Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 164 Preparatory Meeting for the Jiangnan Campaign
A group of important military and political officials gathered around the large conference table. This large conference table, which is large enough to accommodate twenty people, is of course an object that only existed after Bai Mingxiu was in power.Although it does not have the style of Ming Dynasty furniture, this table is made of pineapple lattice, which is a rare and precious wood in Southeast Asia. It is thick and strong, and has unique textures, which is suitable for making high-end furniture.

After Bai Mingxiu conquered Batavia, he began to develop the local timber industry on a large scale. Some mountains and forests on Java Island where valuable timber were produced were surrounded by local Chinese. The natives wage war.A lot of high-quality wood such as pineapple grids have begun to be sold to Australia and Guangdong. Bai Mingxiu has hired a group of skilled craftsmen to make luxury furniture. It is basically not seen in the market now, but the produced Products are already comparable to works of art.

Today's meeting is not long, and the core is to unify thinking and carry out the Jiangnan campaign.

Zhang Xianyu, Minister of General Logistics, first said: "...To sum up the Southwest Campaign, we did a lot of things right, but of course we also made some mistakes. As the Minister of General Logistics, I am still very dissatisfied with some logistics transfer issues. Although for To supply our military operations, we have established auditing and financial units at all levels, and paid wages and food to migrant workers involved in logistics. However, our work is still limited by the insufficient number of grassroots cadres and the lack of basic logistics thinking and calculation capabilities, management The huge team of migrant workers was difficult and complicated. Although there were basically no problems with the troops led by His Highness, when we began to attack a series of cities such as Guilin and Guiyang in the later period, the logistics could not keep up repeatedly, and the frontline troops had to wait. Logistical support, or even retreating a certain distance to shorten the supply line."

Bai Mingxiu often heard a sentence before crossing, that is, the modern army is actually fighting logistics, even the ancients knew that the food and grass go first before the soldiers and horses are moved.Even now, the Qing army is carrying out a series of military operations. In Bai Mingxiu's eyes, the reason why the movements are slow is because they have to collect food in advance and then transfer it.Areas with water transportation are slightly better, but in areas with difficult terrain or sparsely populated areas, the progress of the Qing army's march and organization is very limited.

The reason why the logistics of the army led by Bai Mingxiu in the Ming army is not restricted is because the crown prince is forced to take the system warehouse with him and take out food and other supplies to support his troops at any time. They have to wait obediently for the migrant workers' logistics team to deliver their food and other supplies to them with mules, horses, carts, and small sampans.

Bai Mingxiu deeply understood the importance of Zhang Xianyu to the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army. Zhang Xianyu almost built the logistics system of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army from scratch, and did a good job in various military and local coordination.However, the recovery zone under Bai Mingxiu's rule is a very peculiar form. The military organization and weapons are very modern, but the main body of the economy is a backward agricultural country. In this comparison, it is very similar to the PLA during the Huaihai Campaign.

However, the TG at that time had many loyal and capable middle-level and grassroots cadres, and the Shandong Liberated Areas had a very good mass base, so the power they could unleash was extraordinary.People in later generations often deify the small carts of the people and the artillery shells of Dalian, focusing on spiritual power and military industrialization, but those who really read history can find that the really powerful organization ability of our TG.Marshal Chen once described PLA's logistics in the Huaihai Campaign: "A huge and profound organizational science, this is a great manifestation of the high political awareness and organizational genius of the Chinese people under the leadership of our party."

These are also things that Bai Mingxiu tried very hard to reproduce in his own Da Ming, but the difficulty is quite high.

Zhang Xianyu said again: "The General Staff has already begun to prepare several different offensive plans. I express my opinion purely from the perspective of logistics. I will use large-scale sea transportation to directly launch a landing operation in the south of the Yangtze River, seize important ports and radiate the surrounding areas. It is a more feasible strategy in terms of logistics. We cannot afford a larger-scale war mobilization than the Southwest Campaign, and send hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to support the front. Whether it is taking the Huguang route or the route from Fujian to Zhejiang, it is very difficult. The cost-effectiveness ratio is too low."

His statement was widely shared by other figures in the military.Although Nanming only controlled the five provinces on land, Bai Mingxiu had the final say on the Far East.

The navy of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army not only drove the Dutch forces out of the East Asian waters, but also ships traveling to and from Portugal, Britain, Spain, Japan, and North Korea had to crawl under the feet of the Ming ships and listened respectfully.The ships in Bai Mingxiu's hands included more than 30 large and small ships bought and built by the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army, as well as a considerable number of transport ships.

At first, Bai Mingxiu owned 10 Clipper East India merchant ships, and later he took over some Australian merchant ships. Recently, he also obtained a sailing capacity of 20 tons.These are enough to make the huge nautical power in his hands a huge sea power second only to the Netherlands.

If it is necessary to transfer hundreds of thousands of tons of materials, it will cost a lot of people, money and material resources to rely on the mule carts and carts of the peasants on land, but throwing them on a large ship will save worry and be much cheaper.

Chief of the General Staff Tian Guang'an also said: "The water network in the south of the Yangtze River is densely covered, and there are many small boats in the inland river. We only need to occupy the port, establish a corresponding logistics system, and recruit people to carry out the secondary transportation and replenishment for us to radiate the surrounding areas. The Southwest War was much smaller."

Bai Mingxiu also nodded in approval and said: "After all, Jiangnan is a place where business travel converges and is densely populated. There is still a foundation for logistics. Then, Minister Zhang, the task of your logistics unit is to make arrangements in advance, formulate a thorough logistics plan, and do more Some plans and increased redundancy, after all, once the war starts, we need to put ourselves in a relatively comfortable and turnable position.”

Zhang Xianyu promised: "I promise to complete the task."

Bai Mingxiu turned his attention to Xiang Xingtian, commander of Jinyiwei, and asked, "Jinyiwei has been focusing on the intelligence work in the south of the Yangtze River for the past few months. Has there been any progress?"

Xiang Xingtian replied: "My subordinates are ashamed. Although we have initially laid out a basic intelligence network in the past three months, the infiltration work of the Qing army and the Qing government has not been as expected."

Bai Mingxiu was not dissatisfied: "This is also normal, intelligence work often takes a long time to operate."

Xiang Xingtian changed the topic, and said again: "However, we have already activated most of the Jinyiwei personnel who were originally staying in the south of the Yangtze River. Some work of sabotage and intelligence spying behind enemy lines should be better completed."

(End of this chapter)