Chapter 1880 Each takes what he needs
The arms trade has always been one of the most profitable items in Haihan's commodity export field, and as a large buyer with financial resources, Daming's economic strength is obviously far greater than Haihan's other sales targets. Although the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was relatively limited, it still had a strong purchasing power from a national level. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for local warlords like Xu Xinsu to build a strong army with the help of one place.
The Ming Dynasty has garrison troops stationed in every prefecture along the coast, and now that the country is in the midst of internal and external troubles, many military attachés with military power have begun to think about it. Some people want to follow Xu Xinsu's successful model, use sea trade to accumulate wealth, and then buy Haihan weapons to arm the troops under their jurisdiction; some people sell some of the weapons purchased from Haihan to the Ministry of War to pave the way for their own official careers; Some people simply want to hold Haihan's thigh. After all, even North Korea, which was about to be destroyed, was rescued by the Haihan people some time ago. If they cooperate with them, they don't have to worry about their future.
But one thing, almost everyone has the same idea, and that is to have a good relationship with Haihan. Whether to buy the weapons provided by Haihan, how to buy them, how much to buy, and how to use them after buying them are actually secondary issues. The key is to maintain a subtle tacit understanding with Haihan through arms transactions. .
For these generals who were better informed than the imperial court, they knew very well that Haihan was not only doing business, but it was also a very warlike country. Although Ming Dynasty had signed a peace agreement with it, it might not be able to stop Haihan. The ambition of the Han people. If the two countries go to war, they will be the first to bear the brunt. As for the actual combat effectiveness of the Haihan Army, they are much clearer than the senior officials in the court who only read the memorials and issue orders based on their assumptions.
This group of people have understood through Haihan's series of force demonstrations in Zhejiang in the past two years. If there is a conflict between the two countries, the situation of the troops stationed along the coast of Zhejiang will be very embarrassing. If they want to fight, they will definitely not be able to defeat Haihan's army. They can only try their best to maintain Peace is the best way to protect yourself. Moreover, the Haihan people are not that difficult to deal with. As long as the trade door is opened, any conditions can be negotiated slowly, and the business is done first. The possibility of Haihan invading Jiangsu and Zhejiang will be greatly reduced.
However, Li Bo had only been in Zhoushan for a short period of time, so he was not aware of the entanglement of interests and could not quite understand the operations of both parties. In his opinion, the arms trade between the two countries seemed to be a huge advantage for Haihan, who could easily exchange some third-rate goods for real gold and silver from the Ming Dynasty. But in fact, both sides took what they got for their own purposes. Just need it.
Li Bo watched these Ming military attachés chatting and laughing around Shi Diwen, and suddenly a strange idea came to his mind - no matter how hard these officials of the Ming Dynasty tried to establish a good relationship with Haihan, they could not compare to the efforts of North Korea. , after all, as the eldest son, he has already gone to study abroad in Haihan, and Daming will definitely not be able to make such an arrangement.
In the future, those who can achieve in-depth cooperation with Haihan in various aspects will definitely not be these Ming officials who only flatter him, but North Korea, which understands Haihan better and has more common interests with it. When one day his country becomes stronger, he will be able to stand upright in front of the Ming Dynasty, instead of treating it as the suzerain state - Li Fu secretly had this thought.
In fact, Li Bo is quite optimistic about his vision. He believes that as long as North Korea can get the support and assistance of Haihan, it will only take a few years to catch up with the Ming Dynasty militarily - maybe before he succeeds to the throne. It has already been realized. However, he did not dare to say this kind of wishful thinking to anyone. If this leaked out and became known to the outside world, it would definitely affect the relations between North Korea, Haihan, and Ming Dynasty.
After the transaction, Shi Diwen also held a banquet to entertain these buyers and sponsors as usual. However, the military leaders were focused on the handover of arms at this time, so Shi Diwen ordered the dinner to be postponed for two hours so that they could have time. Plenty of time to go to the warehouse at the dock to inventory the equipment you purchased.
Li Pu had already experienced the pain of being persuaded to drink in turns with these military attachés before. He didn't want to make the same mistake again, so he took the initiative to ask Shi Diwen to resign and not attend the banquet in the evening. Shi Diwen didn't know that the North Korean prince was drunk to the point of breaking out on the night of the reception banquet, and was already afraid of the banquet on the island. He just thought that he was relying on his status and did not want to live with these Ming Dynasty warriors. However, Shi Diwen didn't have any objection to this. From Haihan's point of view, it was not a good thing for the prince of Joseon to be too close to Ming officials. Li Bo was willing to take the initiative to keep his distance, which saved Shi Diwen a lot. thing.
After Li Bo returned to his residence, he asked Jin Shangjiu to find a recently published newspaper and take a look. He only saw this legendary thing after arriving in Zhoushan. The various news on it made him very interested. He felt that this was also a channel to understand the social conditions of Haihan from the side. However, I have been busy attending various activities these past two days and have not yet taken the time to study the contents of this newspaper carefully.
Currently, the only newspaper published in Haihan's overseas colonies and ruled areas is the official "Haihan Times", and all of them are compiled and printed in Sanya. Therefore, the newspapers you can see here are basically all More than half a month later than the actual release time. As a result, the news in newspapers is no longer very timely. However, considering the speed of news dissemination in this era, the speed at which The Times provides information is still quite fast, and the amount of information it carries is by no means Di Bao, a traditional official media, can't compare.
Due to the cost of distribution channels and the actual publicity effect, the circulation of The Times overseas cannot be as large as that in China, and not all cats and dogs can read this newspaper. After the subscription system was adopted, most ordinary people did not have enough financial resources to subscribe to such a reading material for a long time, and only local officials and some people with special status had this ability.
As for foreign guests with official status like Li Bo, they naturally receive corresponding special treatment. The newspaper Jin Shangjiu found for him was actually provided by a propaganda agency affiliated with the Zhoushan authorities.
After Li Bo had a hasty dinner, he ordered his servants to light a few windproof oil lamps in the room and began to read the newspapers that Jin Shangjiu had just sent.
Li Bo's attention was quickly attracted by the headline article on the front page: "Decisive Battle on the Datong River! The situation in North Korea is heading here to fight!"
Li Pu quickly took another look at the publication date on the front page, but it was based on the Haihan calendar. Fortunately, he already knew something about it, and he could roughly calculate that the publication date of this newspaper was around the time when the Battle of Datong River started. same time period.
Of course, he also knew that Haihan's battle plan on the banks of the Datong River had actually been drawn up long ago, so there was basically no risk of leaking military information if the relevant content was published in Haihan's local newspaper. By the time the news in this newspaper reached the north, the war on the Korean battlefield was over. However, Haihan was able to put this kind of war on a platform like a newspaper and let the people pay attention to the progress of this war. Li Bo still admired his courage. Generally speaking, when a war breaks out, a country will not take the initiative to inform its citizens about the progress of the war, unless there is a big victory. Haihan was obviously very confident in the Korean War and directly disclosed the fighting status of this war to the people.
Li Pu slowly read the content of the report under the title. Except for the slightly exaggerated writing style describing the strength of the Haihan Army, the description of the situation of the two armies and the situation in North Korea at that time was basically true. This was also the first time that Li Pu had Opportunity to look at the war from Haihan’s perspective.
Li Bo had heard from Jin Shangjiu before that this Times was the official mouthpiece of Haihan, and the front-page articles above basically represented the official attitude, and even the author was a senior Haihan official. This newspaper can be said to be a bellwether for Haihan's foreign policy. It is said that when Li Xi asked Haihan for help, he noticed that the newspaper mentioned that after the Battle of Manila, several main battle units would enter the war because they had no combat missions. During the truce period, he had the courage to ask Haihan to send troops to North Korea. What he was sure of was that his main battle force had been freed up to enter the next battlefield.
Of course, some people in North Korea believe that this kind of news may have been released intentionally by Haihan. After all, this is not the first time that Haihan's army has been sent overseas to fight as mercenaries. It had sent troops to the Annan Gang before it became prosperous. The Zheng family in the north fought a civil war for two years, and the situation of confrontation between the north and the south in Annan was abruptly transformed into the Zheng family's world. Everyone with a discerning eye knows the external pressure North Korea faces, and the only ones in the Liaodong region who can deal with the Qing army are Haihan and his family. If North Korea wants to mobilize reinforcements, it cannot rely on the Ming Dynasty. Haihan is the only choice. At this juncture, rumors were released to let the outside world know that one's main force had nothing to do. Wasn't this a hint?
However, this voice is not the mainstream. After all, Haihan's strength during the Korean War was impressive, and he actually saved North Korea's crisis. Regardless of whether it is a plot against North Korea or not, North Korea really needs such a backer to protect itself.
This article in the newspaper also analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, which also aroused Li Bo's interest. He also wanted to see how the Haihan people evaluated their own army, and whether they thought their victorious army also had shortcomings.
What was slightly beyond his expectation was that the author pointed out directly the problems of the Haihan Army troops sent to North Korea: too few troops, heavy reliance on logistics, and poor land mobility. Another flaw is related to North Korea. Because the strength and military system of the two armies are too different, it is difficult to obtain effective coordination from the local army.
In the past, Li Ming might have had reservations about the last point, but now he also knows that this is actually an objective fact. The Korean army still has a long way to go if it wants to fight side by side with the Haihan army on the battlefield.
As for the other shortcomings, it is quite new to Li Bo. And if you think about it carefully, you will find that the shortcomings pointed out are indeed reasonable.
Counting several other allied forces, the total strength of the coalition forces that entered North Korea was only a few thousand. This was obviously disproportionate to the 100,000 troops that the Qing army invaded North Korea. However, this set off the contrast between the coalition forces and the Qing army. The combat effectiveness gap between them. Due to the coalition's reliance on logistical support, they were unable to fight on the front line of the Yalu River for a long time, and eventually they took the initiative to retreat to the banks of the Datong River to establish a defense line. As for the mobility on land, this was fully exposed in the later stages of the war. The Haihan Army had too few organized cavalry units, and the long-distance march of the infantry inland would seriously weaken the combat effectiveness. This directly led to the counterattack phase of the Qing Dynasty. The result of the army's pursuit was not satisfactory.
If these shortcomings can be made up for, then it is a question of how many of the 100,000 Qing troops who entered the DPRK can escape back home. However, the newspaper also said that the so-called shortcomings are only relative to one's own strength, but for the enemy, these shortcomings are still high places that they can't even touch when they jump up. As long as the Haihan Army sticks to the Datong River defense line, even if they don't counterattack, the depth of North Korea alone will be enough to make the Qing army be overwhelmed by logistics sooner or later.
Li Bo also heard remarks like this after the war. Haihan took the initiative to move the battle line back hundreds of miles in order to transfer the pressure of his own logistics supply to the enemy. However, the Qing army had a large number of troops and lacked The logistical pressure of sea transportation was actually much greater than that of the coalition forces. This also resulted in the Qing army's battle on the Datong River not lasting too long. They took the initiative to retreat after confirming that there was no possibility of breaking through the Haihan defense line.
At the end of this article, a bold prediction was made about the direction of the war: the Allied forces will surely win the final decisive battle on the banks of the Datong River. If the Qing army still refuses to fight against the Allied forces on the banks of the Datong River for more than ten days, then it is estimated that all of the 100,000 people will be defeated. It must be handed over to North Korea.
As for the actual situation that Li Pu knew, the Qing army only launched two major offensives against the Datong River base, and then voluntarily withdrew from the battlefield after suffering thousands of casualties. Although the battle situation predicted in the newspapers did not materialize in the end, the coalition forces indeed won the battle without any dispute.
On the same page as this topic article, there is also related news about Haihan’s domestic support from all walks of life in aiding the Korean War. The arsenal worked overtime to produce weapons and ammunition for the front line, the shipping company proactively contacted the Ministry of National Defense to deliver supplies to the troops on the expedition, and the cultural circles held a charity sale of works to raise resettlement pensions for domestic soldiers who were injured or killed in overseas battlefields, etc. It seemed that the whole country was fighting for this war. How war works.
Li Ming thought that the Haihan people were united. He thought about the quarrel between the main warlords and the officials of the two factions in the court. If the whole country could support the country's war with the same hatred as the Haihan people when Ding Mao was in chaos, that would not be the case. As for being in such a passive situation - at least he can have a tougher attitude and won't compromise and sign a brotherly alliance with Hou Jin.
(End of chapter)