Chapter 1516 Changes in the Battle Situation
On the second day after arriving in Lushun, North Korean envoy Kim Sang-hyun once again offered to go to the front line of the Jinzhou Isthmus to inspect the battle situation between Haihan and the Hou Jin Army. Most of the reason why Jin Sangxian took such initiative was because he met the Minister of War of the Ming Dynasty here. Although the Haihan people claimed that Master Mei came to Liaodong specially to sign the alliance agreement between Ming Dynasty and Haihan, Jin Shangxian always felt that something was wrong. Even if North Korea eventually forms an alliance with Haehan, Kim Sang-hyun must fulfill his responsibilities and make sure that such an alliance is beneficial and harmless to North Korea before he can accept it. Before that, he had to personally confirm that the fighting situation between Haihan and Houjin had been completely controlled as Wang Tom and others claimed when they were in Seoul.
At present, the restoration project of the official road from Lushun to the Jinzhou Isthmus has not been completed. There are still about ten miles of road in the middle due to the recent rainfall, which has made it muddy and difficult for horse-drawn carriages to pass. Considering that the envoys of the Ming and North Korea still had their own teams and entourages, Haihan arranged for them to take ships from the sea to the port of Dalian Bay in the north.
Although there will be no security problems on this route, the Haihan military escorted their fleet in a more grand manner, and half of the Northern Fleet accompanied them to the north. Fortunately for Jin Sangxian, after all, he had seen the majesty of the Northern Fleet at close range on his way to Liaodong. This was the first time for Mei Shengchuan to see the lineup of the Haihan Fleet, and he realized that except for the one who was in Lushun when he came, In addition to the warships seen in Hong Kong, the Haihan Fleet actually had larger warships with larger warships and more guns. It is no wonder that it claimed to have wiped out all the enemy warships in the Liaodong area.
Many things are worth a thousand words but a glance. When Mei Shengchuan saw the appearance of this fleet, he naturally understood better why Dongjiang Town chose to embrace Haihan. With such a powerful maritime force, Haihan can advance and retreat freely on the Liaodong Peninsula at any time, which is indeed much stronger than the Ming Navy. And Dongjiang Town is isolated overseas. Without the protection of a powerful fleet, they will fall under Hou Jin's conquest sooner or later. Haihan is willing to reach out to help them, how could Dongjiang Town let go of such an opportunity to survive.
But all said and done, after all, the Ming Dynasty's own military strength is not enough to support the Dongjiang Town stationed overseas to continue fighting. Otherwise, how could Shen's uncle and nephew secretly switch sides and side with the Haihan people. Even if Mei Shengchuan was dissatisfied, it would be difficult to blame Dongjiang Town for what they did. After all, they made such a choice in order to survive. Besides, Dongjiang Town did not completely betray the Ming Dynasty. At least it provided considerable military intelligence to the court for reference. Before Mei Shengchuan came, he thought that there would be a lot of false information in the intelligence touting Haihan's military strength, but when he came to Liaodong to see it on the ground, Afterwards, he realized that the opposite was true. The intelligence in Dongjiang Town was actually discounted and did not fully demonstrate the strength of the Haihan Army.
"Haihan has strong military strength and is good at management and strategy. You can't stop them if you want. We can only see how to use them to benefit the Ming Dynasty." Mei Shengchuan slowly turned around with his hands behind his back and said to Shen Zhixiang: " What does General Shen think?”
Shen Zhixiang quickly bowed and responded: "The general will naturally obey Master Mei's instructions."
Mei Shengchuan shook his head and said: "This is not what I want to hear, but what you think."
Shen Zhixiang straightened up slightly and said: "Sir, the shrewdness of the Haihan people cannot be overstated by their humble position. I must have experienced it these days. If you want to use them to benefit the Ming Dynasty, then I'm afraid you have to let them leave the Ming Dynasty first. Just get more benefits.”
Mei Shengchuan said: "Benefits? Then let's open the skylight and speak frankly. Your Dongjiang Town has gained a lot of benefits from Haihan, and I have also benefited from Haihan to some extent through your way, but now they want to let Daming in If you give up power in Liaodong affairs, wouldn't this mean that I am committing treason? General Shen, you people in Dongjiang Town can continue to stay in Liaodong in the name of resisting the Jin Dynasty, but I will return to Beijing to resume my life. What do the Han people mean? What will I report to my superiors after I return to Beijing?”
Hearing Mei Shengchuan's tone, Shen Zhixiang had obviously seen through his identity as a lobbyist, and immediately stopped responding in a condescending manner: "My lord, the court should know more clearly about what happiness and sorrow are than in humble positions. Reporting good news rather than bad news , adults must understand this truth.”
Mei Shengchuan said: "Just like how you in Dongjiang Town only reported military achievements and did not report the role of the Han people in it? This can be hidden for a while, but not for a lifetime! It is not that the imperial court has no knowledge of the situation in Liaodong, otherwise how could it be done? I will send my officer here to talk to the Haihan people.”
"Sir, what is the news that the court wants to hear? Ming and Haihan turn against each other and go to war, adding another powerful enemy, or should Ming and Haihan form an alliance to deal with the Jin people together?" Shen Zhixiang followed the instructions given by Sha Xi before setting off. , and continued to persuade Mei Shengchuan bit by bit. There were some words that Sha Xi was not comfortable saying, so Shen Zhixiang was given the opportunity to express them.
Mei Shengchuan did not respond to Shen Zhixiang immediately, but fell into deep thought. There is no doubt that what Shen Zhixiang said is a key issue. When Ming Dynasty has no hope of retaking Liaodong, what kind of situation is most beneficial to Ming Dynasty? This is the result he should strive for as an envoy of Ming Dynasty. If Haihan refuses to cooperate just because he occupied some areas in Liaodong, then it will not be Haihan who suffers in the end, but Ming who voluntarily gave up this strong support.
Umeikawa could understand this, but he was a little worried that the adults in the court had not seen Haihan's military strength. Only oral or written descriptions could make them realize the need to compromise with Haihan's choice. Haihan was very strong, but he was indeed not strong enough to make Daming bow his head, at least in Mei Shengchuan's view.
Almost the same conversation was taking place on another ship aboard North Korean envoy Kim Sang-heon. The person responsible for persuading Jin Shangxian was Jin Ping, the eldest son of Dongjiang Town Deputy Commander-in-Chief Jin Riguan and the current civil affairs officer of Dongjiang Immigration District, Liaodong. Due to work relationships, Kim Sang-hyun had known the Kim family and his son for a long time, and they could be considered old friends. After Sha Xi learned of this relationship, he temporarily transferred Jin Ping from the immigration area to participate in the reception work specially arranged for Jin Sangxian.
Jin Ping's current official position is 100% Haihan establishment. He has completely given up his idle position in Dongjiang Town. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is now an official of Haihan. Although the name still belongs to the Ming Dynasty camp where his father Jin Riguan serves, in fact the person he works for is Haihan more often than Dongjiang Town, which only has one name left.
Under such circumstances, Jin Ping's attitude towards the Three Kingdoms Alliance was basically the same as Shen Zhixiang's. By having him do Kim Sang-hyun's work, he can also effectively reduce the other party's defensive mood. Jin Sangxian did not have as many scruples as Mei Shengchuan, because the North Korean King Li Zhu had witnessed the terrifying strength of Haihan's naval fleet. He came to Liaodong to confirm the extent of Haihan's control over the Liaodong war situation, and whether the Ming Dynasty had any differences in this alliance. opinions. To put it bluntly, as long as Ming Dynasty does not oppose North Korea's alliance with Haihan, North Korea does not mind having such a friend who can help itself. In this way, Jin Ping's persuasion work was much easier than that of Shen Zhixiang, and he could calmly communicate with Jin Sangxian about the current resettlement and farming progress of Dongjiang Town immigrants in Liaodong. From now on, Dongjiang Town will no longer have to live in North Korea for free. Kim Sang-hyun, as the North Korean minister, is naturally happy to see this happen.
The voyage from Lushun Port to Dalian Bay is very short. It started in the morning and only took most of the day to arrive. When the fleet docked in Dalian Bay, the sky began to slowly darken. This time, the envoys from the Ming Dynasty and North Korea finally met Bai Kesi, the person in charge of Haihan stationed in Liaodong region, as soon as they landed.
Both Mei Shengchuan and Jin Sangxian had been informed of Bai Kesi's status before, so they followed diplomatic etiquette and paid an audience to Bai Kesi. The North Koreans even prepared a gift list specifically for this, which can be considered a great effort.
Bai Kesi's attitude was very clear. Since the envoys from the two countries were here to see the fighting situation, he would immediately arrange for the visitors to go to the war zone. So the envoys of the two countries boarded the carriage as soon as they got off the ship, and then headed to the Jinzhou Isthmus defense line under the escort of Haihan cavalry.
When the convoy drove into Jijiabao at the eastern end of the isthmus defense line, lanterns and torches were already lit outside the fortress gatehouse. After they got off the bus, Bai Kesi took the initiative to introduce: "This Jijiabao is completely different from the original one. We started from Jinjiabao." After the people captured this place, the entire fortress was demolished and rebuilt. What you see now is the Jijia Fort that has just completed the main work. It will probably take a while for dinner to be served, so I will start with it. Let me take you around this place.”
The envoys from both countries noticed that the castle did not look like an ordinary square city, but had a strange radial structure. The city wall had several protrusions, and when seen from the city wall, there was something outside the city wall. There are also two shorter fortifications distributed in steps outside. And these three fortifications all have artillery turrets. It is not difficult to imagine the terrible lethality of the upper, middle and lower turrets firing together during a battle. Umeikawa even thought that this three-dimensional artillery fire tactics must be related to the weird appearance of the castle. relationship.
Of course, even the Ming Dynasty could not imitate such a luxurious way of deploying weapons. There were at least a dozen of these artillery pieces everywhere they could see. North Korea does not have such cannon-casting technology, and although the Ming Dynasty can cast cannons by itself, a castle can only deploy two large-caliber artillery pieces at most, and the rest are all short-range anti-personnel weapons such as Franco cannons, which are powerful Naturally, it cannot be compared with Haihan's all-standard artillery.
Kim Sang-hyun couldn't help but remember that when Wang Tom visited Seoul earlier, he mentioned in his meeting with King Li Jie that weapons could be sold to North Korea. But now it seems that even if you spend money to buy them back, you will still need the help of the Haihan people to learn to use these weapons. But if all the pass cities in North Korea can be equipped with artillery, then why should we fear the military threat of the Jin people? The Haihan people have said that they can barter or even use labor to offset the price of weapons. It seems that they can discuss with the Haihan people how to proceed with this transaction.
Although Mei Shengchuan had long known from the intelligence provided by Dongjiang Town that Haihan had an almost invincible advantage in heavy weapons and equipment, he was still greatly shocked when he saw such densely packed forts with his own eyes. This is just an armed fortress thousands of miles away from the mainland of Haihan. The weapons equipped are of such scale. It is really hard for him to imagine what Qiongzhou Island in the south is like, which is run like an iron barrel by the Haihan people. What a sight.
Although the conditions in Jijiabao were relatively simple in the rear, Baikes, as the landowner, still arranged a relatively simple barbecue banquet to entertain their arrival. Just because this place is already a war zone, the supply of alcohol is extremely strictly restricted, and even Bai Kesi did not deliberately break such rules. However, the envoys of the two countries had no intention of drinking and having fun in this environment. Instead, they took this opportunity to ask Bai Kesi about issues of interest to them.
Mei Shengchuan is more concerned about the current war situation in Jinzhou. Although good news comes to the capital from Dongjiang Town almost every month, Mei Shengchuan now believes more in the words of the Haihan people. After all, the results of the battles reported to the court in Dongjiang Town should have been arranged for them by the Haihan people.
Bai Kesi did not answer this question himself, but handed it to Qian Tiandun, the commander-in-chief of the Golden State Defense Line. The envoys of the two countries originally thought that General Qian would proudly show off Haihan's glorious achievements in Liaodong like the military attachés of Haihan they had seen before, but the fact was not what they expected.
Qian Tiandun told them seriously that as the war continued, the opponents were no longer as unable to adapt as they had been when the war first started. Recently, the Jin people have also come up with many ways to weaken the Haihan Army's huge advantage in weapons and equipment. For example, they would use wet quilts mixed with soil as bunkers and put them on the front of the cart to cover the infantry's attack on Haihan's musket array. Although this kind of movable bunker is primitive, its protective power is much better than the wooden shield, rattan shield and animal skin shield currently equipped by the Hou Jin Army. The rifles installed by the Haihan Army are difficult to shoot through even at a distance of 100 meters. kind of bunker.
For this reason, the Haihan Army had to take the initiative to reduce the frequency and scope of infantry troops' activities in the area north of the defense line. Even if they were to be dispatched, they had to coordinate with the cavalry and artillery to avoid being surrounded by the enemy after penetrating deep into the enemy's activity area.
In addition, Hou Jin also began to frequently use Han civilians as human shields to launch attacks on the Haihan defense line. Qian Tiandun believed that the person who came up with this unethical tactic should be Geng Zhongming, who was currently confronting the Haihan Army in the north, because every time the Jin Army launched this tactic, there were many Han spies disguised and ambushing among the civilians. After approaching the Haihan position, wait for an opportunity to launch an attack.
(End of chapter)