And the Dongji people worked tirelessly throughout the winter, trying their best to maintain the defense line in the Western Liaoning Corridor and the Liaodong Peninsula defense line in case the Seventh Army of the Dachu Empire Army went directly north.

The Seventh Army on the opposite side looked very relaxed.

Because the Seventh Army has no intention of continuing to march north on a large scale, let alone attacking Shenyang, even the Gaizhou Seventh Army has no intention of going there.

Bai Yangrong has always kept his strategic mission in mind: to contain enough of the Japanese troops to reduce the pressure on the Western Liaoning Corridor Campaign after next spring.

Now, his mission has been accomplished. On the Fuzhou front line, there are more than 40,000 Dongji troops, tens of thousands of which are huge cavalry.

On the other side of the Jinzhou defense line, there are also 20,000 to 30,000 Japanese troops, as well as several thousand cavalry.

Adding the two together, the Seventh Army contained at least 70,000 captive troops, of which 20,000 were crucial cavalry.

This means that after the start of the Liaoxi Campaign, the Chu army from the Shanhaiguan direction will face tens of thousands fewer enemy troops when they attack the Liaoxi Corridor, and the opponent will also lack sufficient strategic reserves. This is very important to the Chu army.

It is vital to the military.

In this case, Bai Yangrong would naturally not launch any large-scale offensive in the winter. It would be nice to just stay behind the defense line and warm up, instead of braving the cold wind and going to the university to fight.

Of course, in order to further contain the enemy's troop mobilization, Bai Yangrong did nothing. He coordinated with the Navy and dispatched about two thousand troops. Together with the Navy's Second Marine Regiment, they formed two separate groups.

There are about 3,000 landing fleets, one operating in the northern coastal area of ​​the Liaodong Peninsula and the other operating in the southern coastal area of ​​the Liaodong Peninsula.

In November, the Chu army's land and sea landing fleet also went to Pi Island near North Korea to conduct landing operations, and then went ashore to attack many towns. This caused great panic in the Li Dynasty, and even ordered the troops stationed there to

Thousands of captive troops were panicked.

This kind of landing attack forced the local area to further increase the defense of coastal cities, which naturally reduced its military strength and material resources on the front line of the Western Liaoning Corridor.

After all, today's North Korea is also a vassal state under the control of the Dongji people. It can obtain a large amount of grain, grass and other materials from the local area, and even recruit troops.

Therefore, they must be contained so that the Dongji people cannot get much support from here.

In addition to mobilizing enemy troops and consuming a large amount of manpower and materials, these landing raids also have some benefits, that is, they can obtain a lot of combat supplies.

Because the two landing assault forces today are mainly based on the Navy, most of the war supplies were taken away by the Navy.

Then the navy discovered that after several such attacks, although the war trophies obtained still could not cover the military expenditures for fighting on the northern coast, it could be regarded as a partial recovery of the cost.

For the Navy, this is a rare good thing.

As a result, some people in the navy thought, if the army can make money fighting wars, why can't the navy make money fighting wars?

If we get a few big votes, wouldn't it be possible to bring back a fleet?

Therefore, many navy generals are wondering whether to normalize this kind of landing attacks, not only in Liaodong and the coast of North Korea, but also in Fuso and even the Nanyang region.

However, it is not easy to achieve. After all, the Chu Empire's navy cannot attack randomly, especially the current Fuso and Nanyang areas, which are important areas for the Chu Empire's foreign trade.

What if your navy messes up and destroys trade?

You must know that compared with what is obtained from landing raids, maritime trade is the bulk of the empire.

To put it bluntly, how much money can you steal...

In maritime trade, the goods of any merchant ship are worth hundreds of thousands. Several large maritime trading companies in the empire organize a large fleet to go to Fuso or Nanyang for trade, and the trade volume is in the millions.

These maritime trades may only be some profits for maritime trading companies, but for the entire empire, they are not only pure trade interests, but also represent the market for industrial products and the sources of various raw materials.
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And behind this, it affects the livelihood of millions of families.

Take the export of machine-made cloth as an example. Maritime trade is just the terminal, but behind it are textile factories and farmers who grow cotton.

There are workers in textile factories, and there are also factories that supply various raw materials and equipment to textile factories.

If this continues step by step, it will become almost an entire industrial system!

Why is the textile industry a core industry for countries that started to industrialize in modern times? It is because this thing is the engine of industrial development, and it can almost drive the development of the entire industrial system and even the entire society.

The textile industry is not just as simple as cloth. It is a high value-added bulk industrial product. In any era, this high value-added bulk industrial product is the core industry.

For example, cars of later generations, such as chips!

Therefore, the high-level officials of the empire do not allow the navy to destroy the maritime trade market in the entire East Asian sea for some so-called plundering benefits. Not to mention not allowing themselves to destroy it, the empire also does not allow others to destroy the maritime trade security in the East Asian sea.

Emperor Luo Zhixue has always insisted that the navy attack all types of pirates. Not only pirates that threaten the security of his own coast, but also pirates in Fuso and even Nanyang waters are within the scope of the imperial navy.

Compared with the huge benefits of the entire maritime trade, a little bit of looting is nothing!

Not only can we not plunder, we must also continue to fight against pirates and ensure the safety of sea routes.

Speaking of which, pirates these days also make the empire's top officials a little helpless...

Because there are not many pure pirates at all... Most of the so-called pirates are actually part-time maritime merchants... Many of them are the Da Chu Empire's own maritime merchants...

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!

There are many maritime trading companies in the Dachu Empire, and many of them have armed merchant ships. When these armed merchant ships are on the coast controlled by the empire, they are naturally the empire's legal merchants!

But once they leave the coastal areas of the empire and escape the routes patrolled and protected by the imperial navy, it is difficult to tell whether they are merchants or pirates...

When they see merchant ships from other countries and think they have a chance to capture them, they will remove the black dragon flag of the Chu Empire and replace it with a skull and crossbones flag... and directly become pirates!

This is part of maritime trade these days. Pirates and maritime merchants are inseparable!

Even the officials of the Da Chu Empire would find it difficult to change the objective laws in this environment.

Therefore, when the Chu Empire went to sea for trade, they also drove armed merchant ships there... When they sailed unarmed merchant ships to trade, they basically came to die.

Since we can't ban them, we can only restrain them and control them.

To this end, the empire even issued a special "Self-Defense Law on Maritime Trade", which directly authorized armed merchant ships going to sea for trade to equip and use weapons, including naval guns, for self-defense in the open sea.

However, these armed merchant ships need to be registered, and at the same time, these armed merchant ships must obey unconditionally when called for combat by the navy.

In addition, in the terms of recruiting armed merchant ships, there is another interesting detail, which is to encourage the combat morale of sailors who are recruited to merchant ships and compensate them for their losses.

For armed merchant ships that are drafted during the war, the spoils captured during the battle belong to the company to which the armed merchant ship belongs, and the captain and sailors distribute them according to a certain proportion. They do not have to hand over the spoils like the navy.

Then...for this recruitment, in addition to direct recruitment by the military, armed merchant ships can also apply for recruitment on their own.

The difference between the two is that if the military recruits directly, the actions of armed merchant ships must be carried out under the orders of the navy, while if you apply for recruitment on your own initiative, you can move freely and choose the opportunity to attack the enemy!

In addition to being directly recruited by the Navy, those who voluntarily apply will be directly upgraded to temporary direct recruitment. They need to obey the Navy's combat orders unconditionally. After the temporary recruitment is over, they can move freely!

This is very interesting!

It is precisely because of this that every armed merchant ship in the Chu Empire has applied for active recruitment...

Currently, all armed merchant ships in the empire are free to attack pirate merchant ships and even coastal ports, and all seizures belong to them for distribution and do not need to be turned over!

The huge landing fleet of the Dachu Empire included many of these conscripted armed merchant ships. During the landing attack, the navy ate meat at the front, while they followed behind and drank soup. How much they earned depends on luck and courage.

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However, these active recruitment applications are only limited to armed merchant ships, and ordinary merchant ships are not eligible.

The review and approval of armed merchant ships is also relatively strict, and the review and approval of weapons and equipment is even stricter.

Only those who have passed strict review can own armed merchant ships.

At present, except for the three large maritime trading companies that are fully owned by official capital in the empire, there are only more than ten trading companies that have obtained equipment licenses for their armed merchant ships.

In fact, these more than ten trading companies also have official shares.

As for the merchant ships of ordinary private maritime trading companies, although they can also be equipped with weapons, they are basically limited to light weapons and small and medium-caliber artillery. They are still a little short of the level of armed merchant ships...

After all, armed merchant ships are a kind of armed force, and the Chu Empire does not allow any armed force to be outside the official control. If there is one, it will either be incorporated or eliminated!

Therefore, even in the Da Chu Empire, which promoted maritime trade, not everyone could drive armed merchant ships equipped with large naval guns to go to sea for trade. Only maritime trading companies with official background could do so.

Of course, the empire does not restrict the trading activities of ordinary merchant ships, and safety can be guaranteed to a certain extent. As long as you honestly do business in the empire's home sea routes, then safety is no problem.

If you want to go to the distant sea, you can also go to several fixed escort routes of the Imperial Navy, such as to several ports in Fuso or to several ports in Nanyang. The Imperial Navy will regularly patrol and escort in these fixed routes. You can directly follow the Navy's

It's very safe to go to sea with the patrol fleet and let the navy act as your bodyguard.

As for you insisting on taking muskets and light artillery to the waters beyond the control of the Imperial Navy... then it's up to you.

In fact, many private merchant ships that cannot be equipped with large-caliber naval guns are operating honestly in the imperial waters, but as soon as they go to sea, their true nature is immediately exposed.

Many will install large-caliber artillery on a remote island or a port controlled by other forces, and then continue to do business in unfamiliar waters or simply become pirates...

Before returning home, go to Manila or a remote island to unload and store the artillery, or if the situation is urgent, just throw it on a desert beach or even the sea. Who knows that they went out to play pirates for a while before, and the goods on the ship were not purchased.

Yes, it was stolen!

Pirates are a normal thing for the sea in this era, and they were even an important part of the age of navigation.

Even the Great Chu Empire cannot avoid it.

But in Luo Zhixue’s view, these are all temporary!

Pirates exist because the navy's combat effectiveness is still too low, the combat effectiveness of its warships is not that good, and its ability to control large-scale sea areas is too poor.

As the combat effectiveness of warships becomes higher and higher, and the technical threshold becomes higher and higher, then pirates will naturally slowly disappear. Even if they still exist, it is only harmless.

Now, Luo Zhixue cannot control the maritime security of other places. He can only manage the maritime security of the empire's offshore waters and the security of several maritime trade routes that are very important to the empire.

We’ll talk about other places later.

When that time comes, it may be time for the Imperial Navy and even the Empire to go out and participate in carving up colonies around the world.
To be continued...