In the second half of the meeting, the Secretariat secretaries and the captain of the left-wing Hussars Luo Yuan also joined in. Gao Pingshi discovered an interesting phenomenon: apart from Gao Mo, the only other oldest participant in the meeting was Gao Guoyan, who was three years old.
In their teens, the others were all under thirty years old, and his younger brothers Gao Wuzheng and Gao Wuruo were only nineteen and eighteen years old respectively.
After the meeting began, Luo Yuan first reported in public the situation of the Luzon Islands Campaign. After paying tribute to Gao Pangshi and others, Luo Yuan reported in unscripted form: "After months of fighting, as of the day when I left Luzon and returned to Beijing, this time
The combat operation has basically come to an end.
On October 17 last year, our expeditionary force, both navy and land forces, completely defeated and wiped out the remaining Spanish enemies and armed Spanish subordinate tribes on Luzon Island, and then marched south. Then our army was divided into four groups, attacking Mindoro Island along the way, and Pandan along the way.
Nai Island, all the way to attack Masba Island, all the way to Samar Island, on November 9, our army completed the clearing of the four islands.
On November 12, our army set off again after a short rest. The troops were divided into three groups, one group attacked Negros Island, one group attacked Leyte Island, and the other group was the main force to attack Mindanao, the southernmost island of the archipelago. November 2
On the 19th, the main force of our army defeated about 800 Spanish troops in Mindanao. The main force of the Spanish army lost most of it. Our army regained Mindanao for the Kingdom of Luzon.
At this point, our army has completed the siege of Cebu Island, the last stronghold of the Spanish colonial army, which was the foothold of its invasion of Luzon. The enemy forces on the island are waiting for reinforcements in Cebu City.
Before returning from his humble post to the north, Commander Gao Zhenxin of the Expeditionary Force Fleet and Commander Gao Yimin of the temporary first town of the Expeditionary Force conducted detailed investigations and found that Cebu City, as the last stronghold of the Spanish, was very easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Commander Gao Zhenxin said that the fleet was unable to launch an effective attack on the city's defense system due to the range of the artillery. He believed that the fleet could not provide effective assistance unless the naval guns were disassembled and transported to the city. However, we have received news that the Portuguese were in Malacca
-The route to East Timor is frequent, and our fleet cannot determine whether the other party is hostile, so it is inconvenient to dismantle the ship-borne artillery and cannot help the siege.
Commander Gao Yimin believes that because Cebu City is a large-scale standard fortress with relatively complete facilities, a strong attack may cause our army to suffer unnecessary heavy casualties. Therefore, he believes that unless the temporary first town obtains at least
Twenty No. 1 guns and sufficient gunpowder and projectile support, otherwise it is not suitable for launching a strong attack.
Commander Gao Yimin suggested that although Cebu City is a militarized fortress, most of the defenders in the city fled back from north to south, and the escape process was quite hasty. Therefore, the food and other daily necessities in Cebu City
If it is not very sufficient, our army may consider adopting the method of long-term siege so that it can break without attacking.
In addition, Commander Gao Yimin has submitted two maps, one is the overall situation map of Cebu Island, and the other is the situation of the Cebu City fortress and the general defense map of the Spanish garrison. Please take a look at it, sir, madam, and everyone."
Gao Pingshi looked at the two maps and saw that the pages were quite large, so he simply asked Luo Yuan to hang them up for everyone to look at together.
In fact, he himself has never been good at specific tactical command. In field battles, he can rely on his psychological judgment of the enemy general to show his strength. But for siege warfare, he really doesn't have any good ideas. According to his usual
The idea of attacking a city is to use artillery bombardment. The specific tactics and so on... are really relatively unprofessional.
After everyone had watched for a while, Gao Pragmatic asked: "What do you think? Is it possible to capture this city as soon as possible and end the Luzon Campaign with the current strength of the temporary first town?"
He originally thought that based on the experience of Huang Zhiting and Liu Xin, they would probably put forward their opinions first, but who knew that the first one to speak was Erdemutu.
There are three military secretaries in the Beijing Secretariat, one of whom is concurrently held by Liu Xin, and the other two are Erdemutu and Ruan Fuyuan. However, Ruan Fuyuan is mainly responsible for the navy. Since Gao Zhenxin has said that the fleet cannot help unless it dismantles cannons and assists.
, then Ruan Fuyuan will naturally not talk much.
But Erdemutu felt that he could not remain silent - this was his first time attending such a meeting, and he considered it a test for him. How could he remain silent?
So he was the first to speak and said: "Teacher, as shown in the picture, the city is located on the coastal plain in the south of Cebu Island. Its west and north are mountains, the south is the sea, and the east is also a plain. Our army is currently occupying Cebu.
The plain east of the city was built, and a temporary port was built here.
This means that as long as our land division continues to occupy this place and the fleet blocks the southern coast, the Spanish defenders will be unable to fly... Under such circumstances, since Commander Gao Yimin judges that the supplies in the city are not sufficient, it should be said that the siege is indeed
It is the best deployment to reduce the losses of our army while achieving combat objectives.
However, the teacher asked whether the city could be captured as soon as possible, so the students suggested that they might as well build a plank road to cross Chencang secretly. While establishing a long-term siege posture, they also built a towering fort on the mountain to increase the artillery while avoiding cross fire from the bastion.
range.
However, these two are clear lines, and the students also suggested finding ways to dig tunnels, use the corner detonation method, collapse a corner of the city wall, and then forcibly breach the city."
Gao pragmatic nodded, turned to look at Liu Xin, and asked, "Does the secretary-general have anything to add?"
Liu Xin thought for a while, then pointed to a river near Cebu City on the map and asked Luo Yuandao: "What is the hydrology of this river? Is it possible to dam the river and then divert the water to flood the city like in the Battle of Manila?"
Luo Yuan cupped his fists and said: "Back to the Secretary-General, I'm afraid this will be difficult. The river is not wide and the flow is relatively slow... The key is that there is no terrain suitable for water storage nearby. If we rely entirely on manpower to build a water storage dam,
I’m afraid it will take time and effort.”
Liu Xin frowned and said: "Erdemutu's idea itself is good, but if you dig a tunnel in the coastal plain terrain, it is very likely that groundwater will be dug out within a foot. In this case, it will be difficult to achieve under-wall blasting."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As soon as these words came out, everyone realized that they had ignored the terrain conditions and couldn't help but think about it. Huang Zhiting thought for a while and said: "Since it is inconvenient to attack the city, is it possible to consider attacking the heart?
"
She glanced at Gao Pragmatic and said: "My master had previously predicted that the Spanish expedition against England in Europe would most likely fail and suffer heavy losses. Under such a situation, it is impossible for the Spaniards in Cebu to wait for local reinforcements."
.In other words, they are now simply an abandoned lone army, and since their maritime power in Luzon has been almost completely lost, they cannot even get supplies.
Under such a situation, I think we can try to contact them tentatively and ask them to surrender honorably - or use a more honorable method: they hand over Cebu City to us in exchange for our leniency to them."
In essence, Erdemutu was not willing to end the battle in this way. Although he was a highly pragmatic disciple, he was a Mongolian after all and was the eldest son of Tumed Chechen Khan. Subconsciously, he preferred
The Battle of Luzon ended with a comprehensive victory.
But now that the conditions have been blocked, Gao Pragmatic obviously does not want to continue to increase troops for Luzon or allocate another batch of heavy artillery, and he hopes to end the battle quickly. So since it is difficult to get it quickly, the best way is to let the Spaniards do it themselves
surrender.
The morale of the Spanish is definitely low now. Once they find that reinforcements are unlikely to appear, there is a high probability that this low will turn into collapse.
Gao Pragmatic finally issued an order, requiring that the first goal is to attack the heart, on the condition that Spanish military personnel are allowed to leave the entire Luzon Islands, and their other unarmed personnel can be allowed to stay in Manila, Cebu and other places for trade. As for the Catholic Church,
Missionaries, he also allowed them to preach freely, but made a requirement, that is, they should not accept any land donations without authorization.
At the same time, Gao Yimin also ordered that if the Spaniards were stubborn, the first town would be allowed to temporarily compile a combat plan. The combat plan was based on Erdemutu's proposal, allowing Gao Yimin to make adjustments according to the actual situation.
After discussing this matter, Gao Pragmatic introduced the situation in Japan to everyone present, and then said: "In Luzon, there is no need for the main force of our Beiyang Fleet to be stationed for a long time. From now on, maritime defense will be handed over to Nanyang.
The fleet takes over, so that part of the force can be transferred to Japan.
It just so happens that in order to prevent Toyotomi Hideyoshi from regarding our Beiyang Fleet as the biggest threat, I do not plan to send out the main force of the fleet, so I plan to form a squadron. This squadron cannot even be called a Japanese squadron... I plan to form a squadron.
The stated goal of the Beiyang Fleet’s Kanto Squadron is to protect the Misaki Castle that must be obtained—especially the Castle Island.”
Luo Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Before he could think about it carefully, he heard Gao Pragmatic say: "Luo Yuan."
Luo Yuan quickly stood up: "Here we come!"
"You are appointed as the commander of the Kwantung Squadron, but your flagship is still the 'Left Cavalry', and you have thirty armed transport ships under your command."
"Yes, I humbly accept the order!" Luo Yuan replied loudly.
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "I want to remind you that Japan not only has many so-called 'naval forces', but Toyotomi Hideyoshi purchased thirty armed transport ships from Jinghua. Although they are gunless transport ships, their hulls are
The strength is no different from the ships at your command.
As for those naval forces, although they are all inconspicuous small ships in single terms, their numbers are huge. According to insider reports, the Kumano Navy alone has three to four hundred warships..."
Luo Yuan proudly raised his chin and said: "Don't worry, sir. Beizhi has faced off against these naval forces. With their strength, unless Beizhi is stupid enough to be attacked by them with fire ships, nothing will go wrong. As for the port, I don't know if I have any
Arrange for Master Lu to cooperate with the subordinates?"
"Yes, but we are not cooperating." Gao pragmatically said: "I will give you a marine corps, about 1,800 people (actually 1,756 people), the corps is named Gao Yunping, and the corps will directly accept your command."
Luo Yuan was startled when he heard this and said hesitantly: "Gao Yunping...is he Gao Biaotong on the island of Taiwan?"
"Yes, it's him." Gao Pingshi smiled slightly: "Why, have you heard of his name too?"
Luo Yuan scratched his head and said: "I heard something about him. I heard that he is the favorite general of the Fourth Master (Gao Wujian), and he is... very famous in Taiwan."
Gao Pingshi laughed and scolded: "What's famous is a prestigious one, a fierce reputation is pretty much the same. But you don't have to worry too much. Although he has a murderous intention, the fourth child said that he is still very determined to execute orders, and he never bargains. In this way.
A subordinate who should be very helpful to your mission."
Gao Yingshi said that there was a reason why Gao Yunping had such a fierce reputation. He was the leader of the first batch of Marine Corps servants. He used tough methods in the process of opening up the "base area" in Taiwan. Many local tribes were killed by him because they were unruly and unruly.
Kill them all directly.
Especially when Gao Wujian arrived in Taiwan and took over the "civilization" task, because he was young and his local advancement methods were very bloody, Gao Yunping had even more to rely on.
With the support of Gao Wujian, this person once set a shocking record of "annihilating seven tribes in six days". He killed Liwu, Chailidou (roughly south of Taichung in later generations) and other places with bloodshed, and wiped out the local people.
The big river Zhuoshui Creek turned into a bloody creek. For a time, the local natives became pale after hearing its name, almost equating it with the god of death.
However, the reason Gao Pragmatic chose him to go to Japan was not because he was murderous, but because his record showed that he was very good at leading small-scale elite operations, and because the nature of the Taiwan strategy was to expand based on strongholds, he was very important to the key points.
The ground defense experience is also very rich, which is very suitable for guarding important places like Misaki Castle.
Huang Zhiting originally thought that it would be best to have 8,000 to 10,000 troops to guard Misaki City. However, Gao Pragmatic felt that transferring so many troops would overly stimulate Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so he wanted to send out nearly 2,000 land warfare troops who were good at guarding, and use them to defend the city.
To secure Misaki Castle Castle Island.
If Toyotomi Hideyoshi acquiesced to the Hojo family's move to "lease" Misaki Castle to Kyoka, then Misaki Castle itself would not need too many troops to ensure its stability; conversely, if Toyotomi Hideyoshi did not approve of the Hojo family's approach and forcibly attacked
As for Misaki Castle, Luo Yuan and Gao Yunping can also rely on their own strength to ensure that the city island is not lost, and then wait for Gao Pragmatic's follow-up reinforcements or the implementation of other plans.
We must know that garrisoning troops across long distances across the ocean is very expensive after all without controlling the local political power. Gao Pragmatic feels that it is better to save what can be saved and not what can be saved.
However, this matter is not only a matter of fighting, but more importantly, negotiation. An important reason why Gao Pragmatic likes Luo Yuan is that he fought very smart in the previous battle, and by coming to Beijing twice to report the battle situation, Gao Pragmatic also made Gao pragmatic
Pragmatically, we found that he was indeed a smart man and his eloquence was not bad, so he was very suitable for negotiating with Hojo and Toyotomi.
Therefore, after the appointment, Gao Pragmatic began to point out some key points for his negotiation with the two families. Fortunately, Luo Yuan was from the Beiyang Fleet and had been to Japan many times before. He had a relatively good understanding of the situation in Japan, so Gao Yuan
The pragmatic guidance saves a lot of words.
At the end of the meeting, Gao Jingshi arranged for Ruan Fuyuan to be responsible for allocating ships to the squadron for Luo Yuan. Everyone discovered that the people who had never interrupted were all members of the Gao family: Gao Wuzhong, Gao Qi, Gao Wuzheng, and Gao Wuruo. But everyone
I understand in my heart that by asking them to attend the meeting, Gao Jingshi may just let them study more and improve their qualifications by the way. As for participating in serious discussions, I'm afraid Gao Jingshi has no plans yet.
Just after the meeting, news came from the Qianqing Palace, saying that the emperor had met with five cabinet ministers and had withdrawn his orders to appease the cabinet. However, the specific situation was not very clear - because the emperor had driven away all the other irrelevant people during the meeting.
came out.
As expected, the news that came out also included the previous conversation between the Empress Dowager and the Emperor in Cining Palace. After hearing those conversations between the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, Gao Pragmatic fell into thinking for a moment.
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