Chapter 1805 Naval Base

If the plan planned by Haehan can be implemented perfectly, the main militant faction led by Kim Sang-heon will become the main force in North Korean officialdom, suppressing all voices for peace talks, and North Korea's political opinions will also move in the direction of

It develops in a direction that is more beneficial to Hae Han. Hae Han takes the money, Kim Sang Heon takes power, and both parties benefit. It does seem to be an excellent deal.

However, there is a huge test for Haihan, that is, he must control the victory situation on the Korean peninsula. He must not only let the Qing army enter North Korea to coerce it to obey his own arrangements, but also cannot allow it to do whatever he wants in North Korea without fear.

The North Koreans simply surrendered if they couldn't bear it. If necessary, they had to repel their offensive to ensure that Kim Sang-heon could establish sufficient authority in the court.

This is completely different from Haihan's original idea when he decided to assist North Korea. At that time, the Ministry of National Defense believed that in dealing with the North Korean issue, it was necessary to prepare for the worst, that is, North Korea would be defeated by the Qing army's offensive, as in history

Such a rapid retreat to the front line of Seoul. In the worst case scenario, Haihan probably only had time to recruit his princes and ministers to form a government in exile. If the war situation was better, he might be able to rely on the Han River to establish a defense line and form a confrontation with the Qing army.

However, the Haihan Army actually arrived in North Korea before the Qing Army took action, and had a more sufficient buffer time to arrange response strategies and seek greater benefits from this chaos. Only in this way, came

The Haihan army on the Korean Peninsula had to take greater risks and engage in long-term maneuvers and battles with the Qing army.

Wang Tom is also very satisfied with the progress Qian Tiandun has made on Jianghua Island. The situation is developing in the direction he planned. However, he does not plan to add more troops to the Jiuliancheng Riverside currently occupied, but is preparing to attack the Qing army's next attack.

After the wave of offensive, they took the initiative to evacuate this area and opened up the passage to the south to see if the Qing army would choose to invade North Korea without any scruples.

But for Wang Tom, there is still an unresolved issue, and that is the garrison location of the combined fleet. In terms of terrain environment, the Yalu River Basin is not an ideal choice. The river here is relatively narrow, and there is no natural harbor to

Taking advantage of this, once a war breaks out, the entire Yalu River Basin will be within the attack range of the Qing army. It is not ideal to locate the fleet base here.

In fact, there is no candidate location on the northwest coast of the Korean Peninsula that can really meet Wang Tom's requirements, and Haihan's combat plan must have a naval base close to the key area of ​​​​the Yalu River, so he can only settle for the next best thing.

, chose the Datong River estuary, about sixty nautical miles south of the Yalu River estuary, as the fleet's long-term garrison.

However, when the fleet went north, Wang Tom sent a ship to explore that area. It is still deserted. If you want to develop and build a naval base, the amount of work required is really not small. Although opinions on building a seaport have been submitted to North Korea

, but with the efficiency of the Koreans, Wang Tom was very worried that he might not be able to see the construction of this port start until the end of the war. Therefore, he had also specifically told Qian Tiandun before that the construction and long-term use of this port would be treated as a transaction with the Koreans.

The conditions are highlighted and the other party must be urged to handle the matter as soon as possible.

Although Qian Tiandun also handed over this matter to Kim Sang-hyun, given that the things that Kim Sang-hyun has to deal with at the moment are too complicated, how long will it take to arrange the construction of a real special port and supporting facilities for the Haihan Fleet in the local area?

I'm afraid no one can explain the base facilities clearly. At this time, General Haihan couldn't help but miss the operational efficiency of his country. As long as the executive committee made a decision and determined the priority of the tasks, then the construction would start

The speed would not exceed five days. But they had already raised this point with the North Koreans when they first arrived at Ganghwa Island. Now Qian Tiandun has clearly emphasized it again, but they still cannot get a precise arrangement.

After the Qing army in Jiulian City suffered a moderate defeat in the night attack, they fell into silence again and did not send any more troops to fight. However, Wang Tom also noticed that the Qing cavalry began to appear again outside Jiulian City.

, but they were all relatively far apart and showed no intention of launching an attack. However, the Marines stationed on the shore did not dare to be careless about this. There were people at each post holding binoculars to keep an eye on the enemy's movements.

In the previous night attack, several sentries deployed by the Marines for covert surveillance outside the position were almost wiped out. This shows that the Marines are still not adaptable enough in this strange environment. The hiding methods of the sentries have not been hidden from the enemy, so Wang

Tom has adjusted his strategy and no longer sends sentries outside the position. Instead, he has strengthened surveillance on the dock positions and warships.

As for the defense at night, Wang Tom did not abandon the outer area of ​​the position. He ordered his engineers to deploy several trip wires made of thin wires about a hundred meters away from the dock position after nightfall. One end of the thin wires was buried in the sand.

Landmines in the soil. The purpose of this kind of deployment is mainly for early warning, so there is no need to bury too many landmines. The fuse of each mine can be connected to several trip wires. As long as it is hooked to one of them, it will cause an explosion. Several landmines will lead to

The trip wire can cover a large area.

This kind of early warning method is naturally new to the Qing army. They never expected that there would be such a mechanism on the ground. If they tried to carry out a sneak attack on the dock position in the dark, 90% of them would be fooled.

Jin Sangjiu, who was sent to Yizhou to collect food, did not go well. There was actually only Wahua Island between the Yizhou Administrative Office and Jiuliancheng. The straight-line distance was only about ten miles. Wang Tom sent a boat to send him there. Originally,

I thought that half a day would be enough, but I didn't expect that I didn't return from the place until after dark, and what I brought back was extremely limited, with less than 2,000 kilograms of grain and a small amount of livestock, poultry, vegetables, and fruits. Even describing it as shabby is not an exaggeration.

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Jin." After Wang Tom read the list handed over by Jin Shangjiu, he didn't get angry at all and just thanked him lightly.

However, Jin Sangjiu and Tom Wang had been getting along for several days. It was hard to see that the old man was very dissatisfied with the results of his work. He quickly explained: "General Wang, the local grain depot in Yiju does not have much grain storage. In the rush, I only

If we can collect these supplies, I have ordered people to purchase grain in Yizhou. I believe there will be news in a few days!"

Wang Tom said: "Really? Your country is about to have a war, and the granaries on the front line have not prepared enough food. I would like to ask Lord Jin, is your country doing this deliberately, preparing to starve them to death after the Qing army invades?"

"This..." Of course Jin Shangjiu could tell that Wang Tom's words were not joking with him, but blaming North Korea for their poor preparation for war. To be honest, the food and grass recruited from Yiju was indeed too little, which was in line with his own expectations.

There was a big gap, but he didn't think much about it at the time. He just urged local officials to organize as much food and grass as possible to be transported to the front line. But when Wang Tom said this, Jin Shangjiu also felt that this matter was a bit unreasonable - as a border man

How can a government office or a border army garrison have such a minimum amount of food storage? This is obviously an unreasonable situation.

Wang Tom continued: "Don't you think, Mr. Jin, that Yizhou is so close to Jiulian City, and the Qing army has not discovered that the Qing army is building a dock to cross the river, and there is not enough food reserves, these two things cannot be justified in any case.

?I suspect that someone is deliberately making such an arrangement in order to prevent our army from assisting your country in resisting the Qing army!"

Jin Shangjiu didn't dare to respond immediately. If the possibility mentioned by Wang Tom was real, it might involve many figures in the officialdom, and there might be some big shot behind it that he couldn't touch. In North Korea,

Anti-war voices have always existed, and some officials believed that the Ming Dynasty was no longer reliable and that it should assess the situation and rely on its powerful neighbors to avoid the disaster of war.

Of course, Jin Sangjiu must be on the side of the main war faction, otherwise he would not be appointed as a military observer and come to the front line with the coalition fleet. But if he had to step forward to find out the cause of this kind of thing, he would still

I feel like my portion is not enough, and I might get into trouble.

Wang Tom seemed to have anticipated his thoughts and continued to persuade: "If Mr. Jin feels that it is difficult to handle, I think this can be done. You can write a report immediately to explain the situation in Yiju, and arrange a boat to be sent to the south early tomorrow morning.

Going there is faster than taking the land route. I believe that after the big shots in the court know the situation on the front line, they will give a clear opinion on how to deal with it."

Jin Sangjiu said: "I only stayed in Yizhou for most of the day, and my knowledge was limited. What if I wrongly accuse the local officials?"

Wang Tom said: "Unjustly accused? These officials in Yizhou are either collaborators with the enemy or seriously derelict in their duties. With these two possibilities, you feel that they have been wronged. Then what method can you think of to clear their names? Mr. Jin, you want to

Let me understand one thing: if our army is in a disadvantageous position during the battle against the Qing Dynasty, the first person to be unlucky will not be us Haihan, but your country!"

Jin Shangjiu swallowed and realized that what Wang Tom said did make sense. If the Haihan Army felt that the war situation was unfavorable, they could just pat their butts and leave, but could North Korea withdraw?

Wang Tom continued to persuade: "Actually, we have informed Mr. Kim Sang-heon about the situation in Yiju. He will definitely take action in the near future. If Mr. Jin is willing to provide some help, it will definitely be more effective."

Only then did Jin Sangjiu realize that the direction of this matter would not change because of his own choices. The Haihan people had already made arrangements with Jin Sangxian. Whether he provided information or not would at most affect the development of this matter.

It's just speed. Of course, if you cooperate with the Haihan people, you should be able to leave a good impression on Kim Sang-heon, and maybe future promotion opportunities will come from this.

"Okay, then I'll write the memorial right now!" Jin Shangjiu made a decisive decision this time.

Tom Wang finally had a smile on his face: "Master Jin is a smart man, I think our future cooperation will be very pleasant!"

After Kim Sang-joo's memorial is sent to the rear, how Kim Sang-hun will use it to make a fuss is not a problem that Tom Wang needs to worry about now. But he does need the North Koreans to work more efficiently, otherwise the fleet will withdraw.

After the Yalu River, there is no support point nearby.

The next day, a fortune ship belonging to the Fujian Navy turned around and headed south and left here. Wang Tom didn't want the main force of his fleet to perform primary tasks such as delivering letters, so he handed it over to Xu Yuzhuo's troops.

The silent confrontation between the dock position and Jiulian City continued. Wang Tom felt as if he had returned to the battlefield on the Jinzhou Isthmus, where the Haihan Army and the Qing Army were also locked in a long-term confrontation. Azig seemed to

He had made up his mind not to confront Haihan again, and there was no sign of going to war. And Tom Wang was not in a hurry about it. He needed to buy more time for the rear to take action, and it was best to prepare for the war.

After preparations, he led his fleet to evacuate the area.

Kim Sang-hyun was not idle when he returned to the capital. Following Qian Tiandun's instructions, Kim Sang-hyun began to use the power at his disposal to promote the achievements of the Haihan Army in Uiju and the aloofness shown by the Uiju border army during this period.

Kim Sang-heon advised King Yi Jie that the border army's dereliction of duty was very serious, and adjustments must be made to the border army generals and local officials in Uiju as soon as possible, otherwise the border defense might collapse.

On the other hand, Kim Sang-heon did not forget Qian Tiandun's repeated request, and quickly gathered a group of craftsmen and sent them to Ganghwa Island. The Haehan people took them to the estuary of the Daedong River designated by them for on-the-spot investigation, and prepared to start construction of the sea as soon as possible.

The ports and bases needed for the Han fleet.

The location chosen by Haihan was Nampo, a trading port on the west coast of Korea in later generations. This place is located on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Datong River, about thirty miles from the river mouth. However, this place is currently just a small fishing village with more than 20 households.

It doesn't even have an official name yet.

Wang Tom chose this place as a naval base. It was also a last resort choice among the short ones. Except that the river surface is relatively open and the river bank is suitable for building docks, there are basically no other advantages. The only thing worth mentioning is the latitude of this place.

It is exactly the same as Port Arthur, which is separated by the entire Yellow Sea, so the land and sea forces that were once stationed in the Liaodong area should not have adaptability problems when stationed here.

The most important populated area near this place is the city of Pyongyang, which is nearly a hundred miles away. If North Korean officials want to take charge of building the port, they can only recruit civilians from Pyongyang to complete the project. However, this has to mention North Korea again.

The work efficiency has improved. In less than three to five days, it must be difficult for Pyongyang to recruit enough labor to send to this place. And considering the remote environment here, temporary residences and supporting facilities will have to be built for the residents first.

, and then carry out the construction of the port project, and nearby lumberyards, quarries and other places to provide building materials for this project have to be built, and for a while there will be no real progress at all.
Chapter completed!