1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1795 Preparations for War
Regarding North Korea's military strength, Daming probably has the most information.During the Wanli period, troops were sent to aid Korea to fight against Japan. Although the coalition forces finally won the war, thousands of Ming soldiers died in the Korean peninsula, which can only be regarded as a miserable victory.If the North Korean armed forces could have performed better at that time, the casualties of the Ming army would not have been so huge.In the past two years, Ming has been refusing to let go of North Korea's request for help. Part of the reason is that the Ministry of War believes that North Korea is not strong enough to fight side by side with the Ming army. Sending troops to North Korea to fight is likely to step into a huge pit. Yes.

Although Xu Yuzhuo was leading the army in Fujian, he still had some internal information from the Ministry of War, so he was not surprised by the performance of the Koreans. After all, even the Ming Dynasty looked down on the military level of North Korea, let alone the marching and logistics. Haihan, who has more demanding protection requirements.Xu Yuzhuo understood the anger shown by Tom Wang, but he had no way to solve the problems caused by the procrastination of the Koreans in preparing for the war.

Qian Tiandun's statement was unanimously supported by the generals of the coalition forces. They sent troops to Liaodong with Haihan to fight purely because of their interests. Create new trade routes.But if North Korea is too unreliable as a partner, they will naturally have to weigh whether the price they have to pay in the war is worth it. Especially now that even Haihan thinks North Korea's reliability is worrying, they will naturally follow Haihan's lead. As long as Haihan decides to withdraw, they will probably not continue to stay in North Korea.As for the life and death of North Korea, they don't really care that much.

Of course, although Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun were dissatisfied with North Korea's preparations for war, they would not let the troops leave immediately because of their will.Different from the other coalition forces, Haihan's sending troops to aid North Korea has a strong political color. What the executive committee values ​​is whether Haihan's international influence in Northeast Asia can be further strengthened, and whether it can prevent the Qing Dynasty from The rapid growth of the country, as for the diplomacy and trade with North Korea is second.

After Tom Wang got over his anger, he decided to observe for a few more days to see if the work of the North Koreans would improve due to the arrival of the combined fleet.In addition, he also needs to further confirm the enemy's movement in Liaodong, and judge whether the Qing army has the possibility of going south to invade the Korean peninsula in the near future.If Huang Taiji really planned to attack North Korea during this period, Haihan would not be able to stand idly by and must formulate a response plan in advance.

Before the joint fleet went north, the Ministry of National Defense had already issued an order to the Jinzhou garrison by telegram, asking it to investigate the movements of the Qing army in Liaodong.However, since the main force of the navy had already moved south at the end of last year, and there were only less than ten combat ships left in the Jinzhou area, the reconnaissance operations in the Liaodong area were difficult to fully carry out, and the gains were not great.

At present, Chen Yixin and Morgan are responsible for the military defense of Liaodong, and the reconnaissance of the areas controlled by the Qing army is mainly completed by Morgan.He took this task as a training subject for the snipers. The snipers acted as the main force in the reconnaissance activities on the northern coast several times. Judge the deployment and mobilization of Qing troops.

However, due to the extremely high risk of such reconnaissance missions that need to enter enemy-occupied areas, and the value of Morgan and snipers is far greater than military intelligence, the Ministry of Defense strictly ordered them to enter the inland distance not to exceed [-] miles, so their actions The range is also limited to near the coast.And because of Haihan's armed raids back and forth on the coast of Liaodong in the past two years, the enemy kept very few garrisons near the coastline, and all the places Morgan could go to were concentrated in the narrow area near the sea. Effective information is naturally scarce.Even if there is a large-scale mobilization of troops by the Qing army, it is almost impossible to conduct it in this area, so Morgan has been busy for more than half a month, but it is still difficult to accurately judge the movement of the Qing army with the intelligence information provided to the Ministry of National Defense.

However, this situation is expected to change with the arrival of the joint fleet in the Yellow Sea. In addition to the navy, the troops brought by Wang Tom also have marines who are good at amphibious operations.In addition, the special warfare independent regiment, which has rich combat experience in various environments, is also fully capable of meeting the requirements of reconnaissance operations.

In addition to the elite of these two Haihan armies, the other three of the coalition forces are also eager to try this. For them, as long as they act together with the Haihan army, they will have nowhere to go in this world.Even if you come to the north from thousands of miles away, you have to go through tricks and training with your opponents, so that this journey is not in vain.

During the meeting at the coalition command headquarters that night, Xu Yuzhuo first proposed to participate in the next reconnaissance mission, and said that the troops he brought could be used as landing arrow troops to explore the way for the Haihan army.This means that Xu Yuzhuo's department is going to take the initiative to take over the most risky part of the landing reconnaissance mission, which shows its great determination.

But from another point of view, this is also a manifestation of Xu Yuzhuo's great confidence in the combat effectiveness of the troops he leads. He is not afraid of bumping into enemy troops in enemy-occupied areas, on the contrary, he has a vague desire to use this to show Haihan and others An ally's intent to prove its strength.

Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun were very clear about Xu Yuzhuo's intention to earn this performance. The Fujian Xu family has become stronger and stronger in recent years, and they are no longer content with guarding the three-acre land in front of their house.Although due to Ming Chen's status, he could not raise a flag to rebel, but his thoughts of outward expansion had already been activated.When participating in the Haihan National Day celebration in Sanya before, Xu Yuzhuo made it clear to the executive committee that the Xu family intends to seek cooperation with Haihan in a wider range outside of Fujian, not just limited to trade or military fields. The family wants to follow Haihan's example and open up their own colonies overseas.

Of course, Xu Xinsu also knows that this approach actually has a competitive relationship with Haihan, and if the Fujian Xu family wants to gain something overseas, they must still cling to Haihan's thigh for a foreseeable period of time.So if you want to own overseas colonies, you must first let Haihan recognize your own strength. To do this, the battlefield is undoubtedly the most suitable environment.

From the standpoint of Haihan, the Ministry of National Defense is naturally happy to see the results. As for whether the Fujian Xu family will form a competitive relationship with Haihan in the competition for overseas colonies in the future, the military is relatively optimistic. The growth of the family can be used by Haihan.According to the opinions of some generals, the Fujian Xu family can send troops in the name of Ming Dynasty when necessary, so as to facilitate Haihan's overseas operations.

For example, although Hai Han took the lead in sending troops to aid North Korea this time, there were Ming troops in the coalition forces, which gave the King of North Korea an excellent reason to persuade the opposition in the country. After all, even the suzerain country had already sent troops. , why does North Korea choose not to fight and beg for peace?
Xu Yuzhuo wanted to perform well in Liaodong so that Haihan could pay more attention to the strength of the Fujian Xu family, and Haihan also hoped to use the special status of the Ming army in Fujian to allow North Korea to better cooperate with his battle plan. The two sides hit it off.Of course, the mutual trust and tacit understanding established by the in-depth cooperation between the two sides over the years is also an indispensable part of the reason why the Haihan generals are willing to let the Fujian Ming army join this rather risky mission.

"Then General Xu, please get ready. We will start from Jianghua Island and go north in three days." Tom Wang has made up his mind. It must be carried out as soon as possible to avoid delaying the fighter plane.Although Haihan has a detailed map of the Yellow Sea area in his hands, many places still need to conduct on-the-spot investigations before the battle. As a commander, he can be confident and formulate more appropriate tactics.

At this time, the most stressed person was not the commanders of their expeditionary force, but Kim Sang-heon who had a crush on Wang Tom.As the leader of the main combat faction in North Korea, Kim Sang-heon undoubtedly placed high hopes on the arrival of the coalition fleet, and believed that this should be the biggest help for North Korea to escape the crisis of annihilation, but he really did not expect that General Haihan was not so easy to deal with , Just because Jianghua Island's preparations for the war were not effective, they almost walked away.

Of course, Kim Sang-heon also knows that his side does have some imperfections. For example, the port of Ganghwa Island is completely unable to cope with the huge coalition fleet.But this also has certain objective reasons. It took about five days for Li Xi to call for reinforcements from Haihan in Sanya to receive the news in North Korea. And he argued with the peace faction in the court hall to convince the king Determined to fight the Qing army, it was delayed for several days in the middle, and then recruited civilians, formulated a construction plan for the expansion of the port, prepared various building materials and tools, and transported personnel and materials to the port of Ganghwa Island. Arrived in Zhoushan.In the short few days left, it is naturally too late to expand the original port facilities to the standard required by Haihan.

Kim Sang-heon thinks that he has made relevant domestic agencies operate at full speed to ensure that the Haihan fleet can move into Ganghwa Island as soon as possible, but the degree of completion is obviously far from qualified in the eyes of Haihan people.But Jin Shangxian was also very wronged. Who would have expected that the Haihan fleet would be so large and come so quickly?The reception banquet that was originally planned was canceled because Tom Wang was unwilling to attend, but Kim Sang-heon did not forget to scold all the officials waiting at the banquet.For the current plan, the local construction personnel can only be ordered to work hard around the clock. If the current port situation cannot be improved after three days, then the responsible officials and foremen at all levels will be able to delay the state affairs.

As for the other alternative locations requested by Haihan, it is not that North Korea is not willing to give these places to Haihan to station its troops, but that most of the places selected by Haihan are far away from nearby cities, and some are even uninhabited. In the region, it is impossible to build camps and ports for thousands of people in a short period of time, so we can only prevaricate the past and arrange the Haihan army to settle in Jianghua Island, which has relatively good basic conditions.It's just that this kind of compromise arrangement obviously couldn't satisfy the general Haihan, and it was also regarded as a sign of no intention of fighting the Qing army. Jin Shangxian, who came all the way from Seoul to receive the Haihan people, had to yell that he was wronged.

The next morning, thousands of North Korean civilians came to the port and began to rush to expand the existing dock facilities.The most urgent thing at present is to build a trestle at the port that can dock Majestic-class warships. Hundreds of thigh-thick logs were processed by carpenters into a pointed shape by the seaside, and then the peasants worked together to erect them and nail them into the sea near the sea. In the bed, as a support for the trestle.However, due to the lack of large-scale construction machinery, the construction speed is not ideal only by relying on human shoulder resistance and hand lifting.

Almost all the officials on Jianghua Island came to the port to supervise the work, and the foremen spared no effort to direct the work of the peasants, but what Hai Han valued was not their hard work, but the actual operational efficiency.

"If domestic construction efficiency is used as the standard line of [-], then I think North Koreans can only score [-] points at most." Qian Tiandun shook his head after watching on the pier for a while and came to a conclusion: "With this construction speed , After three days, there will be no way to build a dock that can accommodate Majestic-class warships."

"It will take at least five to seven days." Tom Wang agreed with him: "This has to be on the premise that everything is going well. If the weather is not good, or if there is a construction accident in the middle, it is hard to say how long it will take." .”

"Before departure, Yan Chujie said that the five-nation coalition was fighting against the Qing army this time, but now I think four countries are enough. With the performance of the Koreans, I don't really want to fight side by side with them on the battlefield." Qian Tian Don made no secret of his thoughts.

"I don't even have a decent port... This battle is not easy to fight!" Tom Wang also felt a little frustrated. He was full of enthusiasm for this military operation going north, but the actual situation on the North Korean side threw him off. A basin of cold water.Haihan's navy is strong, but its dependence on logistics is no less than that of the army, and even worse in some respects. If there is no well-equipped supply port behind the battle zone, it will definitely greatly affect Haihan Navy's performance on the battlefield.

That afternoon, there was finally some good news. The first batch of 2000 taels of gold that North Korea promised to pay Haihan finally arrived at Ganghwa Island earlier than expected. Tom completes the handover count.This money was originally provided to Haihan in the name of a departure fee, but since the North Korean envoy simply did not have such a large amount of money at hand, the payment could only be postponed until after the combined fleet arrived in North Korea.But in fact, all the expenses of the fleet dispatched were advanced by the temporary budget allocated by the Ministry of Finance, and then deducted from the gold. Therefore, as soon as Wang Tom arrived at Ganghwa Island, he insisted on getting the money back first, so as not to prevent the national defense There has been a big hole in the military spending of the Ministry of Defense.

(End of this chapter)