Chapter 803 – Leadership Meeting
In order to establish the country, apart from considering the country title, they also needed to think about the ruling system.
The organizational structure of the Nanjiang Governor-General House began from the village times and had expanded based on the needs of the territory step by step along the way.
At the current date, the entire structure was growing more and more perfect.
After establishing a country, the organizational structure could not be easily moved or else it would shake the foundations of the country. Hence, when one established the country, one needed to make one last confirmation to decide on the structure itself.
The cabinet and military matters discussion organization needed to be settled now. Especially the cabinet, which was the most core administrative organization that needed talents to take charge of it.
Based on this system, members of the cabinet would not truly hold power.
As a result, Xiao He, Wei Yang, Fan Li, and other important officials could not enter the cabinet. If they wanted to, they would need to resign from their current jobs.
Choosing a cabinet elder was the most important matter for Ouyang Shuo now.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to invite Jiang Shang to take the position. When playing chess with him, Ouyang Shuo casually asked and observed Jiang Shang’s reaction, and he did not directly oppose the idea.
If he really wanted to succeed in this matter, Ouyang Shuo would need to put in a little more effort.
Apart from the title and the system, he needed to renovate the Governor-General Manor to turn it into an Imperial Palace. He also needed to choose palace ladies to help maintain the daily running of the Imperial Palace.
Additionally, they would need to upgrade the entire defense work of the Imperial Palace. Along with the release of the information piece, Wulin that had previously secluded itself in the wilderness was slowly showing itself.
The Wulin experts came and went as they pleased. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo needed to raise the level of security. The Imperial Palace must be an absolutely forbidden place for them, and they definitely were not allowed to do as they wished in the palace.
As for the crowning ceremony preparations, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about that as such matters would be settled by his subordinates.
During the court assembly, there were even people who suggested for him to take concubines to fill up the back palace.
When Ouyang Shuo heard this suggestion, he immediately declined. He was really clear that this was not them going back in time and was just Gaia testing the players.
The main characters in the game were still people of modern society after all; they were modern people.
No matter how Ouyang Shuo respected the ancient rules, he would not use this as an excuse to have three wives and concubines. That would be disrespectful toward love, toward Song Jia, and even toward women.
The bad habits of ancient regimes should be removed and abandoned without hesitation.
“From now on, such suggestions, be it the situation or timing, should not be raised again. If not, I would only think that you have bad intentions.” Ouyang Shuo said.
When the officials heard these words, their hearts were filled with respect.
From then on, discussions about concubines became a forbidden topic, and no one dared to raise the subject.
After this short interruption, the court assembly officially came to an end.
From then on, the territory entered an establishing country stage, where all matters revolved around establishing the country. … 2nd month, 4th day, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Wuying Palace.
Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo gathered all the God Generals to hold the military meeting that was planned before the New Year. This meeting included Military Affairs Bureau Director Du Ruhui, Nanyang Navy Admiral Zheng He, Guards Legion Corps Marshal Huo Qubing, Dragon Legion Corp marshal Baiqi, Tiger Legion Corps Marshal Sun Bin, and Leopard Legion Corps Marshal Han Xin.
As they were the leaders of the army, this meeting was known as the leadership meeting.
The meeting started from 8 AM and lasted all the way till 6:30 PM before coming to an end. During which they only stopped for half an hour for lunch.
At the end of the meeting, all of the God Generals were fully energized.
The next day, the Military Affairs Bureau followed the meeting points and made a specific military organization plan. After Ouyang Shuo evaluated it, he started the biggest military reorganization in the territory.
The first to be reorganized was the Nanyang Navy.
The Jiaozhou Squadron led by Shi Lang officially became the Yizhou Squadron, and it would shift from the Jiaozhou Port to Xinglong Port in the south of Yizhou Prefecture.
In reality, Xinglong Port was similarly a huge global port, enough to house the Yizhou Squadron.
As one of the biggest islands in the China region, more than 70% of the island consisted of mountains and hills, and the plains were mainly gathered around the west.
It was this special geography that allowed Shanhai City to easily take it down. During the war period, the two squadrons patrolled along the ocean to help the land troops siege.
Anyone who resisted received cannon fire from the warships. … Similar to the Li Tribe in Qiongzhou Island, Yizhou Island had the Gaoshan Tribe, which was located all around the island.
After King City occupied the island, they built three cities on the west along the coast. The names were really simple, Yibei City, Yizhong City, and Yinan City.
With these three cities as a core, they formed three houses to manage the entire island. Xinglong Port was located in Yinan City and was what Ouyang Shuo settled on to be the governing area of Yizhou Prefecture.
The Yizhou Squadron would use Yizhou Prefecture as a base to cover the Dongsha Islands and take control of the Yizhou Straits. Further north, they could enter the East Sea; south, they could threaten Luzon, and further east they could enter the Luzon Ocean and head toward the pacific. … Zhou Yu’s Beihai Bay Squadron was also renamed.
The Battle of Black Iron City revealed one of the fatal weaknesses of the navy, which was that it focused too much on ocean warfare but not on coordinating with the army in more land-based fighting.
The three provinces all had great water systems, which allowed the squadron to go to and fro.
Hence, they decided to rename the Beihai Bay Squadron to the Nanjiang Squadron, and it would be housed in Jiaozhou Bay instead of Beihai Bay.
The ocean defenses of Beihai Bay would be left to the Yashan Squadron.
More importantly, the Nanjiang Squadron would help the other troops land battle. With five divisions as its core, it would extend its reach into the three provinces to ensure that they could work with the army at any moment.
Zhenhai City was just a camp for the Nanjiang Squadron. In the future, at an appropriate time, the entire squadron would be released and infiltrate the land, saying goodbye to ocean warfare.
Hence, they could also make better use of Zhou Yu’s commanding.
The base that Ouyang Shuo planned for the Nanjiang Squadron was Poyang Lake in Jiangchuan Prefecture.
As the biggest freshwater lake in China, after the game expanded by 10 times, it was huge and enough to support the entire Nanjiang Squadron.
However, Jiangchuan Prefecture did not belong to Shanhai City, so this matter could only be discussed in the future. … With the name changes of the two squadrons, the Nanyang Navy active zone was not limited to Nanyang. Hence, it was not right to call them the Nanyang Navy.
After discussing it with Zheng He, they decided to change the Nanyang Navy title, changing the Nanyang Navy Headquarters to just Navy Headquarters.
The five squadrons would all be under the command of the Navy Headquarters.
Apart from changing the names of the squadrons, adjusting defense zones and forming the Navy Headquarters, the meeting also discussed the remodeling of the navy personnel structure.
This was done in preparation for the navy industrialization.
First, they needed to form the navy army force.
With the frogmen as the base, they would build a strong amphibious force to coordinate with the squadron to disembark and fight.
During the Battle of Yizhou Island that recently ended, Yashan Squadron and Jiaozhou Squadron’s lack of land battling experience caused them to need the help of the Tiger Legion Corps.
The future navy would take part in long distance battles and they would often be unable to get the help of the army. Hence, the navy system needed to build a Marine Corps that could fight on both land and sea.
To the territory, Marine Corps was a new thing and was still in the exploration stage. Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not go too far and just set it at one division.
Members of the Marine Corps would be selected from navy soldiers of the five squadrons as well as from the prisoners of the Battle of Yunnan.
To train them up, Ouyang Shuo told Viper, who was in charge of the special force training base, to set up a Marine Corps training base in Beihai Bay.
The goal was naturally to train Marine Corps soldiers.
When this force that was under the Navy Headquarters was formed and battle trained, the five squadrons would use this as a base to make their own Marine Corps.
The entire process would need from six months to a year.
Secondly, they needed to change up the member structure of the squadrons.
Out of the soldiers in the five squadrons, apart from cannoneers and the small number of riflemen, they archers were mainly responsible for the long range battles.
In the ocean battles of the ancient cold weapons era, this was okay. However, in the future cannon on firearm battles, archers were just living targets.
Hence, they decided during the meeting to reduce the number of archers to try to get it to around 40% from the current 70% in a year.
For the extra numbers, a part would be used to make the Marine Corps and raise the land fighting ability. The remaining would change to cannoneers and riflemen.
Especially rifleman as they would become the staple of navies in the future.
Archers and riflemen were originally similar so changing classes was not too difficult.
Of course, reducing the ratio of archers did not mean giving up on such weapons, especially ones like the god arm crossbow that were the kings of the cold weapons era.
Not only would they not give up on it, they would strengthen it, making the god arm crossbow their symbol.
Similarly, they would be equipped with a new Tang Blade designed by the Equipment Development Hub known as T1.
This new Tang Blade was specifically designed for navy soldiers and mixed the strengths of the Tang Blade and western knives. Fast, light, and sharp, it was the best weapon for navy soldier close combat.
Thirdly, the bases of the five squadrons.
Apart from their own main base, in the Gaia 4th year, the squadrons would have three to four more sub bases in cities near the shores of their defensive regions.
For more than 100 thousand troops of a squadron to stop in one military port was not only a burden on that port, it was also not good for reacting to battles, making them slower to move when compared to others.