Chapter 302 The Naval Army Goes Out

As the host of this great court meeting, Ma Tingluan, the busiest secretary of the Ministry of Rites, asked: "Your Majesty, can the banquet begin?" ”

I smiled: "Okay, I've been busy for most of the day, and I feel a little hungry, Ma Aiqing, start immediately." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Ma Tingluan looked quite tired, but he was in good spirits, and said in a loud voice, "Colleagues, Your Majesty's Imperial Feast begins now, everyone please enjoy it to your heart's content, and the singing and dancing performances will be carried out at the same time. ”

The performances at the banquet are mainly dances and singing, and sometimes there are puppet shows, shadow plays, acrobatics and other folk tricks, which are popular entertainment activities in the world.

The ancient emperor (faint monarch separately) and the officials in the court are actually very hard, last night I and all the officials were to keep the year until the early hours of the morning, this morning to come to participate in the court meeting, some officials who live a little far away do not even dare to sleep, early to wait outside the palace, plus a morning of tossing, it is indeed quite difficult, especially there are many elderly ministers,

If you are like some officials in later generations, singing and dancing all night long, even if you barely get up early, I am afraid that your eyes will be directly repaired by the emperor when they are still hazy, where can you still use the venue as a bed?

The specifications of the imperial banquet are extremely high, and the menu is also in accordance with the proposal of the Ministry of Rites, but I have reduced a few dishes, and my principle is that it is okay to eat well, after all, they are all important ministers in the court, and they have worked hard for a year, and they should be rewarded, but they can't be wasted.

Like later generations, the Spring Festival during the Song Dynasty also had a seven-day long holiday, plus the special approval of the King of God, it can often be put to about ten days, the officials who stayed in Lin'an City officially entered the vacation stage after the court meeting, and the officials who went out to visit relatives returned before the fifteenth, however, I did not dare to relax in the slightest, during this Spring Festival, in addition to convening some ministers to discuss the matter, I plan to take a good look at the information of the Xianwen Pavilion, I will definitely gain something,

The next afternoon, I summoned Lu Xiufu, Li Beiyang and Ouyang Jianqing in the imperial study, according to the plan, Li Beiyang will lead the last group of expeditionary sailors to set off in the early morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year to clear out the "One Piece" Zhang Xuan who is entrenched overseas.

"Your Majesty, Ministers."

"No courtesy." I pointed to the map on the table and said, "Li Aiqing, this is a coastal map, you can talk about Zhang Xuan's situation first." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, there are hundreds of large and small pirate gangs along the coast of our country, and their number generally ranges from dozens to hundreds, and the larger pirate gangs have seven or eight converted ships, and the number can reach about a thousand, and Zhang Xuan's gang can be regarded as extraordinarily large pirates, according to the information obtained by the minister, Zhang Xuan's command has a total of fifteen armed large ships, equipped with weapons such as stone throwers, arrows, crossbows, hooks and sickles, etc., which are the main force of its rampant coastal areas, and there are nearly fifty armed medium-sized ships, and countless small ships. The total number of people was around 4,000, including nearly 1,000 women and children, and there were two main bases for this group of pirates. Li Beiyang, who was standing at the table, said to the map, "Your Majesty, please see, there are Nanji and Beiji Islands in the eastern sea not far from Wenzhou Prefecture, which is one of its bases, and the other is in the area of Kume Island and Chiwei Yu, which are close to the Ryukyus, which are its main bases. ”

"Well, this Zhang Xuan's pirate ship is also somewhat similar to the equipment of my sailor division, and the number of people is beyond the reach of other pirate gangs, no wonder he can become the One Piece who dominates the coast."

"Yes, Your Majesty, that's why these pirates can stay in place for a long time."

"Li Aiqing, how is the current equipment of our army."

"Back to Your Majesty, our army's most advanced long-range attack weapons will be tested in actual combat this time, although it is still the original rocket, artillery, fireball, thunderbolt artillery, etc., but the ammunition used in it has been improved by the Gunpowder Division, there has been a qualitative change, the same volume of fireballs, artillery shells, its power is about dozens of times that of the original, if it is a small boat, only one fireball can be destroyed, medium-sized ships, only ten rounds of artillery shells, can be heavily damaged, even Zhang Xuan's large warship, it is difficult to block the shooting of dozens of artillery shells."

"Very well, if there is real artillery on the ships of our army, it will be called majestic."

Li Beiyang said very yearningly: "Exactly, the minister estimates that if our army's warship is equipped with an artifact, it only needs to hit the entrance of the opponent's large warship several times in a row, and it can make it lose its combat effectiveness. ”

I didn't understand naval warfare, so I asked with a smile: "Li Aiqing, how is the command of our army carried out at sea." ”

"Your Majesty, there are two traditional ways of commanding the navy in our court, one is to use the golden drum flag, which is similar to the army, and the second is to send a herald ship to command operations."

"Both of these methods are recorded in the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts", the first way is affected by external factors such as weather and distance, and the second way is slow." Then I thought, "If only there was a telephone telegraph." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Li Beiyang said, "Your Majesty has a good plan." ”

Of course, Li Beiyang didn't know that there would be such an item as a telephone in the future world, and no one could cross the limitations of history, so I shook my head and said, "No, Li Aiqing, you can tell me about our army's tactics in naval warfare." ”

"Your Majesty, over the years, the ministers have summarized the tactics of our naval army into seven, the first is to throw weapons in the broadside battle, which is a combat method that has been used since the naval division, the second is the application of firearms, with the advent of gunpowder, rockets and artillery have become the main weapons of long-range attacks, the third is mobile, water warfare is based on warships as the carrier, after all, it is not as flexible as the soldiers on land, which requires the allocation of firepower and troops to be adjusted at any time according to the situation, in order to take the initiative, and the fourth is the cooperation of various warships, There are dozens of warships used by our naval army, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, when fighting, it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of all kinds of warships, rather than using large ships, the fifth is to be familiar with the climate and water currents at sea, which is the geographical advantage in the art of war, the sixth refers to the formation of warships, and there are more than a dozen kinds of formations of our naval army, such as a word array, an arrow array, a goose crane fish array, etc., and the seventh is a surprise attack, like a land battle, a sudden attack, a surprise attack to hit the opponent, but this time the clearance is not a surprise attack. ”

I nodded and said, "Li Aiqing, there are quite a lot of ways to fight this water." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, any tactic has pros and cons, it depends on the timing of use, just like in the Three Kingdoms, Cao Ying connected the ship with an iron lock, which can reduce the shaking of the warship, so that the northern soldiers who are not good at water warfare can get used to it, but it creates an opportunity for the Sun-Liu coalition army to attack."

"That's right, Li Aiqing, let's talk about your battle plan this time."

"Your Majesty, our Great Song Navy will dispatch 3,500 people from the North Sea Fleet, 2,000 from the East China Sea Fleet, 2,500 from the South China Sea Fleet, and 850 marines directly under the Navy Military Department, of which the expeditionary personnel of the Beihai, South China Sea, and East China Sea Fleets have arrived at the designated position. And set aside the east, the ministers estimated that Zhang Xuan's group of pirates would flee east to the area of Kume Island as before, and our army would pursue them all the way without attacking, so they would take this opportunity to exercise well, and after the pirates arrived on Kume Island, they would surround them and strive to annihilate them completely. ”

"With the superior strength of our army, we can successfully destroy it, but if Zhang Xuan is still the same as before, and he can't fight and flees to Ryukyu, what will you do."

Li Beiyang said: "Your Majesty, the ministers will follow the instructions of Your Majesty some time ago and take the Ryukyus together. ”

"Well, Junshi, Ouyang, what do you think?"

Ouyang Jianqing said: "Your Majesty, in the opinion of the ministers, I should first inform Ryukyu, saying that I will arrest the thieves and hope that they will cooperate." ”

I shook my head slightly and said, "With the relationship between Zhang Xuan and Ryukyu, I estimate that Ryukyu will not cooperate with my court." ”

Ouyang Jianqing said without hesitation: "Your Majesty, then according to Your Majesty's will, take the Ryukyus together." ”

Lu Xiufu also said excitedly: "Your Majesty, this is indeed a good excuse, salute first and then soldier, and it is also in line with the style of my Celestial Empire." ”

The Ryukyu Islands officially became a subsidiary island country of our country during the Zhu Yuanzhang period of the Ming Dynasty, but before it was a large number of autonomous islands, similar to a reading tribe or loose association, the larger islands have the Osumi Islands, the Tugara Islands, the Amami Islands, the Okinawa Islands and the Sakishima Islands, about the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the ruler of Okinawa Xiongteng family relied on force to conquer the Ryukyu Islands, and established the ancient Ryukyu Kingdom, by the end of the Song Dynasty, the rulers of the ancient Ryukyu Kingdom had long lost control of the other islands, and restored to the earliest island autonomy era，

The current ruler of Okinawa Island, Xiong Tengxiu, is not willing to do this, intending to unify the whole island of Ryukyu again, with the assistance of the pirate Zhang Xuan, Xiong Tengxiu obtained a large number of weapons and armor and other military materials from the Song Dynasty, for an industrially backward island country, these sophisticated equipment has undoubtedly become a sharp weapon for Xiong Tengxiu to conquer the whole island, at the same time, Zhang Xuan, who was born in the barracks, also taught the military system and training methods of the Song Dynasty to the other party, and promised that once Xiong Tengxiu sent troops to the Ryukyu Islands, his three thousand pirates will help him, in the eyes of Xiongtengxiu, Zhang Xuan's fifteen big ships alone are not something that people from other islands can compete with.

"Li Aiqing, in the New Year, your navy is going to go on an expedition, and you have worked hard for all the soldiers."

"Your Majesty, if the ministers can share the worries for Your Majesty and make meritorious contributions to our dynasty, they will only feel honored, and they will not feel the slightest hardship."

"Good, good." I praised and said, "Junshi." ”

Lu Xiufu somehow suddenly called him by name, and subconsciously replied, "The minister is here." ”