1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1773
The Haihan military had already experienced the weak combat power of North Korea last year. The fleet led by Wang Tom basically drove straight to the vicinity of its capital without any effort, and successfully blocked the Han River.During this process, the North Korean defenders did not take any effective resistance measures. If the Haihan army landed and attacked the city at that time, it would take only two or three days to break through the city defense of Seoul.Therefore, although Haihan asked North Korea to contribute to support the war on the Liaodong Peninsula, he did not propose to let them directly send troops to participate in the war, because the military really did not trust the combat effectiveness of the North Koreans. It is enough to do logistics support.

In the original history, Huang Taiji led an army to conquer North Korea during the first month, even Keyizhou and Anzhou, and approached the capital of North Korea. King Li Ji led his eldest son and all civil and military officials to flee to Nanhan Mountain City to avoid the war.However, it was still difficult to parry under the offensive of the Qing army, and finally surrendered in the following month.When Daming got the news of sending troops across the sea, North Korea had already been defeated and surrendered, and the reinforcements had to go back home as soon as they left.

The same situation is very likely to be staged in another way on the Korean peninsula.If the Qing army takes North Korea as the main attack target next, then Haihan may not be able to save North Korea.At that time, the king and ministers can be taken out to form a government in exile, which is probably the most ideal result.

And Yan Chujie's "strive for the initiative" does not mean that Haihan sent troops to North Korea to defend him against the Qing army's invasion. It is estimated that all the soldiers and horses of the whole country should be mobilized to the north to be sufficient, which is obviously an unrealistic arrangement. .However, if the Haihan army can grasp the movement of the Qing army in advance, at least they can consider taking some measures to attack the Qing Dynasty in the Liaodong direction when the enemy forces are gathering on the Korean peninsula. Qing army.

Of course, even with this type of military aid that may not fundamentally change North Korea’s plight, Haihan will definitely charge North Korea for sending troops to fight.After all, relationships belong to relationships. Once the cannon is fired, it will cost real gold and silver. Haihan has no obligation or responsibility to pay for North Korea's military expenses.But this matter has to be greeted with the North Korean side early, so that the two countries will not be confused because of factors other than the battlefield.

However, the founding of the Qing Dynasty should not have a direct impact on Haihan. The war in Jinzhou has been quiet for about half a year, and there was no record of fighting before the winter of last year.The opponent built a large number of adobe fortresses a few miles north of the Jinzhou defense line to block the route of the Haihan army advancing northward.Although Haihan had taken the initiative to attack several times before and destroyed some fortresses with field artillery, the Qing army quickly built new forts on the original site, even faster than Haihan destroyed these fortresses.

After several elite troops quietly withdrew from Jinzhou and went south last winter, Haihan completely gave up the active combat method and firmly defended Jinzhou's defense line with peace of mind.The Qing army seemed to be very satisfied with this confrontation, and did not launch an offensive against the Jinzhou defense line throughout the winter.But think carefully about the reason why the two sides maintain a tacit understanding. Haihan’s side is the battle in Manila followed by the National Day celebration. Naturally, they don’t want the war in the north to flare up again during this period; while the opponent’s side is blocked by heavy snow in winter, and it is very difficult for troops to assemble and supply. It is difficult to launch a large-scale war, and the second Huang Taiji will announce that he will change his Yuan and proclaim himself emperor in the early spring. It would be too bad luck if he loses the battle at this juncture.

In the first battle after the founding of the Qing Dynasty, whether to choose a soft persimmon to make a good start, or to take the risk of breaking your teeth and nibble on the hard bone of Haihan, presumably normal people will choose the former.As long as the Qing Dynasty did not send heavy troops to attack the Jinzhou defense line, then Haihan's basic position in Liaodong was safe, and the tacit understanding between the two sides on the Jinzhou front was likely to continue for a period of time.

Of course, if Daqing really attacks North Korea, the chances of Haihan completely standing by is very small. At least the military will not be willing to stand on the sidelines, and this is what Yan Chujie said about "strive for the initiative".

"Let's arrange for the naval fleet to go north first!" Yan Chujie explained: "At present, there are only a few combat ships stationed in Liaodong, and they are a bit stretched to guard the house, let alone carry out combat missions. When the Northern Fleet returns, no matter what the situation in Liaodong is. We can all be more flexible in how we respond to changes.”

"Tom Wang hasn't stayed for a few days since he came back. Wouldn't it be good if he was arranged to lead troops north again?" Tao Donglai asked.

Wang Tom stayed in Liaodong for almost the whole year last year to lead troops to fight. At the end of the year, he went south and did not return to Sanya to rest. He went directly to Manila. After the war, he returned to Sanya, but he was busy arranging the military parade and military exercises during the National Day. , almost never stopped to rest, it can be said that he is one of the most exhausted senior generals in the military recently.

"I'm sure I'm tired, but Tom can't stay on the shore!" Speaking of Tom Wang, Yan Chujie couldn't help showing a smile: "He told me after the military exercise yesterday that there is still no actual combat in this exercise." It was enjoyable, and just a few days after the battle in Manila, his hand started to itch again. If he didn’t want to give his subordinates a holiday, he would have wanted to take the troops out as soon as the military exercise was over.”

"It seems that I have been running outside for too long, and I am still not used to stopping to live a peaceful life!" Tao Donglai also laughed.He knew that Tom Wang was a relatively pure soldier, and he had a very strong obsession with becoming a naval general who could go down in history. As long as there was a battle to fight, no matter how far away he could stop him.

However, the Northern Fleet currently has more than 30 ships resting in Sanya. If they want to bring the Marine Corps to set off together, then this dispatch will be at least a scale of more than 2000 people, and the required combat materials are not at 01:30. It will take some time for the logistics department to prepare.It would take three to five days to complete the various supplies and staff deployment and assembly. Tom Wang would leave as soon as he wanted to, and that was really just a joke.

"The Ministry of National Defense hastened to come up with a charter to see what matters need to be coordinated by the Executive Committee. Taking advantage of the fact that most of the people are in Sanya these days, we will arrange it as soon as possible." There are other matters that need to be implemented at the moment. After discussing in the committee, Tao Donglai handed over the matter to Yan Chujie to handle it, and stopped occupying the meeting too much for discussion.

The topic of the meeting returned to the matters mentioned by Tao Donglai at the beginning, that is, the business and immigration arrangements with Fujian and Annan this year.War immigration will still be the main theme of Haihan population import this year, but the nature of the immigration sources of the two major import areas is different, one is prisoners of war, and the other is war refugees.

"It's hard to predict how many people can be transported to our country, but it is conservatively estimated that it will be more than 5000 people." Tao Donglai instructed: "The civil affairs and shipping departments should make a plan for the distribution and resettlement of these immigrants in advance. Emergency funds can be allocated by the Ministry of Finance, and your departments should do a good job of coordination.”

Ning Qi was writing and drawing in his notebook while listening to Tao Donglai's arrangement of work.The distribution of immigrants has always been a long-standing problem for the civil affairs department. It’s not that there are no places willing to accept immigrants. On the contrary, reports from various places every year will inevitably complain about the shortage of labor force and beg the Ministry of Civil Affairs to arrange more. Immigrants settled in the area.Even for low-end labor such as foreign prisoners of war who cannot obtain household registration in a short period of time and can only be used as slaves if the scope of activities is restricted, there are still many labor-intensive industrial institutions vying for it.

As a high-ranking official in charge of immigration affairs across the country, Ning Qi actually didn't have any intentions of keeping things in order, because it was simply unrealistic.Haihan absorbs and recruits immigrants through various means every year, and will inevitably give priority to those key projects related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

Among them, different resettlement plans will be selected according to the origin and quality of the immigrants.For example, Han immigrants from Daming are generally given priority to resettle in major cities and towns, and most of them are engaged in handicrafts and service industries.Han immigrants with a certain cultural foundation will be first screened by factories in various places, and have the opportunity to take up some technical positions after receiving technical training.Han immigrants with skills are the most sought-after, and they often receive special treatment such as immediate naturalization and housing allocation.Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything. As long as your body can pass the test, enlisting in the army is also an excellent way. Not only can you and your family obtain Haihan nationality immediately, but you can also get a generous retirement settlement and Arable land allocated by the state.

Immigrants from other countries and ethnicities are not treated so ideally. If they do not have any expertise, they will often be assigned to the countryside to work in agriculture, or even to cultivate land in new colonial areas.Due to cultural barriers, most of these immigrants are only arranged to engage in agricultural production. If they cannot master the means of communication such as Chinese characters in a short period of time, they basically have no chance to succeed. We can only count on the next generation to accept the Haihan style Education comes later to change life situations.

The more humble immigrants are prisoners from foreign countries, prisoners of war, and slaves who were sold to Haihan through various channels. The identity and background of these people have certain hidden dangers to Haihan, so they are generally not sent to Haihan. Instead of being resettled in towns where ordinary people live together, they are packaged and sent to places such as mines, quarries, and plantations, where they are resettled with prisoners from the Haihan Hard Labor Camp.This kind of cheap labor is often squeezed the most severely because of its low cost of use, and many people will never survive the day when they regain their freedom.

Among the latter two kinds of immigrants, it is not that there are no successful cases of turning over, but there are not many of them.Especially the last type of immigrants, almost all get rid of their past identities by making military exploits after joining the army.Even if it is this kind of errand that works hard for Haihan, not everyone has the opportunity to win it. The military selects soldiers from these immigrants with low status, which is much higher than the standard for Han Chinese to enlist. Five out of a hundred Six passes are not bad.

Such a distribution method will naturally differentiate into different social classes over time, but the Executive Committee still acquiesces to this seemingly unfair method.Due to the immigrant ethnicity introduced by Haihan in the early stage of development, although Han people accounted for more than half of the total population, the ethnic structure is far less stable than that of Ming Dynasty, and although the executive committee declared that Haihan country can accommodate other non-Han people However, in their hearts, they still hope to build Haihan into a country where the Han people are in power, so the treatment of immigrants has always been biased towards the Han people.

Ning Qi has been in charge of the civil affairs work for many years, and he was not very used to it at first, but now he is gradually getting used to this resettlement method, and he no longer feels too much pity for the fate of those low-level immigrants.Everyone's fate is different. If he wants to forcefully change the fate of some of them out of sympathy, it will inevitably affect others. In the meantime, others were pushed into the pit.

Haihan's social resources are limited, and there is no way to provide fair and just treatment to every immigrant. The resettlement method at this stage has been tested in practice and is the most beneficial method for Haihan's social stability and development.If this is to be changed in the future, it is not a matter for Ning Qi to decide alone, and it must be realized through the top-down policy revision and implementation of the Executive Committee.However, Haihan's current immigration policy is still business as usual.

The labor increase application reports for the Shilu Mine and the Heitugang Coal Mine were forwarded to the Ministry of Civil Affairs at the end of last year, and they remained on Ningqi's desk without approval.The reason is very simple, these two places require thousands of laborers, and Ning Qi does not have so many immigrant resources to meet their needs.But this time, if Annan can provide thousands of Siamese prisoners of war in a short period of time as promised, then it can give priority to filling the labor gap in these two places.At that time, Tao Donglai and Bai Kesi would not have to complain in front of themselves, saying that the output of ore and coal could not keep up with the needs of industrial development.

As for the inland refugees that Fujian may receive, Ning Qi intends to resettle some of them on the coastal plain on the west coast of Taiwan Island.The Ministry of Agriculture clamors every year to carry out development in the central and western parts of Taiwan, and perhaps this year just happens to be the condition to start implementing it.

In addition, Manila, which has just been occupied, also needs to move in more Han immigrants to improve the local population ratio and consolidate Haihan's ruling foundation in the local area.According to the calculations of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, at least 3000 immigrants per year must be continuously sent to the local area for several years to stabilize the situation there in the next few years.

The only thing that made Ningqi feel a little more relaxed was Liaodong. Due to the acceptance of soldiers and civilians from Dongjiang Town, Jinzhou’s social production had restarted. In addition, North Korea sent a large number of civilians there, so there was no need for the Ministry of Civil Affairs to worry too much about the local area. labor problem.

(End of this chapter)