Chapter 1622
Chapter 1622
Chapter 1622
"That Fei Cexian has been spending the past few days in the library? This man is really studious!"
In Victory Fort, after listening to He Xi's report, Tao Donglai couldn't help expressing his feelings.Regarding the envoys sent by Ming Dynasty, the executive committee's attitude is to treat each other with courtesy and wait for an opportunity to buy them. If they can accept them for their own use, it is of course the most ideal result.The relevant departments have also made corresponding preparations for this. The security department even arranged Zhang Qianzhi, a member of staff, to be beside Fei Cexian as a tour guide who serves people before and after running. As long as he finds Fei Cexian's weaknesses, he will Look for opportunities to start.
However, after Fei Cexian arrived in Sanya, he behaved very conscientiously, and was not in a hurry to start social activities locally. Except for a few banquets and entertainments arranged by Haihan officials, Fei Cexian was almost between the guest house and the embassy construction site. Maintain the activities of two points and one line.However, Zhang Qianzhi tried repeatedly these days, but hardly found Fei Cexian's obvious weakness.This person has no obvious desire for money, power, or beauty, and he is relatively calm. It can be seen that Daming has given full consideration in choosing him to be Haihan, and he trusts him very much in his heart and loyalty.
Of course, Haihan is not in a hurry to subdue this envoy of Ming Dynasty. Haihan still takes the initiative in the relationship between the two countries, and the work related to the treaty ports established in Ming Dynasty is also in full swing. Since the envoy of Ming Dynasty Not in a hurry to start negotiations, Haihan also wished to buy some more time to further consolidate the dominant position he had already obtained.In addition, Haihan is now planning to launch a military operation against Spain in the South China Sea. At this time, it is best not to have any disputes with Daming, lest the military pressure exerted on Daming from the north is not enough, causing him to have other thoughts.
He Xi introduced: "The materials this person borrows from the library are quite mixed, as long as he reads anything related to our country. Due to the reason of the reading authority, what he can see now are very basic things, and no one Explain to him, and Zhang Qianzhi is watching, so you don’t have to worry about leaking the secret.”
"Some things, Zhang Qianzhi can also tell him about it, there is no harm in understanding it." Tao Donglai replied with a smile on his face.
He Xi nodded understandingly, expressing his understanding.Haihan has many secrets, but there are also many advanced technologies suitable for displaying to the outside world. For an outsider like Fei Cexian, it is probably not enough to just let him visit the library. It is best to combine theory with practice and arrange him to go to the Take a look at real industrial power.No one in this era can remain calm in the face of the industrial revolution brought about by the steam engine, and Fei Cexian is no exception.
"Lao Yan, tell me about the preparations for the Ministry of Defense!"
Now that He Xi has made arrangements, Tao Donglai doesn't need to pay too much attention to Fei Cexian's affairs. The most important thing for Haihan at the moment is still the preparations for the battle.Regarding the attack on Manila, the military has actually been planning for a long time, but it was only in the second half of this year that it officially entered the implementation stage.
Since the Spaniards have been operating in Manila for decades, and the land and sea armed forces deployed there are not weak, this opponent is not so easy to deal with.Although Haihan had defeated the Spaniard twice in the Far East in the past, but once it launched a surprise attack on Taiwan Island, which caught the opponent by surprise, and the other time it fought at home, fully occupying the advantage of the home court.The planned operation this time is to go to Luzon Island, which is more than 1000 kilometers away from Sanya. There are almost no supply points on the way, and the difficulty of the operation is much more difficult than in the past.
There are only two options before Haihan, one is to fight the Spaniards quickly and fight a blitzkrieg.Considering the problem of cross-sea supply, whether or not the city of Manila can be captured, Haihan can only launch a wave of offensives.Of course it would be best to break through the city in one fell swoop, but if the attack is frustrated and the city of Manila is not captured in ten days and a half months, then most of them will have to withdraw to Hainan Island.
The second option has a larger scale of action, which is to land near Manila and establish a stronghold, and then use this as a base to send troops and military supplies to the local area, and launch an offensive to Manila as soon as it is ready.The advantage of doing this is that the pre-war preparations are more adequate, and the troops do not need to immediately engage in high-intensity siege battles after crossing thousands of miles of seas, and can obtain supplies nearby. The combat effectiveness they can exert must be greater than that of a wave offensive.Even if the battle is unfavorable, the troops sent by Haihan to the local area to participate in the war can have a buffer and can continue the offensive for a longer period of time.
But no matter what kind of plan it is, the manpower, material and financial resources consumed during the period are not small, and the risk of action cannot be ignored.Even though the Ministry of National Defense has rich command experience, it is extremely cautious about this operation.From demonstration to implementation, every link during the period was reported to the executive committee for discussion, and the process of formulating the combat plan can be said to be very careful.
The reason why Haihan is so cautious is because the opponent Spain this time is really not that easy to deal with.Since 1571, when the Spanish colonizer Gaisby entered the mainland from Manila, invaded and occupied the Philippines, and built castles and forts there, the city of Manila has become the capital of the Spanish colonial rule in the Far East.For decades, the Spaniards have been constantly renovating and strengthening the city in order to consolidate the foundation of their rule, and have deployed almost all of Spain's elite armed forces in the Far East.
Although there is still a clear gap in strength between the Spanish army in Manila and the army serving the Spanish royal family on the European battlefield, it is undeniable that this army is still stronger than the military forces of Western countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands in the Far East. Quite a few, the equipment rate and quantity of guns and artillery are also much higher than those of their European counterparts, and the number of troops is as many as several thousand.If you defend the city, it will not be easy for the Haihan army to take it down.
"Our battle plan is going to be carried out in two stages." Yan Chujie waited for his attendants to hang the map of Manila Bay on the wall, and then explained to everyone present: "The first stage is to destroy the Spanish sea power. According to what we have According to information, there are about 25 to [-] warships stationed in Manila Bay, with a displacement ranging from [-] to [-] tons, and there are no less than [-] armed merchant ships. They set off from Manila Bay, but they are still floating in the Pacific Ocean, and they will arrive in the port of Acapulco in the Americas in about a month. However, they will return to the Philippine Islands along the ocean current, and it will take about three months. Can go back to Manila. So if we are going to do it, it’s better to do it before next March.”
"As long as we can quickly clean up Manila Bay in the first stage, then the difficulty of attacking Manila City in the second stage will be relatively small." Yan Chujie pointed to the east side of Manila Bay: "If the first action plan is adopted, We have about ten days to attack this city. But according to the information we have now, if we try to storm Manila, I am afraid that apart from the consumption of ammunition, the number of casualties will probably not be too small. "
"How many troops do the Spaniards have?" Tao Donglai asked with concern.
"The army is kept at least between 500 and 6000 people, and this does not include the sailors and Spanish civilians they can recruit into the army at any time as temporary soldiers. In addition, the local armed forces they can drive are almost the same size. Although these The local armed forces use cold weapons as the main weapon, but it is a trouble that cannot be ignored after all. According to our estimates, they can gather more than [-] people to participate in the battle during the war. I have to say that this war may take It is more difficult than our wild boar hides in Liaodong."
Yan Chujie's description is very cautious, which shows that the Ministry of National Defense is also very careful about this.Although Haihan has been able to win more with less in foreign wars all year round, it is still due to the huge difference in combat effectiveness between the two sides.If the opponent is equipped with a considerable number of firearms, has a strong city for defense, and is fighting at home, then the Haihan Army will inevitably have to pay a certain price in order to win.
The Executive Committee and the military do not doubt that they will be able to win the war, but how much they need to pay for it, and whether the results can meet expectations are all uncertain things at present.The Executive Committee and the military are also constantly evaluating this, hoping to make the most favorable judgment for themselves.
"What does the military plan to do? Take a gamble or take your time?" Schneider asked.
"I'm afraid we don't have the conditions to take our time." Yan Chujie explained: "For this operation, the Ministry of National Defense is going to gather all the elite troops, including the special operations battalion stationed in the Liaodong area, the Marine Corps, and the East China Sea stationed in Zhoushan. The Fleet, the South China Sea Fleet stationed in Sanya, the South China Sea Special Forces Group stationed in Xingdao, etc. This kind of large-scale transfer of defense will have certain security risks. For example, the Liaodong and Shandong regions had to transfer three infantry from the south Battalion as a supplement. We will eventually need to assemble about two full-scale fleets and four battalions of land, not including logistics and logistics units. Even if we can maintain cross-sea supplies for a long time, we still have to deal with the city of Manila as soon as possible. Avoid other overseas control areas from being seized by loopholes."
Yan Chujie's words clearly demonstrated the military's determination to complete the battle. It is very rare to mobilize elite troops in one place like this in recent years.The northern and southern ends of the original deployment of the troops participating in the war, from the Liaodong front line to Bangka Belitung Island in the South China Sea, are thousands of miles away. This shows how difficult it is to transfer defenses.
Naturally, the Ministry of National Defense took a lot of risks in mobilizing these elite troops deployed on the front line to fight in the South China Sea. The longer the Battle of Manila drags on, the more dangerous the original station of these troops will be.So the Department of Defense hopes to solve the problem once, so as not to trigger a chain reaction.
"Even if all the troops on Hainan Island are dispatched, it's still not enough to fill the hole?" Although Schneider is not a military expert, he still has a good idea of the general situation of the Haihan Army, and immediately continued to ask Yan Chujie.
Yan Chujie nodded and admitted Schneider's guess: "So this time we secretly borrowed some soldiers from our allies. An Nanguo sent about 500 troops south to Xingdao to help defend, and then Xu Xinsu dispatched about 500 muskets from Fujian. The soldiers were sent to Liaodong to take over temporarily. The Portuguese also sent [-] people, and they will go to the Philippines with us at that time.”
"The Portuguese are very good at seizing the opportunity." Schneider expressed his understanding that the Portuguese will take the initiative to participate. After all, they want to break away from the rule of Spain. If they can seize the opportunity to beat the Spaniards in the Far East, they will definitely not miss it.The 500 people sent by Portugal will definitely not be doing miscellaneous work on the front line. Their musketeers and artillerymen have good military qualities. They used to be Ming's military advisors, so they should be able to provide some assistance to the Haihan Army during the battle.
"Raising soldiers for thousands of days, using them for a while, we have provided military assistance to these allies in the past, but now we have finally received some rewards." Tao Donglai said with some relief.Of course, in fact, the military assistance provided by Haihan to these allies is not free, on the contrary, he has earned considerable economic benefits from it.However, these allies are actually very happy to participate in such an operation of borrowing troops. After all, it is an extremely rare means of training troops to be able to send troops to station at the front line of Haihan's border defense, and there is no need to worry about heavy casualties—at least Haihan promised that no large-scale war would break out where they went.
As for the reason for not directly borrowing troops to participate in the battle, the main reason is that the Ministry of National Defense believes that there is a certain strength gap between the troops of these allies and the Haihan regular army, and the command system is not unified. When fighting against an opponent like Spain, it is better to go to your own army to be safer.As for why the Portuguese were able to join the coalition, it was because Haihan thought that they had a similar language and culture with Spain, so that they would no longer need to carry field translators, and they could also be responsible for taking and interrogating Spanish prisoners of war after the war.Portugal only sent 500 men to the battle, in fact, it was only two or three boats of people. It would not be of much help in a battle of this scale, but it would not add much chaos.
Of course, the time required for this process and the coordination of various aspects are also very troublesome to gather the troops deployed in different places, prepare combat materials, and then transport them to the Philippine Islands more than 2000 miles away to fight. It is difficult for the Ministry of National Defense alone to complete system engineering, so it is necessary for the executive committee to lead a meeting to coordinate the work of various departments.Today's meeting is already the No.13 meeting held around this theme in the past three months.
(End of this chapter)
"That Fei Cexian has been spending the past few days in the library? This man is really studious!"
In Victory Fort, after listening to He Xi's report, Tao Donglai couldn't help expressing his feelings.Regarding the envoys sent by Ming Dynasty, the executive committee's attitude is to treat each other with courtesy and wait for an opportunity to buy them. If they can accept them for their own use, it is of course the most ideal result.The relevant departments have also made corresponding preparations for this. The security department even arranged Zhang Qianzhi, a member of staff, to be beside Fei Cexian as a tour guide who serves people before and after running. As long as he finds Fei Cexian's weaknesses, he will Look for opportunities to start.
However, after Fei Cexian arrived in Sanya, he behaved very conscientiously, and was not in a hurry to start social activities locally. Except for a few banquets and entertainments arranged by Haihan officials, Fei Cexian was almost between the guest house and the embassy construction site. Maintain the activities of two points and one line.However, Zhang Qianzhi tried repeatedly these days, but hardly found Fei Cexian's obvious weakness.This person has no obvious desire for money, power, or beauty, and he is relatively calm. It can be seen that Daming has given full consideration in choosing him to be Haihan, and he trusts him very much in his heart and loyalty.
Of course, Haihan is not in a hurry to subdue this envoy of Ming Dynasty. Haihan still takes the initiative in the relationship between the two countries, and the work related to the treaty ports established in Ming Dynasty is also in full swing. Since the envoy of Ming Dynasty Not in a hurry to start negotiations, Haihan also wished to buy some more time to further consolidate the dominant position he had already obtained.In addition, Haihan is now planning to launch a military operation against Spain in the South China Sea. At this time, it is best not to have any disputes with Daming, lest the military pressure exerted on Daming from the north is not enough, causing him to have other thoughts.
He Xi introduced: "The materials this person borrows from the library are quite mixed, as long as he reads anything related to our country. Due to the reason of the reading authority, what he can see now are very basic things, and no one Explain to him, and Zhang Qianzhi is watching, so you don’t have to worry about leaking the secret.”
"Some things, Zhang Qianzhi can also tell him about it, there is no harm in understanding it." Tao Donglai replied with a smile on his face.
He Xi nodded understandingly, expressing his understanding.Haihan has many secrets, but there are also many advanced technologies suitable for displaying to the outside world. For an outsider like Fei Cexian, it is probably not enough to just let him visit the library. It is best to combine theory with practice and arrange him to go to the Take a look at real industrial power.No one in this era can remain calm in the face of the industrial revolution brought about by the steam engine, and Fei Cexian is no exception.
"Lao Yan, tell me about the preparations for the Ministry of Defense!"
Now that He Xi has made arrangements, Tao Donglai doesn't need to pay too much attention to Fei Cexian's affairs. The most important thing for Haihan at the moment is still the preparations for the battle.Regarding the attack on Manila, the military has actually been planning for a long time, but it was only in the second half of this year that it officially entered the implementation stage.
Since the Spaniards have been operating in Manila for decades, and the land and sea armed forces deployed there are not weak, this opponent is not so easy to deal with.Although Haihan had defeated the Spaniard twice in the Far East in the past, but once it launched a surprise attack on Taiwan Island, which caught the opponent by surprise, and the other time it fought at home, fully occupying the advantage of the home court.The planned operation this time is to go to Luzon Island, which is more than 1000 kilometers away from Sanya. There are almost no supply points on the way, and the difficulty of the operation is much more difficult than in the past.
There are only two options before Haihan, one is to fight the Spaniards quickly and fight a blitzkrieg.Considering the problem of cross-sea supply, whether or not the city of Manila can be captured, Haihan can only launch a wave of offensives.Of course it would be best to break through the city in one fell swoop, but if the attack is frustrated and the city of Manila is not captured in ten days and a half months, then most of them will have to withdraw to Hainan Island.
The second option has a larger scale of action, which is to land near Manila and establish a stronghold, and then use this as a base to send troops and military supplies to the local area, and launch an offensive to Manila as soon as it is ready.The advantage of doing this is that the pre-war preparations are more adequate, and the troops do not need to immediately engage in high-intensity siege battles after crossing thousands of miles of seas, and can obtain supplies nearby. The combat effectiveness they can exert must be greater than that of a wave offensive.Even if the battle is unfavorable, the troops sent by Haihan to the local area to participate in the war can have a buffer and can continue the offensive for a longer period of time.
But no matter what kind of plan it is, the manpower, material and financial resources consumed during the period are not small, and the risk of action cannot be ignored.Even though the Ministry of National Defense has rich command experience, it is extremely cautious about this operation.From demonstration to implementation, every link during the period was reported to the executive committee for discussion, and the process of formulating the combat plan can be said to be very careful.
The reason why Haihan is so cautious is because the opponent Spain this time is really not that easy to deal with.Since 1571, when the Spanish colonizer Gaisby entered the mainland from Manila, invaded and occupied the Philippines, and built castles and forts there, the city of Manila has become the capital of the Spanish colonial rule in the Far East.For decades, the Spaniards have been constantly renovating and strengthening the city in order to consolidate the foundation of their rule, and have deployed almost all of Spain's elite armed forces in the Far East.
Although there is still a clear gap in strength between the Spanish army in Manila and the army serving the Spanish royal family on the European battlefield, it is undeniable that this army is still stronger than the military forces of Western countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands in the Far East. Quite a few, the equipment rate and quantity of guns and artillery are also much higher than those of their European counterparts, and the number of troops is as many as several thousand.If you defend the city, it will not be easy for the Haihan army to take it down.
"Our battle plan is going to be carried out in two stages." Yan Chujie waited for his attendants to hang the map of Manila Bay on the wall, and then explained to everyone present: "The first stage is to destroy the Spanish sea power. According to what we have According to information, there are about 25 to [-] warships stationed in Manila Bay, with a displacement ranging from [-] to [-] tons, and there are no less than [-] armed merchant ships. They set off from Manila Bay, but they are still floating in the Pacific Ocean, and they will arrive in the port of Acapulco in the Americas in about a month. However, they will return to the Philippine Islands along the ocean current, and it will take about three months. Can go back to Manila. So if we are going to do it, it’s better to do it before next March.”
"As long as we can quickly clean up Manila Bay in the first stage, then the difficulty of attacking Manila City in the second stage will be relatively small." Yan Chujie pointed to the east side of Manila Bay: "If the first action plan is adopted, We have about ten days to attack this city. But according to the information we have now, if we try to storm Manila, I am afraid that apart from the consumption of ammunition, the number of casualties will probably not be too small. "
"How many troops do the Spaniards have?" Tao Donglai asked with concern.
"The army is kept at least between 500 and 6000 people, and this does not include the sailors and Spanish civilians they can recruit into the army at any time as temporary soldiers. In addition, the local armed forces they can drive are almost the same size. Although these The local armed forces use cold weapons as the main weapon, but it is a trouble that cannot be ignored after all. According to our estimates, they can gather more than [-] people to participate in the battle during the war. I have to say that this war may take It is more difficult than our wild boar hides in Liaodong."
Yan Chujie's description is very cautious, which shows that the Ministry of National Defense is also very careful about this.Although Haihan has been able to win more with less in foreign wars all year round, it is still due to the huge difference in combat effectiveness between the two sides.If the opponent is equipped with a considerable number of firearms, has a strong city for defense, and is fighting at home, then the Haihan Army will inevitably have to pay a certain price in order to win.
The Executive Committee and the military do not doubt that they will be able to win the war, but how much they need to pay for it, and whether the results can meet expectations are all uncertain things at present.The Executive Committee and the military are also constantly evaluating this, hoping to make the most favorable judgment for themselves.
"What does the military plan to do? Take a gamble or take your time?" Schneider asked.
"I'm afraid we don't have the conditions to take our time." Yan Chujie explained: "For this operation, the Ministry of National Defense is going to gather all the elite troops, including the special operations battalion stationed in the Liaodong area, the Marine Corps, and the East China Sea stationed in Zhoushan. The Fleet, the South China Sea Fleet stationed in Sanya, the South China Sea Special Forces Group stationed in Xingdao, etc. This kind of large-scale transfer of defense will have certain security risks. For example, the Liaodong and Shandong regions had to transfer three infantry from the south Battalion as a supplement. We will eventually need to assemble about two full-scale fleets and four battalions of land, not including logistics and logistics units. Even if we can maintain cross-sea supplies for a long time, we still have to deal with the city of Manila as soon as possible. Avoid other overseas control areas from being seized by loopholes."
Yan Chujie's words clearly demonstrated the military's determination to complete the battle. It is very rare to mobilize elite troops in one place like this in recent years.The northern and southern ends of the original deployment of the troops participating in the war, from the Liaodong front line to Bangka Belitung Island in the South China Sea, are thousands of miles away. This shows how difficult it is to transfer defenses.
Naturally, the Ministry of National Defense took a lot of risks in mobilizing these elite troops deployed on the front line to fight in the South China Sea. The longer the Battle of Manila drags on, the more dangerous the original station of these troops will be.So the Department of Defense hopes to solve the problem once, so as not to trigger a chain reaction.
"Even if all the troops on Hainan Island are dispatched, it's still not enough to fill the hole?" Although Schneider is not a military expert, he still has a good idea of the general situation of the Haihan Army, and immediately continued to ask Yan Chujie.
Yan Chujie nodded and admitted Schneider's guess: "So this time we secretly borrowed some soldiers from our allies. An Nanguo sent about 500 troops south to Xingdao to help defend, and then Xu Xinsu dispatched about 500 muskets from Fujian. The soldiers were sent to Liaodong to take over temporarily. The Portuguese also sent [-] people, and they will go to the Philippines with us at that time.”
"The Portuguese are very good at seizing the opportunity." Schneider expressed his understanding that the Portuguese will take the initiative to participate. After all, they want to break away from the rule of Spain. If they can seize the opportunity to beat the Spaniards in the Far East, they will definitely not miss it.The 500 people sent by Portugal will definitely not be doing miscellaneous work on the front line. Their musketeers and artillerymen have good military qualities. They used to be Ming's military advisors, so they should be able to provide some assistance to the Haihan Army during the battle.
"Raising soldiers for thousands of days, using them for a while, we have provided military assistance to these allies in the past, but now we have finally received some rewards." Tao Donglai said with some relief.Of course, in fact, the military assistance provided by Haihan to these allies is not free, on the contrary, he has earned considerable economic benefits from it.However, these allies are actually very happy to participate in such an operation of borrowing troops. After all, it is an extremely rare means of training troops to be able to send troops to station at the front line of Haihan's border defense, and there is no need to worry about heavy casualties—at least Haihan promised that no large-scale war would break out where they went.
As for the reason for not directly borrowing troops to participate in the battle, the main reason is that the Ministry of National Defense believes that there is a certain strength gap between the troops of these allies and the Haihan regular army, and the command system is not unified. When fighting against an opponent like Spain, it is better to go to your own army to be safer.As for why the Portuguese were able to join the coalition, it was because Haihan thought that they had a similar language and culture with Spain, so that they would no longer need to carry field translators, and they could also be responsible for taking and interrogating Spanish prisoners of war after the war.Portugal only sent 500 men to the battle, in fact, it was only two or three boats of people. It would not be of much help in a battle of this scale, but it would not add much chaos.
Of course, the time required for this process and the coordination of various aspects are also very troublesome to gather the troops deployed in different places, prepare combat materials, and then transport them to the Philippine Islands more than 2000 miles away to fight. It is difficult for the Ministry of National Defense alone to complete system engineering, so it is necessary for the executive committee to lead a meeting to coordinate the work of various departments.Today's meeting is already the No.13 meeting held around this theme in the past three months.
(End of this chapter)