Chapter 2092
The special methods used by Yan Chujie against the Hirado clan were highly confidential. Of course, the fewer links involved, the better. For the sake of full confidentiality, Yan Chujie did not even communicate with the generals stationed in the far north before, so Wang Tom and Qian Tian Dun was completely ignorant of the changes in wind direction that had taken place in Sanya.
Although they were surprised by the speed with which the Executive Committee made a resolution this time, as senior generals who had participated in the investigation work in recent months, they were not too surprised that the Executive Committee finally chose military strike methods. From the sneak attack of the Qing Army's musketry team in Liaodong, they believed that this matter was not good. In addition to eliminating the Qing Army's musketry team, they also had to attack the source of weapons to eliminate the channels for the Qing army to obtain arms from the outside world.
The telegram sent back by the reconnaissance fleet a few days ago stated that two shipyards capable of building warships and a secret arsenal for casting artillery were discovered near Hirado Port. They have already determined that these local military industrial institutions cannot be allowed to Continue to operate, otherwise more firearms will definitely flow into the hands of the Qing army in the future, causing greater trouble for the Haihan army.
However, both Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun believe that it will take some time for the Executive Committee to make a decision to use force. After all, just a charge of "possessing powerful weapons of destruction" may not make the Executive Committee make up its mind. Only a real and direct threat to Haihan Security, such as the large supply of weapons to Haihan's sworn enemies in Liaodong, would make the Executive Committee nervous. From this point of view, their ideas coincide with those of Yan Chujie who is far away in Sanya.
"The telegram said that the Executive Committee hopes to arrange the military strike against the Hirado Domain in the first half of the year, which means we can start formulating an action plan now." Wang Tom decided not to waste his brain cells to speculate on why the Executive Committee We will be so active this time and focus our energy on more important preparations for war.
It was already late March of 1638. If combat operations were to be limited to the first half of the year, there would not actually be much time left for the northern garrison to prepare for war. Although this opponent cannot be said to be very powerful for the Kaihan Army, considering that it needs to cross the sea and enter an unfamiliar area to fight, and the attack on the Hirado Domain will inevitably include amphibious landing operations, the difficulty of the entire operation is indeed not low.
Qian Tiandun nodded calmly and said: "The previous task of going deep into enemy-occupied areas to eliminate the musketeers was taken up by your navy. This time we finally have the opportunity to show our army's face."
Wang Tom smiled and said: "Yes, yes, if we want to attack Hirado Port this time, your troops will probably have to play the leading role!"
Wang Tom's words are not a compliment to Qian Tiandun. In order for the Haihan Army to complete its military attack on the Hirado Domain, landing operations are essential. Although the Marine Corps also has such capabilities, considering the complex local geographical environment Wang Tom did not dare to overestimate the strength of the Heito clan, so it would be wise to let Qian Tiandun's special operations group join this mission.
Of course, there is another reason that everyone knows very well, that is, the current leader of the special operations group, Takahashi Minami, is of Japanese origin. The military operations in the Hirado Domain should have some special significance for him. It is also a special test.
The person involved, Takahashi Minami, was still on vacation at this time and did not know that an important combat task would soon be handed over to him. In fact, the special operations group has not had any major action arrangements in the past six months, so most of the time it is no different than taking a vacation.
There is only one big city in the nearby area, Pyongyang. Although it is less than a hundred miles away from the Datong River base, with the traffic conditions of this era, it will take at least a day to get from the base to Pyongyang, and Gao Qiaonan has long been accustomed to life in the military. , even if he was on vacation, he was not very interested in leaving the base too far, and he had no intention of returning to Haihan all the way, so Gao Qiaonan arranged his vacation to travel around the base.
If we count from the beginning of construction, the Datong River base has a history of almost a year. A considerable number of Korean people who worked as laborers here during the war chose to stay near the base after the war, and some villages and towns were spontaneously formed. With the several thousand foreign troops stationed at the Datong River base, their daily food and clothing needs are enough to feed the people who live near the base.
Later, as Haihan and North Korea agreed on a series of cooperation projects in the Datong River Basin, dozens of miles along the coast were covered with large-scale projects, so a large number of people were resettled in this area as labor force, and large-scale projects gradually appeared on both sides of the once barren river bank. The population density of settlements, large and small, is probably the highest it has ever been in this area.
Every time Gao Qiaonan leaves the base, he will find great changes in the surrounding area, from sparse shantytowns, to settlements that are gradually taking shape, and then to villages and towns that gradually appear. He feels that this is a bit like when he returned to Haihan's feelings are that every time he returns to China, he will find that the environment has changed significantly. So during his rare vacation, he chose to travel along the Datong River to find a feeling similar to returning to Haihan.
Perhaps out of the persistence of an army officer, Takahashi Minami did not choose the more convenient way of traveling by boat, but insisted on riding a horse for this vacation, and only brought a few people with him in simple clothes.
To the west from the Datong River base is the estuary, where large salt fields have been built on the river bank. Compared with the large-volume iron ore mining and supporting industries across the Datong River, the cycle from construction to production of the salt farm was relatively shorter. It only took a few months after the war to gradually start production.
The Datong River Salt Farm has introduced Haihan's salt production technology. Although the initial investment is relatively large, the huge increase in production capacity can make the production profits here far exceed those of traditional salt farms. Moreover, this salt farm has secret shares from the royal family and high-ranking officials. The demand for labor has been relatively fully guaranteed, so it has been operating at full capacity since the start of production.
The salt produced here is basically shipped to other places by ship, which indirectly drives the development of supporting industries such as the shipping industry. When the Datong River base was first built last year, the boats that could be seen on this section of the river were basically small sampans used for fishing. But now there are many cargo ships plying here, and most of them are merchant ships that come to the Datong River salt field to sell salt.
Gao Qiaonan and his party rode along the newly built official road. People who saw them would stop and bow their heads as soon as possible to show respect. For ordinary North Koreans, the Haihan military uniforms worn by Takahashi Nan and others are a symbol of status. If they want to live in the Taedong River Basin, they must show sufficient humility to these foreign garrison personnel.
Gao Qiaonan has become accustomed to the behavior of the North Korean people. In fact, since entering the Datong River base last year, the propaganda department has been in operation, consciously instilling Haihan's values into the North Korean people, so that they will get used to the behavior of the Haihan army. Submissive attitude.
The production scene of the Datong River Salt Farm is indeed very familiar to Gaoqiao Nan. The production environment here is similar to that of other salt farms under Haihan's rule. The production process also completely copies Haihan's model. The most significant difference is the production here. The person is a Korean wearing national costume. Sitting on horseback, Gao Qiaonan looked at the people working in the salt fields. Suddenly, he wanted to go back to the South China Sea to see how developed his country's salt fields were. He heard that the Yinggehai Salt Farm is currently the largest salt farm in the South China Sea, but it is difficult to have an exact idea of how big it is. Perhaps the most appropriate thing to do is to see the current situation there with your own eyes.
Minami Takahashi was born in Japan and is relatively adaptable to the environment in this region, but he seems to prefer the climate in the south. A considerable proportion of the people in the special operations group are from the south, and their adaptation to the climate and environment in the north is not ideal, even if they have been stationed for a relatively long time. He knew that his boss had also applied to the Ministry of National Defense, hoping to transfer the troops to the south, but it would take a year at the earliest before he could make the move. Calculating the time, it has been almost a year since we went north in April last year. Perhaps by the time summer comes, the special operations group will hopefully change its location in the south.
But before returning to the south, I wonder if there is a chance to go to Japan. Although Takahashi Minami already regards himself as 100% Haihan, this is the closest he has been to Japan in ten years. He didn't want to return to live in Japan, but he still hoped to see his hometown, even if it was just on a boat.
Takahashi Minami is a little envious of his colleague Shiro Amakusa. Although this guy has a lower position than himself, he has been given two opportunities to perform missions in Japanese waters. This time, they were transferred by the Military Intelligence Bureau to carry out the task of investigating Hirado and Nagasaki, and there might even be arrangements to go ashore. This still has some special meaning for Japanese people like them who have been away from Japan for more than ten years.
But Takahashi Minami is just thinking about it. He will not apply for a special trip to visit Japan for this purpose. For a senior military attaché like him, having strange feelings towards foreign countries is a taboo thing, even if He knew that his boss Qian Tiandun would give him full trust, but he didn't want to test how solid this trust was.
Of course, as a general leading troops in war, Takahashi Minami also imagined that one day Haihan would be at war with Japan, but he had no embarrassment about this. Of course, for him, it must be for his own sake. The countries he was loyal to fought desperately. As for Japan, there was no one he could worry about now.
However, these questions will probably only appear in Takahashi Minami's mind when he is on vacation. After all, there is nothing to do at this time, and walking in the white salt fields can easily make people empty their minds. I will think about things that I usually don’t have the opportunity to think deeply about.
In the end, several local gentry who came to greet him brought Takahashi Nan out of his thoughts. Among these people were managers of the salt fields, village chiefs of immigrant villages, and businessmen who controlled certain local industries. After hearing the news that Haihan officers were patrolling on horseback in the salt fields, they hurried over to show up, not wanting to miss this event. A good opportunity to meet noble people. You must know that they are not even qualified to step into the Datongjiang base, let alone get to know Officer Haihan.
Gao Qiaonan was originally not interested in socializing with these local gentry, but when he went out with his personal entourage, he ultimately wanted to find a place to eat and sleep, and these people were happy to arrange these trivial matters for him, which could save a lot of trouble. Of course, if Takahashi Minami wants to know about the local situation, the information these people can provide should be far more efficient than what he can collect by himself.
However, the living conditions near the salt field are also limited. At this stage, they are far from being compared with big cities such as Pyongyang and Seoul. The entertainment these gentry can provide to Gao Qiaonan and his party is only basic food and accommodation. But being able to travel like this among people in a foreign country is a special way of vacation for Gao Qiaonan.
It was not until three days later that Gao Qiaonan returned to the base again. When he went to report to Qian Tiandun, he heard news from his boss that made him somewhat unbelievable.
"The Executive Committee has decided to use force against the Hirado Domain next, and our special operations group should be responsible for the landing operations, so prepare as soon as possible and summon the staff to formulate a combat plan."
Takahashi Minami said: Two days ago, I was still thinking about whether I could find a chance to go to Japan, but I didn't expect that the errand would come so soon. Although it was a combat mission, it finally gave this wish a chance to come true.
Seeing that he was silent, Qian Tiandun asked again: "Do you have any ideas about leading troops to Japan to perform combat missions? If so, please tell me as soon as possible and don't wait and see!"
Takahashi Nan quickly responded: "I have no other ideas, I promise to complete the task successfully!"
Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "That's good. The current situation is that the Executive Committee believes that the Hirado Domain not only participated in a series of previous hostilities against our country, but also mastered the manufacturing technology of powerful anti-personnel weapons, and has one in progress. The armed fleet is being secretly formed. And the most important point is that the Eighteen Zhiyu Party hiding in the local area is deeply involved in these things. This is a very big hidden danger for our country and must be resolved as soon as possible. "
After hearing this, Takahashi Min felt that this last point seemed to be the reason for the executive committee to decide to use force. After all, the grievances with Shibazhi ran through the short history of Haihan Kingdom. If they are not liquidated, , I am afraid that the senior officials of the Executive Committee will not feel at ease. As for information such as the armed fleet, Minami Takahashi is not worried. There has not yet been an opponent in the entire East Asia that can defeat the Haihan Navy. It is impossible for a small Hirado clan to maintain an armed fleet that is too large. I believe that the navy will only need to dispatch a fleet to solve the problem.
The real highlight should still be on the Army's side. Thinking of this, Takahashi Minami couldn't help but become passionate.
(End of chapter)