Although Su Keyi had a sense of crisis, his civilian background still affected his intelligence collection in the professional field. Ryukyu's military personnel were indeed systematically receiving military training provided by Haihan, but Ryukyu's actual military strength was far less powerful than the Su family thought.
The reason is also very simple. The funds required to form a fully firearms army are not something that a small country like Ryukyu can afford.
Although Ryukyu has surrendered to Haihan, the local natural conditions have destined that it is difficult for this country to have any profitable industries, and its national treasury has very little budget for military use. It even cannot purchase new weapons in batches. It cannot be achieved.
In terms of financial resources alone, Ryukyu is far behind countries such as North Korea and Annan, so it is difficult to imitate their methods of strengthening the military and replicate an armed force at home that completely copies the Haihan Army.
However, considering Ryukyu’s territorial area, population base, and geographical location, resorting to military force is meaningless for such a small island country. Therefore, Ryukyu finally chose an approach that suited its national conditions and handed over its external defense to the sea. The Han Dynasty only needed to maintain a small-scale armed force to maintain domestic order.
Therefore, the defense of Ryukyu naturally fell to the Donghai Region, which was closest to it. Shi Diwen also flexibly provided Ryukyu with a specially customized common defense system.
Shi Diwen's plan was to set up an amphibious camp in Ryukyu jointly built by the two countries. All senior officers would be Haihan soldiers, and the soldiers would be recruited from Ryukyu itself.
This amphibious battalion is affiliated to the Donghai Region in terms of organization, and all weapons and equipment are provided by the Donghai Region. It is integrated into the Haihan Army's combat system during wartime and is at the disposal of the Haihan Ministry of National Defense. As for Ryukyu, it only needs to provide military bases and military salaries for Ryukyu soldiers.
In this way, Haihan obtained three barracks and two military ports in Ryukyu, as well as an amphibious battalion that could be deployed in wartime. It can be said that he indirectly took charge of Ryukyu's national security.
Although Ryukyu has no right to command this army, it saves the cost of arms procurement and personnel training, obtains defense power at a very low cost, and allows Haihan to train military talents for a long time. In the end, it does not suffer a loss.
The Ryukyu soldiers that the Su family and his son saw who were able to skillfully use Haihan weapons belonged to this amphibious camp. Their service environment is basically the same as that of the Haihan Army, so their performance in such exchange activities will naturally not be bad.
However, the concerns of the Su family and his son were not entirely useless. After the Ryukyu model came into operation, some small countries in the South China Sea also wanted to follow suit. Once it became a trend, the East India Company might not have an easy life in the future.
Most of these countries are in a similar situation to Ryukyu. They are surrounded by powerful countries. Even if they expand their armies, they cannot defeat them. However, its own conditions are limited and it does not have the ability to form an advanced armed force that is Sinicized throughout the sea. The common defense system provided by Haihan to Ryukyu has become a good model for solving their needs.
Once this model is rolled out in the South China Sea, the Haihan Army may be able to have external troops from multiple countries in just a few years, and at the same time further strengthen its control over these countries.
Colonial armed forces like the Dutch East India Company could only obtain cheap resources by exploiting small countries. But after these small countries have Haihan's support, the threat of force that the Dutch usually use may no longer be so easy to use. .
During the exchange activities in the morning, each participating country had its share of joys and sorrows, but overall, everyone gained something.
However, one thing is that all countries have reached a consensus, that is, Haihan's military strength is still at a unique level. Other countries can still catch up and imitate, but no country has the strength to be on an equal footing with it.
The reason why Chen Yixin stayed until noon was to support the officers of the small court in northern North Korea. After all, these officers were trained in the Northern Region, and they were nominally Chen Yixin's disciples, having a master-disciple relationship with him. This lunch can be regarded as a practice banquet prepared by the executive committee for Chen Yixin. After this incident, Chen Yixin will have to embark on the journey back north.
Shi Diwen had prepared a carriage for him in advance, and rushed all the way from Yuhang to Hangzhou, passing through the city without stopping, and arrived at the mouth of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal at dinner time.
A steam speedboat from the East China Sea Fleet was already waiting here. After Chen Yixin and his party boarded the ship, the speedboat unmoored and left the shore, heading towards Hangzhou Bay.
This kind of steam speedboat has a displacement of less than a hundred tons and a speed of more than twelve knots. It is generally used as a reconnaissance boat in the military. However, due to the limited endurance of the steam power system, it can generally only be used offshore or in conjunction with fleets with supply ships.
Of course, we occasionally receive such special tasks to transport important people or items that need to be rushed.
Early the next morning, the speedboat sailed into Hangzhou Bay and successfully rendezvoused with the Northern Fleet warships waiting at sea. After Chen Yixin changed trains, he ordered to return to Zhifu Port, Shandong at full speed. At the same time, the signal corps was ordered to send telegrams to several military bases in the northern region, and all personnel entered a state of combat readiness.
When traveling to the waters near Jiaozhou Bay, Chen Yixin met an armed fleet sailing out of Qingdao Port.
At present, the Northern Fleet has three naval bases in Lushun Port, Zhifu Port and Qingdao Port. Before the war, combat ships will be concentrated in the direction of the Bohai Sea.
The garrison troops stationed at the Datong River base on the Korean Peninsula also returned to Shandong by boat the day before yesterday, leaving less than 500 people stationed.
The only thing Chen Yixin is worried about at the moment is that the Manchu Qing Congress in the valley will not take advantage of the northern region to move all combat troops to the direction of the Ming Dynasty and send troops to cause chaos at this juncture.
Therefore, even though he gave the executive committee a guaranteed vote, Chen Yixin still cautiously left some troops in Liaodong to keep an eye on the movements of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.
When the fleet arrived at Zhifu Port, the military port dock on the west side of Zhifu Island was already filled with large and small warships.
In order to be able to complete the projection of troops across the Bohai Bay, in addition to the warships of the Northern Fleet, Chen Yixin also ordered the recruitment of hundreds of civilian ships in Shandong and Liaodong. By this time, they had basically gathered at the military ports in the two places.
After Chen Yixin got off the ship, he didn't bother to go back to Majiazhuang to visit his family first, so he ordered a meeting of officers from all ministries to be called immediately.
There were still about two days before the launch of the operation agreed with Shi Diwen. Although the preparations were basically in progress, Chen Yixin still did not dare to be careless at all.
It was natural to win this battle. After all, the strength gap between the two sides was on the table, and Haihan had spent far more time preparing for this than his opponent. But if it still performs poorly under such conditions, it will be his responsibility as the commander.