Zhang Liang replied, "The fundamental solution is to find like-minded people to form the third pole of the world with Great Xia. This way, we can compete with the Silver Hand and the Academics."
If you didn't want to be manipulated, you had to jump out of the rules set by others.
"Okay." Ouyang Shuo was enlightened. He handed the list to Zhang Liang and said, "After you go down, study the list and see how we can make use of it."
"Understood!"
Zhang Liang nodded solemnly. The opportunity for the Secretariat to show its power had finally arrived.
…
In the next few days, the world was calm.
On the 10th of January in the fifth year of Gaia, Gan Ning led the Royal Fleet back to the North Sea Port. Along with the fleet was the first submarine of the Xia Navy, the Black Shark.
The next morning, Great Xia finally made a move.
On this day, Navy Commander-in-Chief Zheng He, Minister of the Navy and Headmaster of the Navy Li Hongzhang, Chief of Staff of the Navy Command Lu Su, Admiral Gan Ning of the Royal Fleet, Admiral Zhou Yu of the Southern Border Fleet, Admiral Yu Dayou of the Cliff Mountain Fleet, Admiral Shi Lang of the Yizhou Fleet, Admiral Yan Huo of the Indian Ocean Fleet, Admiral Alvaro of the Atlantic Fleet, and Admiral Qi Jiguang of the Coastal Fleet.
After making the strategic choice of focusing on external affairs and not internal affairs, the first thing Ouyang Shuo had to do was to completely remodel the navy, which was a key military force. He had to formulate a development plan for the navy for the next three years in order to coordinate with the dynasty's overseas strategy.
Among the seven major fleets, the Royal Fleet was the most special. The Coastal Fleet was formed the latest and only had two fleets that weren't fully staffed. The other five fleets were fully staffed.
The first step to remodel the navy was to adjust its structure.
The biggest weakness of the Xia Navy was that it focused on coastal waters and didn't care about the ocean. The Royal Fleet aside, the Southern Fleet, Cliff Mountain Fleet, Yizhou Fleet, and the Coastal Fleet were all coastal fleets.
This might not have been a big deal in the past, but now that the dynasty's strategic focus had shifted and the Yanhuang Alliance couldn't pose a fatal threat to Great Xia, it was redundant to deploy so many fleets in the coastal waters.
Not only would it waste a lot of resources, but it would also be a huge burden on the military budget.
The first adjustment was the Southern Fleet.
The Southern Border Fleet was formerly known as the North Gulf Fleet, which was also the first naval fleet of Great Xia. After restructuring, it entered the mainland and was headquartered at Lake Poyang in the Jiangchuan Province.
Ouyang Shuo's original intention was to have the Southern Border Fleet cooperate with the army.
As the situation in the world gradually stabilized, there was no longer a need to deploy such a large fleet inland, and it could be appropriately reduced.
It just so happened that the coastal fleet wasn't full yet, so Ouyang Shuo immediately decided to transfer the third, fourth, and fifth formations of the southern border fleet to the coastal fleet. The future Southern Border Fleet would only retain the configuration of two formations.
The Coastal Fleet had to fight against the [Yan Huang Alliance]'s Handan Fleet as well as the Haizhou Fleet in the Northern Sea Region. In order to ensure the Dynasty's influence in the Northern Sea Region, it was important for them to be at full strength as soon as possible.
This was one of the reasons.
The coastal fleet was close to Japan and would definitely play an important role in the Nation War. After Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general, took office, the coastal fleet should be fully staffed.
In addition to the reduction of troops, the Southern Border Fleet was a pure river navy, so it was not appropriate to include it in the navy establishment. With this adjustment, the Southern Frontier Fleet was once again renamed as the Southern Frontier Navy, officially withdrawing from the navy ranks and being placed under the leadership of the Privy Council and the Grand Council, with the same treatment as the army.
At the same time, the fleet admiral also made adjustments.
Gan Ning was relieved of his duties as the admiral of the Royal Navy and transferred to the southern navy. Zhou Yu was relieved of his duties as the admiral of the Southern Frontier Navy.
This meant that Gan Ning and Zhou Yu had completed a swap.
After the Southern Frontier Navy was reduced, its strategic position plummeted. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't let a famous general like Zhou Yu be buried. It was only natural that he would be transferred to the Royal Navy.
Moreover, choosing Gan Ning as the admiral of the Royal Navy was a stop-gap measure.
… …
The Yizhou Fleet was also adjusted.
The Yizhou Fleet was renamed the Pacific Fleet, becoming the third ocean-going fleet of the Great Xia Navy. This way, apart from the Arctic Ocean, the Great Xia would have an exclusive ocean-going fleet stationed in each of the four great oceans.
The global layout was thus implemented.
After the adjustment, the jurisdiction of the other five fleets became clear, except for the Royal Navy.
The Cliff Mountain Fleet commanded by Yu Dayou mainly governed the South Sea, while the coastal fleet commanded by Qi Jiguang governed the Yellow Sea and East Sea. The two coastal fleets jointly guarded the Great Xia coastline and protected the dynasty's offshore interests.
Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou were old partners against the Japanese, one in the south and the other in the north.
The Atlantic Fleet, commanded by the famous Spanish general Alvaro, was headquartered in Morocco. Its jurisdiction included the Mediterranean Sea, the west coast of the African continent, and the east coast of the American continent.
The Mediterranean Sea alone was enough to give the Great Xia a headache. With the participation of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States, the Atlantic Fleet would be in the most difficult situation among the six fleets.
Fortunately, Alvaro, the Spanish God of War, was in charge, which made Ouyang Shuo feel more at ease.
The Indian Ocean Fleet, commanded by the devil of fireworks, was headquartered in Los Leones. Its jurisdiction included parts of the ASEAN region, the east coast of the African continent, and Oceania, where Australia and New Zealand were located.
Therefore, the Atlantic Fleet would withdraw from the Gulf of Aden and hand over the defensive area to the Indian Ocean Fleet.
In addition to guarding the Strait of Malacca, Somaliland, and other strategic locations, the Indian Ocean Fleet would inevitably collide with the Indian Fleet in the future to fight for control of the Indian Ocean.
The devil of fireworks, a legendary admiral who had grown up, would also have a broader platform.
Finally, the Pacific Fleet, commanded by Shi Lang, was still headquartered in Yizhou County. In the future, Ouyang Shuo hoped that the Pacific Fleet could take over the Hawaiian Islands as a springboard.
It would be best if they could also establish a naval base in the American continent and complete the layout of the Pacific Ocean.
The enemies of the Pacific Fleet, aside from the Japanese in the north, were primarily the Dawson Dynasty. In addition, they had the heavy responsibility of opening up trade routes between the Dawson Dynasty and South America.
…
Clearly defining the jurisdiction of the five fleets was only the first step. The key was to formulate different weapons and equipment development plans based on the differences between the inshore and the long-distance fleets.
With the application of "Magic-Powered Submarine Manufacturing Technology", the Great Xia Navy's equipment system, which included warships, auxiliary ships, cannons, guns, submarines, carrier-based aircraft, mines, and so on, had been basically perfected.
However, the new round of system updates, Gaia had greatly slowed down the production of weapons and equipment. Even with the Great Xia's advanced shipbuilding and military manufacturing industry, they had to make a choice.
Ouyang Shuo's strategy was very simple. It was to prioritize equipping the three long-distance fleets and change their equipment. This time, it was not as simple as changing their main battleships.
"Within three years, the three long-distance fleets will undergo a transformation and complete the conversion from cold weapons to firearms. All the soldiers on the ships will be changed to gunners or cannoneers. There will not be a single pure swordsman or archer." This was how Ouyang Shuo defined this extraordinary change of equipment.
The production of guns was still a difficult problem, and large-scale production was even more difficult.
According to preliminary estimates, to complete this major change of equipment, they would need to build at least 500 Z1 warships, 30,000 Z1 cannons, 20,000 Z2 cannons, and 200,000 muskets.
For the Great Xia, whose industry was still underdeveloped, this was an unprecedented order.
By ending the tradition of auctions, Gaia had sent a clear signal. Gaia would no longer use the auction to throw out equipment manufacturing manuals that exceeded the current technology tree.
The game world's technology tree would also no longer make any historical breakthroughs.
As for the navy, sail-powered warships would remain the mainstream warships of the navies for a long period of time. Even if someone were to develop an ironclad warship driven by a steam engine, it would be an experimental one. It would be impossible for it to be installed on a large scale.
Ignoring everything else, just the manufacturing speed would not allow for large-scale production.
It was because of this strategic judgment that Ouyang Shuo decided to give the three long-distance fleets a large-scale change of equipment. Otherwise, it would be terrible if Gaia were to introduce ironclad warships after they had gone through so much trouble to upgrade the Z1 warships.
Even so, there was still some room for flexibility in this change of equipment. It was not a one-off change. The specific change plan was naturally formulated by the military department in cooperation with the naval command. There was no need for Ouyang Shuo to worry.
…
Adjusting the structure, delineating the jurisdiction, and formulating a fleet change plan. With these three steps, the construction of the Great Xia Navy would enter the right track and become more scientific and reasonable.
But this was not enough.
After delineating the jurisdiction, the first problem for the long-distance fleets was how to build three to five naval bases at key locations in the ocean to control the sea.
It would be best if there were ready-made ports. If there weren't, they could either rent a port or directly attack the country where the port was located. The choice was a big problem.
This was a systematic project. It required the cooperation of the fleet, the naval command, and the Grand Council to come up with a detailed expansion plan and timetable.
This also involved the Black Snake Guards' intelligence network, the Cabinet of Advisors, and the deployment of the cabinet. The list provided by Old Chen could also play a role in this.
It was intricate and complicated.
Ouyang Shuo was not a harsh "boss". The order he gave to the navy commanders of the three long-distance fleets was to complete the compilation of the naval base construction plan before the Lantern Festival.
As for how to coordinate the various departments, that was the job of the three commanders.
The fleet change plan also involved the change of the arms, which in turn involved the restructuring of the entire fleet. It was impossible to use the structure of the cold weapons era to directly apply it to the hot weapons era.
The restructuring of the organization and the tactical system had to be adjusted accordingly.
The problem was, in the face of such a big adjustment, would the navy officers and men be able to adapt to it? Would they need to organize formal training?
This involved another part of the restructuring of the navy — the construction of the naval school. The Navy Minister and the principal of the naval school, Li Hongzhang, would take this opportunity to gradually move to the forefront.
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