Chapter 2135
For the Hirado Domain, this sudden war was probably the most serious change since the establishment of the port. The performance of the Hirado Domain army, which had always been proud of, was not ideal in the war. The Hirado Navy, which is said to be one of the strongest in the country, has not reflected its due value in the warships it has vigorously built in the past two years. Instead, it has been far away from the frontal battlefield, leaving the local people who have high hopes for it. Secretly angry, he believed that the Hirado navy should bear greater responsibility for the defeat.
However, the Haihan Army did not think that the reason why the Hirado Navy chose to hide was simply because they were afraid of fighting. Shi Diwen was more willing to regard it as a choice to preserve strength. The day before yesterday, an old warship was sent to test the Hirado Strait. After this battle, the opponent should have clearly understood how big the gap in strength between the two sides is. It is definitely not a wise move to jump out to a decisive battle with the coalition fleet at this time.
If the opponent intends to avoid fighting, there are countless coasts along Kyushu Island where they can hide, and it will not be easy for the coalition fleet to find the Hirado navy in the unfamiliar waters nearby.
In desperation, the coalition forces could only concentrate their efforts on clearing the land area first. The search of the several square kilometers of mountains and forests north of the city continued until the next day. Although several vassal troops were eliminated, Tagawasuke and other major figures were still not captured. According to the prisoners' confessions, Tagawasuke has not appeared since yesterday afternoon. The command headquarters can only conclude that this person has most likely secretly left Hirado Island at night.
"Looks like we have a hard time doing business this time!" Qian Tiandun couldn't help but feel a little depressed after listening to the battle report sent back by the arresting front line.
In terms of strength, the coalition certainly has an absolute advantage and basically leaves no chance for its opponents to make a comeback. However, the target person has never been arrested, which makes it difficult to achieve the goal of this combat mission. The battle was won, but the goal was not achieved, and the effectiveness of the battle was naturally greatly compromised.
Shi Diwen was not much more relaxed than Qian Tiandun. This time, the navy dispatched two fleets, one in the south and one in the north. Their strength was even enough to fight a national war with Japan, but when they got there, they punched the cotton. From the beginning to the end, they never fought against the opponent's main force. Shi Diwen dispatched two flagships to pursue the old warships of the Hirado Navy the day before yesterday. In fact, it was just killing a chicken with a knife and did not give full play to the power of the East China Sea Fleet.
Of course, Shi Diwen also wanted to take the fleet to the coast of Kyushu Island to slowly search for the whereabouts of the enemy, but doing so might further expand the war situation and prolong the time for the fleet to perform combat missions in Japan. As a naval general, he could not Regardless of the huge increase in military expenditures that will result - the Executive Committee may not be willing to pay for unplanned actions.
"Let's report it to the executive committee first. I think Sanya should also prepare corresponding plans for the current situation." Shi Diwen did not propose any better solution to this. It's not that he can't think of it, but that any method he can think of cannot be implemented on his own initiative, and requires further authorization from the Executive Committee.
On the sixth day of the eradication operation, the Executive Committee received the latest battle report from the Hirado front. The content of this battle report is not a victory report, but that the Haihan Army's local operations have reached a stalemate. They defeated the enemy and occupied Hirado, but failed to eradicate the main target.
Whether to continue to stay locally and expand the search area to the Kyushu area until the target person is captured, or to close it after it is built and withdraw the troops to save unnecessary military expenditures. Now the Executive Committee needs to come up with an idea. . But not surprisingly, the executive committee once again had differences of opinion regarding the next direction of action.
Yan Chujie, who almost single-handedly started this war, naturally did not want it to end hastily. He insisted that the purpose of sending troops was to completely solve the hidden dangers caused by the Eighteen Shiba Party, but the current military operations in Hirado have obviously not yet can achieve this effect.
"This operation must capture the Tagawa father and son!" Yan Chujie said decisively: "Since we have spent so much effort organizing the expedition, how could we give up halfway! Withdrawing troops now will give the opponent a chance to make a comeback, and it will also be a waste of military expenses. What a waste!”
"But we must also consider the issue of future military expenditures." Schneider took over the conversation with a look of helplessness: "Thousands of people from the army and navy are fighting in Hirado, and the expenses every day are astronomical. There are also Zhoushan Both places, including Datongjiang and Zhoushan, have entered a state of war. The trade situation in Zhoushan has been greatly affected.
"We will obtain some war profits from the Hirado area to make up for military expenditures." Yan Chujie is very sure of this. The Haihan Army has never been polite to overseas expeditions. It usually takes away a lot of wealth from the local area after the war. Half of this money is put into the national treasury and the other half is used as military expenses. It has become a common practice.
Although the final number of property seized by the frontline troops has not been calculated so far, Yan Chujie believes that Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen will not let him down, not to mention that Hirado is one of Japan's most important foreign trade ports, and the local economy The situation won't be too bad, and as long as you use a few tricks, the harvest won't be too bad.
Schneider sighed and said: "But can you give a clear time limit? If you can't catch someone in three to five days, what if you can't catch someone in ten days and a half month? I don't doubt the capabilities of the frontline troops, but the Japanese archipelago is not If they want to hide in a small place, we can't dig deep to dig them out! If the scale of the war further expands, it will not be of any benefit to our country. Do we have to fight a protracted and comprehensive war with Japan for this? The war won’t happen?”
The problems mentioned by Schneider do exist objectively. Although the purpose of this operation is very clear, due to the hasty preparations before the operation, the plan prepared by the Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense was not comprehensive. For example, in the current situation, where the war is won but the combat objectives are not achieved, there will be no corresponding plan for the frontline troops to adopt immediately, and they will have to send a telegram back to ask for instructions.
Expanding the scope of operations locally will inevitably lead to the escalation of the war. Although Japan's force is not enough to make Haihan feel afraid, once the war process is extended indefinitely, the cost of the war will be borne by Haihan. It will also increase sharply.
Of course, the Ministry of National Defense values the final outcome of the war. As for how much military expenditures will be spent in the process, that is not the primary issue that the Ministry of National Defense needs to consider. But Schneider, who was in charge of the treasury, had to calculate the additional expenditures that would result from the war entering the next stage, and to measure whether such expenditures would exceed what the current finances could afford. "Now is not a suitable time to fight a national war overseas." Tao Donglai expressed his attitude and rejected the idea of further expanding the scale of the war: "For us, the resources required to defeat Japan are too large, but we can expect The profit is too small, and even if we win, it will most likely be a loss-making transaction, which has little practical significance. I think we should go back to the origin of the problem and think about the purpose of launching this action."
Haihan's purpose in launching this war is of course very clear, which is to eliminate the hidden security risks in the Hirado area, and the center of this hidden danger is the Eighteen Shiba Party and the Tagawa father and son who are currently followed by these people.
In the past six months, there have been many vicious incidents against Haihan in various places. After investigation, the evidence basically points to Hirado. It is absolutely certain that Tagawasuke and his group are the masterminds behind these incidents. Whether they wanted to revive the Shibashiba or make the Hirado clan stronger, Kaihan was determined to eliminate this hidden danger in one fell swoop, so they took forceful action.
Now the Ministry of National Defense believes that the military operation must be brought to an end by arresting or eliminating the Tagawa father and son, while the opposition is worried that if it continues, the scale of the war will further escalate and the country will fall into a quagmire of war. In Tao Donglai's eyes, these two views are actually biased.
"What do you mean, Old Tao?" Yan Chujie and Tao Donglai have been partners for many years. When he heard him expand on this topic, he knew that the other party probably already had an idea.
Tao Donglai did not beat around the bush and said straight to the point: "The purpose of our military measures is to make the Hirado clan completely lose the ability to confront our country. The best result is of course to capture the Tagawa father and son and all the Eighteen Shiba Yu Party members and destroy them." The armed forces under their command have completely settled this grudge. But everyone also knows how difficult it is to achieve this result. It is difficult for us to achieve the intended goal 100%, so we have to imagine how to achieve the same effect in other ways. .”
"The reason why the Hirado Domain can manufacture guns and warships, and organize and train new-style armies is that the local area can provide sufficient resources for those ambitious people. Their source of funding, in addition to some of the properties left behind by Hachishiba , mainly from the local trade income of Hirado. If we cannot completely destroy their power structure for the time being, we might as well think about how to completely cut off their sources of income. Without sufficient financial support, all their actions will be difficult to carry out! ”
"What the Ministry of National Defense is worried about now is that after we withdraw our troops, the Tagawa father and son will come back again. They can continue to operate the trading system of Hirado Port and make huge profits from it. In a few years, they can form another army to challenge us. Then We might as well do it more thoroughly, not only smashing the bowls they eat from, but also demolishing the kitchen, so that even if they survive, they will be reduced to a desperate situation. "
"You mean to completely wipe out Hirado? I like this idea!" Yan Chujie expressed his appreciation without concealment. In fact, he had also thought about this approach, but he knew that these words coming from his own mouth would be different from Tao Dong's. It is suggested that the effect will definitely be different. The objections are mainly directed at the Ministry of National Defense, and Tao Donglai's stance is more neutral, and the opposition he will encounter will not be too strong.
Of course, the neutral position only refers to the internal affairs of the executive committee, and there is no contradiction with the radical plan he proposed. The effect of completely destroying the local trade environment in Hirado may be better than killing the Tagawa father and son. Without a sustained and stable source of income, the other party will definitely not be able to maintain a large armed force for a long time. Once Tagawa's local rule collapses, then I believe that the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo will not let go of this opportunity to add insult to injury, and will definitely try to let Nagasaki take the opportunity to replace Hirado's trade status, and even the lord of the Hirado clan may even change hands again.
This time, the opposition, including Schneider, raised no objections. Ultimately, what they objected to was the damage to Haihan's economic interests due to the continued war. But if the problem could be solved as soon as possible and good economic gains could be obtained, then their The attitude is definitely happy to see the results.
Tao Donglai's opinion means that the military's post-war campaign will evolve into looting. This radical approach seems to have been only used on the Liaodong battlefield in the past period to weaken the Qing Dynasty. strength. And because Haihan does not intend to occupy the area for a long time, there seems to be no room for such actions.
Of course, in the specific implementation process, there must be more detailed standards. After all, Hirado is not all the official industry of the Hirado clan, and there are also a lot of foreign businessmen and people. Although these people are not Haihan nationals, considering the issue of international reputation, Haihan is inconvenient to cut these people off like leeks and can only force them to leave the local area and find another way to make a living.
In addition, when dealing with local people, we certainly cannot kill them all at once. What Haihan wants is to maximize profits, not to create mindless massacres. Although the local population is not too large, Haihan has always believed that the more the better. There is a large demand for labor at home and in overseas colonies, so there is no need to worry about finding a place to resettle the people after they are kidnapped back.
As long as the local trade environment and population base are completely destroyed, even if the Tagawa father and son return to Hirado after the war, it will be difficult for the local area to return to its previous business level, and they will no longer be able to maintain an organized armed force unless they let the remaining The few remaining Eighteenth Party members returned to their old ways and resumed their status as armed pirates. But if his opponents fall to that point, Haihan no longer has to worry about how much of a threat they can pose to him.
Of course, adopting this extreme method is not without its drawbacks. The transportation of a large number of people and materials will inevitably take more time, and it may even be necessary to dispatch a large number of ships from Zhejiang and the Korean Peninsula to rush for transportation. In fact, there will also be many hidden dangers. For example, the frontline may not have time to conduct targeted investigations to see if there are any dangerous persons hidden among the local people, and the main fleet of the Hirado Navy, which has been hiding, may also take the opportunity to sneak out and attack Haihan's transport ship. .
But in any case, this solution is definitely much better than the army staying in the area to aimlessly search for the whereabouts of the Tagawa father and son. After a symbolic discussion, the Executive Committee voted by a show of hands and passed this resolution. and handed it over to relevant ministries for immediate implementation.
(End of chapter)