching the second fleet, and smoothly announced Sun Wu's support for the pirate army, but I didn't want Sun Quan's pirate army to be a famous general, and the ship was also a strong ship. Although they were inferior to us in terms of attack power, they attacked our fleet in a completely unexpected way. The abacus of total annihilation has failed, and the ending of both defeats has made us fall into a kind of passivity. This is an accident, but after a profound analysis, isn't this accident some kind of inevitability? Fortunately, our current strategy has not been carried out, it is only about preparation, so that we still have the opportunity to revise. Otherwise, once we start activating it quickly, I am afraid that it will become extremely difficult to change it at that time. As a military commander, Zhuge Liang has always been so cautious, he is very dissatisfied with Xu Shu's kind of knowing that there are loopholes in his plan, but he doesn't bother to correct it, and only firmly believes in his own advantages. He thinks this is the performance of Jiaobing, and Jiaobing is bound to fail.

"So what......? Is your opinion just to abandon what we are already ready for? You are in charge of the military and political affairs, and you do not know what kind of damage will be suffered to our economy and what kind of blow will be suffered to the morale of our soldiers if this plan, which has been in progress for most of the time, has been suddenly scrapped. The fleet's lack of melee ability is just a small matter, and if it is only for the sake of small things to affect the development of big things, I am afraid that it will be necessary to sacrifice the basics. Xu Shu insisted on his point of view. In his opinion, the tactics of local assault are just a means of surprise soldiers, although it played a role in Shihong's fleet in this operation, but in the next battle, Shihong, who has already suffered a loss, should subconsciously prevent this situation. Shihong's warships are all quite high-speed warships, and if he wants to distance himself from the pirate warships, he is afraid that the pirate warships will not be able to catch up with him at all. Thinking about it this way, the problem of insufficient melee ability is not a big problem at all.

"Hmm...... Hmm......" After Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu argued, they invariably turned their eyes to Li Sheng, as if they wanted Li Sheng to adjudicate this issue, but Li Sheng seemed to be invisible, just squeaked like this twice, and said nothing. He seemed to be thinking about something, and after being silent for a while, he looked at the ministers below with a smile: "Ladies and gentlemen, have you seen?" This is a major event related to the strategy of conquering the world, but I would like to know what you think? What Kong Ming and Yuan Zhi are talking about is the most critical disagreement at the moment, and I wonder if there is any way for you to reconcile such differences and achieve something that can be achieved by both bear's paws and fish. ”

"Bear's paw and fish? Is there such a good thing in the world? We don't know. It's hard to come up with it. At least this method has not even been figured out by the two adults, the military order and the staff order. After listening to Li Sheng's words, most of the people had bitter faces, and their hearts couldn't stop slandering. Most of them think that they are talents, not geniuses, which is a little different from Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu. Since even two people who specialize in this can't think of how to "have both bear paws and fish", how can they think of it themselves. Although their faces were as contemplative as possible at the moment, and there were occasional whispers of discussion, which caused the whole hall to resound, no one knew that what they were doing was just to hide their inner hesitation and helplessness. Of course, the people who do this are only the so-called "majority", as a law that accidents appear at any time, after excluding the so-called majority of people, there are still a small number of people who are really thinking with their hearts - these people are all young people who have just graduated from the Mianzhu Military and Political Academy, and they are handsome people who have emerged in the scientific examination in the past two years, and most of them are now appointed by Li Sheng as the squire of the seventh grade.

"Your Majesty, I wonder if we can consider the two things together at the same time? Trying to make some modifications to the existing warships without retreating? It was too cumbersome to build an attic on a battleship, as General Shihiro had said, and it was not fast to make such improvements. So we can put that aside for now. Due to the large number of firearms in our army, this battle took place at a certain distance. Now it is said that it is to make up for the lack of melee strength, but it is only a matter of making up for it. I wonder if it is possible to equip the navy with some firearms for the army. Equipped with a certain amount of thunder and fire bullets, fire spears, bows and arrows, and waist knives, I think it should be able to achieve some results in the next time I face Sun Wu's surprise attack. Lu Peng, who had just entered the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs this year, was the first to stand up and answer Li Sheng's question after thinking about it. As a young man, he has a lot of courage.

"Hmm...... This is also a solution. It is indeed much quicker to equip the ship's sailors with some weapons for land warfare than to modify the ship itself. Li Sheng is also a person who knows the army, and the navy under his command was built by him, so he has a very clear idea of Lu Peng's suggestion: "This is a good way." But that's not enough. Li Sheng seems to be a little greedy and wants more.

"Your Majesty, the minister suggested that the fleet of the Imperial Navy be reorganized. The army also has infantry, horses, bows, and ordnance, but the two fleets of our navy are of the same standard, which makes it difficult for our side to have softer means when dealing with various sudden battles. The Clipper Heavy Gun has the benefits of the Clipper Heavy Gun, and the Clipper Gun also has the Clipper Gun. The so-called ruler is short, and the inch is long. If you only use a single warship to organize a fleet, I think it is always a bit biased. An accident like this one is said to be due to the lack of melee capability of our army, but on the other hand, it is not the reason why the long-range attack of our warships is too weak? If we sink the opposing ship from a distance in battle, then we don't have to fight close to each other at all. Wei Ke, the squire of the Admiralty of the General Staff Department, said. He is specifically in charge of naval construction, and it seems that he has put a lot of effort into studying the establishment of the navy.

"Huh...... Such a statement is rare! Not...... Does the Qing family have any cases in this regard? Speak up and let everyone hear it! When Li Sheng, who was dressed in a dragon robe, heard Wei Ke say this, his face suddenly showed a little interest, and he looked at Wei Ke with a smile and encouraged him to explain things further.

"The power of the warships of the First Fleet lies in the fact that they have many cannons and a long range; The warships of the Second Fleet have the advantage of being fast and flexible, and they are not easy for people to capture; I wonder if it is better to have some of the ships of the First Fleet cooperate with some of the ships of the Second Fleet. In the event of an engagement, small warships are used to approach the enemy's position, while large fleets then arrive and sink the enemy's ships with heavy artillery from a distance. Wei Ke thought for a moment and said his obviously immature thoughts. This is what he usually has some thoughts, but now he has to say it because of the emperor's "oppression", which is of course a bit shabby. But in the ears of people such as Li Sheng, Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, Fa Zheng and others, there is indeed a refreshing feeling, as if a window opened to them inexplicably, revealing an unprecedented new world.

"This will change the pattern of naval warfare!" Li Sheng vaguely had some such thoughts.

Because he was interested in this matter, under the guidance of Li Shengruo, intentionally or unintentionally, the next church meeting naturally revolved around these points. After using the imperial examination as the mainstay, supplemented by recommendation, supplemented by official self-recommendation and audit evaluation, the Tang Dynasty can be said to be the court with the most professionals in the world. Now that the discussion has begun, it is natural that those strange suggestions have appeared in Li Sheng's ears. He listened to this somewhat astonishing suggestion as he motioned for the notes behind him to quickly write it down. After nearly two hours of such a busy day, the discussion finally came to an end. The original headache of whether to rebuild the battleship has been eliminated by default, and the discussion is no longer about whether to do it, but how to do it.

After Zhuge Liang, Fa Zheng, Xu Shu, Liao Li, Jiang Wan, Huang Zhong and others summarized and sorted out, the following points were finally determined: First, the navy should be equipped with sailors' melee weapons, that is, five rounds of fire and thunder bullets, a horn bow, a pot of arrows, and a short knife, so that any sailor can have a certain combat ability when facing the enemy alone; secondly, the training of sailors' melee skills was increased, and the training of naval melee skills was added to the academies that cultivated sailors, such as the Mianzhu Military and Political Academy, the Vladivostok Naval Academy, the Qinzhou Jinghai Academy, and the Yizhou Zhenhai Academy, and made it a compulsory basic course. Third, the fleets of the First Fleet and the Second Fleet were recalled to the Yizhou Military Port for reorganization, and the model of one heavy warship with two light warships was mixed, the original numbering of the First Fleet and the Second Fleet was abolished, and they were divided into four fleets, namely, the Eastern Fleet, the Beiyang Fleet, the Nanyang Fleet, and the Western Fleet, according to the names of the sea areas for which each fleet was responsible. The home port of the Beiyang Fleet was set up in Vladivostok, Liaodong; Fourth, some light warships were renovated, the artillery arrangement on the second deck was abolished, and bed crossbows with a fast rate of fire but a short range were used as the assembly of battleships, and at the same time, a Tibetan building on the first floor in the middle of the battleship was added to make it a special ship for close combat; Fifth, the existing warships of the Navy shall be reclassified, stipulating that a battleship with more than 10,000 stone and more than 200 guns shall be classified as a first-class battleship, a battleship with more than 5,000 stone and less than 10,000 stones, a battleship with more than 100 guns and less than 200 guns shall be classified as a second-class battleship, and a battleship with more than 2,000 stone and less than 5,000 stones, and a battleship with more than 70 guns and less than 100 guns shall be classified as a third-class battleship, with less than 2,000 stone and more than 1,000 stones, and a battleship with more than 30 guns and less than 70 guns shall be considered cruisers, and below 2,000 stone. Battleships with more than 1,000 stones, more than 10 guns and less than 30 guns, and more than 100 sailors are considered assault ships, while warships with less than 1,000 stones are all called coastal defense ships, and according to the different weapons equipped by each coastal defense ship, they are also called coastal defense gunboats, coastal defense assault ships, and fire attack assault ships. Sixth, due to the shortage of warships in various fleets, in addition to speeding up the development of new warships, the second and third class warships and cruisers should be mixed first, so as to meet the needs of the mixed fleet. Seventh, according to the number of existing warships and the needs of the situation, the strength of the Eastern and Western fleets in the Four Oceans Fleet should be mainly strengthened, while the other fleets can be put aside for the time being, waiting for more warships to appear. The Admiral of the Eighth Oriental Fleet was served by Youshi Hong, the Admiral of the Western Fleet was served by Gan Ning, the Admiral of the Beiyang Fleet was served by Gongsun Fen, and the Admiral of the Nanyang Fleet was served by Yang Xu.

Obviously, this is an extremely large plan, and if Wancheng is to be fully developed, I am afraid that it will take more time than the original advice given by Shihong. Of course, this is not what Li Sheng wants to see, he wants to unify the world as soon as possible, but he doesn't want to waste time in vain. Fortunately, some of the things in the plan can be done in a short period of time. The so-called long-term plan can also be divided into several truncated sections. And if you don't want to be perfect, and only think about eliminating the sea power of Cao Wei and Sun Wu, then it only takes a few months to arrange everything, which just meets Li Sheng's needs - "Why can't you have both bear paws and fish?" Isn't it just the best of both worlds right now? It can be seen that most of the problems in this world, as long as you think about it carefully, you can always get a satisfactory result. Li Sheng squinted his eyes and thought, and a satisfied smile suddenly appeared on his face.

"Let's settle the matter. You go and discuss the situation and come up with a formal plan. We're going to make it public. Li Sheng thought about it and quickly ordered. The reason why he wanted to make this order public was that in addition to the fact that this order was so huge that it would never be concealed once it was executed, Li Sheng still had a vague idea in his heart that he wanted to use it to establish his authority. After all, the country that can carry out big plans is the one that has the most strength. Just like when Cao Cao built Tongquetai to promote his strength, Li Sheng also planned to use this plan to expand the army to promote his strength.

Hearing Li Sheng say this, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but show a clear expression. For the meaning of Li Sheng's words, where else do they not understand. However, they felt that the light seemed to be a little insufficient.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the part of the plan to expand the army should be exaggerated several times when it is announced. At the same time, we should also cooperate with some actions, such as expanding the shipyard, laying huge keels, etc. After all, we are expanding the army, which is still a little different from Cao Cao's construction of Tongquetai. Cao Cao's construction of Tongquetai was purely for Xuanwei, and we had corresponding practical benefits. Under such circumstances, once we have a move to expand the army, it is conceivable that it will bring great pressure to Cao Wei and Sun Wu. In order to resist this pressure, they also had to expand their army. In terms of the size of their own economy, their current army is the largest number of troops they can build and maintain, and if they also expand their army, then their economy will not bear the burden, and in the long run, their strength will not increase but retreat, which is very beneficial to us. Zhuge Liang suggested to Li Sheng.

"Huh?" Hearing Kong Ming say this, Li Sheng couldn't help but be a little stunned, and his gaze when he looked at Kong Ming was vaguely different: "Kong Ming, you are too good." Can you think of such a plan? In the past, the United States used such a fake 'Star Wars' plan to expand its army to bring down the Soviet Union. The plan you've come up with now looks similar to theirs. Come on, let's just call this the 'Nova Project'! I hope this plan can hold up our Datang Emperor Star. Li Sheng thought so, and then ordered Zhuge Liang: "Kong Ming, you are solely responsible for this matter, I hope that this 'new star plan' can be successful." ”

"Project Nova? Is this what His Majesty has done for the whole project? That's a good name. Kong Ming nodded and agreed in one breath.