1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2358
After leaving Soya Bay, the fleet circled Cape Noshappu on the west side of the bay, chose to pass through the waterway between Rebun Island and Rishiri Island, and headed southwest.

Mount Rishiri stands at the center of the island at an altitude of more than 700 meters on Rishiri Island. At this time, it is covered with white snow. Looking at it from dozens of miles away, it looks like a huge iceberg floating on the sea. The scenery is very magnificent. .

According to the route formulated by Wang Tom, the voyage from Zonggu Bay to the coast of Liaodong is about [-] to [-] miles. At the current speed of the fleet, it will take at least five or six days to see land.But this is not a problem at all for the sailors who are eager to return home. They all want to return to the base as soon as possible, enjoy the fresh food provided every day, and sleep in a warm barracks at night, without having to suffer on the ship. Weather against.

However, in Wang Tom's plan, the return journey is not simply burying his head on the road. There are still many places on the way that he is planning to conduct field trips.The first goal is Vladivostok.

This place should be under the rule of the Qing Dynasty at present, but it is very remote, and there should not be many people living there, so there is no need to worry about meeting the Qing army there.It just so happened that this return journey could pass through Vladivostok, and Wang Tom planned to take this rare opportunity to inspect this natural harbor that was said to have very good conditions.

Due to some inexplicable complex, Vladivostok has always occupied a unique position in the development plan of the Haihan Ministry of Defense.Although the range of activities that the Haihan army could reach in the past is still quite far away from this place, its location has been marked on the maps of some top-secret plans long ago.

A week later, the Haihan fleet arrived in Ussuri Bay, and Vladivostok is located at the southern tip of the peninsula in the west of the bay.This peninsula is marked on the map as the Amur Peninsula, but in fact this is just a place name from Tsarist Russia in the original time and space. At this time, Tsarist Russia’s sphere of influence has not yet reached here, so there is actually no specific place name here.If Wang Tom wants, he can also name it "Tom's Peninsula".

The southern tip of the peninsula is separated by a narrow strait, and there is a large island with an area of ​​nearly [-] square kilometers, which provides a natural barrier for the entrance channel of the bay of Vladivostok.Ships coming here only need to sail into the strait from east to west before they can see the entrance to the bay of Vladivostok.

This bay named Golden Horn stretches from southwest to northeast into the interior of the peninsula. It is about fifteen miles long and has a nearly right-angled bend in the middle.The entire bay is less than two miles wide, and the water depth is about ten feet. The bay is surrounded by low hills, and the terrain is very dangerous. Whether it is a safe haven or a military base, it has excellent conditions.

If the timing is right, of course Tom Wang has plans to occupy this place first, but when he got there, he found that there was a huge problem with his arrangement.

Vladivostok freezes for up to [-] days every winter, and the sea in the bay usually does not thaw slowly until mid-to-late March.And now it's only February, and there are no special ships such as icebreakers in the fleet. It is obviously difficult to sail into the Golden Horn Bay to scout the terrain of the harbor.

Wang Tom looked at the huge ice floes floating on the sea on the deck, and could only dispel the idea of ​​letting the fleet venture into the harbor.If the ship is frozen in the harbor, it will take more than a month to get out, or the ship will be crushed by ice floes and completely scrapped.

But even though he was blocked by the ice floes, Wang Tom didn't want to miss this trip, so he decided to send a small team to land and scout the situation in the bay.

This time Tom Wang didn't intend to wait for the news on the boat, but led the team ashore in person.Naturally, Shen Xueyi followed closely behind. He wanted to see what was so different about this harbor that Wang Tom specially changed his itinerary to investigate.

A company of the Marine Corps landed together with Wang Tom. They approached the coast in small boats, and finally boarded the thick ice layer ten feet away from the land, and set foot on the land through the ice floes.

After traveling northward for a few miles, Tom Wang and his party finally saw the interior of the bay. There were large pieces of floating ice everywhere on the not-so-wide water surface, and a large area of ​​water surface was frozen in places where the water flow was relatively gentle.At a glance, no large ships were moored in the bay as far as the eye could see.

Tom Wang took out his binoculars and watched for a while, and found that there were some small fishing boats turned upside down on the beach on the other side of the bay, which seemed to be local fishermen.Farther to the north, you can faintly see the outlines of some houses, but the snow on the ground is too thick, almost a foot deep, and it takes a lot of effort to get there.

Wang Tom is not surprised that there are people living in this place. The Ussuri Bay and the Amur Bay on the east and west sides of Vladivostok are sea areas rich in aquatic resources, rich in sardines, fin fish, cuttlefish, herring, etc. If you are a fisherman here, you will not be rich. Expensive, but at least you won't be hungry, and sitting on a natural haven, you basically don't have to worry about bad weather destroying your fishing boat.

However, after observing the surrounding terrain environment, Tom Wang also quickly discovered the shortcomings of this place.Whether it is near the bay or the entire peninsula, there is basically no land suitable for farming.

This situation is also consistent with the satellite map that Tom Wang has studied before. The closest agricultural area to the Golden Horn is the coast fifty miles to the north.This means that if this area is to be developed and constructed, it will actually be necessary to build two areas, of which the northern area is dedicated to agricultural production, otherwise the materials needed locally will not be self-sufficient.

In view of the remote location of Vladivostok, it is almost impossible for Haihan to invest a lot of manpower in the local construction and development from the beginning.And the lack of conditions for agricultural development near the harbor here will make the entire construction plan more difficult, and it can only rely on materials shipped from North Korea hundreds of miles away for a long time.

It happened that there were people from the North Korean military around him. Tom Wang called Shen Xueyi over and asked him, "If our country needs your country's assistance to build a colonial port here, what do you think?"

Shen Xueyi said: "This place is covered by ice and snow for several months every year, it is not a livable place, and I have never heard of any special products here before, and there are no big towns around, why did the general choose this place to build a colonial port ?”

Shen Xueyi's rhetorical question made Wang Tom slightly taken aback. Of course, he couldn't just say that he planned to set up a military base here. If the natural conditions here are measured by the requirements of the colonial port, it is indeed not an ideal environment.

Shen Xueyi went on to say: "If your country needs our country's assistance, it will naturally help with all its strength, but this place has no other advantages except for a good harbor. I think this place is not the best choice."

However, Wang Tom has been deeply influenced by other high-level figures in Haihan for many years, and his obsession with Vladivostok is not so easy to let go. He still said unsatisfactorily: "However, there are really few harbors with such excellent conditions in this area."

Shen Xueyi shook his head and said, "General Wang, that's not likely. A few hundred miles to the south is the border of our country, and there are similar harbors. As far as I know, there is a bay in North Hamgyong Province, and it will not be frozen in winter. There is still a little land around the harbour, which can be cultivated."

Tom Wang suddenly felt his eyes light up, and quickly asked: "Then is this place you mentioned a ready-made port?"

Shen Xueyi said: "That place is too far away from the nearby towns, and there is not much population. At most, there is a fishing port. If your country is interested, you can lease it to your country as a trading port."

"Let's go, let's go and see the place you mentioned!" Wang Tom didn't want to stay in Vladivostok for a minute.If there is such a good place described by Shen Xueyi a few hundred miles to the south, then there is really no need to invest huge resources in development in a place like Vladivostok.

Shen Xueyi is really not bragging. He does know such a place. Anyway, it is deserted. It is better to introduce it to the Haihan people. If the Haihan people like the place, they will lease it to them for development, and by the way, promote the development of the surrounding area. .

The effect of similar cooperation methods has been initially verified in the Datong River Basin.The many cooperative industries in the local area have solved the livelihood problems of tens of thousands of North Korean people, and will bring considerable income to the North Korean treasury every year in the future.For a cooperation project like this, North Korea can obtain long-term benefits only by sending people out of the country. At present, it seems that there is no other way to effectively solve the difficult financial situation of North Korea.

However, Shen Xueyi is very aware of the difference between a trading port and a colonial port, so he is also very cautious in his words. He only said that this place can be provided to Haihan to build a trading port, but deliberately did not mention the "colonial" related content.

Tom Wang doesn't care about these small calculations of the other party, what he thinks is far more important than these trivial things.

If Haihan wants to effectively control the Sea of ​​Japan area between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago in the future, and at the same time radiate to Liaodong, Sakhalin Island and other places in the north, then the existing Taedong River base will be difficult to meet the requirements. After all, from the Datong River Departing from the base, entering the Sea of ​​Japan requires bypassing the entire Korean Peninsula, which is not ideal from a geographical point of view.

Wang Tom had made a comprehensive survey of the northwest coastline of the Japanese archipelago in the first half of the trip, but he did not find a favorite place.Hakodate in Hokkaido was originally a place with good conditions, but it is too far away from Haihan's existing control area. The direct distance from the nearest Dinghai Port is four thousand miles away, and the local population is not large. Wang Tom also worried that the logistics would not be effectively guaranteed if he had to travel so far to build a colonial port.

Therefore, on the return trip, Wang Tom chose Vladivostok as the inspection target. The geographical location and harbor conditions here are more in line with Wang Tom’s strategic concept, but the environment is not perfect, and too many resources need to be invested in the early development and construction, so it may not be said. It's a good deal.

If what Shen Xueyi said was true, then the fact that the port was not frozen would be worth the fleet's special trip.

A group of people returned to the ship, and the fleet sailed out from the west side of the strait, then turned south, and traveled along the coastline to the Korean Peninsula.Only a day and a half later, the fleet arrived at the place Shen Xueyi said.

This is a bay facing south, its east side is a peninsula about fifteen or six miles long, and its west side is the mainland.The bay is narrow in the north and wide in the south, and the entrance is about ten miles wide. It is divided into two waterways, east and west, by two islands, one large and one small, arranged vertically.

At the end of the bay is a river valley plain with an area of ​​about [-] square kilometers, surrounded by mountains.In terms of the usable area of ​​the harbor, it is obviously much larger than that of Vladivostok, and the river valley plain has natural water conservancy conditions, so it should be easier to carry out agricultural development.

"This place is called Rajin, which is under the jurisdiction of North Hamgyong Province. I actually don't know much about the situation here. After I go ashore, I'll ask the local officials." Shen Xueyi's introduction was very brief, because he really knew Not very familiar with this place.The reason why I know this place is that I passed by here by sea in the early years because of official business, and I used to take shelter here temporarily, so I have an impression of the environment here.

Wang Tom's views on this place have been reflected in the orders he issued, and several ships began to spread out in and out of the bay. Their task was to collect hydrological data here, measure the size of the bay, and draw a more detailed map. .

Wang Tom prepared detailed satellite maps in advance for several key inspection targets in this itinerary, but the place of Luojin was obviously out of the plan, so there was no detailed map of this place for reference at all, so he could only carry out Field surveyed.

Rajin Bay is located more than 300 miles southwest of Vladivostok. The difference in latitude is actually not that big. Compared with Hakodate on the opposite side of the Sea of ​​Japan, the latitude is a little higher, but there is only a small amount of floating ice on the sea surface in the bay. And the near shore is not as frozen as Vladivostok.Obviously, what Shen Xueyi said is completely true, and this is indeed a rare ice-free port.

Whether it is the hydrological conditions or the surrounding environment, it is obviously much better than Vladivostok, which is [-] miles away.But Tom Wang had never heard of this place at all, which also made him temporarily doubt the capabilities of the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense. How could he miss such a good place.

In fact, this is not entirely a matter of the capabilities of the Military Intelligence Bureau, but rather that the Ministry of National Defense's selection criteria for natural harbors are mostly based on the famous ports in the time and space before the crossing. The Luojin Bay only started to grow a few years before the crossing. Large-scale development and construction, so when they crossed, this was not a well-known big port, so it was ignored by the Ministry of Defense.

Wang Tom couldn't wait to lead the team ashore.This time, Shen Xueyi took the Haihan people to visit a nearby fishing village as a rare host.

(End of this chapter)