Chapter 390: That Man

If we only count the days, although the Later Jin army was already besieging Beijing at the same time the Transmigrators were holding their meeting, a relief operation could still arrive in time.

Historically, the Later Jin siege of the city lasted from mid-November of that year until early February of the following year; Huang Taiji would begin leading his main army back north in early February of 1630.

During the northward withdrawal, the Later Jin army would occupy a series of military towns along the way — Yongping, Qian'an, Luanzhou, Zunhua — and station Manchu and Mongol Eight Banners garrisons to hold them.

Over the next month or two, these military towns would be successively "recovered" by the various relief armies rushing to the throne's aid. Yes, the Eight Banners troops left to garrison them would burn, kill, loot, and plunder everything, then swagger away with their spoils before the sluggish Ming army could even surround the towns. Both sides shared a tacit understanding: one side got real profit, the other got the credit for "recovering lost territory."

This was the Jisi Incident as it happened in history. By the time the last unit of Eight Banners troops withdrew beyond the pass wall, it was already May of 1630.

So the Transmigrators' time was still relatively ample — if the goal was simply to chop off some "real Tatar" heads in exchange for merit: the Intervention Army only needed to reach Jinwei by February of the following year.

The strategy was simple: after arriving in Tianjin, Great Cao Jiangjun could hole up in the garrison city, preparing for battle on one hand while lying in wait on the other. Once the Later Jin main force withdrew, the Special Operations Team would get their chance to shine — those Manchu and Mongol Eight Banners troops covering the rear would be the fat sheep in Cao Jiangjun's mouth.

In short, the Intervention Army, with its sparse numbers, would not clash head-on with the Later Jin main force. Using advanced future-era equipment, weapons, and ammunition to seek opportunities for sneak attacks to annihilate isolated enemy units — that was the true path.

Once the broad strategic direction was set, the series of follow-up operations began.

On the very night the Cabinet's expanded meeting concluded, encrypted telegraph signals flew from Dayuan to Hangzhou and Shanghai. Whatever instructions Xiong Dao received could be left aside for now, but the order Lu Cheng got in Hangzhou was crystal clear: notify all major agents that Regional Commander Cao would personally be arriving in Jinwei shortly.

Troops and horses have not yet moved, but provisions and fodder must be readied first. When the relief army arrived in Tianjin by sea in the future, whether it was the grain, horses, auxiliary soldiers, and guides the troops would need, or the crucial local intelligence — counting on the local Tianjin authorities and garrison units for any of these things was impossible.

Therefore, the moment the decision was made to march north to aid the throne, Hangzhou Station received its orders. By now, anyone qualified to be a "major agent" was certainly a powerful figure with business spanning both north and south. Once these people received the notice, they would quickly pass the message along to their own trading operations or business connections in Tianjin.

As a critical node on the Grand Canal, Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty was a transportation hub teeming with wealthy merchants. And once the local power brokers there learned that the God of Wealth was about to arrive, they would naturally prepare the specified supplies and manpower in advance... These local magnates were ten thousand times more reliable than the government officials. Primitive capitalists were still capitalists — as long as they wanted to keep distributing certain manufactured goods in the future, they would definitely make sure the reception work was done properly.

After the telegrams were sent, the military immediately began its own preparations. This operation was considered a joint "Three Armies" action. The Army would provide 200 soldiers to handle routine tasks such as security, escort duty, guarding supplies, and defending city walls.

The Navy, for its part, began assembling ships. Since there were no combat missions this time, the majority of the fleet would consist of transport ships. The plan called for at most three combat vessels to go, and even that was only for the purpose of training troops and charting the waters off Korea.

The Special Operations Team, meanwhile, would deploy in full force. Besides the 50 combat personnel, an additional 10 logistics staff would also accompany the expedition. These people were not useless — the large quantities of equipment and weapons brought from the future required daily upkeep and maintenance, not to mention transport and guarding.

Because this expedition was relatively difficult — it counted as the Transmigrators' first operation without a rear base since forming their army — after Xia Xianze's approval, the three divine artifacts of Mobile Corps Commander warfare, including RPGs, infantry landmines, and TNT, were all brought out this time.

Of course, such generosity from certain people was not entirely due to the needs of the expedition; there was also a factor of "commodity depreciation" at play.

All these fine toys were, in fact, things Cao Emperor had blindly bought in one go back when he was purchasing arms. And reality had proven that the three divine artifacts suffered a bit of acclimatization issues among the Transmigrators — in other words, they were somewhat too good for low-end use and not good enough for high-end use.

Apart from being able to fire off a couple of RPG rounds in the early pioneering days, as the regular army grew stronger by the day, the Transmigrators suddenly discovered that they could no longer find a use for the three divine artifacts.

Now it was the seventeenth century — no matter what kind of enemy, on sea or land, they could all be handled with cannons plus firearm infantry plus diatomite explosive packs.

This cheap, replicable method of warfare quickly became the true path, while the three divine artifacts, which required import, became mere museum displays.

There were no high-value targets that required firing an RPG, nor did the Great Ming have half-meter-thick vault doors that needed special forces to sneak in and blast with TNT. As for landmines, those were for dirt-poor eighth-route guerrillas — the Imperial Army always fought head-on, and the scenario of being beaten into a Mobile Corps Commander force had never yet occurred.

So seizing this opportunity, Xia Xianze approved the entire stockpile of the three divine artifacts for the Special Operations Team: keeping these white elephants in the armory still cost manpower and resources to maintain, and over time these dangerous toys would also become inert or self-detonate, which meant they were steadily depreciating.

This throne-relief mission was the last chance for the three divine artifacts to demonstrate their value. After absorbing the lessons learned, in a few more years the Transmigrators would dispatch a full army for throne relief, and the three divine artifacts would depreciate completely.

While the military was reorganizing and preparing for war, the industrial departments were not idle either. The clothing factory, for instance, received an order for 1,000 sets of army greatcoats.

It was now mid-November, and according to the plan, the Intervention Army's departure date was set for early December. Half a month later, when the fleet set out from Taiwan, it would stop at Shanghai Port along the way for resupply and rest. Then, roughly in early January, the Intervention Army would reach Tianjin.

After arriving in Tianjin, the troops would spend about a month preparing and acclimating — in other words, sitting back and watching the two great armies clash at the foot of the capital. Then, once Huang Taiji's main army withdrew in February, they would consider the question of striking.

Because of this, the order the clothing factory received became 1,000 sets of greatcoats, padded trousers, Lei Feng hats, and gloves; the leather shoe factory also received an order for the same quantity of padded leather shoes.

With half a month left before departure, the future-era processing plants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as long as they had the personnel and materials ready, could produce these orders in a few days — at most, an express fee would be paid.

Although the Kiln District clothing factory's equipment was not that advanced, operating in a semi-mechanized production mode, the Kiln District's advantage lay in its abundant human resources. One or two thousand female workers could be mobilized at any time to work three shifts — this small amount of clothing hardly required a major mobilization.

There was a reason for ordering an excess quantity of cold-weather gear: once the Intervention Army reached Tianjin, it would inevitably need to recruit guides and auxiliary soldiers locally, and all this gear could be put to use then.

Besides military supplies, large quantities of light industrial goods were also being loaded onto the ships. Previously, the wealthy in the northern regions had used goods distributed via the Grand Canal from the south, and this distribution method often caused shortages of supply, incomplete product ranges, and massive price spikes — just like pork in later generations.

This time, the Intervention Army's throne-relief mission was essentially the manufacturer bringing samples and sending a regional president to open up the market, so a large quantity of samples was indispensable. Once this trade route was opened, the countless wealthy people in Beijing could enjoy a steady stream of kerosene and glass mirrors from then on.

While issuing a series of war-preparation orders, the Cabinet immediately convened an army-expansion meeting. This meeting lasted a full day and afterward produced a document titled "1630 Annual Armament Adjustment Plan."

This expansion plan primarily concerned the Army and the Navy.

Regarding the Army, the plan was as follows: it was expected that 2,000 recruits would be conscripted in the coming year, an action that would raise the Army's total strength to 5,000 men.

During this process, the Army would undergo reorganization, forming a structure by the following year consisting of two main regiments plus a portion of reserve forces.

The newly organized regiment would be composed of three infantry battalions plus an artillery company plus a logistics unit, reaching a total strength of 2,000 men.

Regarding troop deployment, for the time being one battalion of 500 men would be stationed each in Xiamen and Guangzhou, while the remaining troops would stay in Taiwan for training.

In the Army's long-term planning, expansion would continue over the next two to three years. Ultimately, the Army would station one standing battalion of 500 men each in Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shandong, Tianjin, and other locations, while maintaining no fewer than four battalions of mobile forces in Taiwan, ready at any time to respond to potential wars in the north or the South Seas.

After the Army came the Navy.

The Navy's newly allocated resources were primarily tilted toward ocean-going shipping. Considering that in this throne-relief mission, the fleet not only had to traverse 2,000 kilometers of continental coastline, but would also continue dispatching convoys to expand this route in the future, the Navy decided to increase the construction of large-tonnage ocean-going vessels in the upcoming year of 1630.

"Large-tonnage" here primarily referred to transport ships of 800 tons and above.

Those five- or six-hundred-ton New Lock Ships from before would henceforth be used as short-haul cargo vessels on the Fujian-Guangdong-Taiwan triangular route; cargo ships destined for the northern regions — Shanghai, Tianjin, Korea, Japan — needed to be upgraded to at least the 800-ton class.

As for combat vessels, the Navy was generally quite satisfied with the current 500-ton Youguang-class gunboats and the 150-ton Taijiang-class frigates.

These two types of warships not only could come and go freely along the continental coast with its chaotic winds and complex terrain, but had also perfectly resolved all Chinese-style pirates; the Navy currently saw no necessity for adjustments.

And as for the European colonization ships that conflict was certain to arise with in the future... at this very moment, off the coast of Taiwan, a massive prototype warship was already undergoing sea trials. Soon, the Transmigrators' enemies would get a taste of the power of large-caliber naval guns.

While the series of preparatory work was underway at full speed, Zhang Dongdong was also anxiously waiting for a telegram from the direction of Fuzhou.

Nowadays, if the Grand Coordinator's Office in Fuzhou wanted to contact Cao Jiangjun, they only needed to send a man to deliver the message to the trading post in Fuzhou City. So Zhang Dongdong, far away in Taiwan, could receive the telegram at the first possible moment.

Finally, on the sixth day after the Transmigrators' meeting ended, that man's message came through: Come to the Governor's Office at once — of the utmost urgency!