1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2105
In fact, the North Korean court made such a decision, which was somewhat out of desperation.Haihan’s request at the beginning was only to ask North Korea to provide Seogwipo as a temporary supply port for a short period of time. Naturally, such a request was impossible for the North Koreans to refuse, and Jeju Mu could only cooperate as much as possible.

Although it is known that Haihan's reconnaissance operation against Japan is very likely to prepare for the war, the North Korean side is very optimistic that the war will not break out in the near future. Unexpectedly, only a few days later, Tom Wang notified Seoul, Due to changes in the situation, the naval fleet stationed on the Daedong River will go south to perform military missions. During this period, Seogwipo Port will be needed as a logistics center, and the estimated time limit is [-] to [-] days.

Haihan's notice did not leave North Korea with the option of refusing at all. Although North Korea had no intention of going to war with Japan, it could not persuade Haihan to cancel this decision.The only good news is that Haihan's current expropriation request has given a relatively clear time limit, and it seems that he does not intend to use such an excuse to forcefully occupy Seogwipo.

However, after experiencing last year's war, North Korea's high-level officials have become more accustomed to the Haihan Army's practice of expropriating its own resources for combat operations, and the hardline officials headed by Kim Sang-heon also believe that using Haihan's hands to beat Japan It will help this old enemy dispel the idea of ​​attacking North Korea again in the future.If the Haihan army can kill more Japanese during the operation, it will be regarded as revenge in disguise for the old grievances of Japan's invasion of North Korea.

Although the local government in Seogwipo has some criticisms about this arrangement, they have no other choice but to compromise and accept the strict order of the court and Haihan's warship.

Soon the government announced that the Seogwipo area had entered a wartime state, and that the area within [-] miles of the port was classified as a military control area. People were prohibited from leaving this area for any reason, and any unapproved ships were not allowed to go to sea. Allow entry and no exit, in order to prevent as much as possible from leaking before the start of combat operations, and avoid letting the enemy across the sea take precautions in advance.

The Haihan vanguard troops who arrived here earlier were responsible for organizing and commanding the martial law work in this area.The few local yamen servants in Seogwipo were all organized and assigned to several patrol teams to act as guides and messengers.

The army is about to attack, and all kinds of supplies needed are not available in a small place like Seogwipo.Therefore, from the second day after the military control was implemented in Seogwipo, cargo ships from the Daedong River Base arrived one after another, unloading a large amount of combat materials at this small port.

Many private houses near the port have been requisitioned by the government and used as temporary material warehouses.The people here who usually make a living by fishing or farming began to build large military tents under the command of Haihan soldiers to prepare for the subsequent personnel and materials entering Seogwipo.

According to the combat plan formulated by the Datongjiang base, most of the warships and troop carriers of the North Sea Fleet stationed in the Datongjiang base will be dispatched this time, and the naval force invested will be about 500.The army dispatched two synthetic infantry battalions under the Special Operations Regiment, with a strength of about 2000 people.Coupled with more than a thousand logistics personnel, a total of nearly 5000 people will be invested in this combat operation, and the entire Datongjiang base will almost be evacuated.

This is only the scale of the North Route Army's troop dispatch. If the East China Sea Fleet in the south is added, the entire operation will have about 8000 troops. For Haihan, it is definitely a large-scale military operation.

In such large-scale military operations in the past, the Haihan Army often had clear interest demands during the operation, such as gaining control of a certain place through war, or looting local wealth and population during the battle , In order to offset the huge military expenditures consumed by combat operations, these purposes will be determined at the stage of formulating combat plans.

However, this attack on the Hirado Domain did not have a clear goal. It was only determined to reduce military expenditures by quickly resolving the battle, and try to avoid falling into a long-term battle.He knew that the Fujian Ming army participating in the operation would be happy to carry out lucrative tasks such as looting and looting, but he was also a little worried that the Ming army would lose control during the process, which would affect Haihan's quick-fix combat plan.

On the fourth day after Seogwipo was designated as a military controlled area, Qian Tiandun finally arrived here in a hurry.Two battalions of the army participating in the war arrived in Seogwipo with him in more than a dozen troop carriers.

If the local people did not have a very precise feeling about what it meant to be classified as a military control zone before, then with the arrival of the Haihan army, the local wartime atmosphere really improved all of a sudden.

A whole ship of Haihan soldiers landed at the small Seogwipo Port, and settled in the camp that had not yet been fully built.Due to insufficient housing, some houses in some nearby villages and towns were expropriated and used as temporary barracks, and the Haihan Army temporarily stationed in these places in units of platoons.But whether this measure is because there are not enough tents available in Haihan, or whether the military intends to use this to arrange troops to station in nearby villages and towns for the implementation of military control, it is hard to say.

Two days after Qian Tiandun arrived in Seogwipo, the fleet that went to Hirado for a reconnaissance mission finally returned.Commander Yuan Zhi and Amakusa Shiro heard that Qian Tiandun had arrived, so they rushed to the headquarters immediately to see him without taking a rest.

During the reconnaissance process, Yuan Zhi has also reported the progress of the operation to the rear several times through the radio, but the radio transmission of information is not so convenient after all, and many details still have to be reported face-to-face before the boss can clarify the situation.

The most important information that the reconnaissance team found in Hirado was the place where the opponent secretly manufactured weapons and warships. This is also the main reason why the top military officials decided to launch a military strike against Hirado as soon as possible.If it hadn't been for the discovery of conclusive evidence in this regard, it would probably be difficult for the military to make up their minds to fight this cross-sea battle.

In addition, the reconnaissance team confirmed the fact that there are descendants of Zheng Zhilong in the local area, and thus determined that the Eighteenth Zhiyu Party operated the Hirado Domain as a shelter.This news is not a big surprise to Haihan, but Fujian obviously does not want this situation to continue, even if someone borrows Zheng Zhilong's name to revive Shibazhi, it must be stopped.

However, in addition to the reported information, Qian Tiandun is also very concerned about possible local variables, such as the actual strength of the Hirado clan and the troops stationed at Hirado Port, and whether the shogunate will impose punishment on the attacked Hirado clan. Helping hands, and the armed forces mastered by the Eighteen Zhiyu Party, which has been hiding in the dark, and so on.

The issues that Qian Tiandun was concerned about were given to Amakusa Shiro before the reconnaissance troops set off, so the local reconnaissance conducted by Amakusa Shiro also consciously inquired about these issues, but the gains were not always sufficient. Meet Qian Tiandun's request.

"The humble staff inquired in many ways in Hirado, and the size of the Hirado clan's armed forces was about 500 people, and nearly one-third of them were sailors. There were about a hundred cavalrymen, and these people belonged to the Hirado clan. The elite samurai are probably only cavalry warriors who are qualified to equip armor. In addition, it is said that the Hirado Domain has started to equip muskets in the troops with the help of the Portuguese and the Dutch ten years ago. The weapons are very primitive, the kind of arquebus that even has a trigger, and there are only a small number of them."

"From about four or five years ago, the armed level of the Hirado Clan seems to have slowly begun to increase. One is that there are more armor and steel weapons, and the other is that the establishment has increased from the level of a thousand people to the current scale. Beizhi believes that this is related to The time when Shibazhi’s defeat in Penghu happened to coincide. Perhaps since then, Shibazhi has been trying to develop Hirado into a base for a comeback and provide economic and military assistance to the Matsuura family of Hirado. If there is With enough time to mobilize before the war, the Hirado Domain can probably organize a peasant army of 3000 to [-] people."

"However, from the Battle of Penghu to the Battle of Miyako Island, how many members of the Shibazhi's party members fled to Hirado, and I have not been able to find out detailed information. However, judging from the prestige of the Tianchuan family in the local area, the Shibazhi's party should be It is the Tianchuan family who has an in-law relationship with Zheng Zhilong as the object of support, and Zheng Zhilong's descendant, Tianchuan Qizaemon, is likely to become the new object of allegiance of these people. When Tianchuan Qizaemon takes over as the head of the family after he becomes an adult, probably These people will naturally become his retainers, and maybe the Tagawa clan will directly replace the Matsuura clan and become the new master of the Hirado Clan."

"From what I learned in Nagasaki, the Tokugawa shogunate has become less and less fond of the Hirado clan in recent years because of differences in the implementation of the lock-up order and conflicts of interest in competing for foreign trade shares, and has been trying to Change the destination of foreign businessmen to the port of Nagasaki controlled by the shogunate. If there is trouble in the Hirado domain, the Tokugawa shogunate is likely to stand by and watch. Even if the shogunate is willing to send troops, it is difficult to organize enough troops in a short period of time. formed an organized unit and crossed the sea to rescue Hirado Port."

"Bizhi believes that if the attack target of this operation is concentrated on Hirado Port, and the opponent can be caught off guard, then we should not encounter too strong resistance, and it will be no problem to completely win the area within three days. However, if a long-term occupation is to be implemented, the local products may not be able to support a large-scale garrison. In addition, the port of Hirado Port is too small, and it is difficult to make further development. I think that if you want to establish a base in Japan, it will be on the west coast of Kyushu. Sasebo Bay is more suitable, there are not many aborigines in that place, and it is easier to clean up."

Amakusa Shiro's report was very detailed. After talking about the topics that Qian Tiandun cared about, he also told about his landing operations in Hirado Port and Nagasaki Port. It took more than an hour to finish.

After he finished speaking, Yuan Zhi then began to report on the various information collected by the navy during this reconnaissance operation, including the hydrological conditions of several planned landing attack sites, the distance between the various attack targets, and the time for launching the landing battle. Difficulty and so on.Considering the strength of the opponent, the navy is not the main combat force in this operation, so Yuan Zhi's task purpose is relatively simple, that is to find a suitable place to send the army ashore.

After completing this reconnaissance operation, the navy has another goal, which is to clean up the standard warships secretly built by the opponent, and ensure that the warships that have been launched will not sneak away from Haihan's nose after the war begins. .

This task is actually not too difficult for the navy. Leaving aside the number of warships and the level of firepower output, it is difficult for these warships to form combat effectiveness just because of their short service time.Even with the Haihan Navy's advanced training system, it takes at least half a year from the launch of a new ship, to the deployment of crew members, to the completion of running-in and the initial formation of qualified combat capabilities.

As for the warships Shiro Amakusa saw when he landed and reconnaissance in the local area, almost all of them were newly launched, and these ships may not even have enough sailors before the battle, let alone form combat effectiveness.Of course, if Haihan didn't discover their existence and allowed them to develop freely for a year or two, then things would be hard to say.But under the current situation, if the Haihan Navy wants to destroy the opponent's unformed surface armed forces, it shouldn't take too much effort.

After listening to the reports of the two, Qian Tiandun asked some questions again to confirm some details.In Qian Tiandun's view, the focus of this operation is not whether to defeat the opponent, but how to complete the military strike with the least cost and the fastest speed, and then arrest and wipe out the [-]th Party in the local area .Considering the size of Hirado Island and the sea routes extending in all directions, the implementation of the latter may be even more difficult.

He has two battalions of infantry at his disposal, so it is definitely not a problem to attack the city and pull out the stronghold, but if this force is to be spread on an island of more than 100 square kilometers to catch fugitives, it will still seem like a drop in the bucket.Although the telegram sent by Zhejiang stated that Fujian sent more than a thousand infantry soldiers to participate in the operation, these Ming troops were responsible for cleaning up the Wudao Islands. come.

For the current plan, we can only try our best to deploy a blockade line after landing in the northern part of Hirado Island to seal off all land passages fleeing south from Hirado Port.Qian Tiandun roughly estimated that the troops needed for this deployment would be about one battalion. If all the army was used, it would probably affect the combat operations in the area near Hirado Port. Mobilize part of the navy to land and carry out blockade missions.

Although Qian Tiandun's map has more detailed topography and landforms, considering that these data are from hundreds of years later, the development and construction of human activities during the period must have changed the local natural environment, so I have to talk to Amakusa Shiro again. Carefully check the details in the battle plan to avoid making wrong deployments.

(End of this chapter)