1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2460
From the end of 1644 to the spring of 1645, the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing once again launched a brutal tug-of-war outside Shanhaiguan, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.Daming knew that if he could not hold back his breath and let the Qing army break through Shanhaiguan, it would probably lead to a complete collapse.And Man Qing also knew that it is impossible to easily invade Daming to plunder supplies and population as before. If Daming cannot be completely defeated on the frontal battlefield, the war will turn into a long-term war of attrition, which is not an advantage for national strength. It is by no means a good thing for Man Qing.

These two families were red-hot, and Haihan took the opportunity to make a fortune from the war. The Ministry of Commerce went all out to conduct various large transactions with Ming and Qing.During the war, the two countries had a huge demand for funds and combat materials, but Haihan saw the right time, lowered the purchase prices of various raw materials, and increased the prices of various industrial products and combat materials.

It is not only the Haihan Ministry of Commerce that makes a lot of money, but also the garrisons in Liaodong, Shandong, Zhejiang and other places that are responsible for executing these transactions are also rich.The jurisdictions of Chen Yixin and Shi Diwen have expanded a lot in the past year, so the request for the expansion of the garrison has also been approved. At the same time, the Ministry of National Defense has made new adjustments to the overseas garrison in the area north of the Taiwan Strait.

The Beihai Theater Command was established, under the jurisdiction of Dengzhou in Shandong, Jinzhou in Liaodong, and all the garrisons at the Datongjiang Base in North Korea. The Nanguanling Camp in Jinzhou is the headquarters, and its jurisdiction covers Liaodong Peninsula, Shandong Peninsula, Korean Peninsula, and the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. area.

Established the East China Sea Theater Command, which has jurisdiction over all garrisons in Ningbo, Zhejiang, Jeju Island, North Korea, and Sasebo, Japan. The Ningbo Zhoushan Dinghai Port Base is the seat of the headquarters. The area under its jurisdiction is the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang from the south of Haizhou Bay to the north of the Taiwan Strait. Jeju Island, Kyushu Island region of Japan.

The top commanders of these two headquarters are Chen Yixin and Shi Diwen respectively. Thanks to the increase in population after the expansion of their jurisdiction, they finally have a relatively sufficient source of troops to realize the expansion.And Haihan also needs to maintain a relatively strong deployment of troops in these areas, so that if Daming really collapses suddenly, Haihan can send troops to clean up the mess in time to prevent the Qing army from going south and impacting the wealthy areas of Daming.

But at this time, something happened in North Korea that caught Haihan by surprise.At this time, King Li Yi of North Korea had completely controlled the domestic military and political power. After six or seven years of recuperation after he ascended the throne, the economic situation of the entire country has also improved significantly.The new army formed with the help of Haihan has a strength of more than [-]. All senior officers in the army have the experience of studying abroad in Haihan for military training, and their combat effectiveness is no less than that of any of Haihan's assisted troops.

Perhaps it was the increase in national power and military power that made Li Yan a little bit flustered. In the summer of 1645, he publicly published a call to action against the Qing Dynasty, expressing that he would send troops to Liaodong to crusade against the Manchu Qing, in order to avenge his oppression and invasion by the Manchu Qing.

Although Chen Yixin immediately sent a telegram to the diplomats stationed in Seoul to negotiate with North Korea and asked Li Yan to cancel the order to send troops, but Li Yan, who was eager for revenge, did not heed his opinion and ordered the North Korean troops to cross from Uiju. Cross the Yalu River to launch an offensive against the Manchu Qing ruled area.

At this time, the main forces of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties were almost all deployed on the battlefield along the coast of Liaodong Bay. It was not expected that North Korea would have the courage to launch a surprise attack on itself, and there was no preparation for this. .Such a battle situation made Li Yan even more convinced that his decision to take the initiative to attack was the correct strategy, so he suggested that Haihan directly send troops to Gaizhouwei, and form a flanking attack with the North Korean army from east to west.

However, Chen Yixin did not agree with the idea of ​​the North Koreans. Although this new army has been established for a certain period of time, and it has been trained and armed in full accordance with Haihan's arrangement, and has a certain combat effectiveness, it has not really participated in the war since its establishment. In large-scale battles, the actual combat experience is obviously insufficient.The north bank of the Yalu River is a relatively unfamiliar area for this army. The hundreds of miles from Yizhou to Shenyang are all mountainous, and the terrain is very complicated. It is difficult to achieve the ideal level in terms of marching speed and logistical support. Let the opponent have sufficient time to organize a counterattack.

Once the Qing army launched a counterattack, Chen Yixin was not optimistic about the North Koreans at all.In the past, this country had almost never achieved victory in its independent battle against the Manchu Qing, and its self-confidence was not as sufficient as Li Yan thought.What's more, Haihan is desperately trying to squeeze oil and water from the Manchu Qing, and going to war rashly will cause Haihan to suffer a lot of economic losses. Chen Yixin now needs a lot of funds to expand the strength of his troops, so naturally he is unwilling to go to war easily.

Chen Yixin called Seoul, indicating that Haihan would not immediately take military action against the Manchus in the Liaodong Peninsula, and hoped that North Korea would also accept it as soon as it was good, so as not to let the situation worsen.

However, at this time, Li Yan, who knew that the front-line troops were advancing triumphantly, could no longer listen to Chen Yixin's advice, and still did not order to withdraw troops. Instead, he encouraged the front-line generals to continue to advance northward. Benxi County pushed North Korea's border three hundred miles northward.

The dream is beautiful, but the reality is cruel. The North Korean army was ambushed by the Qing army at Lianshan Pass, [-] miles south of Benxi. After a day and night of hard work, only [-]% of the troops left the battlefield and successfully retreated.Afterwards, these Qing troops originally deployed in Shenyang pursued all the way south, and drove the North Korean army back to the south of the Yalu River.In the process, the North Korean army lost about a quarter of its troops, and many senior military officers died in battle.

Although the North Korean army also wiped out many local armed forces in the Qing Dynasty during this raid, they were seriously injured when they hit the iron plate in the end. The new army that was finally formed was lost by more than half , the loss can be described as quite heavy.It is said that Li Yan did not close his eyes for five days and five nights after receiving the news of the disastrous defeat on the front line, which shows that he really found it difficult to accept this defeat.

At this time, there were also some unfavorable voices in the Korean court, who believed that one of the reasons for the defeat was that Haihan, as an ally, did not send troops in time to cooperate, which led to the Qing army being able to concentrate its forces unscrupulously to deal with the single-handedly entering the inland of Liaodong. North Korean Army.Although no one dared to hold Haihan Army accountable, Chen Yixin was very dissatisfied with this and informed Li Yan that officials who publicly expressed such views must be punished to ensure that the diplomatic relations between the two countries would not be affected by this.

Although Li Yan was forced to do so, he also believed that Haihan's refusal to send troops was the main reason for the defeat of the Korean army, and he complained in private.But at this time, Haihan's eyes and ears in North Korea were all-pervasive, so these complaints of Li Yi in the palace were still grasped by Haihan's intelligence agency.

(End of this chapter)