1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2135
For the Hirado Clan, this sudden battle was probably the most serious change they had suffered since the opening of the port. The Hirado Clan's army, which had always been proud of it, did not perform well in the war.The Hirado Navy, which claims to be one of the best in the country, has vigorously built warships in the past two years and has not reflected its due value. Instead, it has avoided the frontal battlefield far away, and the local people who place high hopes on it are also in Secretly furious, he believed that the Hirado Navy should be more responsible for the defeat.

However, the Haihan army did not think that the reason why the Hirado navy chose to hide was simply because they were afraid of fighting, and Shi Diwen preferred to regard it as a choice to preserve their strength.The day before yesterday, the old warship was sent to the Hirado Strait to test. After this battle, the opponent should have clearly understood the size of the gap in strength between the two sides. It is definitely not wise to jump out at this time to fight the coalition fleet.

If the opponent wants to avoid fighting, there are countless coasts along the coast of Kyushu Island where they can hide, and it will not be easy for the coalition fleet to find the Hirado Navy in the unfamiliar waters nearby.

In desperation, the coalition forces could only concentrate their forces on the land area first.The search of the several square kilometers of mountains and forests to the north of the city continued until the next day. Although several vassal troops were wiped out, they still failed to catch major figures such as Tian Chuansuke.According to the prisoner's confession, Tagawasuke has not appeared since yesterday afternoon, and the headquarters can only conclude that this person has most likely left Hirado Island secretly at night.

"It seems that our trip is not easy to deal with!" Qian Tiandun couldn't help being a little depressed after hearing the battle report sent back from the arresting front.

In terms of strength, the coalition forces certainly have an absolute advantage, leaving almost no chance for their opponents to come back.However, the target person has not been arrested, which makes it difficult to achieve the goal of this combat mission.The battle was won, but the goal was not achieved, and the effect of the battle would naturally be greatly reduced because of this.

Shi Diwen was not in a much more relaxed mood than Qian Tiandun. This time the navy dispatched two fleets, one from the south and the other from the north, which were even strong enough to fight a national war with Japan, but when they arrived here, they punched cotton. From the beginning to the end, he didn't fight the opponent's main force.Shi Diwen dispatched two flagships to chase down the old warships of the Hirado Navy the day before yesterday. In fact, they were just overkill, and did not give full play to the power of the East China Sea Fleet.

Of course, Shi Diwen also wanted to take the fleet to the coast of Kyushu Island to slowly search for the whereabouts of the enemy, but doing so may further expand the battle situation and prolong the time for the fleet to perform combat missions in Japan. As an admiral, he cannot Regardless of the huge increase in military expenditure that will result from this - the Executive Committee may not be willing to pay for unplanned actions.

"Let's report to the executive committee first. I think Sanya should also prepare a corresponding plan for the current situation." Shi Diwen didn't propose any better solution to this.It's not that he can't think of it, but that the methods he can think of cannot be implemented on his own initiative, and further authorization from the executive committee is required.

On the sixth day of the eradication operation, the executive committee received the latest battle report from the Hirado front.The content of the battle report this time is not a good news, but the Haihan Army's local operations have reached a stalemate, defeated the enemy and occupied Hirado, but failed to eradicate the main target.

Whether to continue to stay in the local area, expand the search area to the Kyushu area, until the target person is captured, or accept it as soon as it is built, and let the troops withdraw to the station to save unnecessary military expenses. Now it is up to the executive committee to come up with an idea .But no surprise, regarding the next course of action, the executive committee once again had differences of opinion.

Yan Chujie, who started the battle almost by himself, naturally didn't want to end it hastily. He insisted that the purpose of sending troops was to completely solve the hidden dangers caused by the Eighteenth Remnant Party, but the current military operations in Hirado are obviously not yet can achieve such an effect.

"This operation must arrest Tian Chuan and his son!" Yan Chujie said decisively: "Since we have spent so much time organizing the expedition, how can we give up halfway! Withdrawing our troops now is to give the opponent a chance to make a comeback, and it is also a waste of military expenses. What a waste!"

"But we also have to consider the future military expenditures." Schneider took over the conversation with a face of helplessness: "Thousands of people from the army and the navy are fighting in Hirado, and the daily expenditure is astronomical. Two places, Datong River and Datong River, have entered a state of war. Especially Zhoushan, the trade situation has been greatly affected. Every entry and exit is money!"

"We will get some war proceeds from Hirado to make up for military expenses." Yan Chujie was very sure about this.The Haihan army has always been not polite to overseas conquests. Generally, they would take a lot of wealth from the local area after the war. Half of the money was put into the treasury and the other half was used as military expenses. It has become a customary practice.

Although up to now, the final amount of property seized by the frontline troops has not yet been calculated, but Yan Chujie believes that Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen will not let him down, not to mention that Hirado is one of the most important foreign trade ports in Japan, and the local economy The situation can't be too bad, as long as you use a little bit of tricks, you can expect the harvest to be good.

Schneider sighed: "But can you give a clear time limit? If you can't catch people in three to five days, or ten days and a half months? I don't doubt the capabilities of the frontline troops, but the Japanese archipelago is not They have to hide in a small place with peace of mind, and we have no way of digging three feet to dig them out! If the scale of the war expands further, it will not be of any benefit to our country. Do we want to fight a protracted and comprehensive war with Japan for this? Won't the war happen?"

The problem mentioned by Schneider is indeed objective. Although the purpose of this operation is very clear, due to the hasty preparations before the operation, the plan prepared by the Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense is not comprehensive.For example, in the current situation, if the war was won but the combat objectives were not achieved, then there would be no corresponding plan for the frontline troops to adopt immediately, and they would have to send a telegram back to ask for instructions.

Expanding the scope of action locally will inevitably lead to an escalation of the war. Although Japan's military power is not enough to make Haihan feel jealous, once the war process is prolonged indefinitely, the cost of the war will be borne by Haihan will also increase sharply.

Of course, the Ministry of National Defense values ​​the final result of the war. As for how much military expenditure will be spent in this process, that is not the primary issue that the Ministry of National Defense needs to consider.But Schneider is in charge of the national treasury, but he has to calculate the additional expenditures that will be caused by entering the next stage of the war, and must weigh whether such expenditures will exceed the scope of the current fiscal.

"Now is not a suitable time to fight a national war overseas." Tao Donglai expressed his attitude, denying the idea of ​​further expanding the scale of the war: "For us, the resources needed to defeat Japan are too large, but we can expect The profit is too small, even if we win, it is very likely to be a loss-making business, which is of little practical significance. I think we should go back to the source of the problem and think about the purpose of our launch of this operation."

Haihan's purpose of launching this war is of course very clear, that is to eliminate the hidden dangers in the Hirado area, and the center of the hidden dangers is the Eighteen Zhiyu Party, and the Tagawa father and son who these people are currently following.

In the past six months, there have been many vicious incidents against Haihan in various places. After investigation, the evidence basically points to Hirado. It is absolutely certain that Tagawasuke and his gang are the masterminds behind these incidents.No matter whether they want to revive Shibazhi or make Hirado more powerful, Haihan is determined to eliminate this hidden danger in one fell swoop, so he took force action.

Now the Ministry of National Defense believes that this military operation must be completed by arresting or eliminating Tagawa and his son, while the opposition is worried that if it continues, the scale of the war will further escalate and the country will fall into the quagmire of war.In Tao Donglai's eyes, these two views are actually biased.

"Then what do you mean, old Tao?" Yan Chujie and Tao Donglai have been partners for many years, and after hearing him expand this topic, he knew that the other party probably already had an idea.

Tao Donglai didn't go around in circles, and said straight to the point: "The purpose of our military measures is to make the Hirado Clan completely lose the ability to fight against our country. The best result is of course to capture Tagawa and his son and all the Eighteen Shiba Remnants, and destroy them. The armed forces under their command have completely settled this grievance. But everyone also knows how difficult it is to achieve this result. It is difficult for us to achieve the intended goal [-]%. So we have to imagine how to achieve the same effect in other ways .”

"The Hirado Clan is able to manufacture guns and warships, and organize and train new types of troops. The root of it is that the local area can provide enough resources for those ambitious people. Their source of funding, in addition to part of the property left by Shibazhi , mainly from Hirado's local trade income. If we can't completely destroy their authority for the time being, then we might as well think about how to completely cut off their source of income. Without sufficient financial support, all their actions will be impossible! "

"What the Ministry of National Defense is worried about now is that after we withdraw our troops, Tagawa and his son will make a comeback again. They can continue to operate the trade system of Hirado Port and get huge profits from it. After a few years, they can form another army to challenge us. Then We might as well make things more thorough, not only smashing their eating bowls, but also demolishing the kitchen, so that even if they survive, they will be reduced to the point of nowhere."

"You mean to wipe out Hirado completely? I like this idea!" Yan Chujie expressed his appreciation unabashedly. In fact, he also thought about this approach, but he knew that the words came from his own mouth, and Tao Donglai It is suggested that the effect will definitely be different.The objections are mainly aimed at the Ministry of National Defense, while Tao Donglai's position is more neutral, and the opposition he will encounter will not be too strong.

Of course, the neutral position only refers to the executive committee internally, and there is no contradiction with the radical plan he proposed.The effect of completely destroying the local trading environment in Hirado may be better than killing Tagawa and his son. Without a continuous and stable source of income, the other party will certainly not be able to maintain a large armed force for a long time. Once Tagawa's rule over the local area collapses, then I believe that the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo will not miss this opportunity to make things worse, and will try to let Nagasaki take the opportunity to replace Hirado's trading status, and even the lord of the Hirado domain may change hands again.

This time, the opposition, including Schneider, did not raise any objections. After all, what they objected to was that Haihan’s economic interests were damaged due to the continuous war. However, if the problem can be resolved as soon as possible and good economic benefits can be obtained, then their The attitude is definitely happy to see what happens.

Tao Donglai's opinion means that the military's post-war campaign against the autumn wind will turn into a three-foot looting. This radical approach seems to have been used only on the Liaodong battlefield in the past period to weaken the Qing Dynasty Strength.And since Haihan didn't intend to occupy the area for a long time, there seemed to be no room for such actions.

Of course, in the process of specific implementation, there must be more detailed standards. After all, Hirado is not all the official industry of Hirado, and there are many foreign businessmen and people.Although these people are not citizens of Haihan, considering the issue of international reputation, it is inconvenient for Haihan to cut off these people as leeks, and can only force them to leave the local area to find another way of life.

In addition, when dealing with the local people, it is certainly not possible to kill them all in one go. What Haihan wants is to maximize the benefits, not to create a mindless massacre.Although the local population is not too large, Haihan has always believed that the more the better, the domestic and overseas colonies have a large demand for labor, so there is no need to worry about finding a place to resettle people after they are taken back.

As long as the local trade environment and population base are completely destroyed, even if Tagawa and his son return to Hirado after the war, it will be difficult for the local area to return to the previous level of management, and they will no longer be able to maintain an organized armed force unless the remaining Under the command, the few Eighteenth Zhiyu Party resumed their old business and resumed their status as armed pirates.But if the opponents were reduced to that level, Hai Han would no longer have to worry about how much threat they would pose to him.

Of course, it is not without any disadvantages to adopt this extreme method. It will inevitably take more time to transport a large number of people and materials, and it is even possible to dispatch a large number of ships from Zhejiang and the Korean Peninsula to rush over. In fact, there will be many hidden dangers. For example, the front line may not have time to conduct targeted investigations on whether there are still some dangerous people hidden among the local people, and the main fleet of the Hirado Navy, which has been hiding, may also take the opportunity to attack Haihan's transport ship. .

But in any case, this solution is definitely much better than the army staying in the local area aimlessly searching for the whereabouts of Tagawa and his son. After a symbolic discussion, the Executive Committee passed this resolution with a show of hands. And hand it over to the relevant departments to start implementation immediately.

(End of this chapter)