Chapter 356: Minister of Rites (XIV)
Compared with the Mancheng of Hangzhou, the Mancheng of Jiangning was much larger, and there were many more troops stationed there. In the fourth year of Qianlong, which was 1733 AD, in February, the Chinese army took action.
The Jiangning general Fucha Fuqing who was guarding Wuhu was not stripped of his generalship, and Emperor Hongzhou did not hold Fuqing responsible for the retreat. Fuqing, who felt deeply that the emperor was wise and benevolent, was very careful to guard against the movement of Jiangning City. After hearing the news, he immediately sent people to investigate carefully.
However, troops in Jiangning City were coming in and out of Jiangning City, especially in the west of Jiangning City, where they were building barracks. Wuhu was in the west of Jiangning City, and this move looked like an attack on the Wuhu area. Fu Qing did not dare to be careless and ordered the entire army to prepare for battle.
At this time, Commander Yu Qian had led his troops to secretly leave Jiangning City and arrived in Hangzhou by boat. Since the end of the siege of Jiangning, the Huaxia Army has established military academies in Xuzhou, Jiangning, Hangzhou, Shandong, Henan and other places to conduct comprehensive training for the troops.
After the assessment, the first batch of officers who completed the training returned to the army and replaced the officers who had not yet participated in the training. As one of these officers, Yu Qian became the head of the regiment and received the task of participating in the battle to liberate Fujian.
This time the army was mobilized from Xuzhou. It did not simply mobilize troops from a certain war zone, but instead drew a regiment of troops from the Shandong War Zone, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang War Zone, and the Jiangning Command to form a force to attack Fujian.
Three regiments and one division, the commander of which was Li Cunyi from Hangzhou. As for how to attack Fujian, Hangzhou also came up with two plans.
Plan one was a conventional operation, with the troops setting out from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, crossing the Xianxialing Mountains that had been captured by the Huaxia Army, and entering Hangzhou to fight.
The second plan was to advance by both land and sea. One troop would make a feint attack from Xianxialing, while the main attacking force would set out by boat and head straight for Fuzhou from the sea off Zhejiang.
After the two plans came out, team leader Yu Qian said nothing, but the other two team leaders made some comments.
Division Commander Li Cunyi obviously saw that Yu Qian didn't want to talk, so he directly pointed out, "Captain Yu, what do you think?"
Yu Qian answered decisively: "Reporting to the division commander, I don't know our army's ability to transport troops at sea, so I can't comment on it."
After hearing this, Li Cunyi understood what Yu Qian meant. The so-called inability to evaluate means that it is simply impossible to understand. Since he does not understand, he will naturally not support it. Yu Qian's attitude is very clear.
However, the other two regiment commanders immediately agreed with Yu Qian's attitude . Division Commander Li Cunyi was even more unhappy. Of the two plans, Li Cunyi obviously wanted to try the plan of advancing by land and water at the same time.
Yu Qian was right, the Chinese army had not yet conducted a landing operation. However, if there had been no landing operations, shouldn't someone have tried to do it?
Seeing that the three regiment commanders did not support it, the division commander Li Cunyi went to find the Zhejiang coastal defense commander Zhao Lin. To Li Cunyi's surprise, Zhao Lin said something different from what he had said before, "I also don't think we should think about taking the sea route."
"Why? That's not what you said before!" Li Cunyi was a little angry. He was especially angry at Zhao Lin's regret.
Zhao Lin obviously didn't want to answer. But Li Cunyi kept asking, and Zhao Lin's expression changed immediately. "Before, it was you who said you wanted to try the land and water route, and I waited for you to try it, but you kept dragging your feet. Now you're asking me why I didn't agree!"
Li Cunyi was stunned by Zhao Lin's words. What was going on? After thinking about it carefully, Li Cunyi suddenly remembered that it was Zhao Lin who first approached Li Cunyi when they were drinking before and talked about trying to transport troops from the sea to carry out the attack. How did it become Li Cunyi who mentioned it to Zhao Lin first?
Of course, this matter could not be tolerated. Li Cunyi argued with Zhao Lin and soon they started to curse at each other. If someone hadn't come to stop them, the two would have started fighting.
Huo Chong heard the news very quickly and immediately ordered, "Let these two people go to the military academy in Xuzhou for further study. I haven't seen them fight for many years. Come to the military academy and I will see them decide the winner with my own eyes!"
The order was not sent out immediately. Qian Qing came running over and said, "Sir, I think it was Zhao Lin who started this. He is a naval officer, so of course he would think of transporting troops by sea. I'm afraid Li Cunyi was fooled by Zhao Lin."
Huo Chong nodded, "I know. But we can't distinguish everything so carefully. We all know Zhao Lin and Li Cunyi. In the future, the number of Chinese troops will exceed one million. By then, will we have the energy to know every one of them?"
Qian Qing was stunned, and his brows slightly frowned. After a moment, he asked, "Sir, what do you mean?"
Huo Chong replied unhappily, "With a million troops, a full division has 10,000 men. There are hundreds of division commanders, deputy division commanders, and division chiefs of staff. At this time, managing the army cannot rely on knowing everything, but discipline. It's not surprising that a division commander was fooled. He couldn't help but take action. What kind of thing is this? Don't be a division commander if you are like this! You must not ignore such things. Everyone must know what discipline is!"
Qian Qing advised: "But if you do this, everyone will feel wronged."
"It's all unfair. But you can't do this even if you're aggrieved ! What's the most important thing in the army?"
Qian Qing thought about it, and finally sighed: "Obedience and discipline."
Huo Chong nodded, "That's right. Give orders to the troops preparing for battle, and have the three regiments' ritual branches hold a meeting to discuss the battle plan!"
