"Yes, the emperor." The prime minister nodded, then turned to look at the ministers, "Now, the meeting began! The main theme of today's meeting was to attack Japan. The emperor's intention was to build a large army and defeat the Japanese power shogunate with thunder. He ordered the shogunate to agree to our dynasty's request to hand over the gold and silver deposits to our dynasty for disposal, and let our dynasty monopolize the trade rights with Japan. You must have known about it, right?"

After saying the opening remarks, the Prime Minister's gaze soon stopped on Zhao Song.

"If Japan is to let our dynasty handle it, then it will naturally be the first thing to do is to defeat the shogunate and leave them with no way out. This means that our dynasty's army must subdue Japan. Therefore, military is the most important matter, and everything is based on winning. During this expedition, the person who led the troops to command the troops was Zhao Song, the boss of Xingyang. Now let him talk about the military preparations."

"Yes." Zhao Song stood up when he heard the sound, and then the several senators next to him took out some brochures that had been copied from the box beside him and spread them everywhere to everyone's hands.

"The booklet contains the confidential matters of the attack on Japan. Please keep it confidential." Zhao Song first reminded these people, and then continued to explain, "This conquest of Japan is limited by logistics and in order to facilitate the transfer of operations, so the force is limited to a strengthened brigade. This specially organized brigade will have three full regiments, among which, compared with ordinary regiments, each regiment must be equipped with elite companies. In addition to infantry, it must also be equipped with a brigade directly under the cavalry battalion composed of three knight companies, with fifty artillery pieces, and a total of 2,000 people supported by the baggage regiment and the engineering regiment, with a total of about 8,000 troops."

"Eight thousand people..." The prime minister pondered for a moment, "This number is not small, and transportation and supply are not simple. Can't it be less?"

"Prime Minister, although the shogunate is old, it is a huge figure after all. Although it cannot be compared with our dynasty, it still has some strength. No matter how weak the army is, the number of people is always there, and we cannot be taken lightly." Zhao Song hurriedly defended himself, "Our army must maintain a certain number of troops to deal with it and fight to win the decisive battle. We understand the difficulties of the expedition and have always hoped to keep the troops to the minimum. This force is already the number that I and several senators participated in the detailed research and discussion after the discussion. In addition to baggage and engineers, our army can fight only 6,000 troops, and it cannot be reduced anyway..."

"It seems that there is no need to be less." Because Zhao Song was reasonable, the Prime Minister was not confused about the issue of military strength. Instead, he nodded in agreement with his opinion, "Where are you going to transfer the soldiers?"

"Since the troops are so small, it is a huge monster to fight against, so this time the selection of soldiers must be cautious and must select elite soldiers. Thanks to the emperor's love, he has already allowed me to select elite soldiers from all over the country. In addition, some strategic directions still require heavy troops now, so we cannot draw them from there." Zhao Song first expressed his gratitude to the emperor, "The specific selection plan is to select a regiment from the brigade originally led by the Liaodong general, and then select a company under the command of Marshal Shiman Qiangshi from the direction of Guichuan to form a regiment, with Li Huanghe as the regiment commander, and select a battalion commander of the company; draw a regiment from Guangdong and Guangxi, with Ma Tongji as the regiment commander, and select a battalion commander of the company. In this way, the three regiments are all selected troops, and we will definitely be able to unite our minds, like using our arms to defeat the Japanese shogunate!"

The Prime Minister nodded again and said no more questions.

Zhao Song's words all imply that his army construction was personally approved or even formulated by the emperor. In addition, he has never been able to manage the personnel arrangements of the army, so he did not intend to worry about this issue.

"The 8,000 people's maritime expedition... the cost is really a lot." The prime minister fell into deep thought again, and then suddenly looked up and looked at the naval general Liu Tao sitting not far away from the opposite side. "Marquis Jiujiang, can your navy support it? The military power of the 8,000 people and the subsequent supplies, food and fodder are not small, so is it difficult to transport it."

The soldier sitting at the corner of the round table, wearing a blue military uniform and a first-class silver orchid medal was Liu Tao, the Minister of the Navy's Military Affairs Department.

He was a maritime businessman before. After starting to operate maritime business in Xuzhou, he quickly joined the power of Xuzhou and participated in the establishment of the navy, becoming one of the founders of the navy. Therefore, after the establishment of the new dynasty, he soon became one of the heads of the navy and was named Marquis.

The Navy is a new soldier specially established by Emperor H after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, and is under the jurisdiction of the Navy and Military Affairs Department in the Beijing.

The formulation and use of naval budgets, the construction and maintenance of naval warships and naval bases, etc. are the central government of the navy. All warships at each port and at sea are governed by various naval fleets. The commander-in-chief of the fleet is a Westerner, Louis de Rocheford.

This Westerner was originally a missionary, but he had no religious enthusiasm. Instead, he wanted to make a fortune. After many hardships, he came to the Eastern country. He originally wanted to cast cannons for the Ming emperor, but unexpectedly he fell into the hands of Xuzhou and soon joined Xuzhou, teaching the knowledge of casting, machinery and shipbuilding that he had accumulated over the years to the craftsmen of Xuzhou without reservation.

So, he later became the main founder of the navy. After the establishment of the New Dynasty, he was continued to be appointed as the commander-in-chief of each fleet by the emperor. Because he was already from a French noble family, he refused the title of the Chinese emperor and only accepted the title of the Navy Marshal.

In order to facilitate command of fleets on various seas, he usually stationed in Songjiang Prefecture, mainly commanding fleets in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

His deputy, deputy commander-in-chief of the Navy Fleet, was Cai De, the Marquis of Langya. He was stationed in Tianjin on weekdays and mainly commanded the northern fleet. He also had complicated affairs, so neither of them attended the meeting, and only the Minister of the Navy's Military Affairs Department represented the Navy.

Over the years, although the navy has not received much military expenditure as the army, it has been able to develop vigorously because the emperor attaches great importance to it. After years of hard work, the navy's strength has become a grand event. It has a huge combat fleet and has become an unquestionable master of the Western Pacific region.

It is precisely because of their confidence in their maritime power that the emperor and Zhao Song were so confident and bold in planning to conquer Japan.

After hearing the Prime Minister's question, the Serious Marquis of Jiujiang did not dare to neglect and quickly answered respectfully.

"Return to the Prime Minister, the resources required for this expedition are indeed very large. After our calculations, the conclusion was that it could be barely supported. Now the large area of ​​frozen seas in the north is frozen, and many transport ships that originally transported food from the south are now idle... If all the surplus transport ships of each fleet are temporarily transferred, there should be no big problem to support this expeditionary force."

"It is also necessary to draw transport ships from each fleet..." The Prime Minister was a little surprised, "This will not affect the normal cruise of each fleet, right?"

"We have contacted Tianjin and Songjiang before. They all replied that there is no major operation at the moment, and a batch of transport ships can be freed for this attack." Jiujiang Hou's tone was still very respectful, and he did not have any disrespect to the prime minister because of the principle of separation of civil and military affairs. "However, they all said that the war needs to end, otherwise if these transport ships are not available for the whole year next year, it may have an impact on the actions of the naval fleet next year. In addition... the task of transporting food from the south is also very urgent."

"The Ministry of Civil Affairs has reported to me. Recently, the grain storage in the granaries in the Gyeonggi and Beizhi areas are very optimistic. Next spring and summer should be able to support a long time, so the task of transporting grain next spring and summer will be relaxed." The Prime Minister immediately relieved his doubts, "However, we cannot always rely on grain storage to consume. After all, the world is settled, and the agriculture in Gyeonggi and Beizhi has not been fully restored... We must fight and decide quickly!"

In fact, before the world was decided, officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture had been worried about the food situation in the Beizhi area, fearing that after the unification of the world, the imperial court would not be able to transport grain to the north, and would cause famine and refugees, which would impact the local order of the capital.

But when they really unified the country and accepted the land of the former Ming government and royal family, they found that the situation was much more optimistic than they had imagined before.

Take Baoding Prefecture as an example. In Baoding Prefecture, the former Ming royal family had a large number of royal farmlands. Even in the late Wanli period, a large amount of grain could be produced. However, the Imperial Horse Supervisors and local tyrants who managed these royal farms falsely reported the grain output of these royal farms, and then concealed the grain and sold it privately, making a fortune. At that time, countless people were wailing in the famine and struggling on the verge of starvation.

After the founding of the New Dynasty, the emperor felt the bloated in-house institutions of the former Ming Dynasty and the illegal eunuch groups. Therefore, as soon as he ascended the throne, all internal supervision institutions in the former Ming Palace were abolished, and he announced that he would no longer use eunuchs in the palace. The eunuchs in the former Ming Palace and outside the palace were also dismissed one by one. Those with culture and ability were hired as civil servants, and those who were not educated and old, and those who could not find a way out were placed in centralized place. At the same time, the emperor also clearly announced that the Han Dynasty would never use eunuchs from his generation and also controlled the palace expenses. In this way, the eunuch system that lasted for two thousand years finally died after the founding of the New Dynasty.

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Chapter completed!