Chapter 1803 Exchange Conditions

"Our naval fleet arrived in the Jiuliancheng area yesterday and repelled a fierce offensive by the Qing army at night. More than 300 Qing soldiers were killed on the spot. The results have been verified by your special envoy Jin Shangjiu. I hope this

The news can make His Majesty the King feel relieved." Qian Tiandun said to Kim Sang-hyun sitting opposite: "I also hope that Mr. Kim can feel our sincerity and determination to assist North Korea!"

Kim Sang-hyun responded quickly: "I admire your country's soldiers for their bravery in killing the enemy. If there is anything else that needs our country's help, please ask General Qian to make it clear. I will definitely cooperate with you!"

Regarding the dissatisfaction shown by the Haehan Army after arriving at Ganghwa Island, Kim Sang-hyun was actually very nervous. The main war faction currently dominates North Korea's domestic officialdom, partly because of Kim Sang-heon's continuous advocacy of Haehan

The invincibility theory believes that as long as the Haihan reinforcements are brought in, North Korea is expected to repel the invasion from the Qing Dynasty. However, if the Haihan army gives up providing military assistance because it is dissatisfied with North Korea's war preparations, North Korea's situation will be very dangerous.

Moreover, the war-fighting officials headed by him are very likely to take the blame for the defeat of Korea. When the time comes, whether the king issues an order to punish the perpetrators or turns them over to the Qing army as a scapegoat, the end will definitely be extremely tragic.

Kim Sang-hyun naturally does not want to be eliminated in this way, so he must ensure that the requirements of the Haihan Army are met as much as possible during the Korean War, and will send troops to carry out an effective attack on the Qing army. As long as Haihan does not face the challenges faced by North Korea,

If he stood by and watched the crisis, then paying him some money, materials and manpower now is a completely acceptable exchange condition in Kim Sang-heon's opinion.

So in the past few days, Kim Sang-heon has been staying on Ganghwa Island, personally going to the port construction site every day to supervise the progress of the construction. By the way, he has also become close to Qian Tiandun, who is known as Haihan's number one general. He heard that Qian Tiandun led the

This unit is the leading ace unit in the Haihan Army. Although Shang was on Ganghwa Island and did not go out to the Yalu River with the fleet, this did not prevent Kim Sang-hyun from trying to obtain some first-hand information from Qian Tiandun.

Perhaps because of Kim Sang-hyun's hard work, Qian Tiandun gave him such good news as soon as he arrived at the port today, which made him excited. After this news was brought back to the capital and reported to the king, it will surely be popular among the government and the public.

Shang and Xia have won more supporters for themselves, and officials like Cui Mingji who advocated that the disputes should be resolved through peace talks with the Qing Dynasty should just shut up now.

Of course, having dealt with the Haehan people on and off for a year, Kim Sang-hyun also knows that these people are very realistic. If he wants to ask them to assist North Korea, he has to pay real money. News of the battle last night reached Ganghwa Island this morning

, must have also used Haihan's unique secret technique of sending messages across thousands of miles, obviously with the intention of seeking credit from North Korea. Instead of waiting for the other party to make demands, Kim Sang-hyun felt that it would be better to take the initiative himself in order to win Qian Tiandun's favor.

Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "I am very pleased that Mr. Jin can show such a positive attitude. If everyone in your country can cooperate with our army with such an attitude, then it will be possible for us to work together to defeat the Qing army..."

At this point, Qian Tiandun changed the subject and said: "...However, it seems that some officials in your country do not want to receive assistance from our army, and even deliberately concealed important military information from our army. It is really disgusting!"

Jin Sangxian was startled and quickly responded: "I am not aware of such a thing. Can General Qian make it more clear?"

Qian Tiandun said: "Your border army in Yiju should have noticed the Qing army's gathering movement in the upper reaches of the Yalu River some time ago. However, during the few days when our army arrived at Ganghwa Island to rest, your army did not send any warning to our army.

Provide relevant information, so that our army was almost ambushed when heading to Jiulian City. We believe that this is either a major omission by your border army, or someone deliberately concealed this part of the information from our army. In short, no matter which one it is.

Regardless, I need a reasonable explanation from your country!"

Jin Sangxian was shocked. He had never expected that such a situation would occur on the northern border, and he had never heard of the military concealing information. In fact, North Korea asked Haihan for help precisely because he sensed that the Qing army had someone.

There were some precursors of a southward invasion, but as an important official of the imperial court, he had of course read the military report and it did not mention the location of Jiulian City. Therefore, Qian Tiandun's accusation was not random nonsense.

Jin Shangxian quickly explained: "General Qian, don't worry, there must be a misunderstanding... Perhaps when our border army reported the military situation earlier, the Qing army had not yet begun to gather in Jiulian City..."

"The Qing army built a large-scale dock locally. According to General Wang, it is much larger than the port on Ganghwa Island. It cannot be completed in three to five days. And the location can be seen on Waihua Island.

Come on, as long as your frontier troops were not blind, they should have discovered the Qing army's movements long ago." Qian Tiandun did not wait for Jin Sangxian to finish speaking, and gave the evidence he had. Of course, these situations all came from

From the telegrams sent back from the front line, Qian Tiandun could fully understand Wang Tom's anger from the telegrams, and conveyed this emotion to Kim Sang-hyun very well.

Jin Sangxian opened his mouth, not knowing how to defend what Qian Tiandun said. If this is the actual situation that happened on the northern border, then the local border army general in Yiju is not only guilty of negligence, he simply deserves to be killed.

Damn it. Such important military information was not reported to the court in time. Instead, it was discovered by itself after the Haihan army arrived at the local area. It is no wonder that General Haihan was furious.

However, Kim Sang-hyun has also been in the officialdom for decades, and he quickly reacted and tried to change the topic first: "Your army fought with the Qing army last night, and they must have captured prisoners. I don't know if they have been tried.

What is the troop deployment status of the Qing army?"

Qian Tiandun also noticed Jin Shangxian's intention, shook his head slightly and said: "The captured prisoners are all ordinary soldiers, and the information that can be provided is very limited and not of much value."

This is not to prevaricate Kim Sang-heon. After last night's confrontation, Haihan indeed captured several prisoners who were injured and unable to leave the battlefield and return to the Qing army's camp. However, the military information these low-level soldiers knew was indeed very limited, and

It failed to provide Haihan with much valuable information.

Of course, what Haihan was most concerned about was the progress of the Qing army's build-up, strength, commanders, action plans, etc. However, these soldiers basically had no formal education and were not very good at counting. To describe their strength, they could only use "many"

Vague descriptions such as "Ge Niu Lu". And high-level military secrets such as combat plans are beyond the reach of ordinary soldiers. They have no idea when the army plans to cross the Yangtze River and enter North Korea.

The only piece of valuable information was a prisoner's confession that he had not yet heard of Huang Taiji's arrival in Jiulian City, and that the current top commander of Jiulian City was Azig - the man who had eaten several meals during the Battle of Jinzhou last year.

His Excellency Prince Dorowuying, who was defeated for the first time.

This seems to be a good explanation for why the Qing army did not take any frontal resistance after discovering that the combined fleet entered the Yalu River, but retreated all the way, even giving up the docks on the Jiuliancheng River, and did not take any action to resist the landing of the Haihan Army. Ah

Jige must have suffered a psychological shadow in Liaodong last year, so this time they encountered it again on the banks of the Yalu River. Although the Qing army had the advantage of superior strength and the advantage of the home field, they still did not dare to challenge the Haihan army on the frontal battlefield. Of course, this was also

Invisibly, it saved the Haihan Army a lot of trouble, and they took their time and used the wharf built by the Qing Army to build a position.

The Qing army probably didn't expect that the Haihan army would stay here. They anxiously organized a night attack, but the effect was not ideal. It was not easy to test the defensive strength of this position with hundreds of lives.

Able to break through.

However, there is still a question mark as to whether the information confessed by the prisoners is accurate. So far, the Qing army in Jiuliancheng has not set up a clear signal, and the Haihan Army has no other way to confirm whether the prisoners' confessions are true.

.But if it is true that the old rival Azig is commanding the Qing army in Jiulian City, it will naturally give Haihan a little more psychological advantage.

Qian Tiandun did not inform Kim Sang-heon of the news related to Aziger, because the current purpose was to hold him accountable for the North Korean border army's dereliction of duty, rather than to distract him from other topics and let him escape this link.

Qian Tiandun continued: "As for the dereliction of duty by your country's frontier troops, I hope Mr. Jin can find out the truth as soon as possible. After all, it is our army that is fighting on the front line. If unnecessary battle losses are caused by the lack of intelligence, then

I think this is a situation that neither of us wants to see!"

"Yes, yes, General Qian is right!" Jin Sangxian quickly responded: "I will send a messenger back to Seoul later to inform His Majesty the King of the matter. The person who committed the crime will be severely punished regardless of his official rank and background.

!”

Qian Tiandun said: "I think the local military commander in Yiju should also make some adjustments. At least find someone whom Lord Jin can trust, so that when we fight on the front line, we won't worry about being plotted behind our backs. Lord Jin

Do you think this is true?"

Jin Sangxian's heart skipped a beat, and he secretly thought that this was a good opportunity to support his own people. If he replaced a general who obeyed his orders and went to the Yiju front line to take charge, he could not only better cooperate with the actions of the Haihan Army, but also gain military exploits more easily.

It kills two birds with one stone.

Jin Sangxian responded quickly: "What General Qian said is absolutely true. This matter must be handled urgently. I will personally supervise it."

After Kim Sang-hyun responded, he suddenly realized that this was obviously Qian Tiandun deliberately handing him a ladder so that he could benefit from this seemingly not-so-good situation. But the other party took the initiative to offer such a benefit, which was obviously not the case.

The favor was in vain, and Kim Sang-hyun immediately responded with Li Dao: "In addition to changing generals, I wonder what other support our country can provide to your army on the front line?"

Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "Since Mr. Jin asked about it, let me tell you. There are currently more than two thousand soldiers of the coalition fleet operating in the Yalu River. We hope that Yizhou can be more proactive in terms of logistical support.

Provide them with more supplies to ensure their combat effectiveness. In addition, our country's combat expenditures on your country's borders are very large. I also hope that your country can reasonably bear part of the military expenditures, so that the military cooperation between our two countries can persist for a long time.

What do you think, sir?"

How could Kim Sang-hyun not understand what Qian Tian-dun said, which was clearly asking North Korea for money and food. The so-called "reasonable burden", I am afraid that it will be difficult to satisfy the Haihan people unless they come up with a sufficient amount.

But now Haihan has entered into battle with the Qing army. If North Korea does not agree to the request, they can withdraw troops from the Yalu River and Ganghwa Island, and North Korea will have to bear the remaining mess.

However, Kim Sang-hyun advocated asking Hae-han to send troops to Korea to fight against the Qing army. Naturally, he expected that Hae-han would demand compensation for this, so he nodded and said: "The conditions mentioned by General Qian are very reasonable. I will recommend that the imperial court deal with Uiju."

Make adjustments to your arrangements so that the local government can meet the needs of your country's army as much as possible. As for military expenses, I wonder how much General Qian thinks is appropriate for our country to bear?"

Regarding this issue, Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom had already discussed their rhetoric on the way to North Korea, and then they stretched out a slap in front of Kim Sangxian and said: "It is fine for our two countries to live in a 50-50 split. Isn't that too much?

"

Jin Sangxian was shocked when he saw Qian Tiandun's gesture. He thought Qian Tiandun would shout out a high price of 5,000 taels of gold. After all, asking them to send troops cost 2,000 taels of gold. The subsequent expenses should not be low either.

.However, the Haihan people took the initiative to offer a 50-50 split in military expenditures, which seemed to be much better than what he had expected.

"Does one country bear half of the burden? That's quite reasonable." Kim Sang-heon responded, twisting his beard.

When Qian Tiandun saw that Kim Sang-heon had expressed his stance, he continued: "Earlier, your country sent two thousand taels of gold to ask our country to send troops. At that time, you had already explained the calculation method of this military expenditure to your envoy. Now I will give it to Mr. Jin."

Explanation below. Based on the size of the troops sent by our country to North Korea this time, the daily basic consumption converted into military expenses is about one hundred taels of gold. Therefore, two thousand taels of gold from your country were charged as departure expenses, but the cost of the trip from Sanya to Ganghwa Island

The march has basically used up this military expenditure. As for the wartime state, the daily military expenditure will be about four to five times that of the ordinary state. Both of us will bear half, and your country's share will be two hundred taels of gold per day.

The calculation is done. Starting from the day we arrive at Ganghwa Island, the settlement will be made every half month. I hope your country can pay another three thousand taels of gold to our army within ten days."

Jin Sangxian almost cut off his beard when he was excited, and stammered: "Three...three thousand taels of gold? Half a month?"

"Yes! Please pay in time, lest our army be unable to continue fighting due to insufficient military expenditures." Qian Tiandun nodded expressionlessly.

Jin Sangxian felt that he still underestimated the ruthlessness of the Haihan people, and this number far exceeded his previous estimate.
Chapter completed!