Chapter 2452
Only Tao Donglai and the three present knew clearly that Haihan simply did not have the ability to assemble 50,000 combat troops in Liaodong at this stage. In fact, the current total strength of the Haihan Army is far less than 50,000. Even if troops from all over the country are gathered and transported to Liaodong, it will not reach the level that Wang Tom boasted. What's more, to transport so many troops to the north to fight, the materials and transportation capacity required are unbearable for Haihan.
But even though it was just a trick on paper, the actual effect was very good. Shang Kexi's attitude was obviously much softened than before. After all, he was also a general who led troops to fight, and he knew very well what the appearance of 50,000 Haihan troops in Liaodong would mean. Even if the probability of this happening was low, he would not dare to bet on the national security of the Qing Dynasty.
Haihan's biggest advantage in this negotiation is not military strength, but his control of intelligence information. The Manchu and Qing Dynasty's sea access to Liaodong was basically completely blocked by Haihan. It was difficult to collect detailed military intelligence on the opponent, and it was impossible to judge whether Haihan could complete the military deployment mentioned by Wang Tom. However, Haihan could roughly judge the military strength of the Manchu Qing at this stage based on historical data and various intelligence, and then outline a targeted combat plan to deter the Manchu Qing.
Of course, this kind of deterrence is based on the performance of the Haihan Army against the Qing army over the years. Otherwise, let alone the 50,000 Haihan Army, even if the strength is doubled, it may not be able to scare the Manchus. If it were North Korea's Kim Sang-hyun who was bragging about this, Shang Kexi would probably just treat it as a joke, and maybe he would deliberately provoke him a few more words as an excuse for the next military strike against North Korea.
Yang Sichang was also unsure whether Haihan was trying to scare the Qing Dynasty, or whether he really planned to take the opportunity to start a war. However, he knew that if the Ming Dynasty did not cooperate in sending troops, it would not be easy for Haihan to defeat the Manchu Qing Dynasty. From the Ming Dynasty's standpoint, perhaps The smartest way is to drive the tiger to devour the wolf and try to make the two countries fight to the death.
However, the most urgent thing for the Ming Dynasty at the moment was to gain a breathing space for itself. Only Yang Sichang could try his best to cooperate with Haihan's strategy in order to force the Manchus to make concessions and reach a settlement. Therefore, he did not hesitate to lend a helping hand, saying that Ming Dynasty was ready for war. If the talks in Jinzhou could not reach an agreement, then Ming Dynasty would use all its national strength to fight the decisive battle with the Manchus.
"If 300,000 troops are not enough, then add more troops until the Qing army can be defeated! Our Ming Dynasty has a vast territory and has millions of soldiers. How can we not defeat you!" Although Yang Sichang is a peace advocate, he also speaks harshly. A good man with a strong voice and a strong look, no one will have any doubts about his position.
The military strength of the Ming Dynasty is actually quite good. In terms of military strength, it is indeed quite large, but in terms of combat effectiveness, it is so-so. The combat effectiveness of a considerable part of the guard army in the country is no different from that of the militia, and cannot be regarded as a regular army. But if the Ming Dynasty is really determined to compete with the Manchu and Qing Dynasties for their national strength, then the Manchu and Qing Dynasties will indeed have no advantage, not to mention that there are Haihan and Han troops watching eagerly and may take action at any time.
Shang Kexi's mission during this trip is to negotiate a peace, but if the terms of the settlement exceed the scope of the authorization he has received, he will not be able to make a decision in Golden State. So when the talks ended at noon that day, he took the initiative to ask Tao Donglai to suspend the negotiations for a few days, so that he could have enough time to ask for instructions from the rear, and then make a final reply to the other three countries.
Haihan's tough attitude to start fighting immediately without agreeing to the conditions left no room for maneuver for the Manchus, and asking Shang Kexi to ask for instructions from the rear would not change the situation. However, Tao Donglai generously agreed to Shang Kexi's request and said that he could be given ten days to respond. Even though Shenyang is more than 700 miles away from Jinzhou, ten days is enough time for the messenger to make a round trip.
Of course, Tao Donglai was so generous not only because he expected that the Manchus had no other trump cards, but also to give the Haihan Army time to take advantage of the cessation of negotiations to further put pressure on the Manchus.
Yang Sichang breathed a sigh of relief. At least so far, Haihan has not shown any signs of betraying the Ming Dynasty, and there has not been any collusion between Haihan and the Manchu Qing Dynasty that he was worried about when he came. However, he still wrote a memorial overnight to explain the current progress of the negotiations, and sent people to take a boat across the sea to return to the capital. He believed that such news would also put Emperor Chongzhen in a good mood who was anxiously waiting in the Forbidden City.
However, Yang Sichang did not expect that although Haihan agreed to suspend negotiations, he did not stop related actions. The next day, Tao Donglai once again invited him to go on a sea patrol together. As for the target of the inspection, Tao Donglai did not take the initiative to mention it. He just asked him not to bring too many followers and to limit them to three people.
In fact, Yang Sichang could roughly guess it. He knew that this was probably because the Haihan people wanted to show off their military power. They said that the Haihan navy was invincible, so it would be okay to take this opportunity to take a look.
We took a special car from Nanguanling Daying to a dock in Dalian Bay, and then boarded a large ship docked on the shore accompanied by Tao Donglai. Yang Sichang was not surprised to find that North Korean envoy Kim Sang-heon was also on board. However, what made him slightly disappointed was that this ship was not a battleship, but Tao Donglai's personal ship.
"Because we have to go to sea for several days, the living conditions on the battleship are not very comfortable. I am worried that you will not be comfortable, so I have arranged for you to take this ship." Tao Donglai briefly explained the reason.
However, Yang Sichang did not believe this reason. He believed that such an arrangement should only be to prevent the leakage of various advanced technologies on the warship. Jin Sangxian had already boarded the Haihan warship, so he naturally had no complaints about this arrangement. Instead, he thanked Tao Donglai for his thoughtful consideration.
It was not until after the ship was unmoored and the sails were raised that Yang Sichang noticed that there were more than 20 warships anchored on the nearby coast along with the ship. This was not an ordinary scene.
As the Minister of War, Yang Sichang naturally knew the situation of the Ming Navy. Compared with the huge warships like Haihan, the Ming Navy did seem a bit weak. The shipboard firepower deployed by a large battleship like the Majestic class is equivalent to that of a Ming Dynasty navy fleet combined. The Manchu and Qing navy were almost all Ming troops who defected from Shandong and Pidao. Naturally, they could not defeat large warships like Haihan. No wonder in just a few years, the entire Liaodong coast was conquered by Haihan. Got it under control.
This fleet did not display firepower at sea as Yang Sichang thought. It quickly sailed out of Dalian Bay and then turned southwest. At this time, Tao Donglai informed them that they were heading to Port Arthur.
Although he didn't know why Haihan had such an arrangement, Yang Sichang didn't panic. It was said that Lushun Port was built by the Haihan people into a heavily guarded military port. A visit might be able to collect some useful information.
The voyage from Dalian Bay to Lushun Port is about a hundred miles, and they won't be able to arrive in a while. Tao Donglai asked everyone to go back to the cabin to rest, and then leave the cabin for activities when they get there.
The Haihan fleet was sailing very fast, and it had already arrived near Port Arthur before lunch time. Guests Yang Sichang and Jin Shangxian were also called to the deck to watch the situation at sea with Tao Donglai and accompanying Wang Tom. However, the fleet did not sail into the harbor. Instead, it met another fleet that had already left the harbor and was waiting, and then continued to sail southwest. Yang Sichang noticed that there were more than forty warships in the fleet at this time. If supply ships were added, the number would almost double. Such a large scale should be the true strength of the Haihan Northern Fleet.
Sure enough, Tao Donglai took the initiative to introduce: "What you are seeing now is the main force of our Northern Fleet. The blockade and attacks on the Liaodong coast in recent years are also due to this fleet."
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Yang Sichang asked: "Then Master Tao must want us to watch the fleet drill here?"
Tao Donglai shook his head and said: "That's not the case. We will go to another place with the fleet next. But the place is a little further away, and we probably won't arrive until tomorrow."
Yang Sichang silently calculated the voyage in his mind and already made a preliminary judgment. However, he is not yet sure whether the destination is what he expected. He will have to look at the course for the next half day to know.
After the fleet passed Laotieshan at the southernmost tip of Jinzhou, it circled along the coastline and headed north. This allowed Yang Sichang to basically confirm his conclusion. The destination of the Haihan Fleet should be what they had previously claimed. The landing site is located in Gaizhou on the west side of the Liaodong Peninsula. He was originally worried that Tao Donglai's destination was the Dagukou area on the west side of Bohai Bay, but now he breathed a sigh of relief,
Gaizhou is not an administrative state in the traditional sense, but the abbreviation of Gaizhou Wei. According to the demarcation during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, it extends from Boluopu to the north, Bajiapu to the south, and Xiuyan to the east. They are all under the jurisdiction of Gaizhou Wei. Within its territory are Gaizhou City, Xiongzhou City, Yongning Prison City and Wuzhaibao. Wait for nine castles. However, these places and fortresses have now been occupied by the Manchus. Yang Sichang is not sure about the specific situation.
Seeing dozens of Haihan warships stretching for miles on the sea, Yang Sichang suddenly had an idea. Could it be that the 50,000 troops claimed by the Haihan people had arrived in the north, and they would immediately make a gesture of heavy troops to suppress the border. Once the Manchus refused to accept the terms of reconciliation, , the Haihan people will use force immediately.
However, he quickly overturned this idea. If the Haihan people really planned to raid the Gaizhou Guards, why would they admit the battle plan to Shang Kexi during yesterday's negotiation. Going north to Gaizhou at this time should be to put pressure on the Manchus, rather than really planning to start a war.
But even if they knew that Haihan would not easily start a war, no one would think that this was a friendly gesture when seeing an armed fleet of this size cruising on the sea. When the Manchu Qing Dynasty discovered such a situation, they must have hurriedly mobilized troops to Gaizhou to fortify themselves. Otherwise, if Haihan were to seize Gaizhou, the main supply line between the Qing Dynasty and the Jinzhou front line would be cut off.
The fleet traveled northward overnight, crossed Liaodong Bay from south to north that night, and arrived in the waters near Gaizhou the next morning. There has been no Manchu Qing ship activity in this area for a long time, so a fleet of this size appearing offshore is naturally very conspicuous. But Wang Tom was afraid that he would not attract the attention of the shore, so he specifically ordered the fleet to approach the coastline and make a gesture of landing here. Sure enough, soon there was smoke rising from the shore, using this primitive method to send warning signals to distant garrison points.
"They started to move, so let them work for a while." Tao Donglai was quite satisfied with the shore's ability to respond so quickly. He deliberately exposed his whereabouts to let the other party know that Haihan's fleet was already approaching the city. As long as If the Manchus reject the terms of peace talks, a full-scale war may break out at any time.
Yang Sichang could only envy such a scene. Although the Ming Dynasty also had a navy, it no longer had the ability to carry out large-scale cross-sea landing operations, and it was impossible for the Manchu defenders to send out a signal for help in such a panic.
Kim Sang-hyun had already begun to flatter Haihan, but he did not encourage Haihan's army to launch a landing. If we really take action at this juncture, the peace talks in the past half month will be in vain.
Since the Qing army did not have a naval fleet, the Haihan Navy basically did not have to worry about safety issues in its activities here. Wang Tom also mobilized several warships to guard near the mouth of the Liao River. On the one hand, he made a plan to go upstream. The posture, on the other hand, was to prevent the Qing army from sneaking out of the Liao River with civilian ships to attack.
Gaizhou is about three hundred miles away from Shenyang. The promising returns should not have reached Gaizhou at this time, so the news that the Haihan fleet is approaching Gaizhou should be sent back to Shenyang first, and the status of the negotiations in Jinzhou Otherwise, it will take more than half a day to be delivered to Shenyang. In this way, the impression given to the Manchus was that Haihan was no longer willing to endure the long tug-of-war of negotiations and was ready for war.
But will the Manchu Qing choose to surrender because of this? In fact, Haihan does not have full confidence. Tao Donglai and others have not dealt directly with Huang Taiji, and their judgment of his acting style can only rely on some historical records. Of course, the main reason for relying on this peace negotiation was that the Manchus took the initiative to initiate the peace talks. This shows that Huang Taiji does not want to go to war with Haihan, which should be one of the factors that scares him the most.
It must be said that the response of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was very fast. In less than an hour, a cavalry team of about a hundred people appeared on the coast. It can be seen through the telescope that these cavalry are equipped with swords and bows and are fully equipped. They can be ready for battle in such a short period of time. It can be seen that the Qing troops stationed nearby are also well-trained.
These Qing cavalrymen were shocked when they saw so many warships suddenly coming to the sea. However, Haihan did not take the initiative to launch an offensive, and these cavalrymen lingered, and the two sides faced each other in the air.
(End of chapter)