Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 756 Solve the doubts
No one expected Zheng Hongkui to come to this conclusion. Zhu Shenzhui frowned immediately, Zhou Anmin looked surprised, and Xu Xiancheng seemed thoughtful despite being surprised.

"Why? Tell me in detail." Although Zhu Shenzhui was somewhat disappointed with Zheng Hongkui's answer, he was not angry and asked him to explain in detail.

Zheng Hongkui clasped his fists and saluted, saying, "I have been making a living on the sea since I was young. Apart from my brothers, I believe that few people in the world can compare with me in naval warfare. Crossing the sea to fight and landing are also common, but the situations are different and the battles are different, so they cannot be discussed together."

"The Ming Dynasty has a large number of warships. Let's not talk about the Fujian Navy for now. The warships currently controlled by my brother are the most elite and capable navy of the Ming Dynasty. The Shandong Navy is not as large and powerful as the Fujian Navy, but it is not weak. This time I landed in Shandong and stayed in Laizhou for two days. Although I didn't see the full picture of the Shandong Navy, I got a preliminary understanding of it."

"Whether it is the Fujian Navy or the Shandong Navy, the largest warships are only a thousand tons. Excluding the sailors and the bow and stern guns, the personnel they carry are only a few hundred. The ordinary warships are even less, and can only carry 50 to 60 people at most. The smallest ships can only carry more than 30 people."

"I don't know the exact number of warships in the Shandong Navy, but I think it should not exceed a hundred or so. Am I wrong?"

Zhu Shenzhui turned his eyes to Xu Xiancheng. Xu Xiancheng had the most say on this issue because he was the governor of Shandong and the Shandong Navy was his subordinate.

Xu Xiancheng paused, nodded slightly and said, "Master Zheng's estimate is correct. At present, the Shandong Navy has 103 large and small warships, including five thousand-ton ships, and the rest are mostly ordinary warships."

"That's it." Zheng Hongkui said, "Based on the number of warships of the Shandong Navy, even if each of these 103 warships carries 60 people, the total carrying capacity is only 6,200 people. Moreover, crossing the sea to fight is not transporting troops, so the actual carrying capacity is not that large. According to my humble opinion, the number of troops that can be deployed at one time will not exceed 3,000."

"Why? Didn't they just say 6,200 people? How come it suddenly became 3,000 people? It became half in the blink of an eye?" Zhou Anmin couldn't help asking.

"Sir Zhou, fighting at sea is different from fighting on land. Even fighting on land requires logistical support. So don't we need to bring weapons and supplies when fighting across the sea? We don't need to prepare logistical support. At least half of the 100 warships are for logistical support, and only half of them can actually transport troops. If we consider that we will need cavalry scouts for the battle in Liaodong, we will have to use large ships to carry war horses across the sea. In this way, a warhorse alone will take up at least four or five soldiers' positions, and the number of people will be even smaller."

Zhou Anmin was speechless after hearing this. Although he had never led troops to fight, he had been in the Jinyiwei for many years and was not ignorant of military affairs. Of course, he knew the principle of food and grass before the troops moved. He had overlooked this matter just now. Crossing the sea to fight requires great logistics, because once crossing the sea to enter the battle, the logistics that the troops can rely on can only be the supplies carried on the ship.

It takes at least two or three days to sail from Laizhou or Dengzhou to Dadan. If the landing troops are short of supplies, they will collapse without fighting. If there is not enough food and grass in a battle, it will take at least four or five days to transport supplies from Shandong. After such a long time, the landing troops may be gone before the supplies are transported.

Zheng Hongkui pointed out the biggest problem, which was the transportation capacity of the Ming navy and the limitation of the number of troops that could be deployed to the battlefield at one time. If it was sea trade transportation, it would not matter, anyway, as long as the ship was there, batch after batch of transportation would be enough, but this was a war! Moreover, it was a war with Jiannu in Liaodong, how much use would only 3,000 troops have? Originally, according to their previous discussion, at least tens of thousands of troops had to be transported at one time to gain a foothold in Dalan, and then quickly gather at least 20,000 to 30,000 troops to attack northward, which would pose a threat to Shenyang.

But now Zheng Hongkui's words broke their previous fantasy, and they suddenly realized that crossing the sea was not that simple. In addition, Zheng Hongkui also pointed out that the key to this crossing sea operation was not how many Jiannu were killed or how much territory was occupied, but to force Huang Taiji to return to lift the siege of Jinzhou, so the troops must be flexible and maneuverable, and the landing troops can be transferred at any time according to the situation, or even withdrawn to the sea.

If this cannot be done, by the time the Jiannu react and mobilize troops to attack, the Ming army will be unable to stand on the shore, and at this time, because of the warships, they cannot withdraw in time, so won’t the landing troops become the enemy’s prey? By then, the siege of Jinzhou has not been resolved, but their own troops have been lost in Liaodong in vain, which is really not worth the loss.

This is the actual situation of Ming warships, and there is nothing we can do about it. After all, the Ming Dynasty is no longer the Ming Dynasty during the Yongle period. During the Yongle period, Zheng He sailed to the West. The scale of Zheng He's fleet is so huge that it is unimaginable now. Zheng He's fleet has more than 152 large ships capable of sailing. The largest treasure ship is about 62 meters long and 9 meters wide. It has four decks, and horses can run directly on the deck. The ship has 12 masts and can hang sails. The anchor weighs several thousand kilograms. It takes people to set sail. One ship can accommodate thousands of people, which is equivalent to an aircraft carrier.

There are sixty-three such treasure ships in the fleet, and the remaining smaller ocean-going warships are more than three or four times the size of the Ming Dynasty's thousand-ton ships. Such a huge fleet can carry more than just a few thousand soldiers at a time, let alone twenty or thirty thousand. It is completely different from Japan.

"According to you, crossing the sea to fight is not possible?" Xu Xiancheng asked with a serious expression.

Zheng Hongkui shook his head slightly. Just when everyone thought that Zheng Hongkui meant that it was not possible to cross the sea to fight, he said, "That's not necessarily the case. It's not that it's impossible to cross the sea to fight, but the question is how to do it. It's naturally impossible to do it as the Regent and the two adults thought before. But if you let me command it, it's not impossible." Zhu Shenzhui felt a heavy heart and thought that he had thought too simply before. Just when he thought that this strategy might not work, Zheng Hongkui suddenly said this, which instantly made Zhu Shenzhui perk up.

"If you have any good ideas, please tell me. This matter is of great importance. If you can lift the siege of Liaodong and rescue Jinzhou, I will definitely reward you handsomely!"

"I dare not. I am extremely grateful that Your Majesty has valued me and summoned me to the palace to discuss this matter. If Your Majesty does not value me, how can I have the qualifications to say these words in front of Your Majesty. Moreover, I am an official appointed by the court and deeply favored by the emperor. I should relieve the worries of the court and share the burden of the regent."

"Good!" Zhu Shenzhui laughed and said, "Well said! I would like to ask Mr. Zheng to teach me how to fight across the sea."

Zheng Hongkui quickly said a few humble words, and then he said: "In that case, I dare to say something. If my words are wrong, please don't blame me, Your Majesty."

“It’s okay to speak up.”

"If you let me lead the army, we don't need many people, we just need elite ones. Just over 2,000 soldiers will be enough. We should bring many firearms and horses. We can take advantage of the enemy's weakness and fight if we can. If we can't, we can just harass them and move on. We can attack them by surprise and focus on harassment."

Zhu Shenzui raised his eyebrows, as if he understood Zheng Hongkui's thoughts, but he didn't say anything and asked Zheng Hongkui to explain in detail.

Zheng Hongkui explained that this kind of landing battle must not turn into a stalemate, because Liaodong is not the home ground of the Ming Dynasty, but the home ground of the Jiannu. Even if the Jiannu has fewer Eight Banners troops in Liaodong, the Eight Banners soldiers are still the Eight Banners soldiers. Everyone knows the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners. One elite Eight Banners soldier is enough to compare with five or six ordinary Ming soldiers. Three hundred elite Eight Banners soldiers can easily defeat two thousand ordinary Ming soldiers. If it is the white-armored soldiers of the Eight Banners, it goes without saying. The three thousand Ming soldiers might be defeated by the other side.

Therefore, the selection of troops is very important. To fight across the sea, you must first select elite soldiers, and not ordinary elite soldiers. These elite soldiers must also carry considerable firearms, using the power of firearms to narrow the gap with the Eight Banners soldiers, so that they can have a certain combat effectiveness.

In addition, these troops need to have mobility. Away combat information is very important. After landing, scouts are needed to gather intelligence, collect information, and understand the opponent's deployment and troop movements. If this cannot be done, they will be in the dark when they get there. Not to mention fighting, they may even be surrounded by the enemy.

Zheng Hongkui also proposed that the purpose of the landing operation was not to really capture Shenyang, nor to establish a base behind the Jiannu. The main purpose was to lift the siege of Jinzhou, so it was necessary to adopt a tactic of quick in and out, quick attack and harassment, and never fix a target.

Compared with land warfare, landing warfare has considerable advantages. Jiannu has no navy, or the navy of Jiannu is not a threat, so the initiative at sea is in the hands of the Ming army. Just like the Japanese pirates in Jiangnan that disturbed half of the Ming Dynasty, today they landed here, burned the enemy's stored granaries before the enemy reacted, and concentrated their forces to destroy a Jiannu stronghold. After the enemy reacted, the Ming army directly withdrew to the sea, and then moved to another place, and repeated the same tactics and gave the enemy a hard blow.

Even if the results of each battle were not great, the Jian Nu could not bear such consumption. As long as this tactic was properly implemented, the Jian Nu could only run around in a hurry and could not catch up with the Ming army at all.

The Liaodong Peninsula is so large, with a coastline of thousands of miles from west to east. How many people does Jian Nu have? How can they defend such a long line of defense? They may attack Fuzhouwei today, attack Gaizhouwei the day after tomorrow, and return to Jinzhouwei the day after tomorrow, or even run directly to Yingkou...

The Jiannu army was exhausted from running around, but could do nothing to the Ming army. In this way, all the initiative was in the hands of the Ming army. When the Jiannu army could no longer bear it, they would find an opportunity to lure the tiger away from the mountain and give the Jiannu a taste of their power. At this time, were they still afraid that Huang Taiji would sit back and do nothing? If Huang Taiji did not come back to help, the Ming army would continue to toss like this. If he came back to help, wouldn't the siege of Jinzhou be lifted?
Moreover, Zheng Hongkui also proposed that this tactic can be implemented for a long time. As long as you don't seek credit and act carefully, you can continue to bleed Jian Nu. You must know that the Japanese pirates made half of the Ming Dynasty suffer. It took Emperor Jiajing decades to finally solve the problem of Japanese pirates. But Huang Taiji is not Emperor Jiajing, and Jian Nu is not Ming. Even Emperor Jiajing was helpless in the past. Does Huang Taiji have this ability?

(End of this chapter)