1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2359
Luojin Bay is located in a remote place, and the local resident population is only a small fishing village on the nearby coast. The combined population of men, women and children is less than 100.The nearest government office is more than [-] miles away, and only tax collectors come to this place twice a year to collect taxes.Shen Xueyi wanted to find someone from the government here, so naturally he missed it without any suspense.

After a lot of tossing, Shen Xueyi still found the village head here, revealed his identity, and asked him to cooperate with Tom Wang's investigation.

The village chief is not a prominent figure, he is just an old fisherman who has lived here for generations. The biggest official he has ever met before is only a county supervisor of the sixth grade. He has never met a big man who came out of Seoul. Terrified with fear, he stuttered a bit.

Seeing this, Wang Tom asked, "Shen Xueyi, haven't you been here before? Why are you completely unfamiliar with the locals?"

Shen Xueyi explained: "General, the last time I came here was just to take shelter from the storm, and I didn't go ashore to contact the locals. General, just ask if you want to know anything. I have told him to cooperate well and not hide anything."

The information Tom Wang wants to know is also very basic, nothing more than local population, livelihood, transportation, income status, climate conditions, etc. These questions can only be answered by local residents.

The old village head did not dare to neglect, and explained the questions raised by Wang Tom one by one.Most of the local people settled here before North Korea entered the Lee Dynasty, and the old village head's family has lived here for at least 20 generations.Because the place is remote and surrounded by mountains that stretch for hundreds of miles, it was rarely involved in wars in history.For example, when North Korea was invaded by the Qing army last year, there was no disturbance here, just like a paradise.

As for the climatic conditions, as Shen Xueyi knew, it was rare to experience freezing conditions here in winter. The old village chief had lived here all his life, and he had only seen Luojin Bay frozen by floating ice once.Even the river water that flows into the sea at Rajin Bay from the nearby mountains rarely freezes.

In terms of farming, the river valley plain here has good soil quality, but because the food crops grown by the local people are of average variety, and there is only one season a year, the harvest is not ideal.Of course, if Haihan wants to organize agricultural production here, he must set up a collective farm or plantation according to his own model, and the farming efficiency will far exceed the current level.Based on the area of ​​arable land available for reclamation in the river valley plain here, it only takes one to two years to achieve self-sufficiency in grain output.

Luojin Bay is surrounded by dense forests and rich in timber resources. It should not be a problem to build a local shipyard.In addition, the old village head also provided an important piece of information. There are coal mines in the mountains and forests more than 20 miles north of Luojin Bay, but the transportation is inconvenient, so generally only the people in the surrounding areas will go there to dig some by themselves before winter comes. , for heating in winter.Although the specific reserves are unknown, according to the old village chief, the coal mine should be buried extremely shallow, and the veins can be reached by excavating directly from the surface.

Wang Tom immediately asked the old village head to find someone to fetch some coal from the villagers' homes to check the quality of these samples.To his surprise, the coal gangue content in these coals is extremely low, which basically meets the standard of clean coal.This means that if regular mining of the nearby coal mines can be organized, it will even be possible to refuel the steam-powered fleet in the future.

Shen Xueyi did not give up, and asked carefully again to confirm whether there were other special products within a radius of tens of miles of Luojin Bay, but it was obviously impossible for God to gather all the good things in one place, the old village head thought hard For a long time, he didn't say anything good that could make Tom Wang's eyes shine.

If one had to find fault with this place, it would probably be that it was too far away from the power center of North Korea and the control area of ​​Haihan.The straight-line distance from here to the Datong River is more than a thousand miles, and it is even farther to Seoul.Judging from the property status, surrounding environment, and population size here, it is obviously not suitable for construction as a trading port. Basically, it can only be used for military purposes. However, there will definitely be many problems in the deployment and distribution of materials and personnel in the early stage. It needs to be solved slowly, and it is impossible to make a decision immediately and then do it overnight.

After all the arrivals, Tom Wang decided to let the fleet rest in Luojin Bay for a day, and take the time to complete various surveying and mapping tasks by the way.The local people didn't understand why so many soldiers suddenly poured into their homeland, and seeing that their uniforms were not from the national army, and there were so many large ships parked by the sea, it seemed like the end was coming, and they were all very panicked.Shen Xueyi had no choice but to let the old village chief go back to the village to explain the situation, so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

The old village head was knowledgeable and interesting. After returning to the village, he immediately organized some supplies mainly from various households and sent them to the coast on his own initiative, saying that it was a little kindness from the local villagers.Wang Tom knew that these fishermen should be worried about being robbed by his uninvited guests, so he offered to pay tribute to show respect. He immediately ordered the quartermaster to pick some daily necessities from the fleet's cargo as a return gift to show his goodwill.

Of course, with the purpose of the Haihan army coming here, there is really no need to do these actions to appease the hearts of the people. Wang Tom's move is entirely for Shen Xueyi to see. If Haihan really wants to do something here in the future, then Shen Xueyi may also be able to Help blow the wind in the court.

The next morning, after the surveying and mapping work came to an end, the fleet set sail again and continued south along the coastline.When sailing out of the bay, Wang Tom once again admired the two islands at the entrance of the bay, one large and one small, which are like door gods. As long as an outpost is set up in its position, the range of early warning and surveillance can be greatly increased, and even forts can be erected , to help Luojin Bay build a sound defense system.

However, Wang Tom also realized immediately that the external forces that can pose a maritime threat to Rajin Bay basically do not exist at present. Whether it is Japan, Manchu Qing or Tsarist Russia, there is currently no armed fleet that can deter this place. .And Haihan's need for this harbor may not be as urgent as he thinks.

After leaving Rajin Bay, the fleet traveled all the way south, and stopped at Gangneung, Gangwon-do Province to replenish fresh water four days later.

The fleet had replenished fresh water and supplies in Luojin Bay, and could actually continue a longer voyage at sea. It was actually Shen Xueyi's idea to stop here.The local official here, Shen Yongsi, is of the same family as the Shen family. Shen Xueyi wanted to introduce them in the middle, so that this local official can get in touch with the Haihan people, and see if a cross-border trade channel can be established in Jiangling, so that everyone can make some money.

In fact, Wang Tom is not very interested in trade matters. Although he has facilitated some trade projects with North Korea in the past, it is just a matter of convenience.Shen Xueyi's face may not be given, but his father is a military judge and holds military power in North Korea. There are many military matters that need to be contacted with the military office. It is necessary to maintain a good personal relationship between the two parties.

For this kind of business based on personal relationship, Wang Tom was not sure whether he would have a direct relationship with Mr. Shen from Bing Cao Yamen, so he did not categorically reject Shen Xueyi's proposal.

"Master Shen, I don't know what local products are there, can you briefly introduce them to me?" After Wang Tom saw Shen Yongsi, he quickly got to the point.

But in fact, Gangwon-do, where Jiangling is located, does not have any special large-scale products. It is nothing more than coal mines, iron ore, and timber. During the development process, relevant technical personnel have no free time to deal with new projects.So unless the quality is outstanding, Haihan probably has no way to develop other similar projects at the same time.

As for the samples prepared by Shen Yongsi, Tom Wang did not express his attitude after seeing them.Although he is not a trade expert, he has also learned about various tricks in cross-border trade through various channels, and he will not easily think that these samples provided by Shen Yongsi can represent the true quality of local products, unless it is like the one in Luojin Bay before. As in fishing villages, the coal that is casually taken from the fishermen's homes can reach the quality of clean coal.

Only by on-site inspection and personal witness can the quality of the product be determined. This is a business rule that Schneider told him before.Although this kind of knowledge is usually useless, Tom Wang still keeps it firmly in his mind.

But he didn't have much time to stay in Jiangling, or he didn't want to stay in Jiangling for too long because of these "trivial matters".In his opinion, Gangneung has no natural harbor and is almost entirely mountainous. There is not much room for development around it, and it is unlikely to develop into the trading port that the North Koreans expected.

However, in front of the two members of the Shen family, Tom Wang did not speak so bluntly. He only said that the samples of the goods provided by Jiangling would be sent to Seoul, and Haihan's commercial organization would conduct professional inspection on the samples. Then propose suitable offer and trade method.In short, they put on a business-like attitude, so that the two Shen family couldn't find any faults.

After staying in Jiangling for a day, the fleet set off again and headed south.Before leaving, Shen Yongsi also sent a batch of supplies to the fleet, chicken, duck and fish. Although the value is not too high, it is very practical, and it can be regarded as winning a little favor from Tom Wang.

Four hundred miles south from Jiangling, the fleet arrived at Xinghai County. There is a large harbor facing northeast. Although it is not well-known in this era, there are only a few fishing villages, but Tom Wang specially came here to take a look. Look.In the time and space before he traveled, this was the very famous Pohang Port, one of the most important ports on the Korean Peninsula.

There are many mountain plains in the area near the harbor here, and the water conservancy conditions are quite good. In terms of development prospects, the conditions are far better than the Rajin Bay and Jiangling that Wang Tom visited before.However, it is already [-] miles away from Rajin Bay in the north. In terms of geographical location, if a military base is set up here, it may be difficult to radiate to the northern area of ​​the Sea of ​​Japan.

Continue to sail southward for more than 100 miles from this harbor, and you will arrive at another natural harbor, Ulsan Bay.This place belongs to the jurisdiction of Ulsan County and is adjacent to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Silla. It has been developed for a long time, so it is much more prosperous than the few harbors I visited before.However, Tom Wang did not arrange for the fleet to stay here, and only took a boat around the harbor and then continued to head south.

After tens of miles to the southwest from Ulsan, there is another natural port, Busan.It is the largest port in Korea in later generations and one of the busiest ports in the world.A hundred miles to the southeast is Tsushima Island in Japan. On the west side of the harbor is the estuary of the Nakdong River. There is a large area of ​​fertile alluvial plains. There are also natural barriers formed by many islands outside the harbor on the south side. It is the sea gateway at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula.

Due to its unique geographical advantages, it was designated as a commercial port by the Li Dynasty more than 200 years ago, specializing in transnational trade with Japan.

However, during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, Busan was annexed by the Japanese and became a colony because it was the nearest large port to Japan. It was not until the end of the war in 1607 that the two countries resumed normal diplomatic relations and Busan returned to North Korea. , the port here was slowly rebuilt.

This time, Wang Tom didn't skip this place again, but ordered the fleet to enter the port to rest for two days.Because there are no target locations that require special investigation in the upcoming itinerary, Wang Tom also arranges a short rest time at the final stage of this itinerary, so that the soldiers of the fleet can relax a little.

More than 1000 Haihan soldiers came to Busan Port all at once. These people all carried the military pay that had just been paid, and had been floating on the sea for two months. They almost forgot what the city looked like. After entering Busan, they began to spend a lot of money. , but suddenly boosted the local economy.

Accompanied by Shen Xueyi, Wang Tom also visited Busan City. What surprised him most was neither the busy port here nor the Japanese people and Japanese-style shops everywhere in the city, but the fact that he saw the gate here. The shops and restaurants with the double-color flags of Haihan hanging outside should obviously be the property of Haihan merchants.

Tom Wang strolled into the restaurant named "Mingyue Tower". Sure enough, the shopkeeper saw his clothes and immediately trotted over, greeted him in Haihan Mandarin, and hurriedly arranged the best Please enjoy the private room with Wang Tom and his party.

Wang Tom said: "I remember seeing restaurants with the same name in Zhoushan and Seoul. They should be run by the same owner, right?"

The shopkeeper replied respectfully: "Your Excellency has a good memory. The Mingyue Buildings in these places are indeed owned by the same owner. This year, two new ones have been opened in Fushan County, Shandong Province and Jinzhou, East Liaodong. If you have the opportunity to go to When you get there, please remember to take care of my business."

(End of this chapter)