Chapter 421: The Ambition of the Three Zheng Brothers and Li Dingguo's Response
"I originally wanted to seize Dongfan Island first to serve as the base for our Zheng family in the future, but now it seems that there is no need for this for the time being."
Zheng Zhilong thought of something and sighed, "Compared with Dongfan Island, where there are only a few foreigners and a small number of Han immigrants, the advantages of Qilu are a thousand times stronger in all aspects."
"Besides, the Dutch who are entrenched in several large harbors on Dongfan Island are not so easy to deal with. Their strength is not much worse than that of our Zheng family. We have to make long-term plans."
In the southeastern waters of the Ming Dynasty, the two most powerful white Hu forces were the two white colonies of Dongfan Island and Luzon Island.
This is also the second largest base of the white Hu people in the Eastern world.
There were millions of Dutch people on Dongfan Island, and the number of Spanish people on Luzon Island reached over ten million.
These guys have a large number of high-quality and top-quality treasure ships, and each has more than a thousand psychic cannons. Even if the Zheng family wants to capture any one of them, there is no guarantee of victory.
"Humph!"
Zheng Zhibao snorted coldly and said, "Let those white barbarians be arrogant for a few years. When our Zheng family defeats Li Dingguo and the Fuxing Army and completely controls the land of Qi and Lu, and our strength increases rapidly, it will be easy to capture Dongfan Island and Luzon Island!"
"These barbarians are now breeding various magical beasts on Dongfan Island and Luzon Island to solve the problem of the arrival of magic core crystals on the spot."
"When the time comes, we will just go over and harvest the crops. It would be great if these white barbarians could serve as wedding dresses for our Zheng family."
To be honest, the reason why the Ming Dynasty's coast has not been invaded and plundered by a large number of white barbarians is largely due to the Zheng family's powerful maritime pirate force.
If the Zheng family had not defended the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty and firmly blocked the fleet of the white barbarians, the Han people along the coast would have been unimaginably miserable, and many of them would have inevitably become slaves of the white barbarians.
Just look at the black slaves who are living a life worse than death in white colonies around the world. This is an example.
"Indeed, Dongfan Island is too close to Fuzhou. We must take it back in the future. We can't let those white barbarians occupy it."
Zheng Zhilong nodded, and then discussed with his two younger brothers about mobilizing the main force of the Zheng family army to the north.
The most important thing is to take advantage of this excellent opportunity to ask for more benefits from those Jiangnan families.
Those guys are so rich that it would be a waste not to take it.
……
"Hong Chengchou led 300,000 Qin troops and a million soldiers' families to retreat into Hanzhong?"
Li Dingguo had just received a report from the Military Intelligence Department and frowned slightly, "What does he want to do?"
Originally, Li Dingguo thought that after Hong Chengchou was defeated in Qin, he would go directly south to the Central Plains to Kaifeng or Luoyang to reorganize his troops and prepare for war in order to stop the Fuxing Army from continuing to move south.
After all, the Fuxing Army on the east and west routes, now having conquered Qin and Shandong, are only separated by the Central Plains region.
The next strategy of the Fuxing Army must be to completely open up the connection between the east and the west so that they can truly form an integrated whole instead of fighting each other.
This is the trend of war development that anyone with a discerning eye can see, and there is no reason why Hong Chengchou couldn't see it.
However, Hong Chengchou's choice was unexpected. He actually led the Qin army to retreat directly into Hanzhong Prefecture, which was somewhat puzzling.
Li Dingguo was very clear that given the situation of Emperor Chongzhen and the court, it was impossible for them to let the Qin army stay in Hanzhong Prefecture and use the natural barrier of the Qinling Mountains for passive defense.
Compared with the Central Plains, especially the safety of Kaifeng and Luoyang, is much more important than Hanzhong Prefecture.
Unless Hong Chengchou obeys orders and not announcements, he can stay safely in Hanzhong Prefecture.
Otherwise, even if he led the Qin army to retreat into Hanzhong Prefecture, he would soon be transferred to the Central Plains by the court.
In this case, Hong Chengchou's current actions are completely unnecessary.
"Commander-in-chief, could it be that Hong Chengchou has second thoughts and is no longer willing to obey the imperial court's orders?"
Liang Liping said solemnly, "Unless he wants to seize Hanzhong, he would not make such a foolish decision and make 300,000 Qin soldiers work hard and continuously."
She didn't know the twists and turns in the matter, and just guessed based on her most direct inner thoughts, but Li Dingguo was shocked when he heard it.
"Commander Liang, your guess is very likely correct. Hong Chengchou, this cunning old fellow, knows clearly that the Ming Dynasty is no longer able to control the local areas. I'm afraid he is planning to establish himself as king."
Li Dingguo was really surprised this time, and his eyes became very complicated and incomprehensible.
If Hong Chengchou really had the courage to jump out of the quagmire of the Ming Dynasty, he might become a real enemy of the Fuxing Army in the future.
With Hong Chengchou's talent, as long as he was selfish and had 300,000 Qin troops as his backbone, it would take him less than a year to fully control Hanzhong Prefecture.
He was so ruthless that he could rapidly expand the power of his subordinates in just two or three years.
In this regard, except that he was not as foresighted as Li Dingguo in understanding the established historical trend, he was no worse than Li Dingguo in all aspects, and was even more experienced.
The future course of history has changed beyond recognition since Hong Chengchou's selfishness broke out and the various rebel armies led by King Gao Yingxiang went south to Huguang, and it is heading towards an unpredictable future.
"Whoosh!"
At this time, a third-level spirit pigeon flew from the southern sky and landed in front of Li Dingguo.
His mind moved, and his powerful mental power swept over, picking up the secret letter on the spirit pigeon's leg in mid-air. He casually threw a third-grade top-grade Qi and Blood Pill to the spirit pigeon that had arrived from afar as a reward for it.
After quickly reviewing the secret document, Li Dingguo's face changed slightly. He looked at Liang Liping and said, "Our intelligence team hidden in Yuegang, Fuzhou, has found out that the Zheng family has made a big move."
"Half a month ago, the Ming Dynasty court directly issued an order to hand over the military affairs of the entire Shandong Province to the three brothers of the Zheng family!"
"Among them, Zheng Zhilong took over Liu Zeqing as the general of Shandong, Zheng Zhihu served as the general of Denglai, and Zheng Zhibao was the commander of the Denglai navy!"
"I didn't expect that the imperial court had played such a good game this time to deal with us. With just one imperial edict, the powerful Zheng family army was willing to fight against our Fuxing Army."
"No matter who wins or loses, they will be able to reap the benefits."
"This plan of killing two birds with one stone must be the result of the manipulation of the officials and gentry of the major families in Jiangnan. They are doing their utmost to eradicate our Fuxing Army."
"Now there are fleets coming from all over Jiangnan to Yuegang, Fuzhou, transporting large quantities of military supplies to Zheng Zhilong and his men at all costs."
"The Zheng family has many soldiers and generals, and their strength is quite good. It is estimated that they will cause considerable trouble to our Fuxing Army."
"In this case, our army's attack on Dongchang Prefecture will have to slow down."
He also did not expect that at this critical moment, those Jiangnan noble families would strongly support the Zheng family army to attack, and come with great force. "Commander-in-chief."
Liang Liping said solemnly, "We cannot stop the attack on Dongchang Prefecture."
"Now in the land of Qi and Lu, the remaining strength of the government and those aristocratic families is not very good. We only need to let the central army led by Xiao Shitou to attack."
"And we can dispatch a corps of new soldiers to cooperate with Xiao Shitou, and let He Liping lead them."
"In this way, they can capture Dongchang Prefecture steadily without worrying about the government troops' counterattack."
"Our Eastern Army and the Western Army led by He Lijing, together with most of the naval officers and soldiers, will immediately return to Lingshan Island to prepare for battle. We will then strike head-on at the Zheng family army heading north and destroy their large fleet at sea."
Having been in charge of the Fuxing Army on the southeast coast for so long, Liang Liping has gained a deep understanding of Zheng's army through various intelligence collection.
It is no exaggeration to say that 90% of the Zheng family army's strength is at sea, and the army is just mediocre, almost the same as the Yan family that was just destroyed.
As long as the Zheng family’s naval fleet is defeated, the enemy will no longer have the strength to invade in the short term.
"This naval battle with the Zheng family army will be the largest naval battle of our Renaissance Army so far, and we cannot afford to be careless."
Li Dingguo nodded and said, "The Zheng family has over a thousand treasure ships, all of which are medium-grade or above. With more than a million warriors, the size of their navy is much larger than ours."
"Although our Renaissance Army has the advantage of the psychic cannon's range and the help of the level 6 spiritual bird, we cannot take it lightly."
"The Zheng family army has a wealth of experience in naval warfare. They are an elite navy that has gone through countless life-and-death battles with pirates and white barbarians. They are not a weak official army."
"To be on the safe side, I need to immediately ride on the Great Jin back to Lingshan Island and use the large amount of high-level spiritual materials we have seized to batch refine a thousand spiritual energy cannons and ten thousand spiritual crossbow carts to upgrade the armament of our naval fleet to a higher level."
Over the past year, the Fuxing Army has seized a large number of treasure ships of various levels, but the number of psychic cannons and psychic crossbow carts equipped by the navy fleet has not increased.
Even for the captured treasure ships, there was no time to transform and upgrade the protective formations on board.
The main reason for this is that they have not encountered an enemy fleet that can pose a fatal threat to the Renaissance Army, and the psychic cannons and crossbow carts they were originally equipped with are sufficient for use.
The Zheng family army that is about to attack is not comparable to ordinary naval forces.
If you want to achieve victory safely, you must strengthen your navy's armaments again.
Li Dingguo had long wanted to deal with this crucial matter, and now was just the right time to upgrade his own navy's armaments.
“That’s great!”
Liang Liping said, "This way, our chances of winning will definitely increase greatly. We will definitely win the naval battle with the Zheng family in two months."
"Oh, by the way, Commander-in-Chief, after this naval battle with the Zheng family, should we seize the opportunity to capture the Zheng family's stronghold in Yuegang, Fuzhou, and completely destroy them, so that they won't revive in the future?"
She thinks about big, tough problems.
The Zheng family has a strong foundation, and it is impossible for them to be completely wiped out after a failure in a large-scale naval battle.
Given the opponent's foundation, even if they suffer heavy losses after a defeat, it won't take long to recover.
Even with the strong support of those Jiangnan families, it would not be a big problem to return to its peak again.
At that time, the Zheng family army, which had a blood feud with the Fuxing Army, would inevitably bring great trouble to their side.
This kind of trouble is what Li Dingguo and Liang Liping least want to see.
After all, after conquering the entire Qilu land, launching a round of large-scale construction and development is the top priority of the Renaissance Army in the next two years.
Conquering the land of Qi and Lu and governing it well are two different things.
"it is necessary!"
Li Dingguo's eyes were slightly cold, and he said firmly, "If you don't kill the snake, you will be harmed by it!"
"The Zheng family has accumulated wealth that rivals a country. Even if they are defeated by us in the upcoming naval battle, it won't take long for them to recover, not to mention the strong support from the Jiangnan aristocratic families."
"If we don't fight this time, then we'll have to seize the opportunity to chase them down, take down their lair, Yuegang, and completely destroy them!"
"If the timing is right, we will also capture Yuegang and the trenches in the south, build two naval bases to the south, and prepare for a full-scale attack on the Ming Dynasty in the future."
Li Dingguo had already made some plans for this. He wanted to quickly defeat the Ming Dynasty, blockade the Ming coast, and cut off the other side's trade relations with the overseas white Hu people. The most important thing was to defeat the Ming Dynasty quickly, blockade the Ming coast, and cut off the other side's trade relations with the overseas white Hu people.
Only in this way can we truly shake the foundations of the aristocratic families in the south and cut off their sources of large quantities of magic cores and top-grade spirit beasts and war horses.
Otherwise, once the aristocratic families who have become mortal enemies of the Fuxing Army launch an all-out counterattack at all costs, they may even unite with the white barbarians overseas, which will undoubtedly pose a huge threat to their side and even cause devastation to the people in the south.
That situation was not in line with the plan of the Fuxing Army, nor was it what Li Dingguo wanted.
During this period, the white barbarians who had been expanding across the world and establishing colonies were extremely powerful at sea. They were the real enemies of the Restoration Army in the future.
If these southern aristocratic families let the wolf in, God knows what serious consequences will be caused.
The two men then discussed and perfected the plan, and then began to deploy troops and issue orders. Three-level spirit pigeons flew from the city of Jinan to all directions, conveying the latest military action plans to the soldiers of the Fuxing Army who were taking action in various places.
At this time, half a month had passed since the capture of Jinan City. After cleaning up the city, the soldiers immediately divided their forces and attacked, successfully capturing most of Jinan Prefecture.
The two armies led by Xiao Shitou and He Lijing, with sufficient manpower, had already captured the entire Yanzhou two days ago.
In the land of Qi and Lu, only Dongchang Prefecture is still in the hands of the government. According to the plan, it will be enough to let Xiao Shitou lead 300,000 soldiers of the central army to attack.
The two big goshawks have successfully broken through to the sixth level. Cooperating with Xiao Shitou's army, they can completely prevent any unexpected situations from happening.
Two days later, with everything ready, Li Dingguo said goodbye to Liang Liping and other generals, rode a golden eagle into the sky, and quickly returned to Lingshan Island in the south.
He has a lot of work to do next, which is to mass-produce psychic cannons and psychic crossbow carts, so he has to hurry up.
After the main force of the navy received the latest order to return to Lingshan Island, he also had to carry out a round of upgrades and modifications to the protective formations of the treasure ships at all levels in order to ensure victory in the upcoming naval battle with Zheng's army.
There is no doubt that the next two months of preparation for war will be the busiest period for Li Dingguo.
(End of this chapter)
