On July 31, 1127, Li Gang said that the imperial court must establish a powerful water army to guard the south, "xi water warfare to attack its Jidu, so that there is no plunder in the advance and no return." After his proposal was approved, Li Gang immediately began to reset the seventy-seven generals of the water army, build boats and ships, and recruit sailors.
Since the Northern Song Dynasty water division still existed, it laid a good foundation for Li Gang to revitalize the heavy responsibility of the Southern Song Dynasty water division.
At the beginning, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, actively supported the establishment of water divisions, and there were water armies on all roads in the country, most of which were subordinate to the van army, and soldiers in addition to Han Chinese also had "Khitan, Bohai, japanese foreigners". Of course, there are also two "tiger wing" water armies in the forbidden army, and Guangzhou has a southeast patrol sea army.
In 1001, Tang Fu, commander of the Infantry Shenwei Water Army, presented pro-made rockets, fireballs, and other incendiary weapons for water warfare, and shipbuilders such as Xiang Xuan presented the Shanghai warship style.
During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the various marine divisions were reorganized and expanded, and they were stationed in 79 regions of the country. Some areas, such as Guangzhou and Jiangsu, had two water divisions, while Sizhou (in present-day Anhui) had three water divisions.
There are shipyards in Yongping, Hubei, Changsha and Changde in Hunan, Hangzhou, Mingzhou and Jinhua in Zhejiang, marine supply depots in Chizhou (now Guichi) in Anhui, and large shipyards in Guangzhou to build ocean-going ships. Chenghai , Guangdong ( near Shantou ) has a teaching and reading center to train the Southeast Province Patrol Sea Army.
The scale of the marine divisions deployed in various places is not large, and it may be that one or two armed sampans will form a water division, and in the event of inland water warfare, larger rowing boats may be used. Only the patrol divisions were relatively large, and they were all given names by the emperor.
The four water divisions of Shaanxi Road were stationed at the source of the Yellow River in present-day Qinghai Province, and were later damaged by the battle against Tubo, while some water troops in the north were damaged by the battle against Jin.
Thus, when Li Gang began to reorganize the water division in 1127, there were still 77 water armies left.
The defensive strategy formulated by Li Gang was very dependent on the strength of the marine division. He once said, "Although there are high cities and deep pools, if you can keep them, why fight?" Although there are strong armor and strong soldiers, if they can fight, how can they be reconciled? ”
He believed that the strongest way to guard was to rely on the sailor, because the southerners were good at water, good at controlling the boat, and could become excellent crew members; while the northerners were afraid of the boat and did not dare to board the ship to fight.
In addition to reorganizing the original naval divisions, Li Gang also proposed the construction of warships and the allocation of a fleet for each naval force to guard the Yellow, Yangtze, and Huai rivers.
He believed that the imperial court should recruit people who "learned water and could operate boats" as sailors, and "take the building ship Lingbo as the number" to form the building ship army, and record them all, "allowing them to be free in peacetime, and gathering and using them for reasons." He placed particular emphasis on the use of firearms in water warfare.
There were nine types of warships in Li Gang's division: (1) paddle steamships and loaches; (2) sentry horses; (3) double vehicles; (4) victory; (5) ten trees; (6) big flying; (7) qijie; (8) sand control; and (9) water pegasus.
Li Gang proposed that the imperial court encourage private shipowners to donate ships and start a shipbuilding program. He believed that the bream warship was the most convenient and flexible, and proposed to build a uniform standard of ships for the development of the shipbuilding industry.
On August 20, 1127, Li Gang sang:
Under the inspection of the coastal river, the catfish boat can be able to fight... The head is small... The tail is wide enough to divide the water, the face is open to accommodate people and soldiers, and the bottom is narrow and sharp like a blade, which can break the waves. Grain storage and utensils are placed under the yellow version, and the signage arrows are divided into two pieces, which can accommodate fifty people, with a wide face of one and two feet, a length of five feet, and a fight made according to folk materials, each of which is more than four hundred. Now, at the rate of 30,000 people, each ship can accommodate 50 people, and 600 catfish boats are used together, and more than 240,000 yuan are used.
Jiangshu Prefecture County, worried about the embarrassment of wealth, wanted to allow every household to enter the middle, every fifteen, Jinshi supplemented Di Gonglang; eighteen, supplemented Chengjielang; fourteen, supplemented Chengxinlang. He was not born as an official household. There are officials who are willing to enter the middle, four, Xu Zhanzhao township will be combined into the dispatch once.
The civilian ships of the Shangguan Government were converted into warships. However, if some ships need to be remodeled, the government will directly pay for them.
However, private ship owners rarely heeded Li Gang's call, and the title of nobleman with a vain name did not attract much attention to them.
After the news of the Golden Man's plan to invade from the sea came, the size of the marine division continued to expand, and the demand for ships became more and more urgent.
The imperial court decided to send a 3,000-man sailor to the ports of Dengzhou and Laizhou in Shandong, and to the ports of Haizhou in Jiangsu.
In October, Lu Yihao, the head of the Hubu Shangshu, suggested that all sea vessels be gathered to guard the coast. The imperial court requisitioned large merchant ships, but caused strong opposition from the shipowners, and the court finally agreed to requisition only half of the merchant ships.
In July 1128, a large-scale shipbuilding program was launched, and the shipyards in Jiang (Jiangxi and southern Anhui) and Zhejiang (Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu) were ordered to complete the construction of warships within 15 days.
It was not until the autumn of 1128 that the Southern Song Dynasty water division basically formed a scale.
