Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 341: Scenario of a Decisive Battle at Sea (I)
On the fifth day of the first lunar month in the forty-sixth year of the Wanli reign (1618), after spending the New Year holiday and completing various ceremonial activities on behalf of Wanli, such as worshiping the Altar of Land and Grain and the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Zhu Youdong, accompanied by Wang Xianggan, Ma Gui, Li Shizhong and others, arrived in Tianjin under the escort of a new army led by Li Chunzhong himself.
After entering the Binhai Shipyard, Bi Maokang, the general manager of the self-owned shipyard, came out to meet them and took them into the operations room that had been prepared long ago.
"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you."
"Hahaha, no need to be polite. Um, Guozhu, Zhenquan, and Yu Shuai, long time no see! You have worked hard these days."
As soon as Zhu Youdong saw Li Guozhu, Yan Siqi and others, he quickly walked over and patted their shoulders affectionately: The seventeen-year-old Crown Prince is now nearly 1.8 meters tall, and he finally doesn't have to tiptoe to pat his subjects' shoulders.
After taking pictures of Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi, he was about to take pictures of Yu Zigao. But Yu Zigao bowed solemnly again: "It's not hard for us, Your Highness, to bear countless criticisms for us, that's hard work."
Yes, although the six major newspapers have dredge up the war situation in the past year, Qiongzhou Prefecture was occupied for a period of time. Guangzhou Prefecture was bombarded, and Yuegang was destroyed. Especially in the past six months, the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty has been constantly harassed by the Japanese and Thai fleets... Although the censors all know that the Ming Dynasty should accumulate strength at this time and then strive to hit it with one blow. However, the people in the southeast provinces of the Ming Dynasty are better at imperial examinations, and many of the censors are from the southeast provinces. My hometown was bombarded, and I am not allowed to shout a few words?
Therefore, in the past six months, there have been dozens of memorials impeaching Li Guozhu, Yan Siqi and Yu Zigao every day.
Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi didn't care about these things at all: I was a barbarian before, I didn't receive any education, I have been working for the crown prince since I started my career. Impeachment? What is that? Can I eat it?
But for someone like Yu Zigao who was almost beheaded by the impeachment, the mountain of impeachment in the past six months inevitably brought back painful memories of his previous life worse than death. So he lived in fear for the past six months. Sometimes he even openly told Li Guozhu, Yan Siqi and others: Why don’t you two continue to rest, and I will lead the officers and soldiers of Funing Town to fight a battle - the old general is not afraid of death, but he is afraid that he will be branded as a coward and bring disaster to his father and his family!
At this time, it was Zhu Youdong who supported him. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince could not completely stop the censors from writing impeachment memorials, but he adopted another method to support Yu Zigao and others: he would issue orders to the fleet every now and then, strictly ordering them not to go to war. Sometimes he even issued an imperial decree in the name of Emperor Wanli not to go to war - which was equivalent to taking all the responsibility for not fighting on his own shoulders.
Therefore, when Yu Zigao met Zhu Youdong, his gratitude came from the heart.
"Hahaha, General Yu, there's no need to be like this. You're fighting for the country, and if I can't keep you safe, then I'm being irresponsible."
After comforting Yu Zigao, Zhu Youdong hurriedly performed the teacher-student ceremony towards Xiong Tingbi, Sun Chengzong, Yuan Keli and others.
That's right, this day was the highest military meeting before the Ming counterattack. All the relevant officials, both civil and military, came.
After everyone finished greeting each other, Zhu Youdong sat in the main seat and nodded to Bi Maokang, the host of this meeting: "Let's get started."
"Yes." Bi Maokang stood up and said, "Your Highness, all the superiors and commanders. According to your Highness's order, this meeting needs to solve three problems. First, can our Ming Dynasty launch a counterattack now? Second, if we can launch a counterattack , where will the first battle be held? Third, the preliminary pre-war plan for the decisive battle at sea. Now let's proceed to the first item, whether our dynasty will launch a counterattack at this time. First, please ask His Highness the Second Grandson to introduce to you the work of the two major shipyards in Binhai and Changsha in the past six months."
"Brother, everyone." The thirteen-year-old Zhu Youxiao stood up and said, "According to the order of my brother who is the regent, in the past six months or so, the two major shipyards have directly used unshaped and undried fresh wood to build warships. At the same time, all apprentices were allowed to directly carry out the actual operation... As of today, the two major shipyards have completed the construction of a total of 45 first-class warships and 40 second-class warships. Among these warships, except for five first-class warships that were completed with previous wood, the remaining eighty... Tsk, from the perspective of a carpenter apprentice like me, they are shoddy. Although this batch of warships has been put on the ship frame as much as possible since they were built to avoid direct immersion in seawater. The painters in the factory also applied the No. 7 anti-corrosion paint provided by Fangshan Materials Laboratory day and night. However, once these warships are launched, the first batch of 17 warships will fall apart in two months at most, and the latest batch will also fall apart in four months! But."
Zhu Youxiao made a turn here: "Please rest assured, Marshals, although the quality of these warships is worrying, the basic protection is still not bad. It can be roughly 90% of the previous finely processed warships. As for firepower, haha, because we don't consider the damage to the hull by stress at all. So we installed sixteen 145mm cannons, forty-eight 130mm cannons and twenty 90mm cannons on this batch of first-class warships. But in terms of firepower, it has increased by 20% compared with the previous Beizhili class. The firepower of the second-class warships has increased by at least 30%.
However, due to the increase in artillery, the corresponding ammunition reserves must also be increased. In addition, the wood of this batch of warships has not been air-dried, and its own moisture also accounts for a certain amount. Therefore, the speed is generally one to two knots slower than the previous batch. "
Having said this, Zhu Youxiao bowed to everyone in the meeting to indicate that he had finished speaking.
"Your Highnesses, everyone." Minister of War Wang Xiangqian stood up and said, "We have received the full support of the three governors-general of Guangdong and Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, and Southeast China, and the three marshals Li, Yan, and Yu have sent some sailors and officers and soldiers to the two major shipyards in advance to receive the warships. Therefore, now all the 85 new ships have been launched and completed at least one sea trial."
"Your Highnesses, and your superiors." After Wang Xiangqian sat down, Li Guozhu also stood up and said, "In the past six months, our navy has encountered the navies of Siam and Japan four or five times. They were just accidental encounters at sea, not a main battle between the two sides. Therefore, although some of our warships were damaged, they have all been repaired as of today. After receiving these 85 new ships, our Ming Navy now has a total of 75 first-class warships and 120 second-class warships."
"I am Xu Xianchun, a subordinate. I have entered Siam many times in the past six months. Now I can confirm that the Siamese have only added two first-class warships and three second-class warships in the past six months."
"Your humble servant Tian Ergeng, with the help of the Toyotomi retainers on Lake Taihu in the past six months, we organized the Jinyiwei to infiltrate Japan. Now we can confirm that in the past six months, Japan has only added three first-class battleships and five second-class battleships (in fact, two first-class battleships and five second-class battleships were taken away by Tokugawa Yorifusa. After Japan's national strength was activated, it was much stronger than Siam)."
"So." Wang Xiangqian stood up again: "After more than half a year of hard work, the ratio of our strength with Siam and Japan in first-class battleships has changed from 30:27 to 75:32. Even with the Spanish Manila Fleet, it is 75:50. As for second-class battleships, it is 120:127. It can be said that our navy has regained the upper hand. At this point, our dynasty has the strength to actively seek war. The time for a counterattack at sea is ripe!"
"My Lords, after listening to the above introduction, what are your thoughts?"
Li Guozhu and the other two looked at each other and stood up together: "Your Highness, the three of us unanimously beg you to lead the entire fleet to go out to sea to find the enemy and fight a decisive battle!"
Yuan Keli and the other three exchanged glances and stood up together: "Your Highness, in the past six months, the people of the southeastern provinces, especially those in the coastal areas, have suffered from war. Although the six major newspapers have provided effective guidance, the people in various places still firmly believe that the court is making serious preparations, and they are also trying their best to be patient. But if time goes on for a long time, the people's hearts will be lost. Therefore, we all agree that now is the time to fight."
Tian Ergeng and Xu Xianchun also stood up: "Your Highness, we are responsible for the intelligence coverage of Binhai Shipyard and Changsha Shipyard respectively. In the past six months, Jinyiwei has killed no less than a hundred spies from the two countries. We can guarantee that the Siamese and the Japanese pirates only know that our two shipyards are rushing to work every day, but they don't know how many new ships have been built."
After everyone finished speaking, Zhu Youdong looked at Zhu Youxiao very kindly and said, "Second brother, tell me what you mean?"
"Brother, I have made my point very clear just now. We must fight a decisive battle as soon as possible. Because in two months, the ratio of our first-class battleships will drop to 63:50. In four months, it will drop to 35:50."
