Chapter 904: Inspection to the North (6)
Tsushima Island is located right in the middle of the Korean Strait. It can be used as a base to block the channel in wartime. However, for Haihan, the first candidate naval base location in this area is still Sasebo Bay. An environment like Tsushima Island can only be temporarily stationed at best, but it is difficult to maintain the daily operation of a Haihan fleet for a long time. Moreover, with the strength of the Haihan Fleet, it is almost impossible to encounter a rival in the Northeast Asian waters. There is no need to expand the already huge advantage by occupying Tsushima Island for the time being. Even if the military wants to do this, the Executive Committee will probably not approve such a plan where the investment is not proportional to the results. Unless it is really necessary to block the Korean Strait in the future, occupying this place will be a waste of military expenditures.
After the fleet passed the northern end of Tsushima Island, across the sea was Busan Port, one of the main ports on the Korean Peninsula. Busan means "cauldron-shaped mountain". As early as the early 15th century, Busan was designated as a foreign trade port by the Lee Dynasty of North Korea. However, in terms of business scale, Busan Port still lags behind Nagasaki Port in the south. Most Western merchants use Nagasaki Port or Hirado Port as their last stop in the Far East, and rarely continue sailing north to Busan.
However, the purpose of the Haihan fleet's trip was to examine the actual situation in Northeast Asia, and naturally it would not miss the important location of the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. In order to enter the Busan Port smoothly, the fleet also stayed at Tsushima Island for a day in order to hire Koreans from local businesses as guides.
What makes Chen Yixin gratified is that North Koreans are not ignorant about "Haihan". As early as two or three years ago, Haihan products have flowed into the Korean Peninsula through trade channels, and it is even said that some of them were presented as tributes. In the palace. However, since these goods are shipped across the sea and are extremely rare in quantity, their prices have remained high. According to Kim Nam-yi, a North Korean guide, almost all the limited Haihan products on the North Korean market are covered by royal relatives, so no matter how high the price is, there is no need to worry about sales.
Several nautical miles away from Busan Port, Chen Yixin could already see Taejongdae at the southern end of Jueying Island in Busan Port through the telescope. This place is said to have been named after King Taejong Muyeol of Silla visited here after unifying the Korean peninsula, hence the name Taejongdae.
Although Busan Port was one of the world's largest comprehensive trading ports in later generations, its construction level in this era was very shabby. There were only a few wooden trestles extending into the sea on the pier, and there were obvious differences in specifications and age. , obviously not the product of unified planning. Judging only from the scale and facilities of the port, there is still a clear gap compared to the two ports of Hirado and Nagasaki operated by the Japanese, not to mention the port operated by Haihan himself.
Shortly after the fleet docked at the pier, North Korean officials came to collect the fee for docking. What surprised Chen Yixin was that despite the guide's negotiation, North Korean officials still insisted on charging a docking fee of thirty taels of silver per day for each ship. Chen Yixin believes that this money will probably not be included in the local fiscal revenue, and will probably go directly into the pockets of some people. Although this kind of thing happens in ports in other places, it was the first time that Chen Yixin encountered North Korean officials asking for money so blatantly.
Of course Chen Yixin would not argue with North Korean officials for such a small amount of money. His mission was to collect intelligence, and expenses were secondary. But after half a day passed, he suddenly felt that the money he handed over was not worth it.
The commercial level of Busan is far less than the two ports of Hirado and Nagasaki where I was stationed in Japan before. It is more appropriate to call it a cargo terminal than a trading port. It only took the people Chen Yixin sent out more than an hour to get a clear picture of the situation at the port. This was not because the scouts and intelligence personnel were incompetent, but because there was really nothing to investigate in this place. The port area could be seen at a glance. In the end, more than 90% of the ships docked here were traveling between Japan and North Korea. The goods carried on each trip and the price remained unchanged for a long time. Just ask.
But based on what is known, the value of this information is really very limited, because the cargo volume of Busan Port is too small, and even if we have this data, it has no practical significance. After convening his subordinates for discussion, Chen Yixin decided to reduce the original three-day stay in Busan to two days. If he didn't want to collect geographical information here, Chen Yixin would even think that two days would be a bit redundant.
Money makes things easier, and this trip to Busan once again proved this unbreakable truth. Since North Korean officials like money, this road will be easy to open. When the fleet left Busan Port two days later, the North Korean official responsible for managing the port actually went to the dock to see him off, and his attitude became a bit flattering - after seeing the financial resources of the Han people, it is difficult for anyone to keep their integrity intact. .
After departing from Busan Port, the fleet sailed westward along the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. After entering the boundary of Hainan County, it turned south and sailed to Jeju Island, the last stop of the expedition.
The current administrative establishment of Jeju Island is Jeju Mu, which governs Daejong and Jeongui counties. However, Jeju Island does not have an officially established foreign trade port. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Chen Yixin did not land on the Jeju Strait. Instead, he patiently bypassed most of Jeju Island and finally found a port on the southern coast. Landing on a secluded coast.
At this time, there were only 20,000 to 30,000 residents on Jeju Island. The environment was vast and sparsely populated. Only after the landed scouts walked out for three or four miles did they see the smoke of the village in the distance. According to the intelligence collected in advance, the nearest garrison to this landing point is also thirty miles away, so there is no need to worry about running into the North Korean army here. However, this kind of on-foot reconnaissance is actually of little use for a large island covering an area of hundreds of square kilometers. It only involves looking at the living environment of the local people, the farming conditions, etc.
Of course, having said that, the garrison on this island only has about a thousand people. It can be used to maintain law and order on the island and prevent small groups of pirates from landing and plundering. However, compared with the Haihan militia, their combat effectiveness is far behind. , there is no great need to investigate it. In Chen Yixin's opinion, a fully reinforced reinforced company is enough to push away the North Korean garrison on the island, so why bother conducting investigations at the risk of alerting the enemy? It may be more practical to save this time and find more suitable places for landing on the southern coastline to prepare for possible subsequent military operations on Jeju Island.
On the third day of the reconnaissance operation, the attention of the local garrison in Jeju was finally attracted, and two ships were sent to try to cooperate with the shore to drive away these unidentified uninvited guests. However, when they discovered that the sailing ship the uninvited guests were traveling on was much larger than their own ship and was equipped with many artillery pieces, they decisively turned the ship around and ran back without even trying to expel them.
This kind of action of the local defenders also made Chen Yixin a little bit dumbfounded. The defenders on Jeju Island have such weak fighting will. If they really want to attack this place in the future, they can save a lot of trouble.
Now that his whereabouts had been exposed, Chen Yixin simply ordered an open operation to survey and map the terrain along the south coast of Jeju Island. The Jeju Island defenders had been unable to retreat during this period and were actually very cooperative with Haihan's reconnaissance operations. After the fleet stayed on the south coast of Jeju Island for another two days, Chen Yixin asked someone to buy some food supplies in a local village with money, and then left calmly.
Sailing about three hundred nautical miles southwest from Jeju Island, we returned to Zhoushan, where the fleet started. Except for the small-scale armed conflict that occurred in Sasebo Bay, this trip was relatively smooth along the way, and the difficulty of collecting intelligence was actually much lower than expected before departure. This is due to the fact that people in this era are generally less vigilant about intelligence information. Many times they are not aware of the other purposes hidden by the Haihan people under the excuse of negotiating trade, and very few people are aware of the impure motives of the Haihan people. For example, Ricardo, the Portuguese consul in Hirado Port, would not hinder Haihan's actions out of his own interests, and would even add fuel to the flames and help. After arriving in Hong Kong, Chen Yixin only took a short rest and rushed to the headquarters to report to Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen on the gains of the northward inspection.
"...We have been worried about Zheng Zhilong being disconnected from Japan and even seeking asylum. It seems that this has not happened so far. Although Zheng Zhilong's people have been active in Hirado, the Matsuura family in charge of the local area is not willing to intervene in Shibazhi Conflict with us. In my personal opinion, the Matsuura clan is much more interested in establishing trade relations with us than avenging Zheng Zhilong. I also invited the Matsuura clan to send people to Zhoushan to discuss specific matters at the appropriate time. Cooperation matters.”
Chen Yixin took a sip of water and continued: "But if we plan to build a colony in Sasebo Bay, it is difficult to judge the Matsuura family's attitude. The two places are too close to each other, and they may consider them a threat, which will affect the Our trade progress in Japan ”
"Then what are your thoughts on solving this problem?" Qian Tiandun asked.
"If we don't intend to offend the Matsuura clan, then it's best to wait for the Matsuura clan to send someone to interview us and convince them that we have no intention of occupying Hirado before taking action against Sasebo Bay." Chen Yixin also had some thoughts on this. Be prepared and immediately express your thoughts.
"Zheng Zhilong will basically have nowhere to escape without Hirado." Shi Diwen is not very interested in the prospects of trade between Haihan and Japan. He is more concerned about the next war. state of preparation for war. If Haihan wants to establish trade relations with Japan, the Shiba Shiyu Party on Miyako Island must be cleaned up first.
"You may not be able to attack Miyako Island!" Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "Zhoushan has not been completely pacified yet, and the Military Commission will not let your fleet leave here easily. I think that when we attack Miyako Island, we will It is unlikely that troops will be transferred from Zhoushan. ”
Shi Diwen said: "Deploying troops from the south? Then Tom Wang can only go out in person?"
"Perhaps Mr. Yan will also join in. After all, they haven't been active for a long time." Qian Tiandun reminded.
Shi Diwen sighed and said: "If this is really the arrangement, then you and I will really be out of luck."
"We'll talk about Miyako Island later. Let's listen to Chen Yixin's briefing first." Qian Tiandun returned the topic to the current business: "How is Jeju Island?"
Chen Yixin responded: "The defenders on Jeju Island have lost their will to fight. Although they discovered our activities, they did not take effective measures to drive us away. I think it will not be too difficult to attack Jeju Island, but the island is not very large. If we want to completely occupy the area, we cannot send too few troops. In addition, there is no relatively large natural harbor on the south coast of Jeju Island, which is not suitable for development as a trade area.”
Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "I discussed this matter with the Ministry of Agriculture. What they mean is that if there is a chance to take over Jeju Island in the future, it will mainly be developed as agricultural land. Plant food, cash crops, and develop animal husbandry. , and after forming a large scale, we will develop some supporting industries for deep processing. One advantage of Jeju Island is that it is close to the Korean Peninsula. This situation is somewhat similar to when we were in Hainan Island in the early days of our journey. We can rely on the population and market of the Korean Peninsula to build. Development.”
Chen Yixin said: "Our original source of immigrants was very complicated and we did not completely rely on the Ming Dynasty. Jeju Island may have to rely mainly on importing people from the Korean Peninsula, but Koreans may not be willing to immigrate to Jeju Island."
Qian Tiandun responded: "This is not a big problem. The immigration policy we implemented in Ming Dynasty is relatively conservative because we do not want to offend the Ming Dynasty court and affect our relationship with the Ming Dynasty trade market. But North Korea It's different here. We don't need to have so many scruples in our actions. If we encounter resistance, we can just take necessary measures to solve it. If the number of voluntary immigrants is not enough, then we can use forced means to settle on the island of Taiwan. How many of the Han people came there voluntarily? As long as we can provide them with basic living security, a safe living environment, and a reasonable path for advancement, we can quickly calm people down."
Qian Tiandun's words were very straightforward, and Chen Yixin naturally understood what he meant. If relying on traditional methods of recruiting immigrants cannot meet Jeju Island's labor demand, then simply send the army to the Korean Peninsula to plunder the population and force them to settle on Jeju Island. Although this approach seems simple and crude, it is almost the only feasible way to obtain a large number of laborers in a short period of time. Of course, if such a method is adopted, conflict with the Lee Dynasty of North Korea will basically be inevitable.
(End of chapter)