Chapter 1806: Defend by the River

Considering the low operational efficiency of North Korean officials, Wang Tom even had the urge to transfer civilian workers from Liaodong to build a naval base. Of course, this was just a thought. He wanted to stop social production in Jinzhou and transfer the limited labor force across the border.

Even if the Jinzhou authorities and Dongjiang Town had no complaints about shipping military bases to North Korea, the Executive Committee would never agree to such a crazy move.

Although the situation on the Korean Peninsula is also very important to Haihan, it is never more important than his own territory. After all, the Jinzhou area is Haihan's most important colony in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea areas, and its priority far exceeds that of North Korea, which has not yet been finalized.

Base. Even if Tom Wang wants to dig the east wall to make up for the west wall, he must first weigh whether the east wall can be dug.

Before the construction of the base is finally implemented, Wang Tom can only continue to maintain the current standoff on the Yalu River and try his best to gain buffer time for the construction of the base in the rear. However, so far, the coalition forces still do not have an accurate grasp of the Qing army near Jiulian City

The lack of intelligence on the status of the assembled troops and the direction of the next action prevented Wang Tom from making more radical deployments.

As for the Fujian Navy, which has no combat missions for the time being, the order they received is to maintain vigilance in the upper reaches to ensure that no large Qing troops will come down the river from the upper reaches to attack the Allied fleet. In this way, only the entrance to the sea and the upper reaches can

With the entire river surface under surveillance, Wang Tom can rest assured that all the main warships of the fleet will be deployed near the dock position to serve as fire support for the Marine Corps.

Judging from the geographical environment, it is unlikely that the Qing army would choose to cross the upper reaches of the Yalu River. Less than thirty miles further upstream from Jiuliancheng, there are already continuous mountainous areas on the Korean side of the Yalu River. If

It's just a small force crossing the river. It would be extremely troublesome for a large army to travel long distances in these areas. Even if the Qing army had a considerable number of cavalry and pack horses, it would be difficult to make a rapid advance in this area. As for the downstream areas with relatively flat terrain,

And almost all of them were under the surveillance of the coalition fleet. It was extremely difficult for the Qing army to find a new breakthrough point in the Yalu River to cross the river.

Xu Yuzhuo actually hoped to fight the Qing army on the frontal battlefield, but the troops he led were mainly sailors. If they fought ashore, it would easily hold back the Marines. So he could only follow Wang Tom's instructions.

, led the fleet to patrol and garrison in the upper reaches of Weihua Island. Xu Yuzhuo's troops did not stop at the surveillance range designated by Wang Tom. They had already explored the position about fifty miles upstream of Jiulian City, but still did not find the fleet used by the Qing army to cross the river.

Based on the map provided by Wang Tom, Xu Yuzhuo judged that the Qing army should have gathered all the ships used to cross the river to the upper reaches of the Gehe River where the river was narrower after discovering that the coalition fleet had broken into the Yalu River - the assembly point was located in the area occupied by the Qing army.

, which will obviously make them feel more secure.

With the strength of the coalition fleet, of course, there is no need to worry so much. If they rush upstream along the Sui River, it should be difficult for the Qing army to implement effective blocking measures. Xu Yuzhuo was quite eager to try this, if it weren't for Wang Tom who didn't agree with this radical approach.

In this way, he probably led his men and horses into the Suihe River a long time ago.

The confrontation and testing around Jiuliancheng continued calmly. Wang Tom also tried several times to have the Marines advance closer to Jiuliancheng. However, as soon as the Marines began to leave their positions, the troops in the mountains and forests opposite

The Qing army's cavalry will appear, waiting for an opportunity to cut off the Haihan army's retreat, and Wang Tom will definitely not take such unnecessary risks while taking the initiative, so as long as he sees the opponent's cavalry making moves, Wang Tom will

We will immediately order the operation to be terminated and we will continue to stay behind closed doors.

However, Haihan did not take any further action, and the Qing army did not take the initiative to attack. They really avoided fighting and seemed to be in no hurry to go south to invade North Korea. This calmness of the Qing army was in line with Wang Tom's initial expectations.

The difference was that when he decided to occupy the Jiuliancheng Riverside Pier, he optimistically believed that this move would force the Qing army to take the initiative to expose their strength, and then he could use this to judge the opponent's preparation progress, but the actual situation was not the case.

After the failure of the attack, the Qing army made no further attempts and did not seem to intend to start a head-on confrontation with the Haihan army in this area.

Wang Tom is still unable to confirm whether the Qing army's calm reaction is because the troop assembly and war preparations have not yet been completed, or whether they have other plans for the invasion of North Korea. Although Haihan still occupies the active advantage on the battlefield, this advantage is due to the Qing

The reaction of the army was gradually worn away bit by bit. Wang Tom even began to consider whether he should let Qian Tiandun bring the troops from Ganghwa Island over, and then build a relatively large fortress on the bank of the Yalu River for long-term garrisoning

, in order to buy more time for the construction of military bases in the rear.

However, such a plan will also have many practical difficulties, such as the building materials and manpower required to build large strongholds, which is a difficult problem for the Haihan Army. Wang Tom really cannot believe in North Korea's work efficiency and engineering construction capabilities.

If it were done by the North Koreans, the situation on Ganghwa Island would inevitably be repeated.

After this stalemate lasted for another four days, the previous memorial written by Kim Sang-joo finally came back. King Yi Jong of North Korea ordered Kim Sang-hun to take charge of a thorough investigation of the serious dereliction of duty and concealment of military information by the Uiju government and the garrison.

They also sent a commissioner to Uiju to take charge of the logistical supply support requested by Haehan. The conditions proposed by Haehan to build a military base at the mouth of the Datong River have also been approved by the Korean court, and from now on they began to recruit civilians to start construction in the area -

—Of course, there is currently no clear statement on the specific construction schedule.

This is finally good news for the coalition forces. Qian Tiandun also made a slight concession on behalf of Haihan during the negotiations on Ganghwa Island, allowing North Korea to send a force of 3,000 people to Waihua Island to serve as an auxiliary to the Marine Corps.

Strength. Of course, in fact, this unit was also designated by Haihan. The first batch of weapons provided by Haihan to North Korea last year were installed in this unit. Its strength is compared to other North Korean armies that still use swords and bows as their main weapons.

It's quite a bit stronger.

Qian Tiandun's military expenditure sharing issue raised by Kim Sang-hyun encountered certain resistance. Just like Kim Sang-hyun's reaction when he first heard this request, the princes and ministers of North Korea also believed that the price offered by Hae-han was too high.

It was too high and exceeded what North Korea's finances could bear. If Haihan's military expenses were paid according to this apportioned amount, North Korea might have gone bankrupt before the Qing army reached Seoul.

Although Qian Tiandun gave Kim Sang-heon some pointers, the methods he gave could not be made public after all, so even if they were feasible to a certain extent, Kim Sang-heon could not use them to convince other officials to accept the offer. But at this time

The king's authority came into play. After listening to Kim Sang-heon's private report, King Li Zhu chose to believe Kim Sang-heon and authorized him to investigate the problems of Uiju officials. As long as Kim Sang-heon could prove the crimes of Uiju officials, he would

Naturally, there are ways to extend the scope of the investigation and trigger a major purge in North Korean official circles.

In the blink of an eye, it has arrived in late May, and the tense situation along the Yalu River has not changed much. However, from the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula controlled by the Qing Dynasty to the mouth of the Yalu River, foreign armed landing raids have begun to occur frequently. According to reports received by the local government,

Judging from the reports, the troops attacking these coastal areas were not the Haihan Army or the Ming Army, but Western Fans who had never been seen before.

For this reason, the Qing government sent special personnel to investigate the attacked areas. Finally, based on eyewitness accounts and other evidence, it was determined that the militants who attacked the coastal areas were Portuguese. Many Shandong rebels defected to Liaodong.

The officers had all worked with the Portuguese mercenaries under Sun Yuanhua and were familiar with the Portuguese, so they could basically confirm this situation.

The Qing court was a little confused about the appearance of the Portuguese fleet in this area. According to what they learned, the Portuguese's main activity range was in the distant South China Sea. They had never appeared in this area, let alone launched an armed attack.

.And these Portuguese were not much less armed than the Haihan army. The scattered local armed forces could not defeat the attackers who were armed with live ammunition. In just a few days, many coastal villages and towns were alerted, and hundreds of people were attacked.

local people were kidnapped.

The Qing government had to adjust its deployment and dispatch troops from the direction of the Liaodong Peninsula to rush to the area under attack to establish control. However, for a coastal area that was four to five hundred miles long, it was difficult to set up defenses everywhere. There were too few troops stationed and they would be overwhelmed.

There was a danger of falling, and during this period, we frequently had to rush back and forth after receiving warnings of Portuguese landings.

The ones who repeatedly attacked the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula at this juncture were naturally the Portuguese fleet from the northward coalition. In addition to the Fujian navy that went to the Yalu River with Wang Tom, there were also fleets from Annan and Portugal.

Temporarily stationed on Ganghwa Island, many soldiers of the Annan fleet were acclimatized due to geographical climate and other comprehensive reasons, so they had to stay on Ganghwa Island to recuperate. However, the Portuguese fleet was in much better condition.

After staying on the island for more than ten days, Ximang took the initiative to ask for a battle and led his fleet out to find something to do.

Haihan was happy to see the positive attitude of the Portuguese, so he asked Simang to take his troops to the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula where the Qing army's defense was relatively loose. Since these areas had long been invaded by Haihan

The navy has carried out repeated sweeps many times, and almost no fishing boats can be seen on the seashore. There is basically no big risk for the Portuguese fleet to operate in this sea area. Of course, Simang will not stop at sea. After confirming that the Qing army has basically no counterattack

After using sea defense measures, they quickly organized several landings and raided some villages and towns not too far from the coast.

The villages and towns attacked by the Portuguese were actually dominated by Han people. However, after these areas were occupied by Hou Jin, the status of the Han people was suppressed, and most of them were used as slaves and became the owners of various banners and Niu Lu.

Private property. And when the Portuguese attacked, the identities of the armed personnel that could be organized in these places were very easy to distinguish. Those who could ride horses and wear armor were basically Manchu bannermen, while civilians dressed up and carried dung forks and hunting bows.

Those who used such weapons to serve as "soldiers" in battle must be the Han people.

Xi Mang had already received advice from Qian Tiandun before setting off. During the battle, he gave priority to the Manchus. Often, after killing the Manchu warriors who were leading the charge or responsible for command, the remaining people lost the fighting spirit to continue fighting.

Some Haihan soldiers from the Northeast led by Xi Mang would take the opportunity to shout loudly, asking the Han people to surrender.

This tactic was very effective. When the 300 infantrymen led by Simang fought with the local armed forces of more than 1,000 people in Zhuanghe Town, it took less than a stick of incense to quickly defeat the enemy and defeat them.

More than 400 Han prisoners were captured. Later, Haihan soldiers came forward to inform these prisoners that they would be transported to Jinzhou and North Korea for resettlement and new life.

Upon hearing such news, some of the prisoners were overjoyed to have regained their freedom, while others were deeply uneasy because they were worried about being separated from their families. However, under the threat of gunpoint, no one dared to object to such an arrangement. However,

In any case, being able to get rid of the oppression of the Manchu court was ultimately a good thing for them.

For Haihan, the local Han people from Liaodong are undoubtedly the best source of population to establish a new colony. These people can adapt to the environment of the region extremely well, and most of them have a deep hatred for the Qing Dynasty because of the severe oppression they suffered.

, and because they have been separated from the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty for a long time and do not have a strong sense of belonging to their original nationality, they are more likely to accept Haihan's targeted ideological propaganda offensive and become subjects of the new colony of Liaodong.

Of course, among these Han groups, there must be some scoundrels who had taken refuge in the Qing court early on, so a preliminary identification of these prisoners would be made later, and the "dangerous elements" among them would be singled out for separate treatment.

Since the Qing army had no maritime power in this area, it was impossible to monitor the whereabouts of the Portuguese fleet. After landing in a village and plundering a certain village in the morning, Simang's fleet might appear hundreds of miles away in the afternoon.

This operation was repeated on another coast, sometimes even sweeping through four or five villages and towns in one day, abducting thousands of people.

In order to cooperate with the actions of the Portuguese fleet, Haihan also specially dispatched several idle troop transports and cargo ships from Jinzhou and Jianghua Island to pick up the captive populations of the Portuguese at the mouth of the Yalu River and Changshan Islands respectively.

Then transport them back to the place of departure for placement.

Of course, the Portuguese are not doing good deeds regardless of compensation. According to the agreement between the two parties, all the property obtained by the Portuguese during the operation will be distributed by themselves. In order to earn back the military expenses of this trip north, the Portuguese also

No slacking off at all.
Chapter completed!