My life skills in Daming Liver - Chapter 688

c675 propaganda war

At this point in the war, both sides have given up.

After Li Chengliang held a court meeting in the name of the Queen Mother and decided to send troops to Xuzhou, the corrupt political machine of the Ming court also started to move.

First, Shanxi, Gyeonggi and Shandong each recruited 50,000 civilian craftsmen to be responsible for military production. All military-related workshops in the capital were assigned ministers to supervise, specifically responsible for ensuring military production during wartime.

Immediately afterwards, all the water transport ships were gathered together, and various materials produced in the capital were brought to Jeju City through the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In a few days, General Li Chengliang would be stationed in Jeju in person to direct the war on the front line.

Although Li Chengliang lost his prestige due to consecutive defeats, once the theory of decisive battle came out in the capital, the Ming court was able to reach a consensus——

The decisive battle must be fought. If the decisive battle is not fought, Mingting will never have a chance.

Since a decisive battle must be fought, the only person in the Ming court who can command and lead this decisive battle is Li Chengliang.

Under this consensus, Li Chengliang became the only candidate, and the Ming court’s political and military machines were mobilized to prepare for this decisive battle.

Shanhao wrote several articles in succession to explain the military strength of both sides, advocated the military strength of the Ming court, blamed the previous defeat on the governors’ fear and unwillingness to fight, and praised the combat effectiveness of Li Chengliang’s direct troops.

This statement is as if the war will be better as long as Li Chengliang’s direct forces take action. Shanhao first publicizes the example of Li Chengliang’s suppression of bandits in Shandong, pointing out that the southeastern army that Li Chengliang drove across the sea is now North Korea. The commander-in-chief Yi Sunchen, when Li Chengliang suppressed Yi Sunchen, it was equivalent to suppressing the regular army in the southeast.

As long as he doesn’t take action, he is a supreme master. The entire Ming court was indeed encouraged by these statements and had a glimmer of hope for the victory of the war.

Jeju City is the hub of Shandong’s Grand Canal and an important water and land node. When Li Chengliang hoarded troops here, it was a major military town in Shandong.

The new army of the Ming Dynasty was stationed near Jeju City. Over the years, Jeju City has formed an abnormally prosperous market.

The treatment of the New Army has declined in recent years, but overall it is still much better than that of ordinary people. Not to mention the hierarchical structure of the New Army. The number of officers is greater than that of the southeastern army. These officers stationed in Jeju City and Soldiers have formed a huge consumer market.

Subsequently, smooth water transportation brought various commodities, making Jeju City an increasingly prosperous big city in Shandong.

However, as the frontline area with the longest confrontation with the southeast, Shandong’s military and civilian attitudes are much more pessimistic than the optimism in the Gyeonggi region behind.

It’s not like the New Army of the Ming Dynasty has never fought against the New Army of the Southeast. If they can’t defeat it, they just can’t defeat it. Even if they mobilize all the army to attack Xuzhou, how many casualties will they have to pay?

Now Li Chengliang has assembled troops from ten towns in Shandong.

This includes the three towns of the Ming Dynasty New Army where Li Chengliang first trained troops. Now it has been renamed the three towns of the New Army directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty. This is the most elite family background of Li Chengliang’s southern and northern wars.

Next was the three-town New Army recruited in Shandong, which was renamed the Three Towns of the Shandong New Army. This part of the New Army lagged behind the directly affiliated New Army in terms of equipment and training, but it also accumulated some combat experience in the long-term confrontation.

In the end, Li Chengliang used the officer corps of the Imperial College and the soldiers from Gyeonggi Province, plus the soldiers brought back from Liaodong, plus the old Jiubian Army that was reorganized that year, and finally reorganized the new Gyeonggi Army in the four towns.

The establishment of a town is 5,000 people. The new army of these ten towns totals 50,000 people. Together with various military units and regiment training to support the formation, it is known to the outside world as an army of 200,000 people.

On the front line in Xuzhou, Su Ze was naturally the commander-in-chief of this battle. However, it was naturally impossible for Su Ze to leave Nanjing to personally command the battle. He handed over the front line command to Army Minister Lin Liangjun.

Lin Liangjun immediately worshiped Qi Jiguang and Yu Zigao as deputy commanders-in-chief. Except for Xiong Kuang’s 7th Brigade on the grassland, Southeast also had all its elite troops out this time.

The first brigade is the navy. Lin Mojun leads the fleet back from Nanyang. Her mission is to block the sea areas near Shandong, find weak areas in the coastal areas of Shandong, and be ready to deploy troops at any time.

After a new round of expansion from the second to sixth brigades, each brigade now has 8,000 soldiers, and five brigades equal 40,000 soldiers.

For the final battle, Su Ze mobilized all reserve and retired officers, and even students from the Nanjing Army Academy to Xuzhou. These armed forces totaled 40,000 people.

In addition, there are troops recruited from Annan, Korea, Nanyang, and Ryukyu. The total number of servants in these vassal countries is 50,000.

The overall number of logistics personnel was similar to the total number of Ming Ting. Both sides devoted all their efforts to this decisive battle.

This total number of troops is not not that Southeast Asia cannot mobilize more troops, but Su Ze believes that if the Ming court can be solved, these numbers will have the least impact on the Central Plains. If it is like the Napoleonic War in Europe, millions of people will be mobilized. If we fight a battle, it will really turn into a scorched earth.

This is the advantage of a single nation and a single civilization. The reason why every continental war is so intense is because they have no unified consensus and are full of internal contradictions. Each country has its own national narrative.

However, China has always had a tradition of unification. Even if the north and the south are facing each other, everyone believes that they have the same roots. As long as the decisive battle is over, there will be no difficulty in unification, and rule can be smoothly laid down.

Just as the two sides were preparing their troops, suddenly an envoy from the Ming court came to Nanjing.

During an impromptu cabinet meeting in the Governor’s Mansion, Xu Wei sneered at the Ming court’s letter and said:

“Peace talks? Will that husband Li Chengliang really be willing to negotiate? This is just a cover-up that Mingting is not ready for!”

Everyone nodded, but Su Ze said:

“The Ming Dynasty does not really want peace talks, but it is a propaganda war.”

“As long as we refuse peace talks, they can attack our founding principle of ‘people as the foundation of the country’ and say that we are hypocritical villains who insist on launching a war.”

“And Mingting can also use our refusal to mobilize everyone and tell them that there is no other way out.”

Xu Wei frowned and said, “That’s true. I didn’t expect Li Chengliang to have such scheming intentions.”

Su Ze said loudly: “Since they want to talk, let’s talk! Tell the Ming court envoys that they can set up locations on the front line to send envoys for peace talks, but the minutes and results of the peace talks must be announced to all the people!”