1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1774

"Let's go? Let's wait for a while... Wait for half a month, there is no hurry to meet at this hour and a half, right?"

Later in the Office of the Naval Commander of the Ministry of National Defense, Tom Wang's answer surprised Yan Chujie.Wang Tom didn't agree to lead the army immediately as he thought, but planned to stay for another half month.

Tom Wang got up and walked to the door of the office, and ordered the orderly guarding the door to make a pot of hot tea.Although this office has been kept by the Ministry of National Defense, in fact, he did not work here much. After 1633, he seldom used this office. This time, the Ministry of National Defense was cleaned and opened again before returning from Manila. After leaving this room, I replaced some of the furniture in the room with new ones.

Yan Chujie did not immediately explain why the Ministry of National Defense planned to arrange the Northern Fleet to depart as soon as possible, but wanted to find out why Tom Wang suddenly changed his mind and wanted to stay in Sanya for a while: "Are you planning to give yourself a vacation?"

"That's not true. For me, I'm already on vacation when I don't go to sea." Wang Tom shook his head and denied Yan Chujie's guess, and then announced the answer himself: "Originally, I planned to leave after the National Day. There are too many, I can't go!"

Wang Tom opened the drawer, took out a stack of invitations and put them on the table, which was more than an inch thick, and said helplessly: "Look, I have only been back for a long time, and the invitations I received have been queued for two months. Some people who can be pushed are of course rejected, but there are still many favors that are difficult to push that must be removed."

Yan Chujie thought that Wang Tom was away all year round, and there should not be too many people in Sanya who would miss him so much, so he nodded and asked, "Your subordinates should account for most of them, right?"

Wang Tom replied: "Yes, a bunch of people under my command are waiting to get married when I return to Sanya this time. I have more than a dozen wedding invitations here, and I can't go to one house or another. They have to be treated equally. It's over. Newlyweds, you can't just pull them away right away? Not to mention the honeymoon or something, you have to let the new couple get along for a few days. After going out for a year or so and not coming back, I, the commander, have to take care of it The feelings of the subordinates."

The situation that Wang Tom mentioned is actually quite common in the military. Because the territory controlled by Haihan is too scattered, the troops stationed overseas often need to serve in the local area for at least one or two years before they have the opportunity to be transferred to In other places, the time interval between going home and visiting relatives may be longer.It is not easy for these young people in the army to start a family, and their families often arrange their marriages in advance, and when they are free to go home to visit their relatives, they take the time to organize the wedding.

And the Northern Fleet commanded by Wang Tom has been performing missions all year round, and now taking advantage of the National Day opportunity to return to Sanya to rest, naturally many military families are rushing to seize this opportunity to arrange marriages.As long as there is an official who can get a side, he will send a wedding invitation to Wang Tom. If he is invited, it will be a great face. Even if he is not invited, it is at least equivalent to calling Wang Tom. It is easier to get approval for marriage leave.

Yan Chujie understood this very well, because he also received many such invitations recently.After the previous battle of Manila, several elite troops who had been fighting abroad all year round returned to Sanya for a short-term rest, so this period became the peak period for soldiers to organize weddings and entertain guests and friends.Before the National Day, all the troops had to march in a centralized training queue for the military parade, so these private social activities were put in the period after the National Day.

As a group of people at the top of the power in this country, they can of course choose not to attend these private banquets, but as soldiers, they have the same robes, especially after going through life and death together on the battlefield, personal relationships are not just simple. Not to mention that these officers are often veteran subordinates who have followed them for many years and made a lot of military exploits for Haihan State. It is really difficult to wipe their face and say no.Even Wang Tom, who was determined to lead the fleet to explore the seven continents and four oceans, revised his original itinerary and planned to stay in Sanya for another half a month.

But after Tom Wang finished explaining, he had come to his senses and asked Yan Chujie, "Why, something happened outside?"

"There may be a situation in the north." Yan Chujie nodded, and informed him of Li Xi's application for the Haihan garrison and Huang Taiji's change of Yuan to proclaim himself emperor.

"You mean, these two incidents may not be a coincidence, but the North Koreans should have noticed some kind of danger signal long ago, so they wanted us to send troops to their country to block them from possible dangers. Invasion from the north." Tom Wang quickly sorted out his thoughts and put forward his own views.

"It's possible, but we haven't received any further confirmation from the North Korean envoy yet." Yan Chujie nodded and said, "I plan to talk to him about it later. It's possible that Huang Taiji planned to proclaim himself emperor last year." At that time, it had already hinted that North Korea would change its family, otherwise it would use military means to attack it. Although Huang Taiji did not proclaim himself emperor last year, the military pressure facing North Korea must exist objectively. And we had a meeting before and analyzed it. Qing Dynasty still appeared in this time and space, so the follow-up may also develop according to the original historical track."

"So the next step may be the history of the Qing Dynasty's conquest of North Korea." Wang Tom, who also knows this history, immediately added: "The Qing Dynasty has just established a country, and it is indeed a good idea to use North Korea to sacrifice the flag. If they move fast enough , and even capture the window period of our military strength in the Liaodong area."

"That's right." Yan Chujie said solemnly: "We imagined the worst scenario. If we can't prevent the situation from deteriorating in time when the Qing Dynasty invades North Korea, then North Korea's resistance time may only be about a month, and we don't even have time to organize reinforcements. , the war is over."

Tom Wang didn't respond immediately, but frowned and began to think about the hypothesis proposed by Yan Chujie.He has been in the north for a long time, and he has far more personal experience of the international situation in Northeast Asia than Yan Chujie. He has dealt with both the Qing army and the North Korean rulers, and he understands better what if something happens. What kind of impact will the situation in Haihan have.

Although Haihan has opened up the situation in Liaodong, this is the result of several years of hard work. During this period, the country and the military have put a lot of resources in the far north. So far, from an economic point of view Judging from this decision, it is still a loss-making business, and a large amount of military expenditure and materials still need to be allocated to maintain the local garrison every year.

Of course, Haihan's actions in the Liaodong area originally had a strong political purpose, and success or failure cannot be simply measured from an economic point of view.It's just that the heavy military burden also makes it impossible for Haihan to increase the size of its garrison in the Liaodong area. At this stage, it may be difficult to push the actual control line too far north, so it can only stick to the area south of the Jinzhou Isthmus.Part of the reason why Yan Chujie couldn't let go of agreeing to the North Korean envoy's application for stationing troops was precisely because of this.

In order to consolidate the situation in the Liaodong region, Haihan not only needs domestic support, but also supplies and personnel from Ming and North Korea.If Hong Taiji's next attack target is North Korea, and it is possible to succeed in one fell swoop, then Haihan must evaluate in advance to what extent his business situation in Liaodong will be affected after losing North Korea's ally.

"Judging from the current situation, it is very difficult for us to win this round, so the main thing is to see if we can afford to lose." Yan Chujie knew what Wang Tom was thinking, so he simply said it out: "If we lose North Korea , Will it shake our business situation in Liaodong?"

Wang Tom shook his head and said: "It's not enough to shake. Even if there is no North Korea, Dongjiang Town and our own people will have a population of over [-]. At most, we will be able to achieve self-sufficiency in basic daily necessities in one or two years. It’s just that if we continue to fight against the Qing army, we won’t be able to talk about any revenue in the future. I’ve heard that many businessmen want to invest and do business in Liaodong. I don’t know how the Ministry of Commerce arranges it. Yes, if we can revitalize the local economy, then we can be less dependent on North Korea."

Regarding this matter, Yan Chujie had already heard Schneider talk about it, so he shook his head and said: "The businessmen want to buy local specialties from Liaodong, such as ginseng, deer antler, fur, etc. Jinzhou is too small to satisfy their appetite. , so I plan to do a smuggling business and go directly to the Jurchen tribe to buy it."

Wang Tom said: "Needless to say, it must have been rejected by Schneider. This kind of operation is explicitly prohibited by the Executive Committee, and it doesn't matter whoever comes."

Yan Chujie nodded and replied: "That's what you said, but Schneider didn't want these businessmen to give up Liaodong, so he pointed out a way for them to set up a trading post in Liaodong, so that they can use this to develop trade with North Korea. But if Then North Korea will go to war, and this business will probably go cold."

Haihan imposed a maritime blockade on the Liaodong coast to prevent external materials and money from flowing into Huang Taiji's hands through sea channels. This measure is unlikely to change because of the needs of a small group of wealthy businessmen and dignitaries.However, if the investment from the southern businessmen is lost, the development and construction process of the Jinzhou area will indeed be affected to a certain extent. This is a reality that Haihan's senior management cannot ignore.

The business conditions are not ideal, and the government cannot force these businessmen to invest their money in Liaodong, and the military's involvement in business is even more taboo, so the two of them only talked about this topic to the end, and did not discuss it in depth.For them, the focus is on the deployment and response arrangements of the army in the next period of time.

"Then let me inform you. Except for those who want to get married, cancel all vacations and set off as soon as possible!" Wang Tom also felt that this matter cannot be delayed, and all he can do now is to lead the fleet north as soon as possible, so that maybe he can catch up with the Yalu River to replace North Korea. Delay the offensive of the Qing army.

"Let's make preparations first! I've already sent a telegram to ask them to try to find out the recent movements of the Qing army. If they really plan to attack North Korea, they have to gather tens of thousands of people in advance, and there will be some movement in the end."

Yan Chujie walked slowly to the window, looked at the blue sky outside, and said slowly: "If it is really too late to save North Korea, it is God's will, and it will not come by force."

Tom Wang smiled and said, "What's the matter with you, don't you always talk about the victory of man?"

"Can we really win? Maybe our current strength is not enough." Yan Chujie also responded with a smile: "Actually, I was thinking, we have been here for ten years, and the historical process that has been completely changed because of us is there. How much. Look at the emergence of the Qing Dynasty, it has already shown that our influence cannot change history anywhere. The South China Sea may have completely changed, but Liaodong has not yet reached this level. Other places on the earth, and because Has anything changed with our arrival?"

"I also want to know the answer to this question!" Tom Wang said leisurely, "I don't know if I can lead the fleet to the other side of the earth in ten or twenty years to see the Western civilization and our civilization at that time." How big the difference will be."

"There should be a chance!" Yan Chujie patted Tom Wang on the shoulder and said, "With your body, it won't be a big problem to be the commander of the navy for another ten or twenty years. By then we may already have an ironclad fleet, and you can take it out to show off your power." Opportunity!"

Wang Tom waved his hand and said: "Okay, don't make a big deal for me. The Warrior class only built one Black Shark and there is no funding. It is essentially just an enhanced version of the sailing warship. To build an iron-clad ship, the executive committee Will it be able to allocate funds? There is not even funding for research and development, okay! The Ironclad Fleet... can only be seen in the monkey year!"

Yan Chujie didn't care about Wang Tom's complaints. The generals of the various troops had never stopped complaining about the military budget. Wang Tom like role.Shouting bitterness is the most effective way to win sympathy, no matter how high or low the official position is, it must be used when it is time to use it.

As for the problem that Wang Tom complained about, it is not just because of military budget considerations. The Haihan Navy currently has several main combat ships that have no rivals in East Asia. If it is only for combat needs, there is actually no It is too big to spend a huge amount of money to develop the next generation of warships immediately, not to mention that the warships currently in service have been in service for less than ten years, and Haihan is not rich enough to start eliminating them in such a short period of time. The combat power is still ahead of this Battleship of the era.

Can a real steam ironclad ship be built at this stage?It may take three to five years to build one or two decent iron-clad ships with the power of the whole country, but if Haihan's industry has developed to a certain level in ten or twenty years, it will definitely be more expensive to build iron-clad ships. It's much easier now.So the debate on this question, the answer is yes, but not necessary.

(End of this chapter)