1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 968 Pros and Cons of War
Annan ended the Civil War in 1629, and gained precious time for peaceful development. In the next five years, he gradually repaired the wounds caused by the civil war that lasted for several years, and his national strength even improved compared to before the war. .But the days of peace seem to be coming to an end. The war that Annan is facing this time is not because of the Champa Kingdom in the south, which has been in the wrong direction, or the remnants of the rebel party in the country. friction over differences over trade.

Lancang Kingdom, also known as Nanzhang Kingdom, is later called Laos.This area belonged to the Funan Kingdom from the 1353st to the [-]th century AD, and then belonged to the Chenla Kingdom until the middle of the [-]th century. It was not until [-] that King Faang established the Lancang Kingdom in Luang Prabang.

Lancang Kingdom borders Daming in the north, Zhenla in the south, Annan and Siam on the east and west, and borders on the Myanmar state-owned section in the northwest. It is a completely landlocked country.What's more sad is that the national power of the neighboring countries is basically above it, and only the Chenla country, which has gone downhill for 200 years, is almost at the same level as it.In such an era, it is not a propaganda slogan that you will be beaten if you fall behind, but a real reality. Lancang, a relatively weak country, has experienced many foreign wars in the past 200 years. The country has basically played all over.Although the result of the battle was more victories than defeats, but in the end, the country's body was still maintained.

At present, the king of Lancang Kingdom is King Phra Meng Kou who has just succeeded to the throne for less than two years. This old man naturally has great plans after he comes up. He saw that the trade between the neighboring country Annan and the Haihan people is doing well. Shuiqi, China's strength has been significantly improved in just a few years, and it would be a lie to say that it is not jealous.Naturally, he also wants to follow the gourd and open up a trade channel with Haihan, so that domestic resources can be exchanged for Haihan's money and weapons.But to achieve this goal, we must first overcome a huge problem, that is, the geographical environment of Lancang Kingdom.

If Lancang Kingdom wants to start trade with Haihan, it must first open up a passage to the sea. Looking around Lancang Kingdom, the nearest coastline is the eastern neighbor Annan, and the shortest distance from Lancang Kingdom is not even a hundred miles away. As long as there is a land passage leading to the sea, the precious timber, minerals, medicinal materials, furs, etc. produced in Lancang can be exported to Haihan.Of course, this idea did not appear after seeing Haihan’s trading capabilities. In fact, the Lancang Kingdom has always wanted to obtain a passage to the sea a long time ago. For this reason, it has often conflicted with Annan, who has a long and narrow land and a long coastline. , the purpose is to expect to be able to open a passage to the sea from west to east on the territory of Annan.

But after King Phra Meng Kou made this request to Thang Long Mansion, he was mercilessly rejected.The reason is also very simple. There are some unresolved grievances between the two countries, and Zheng Bing doesn't want this restless neighbor to do business in his own territory.Even if he was willing, domestic public opinion would not agree with such a traitorous decision.

During the civil war in Annan, the Lancang Kingdom was not idle, and secretly sent money and troops to assist the small southern imperial court. The exchange was that after the victory in the war in the south, they would obtain an exclusive residence in Tonghai County, [-] miles north of Hue. Port - This is the coast closest to Lancang Kingdom.Of course, this plan eventually came to naught because of the defeat of the small southern imperial court, but Zheng Bing, who learned about the inside story after the war, wrote down the account and waited for the right time to settle with Lancang Kingdom.Now that the Lancang Kingdom actually made the request, wouldn't it just give Zheng Bing a chance to slap him in the face.

After the Lancang Kingdom was rejected, he did not give up. Kou Wang of Phra Meng knew that it would be difficult to change his mind, so he decided to find another way, such as trying to use force to open a road leading to the coast directly in the middle of Annan's land.Of course, the consequences of doing so must be intolerable to Annan, because this is equivalent to dividing Annan's land into two again, artificially creating a north-south split.In the past few years, there have been several frictions on the border between the two countries in the central area of ​​Annan, but one side has never been determined to launch a full-scale war, and the other side is unwilling to escalate the situation and affect the domestic stability. Therefore, there has been no A large-scale armed conflict broke out.

However, this kind of border friction has intensified since last year, and the Annan people have discovered that their opponents have frequently sent personnel across the border into the coastal areas for activities. This is clearly the intention of scouting the terrain before the war.So the Annan court announced the closure of all gateways with the Lancang Kingdom, and the cessation of all personnel activities and trade exchanges.In this way, the Lancang Kingdom could have traded with Haihan through the transshipment of Annan merchants, and all of them were terminated.

King Kou of the Phra League of Lancang obviously does not expect to solve this problem that has plagued the two countries for many years through negotiations and consultations. Since the end of last year, he has mobilized troops to gather on the west side of the border near Tonghai County in Annan.And the troubled Shenglong Mansion also planned to solve this matter once and for all, and also began to mobilize troops to the local area.

In theory, the current Annan army no longer needs to hire the Haihan militia army to directly intervene in the war. Their own strength is enough to deal with foreign enemies like the Lancang country. However, out of prudent considerations, the Annan army still hopes to order a batch in advance Arms to cope with the consumption and loss that will occur in the war.Since Lancang is a landlocked country, Annan's navy is useless, so almost all of the orders this time are army equipment, especially ammunition, which consumes a lot in the war, accounting for nearly half of it this time. amount.

"It seems that the Annan people will not be satisfied with defeating their opponents. They really plan to fight with Lancang Kingdom." After reviewing Zheng Zuo's order to Haihan Ordnance Industry, Tao Donglai made no secret He expressed his own opinion: "The quantity this time is much larger than the arms order they placed with us during the civil war!"

Wang Tom said: "The staff department also analyzed the strength of both sides, and believed that the Annan army should be clearly superior. After all, we participated in everything from weapons and equipment to personnel training. However, this battle is likely not to end in a short period of time, because the territory of Lancang State is almost all continuous mountainous areas, and the traffic construction is relatively backward. Even if Annan Army can enter Lancang State, the army's baggage Supply transportation will face a big test."

Annan's existing armed forces are almost in the same line as the Haihan Militia. A large number of officers have received training from Haihan military advisers at the Tushan training base on the northern coast of Annan. Some senior officers even went to the Haihan Military Academy in Sanya to study. The experience, methods and concepts of combat command have largely copied the Haihan model.And the weapons and equipment of its army are highly dependent on Haihan. The guns and artillery currently installed are basically all produced in Haihan, which can be called a loyal fan of Haihan.

However, this kind of army that relies on hot weapons has obvious disadvantages, that is, it is more limited by logistics supply. As long as the supply of ammunition is cut off, the combat effectiveness will plummet.The larger the installation ratio of thermal weapons, the more obvious this trend will be.In this regard, even their masters, the Haihan people, do not have a very effective solution. They can only rely on a large amount of labor and animal power to transport and deliver supplies when fighting on land. How much higher.

Therefore, the strategy of Haihan's outward expansion has always been to choose offshore areas, and not to expand too much inland, because the high-level military is very clear that the performance of the Haihan militia after being far away from the coastline is easily limited by logistical supplies. , the decline in combat effectiveness will be an inevitable situation.Annan's army, who learned from Haihan, also has the same shortcomings. After entering the inland mountainous area, the two sides with relatively clear strengths and weaknesses are likely to enter a tug-of-war state. end judgment.

As Annan's ally, Haihan will of course choose to support Annan when the war breaks out, but if the war lasts longer, it may not be bad news for Haihan.As soon as the cannon is fired, it is worth ten thousand taels of gold, at least the arms sales orders to Annan will generate a lot of income.Moreover, the battle between the Annan army and the Lancang army in the inland mountainous area will also become a reference for the Haihan military to revise its tactics in the future.After all, the Haihan militia army did not have much combat experience in entering the inland mountainous areas. It seems that only the militia army entered the Qiongzhong mountain area after the Shilu mine riot in 1631 to quell the chaos. It was a small test of the militia army's ability in this regard combat capability.

Bai Kesi, who is in charge of military production, said: "However, we don't have such a large inventory of foreign trade munitions, so we can only sign a batch delivery agreement with them. I don't know if the Annan people can accept it."

"I don't think the Annan people have the idea of ​​picking and choosing. For them, it's good if we don't cut off part of the order. After all, the arms orders they submitted before have never been sold in sufficient quantities." Tao Dong He replied with a mocking smile.

Although Haihan and Annan are allies, for the sake of safety and long-term control, they have always been stuck in the export of arms and equipment. Many things cannot be bought by the Annan people with how much money they have.Annan's military purchase order from Haihan stated that [-]% of them can buy [-]% of the content, so you can laugh.As for the delivery date, this has never been a transaction condition that Annan people will care about.

"However, they bought a lot of arms this time. If they didn't fight with Lancang in the end and this batch of arms flowed into their arsenal, they probably won't receive any more orders from them in the next two or three years." Beks There are still some doubts about whether this batch of munitions will eventually come in handy in the war.

Haihan doesn't want the arms sold to become the buyer's inventory. Only by constant consumption can the arms business continue for a long time, and war is undoubtedly the best way to stimulate the consumption of arms. If Annan really fights with Lancang In the case of total war, it seems that there is no problem with the two-year supply of arms sold to Annan at one time.

"The General Staff believes that the possibility of war breaking out is very high. In addition to the feud between the two countries, Annan is also very willing to expand outwards. However, Champa and Chenla in the south are not so easy to deal with, and Daming in the north is not easy to deal with. Not to mention, the east is across the sea from us, so only the Lancang country in the west can make a move." Wang Tom explained: "In fact, I think they may have been waiting for Lancang for several years. China to strike first, in order to have sufficient reason to launch a foreign war."

For these two neighboring countries, each other is the only opponent suitable for war at this stage. Under such a delicate situation, war seems to be inevitable.But Haihan, who is the only one who has the ability to stop this war, can't find any reason to do it.On the contrary, apart from being able to sell weapons to the participating countries, there are other reasons for Haihan to stand on the sidelines, and even secretly contribute to the flames.

"Once the war breaks out, the price of the immigration market will drop." Schneider, who has been listening silently, finally spoke: "Labour can create value for us for a long time, which is more cost-effective than the one-off arms trade. Until now, we have Still reaping the demographic dividend brought about by the Annan Civil War."

Hundreds of thousands of war refugees were displaced during the Annan Civil War, and Haihan seized this opportunity to accommodate a large number of Annan refugees.Among the population currently ruled by Haihan, the number of naturalized people of Annan origin still occupies a considerable proportion.These naturalized people have worked for Haihan for several years in various industries such as factories, mines, the army, shipping, and plantations, and the value of wealth they have created far exceeds the cost of introducing them.Haihan has tasted the sweetness from this, and he still has a special interest in areas where wars broke out. Even if it is as far away as the Shandong Peninsula, he will try his best to transport the local refugees back to his own territory for resettlement.

If another war breaks out on the Indochina Peninsula, which is close at hand, there will definitely be a large number of refugees in the warring areas, and no matter whether it is Lancang or Annan, they will probably not have the spare energy and thought to resettle these refugees. At this time It would be perfect for Haihan to act as a kind person who rescues the suffering.Haihan has accumulated a wealth of experience in dealing with resettlement of refugees. At that time, he only needs to send a team to the war zone with enough food supplies, and organize the refugees to cross the sea to Hainan Island by boat.

As Schneider said, Haihan's long-term benefits from this population migration must far exceed the one-off arms trade.Although this may sound inhumane, in this troubled world, it is already thankful that the refugees have hope of surviving, not to mention that after they are under the rule of Haihan, their living standards may be much better than before, and it is not uncommon for them to leave their homes. It's a bad thing.

　The wrong chapter name should be Chapter 960 Eighth
　　
　
(End of this chapter)