1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2348
From Haihan's point of view, Daming still lacks sufficient awareness of the danger of its own situation, and does not regard the Manchus as a huge threat to exterminate the country and species. Population, after obtaining these, they will automatically exit the customs.

Perhaps the situation in the early years was indeed like this, but with the ebb and flow of power, the ambitions of the Manchu Qing will not stop at looting after all, and they will seize more land from the hands of the Ming Dynasty, and even replace the rule of the Ming Dynasty over the Central Plains. Gradually become the goal of Manqing.

But at least at this stage, in the Great Ming Dynasty Hall, Haihan is still regarded as a greater threat than the Manchu Qing.Haihan Kingdom needs money, money, technology, technology, an invincible army, and brilliant strategies for governing the country. In the past ten years, it has occupied a lot of places along the coast of Daming by means of plunder.

The most important thing is that the Haihan Kingdom is also a Han regime, and its language, culture, and living habits are similar to those of Ming Dynasty. If it wants to replace Ming Dynasty's dominance one day, it seems that it will be easier to gain the recognition of the people and not be treated as a foreigner.

Based on this view, Da Ming has always been very vigilant towards Hai Han. Even if he had to establish a so-called military alliance with Hai Han due to internal and external difficulties in the past two years, the diplomatic relations between the two countries are still far away. far from normalization.

Even though the war that took place in North Korea last year has fully proved that the combat power of the Haihan army is far superior to that of the Qing army, as long as the Haihan army is invited to fight, even North Korea with weak military strength can defeat the Manchus, and Ming is still not convinced. I would like to lower my profile and ask Haihan for military assistance like North Korea.

Using money to order weapons and equipment from Haihan is already the best that Daming can do at this stage.As for further military cooperation, it is still unnecessary in Da Ming's view.

Of course, this attitude is not entirely out of arrogance. North Korea’s request for Haihan to send troops to fend off the enemy is not something that can be done with a single sentence, and the price paid for it is no secret.Assuming that Ming Dynasty wants to ask Haihan to send troops to attack the Qing army in the same way, I am afraid that the price it needs to pay will be several times that of North Korea. It is very likely that it will become an act of luring wolves into the house, just like the Jinzhou area occupied by Haihan today, and there is no way to take it back smoothly.

Daming's various fears about Haihan were not groundless, so he never took a more proactive attitude in military cooperation. It's not that Yue Yongshou didn't know the inside story, but deliberately concealed it, so as not to anger Chen Yixin.But this information is not a complete secret to Hai Han, and he can naturally learn about it through other channels. Hai Han is by no means ignorant of Daming's mentality of worrying about gains and losses.

Whether the appearance of Qing musketeers will bring more pressure to Ming and force him to change his attitude towards Hai Han is still unknown.The information Chen Yixin provided to Yue Yongshou must have been a little late when it was written as a memorial and sent back to Daming. It's hard to say how Daming will understand Hai Han's belated warning.If someone intentionally misinterpreted Hai Han's intentions, Chen Yixin's good intentions might backfire and be regarded as intentional coercion.

Of course, maybe at a certain point when he couldn't sustain it, Daming would wake up and ask Haihan for formal military assistance, but the price he had to pay at that time would hardly be the same as it is now.

When Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun finished the snow-treading operation and led their troops back to the Datongjiang base, they received a report on North Korea's raid on Hirado.

"The North Koreans acted very fast this time!" Qian Tiandun was quite surprised when he received the battle report. In his opinion, the North Koreans should not have moved so fast.

Wang Tom quickly scanned the battle report and understood what was going on: "The North Koreans did not choose to send troops from Seoul, but gathered troops from nearby Jeollanam-do and Gyeongsangnam-do areas. And the place they attacked was not Hirado Island, but the Goto Islands, that's why the battle report came out so soon."

If North Korea wants to organize troops to go out from the vicinity of Seoul, the round-trip voyage will have to be increased by at least [-] miles, and the number of combat supplies required for this will also increase a lot. The expected benefits of this operation will inevitably increase. Big discount.After discussing with the ministers, Li Yan decided to adjust the action plan and send troops directly from the southern coast, which is closer to the Hirado Domain of Japan.On the one hand, troops can be dispatched at the fastest speed, and on the other hand, the materials needed during the operation will be saved a lot.

Although the troops drawn from the local area are definitely not as effective as the elites in Seoul, but considering that the Hirado Fan was only attacked by the Haihan Army with a thunderbolt half a year ago, it should not recover so quickly. The troops should be competent enough to perform this task.

There is indeed no problem with Li Yan's judgment, but when sending troops to the southern region, the generals who led the troops still had a lot of fear of the Hirado Domain. In the end, they did not go directly to Hirado Island, but chose a relatively stronger defensive force The weak Goto Islands area is the primary target.

The North Korean army fought tremblingly, but did not encounter much resistance on the ground. It took ten days to complete the looting of the Wudao Islands relatively smoothly.However, the results of the operation were not very satisfactory. Only less than 1000 people were captured in this area, basically all the fish that slipped through the net after the last raid by the Haihan Army were caught.

After completing the looting of the Goto Islands, the North Korean fleet did not enter Hirado Island again, but withdrew directly.The Japanese captured there have been transported to Seoul according to Haihan's request, and it is estimated that the handover with Haihan will be completed on Ganghwa Island in a few days.

Qian Tiandun shook his head again and again and said: "Let them go to Hirado Island, but they withdrew after taking the Wudao Islands. How much oil and water can there be on those islands? How much money can they get in exchange for just taking so few people back! The North Koreans have a lot of thunder and little rain, and I don’t know if their robbing of this little thing is enough to cover the cost of sending troops this time.”

Wang Tom said: "Li Yan is not a fool, even if this action is a loss, it is a loss for him."

Qian Tiandun was slightly moved: "You mean, the North Koreans discounted this action, but it was actually Li Yan's decision?"

"At least he should know about it." Tom Wang reminded: "Don't forget, Li Yi also specially sent Shen Xueyi to direct this operation. Could the imperial envoy he sent to supervise the battle also turn a blind eye to this little trick of paddling?"

When Tom Wang said this, Qian Tiandun immediately understood what he meant.Whether this operation can capture a large number of people as the Haihan people expected may not be that important to Li Yan, but as long as the operation is successful, it can greatly enhance his personal prestige for Li Yan who has just ascended the throne.

When North Korea suffered from the Imjin Japanese Invasion, Li Yi was not yet born, but Li Yi learned about the shadow of this humiliating history on North Korea from his father when he was very young.During Li Zhen's reign, he also very much hoped that one day he could retaliate against Japan, but because of his weak national strength, he did not have the courage to turn his face against Japan, so he could only continue to maintain superficial diplomatic relations.

It has only been more than a month since Li Yan ascended the throne, and he has made a move against Japan, his old enemy, and he can achieve good results. For him, the benefits brought by this operation are far more than just compensation with prisoners. Haihan just borrowed money.

Although the Hirado Domain was ransacked by the Haihan Army half a year ago, the former Hirado Navy Army was the number one in Japan. If the Haihan Army’s suppression operations were not cleaned up at that time, it would be a waste to attack Hirado Island directly. Very risky move.The Goto Islands, which are relatively easy to attack, can be used for stability. Anyway, the Goto Islands are also the territory of the Hirado Clan.

Even if everyone knows that the attack on Hirado was guaranteed by Haihan, as long as the battle report comes out and the captives are transported back to the country, no one can question Li Yi's brilliance. After all, this is a feat that previous kings failed to achieve. .

As for whether this kind of action will anger the Japanese shogunate and invite war retaliation, that is actually not something Li Yan needs to worry about.If such a situation really happened, Haihan would definitely stand in the front. After all, high-ranking officials of Haihan had expressed their views in front of Li Yi more than once, and they were worried that they could not find a suitable excuse to start a war with Japan.

After thinking about it so carefully, it seems reasonable that this action against the Hirado clan will become what it is in the battle report.

After Qian Tiandun figured out the reason, he didn't get angry. Instead, he commented with a smile: "Li Yi really learned a lot after studying in Sanya for a year!"

Wang Tom said: "It's okay for Li Yan to play tricks with us, as long as he clearly remembers how he got his throne."

Although Li Yan is the heir to the throne designated by the former king Li Zhen, in the event of a palace coup in North Korea, if Hai Han hadn't protected him and returned to Seoul to seize power, it is really unclear whether he can take the throne easy to say.

From a certain point of view, the main reason why Li Yi was able to successfully ascend the throne may not be that he was the designated heir of the previous king, but that Hai Han chose to support him to become the king of Joseon.If Haihan chose one of his two brothers as the new king at that time, then Li Yi would probably have to go into exile overseas now, existing as a spare tire for Haihan to control the Korean throne.

Even now, if Li Yi's actions endanger Haihan's interests in North Korea, then Haihan still has enough ability to change the candidate for the throne.There is no need for Hai Hanming to say this, Li Yi should be very clear about it.

Wang Tom said: "Since not many prisoners have been captured, I don't think there is any need to hold a handover ceremony. Later, I will say hello to the North Koreans and let them send them to the Datong River by themselves."

Qian Tiandun said: "Is there any mention of the current situation of the Hirado Clan in the battle report?"

Tom Wang understood what Qian Tiandun was concerned about, so he handed the battle report to him immediately: "You should see for yourself!"

It took Qian Tiandun a while to read the battle report, and there was not much valuable information, especially the status quo of the Hirado clan that he was concerned about, which was hardly mentioned in the battle report.

"North Koreans are still not professional enough!" Qian Tiandun shook his head, secretly failing the battle report.

In the first half of the year, the Haihan army launched an all-round attack on the Hirado clan, not only annihilating the main armed forces of the Hirado clan, but also destroying the Hirado clan's workshops for manufacturing weapons and warships, and kidnapping a large number of people , When retreating, they even set fire to the entire city of Hirado, and it can be said that they did not hold back at all.

However, Tagawa Nanaemon, the descendant of Zheng Zhilong, the lord of the Hirado Domain, and Kai Han, who wanted to arrest him, have never been arrested. In theory, there is still the possibility of a comeback.After half a year, the social order of the Hirado Clan has recovered somewhat. Whether Tagawasuke has returned to Hirado Island to continue to preside over the overall situation is information that the Haihan Army is very concerned about.If the North Korean army invaded Hirado Island according to Haihan's suggestion, it would not be difficult to collect such information, and it would even be possible to capture important figures like Tagawasuke.

The North Koreans obviously didn't understand Haihan's need for such intelligence information, so they didn't show it in the battle report.In fact, as long as the prisoners are carefully interrogated, some information can be obtained more or less.

Wang Tom said: "We will interrogate ourselves when someone brings it over. But don't expect too much. People on the Wudao Islands may not know the situation on Hirado Island."

Although the distance between Hirado Island and the Goto Islands is not too far, there are hundreds of miles from Hirado Castle to the Goto Islands. Ordinary people will certainly not frequently travel between the two places.These captives captured by the North Koreans may know the news about Hirado after being looted by the Haihan Army in the first half of the year.

Qian Tiandun was silent for a while, and then said: "If there is no news, it is best to arrange a reconnaissance operation and send people to see the actual situation on Hirado Island."

"This can be." Wang Tom nodded to express his agreement with this suggestion.

The reason why they care so much about Hirado’s situation is that firstly, they want to eliminate the Eighteen Zhiyu Party, so as to prevent this hidden danger from causing troubles to Haihan in the future; Qing colluded to make trouble.

Originally, they wanted to use the strength of the North Koreans to achieve their goals, so that they didn't have to do it themselves.But now it seems that the actions of the North Koreans are obviously unreliable. It is impossible to count on them to get things done. If necessary, the Haihan army has to do it by itself.If necessary, they would even have to send out another large-scale troop attack to completely destroy the existence of the Hirado Clan.

However, the snow stepping operation has just ended, and there is still enough time for the troops to rest, so there is no need to rush to turn their guns to the next target.

(End of this chapter)