"Looking for another one?" everyone looked at each other, and most of them didn't understand what Yuan Ruoxiu meant for the first time.

Tao Donglai, who was asking, seemed to have touched a little doorway: "Do you mean to find an opponent for Daming, let him attack Daming's territory, and then we will be good people?"

Yuan Ruoxiu nodded and said: "The militia can play a scene under the banner of helping the Ming Dynasty recover the lost territory, and then take over the control of those towns in the north." ”

"But this kind of trick is likely not to deceive the people of the government, the officials of the Ming Dynasty are greedy, but they are not stupid. Ning Qi interjected: "If there are no casualties at that time, smart people will be able to see through it at a glance." ”

"There is no need to deceive these officials, it is enough to coax ordinary people!" Yan Chujie took over and said: "These Ming officials on Qiongzhou Island have only two ways in the end, either cooperate with us, or disappear completely, and they have no way to bring the truth of what happened on the island back to the mainland." ”

Yan Chujie keenly grasped the main point from Yuan Ruoxiu's words, the militia group could occupy the northern part of Hainan Island in the name of crusading against foreign enemies, and those who refused to cooperate with Haihan could be eliminated in the name of foreign enemies. As long as ordinary people believe in the righteousness of the Haihan militia, when they taste the sweetness of the Haihan system, they will naturally slowly forget the importance of the nationality of the Ming Dynasty. As for those officials, only helping Haihan maintain local order can still play a little role, and if people who refuse to even do such a trivial thing will be useless to Haihan if they are kept.

"Even if they cooperate with us, write the chapter according to our wishes, and even build the Ming Dynasty to hand over Hainan Island to us for trusteeship, but after a long time, they will also have official business that needs to be handled on the mainland, will this person be let go or not?" Ning Qi continued to retort.

"Don't worry, if you can go back when the time comes, you will definitely not talk nonsense. He Xi also interjected at this time: "In the end, those who survive are people who are afraid of death, and we have at least eight hundred different ways to deal with this kind of person." ”

Ning Qi shook his head and said: "I still don't agree with this plan, there are too many problems that may arise in the middle, such a large-scale military operation, who should be found to cooperate with this play? No matter how good the performance is, because there are at least thousands of people involved, it is impossible to hide the truth from the people for a long time, and I think it is difficult to predict what kind of reaction the people will have at that time." ”

"These problems you mentioned can be discussed and solved in the same way. What we need now is a reasonable excuse for going to war, this thing can't be given to us by the Ming Dynasty, we can only create it ourselves!" Yan Chujie replied in a deep voice: "This is the third time that the discussion meeting has been held, I think this method is the most feasible so far, if you think there is a better plan, then you might as well put it forward now." ”

Of course, Ning Qi didn't have any better plan, and if there were, he wouldn't wait until now to say it. It was not that he did not really understand the feasibility of this plan, but he thought of some of the terrible consequences that might result from the implementation of this plan -- the military would certainly use this operation to hype up force and use it to seek a higher level of military spending for the next year, and the military's influence in the Executive Committee would also increase by this, and it would be difficult to restrain the belligerence of these rough men in the future.

However, it is impossible for the military to give up this hard-won straw. Had it not been for Yuan Ruoxiu's proposal, the Executive Committee would probably have delayed the battle plan that was about to begin in the second half of the year because it could not find a reasonable reason for going to war. However, the military had already carried out an arms expansion war for the war of northern expansion, and at least one battalion of troops was prepared for the future garrison in the northern cities.

In the end, it was Tao Donglai who made a decision -- the Central Military Commission would draw up a complete set of action plans within half a month, and if other departments needed to cooperate, they could put forward specific requirements. At that time, the next seminar will be held to discuss the details of this plan.

Tao Donglai's decision is basically to follow this path, which is not because he is dictatorial, but because there is no so-called alternative at present. It's just such a road, either you can try it, or you can only wipe your face into your trouser pocket and beat it up when the time comes.

At the end of May, the Executive Board held its first discussion of the package and revised some of its operational details. Although it is not yet satisfactory, the basic outline of the entire action plan has gradually become clear.

On 2 June, the two "Majesty-class" hybrid warships completed a months-long sea trial training and officially entered the combat fleet. During this period, although the ship's steam engine did not have major failures, minor problems were still unavoidable, and the time of trouble-free operation was far from meeting the expectations of the army. However, for the military, whether or not this new type of large warship can continue to be built is far more important than picking on those small performance faults -- anyway, the wind power on this kind of warship is the main propulsion power, and the marine steam engine, which is still in the trial and improvement stage, is only auxiliary power after all, and it will not seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the ship itself.

The commissioning of both the "Weiyan" and the "Weixian" showed that the water power of the militia navy was sufficient to implement a relatively comprehensive blockade of the Qiongzhou Strait, which was also one of the prerequisites for Haihan to launch an offensive against the Ming sphere of influence in the north.

In early June, several squads sent by the Ministry of Security infiltrated several cities in the north under various covers, and their task was to spread information in the early stages of the operation, create public opinion favorable to Haihan, and if necessary, do some dirty work, such as cleaning up some voices that are not very friendly to Haihan.

On June 7, 1630, the twenty-seventh day of April in the third year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Ji Po Island, west of Halong Bay, Annan.

In the bay at the southern end of the island, a small harbor is hidden. Three years ago, it used to be a settlement for fishermen in Annam, but now the fishermen have long since moved to other places, and it has become the location of the overseas training base of the Annam Military Region. The training base of the Heitugang Special Operations Battalion, which is known for its combat strength within the Haihan People's Regiment, is located in this place.

Cat Ba Island is the largest island in the waters of Ha Long Bay, located 20 nautical miles southwest of Heitu Port, and only more than 10 nautical miles away from the Tu Shan base in the west, almost just in the middle of the Black Tu Port and Tu Shan base. The 146-square-kilometre island is almost surrounded by mountains and jungles, and there are large areas of karst terrain on the island, which are completely uninhabited except for a small number of fishermen who settled here in the early days.

After Qian Tiandun inspected the natural environment here, he used this place as a field training base for the special operations battalion and carried out corresponding development and construction. The military camp on the island can accommodate a battalion of troops, and all kinds of living facilities are also available. With the help of the natural conditions here, the soldiers can practice various tactics in a mountainous jungle environment. Last year, Qian Tiandun even asked the soldiers to build a 300-meter-long city wall on the island, which was divided into several sections of different heights and thicknesses, and city defense facilities such as city gates, city towers, and moats were also built in a pattern to practice siege operations in different environments.

In fact, a similar training facility has already been built at the army training base in Luhuitou, Sanya, but a little later than the city wall on Cat Po Island. In terms of training content, Qian Tiandun is often ahead of Gu Wei. In addition to the fact that due to the limited conditions, the militia army on Annan's side could not often practice the tactics of infantry and artillery coordination, Qian Tiandun used almost all the training knowledge he knew here, and built this unit with the standard of training special operations troops.

As for the formation shooting that the militia musket unit is best at, Qian Tiandun did not put much energy into training this combat skill. Because in his view, with the continuous progress of industrialization, it is only a matter of time before the scientific and technological progress of individual weapons, and as the process of loading ammunition becomes simpler, the frequency of firing will increase significantly, coupled with the improvement of the shooting accuracy of weapons and the maturity of weapons of mass destruction, the "backward" tactic of lining up to shoot the party will be eliminated from the militia army within a few years.

At that time, infantry assault tactics such as the "three-three system" will gradually become the mainstream of basic tactics. Qian Tiandun's method was to let his troops receive some training methods for skirmishers in advance and master some basic tactics. For this reason, the soldiers of the Annan Special Operations Battalion are issued with individual weapons that are more conducive to skirmishers, short-barreled large-caliber flintlock pistols, although the range of this weapon is slightly shorter than that of rifles equipped with other troops, but the shorter body is more conducive to the soldiers' activities in various complex environments, and the increased caliber ensures that this rifle can kill with one shot at close range.

In addition, almost all kinds of new military equipment manufactured by the Sanya Military Products Research Institute were first tested here. For example, imitation of classic styles such as maxgear, 511 and other classic styles of field backpacks, a variety of field self-heating military rations, new canvas military boots, etc., the soldiers of the special operations battalion are almost the first batch of users. In addition, the new individual weapons manufactured by the Sanya Arsenal will also be sent here, and the officers and men of the special operations battalion will give their opinions after trying them out. As a result, the level of individual equipment of the special operations battalion is almost the most advanced combat unit in the entire Haihan militia regiment.

Although Annan's militia army has not carried out large-scale combat missions in the past year or so, Qian Tiandun has never relaxed his efforts to expand its strength and train the troops under its command. The individual abilities of the soldiers of the special operations battalion are very strong, because Qian Tiandun trained each of them as a grassroots non-commissioned officer, rather than an ordinary soldier. In time, if the Haihan militia expands its army, these people can be immediately promoted to grass-roots officers, and as long as the supply of troops is sufficient, the strength of the army can easily be expanded by more than five to ten times in a short period of time.

Due to the intensity of the training, the soldiers needed a lot of food, and the island even built a special livestock farm for this purpose, and arranged boats to go to sea every day to fish to satisfy the appetite of the soldiers. Although most of these soldiers were born in Annam, and were not strictly Han Chinese, it didn't matter to Qian Tiandun, as most of these young people were from the lower classes and had a simple nature, and as long as they were instilled in a reasonable way, it was easy for them to develop a sense of loyalty.

For this reason, at the beginning of the year, Qian Tiandun also specially selected a group of grassroots officers to return to Sanya to participate in the advanced training course for young cadres jointly organized by various departments, that is, the study class that Yu Xiaobao and Fu Li attended. Now this group of people has returned from their studies and established the backbone organization of the "Haihan Youth League" in the militia group.

Qian Tiandun himself is a person from the past, and of course he understands very well how much appeal this kind of political official organization will have. The officers or cadres who can be promoted in the future will definitely come from the Youth League. And being able to join the Youth League, for these simple-minded young people, it is not so many ideas, it is simply a symbol of loyalty to the Executive Committee. Even those who joined the Youth League could puff up their chests and declare themselves loyal fighters of the Executive Committee.

In addition to their daily training, the most training these soldiers receive is political studies, and the recruit stage will even exceed the time of literacy courses. After the establishment of the Youth League, the soldiers became more homogeneous in their thinking, and any idea that questioned the decisions of the Military Commission and the Executive Committee was considered heretical. They will not hesitate to carry out the orders given by the officers and set foot on the battlefield with the concept of fighting for the Executive Committee, and Qian Tiandun believes that this is exactly the kind of war machine that the Executive Committee needs most in the future.

"Report!

With a shout, Qian Tiandun came back from his contemplation and stretched out a hand, and the adjutant Takahashi Minami immediately respectfully handed the telegram to him. Qian Tiandun tore open the seal on the telegram and opened it to see that the content of the telegram was very long, and it took Qian Tiandun about ten minutes to read it, but when he folded the telegram again, a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"It seems that we have a chance to perform on the battlefield in the second half of the year!" Qian Tiandun said softly.

Gao Qiao Nan said with a smile on his face: "Could it be that the Executive Committee has already decided to attack Da Ming?"

"That's right, and we'll be the first to strike. Qian Tiandun nodded and responded: "It's just that the task will be a little arduous." ”

As early as more than two months ago, when Qian Tiandun returned to Sanya to report on his work, he already knew the decision of the executive committee. However, at that time, the Executive Committee had only made a decision, but had not yet come up with a clear plan of action. Although Takahashi Minami was a naturalized citizen, Qian Tiandun also knew that this Japanese dwarf had long regarded himself as his own retainer, and his personal loyalty even exceeded that of Cheng Dù of the Executive Committee, so he did not hide it from him, and told him the relevant situation very early.