Chapter 2140
"The battle has been fought. Now we are allowed to go to the Hirado Strait... to stand guard!" Xu Yuzhuo received a new order from Hirado Island on Fujiang Island, but this arrangement made him quite unhappy. .
In fact, to be serious, Haihan also gave Fujian Xu Jiajun many opportunities to perform during this operation. The first target of the coalition attack, Fujiang Island, was given to Xu Jiajun. In the subsequent attack on Hirado Island, the Fujian Navy was responsible for controlling the key waters of Boxiang Bay and Fujiang Bay in the western front operations, and provided cover for the Haihan Special Regiment's amphibious landing. The task was not unimportant.
If Xu Yuzhuo followed his own wishes, of course it would be appropriate for the Fujian Navy to be the main attacker of Hirado Port. However, he also went to Hirado Port after the war to see the coastal defense forts built there, and he knew that with the strength of the naval fleet, I am afraid that the firepower will not be able to handle the task of frontal attack.
It's just that the Fujian Navy came all the way to Hirado to participate in the war, but it was never able to compete with the Hirado Navy at sea. It was just soy sauce almost the whole time, which was also a pity for Xu Yuzhuo. Therefore, after the war on Hirado Island ended, he quickly led his troops back to Fukue Island and spread all his grievances on the local resisters.
According to Xu Yuzhuo's judgment on the direction of the war, the opponent Hirado Clan basically has no chance of making a comeback, and the Haihan people have no interest in occupying Hirado, so this war will soon be over, and they will clean up Fukue Island. Clean, it's almost time to withdraw our troops and go home.
However, at this time, Haihan asked the Fujian Navy to return to Hirado Island and be responsible for performing security and patrol tasks in the Hirado Strait. The reason was not that the Hirado Navy showed signs of counterattack, but that Haihan wanted to include Most of the ships, including warships, were freed up to transport the people of Hirado Island to Seogwipo. During this period, the maritime defense of Hirado Island needed to be supplemented, and the Fujian Navy was able to fill this gap.
Xu Yuzhuo had cooperated with Haihan for many years, and of course he knew how obsessed Haihan was with population and labor. Although it seemed unreasonable to use warships to transport the population at this time, it was unreasonable for Haihan's army to make such an arrangement. Nothing more than normal. He knew that for the Haihan people, these cheap people might be more attractive than real money, but he didn't expect Haihan to be so impatient. He couldn't wait to call civilian ships from the rear to complete the transportation task, but planned to let them directly The naval fleet is here to do the job.
Although Xu Yuzhuo cursed a lot, he made an honest decision and chose to follow the deployment of the Haihan Army. Although this arrangement was suspected of being used as a tool, on the bright side, it was regarded as continuing to train overseas. . And since patrol duties are included, the navy fleet can go to the coastal area of Kyushu Island to continue searching for the whereabouts of the Hirado navy, and perhaps have a chance to fight with it.
Moreover, the Haihan Army also made it clear that because this part of the operation was not within the combat plan formulated before the war, it would bear the material consumption of the Fujian Navy during this period. In addition, in order to ensure that the Fujian Navy does not go wrong during the execution of its mission, the three majestic-class warships participating in this operation will stay on Hirado Island on standby. This is equivalent to providing a complete insurance for the Fujian Navy without any worries.
With these three large Kaihan battleships holding the battleship, even if the Hirado navy dares to make a comeback, it will definitely not be easy. What's more, the Kaihan special battle group will continue to be stationed on the island. No matter who wants to regain control of Hirado Port, We have to face this ace force directly first.
However, Xu Yuzhuo also believes that it is unlikely that the Hirado clan will launch a counterattack before Kaihan withdraws his troops. After all, the strength of the Kaihan army has been revealed through previous battles. If the Hirado clan does not want to continue sending people to die in vain, it should be rational. They chose to avoid the attack of the Haihan Army and waited patiently for them to evacuate Hirado Island on their own.
When Xu Yuzhuo led his troops to Hirado Port, he happened to see people on the island being organized to board the ship. The warships used by Haihan actually have very limited capacity to carry personnel, because the lower decks are equipped with artillery and various combat supplies, as well as the cabins where the sailors live. These places are not accessible to the public, so they can really be used for extra personnel. The only space for people is the uppermost deck. The deck of a warship is almost full if it can accommodate a hundred or so people, so the carrying efficiency is actually not high.
These local people were only allowed to bring a very limited amount of personal belongings on board the ship, so basically everyone was carrying a baggage, supporting the old and the young, walking shoulder to shoulder, queuing up at the pier to wait to board the ship.
After several days of repeated inspections, the hidden piles and thorns among the local people have been basically eliminated, which also makes the people's resistance to being forcibly evicted not as strong as before. Most of the nearly a thousand "immigrants" gathered at the pier had expressions of horror and numbness on their faces, but no one dared to make any further move of resistance.
"About a thousand people will be sent away today, and two infantry companies will also be transferred to Seogwipo to take charge of local public security." Shi Diwen met Xu Yuzhuo at the port and informed him of the current transfer population. progress.
Xu Yuzhuo nodded knowingly and said: "After transporting so many people to Seogwipo, it is estimated that it will be difficult for the local government to effectively monitor them."
Shi Diwen said: "Because the local government could not take care of the prisoners of war transported over the past few days, they could only temporarily place them on the uninhabited island near the port. We have to send some people to assist the local government in order to avoid trouble in Seogwipo. What a mess.”
Haihan wanted to send thousands of people from Hirado Domain to Seogwipo for transshipment. This actually exceeded the local reception capacity. If Haihan Army did not take necessary measures, there would be chaos in the local area. Although this is on the territory of North Korea, the chaos will not actually cause direct losses to Haihan, but Haihan has regarded these thousands of people as his own, and does not want to cause accidents during the transfer process. In the end, the number obtained was reduced, so a small number of troops were dispatched to Seogwipo for garrison.
However, just the transfer of two infantry companies will not affect Haihan's current deployment on Hirado Island. The headquarters of the special operations group is still here, and it will definitely wait until the clean-up work is completed before joining the navy. Evacuate.
Xu Yuzhuo was not very interested in the arrangements for the transfer of immigrants. He was more concerned about the scope of activities and operational authority of the Fujian Navy in the future. This was related to whether his fleet could further eliminate the 18th Chiyu Party's control before the end of this operation. armed forces. If the armed fleet that has been hiding can be destroyed, it will probably be difficult for the opponent to rely on Hirado after the war to reorganize another fleet.
Shi Diwen was also very aware of Xu Yuzhuo's intentions, so after a brief exchange of greetings, he took him to the headquarters and informed him of some of the information currently possessed by the East China Sea Fleet.
"Our military has currently conducted a large-scale investigation of the waters north and east of Hirado. However, because the terrain of the northern coast of Kyushu Island is relatively complex, it is difficult to say that the investigation work has been complete. We still suspect that the enemy fleet is still They are hiding near the coastline in northern Kyushu, so I personally suggest that you focus on these areas for investigation.”
While introducing the situation, Shi Diwen pointed out these areas to Xu Yuzhuo on the map. The most likely place for the disappeared armed fleet to hide is of course the Hirado clan's control area on Kyushu Island. However, as Shi Diwen said, the coastline terrain in this area is extremely complex. The hydrological conditions of the area are not well understood, and we dare not move too close to the coastline. However, Xu Yuzhuo secretly decided to filter the areas that the Haihan Army had not searched thoroughly. Even if he would take some risks, it was worth it in his opinion.
After the meeting at the headquarters of the East China Sea Fleet, Xu Yuzhuo returned to the camp in the port area and gathered the senior officers of the navy together to arrange the next combat mission. Now that he had the opportunity to fight again, Xu Yuzhuo didn't want to miss it again and must find the enemy's hiding place.
The next day, Hirado Port welcomed the first ship from outside the country since the war began. Although there were ships preparing to enter Hirado Port during this period, they would take the initiative to leave here after realizing that this place was in a state of war. Today, the ship seemed to have a somewhat different purpose. Even though it was approached by the warships of the Fujian Navy in the Hirado Strait, it still had no intention of leaving. In the end, it slowly sailed into the Pacific under the surveillance and escort of the warships. Port.
"People from Nagasaki want to see us? Don't they know there's a war going on here?"
Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen were discussing the time to evacuate Hirado Island, but they were a little surprised when they suddenly received such news. At this time, those who dare to take the initiative to visit me are probably not ordinary people.
Although they were not sure about the identity and purpose of the other party, they still received the visitor at the headquarters later. This man named Tomuki Imai seemed to be a standard Japanese businessman, shrewd and cautious. After seeing Qian and Shi, he knelt down and kowtowed, and then explained his purpose.
It turns out that after the Nagasaki authorities learned about the outbreak of war in the Hirado Domain, they have been trying to find out the ins and outs of the war from many parties. However, their purpose was not to prevent the war or to assist the Hirado Domain in resisting foreign invasion, but to Find out if this opportunity can be exploited to attack the Hirado Domain's trading position.
However, hearsay from the outside world is always unreliable. Various rumors are contradictory and it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity. So in the end, the Nagasaki authorities decided to send someone to check out the situation in Hirado Port. After all, seeing is believing, and by the way, you can face to face. Let’s learn more about how the Haihan people plan to end this.
However, it is not necessarily inconvenient to send official personnel to come forward, and it is easy for this kind of contact to turn into a negotiation nature. Therefore, the final candidate Imai Yuki is a businessman engaged in maritime trade. He has a reliable position and is well-informed. The most important thing is that This person had traveled to the Ming Dynasty for trade many times, so he could speak relatively fluent Chinese and could communicate with the Haihan people who invaded Hirado Island.
"Two adults, the purpose of my coming to Hirado is to understand the grievances between Kaihan and Hirado, and then convey your country's demands to the adults in Nagasaki to see if the dispute can be resolved peacefully. .”
After hearing the reasons stated by Imai Yuhui, Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen did not believe it. In fact, when they heard that this person claimed to be here on behalf of the Nagasaki official, they had already thought that the other party was definitely not here simply to achieve peace.
According to various intelligence information collected so far, Hirado Port and Nagasaki Port are obviously two trading ports in a competitive relationship. Compared with Hirado Port, which started earlier and operates independently, Nagasaki Port, a rising star, has the Tokugawa Shogunate as its backer and has more advantages in trade policy. With the continuous support of the shogunate in recent years, there has been a vague intention to replace Hirado.
For example, merchants from Western countries such as the Netherlands and Portugal have had to gradually move to Nagasaki in recent years due to the trade rules issued by the shogunate; some high-end handicrafts produced in Edo and Kyoto used to be sold abroad through Hirado Port. , and in recent years, under the instruction of the shogunate, the foreign trade transaction location has been gradually transferred to Nagasaki.
Although these measures are not drastic, they are indeed stripping away bit by bit the first-mover advantage gained by Hirado Port through its long-term operation. Due to the policy tilt of the shogunate, and the natural conditions of Nagasaki Port are far better than Hirado Port, in the long run, the trade status will definitely surpass Hirado.
However, if other factors can further accelerate the speed of this conversion, then the shogunate will definitely be happy to see it happen. Even if this factor may be an extreme situation such as a foreign enemy invasion, as long as it can weaken Hirado's trade status and the war will not Spreading to Nagasaki was actually acceptable to the shogunate.
Of course, various rumors about Haihan Country have shown how terrifying this opponent is, so Nagasaki also wants to determine whether Haihan is ready to fight a national war with Japan. Judging from the battle situation in Hirado, it seems unlikely that Kaihan will further expand the scale of the war, so Tomohiro Imai does not feel that it is dangerous to visit Hirado Port at this time.
Sure enough, Shi Diwen's answer was also very cautious, saying that the feud between Haihan and the Hirado clan would not expand, and that the war was basically over. The Haihan army would evacuate Hirado in the near future, and would not take the initiative to attack Japan. launch another offensive in other areas.
"If possible, our country would be happy to establish long-term friendly relations with the Tokugawa shogunate, so that the two countries can maintain communication and exchanges in various fields such as economy, trade, culture, and military. In the future, there may be no need to resort to war to resolve differences." Shi Diwen also used diplomatic rhetoric very skillfully, and did not regard Imai Yuhui as just a businessman.
However, Imai Tomuki's trip was just to inquire about information, but he did not have the authority to discuss these issues with Haihan on behalf of the shogunate. At the moment, he could only say that he would bring these opinions back to Nagasaki.
(End of chapter)