1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1793 Where to Stay
Due to time constraints, the fleet's itinerary plan did not include a stop at Jeju Island to rest and recuperate. Therefore, Wang Tom did not intend to send another person to the island to explain the nervousness of the people on the island.The fleet sailed straight through the waters west of Jeju Island and continued northward.After one night, you can already see the coastline of Jeollanam-do, North Korea.

However, there is still about [-] nautical miles to go from here to the capital of North Korea. Judging by the slow speed of Haihan, a huge joint fleet, it will take at least one and a half to two days to reach the mouth of the Han River.

For Wang Tom and others, there is still a problem that is not easy to solve at the moment, and that is the long-term garrison of this army after it is stationed in North Korea.If you want to examine the topography of the Korean peninsula based on Haihan’s criteria for selecting ports, then probably only the natural conditions of Pohang, Ulsan, and Busan in South Gyeongsang Province and North Gyeongsang Province on the southeast coast can meet the standards, while the entire west coast of the Korean Peninsula, Especially on the northwest coastline near Liaodong, there is basically no natural harbor that can meet the construction requirements of Haihan Port.

When Haihan chooses colonies and military bases overseas, he often takes geographical conditions as one of the main considerations.The military generally chooses strategically important locations with good natural harbors as much as possible, as places for stationing organic naval forces, such as Magong Port in Penghu, Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, Zhifu Port in Dengzhou, Lushun Port in Liaodong, and other places along the coast of Daming. product of.

If the navy wants to station troops in North Korea for a long time and provide assistance for the border between North Korea and the Qing Dynasty, then the scope of choosing military bases can only be limited to the northwest coastline of the Korean peninsula, so as to have time to respond to various emergencies .The Ministry of National Defense had carefully studied the local geographical environment before this, but still couldn't find a place that was really suitable for establishing a base. If there was such a place, Haihan would not have been in a hurry to move the soldiers and civilians of Dongjiang Town to Liaodong last year.

As a last resort, Hai Han could only select a few places for reference temporarily, and the specific location would have to be determined after the on-the-spot investigation and consultation with the Joseon royal family.Before that, the temporary station offered by North Korea was Ganghwa Island at the mouth of the Han River.

The area of ​​Ganghwa Island is more than 13 square kilometers, and it is about a hundred miles away from Seoul. Because the narrow strait between here and the mainland has a large tide drop, there are many hidden reefs, and the hydrological conditions are complicated, so the North Korean monarch used to encounter a strong enemy from the north. From time to time, they will flee to Ganghwa Island to take refuge. When the Mongols invaded Korea in the [-]th century, the king was even forced to move the capital to Ganghwa Island.

Ten years ago, when Dingmao rebelled and Hou Jin invaded North Korea, the current king of North Korea, Li Ji, also ran to take refuge on Ganghwa Island, and then upgraded the Ganghwa Protectorate to the Ganghwa Left Guard, which existed as the accompanying capital of North Korea.In recent years, many palaces and pavilions have been built on the island to maintain the operation of the imperial court in war.

If the original historical development track is followed, the Qing army will invade North Korea early this year, and the Korean royal family and major ministers will go to Ganghwa Island to escape the war.The Qing army commanded by Dorgon conquered Jianghua Island in the first month, and captured all the Korean monarchs and ministers, which is known as Bingzi Huran in history.However, under the influence of Haihan, this scene did not appear as expected.

North Korea arranged the reinforcements sent by Haihan to Jianghua Island to show its trust in its allies. After all, if war broke out, Jianghua Island would be the last refuge of the princes and nobles, and the current move is Hand over the task of guarding the sanctuary to the Haihan Army.Of course, North Korea took a lot of trouble to move the rescuers here, and they didn't just expect the Haihan army to guard the refuge at the door of their house. Blocked in the north of the Yalu River.

But hope is hope. The North Korean side is not qualified to dictate how the Haihan Army will fight.All they can do is to meet Haihan's logistical requirements as much as possible, so that Haihan can help them resist the invasion of foreign enemies.

Before the fleet went north, Haihan had already contacted the northern garrison by telegram, and informed the country of Haihan's support plan and requirements through North Korean officials stationed in Shandong and Liaodong.However, after Haihan used black technology, the improvement in communication speed was still limited. These important information were sent back to North Korea by messengers, and then the North Korean monarchs and ministers discussed and made decisions, and then fed back to Haihan. It's been ten days.

This kind of efficiency is naturally extremely slow for Haihan, so when the fleet left Zhoushan, Zhejiang, the North Korean side still failed to give a better alternative location than Jianghua Island.In desperation, Wang Tom could only order the fleet to go to Ganghwa Island first, and then discuss with North Korean officials the follow-up stationing matters after arriving there. In short, he must come up with a plan that can be recognized by his own side.

On May [-], the United Fleet arrived in the waters near Ganghwa Island. Several North Korean military sailboats that had been waiting here for a long time came forward and joined the United Fleet.Under the guidance of the North Korean counterparts, the combined fleet temporarily docked on the coast southwest of Ganghwa Island.There is no well-equipped military port here, and the only few docks simply cannot accommodate the ships of the United Fleet. In addition, large warships like the Majestic class cannot enter the narrow berths.

"North Koreans are really unreliable!" Tom Wang couldn't help complaining after confirming the situation of the pier through the telescope: "There is not even a decent military port, and we are invited to garrison. How can we be stationed here? Jin Shangjiu called, tell him to get out of the bank and coordinate these messy things!"

Jin Shangjiu is not a god, and he can't conjure up a few large berths for the Haihan people on the shore. He can only humbly apologize to Tom Wang, saying that his country is not well prepared, and he hopes that the Haihan Tianbing can manage to overcome the difficulties .

In fact, it’s not that the North Koreans don’t know that Haihan is going to send a large ship. North Korea has been informed of this in the previous briefing. It’s just that they want to build a large military dock on Ganghwa Island. North Korea must first send craftsmen to survey the site and formulate The construction plan, the calculation of the project quantity, and the recruitment of civilian workers to start the construction, this series of processes will take ten days and a half months to go through.When the Haihan Fleet arrived at Jianghua Island, the North Korean side had only proceeded to the step of preparing materials, and the construction personnel hadn't even entered the site yet, so they couldn't catch up at all.

But Wang Tom’s incident will definitely be reported to the North Korean court through official channels, and the officials in charge of this project will inevitably be unlucky because of delays in the construction period.In order to appease the anger of the Haihan people, it might be considered light to dismiss from office.

But in fact, the geographical environment of Jianghua Island is indeed not suitable for building a large port. Tom Wang had already confirmed this when he came last year.The North Koreans regard this place as a refuge during the war, which means that it is difficult for the enemy to launch a large-scale amphibious landing in this place, so they hide on the island without fear and wait for the end of the war.But now that the Haihan Fleet is going to be stationed here, but there are not enough berths, it is a bit embarrassing.

Of course, the North Korean side will not just let Jin Sangjiu handle the reception of the Haihan Fleet from afar. In fact, King Li Ji has sent the chief minister Kim Sang-heon to Ganghwa Island to be responsible for receiving the high-ranking officials of Haihan and settling the sea. Fleet admiral.

Although Kim Sang-heon and Jin Sang-jiu, who served as a punching bag in the fleet, had similar names, they were not related to each other. Not only were there a whole generation of age difference between the two, but their status in North Korea was also very different.Kim Sang-heon was the leader of the denunciation faction in North Korea. He has always advocated vigorously expanding armaments, improving military facilities, and strengthening the defense of the northern frontier.In history, after Huang Taiji proclaimed himself emperor and changed to Yuan Dynasty, the king of Joseon also listened to his opinion before announcing the severance of diplomatic relations with the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, the result was a direct military attack from the Qing army.

However, in this time and space, because of the impact of Haihan’s entry into Northeast Asia, the denunciation faction has a greater discourse power in North Korea than in history. Even now that North Korea is facing the threat of invasion by the Qing Dynasty, the peace advocates still fail to gain an advantage in the competition with the denunciations of peace.King Li Ji sent Kim Sang-heon to Ganghwa Island to express his attitude to Haihan.

Two hours after the fleet arrived at Ganghwa Island, the popular official in North Korea finally took a transportation boat to the Haihan flagship, which was still at sea and could not be docked.Since Jin Shangxian is already sixty-seven years old, it took a lot of trouble to board the ship. Finally, he lowered the bucket for hoisting supplies from the ship, let Jin Shangxian sit in it, and then pulled him to the deck. .

Jin Shangxian rearranged his clothes without haste, and then, with the support of Jin Shangjiu, came to Wang Tom to greet him.The two had dealt with each other in Seoul last year, so they were no strangers.

"Master Jin, I think you should have noticed that the port facilities on Jianghua Island are too simple to allow my fleet to stay for a long time. This problem must be resolved as soon as possible." Wang Tom pointed to the distant coast , Trying to speak in a calm tone: "In this situation, we can't prepare properly!"

Wang Tom held back his anger. First, he saw that Kim Sang-heon was indeed too old. Second, he had a noble status in North Korea. It was said that he was the main advocate of introducing the Haihan garrison. Even if he had any dissatisfaction, he could only bear it as much as possible.However, he still had to express his dissatisfaction, otherwise he was worried that the North Koreans would not be able to distinguish priorities, and continuing to dawdle like this would definitely affect Haihan's established action plan.

Jin Shangxian responded: "What General Wang said is very true. This is indeed because the construction progress in this country is too slow. I just went to check the situation. At present, [-] civilian workers have been recruited, and the building materials will be in place soon. It is expected that tomorrow will be completed." The construction of new terminals can be started, and the first batch of new berths can be delivered for use within half a month at the earliest.”

"That's still too slow." Tom Wang shook his head helplessly and said, "What about the alternative locations proposed by our country before? Is your country prepared?"

Jin Shangxian said: "To be honest, His Majesty the King has been discussing with the ministers for many days, but there is still no final decision, so in the near future, we may have to trouble your army to settle on Jianghua Island first."

Wang Tom was so angry that he wanted to scold. After receiving Li Xi's request for help, Victory Fort was afraid that it would be too late, so he specially canceled the rare holidays of several troops, and launched a number of overseas colonies to complete the supply relay, rushing thousands of miles When they came to North Korea, the attitude shown by the North Koreans was not tense. The loose preparations couldn't be compared with Hai Han's emphasis.

"It seems that your country is not very concerned about the threat of the powerful enemy in the north. This is probably because we have misunderstood the information we received!" Wang Tom laughed angrily: "Why don't we, our fleet should go first Go to Liaodong, if war really breaks out in your country in the future, we will come from Liaodong to support."

The port facilities on Jianghua Island are far inferior to Lushun Port, and the North Korean side seems to be obviously not ready to receive the garrison.Even if the king of North Korea sent important ministers to Jianghua Island to meet him, Tom Wang still believed that the plan to send troops to North Korea this time should not be implemented smoothly.If it weren't for the consideration of the military alliance between the two countries, Tom Wang might show his face to Kim Sang-heon immediately.

Jin Shangxian quickly responded: "General Wang, please calm down! His Majesty the King has ordered that the palace on the island be vacated for your generals to live in. Another 5000 private houses and [-] tents have been prepared for your soldiers to garrison. During this period, your country will also bear all the consumption of your army! At present, according to the requirements of your army, supplies for [-] people to live on the island for a month have been prepared, and various facilities are also under construction. My official Boldly, I ask General Wang to go to the island to have a look first, if you are still not satisfied, it is not too late to make other plans!"

After hearing these words, Tom Wang's face turned pale, and his tone became a little softer: "Anyway, this pier must be repaired first, otherwise you can see that my big ship can't touch the shore, how can I stay here for a long time? "

"Yes, yes, yes! I will order to start work as soon as possible later, with day and night shifts. The local dock facilities must be improved as soon as possible so that your army can enter smoothly." Jin Shangxian saw that Wang Tom's tone was loose, and he quickly struck while the iron was hot to express his determination.

Jin Shangxian repeatedly invited, but Wang Tom couldn't resist, so he agreed, and temporarily handed over the command of the fleet to Qian Tiandun, and went ashore with Jin Shangxian first to check the progress of the local war preparations.

In fact, Kim Sang-heon is not lying. The North Korean side is indeed preparing for war, but its low operating efficiency cannot be compared with that of Haihan. Even if it knows that the threat of war in the north is getting closer and closer The possibility of victory requires the help of the Haihan Army, and the North Koreans are still preparing for it without haste.

(End of this chapter)