Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 308: The 45th Year of Wanli (Part 2)
After Wang Xiangqian said this, the important officials present nodded one after another: Those who could sit here were not fools, and they all knew that a team of pure recruits and a team of recruits led by veterans were completely different.
"I understand." Zhu Youdong nodded and stood up: "In this case, please give us your support, Henghai Guard and the Youth Guard led by you, Chunzhong."
"I obey your orders."
"Well, that's it for the new army. It's the first day of May now, and the personnel adjustments of each department will be completed within a month. By mid-June at the latest, the Ministry of War will organize the new seven regiments to have a drill with the elite troops of Jizhen, Henghai Guards, and Youth Guards. If I have time, I will be there to watch in person."
"Yes, I will obey your command."
After making all these arrangements, Zhu Youdong drank a sip of tea and said in a deep voice, "Let's talk about the war between Korea and the southeast of our Ming Dynasty."
As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the entire conference hall suddenly changed.
Standing up again with difficulty, Wang Xiangqian said in a low voice: "Let me talk about Korea first. The latest news I have is from ten days ago. In short, the Japanese pirates landed in Busan on April 3, and in more than half a month, they took over three of the eight provinces of Korea. The Korean King Li Hui has arrived in Pyongyang at this moment, and is said to be continuing to advance towards the Yalu River."
"Chi~~"
As soon as Wang Xiangqian finished speaking, all the participants in the meeting hall, even Fang Zhenghua, who was responsible for taking minutes behind Zhu Youdong, couldn't help but snort in contempt.
Although no one has any hope for North Korea's combat capability, this is too incompetent and shameless.
"Uh..." The Minister of Rites Wu Daonan raised his hand tremblingly, and after getting a nod from Zhu Youdong, he stood up and said, "Your Highness, everyone, the Ministry of Rites has received more than ten emergency documents from Korea recently, almost one letter a day. The contents are similar, basically begging His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to send heavenly soldiers as soon as possible to visit Korea three times. In the latest letter, in addition to requesting that the prince be sent to study at the Imperial Academy of the Ming Dynasty, the king also requested to come to Beijing..."
"Hmph~!" The ones who made this sound from their nostrils were of course Cao Wenzhao, Li Chunzhong and others - the attitude of the generals was very clear at this point: there's no point in saving such a scum!
As the crown prince, Zhu Youdong certainly could not have such obvious behavior, but his inner thoughts were roughly the same as those of Cao Wenzhao and others.
Zhu Youdong tapped the table with his fingers and asked, "What's the situation in Liaodong Town now?"
"Daofu (Li Sancai), General Du and General Xiao have completed the mobilization of 30,000 Liaodong garrison troops. All the money, food and military equipment are ready. As long as the court gives the order, they can immediately cross the Yalu River."
"Oh, I understand." Standing up, Zhu Youdong said, "I will go to the Qianqing Palace to ask the Emperor for permission to grant the Imperial Sword and Golden Arrow to the Liaodong Governor. Li Sancai will be fully responsible for Liaodong's affairs at that time."
“Hiss~!”
When Zhu Youdong said this, some of the ministers present at the meeting, such as Cao Wenzhao and Li Chunzhong, might still be confused, but other civil officials, especially veteran officials such as Wen Tihen and Wang Xiangqian, all gasped.
Who is Li Sancai? He is the one who sold you out and asked you to help him count the money! If such a person is fully responsible for Liaodong affairs, it would be strange if the Korean royal family is not exploited!
How much does the Crown Prince dislike these Koreans? He actually killed them so cruelly!
After knocking on the table to get everyone's attention back, Zhu Youdong said, "Okay, let's arrange the affairs of Liaodong and Korea. Sima, let's continue with the affairs of the Ming Dynasty."
"Yes, Your Highness, everyone. The latest news from the Ministry of War is: On April 3, Qiongzhou Prefecture fell. On the 7th, the Siamese pirates invaded Hutouguan outside the Pearl River Estuary, and our Hutouguan Guard was defeated. But because the fishermen at the Pearl River Estuary refused to identify the location of the local reefs, the Siamese pirates left after a simple exploration of the local hydrology. On the 8th, the admirals of the three fleets of our Ming Navy gathered and decided to temporarily divide the troops to avoid a decisive battle. On the 10th, Marshal Yu led some ships to enter the Pearl River Estuary. On the 15th, the Siamese pirate fleet bombarded Xiamen Island and Yuegang. The merchant ships in Yuegang were either destroyed or captured . On the 19th, the Siamese pirate fleet passed the Penghu Inspection Office. On the 21st, the pirate ships landed in Taiwan...
In the reports submitted by Guangdong, Fujian and other places, as well as the Jinyiwei report of Commander Tian, it is clearly pointed out that there are a large number of red barbarians in the Siamese pirates' fleet. "
After saying this, Wang Xiangqian took off his official hat and said, "Your Highness, in the past half month, thousands of civilians have been killed or captured along our southeastern coast. Yuegang was destroyed, maritime trade was interrupted, the court lost millions of silver taels, and hundreds of thousands of people who made a living from it were left without food and clothing... and our navy is temporarily unable to launch a decisive battle against them due to insufficient strength, and unable to drive out these thieves. I, the Minister of War, have done a poor job, causing such a great humiliation to the country. Although the Censorate has not impeached me too much recently, I am too ashamed to stay in this position. I beg to retire."
"Hmph! Grand Marshal, you are dreaming. You didn't beg for death when the country was at peace, but now that the situation is unfavorable, you are begging for death. How can this be justified?"
"Your Highness!"
"Let's not talk about this anymore. You can beg for my bones if you want, but we can talk about it after we defeat the Siamese bandits!"
"...Yes, thank you, Your Highness."
"Okay, let's get back to the point." After cooperating with Wang Xiangqian to put on a show and relieve the pressure on the Minister of War who had been under great pressure recently, Zhu Youdong asked, "What is the Ministry of War's plan for this?"
"The Ministry of War believes that both the Siamese pirates and the Red Barbarians came from the sea. Therefore, to fundamentally solve the problem, we still need to win the naval battle. Because our dynasty has been busy with domestic affairs in the past few years, the strength of the navy is temporarily insufficient. However, the national strength of our Ming Dynasty is far superior to Siam. As long as we take this matter seriously, at most half a year, our Ming Dynasty will be able to regain its advantage at sea. Therefore, now our Ming Dynasty's navy is divided into three routes and each one goes its own way. I agree. The current priority is to strengthen the defense of Changsha Shipyard and Tianjin Wei."
Will the time traveler make mistakes? Of course.
At least for Zhu Youdong, his journey has been generally smooth and he has achieved great results. But if we really want to talk about the mistakes he made, it is not just a few.
As far as this joint invasion by Japan and Thailand is concerned, the biggest mistake he made was to underestimate the determination of the Thai time travelers and overestimate the IQ of the Japanese time travelers.
Although from the perspective of a time traveler, abandoning the Japanese mainland and moving to North America is the best strategy. But how can Tokugawa Yoshinao convince his subordinates without exposing himself? How can you make all the daimyo in the country give up their land for no reason, and make the people of the country give up everything and move when they have not completely lost hope of survival? How is this possible? If no one under the dictator obeys, then he cannot be a dictator.
Therefore, Zhu Youdong was mentally prepared for Japan's invasion of Korea again. The only thing that surprised him was that the other side came so early.
Originally, according to Zhu Youdong's calculation, after Tokugawa Ieyasu died in 1616, it would take Tokugawa Yoshinao at least three to five years to stabilize the situation. And because the Thai time traveler and Tokugawa Yoshinao had met twice, the Japanese-Thai alliance was already a foregone conclusion. Therefore, he took it for granted that the joint invasion of Japan and Thailand would last until 1619 or even 1620.
Therefore, in his plan, the increase of troops and ships was originally something that would happen after - in 1617, he was going to get married. On the national side, the Yellow Book Library was rebuilt, and the Fish Scale Atlas was to be updated. The new Ming Dynasty Law was promulgated, the Chinese version of the Renaissance began, the Yanshenggong Mansion was to be overthrown, a nationwide anti-corruption campaign was to be launched, and a review of military households was to be started...
Unfortunately, when there are multiple time travelers in a world, plans can never keep up with the changes. Facing two such determined time travelers, he was indeed unprepared - the new army of the army had just completed six months of training, and this source of soldiers was completely inconsistent with his original intention - his original plan was to check the military households, lay off some, and then transform the old military town troops into new troops.
As for the navy, it is now forced to engage in guerrilla warfare - this is a shame.
Alas, there is no other way. We can only temporarily give up the control of the sea.
However, as a time traveler, I also know that the defense of a military port is very important. If you are really stupid enough to want to attack the Changsha Shipyard, I will let you know what it means to seek death!
