Chapter 1840 Postwar Liquidation
"Master Jin, there is good news! I just received a battle report from the front line. The main force of the Qing army left your country yesterday and fled back to the mountainous area on the north bank of the Yalu River!"
Although this result was actually clearly foreshadowed in the battle report a few days ago, Kim Sang-hyun was still excited to finally get confirmation from Qian Tiandun. This means that North Korea's passive situation for nearly a year since it became aware of the Qing's ill intentions last year has finally come to an end, and the monarchs, ministers and people who have been shrouded in the cloud of war can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Kim Sang-hyun quickly bowed his hands and thanked him: "This victory was hard-won. Thanks to your country's sending troops to help, we were able to drive the enemy troops out of the country and ensure the safety of our country. I, Mr. Jin, would like to express my gratitude to His Majesty the King and the people of this country." This kindness!”
Qian Tiandun responded with a smile: "When we signed an alliance with your country last year, we had promised to provide military protection to your country when necessary. This time we sent troops to expel the Qing army, which is also to fulfill our country's responsibility as an ally. That’s all, Mr. Jin is too polite!”
After hearing this, Kim Sang-hyun almost wanted to roll his eyes at the other party. When North Korea applied for military assistance from Haehan, the senior official Haehan was not so easy to talk to. He resisted and finally asked for a large sum of money before agreeing to send troops. After the coalition forces arrived in North Korea, they demanded even more conditions. Not only did they need money and food, but they also required North Korea to provide a large number of laborers and a piece of land permanently assigned to the Haihan garrison. They even wanted the command authority of the North Korean army. Take over together.
If the war party headed by Kim Sang-heon hadn't insisted on solving the problem through fighting, King Li Jie might have backed down before the war started because of the harsh conditions proposed by Haehan. Later, the Haihan Army deliberately let the Qing troops enter the Yalu River, which led to the fall of northern border towns one after another. Tens of thousands of Korean people became prisoners. Thousands of Korean soldiers were killed or injured. The economic losses were even more difficult to estimate. Although Haihan also explained that this arrangement was part of the combat plan, in order to lure the enemy to penetrate deeper and use the depth of North Korea's territory to attack the Qing army more effectively, Kim Sang-hyun knew that the patience of both the government and the public was almost exhausted. If If the war situation had not changed since the Daning River, he would probably have to take the blame for the successive defeats and be convicted and imprisoned by the king.
The coalition forces defeated the Qing army with an almost overwhelming advantage on the banks of the Datong River, killing and wounding thousands of the enemy, and forced them to retreat in the face of difficulties. They had to give up going south and choose to turn around and withdraw. The results of this battle alone were enough to make the Qing army retreat. Kim Sang-heon has retained his position and voice in domestic official circles.
Now that the Qing army has been driven out of the country, there should be no possibility of a comeback. The overall situation of the anti-Qing war has been decided. The next thing for the North Korean authorities is to calm the people's sentiments, verify military merits, rebuild the towns destroyed by the war, and Post-war liquidation and processing in various areas.
For North Korea, the problems exposed in this war went far beyond the weak combat effectiveness of the army. The operation of the entire country's combat readiness system was almost in a state of semi-failure. It was not until the coalition forces organized by Haihan came to North Korea that due to its continuous Make various requests and slowly start to enter the state. There are not only problems with the training, equipment, and combat capabilities of the Korean army itself, but also some of the consequences of political struggles caused by the disagreements among the upper echelons of North Korea. Some officials even had secret collusion with the Qing Dynasty early on. Before the war, he betrayed North Korea's internal affairs and combat readiness information to the enemy.
Haehan also mentioned these issues to the North Korean court and Kim Sang-hyun directly or tactfully during the war. After being reminded, Kim Sang-hyun also realized that these situations were by no means trivial. If North Korea wanted to improve its national power, then after the war, All must be dealt with one by one.
Of course, it is also a good arrangement to take this opportunity to eliminate dissidents and competitors in the officialdom and take more power into your own hands. This is not Kim Sang-hyun's wishful thinking. Both Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom have specifically mentioned this matter to him, saying that Haihan will try his best to support his various decisions in North Korea's officialdom to ensure that the cooperation between the two countries can be close. Infinitely. Now that the coalition forces have defeated the Qing army, the influence of the Haihan people's words is naturally greater than before. As long as they show their support for Kim Sang-heon, many things that follow will be much easier.
So at this stage, Kim Sang-heon still has many things to rely on Hae-han's support, and he will naturally not show any inappropriate emotions in front of Hae-han's senior officials. Even though Qian Tiandun's words made him feel a little unhappy, he still smiled and said "Yes, yes, everything you said is right" with a smile on his face. As long as Haehan can help him secure his position in North Korea, one person less than ten thousand people, then it is not too much for Kim Sang-hyun to make concessions to Haehan on some non-principled issues and comply with his demands. Big question.
Qian Tiandun said: "Now that the war has come to an end, I would like to ask Mr. Jin to arrange an interview with the king of your country regarding the settlement of military expenditures after the war, the long-term arrangements for the Datong River base, and future military cooperation plans."
Kim Sang-hyun responded quickly: "I still need to ask Your Majesty for instructions after I return to Seoul. General Qian may need to wait for a few days. As soon as there is news, the general will be notified as soon as possible."
Qian Tiandun shook his head and said: "This matter cannot wait too long. Sanya needs to confirm this relevant information as soon as possible in order to make arrangements for the deployment of participating troops. In addition, several generals of the coalition also want to establish diplomatic relations with the king of your country. We will discuss the matter. Mr. Jin, this is the condition agreed upon before the war. I believe you have not forgotten it.”
How could Kim Sang-hyun forget this? It was he who came forward to reach a cooperation agreement with the coalition forces on behalf of North Korea at that time. However, after the war is over, as an important minister of North Korea, he must consider the subsequent interests and gains and losses from the standpoint of his own country. He cannot Let everything run according to Haihan's arrangement.
Kim Sang-hyun was not ignorant of the purpose of Annan, Portugal, and the local armies of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty. Why were these forces willing to join the coalition organized by Haihan and send troops all the way to defend North Korea from foreign enemies? In the pre-war contacts, these parties had already put forward general requirements to him through Haihan.
The demands of the other parties in the coalition for North Korea are, in summary, to open a port for trade after the war, allow their merchant ships and merchants to enter, and enjoy the same preferential trade conditions as Haihan. Of course, after seeing the scale of construction of the Datong River base, these companies may have other ideas after the war is over, and may even request North Korea to station troops.
Kim Sang-hyun does not have much objection to the establishment of diplomatic relations and trade requirements. According to the information he has learned, Sanya, the capital of Haihan, is the leading trading port in the South China Sea. It is precisely because merchants and merchant ships from many countries go there. Only by conducting trade in the region can Haihan have enough financial resources to rise in a corner of the South China Sea at an extremely fast speed. The information Kim Sang-hyun knows is naturally very one-sided, but it can also be used as a reference for North Korea to find a way to become a powerful country. If cross-border trade can bring prosperity to North Korea, then it is not a bad thing to allow the trade requirements of these countries. However, this development path must be under the management of North Korea, rather than the independent initiative of these countries. Therefore, even if the conditions proposed by the coalition forces are agreed to in the end, Kim Sang-heon also hopes to take the initiative. Anyway, this is not the time to wait for foreign reinforcements to save the war situation. If it is delayed a little, the North Korean side will no longer be anxious.
After three days and two nights of pursuit on the banks of the Yalu River in the north, the Qing army finally resorted to the tactic of cutting off their tails to survive, but almost all the two thousand Qing soldiers who stayed in North Korea died in the battle. In the last battle between the two sides, the exhausted Qing army did not cause too much trouble to the Haihan army. All the Haihan army needed to do was to keep firing to maintain fire suppression on the Qing army, and then Gradually advance the front. Although the Qing army built temporary positions and some bunkers, facing the Haihan pursuers who had just been thrown into the battlefield recently, they still could not survive for half a day before being declared destroyed.
After confirming that the main force of the Qing army had all crossed the river and returned to the Qing-controlled area in Liaodong, the Second Battalion of the Independent Regiment and the two companies of the Marine Corps responsible for chasing the Qing army handed over the task of cleaning the battlefield to the North Korean army that arrived later. , and then returned to Uiju on the lower reaches of the Yalu River to join the 1st Battalion of the Independent Regiment and the coalition forces stationed here for rest. At this time, the coalition's strength in Yiju has exceeded 4,000. There is no need to worry that the Qing army will still have enough strength to launch a second wave of offensive. However, the Qing army's strongholds on the other side, such as Jiuliancheng, are particularly nervous. They are worried that the coalition will take advantage of the momentum to cross the river and launch a counterattack. .
However, Wang Tom, who rushed to the Yalu River to take command, did not want to fight anymore. After more than three months of fighting, the casualties of the Haihan Army seemed small, but considering that the participating troops were all elites in the army, the value of an individual soldier was far away. Compared with the extraordinary troops, Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun were unwilling to pay too high a price in this kind of mercenary war, so they decisively terminated the war after driving the Qing army across the Yalu River.
Of course, North Korea is definitely still eager for Haihan to continue the battle. It is best to directly fight a war of annihilation for the enemy across the Yalu River to solve the problem once and for all. But since Haihan was unwilling to fight, and they couldn't afford more money to keep Haihan's army working hard, they had no choice but to accept this result.
According to the agreement reached with the North Korean military, Haihan will leave some military advisers on the banks of the Yalu River to guide and train the North Korean troops who have taken over the lost territory, and assist them in establishing surface armed forces on the Yalu River to avoid a similar attack by the Qing army next time. During the attack, the border defenders did not even have the ability to protect themselves.
In addition, the North Korean military has clearly expressed its intention to purchase several exploration-class warships from Haihan. However, considering North Korea's post-war financial situation, it is probably unlikely that it will be purchased in full at once. Several North Korean generals reported to Wang Tom every day, and they all brought their own food and drinks, hoping to obtain some preferential conditions for the purchase of arms and equipment through him - such as delivery first and payment later.
Naturally, this trick wouldn't work with Wang Tom. Although he was a military attache, he had seen too many situations during the Southern and Northern Expeditions over the years, and he had long seen through the intentions of these North Korean military attaches. Although the direct credit that the North Koreans wanted was impossible to achieve, Wang Tom introduced them to another compromise method to solve the problem of insufficient military budget, which is to apply for a special loan from Haihan Bank in the name of the North Korean official.
Haihan Bank's operation of providing special loans to foreign arms buyers is not new. This transaction method has been in place a few years ago, and it has greatly promoted the scale of Haihan's export of weapons and equipment. For example, last year, Matalan and the Netherlands purchased a large amount of Haihan weapons and equipment, and part of the transaction funds came from loans provided by Haihan Bank.
Of course, not everyone can apply for this kind of loan. Haihan Bank and other relevant departments have their own set of standards to evaluate whether the target has such qualifications, and there are often certain additional conditions, such as political and diplomatic commitments, or Mortgage property or land, etc.
Wang Tom told these North Korean military attachés that Haihan Bank could provide North Korea with funds to purchase warships, but only if North Korea allowed Haihan Bank to enter operations and promised a reasonable repayment time.
The North Korean military attachés did not understand the true functions and role of institutions like Haihan Bank in the economic field. They simply understood it as a bank bank account according to Wang Tom's explanation. Since they could provide North Korea with funds to purchase weapons, of course they would not Would you mind if this kind of Haihan official agency comes to North Korea to open some semicolons? As for what impact Haihan Bank will have after entering North Korea, and whether it will be good or bad for North Korea's long-term development, they don't understand and don't want to understand these issues. What North Korea needs now is a strong army that can defend the country, and to do this, it must have enough funds to purchase more advanced weapons and equipment. Haihan Bank can help them achieve this goal. One reason is enough.
However, this kind of matter is not something that the military attachés can make a final decision on. They can only use their respective influence to explain to the king the necessity of doing so. Otherwise, after the Haihan Army withdraws from the Yalu River, this place will soon become an undefended border line again.
Wang Tom stayed in Uiju for ten days, and after confirming that the situation at the border had stabilized, he took a boat south and returned to the Daedong River base. Next, he will go to Seoul with Qian Tiandun to meet with the King of North Korea and other upper-level figures to discuss a series of issues that the two sides need to deal with next. The war was over, and their battlefield had to be moved from the wild to the negotiation table, using the previous results to gain more favorable conditions for Haihan.
Originally, this matter should be sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but obviously their current reputation and influence in North Korea are more suitable to complete this task, and Sanya did not express any objection to this.
(End of chapter)