Chapter 2359

Luojin Bay is located in a remote area. The local permanent population is only a small fishing village on the nearby coast. The total number of men, women, old and young is less than 200 people. The nearest government office is more than a hundred miles away.

Only tax collectors would come here twice a year to collect taxes. Shen Xueyi wanted to find someone from the government here, but he naturally found nothing.

After much trouble, Shen Xueyi found the village chief here, revealed his identity, and asked him to cooperate with Tom Wang's investigation.

The village chief is not a prominent figure, he is just an old fisherman who has lived here for generations. The biggest official he has ever seen before was only a sixth-grade county supervisor. He has never met a big shot from Seoul. He is also the same now.

I was so frightened that I almost stuttered when I spoke.

Upon seeing this, Wang Tom asked: "Shen Xueyi, haven't you been here before? Why are you completely unfamiliar with the locals?"

Shen Xueyi explained: "General, the last time I came here I just took shelter from the storm and did not go ashore to contact the locals. General, just ask if you want to know anything. I have told him to cooperate well and not to hide anything."

The information that Wang Tom wants to know is also very basic, nothing more than local population, livelihood, transportation, income status, climate conditions, etc. These questions can only be answered by local residents.

The old village chief did not dare to neglect and explained the questions raised by Wang Tom one by one. Most of the local people settled here before North Korea entered the Li Dynasty. The old village chief's family had already lived here at least

More than twenty generations. Because this place is remote and surrounded by hundreds of miles of mountains, it has rarely been involved in wars in history. For example, when North Korea was invaded by the Qing army last year, it was not disturbed at all.

It's like a paradise.

As for the climate conditions, as Shen Xueyi knows, freezing conditions rarely occur here in winter. The old village chief has lived here all his life and has only seen the sight of frozen Luojin Bay once. Even the nearby

The river water collected by the mountains and flowing into the sea at Luojin Bay rarely freezes.

In terms of farming, the river valleys and plains here have good soil quality, but because the varieties of food crops grown by the local people are average and there is only one season a year, the harvest is not ideal. Of course, if Haihan wants to organize agricultural production here, then

You must build collective farms or plantations according to your own model, and the farming efficiency will far exceed the current level. Calculated based on the cultivated land area in the river valleys and plains here, it will only take one to two years to achieve the goal of food output.

It is certainly more than enough to be self-sufficient.

Luojin Bay is surrounded by dense forests and is rich in timber resources. It should be easy to build a shipyard locally. In addition, the old village chief also provided important information. The mountains and forests more than 20 miles north of Luojin Bay

There are coal mines in it, but it is inconvenient to transport it to the outside, so generally only people in the surrounding areas will go there to dig some for themselves before winter comes to keep warm in the winter. Although the specific reserves are unknown, according to the old village chief, this

Coal mines should be buried very shallow, and the veins can be reached by digging directly from the surface.

Wang Tom immediately asked the old village chief to find someone to collect coal from some villagers' homes to check the quality of these samples. To his surprise, the coal gangue content was extremely low, basically meeting the standards of clean coal.

.This means that if regular mining of nearby coal mines can be organized, it can even replenish fuel for steam-powered fleets in the future.

Shen Xueyi did not give up, and asked carefully to confirm whether there were any other special products within a few dozen miles of Luojin Bay. However, it was obviously impossible for God to concentrate all the good things in one place. The old village chief thought hard.

For a long time, he didn't say anything good that could make Tom Wang's eyes light up.

If I had to find something wrong with this place, it would probably be that it is too far away from the center of power in North Korea and the control area of ​​Haihan. The straight-line distance from here to the Datong River is more than a thousand miles, and it is even further away from Seoul.

Judging from the property conditions, surrounding environment, and population size here, it is obviously not suitable for construction as a trading port. It can basically only be used for military purposes. However, there will definitely be many problems in the early deployment and distribution of materials and personnel.

Solve it slowly, it is impossible to make an immediate decision and then do it overnight.

After arriving, Wang Tom decided to let the fleet rest for a day in Luojin Bay, and seize the time to complete various surveying and mapping work. The local people did not understand why so many soldiers suddenly poured into their homeland, and seeing other soldiers

The costumes were not that of the national army, and there were so many large ships parked on the beach. It was like the end of the world was approaching, and everyone was in panic. Shen Xueyi had to ask the old village chief to return to the village to explain the situation to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.

The old village chief was well informed. After returning to the village, he immediately organized some supplies, mainly various ingredients, from each household and took the initiative to deliver them to the coast, saying that it was a little bit of the local villagers' wishes. Wang Tom knew this well.

These fishermen were probably worried about being robbed by their own group of uninvited guests, so they took the initiative to pay tribute as a sign of respect. They then ordered the quartermaster to select some daily necessities from the fleet's cargo as a return gift to show their goodwill.

Of course, considering the purpose of the Haihan Army coming here, there is really no need to do these actions to appease the people. Wang Tom's move was entirely for Shen Xueyi to see. If Haihan really wants to take action here in the future, then Shen Xueyi may also be able to

Help out in the court.

The next morning, after the surveying and mapping work came to an end, the fleet set sail again and continued southward along the coastline. When sailing out of the bay, Wang Tom once again issued a warning to the two islands, one large and one small, like door gods at the entrance of the bay.

It is amazing that as long as a sentry post is set up at its location, the range of early warning surveillance can be greatly increased, and a fort can even be set up to help Luojin Bay build a complete defense system.

However, Wang Tom soon realized that in fact, the external forces that can pose a maritime threat to Luojin Bay basically do not exist at present. Whether it is Japan, the Manchu Qing Dynasty or Tsarist Russia, there is currently no armed fleet that can deter the Luojin Bay.

.And Haihan's need for this harbor may not be as urgent as he thought.

After leaving Najin Bay, the fleet headed south and stopped at Gangneung in Gangwon Province four days later to replenish fresh water.

The fleet had replenished fresh water and supplies at Luojin Bay, and could actually continue a longer voyage at sea. It was actually Shen Xueyi's idea to stop here. The local official here, Shen Yongsi, is from the same clan as the Shen family, and Shen Xueyi wanted to introduce him in the middle.

Let this local government establish a relationship with the Haihan people and see if we can build a cross-border trade channel in Gangneung, and everyone can make some money.

In fact, Wang Tom is not very interested in trade matters. Although he has facilitated some trade projects with North Korea in the past, he just did it casually. Shen Xueyi's face may not be given, but he is a military judge, and his skills are

To hold the military power in North Korea, there are many military matters that need to be contacted with the Bingcao Yamen. It is still necessary to maintain a good personal relationship between the two parties.

For a business like this that was brokered through personal relationships, Wang Tom was not sure whether he would have a direct relationship with Mr. Shen of Bingcao Yamen, so he did not flatly reject Shen Xueyi's proposal.

"Sir Shen, I don't know what local products there are. Can you briefly introduce them to me?" After Wang Tom saw Shen Yongsi, he quickly got to the point.

But in fact, Gangwon-do, where Gangneung is located, does not have any special bulk products. It is just coal mines, iron ores, and timber. These products are very common in the Korean Peninsula. There are such resources in the lower reaches of the Taedong River, which are under the leadership of Haehan.

During the development process, the relevant technical personnel have no time to deal with new projects. Therefore, unless the quality is outstanding, Haihan probably has no way to develop other similar projects at the same time.

As for the samples prepared by Shen Yongsi, Wang Tom did not express his attitude after seeing them. Although he is not a trade expert, he has learned about the various tricks in cross-border trade through various channels, and will not easily think that the samples provided by Shen Yongsi are

Can represent the true quality of local products, unless it is like the previous fishing village in Luojin Bay, coal taken out from fishermen's homes can reach the quality of clean coal.

Only on-site inspections and personal witnessing can determine the quality of goods. This is a business rule that Schneider told him before. Although this kind of knowledge is not usually used, Wang Tom still keeps it firmly in his mind.

But he didn't have much time to stay in Jiangling, or he didn't want to stay in Jiangling for too long for these "trivial matters". In his opinion, Jiangling has no natural harbor, it is almost all mountainous, and there is not much development around it.

space is unlikely to develop into the trading port that the North Koreans expected.

However, Wang Tom did not speak so straightforwardly in front of the Shen family. He only said that the samples of goods provided by Jiangling would be sent to Seoul, and Haihan's commercial organization would conduct professional inspections on the samples.

Then he proposed a suitable quotation and trading method. In short, he adopted a business-like attitude, so that the Shen family could not find any fault.

After the fleet stayed in Jiangling for a day, it set off again and headed south. Before leaving, Na Shen Yongsi also sent a batch of supplies to the fleet. Although the value of chicken, duck and fish was not too high, it was very practical and could be regarded as

Won a little favor from Wang Tom.

Four hundred miles south from Jiangling, the fleet arrived at Xinghai County. There is a large harbor facing the northeast. Although it is not well-known in this era, there are only a few fishing villages, but Wang Tom came here specifically to see it.

Look. In the time and space before he traveled through it, this was the very famous Pohang Port, one of the most important ports on the Korean Peninsula.

There are many mountainous plains near the harbor here, and the water conservancy conditions are quite good. In terms of development prospects, the conditions are far better than the Luojin Bay and Jiangling that Wang Tom visited before. However, it is already a few meters away from the Luojin Bay in the north.

It is 1,500 miles away. In terms of geographical location, if a military base is established here, it will probably be difficult to reach the northern Sea of ​​Japan area.

Continuing to sail more than a hundred miles south from this harbor, we arrive at Ulsan Bay, another natural harbor. This is under the jurisdiction of Ulsan County and adjacent to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Silla. It has been developed for a long time, so it is larger than before

The several harbors he visited were much more prosperous. However, Wang Tom did not arrange for the fleet to stop here. He only took a boat to circle inside and outside the harbor before continuing south.

A few dozen miles to the southwest from Ulsan, there is another natural port, Busan. This was the largest port in Korea in later generations, and it is also one of the busiest ports in the world. A hundred miles to the southeast is the opposite port of Japan.

On the west side of the harbor is the mouth of the Nakdong River, with a large fertile alluvial plain. On the south side of the harbor, there are many islands forming a natural barrier. It can be regarded as the maritime gateway at the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula.

Due to its unique geographical advantages, it was designated as a trading port by the Lee Dynasty more than two hundred years ago, specializing in cross-border trade with Japan.

However, during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, Busan was annexed by the Japanese and became a colony because it was the closest large port to Japan. It was not until the end of the war in 1607 that the two countries restored normal diplomatic relations and Busan returned to Korea.

, the port here is slowly being rebuilt.

This time, Wang Tom did not skip this place, but ordered the fleet to enter the port to rest for two days. Because there were no target locations that required special inspection in the upcoming trip, Wang Tom did not hesitate to spend the last stage of the trip.

Arrange a short rest time so that the fleet officers can relax a little.

More than a thousand Haihan soldiers arrived at the Port of Busan. These people all carried newly issued military pay and had been floating on the sea for two months. They almost forgot what the city looked like. After entering Busan, they started to spend a lot of money.

Money has suddenly boosted the local economy.

Accompanied by Shen Xueyi, Wang Tom also visited Busan City. What surprised him most was not the busy port here, nor the Japanese and Japanese-style shops everywhere in the city, but the fact that he saw the gate here.

The shops and restaurants with the Haihan and Han flags hanging outside are obviously the properties of Haihan merchants.

Wang Tom walked into the restaurant called "Mingyue House". Sure enough, the shopkeeper saw his clothes and immediately ran over, greeted him in Chinese and Chinese Mandarin, and then hurriedly arranged the best meal.

Private room, please enjoy it with Tom Wang and his party.

Wang Tom said: "I remember seeing restaurants with the same name in Zhoushan and Seoul. They should all be opened by the same owner, right?"

The shopkeeper responded respectfully: "Your Excellency, you have a good memory. The Mingyue Buildings in these locations are indeed owned by the same owner. This year, two new ones have been opened in Fushan County, Shandong Province and Jinzhou, Liaodong Province. If you have the opportunity to go there in the future, sir,

When you get there, please remember to take care of my business."
Chapter completed!