Chapter 1805 Naval Base
If the plan planned by Haehan can be implemented perfectly, the main militant faction led by Kim Sang-heon will become the main force in North Korean officialdom, suppressing all voices for peace talks, and North Korea's political opinions will also move in the direction of Development in a direction more beneficial to Haihan. Hae Han collects the money, Kim Sang Heon takes charge, and both parties benefit. It does seem to be an excellent deal.
However, there is a huge test for Haihan, that is, he must control the victory situation on the Korean peninsula. He must not only let the Qing army enter North Korea to coerce it to obey his own arrangements, but also cannot allow it to do whatever he wants in North Korea without fear. The North Koreans simply surrendered if they couldn't bear it. If necessary, they had to repel their offensive to ensure that Kim Sang-hyun could establish sufficient authority in the court.
This is completely different from the original idea when Haihan decided to assist North Korea. At that time, the Ministry of National Defense believed that the worst-case scenario must be prepared to deal with the North Korean issue, that is, North Korea would be defeated by the Qing army's offensive, as in history In this way, they quickly retreated to the front line of Seoul. In the worst case scenario, Haihan probably only had time to recruit his princes and ministers to form a government in exile. If the war situation was better, he might be able to rely on the Han River to establish a defense line and form a confrontation with the Qing army.
However, the Haihan Army actually arrived in North Korea before the Qing Army took action, so it had a more sufficient buffer time to arrange response strategies and seek greater benefits from this chaos. But as a result, the Haihan army that came to the Korean Peninsula would have to take greater risks and engage in long-term dealings and battles with the Qing army.
Wang Tom is also very satisfied with the progress Qian Tiandun has made on Jianghua Island. The situation is developing in the direction he planned. However, he does not plan to add more troops to the Jiuliancheng Riverside currently occupied. Instead, he is preparing to attack the Qing army's next attack. After the wave offensive, they took the initiative to evacuate this area and gave up the passage south to see if the Qing army would choose to invade North Korea without any scruples.
But for Wang Tom, there is still an unresolved issue, and that is the garrison location of the combined fleet. In terms of terrain and environment, the Yalu River Basin is not an ideal choice. The river here is relatively narrow, and there are no natural harbors to use. Once the war breaks out, the entire Yalu River Basin will be within the attack range of the Qing army. It is practical to locate the fleet base here. Not ideal.
In fact, there is no candidate location on the northwest coast of the Korean Peninsula that can really meet Wang Tom's requirements, and Haihan's combat plan must have a naval base close to the key area of the Yalu River, so he can only settle for the next best thing. , chose the Datong River estuary, about sixty nautical miles south of the Yalu River estuary, as the fleet's long-term garrison.
However, when the fleet went north, Wang Tom sent a ship to explore that place. It is still deserted. If you want to develop and build a naval base, the amount of work required is really not small. Although opinions on building a seaport have been submitted to North Korea, given the efficiency of the North Koreans, Wang Tom is worried that the port may not be started until the war is over. Therefore, he had previously specially told Qian Tiandun to focus on the construction and long-term use of this port as a condition for trading with the North Koreans, and he must urge the other party to handle this matter as soon as possible.
Although Qian Tiandun also handed over this matter to Kim Sang-hyun, given that the things that Kim Sang-hyun has to deal with at present are too complicated, how long will it take to arrange the construction of a real dedicated port and supporting facilities for the Haihan Fleet in the local area? Base facilities, I’m afraid no one can explain this clearly. At this time, General Haihan couldn't help but miss the operational efficiency of their country. As long as the executive committee made a decision and determined the priority of the task, the start of work would not exceed five days. But they had already raised this point with the North Koreans when they first arrived at Ganghwa Island. Now Qian Tiandun has clearly emphasized it again, but they still cannot get a precise arrangement.
After the Qing army in Jiuliancheng suffered a moderate defeat in the night attack, they fell silent again and did not send any more troops to fight. However, Wang Tom also noticed that Qing cavalry began to appear again outside Jiulian City, but they were far away and showed no intention to launch an attack. However, the Marines stationed on the shore did not dare to be careless about this. There were people at each post holding binoculars to keep an eye on the enemy's movements.
In the previous night attack, several sentries deployed by the Marines for covert surveillance outside the position were almost wiped out. This shows that the Marines are still not adaptable enough in this strange environment. The hiding methods of the sentries have not been hidden from the enemy, so Wang Tom has adjusted his strategy, no longer sending sentries outside the position, but strengthening surveillance on dock positions and warships.
As for defense at night, Wang Tom did not abandon the outer area of the position. He ordered his engineers to deploy several trip wires made of thin wires about a hundred meters away from the dock position after nightfall. One end of the thin wires was buried in the sand. Mines in the soil. The purpose of this kind of deployment is mainly for early warning, so there is no need to bury too many landmines. The fuse of each mine can be connected to several trip wires. As long as it is hooked to one of them, it will cause an explosion. The trip wires drawn by several mines can Covers a large area.
This kind of early warning method is naturally new to the Qing army. They never expected that there would be such a mechanism on the ground. If they tried to carry out a sneak attack on the dock position in the dark, 90% of them would be fooled.
Jin Sangjiu, who was sent to Yizhou to collect food, did not go well. There was actually only Wahua Island between the Yizhou Administrative Office and Jiuliancheng. The straight-line distance was only about ten miles. Wang Tom sent a boat to send him there. Originally, I thought half a day would be enough, but I didn’t expect to return from the local area until after dark, and what I brought back was extremely limited. There was less than two thousand kilograms of grain and a small amount of livestock, poultry, vegetables and fruits. Even if it was described as shabby, it would not be an exaggeration to describe it as shabby.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Jin." After Wang Tom read the list handed over by Jin Shangjiu, he didn't get angry, but just thanked him lightly.
However, Jin Sangjiu and Tom Wang had been getting along for several days. It was hard to tell that the old man was very dissatisfied with the results of his work. He quickly explained: "General Wang, the local grain depot in Yiju does not have much grain storage. In the hurry, I only If we can collect these supplies, I have ordered people to purchase food in Yizhou. I believe there will be news in a few days!”
Wang Tom said: "Really? Your country is about to have a war, and the granaries on the front line have not prepared enough food. I would like to ask Master Jin, is your country doing this deliberately, preparing to starve them to death after the Qing army invades?"< br>
"This..." Of course Jin Shangjiu could tell that Tom Wang was not joking with him, but blaming North Korea for their poor preparation for war. To be honest, the grain and grass recruited from Yizhou was indeed too little, and there was a big gap with his own expectations. However, he did not think much about it at the time and just urged local officials to organize as much grain and grass as possible to be transported to the front line. However, hearing what Wang Tom said at this time, Jin Shangjiu also felt that this matter was a bit unreasonable - as a border government office and a border army station, how could the food storage be so low? This is obviously an unreasonable situation.
Wang Tom continued: "Don't you think, Mr. Jin, that Yizhou is so close to Jiulian City, and the Qing army has not discovered that the Qing army is building a dock to cross the river, and there is not enough food reserves, these two things cannot be justified in any case. ? I suspect that someone is deliberately making such an arrangement to prevent our army from assisting your country in resisting the Qing army!"
Jin Shangjiu didn't dare to respond immediately. If the possibility mentioned by Wang Tom was real, it might involve many figures in the officialdom, and there might be some big shot behind it that he couldn't touch. Anti-war voices have always existed in North Korea, and some officials believe that the Ming Dynasty is no longer reliable and that it should assess the situation and rely on its powerful neighbors to avoid the scourge of war. Of course, Jin Shangjiu must be on the side of the main war faction, otherwise he would not be appointed as a military observer to accompany the coalition fleet to the front line. But if he had to step forward to find out the cause of this kind of thing, he would still feel that his weight was not enough, and he might even get into trouble.
Wang Tom seemed to have anticipated his thoughts and continued to persuade: "If Mr. Jin feels that it is difficult to handle, I think it can be like this. You can write a report immediately to explain the situation in Yiju, and arrange a boat to be sent to the south early tomorrow morning. It's faster than going by land. I believe that the big shots in the court will give a clear opinion on how to deal with it after they know the situation on the front line."
Jin Sangjiu said: "I only stayed in Yiju for most of the day, and my knowledge was limited. What if I wrongly accuse a local official?"
Wang Tom said: "Unjustly accused? These officials in Yizhou are either collaborators with the enemy or seriously derelict in their duties. With these two possibilities, you feel that they have been wronged. Then what method can you think of to clear their names? Mr. Jin, you want to Let’s be clear about one thing. If our army is in a disadvantageous position during the battle with the Qing Dynasty, it will not be us Haihan who will be unlucky first, but your country!”
Jin Shangjiu swallowed and realized that what Wang Tom said did make sense. If the Haihan Army felt that the war situation was unfavorable, they could just pat their butts and leave, but could North Korea withdraw?
Wang Tom continued to persuade: "Actually, we have notified Mr. Kim Sang-heon about the situation in Yiju. He will definitely take action in the near future. If Mr. Kim is willing to provide some help, it will definitely be more effective."
Only then did Jin Sangjiu realize that the direction of this matter would not change because of his own choices. The Haihan people had already made arrangements with Jin Sangxian. Whether he provided information or not would at most affect the development of this matter. Just speed. Of course, if you cooperate with the Haihan people, you should be able to leave a good impression on Kim Sang-heon, and maybe future promotion opportunities will come from this.
"Okay, then I'll write the memorial right now!" Jin Shangjiu made a decisive decision this time.
Tom Wang finally had a smile on his face: "Master Jin is a smart man, I think our future cooperation will be very pleasant!"
After Jin Sangjiu's memorial is sent to the rear, how Jin Sangxian will use it to make a big fuss is not an issue that Tom Wang needs to worry about now. But he does need the North Koreans to be more efficient, otherwise after the fleet withdraws from the Yalu River, there will be no support point nearby.
The next day, a lucky ship belonging to the Fujian Navy turned around and headed south and left here. Wang Tom didn't want the main force of his fleet to perform primary tasks such as delivering messages, so he handed it over to Xu Yuzhuo's troops.
The silent confrontation between the dock position and Jiulian City continued. Wang Tom felt as if he had returned to the battlefield on the Jinzhou Isthmus, where the Haihan Army and the Qing Army were also locked in a long-term confrontation. Azig seemed to have made up his mind not to confront Haihan again, and showed no signs of going into battle. And Tom Wang is not in a hurry about this. He needs to buy more time for the rear to take action. It is best to be ready for war before he leads the fleet to evacuate the area.
Kim Sang-hyun, who returned to the capital, was not idle. Following Qian Tiandun's instructions, Kim Sang-hyun began to use the power at his disposal to promote the achievements of the Haihan Army in Yiju and the aloofness shown by the Yiju frontier army during this period. Kim Sang-heon advised King Yi Jie that the border army's dereliction of duty was very serious, and adjustments must be made to the border army generals and local officials in Uiju as soon as possible, otherwise the border defense might collapse.
On the other hand, Kim Sang-heon did not forget Qian Tiandun's repeated requests, and quickly gathered a group of craftsmen and sent them to Ganghwa Island. The Haehan people took them to the estuary of the Daedong River designated by them for on-the-spot investigation, and prepared to start construction of the sea as soon as possible. The ports and bases needed by the Han fleet.
The location chosen by Haehan was Nampo, the trading port on the west coast of Korea in later generations. This place is located on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Datong River, about thirty miles away from the river mouth. However, this place is currently just a small fishing village with more than 20 households, and it doesn't even have an official name.
Wang Tom chose this place as a naval base. It was also a last resort choice among the short ones. Apart from the relatively open river surface and the suitable river bank for building docks, there were basically no other advantages. The only thing worth mentioning is that the latitude of this place is exactly the same as that of Port Arthur, which is separated by the entire Yellow Sea. Therefore, the land and sea troops once stationed in the Liaodong area should not have adaptability problems when stationed here.
The most important populated area near this place is the city of Pyongyang, which is nearly a hundred miles away. If North Korean officials want to host the construction of the port, they can only recruit civilians from Pyongyang to complete the project. But this has to mention the efficiency of North Korea's work again. In less than three, five, seven days, it must be difficult for Pyongyang to recruit enough labor to send to this place. And considering the remote environment here, temporary residences and supporting facilities will have to be built for the residents first, and then the port project will be constructed. In addition, lumberyards, quarries and other places that will provide building materials for the project will have to be built nearby. , there will be no real progress in sight for a while.
(End of chapter)