Chapter 1884 Military Exercise in Zhongzuo City
Xu Xinsu's statement is no exaggeration. If Haihan hadn't intervened in the situation in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong might have killed Xu Xinsu long ago and then went ashore to clear his name, gain an official position and turn tens of thousands of pirate soldiers into Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers. When the time comes, Haihan, forced by the situation, will most likely decide to befriend Zheng Zhilong, and then there will be no such thing as the Xu family that covers the sky with one hand in Fujian today.
However, the actual situation is actually more complicated than Xu Xinsu said. Haihan sent troops to intervene in the situation in Fujian not only because of the dispute between Shibazhi and Xu Xinsu, but more importantly, there was support from Western colonial countries behind Shibazhi, and Haihan If the Han Dynasty wants to gain control of the Fujian Strait, it cannot allow the Eighteen Zhi to truly form a climate, so it is imperative to send troops. As for choosing Xu Xinsu as the target of support, it was more or less done casually, but the subsequent development of the situation proved that Haihan's investment was extremely cost-effective. In just a few years, he had a loyal ally and a powerful auxiliary army in the Ming Dynasty. .
Xu Xinsu has carefully studied how the Haihan people started to prosper, continued to expand externally, and developed step by step to where they are today. He knows that there are some things that he cannot imitate, such as the many black technologies that are difficult to copy in the hands of the Haihan people. The lowest threshold is in the military field, and the support Haihan can provide is also the greatest.
Now even if Shibazhi comes back from the dead and returns to Fujian, Xu Xinsu will no longer feel nervous about it. He doesn't even need Haihan's help. His troops with advanced equipment and rich combat experience are enough to clean up the war in the past. The arrogant Shiba Zhi in the Fujian Strait.
Although Xu Xinsu's military investment was large, the returns were also quite generous. It is precisely because Xu Xinsu has continued to allocate huge military expenditures to his troops year after year to improve their equipment and training levels, and even spent a lot of money to send them overseas to participate in military operations organized by Haihan, that the Fujian army can now enjoy "the highest status in the Ming Dynasty" Known as the "Little Sea Han Army", even the imperial court was powerless to do anything about it.
After Li Bo landed on Xiamen Island, he soon saw this Zhongzuosuo city, which Xu Xinsu was proud of. Although Li Bo's military knowledge is very limited, it is not difficult for him to see that the construction of this city's defense line is similar to that of the Datong River base in his country and the Zhangzhou city defense that he had seen before. The city wall defense line is not a straight line, but a straight line. Concave and convex, distributed in a zigzag shape.
According to Xu Xinsu's explanation, this is a Haihan-style defense line construction method. The purpose is to allow the defenders to form cross defensive firepower when encountering an siege, thereby increasing the efficiency of killing the enemy. However, the height and thickness of the walls of Zhongzuosuo City are still far behind those of Zhangzhou City. As for the Datong River base, due to the limited construction period, there was no time to build the entire city wall. Most of the area was just trenches used as bunkers for combatants, and the protective capabilities were actually not as good as those of the Zhongzuo City.
Although the scale of city defenses varies, Li Bo can indeed see the obvious Haihan style from them. After they climbed onto the city wall, Li Bo even noticed that the artillery deployed on the top of the city had the words "Haihan Ordnance" engraved on it, followed by a string of symbols that Li Bo could not understand. This shows that it comes from the arsenal in Sanya and is authentically made in Haihan - this is much higher quality than the second-hand Spanish goods that Shi Diwen sold to the Ming Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in Zhoushan.
The guns and cannons equipped by the Fujian Ming Army were all made in Haihan, which made Li Bo greatly envious. Before he went abroad, he heard Bingcao Shen Jingzhen mention that North Korea originally planned to purchase large quantities of weapons from Haihan, but unfortunately its budget was limited and it could not buy much at all. If the weapons and equipment are not in place, the formation and training of the new army will be greatly affected, and the formation of combat effectiveness will be further delayed. However, it is said that Haihan Bank can provide special loans and only allow North Korea to use mineral deposits as collateral. However, the results of the negotiations have not been reached when Li Bo left North Korea, so it is not yet known whether this path will work.
But Xu Xinsu's family is rich, so she certainly doesn't have to be embarrassed to buy weapons from Haihan. In fact, most of the time, Haihan took the initiative to control the number of weapons sold to Fujian for safety reasons, not whether Xu Xinsu could afford them.
The next drill conducted by Xu Xinsu's troops was indeed exactly the same as that of the Haihan Army. The formations in combat conditions were 70% or 80% similar to what Li Bo had seen at the Datong River base. If he changed the outfit of the Shanghai Han Army and displayed the conspicuous red and blue flags, Li Bo felt that he might really be able to frighten his opponents on the battlefield.
Li Bo actually wanted to find some faults in this military exercise to prove that the gap between the Fujian Ming Army and the Korean Army was not that big, but he soon discovered that this idea was in vain. This army was piled up with money. Xu Xinsu's troops are not young soldiers. Xu Xinsu organized and trained them according to the standards of Haihan combat troops. They also have many opportunities to fight side by side with Haihan army. Their actual combat effectiveness is far better than that of the ordinary Ming army, let alone facing The Qing army's cavalry was almost defenseless against the Korean army. The performance of this Ming army in the exercise was indeed worthy of their title of "Little Han Army".
This reminded Li Bo of a Chinese proverb he heard during his visit to Zhoushan Island: Money is not everything, but having no money is absolutely impossible. Xu Xinsu was able to build a strong army by spending a lot of money, but North Korea had difficulty in effectively improving the combat effectiveness of its own army because it had no money. No matter how high your ambition is, you still have to talk with money in the end. If you don’t have real money, don’t think about dreaming about a powerful country all day long. It’s just a daydream.
Everyone wants to imitate Haihan's successful model and have an armed force as powerful as Haihan's army, but only a handful of people are truly qualified to realize this vision. Based on North Korea's current conditions, there are only two ways to raise military expenditures as soon as possible. One is to exchange minerals and natural resources for special loans provided by Haihan Bank, and the other is to follow Annan's approach and directly exchange population and land. Weapons and other military resources.
Judging from the current situation, North Korea is unwilling to easily transfer population and land to Haihan. The second way is probably dead, so the only way left is to mortgage resources. However, Li Bo does not know how much weapons and equipment he can exchange from Haihan for this transaction. Even according to the current most optimistic estimates, the size of North Korea's new army will not exceed 5,000 people.
When Li Bo was in Zhoushan, he also had brief contact with the Ming army generals in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. He also heard that many military leaders wanted to imitate Xu Xinsu's fortune history, controlling local trade while strengthening their own arms, but after actually meeting the real master, , Li Bo felt that there was a clear gap between the vision and knowledge of the military leaders in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and Xu Xinsu. It is no wonder that Xu Xinsu was able to control a province in just a few years, while his colleagues in Jiangsu and Zhejiang had difficulty finding a The breakthrough point of momentum.
The most significant difference is that Xu Xinsu has become one of Haihan's allies a few years ago. Although the military leaders in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have overt and covert trade dealings with Haihan, they have never dared to express it as Xu Xinsu did. Choose your side and side. This kind of caution meant that they could only obtain the weapons and equipment sold by Haihan at high prices, but they were unable to gain Haihan's trust and wider support like Xu Xinsu. Just buying some muskets and artillery can only increase the superficial combat effectiveness of the troops. However, the senior officers Xu Xinsu sends to Haihan in batches every year for further training and the troops sent overseas to cooperate with the Haihan Army are what made the Fujian Ming Army become more powerful. The real reason for being powerful.
In fact, many people understand the truth of this, but those who can actually do it are very few. North Korea is now also working in this direction, and after the Anti-Qing War, its relationship with Haihan has risen to a new level. How much Li Bo can see and learn while studying abroad, and what ideas he can bring back to North Korea, may have a great impact on North Korea's future development in the military field. After watching the hour-long drill, Li Bo was invited to review the Zhongzuo garrison participating in the drill with Xu Xinsu. This small detail reminded Li Pu that after watching the military drill of the Haihan Army in Datong River earlier, Qian Tiandun also made the same arrangement. It seems that the Fujian Ming Army imitated the Haihan military system thoroughly, even like this The non-combat content of the army has also been copied, so it is no wonder that its combat effectiveness is closest to that of the Haihan Army.
After reviewing the troops, the two returned to Zhongzuosuo City together, where there was still a briefing meeting waiting for Li Shu. This group of overseas military officers from North Korea were also allowed to attend the lectures.
The speaker of this briefing was Xu Yuzhuo, Li Bo's only local acquaintance, and the content was the strategic significance and international environment of the Fujian Strait. A large nautical chart from Liaodong to Hainan Island is hung on the wall. The locations of Zhangzhou and Zhongzuo are clearly marked on it, so that the audience can know where they are at a glance.
The reason for arranging such a briefing is because Xu Xinsu hopes to make the Joseon Crown Prince understand that Fujian is not only a military ally of Haihan, but also plays a very important role in the international trade system built by Haihan. Role.
"...It is not difficult to see from the map that the sea lanes from Haihan to the north of the Ming Dynasty, as well as North Korea, Japan and other countries, all need to pass through the offshore waters of Fujian. The safety of the Fujian Strait is directly related to the interests of many countries. Therefore, the Fujian Navy has always been one of Haihan’s key assistance targets.”
Xu Yuzhuo's explanation made Li Bo's thinking suddenly clear up a lot. Haihan's emphasis on Fujian's offshore waters will indeed affect their attitude towards the Fujian Ming Army led by Xu Xinsu. This is just like the Haihan Army wanted to take military action against the Qing Dynasty in the Liaodong region. To a certain extent, it also needed logistical support from North Korea, so it chose to enter into an alliance with North Korea.
However, judging from the markings on the map, Haihan did not place his bets on the Fujian Ming Army. They also made deployments near Taiwan Island across the strait. Kaohsiung Port and Jilong Port were located in the south and north of Taiwan Island. As well as Magong Port in the Penghu Islands, there are Haihan garrison. Even if there are changes in Fujian, the garrison in these places will be able to protect the safety of the Strait waterways.
Of course, the position of the Dutch Port of Damuan, which is sandwiched between the Haihan ports, is very embarrassing. In the past, it was the window for the Dutch East India Company's trade with China, but now the trade share of Damuan Port is almost They were all robbed by Haihan. The local area has basically lost the opportunity to make money through trade, and can only operate as an ordinary colony.
But for Li Pu, his focus was rather strange. He visually examined the voyage from Seoul to Sanya and the location of Zhangzhou from the charts, and judged that almost two-thirds of the voyage had been completed. However, considering that there may be several stops along the way, the time required is still difficult to judge.
Then Li Bo noticed that the large island labeled as the Haihan Kingdom seemed to be much smaller than his own country. If he hadn't experienced so many things, it would be hard for him to imagine that such a small South China Sea country had the ability to do so. It occupies so many places overseas and can carry out military intervention thousands of miles away from its homeland, affecting the international situation in the region.
But after personally experiencing the changes in the situation in Northeast Asia in recent years, Li Bo also understood that large land area does not mean strong national power. Otherwise, how could the size of the Ming Dynasty be overtaken by the small Jurchen tribe and even Liaodong be lost? , and now they are in a situation of being passively beaten all year round. The rise of Haihan also gave Li Bo hope for the prosperity of the small country.
Xu Yuzhuo had already talked about the Fujian Ming Army's expeditions with the Haihan Army in all directions, from the Liaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula in the north to Manila Bay in Luzon Island in the south. In recent years, the Haihan Army has sent troops to conquer various places, and Fujian has almost always sent troops with them. .
This topic indeed attracted Li Bo's attention again, and he listened with relish to Xu Yuzhuo's detailed experience of fighting side by side with the Haihan Army over the years. Although he is not a soldier, he is still in his prime of life and has just experienced the Great Patriotic War, so he is the most enthusiastic about such topics.
However, Li Bo was just listening to the excitement, and the amount of information received by An Daoshi and other North Korean officers from here was much greater than that of Li Bo. They knew very well how costly it would be for a country to launch a foreign war. With the frequency of Haihan's foreign wars, it was difficult to imagine that this was a small country with a population of only over 300,000. And its terrifying victory rate of never losing a single victory in foreign wars is even more shocking. Although they have all seen the battles of the Haihan Army on battlefields such as the Datong River Base, it is still difficult to imagine how the Haihan Army can maintain its victory with limited strength. Such a high frequency of attacks and undefeated record.
Thinking that the Fujian Ming Army was an army trained with the help of Haihan, and that a large number of Fujian officers, including Xu Yuzhuo, had studied abroad in Haihan to receive military training, An Daoshi and others had more expectations for their career studying abroad.
(End of chapter)