Chapter 1880 Everyone gets what they need

The arms trade has always been one of the most profitable items in Haihan's commodity export field. As a large buyer with financial resources, Daming's economic strength obviously far exceeds Haihan's other sales targets. Although the Ming court's financial

The income level is relatively limited, but from a national perspective, it still has very strong purchasing power. Otherwise, it would be impossible for local warlords like Xu Xinsu to be able to build a strong army with the help of one place.

Every state along the coast of the Ming Dynasty has garrison troops stationed in it. Now that the country is in the midst of internal and external troubles, many military attachés with military power have begun to think about it. Some people want to imitate Xu Xinsu's successful model and use sea trade.

Accumulate wealth, and then buy Haihan weapons to arm the troops under their jurisdiction; some people resell some of the weapons purchased from Haihan to the Ministry of War to pave the way for their own official careers; others simply want to hold on to Haihan's thigh

, after all, even North Korea, which was about to be destroyed, was rescued by the Haihan people some time ago. If you cooperate with them, you don't have to worry about your future.

But one thing, almost everyone has the same idea, and that is to have a good relationship with Haihan. Whether to buy the weapons provided by Haihan, how to buy them, how much to buy, and how to use them after buying them are all secondary matters.

To solve the problem, the key is to maintain a subtle tacit understanding with Haihan through arms transactions.

For these military generals who were better informed than the imperial court, they knew very well that in addition to doing business, Haihan was also a very warlike country. Although Ming Dynasty had signed a peace agreement with it, it might not be able to stop Haihan.

The ambitions of the Han people. If the two countries go to war, they will be the first to bear the brunt. As for the actual combat effectiveness of the Haihan Army, they are much clearer than the high-ranking officials in the court who only read the memorials and issue orders based on their assumptions.

This group of people have understood through Haihan's series of force demonstrations in Zhejiang in the past two years. If there is a conflict between the two countries, the situation of the troops stationed along the coast of Zhejiang will be very embarrassing. If they want to fight, they will definitely not be able to defeat Haihan's army. They can only try their best to maintain

Peace is the best way to protect yourself. Moreover, the Haihan people are not that difficult to deal with. As long as the door to trade is opened, any conditions can be negotiated slowly. If the business is started first, the possibility of Haihan invasion of Jiangsu and Zhejiang will disappear.

Greatly reduced.

However, Li Bo had only been in Zhoushan for a short period of time, and he was not aware of the entanglement of interests and could not quite understand the operations of both parties. In his opinion, Haihan seemed to have taken a huge advantage in the arms trade between the two countries, and he only needed to

It was easy to exchange some third-rate goods for real money from the Ming Dynasty, but in fact both parties were just getting what they needed for their own purposes.

Li Bo watched these Ming military attachés talking and laughing around Shi Diwen, and suddenly a strange idea came to his mind - no matter how hard these officials of the Ming Dynasty tried to establish a good relationship with Haihan, they could not compare to the efforts of North Korea.

, after all, as the eldest son, he has already gone to Haihan to study abroad, and Daming will definitely not be able to make such an arrangement.

In the future, those who can achieve in-depth cooperation with Haihan in various aspects will definitely not be these Ming officials who only flatter and flatter him, but North Korea, which understands Haihan better and has more common interests with it. One day, when its country becomes stronger

, then he could stand upright in front of the Ming Dynasty, instead of treating it as his suzerainty - Li Fu secretly made up his mind.

In fact, Li Bo is quite optimistic about his vision. He believes that as long as North Korea can get the support and assistance of Haihan, it will only take a few years to catch up with the Ming Dynasty militarily - maybe even before he succeeds to the throne.

It had already been realized by then. However, he did not dare to tell anyone about this wishful thinking. If this leaked out and became known to the outside world, it would definitely affect the relationship between North Korea, Haihan, and Ming Dynasty.

After the transaction, Shi Diwen also held a banquet to entertain these buyers and sponsors as usual. However, the military leaders were focused on the handover of arms at this time, so Shi Diwen ordered the dinner to be postponed for two hours so that they could have time.

Have enough time to go to the warehouse at the dock to inventory the equipment you purchased.

Li Bo had already experienced the pain of being persuaded to drink in turns with these military attachés before. He didn't want to make the same mistake again, so he took the initiative to resign from Shi Diwen and not attend the banquet in the evening. Shi Diwen didn't know that the North Korean prince was at the reception banquet.

He was drunk to the point of fragmentation at night, and was already afraid of the banquet on the island. He only thought that he was relying on his identity and did not want to live with these Ming warriors. However, Shi Diwen did not have any objection to this, and stood from Haihan's point of view

Above, it was not a good thing for the crown prince of Joseon to get too close to officials of the Ming Dynasty. Li Bo was willing to take the initiative to keep his distance, which saved Shi Diwen a lot of trouble.

After Li Bo returned to his residence, he asked Jin Shangjiu to look for recently published newspapers. He only saw this legendary thing after arriving in Zhoushan. The various news on it made him very interested and felt

This is also a channel to understand the social conditions of Haihan from a side perspective. However, I have been busy attending various activities these past two days and have not yet taken the time to study the contents of this newspaper carefully.

Currently, the only newspaper published in Haihan's overseas colonies and ruled areas is the official "Haihan Times", and all of them are compiled and printed in Sanya, so basically all the newspapers you can see here are

It is more than half a month later than the actual publication time. As a result, the news in the newspaper is actually not very timely. However, considering the speed of news dissemination in this era, the speed of the Times in providing information is still quite fast.

, and the amount of information it carries is by no means comparable to traditional official media like Di Bao.

Due to the cost of distribution channels and the actual publicity effect, the circulation of The Times overseas cannot be as large as that in China, and not all cats and dogs can read this newspaper. After adopting a subscription system

After that, most ordinary people did not have enough financial resources to order such a reading material for a long time, and only local officials and some people with special status had the ability.

As for foreign guests with official status like Li Bo, they will naturally receive corresponding special treatment. The newspaper Jin Shangjiu found for him was actually provided by a propaganda agency affiliated with the Zhoushan authorities.

After Li Bo had a hasty dinner, he ordered his servants to light a few windproof oil lamps in the room and began to read the newspapers that Jin Shangjiu had just sent.

Li Bo's attention was quickly attracted by the headline article on the front page: "Decisive Battle at Datong River! The situation in North Korea will be fought here!"

Li Bo quickly took another look at the publication date on the front page, but it was based on the Haihan calendar. Fortunately, he already knew something about it, and he could roughly calculate that the publication date of this newspaper was around the time when the Battle of Datong River started.

same time period.

Of course, he also knew that Haihan's battle plan on the banks of the Datong River had actually been drawn up long ago, so there was basically no risk of leaking military information by publishing the relevant content in Haihan's local newspaper. Waiting for the news in this newspaper

When word spread to the north, the war on the Korean battlefield was over. However, Haihan was able to put this kind of war on a platform like a newspaper and let the people pay attention to the progress of this war. This kind of courage still impressed Li Fu.

Generally speaking, when a war breaks out, a country will not take the initiative to inform the people about the progress of the war, unless there is a big victory. Haihan is obviously very confident in the Korean War, and he directly disclosed the details of the war to the people.

War status.

Li Pu slowly read the content of the report under the title. Except for the slightly exaggerated description of the strength of the Haihan Army, the description of the situation of the two armies and the situation in North Korea at that time was basically true. This was also the first time that Li Pu had

Opportunity to look at this war from Haihan's perspective.

Li Bo had heard Jin Shangjiu introduce it before. This newspaper is the official mouthpiece of Haihan. The front-page articles above basically represent the official attitude, and even the author is a certain senior official of Haihan. This newspaper can be said to be

It is a bellwether for Haihan's foreign policy. It is said that when Li Xi asked Haihan for help, he noticed that the newspaper mentioned that after the Battle of Manila, several main battle units would enter a truce period because they had no combat missions. In this way, he

Only then did he have the courage to ask Haihan to send troops to Korea. What he was sure of was that his main battle force had already been freed up to enter the next battlefield.

Of course, some people in North Korea think that this kind of news may have been released intentionally by Haihan. After all, this is not the first time that Haihan's army has been sent overseas to fight as mercenaries. It had sent troops to the Annan Gang before it became prosperous.

The Zheng family in the north fought a civil war for two years, and the confrontation between the north and the south in Annan was abruptly transformed into the Zheng family. Anyone with a discerning eye knows the external pressure faced by North Korea, and the only one who can deal with the Qing army in the Liaodong region is

The Haihan family has no other semicolon. If North Korea wants to mobilize reinforcements, it is impossible to count on the Ming Dynasty. Haihan is the only choice. At this juncture, letting the outside world know that their main force has nothing to do, isn't this just giving

Some kind of hint?

However, this kind of voice is not the mainstream. After all, the strength shown by Haihan in the Korean War was impressive, and he really saved North Korea's crisis. Regardless of whether it was a conspiracy against North Korea, North Korea really needs such a backer to protect it.

Own.

This article in the newspaper also analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the two sides, which also aroused Li Bo's interest. He also wanted to see how the Haihan people evaluated their own army, and whether they thought their ever-victorious army would also win.

There are shortcomings.

What was slightly beyond his expectation was that the author pointed out directly the problems of the Haihan army that went to North Korea: too few troops, heavy reliance on logistics, and poor land mobility. Another shortcoming was that it was incompatible with North Korea.

Relatedly, because the strength and military structure of the two armies are so different, it is difficult to obtain effective coordination from the local army.

In the past, Li Bo might have had reservations about the last point, but now he also knows that this is actually an objective fact. The Korean army still has a long way to go if it wants to fight side by side with the Haihan army on the battlefield.

As for the other shortcomings, it is quite new to Li Bo. And if you think about it carefully, you will find that the shortcomings pointed out are indeed reasonable.

Counting several other allied forces, the total strength of the coalition forces that entered North Korea was only a few thousand. This was obviously disproportionate compared to the 100,000 troops that the Qing army invaded North Korea. However, this set off the contrast between the coalition forces and the Qing army.

The gap in combat effectiveness between them. Due to the coalition's reliance on logistical support, they were unable to fight on the front line of the Yalu River for a long time. In the end, they took the initiative to retreat to the banks of the Datong River to establish a defense line. As for their land mobility, this was even more important in the later stages of the war.

It was fully exposed that the Haihan Army had too few organized cavalry units, and the long-distance march of the infantry inland would seriously weaken the combat effectiveness, which directly led to the unsatisfactory results of the pursuit of the Qing Army during the counterattack phase.

If these shortcomings can be made up for, then how many of the 100,000 Qing troops who entered the DPRK can escape back home is a question. However, the newspaper also said that the so-called shortcomings are only relative to one's own strength, but for the enemy,

These shortcomings are still high enough that they can't even touch them. As long as the Haihan army sticks to the Datong River defense line, even if they don't counterattack, the depth of North Korea alone will be enough to make the Qing army be overwhelmed by logistics sooner or later.

Li Bo also heard comments like this after the war. Haihan took the initiative to move the battle line back hundreds of miles in order to transfer the pressure of his own logistics supply to the enemy. However, the Qing army had a large force and lacked

The logistical pressure of sea transportation was actually much greater than that of the coalition forces. This also resulted in the Qing army's battle on the Datong River not lasting too long. They took the initiative to retreat after confirming that there was no possibility of breaking through the Haihan defense line.

At the end of this article, a bold prediction is made about the direction of the war: the Allied forces will definitely win in the final decisive battle on the banks of the Datong River. If the Qing army still refuses to fight against the Allied forces on the banks of the Datong River for more than ten days, then it is estimated that all of the 100,000 people will be defeated.

It must be handed over to North Korea.

As for the actual situation that Li Pu knew, the Qing army only launched two major offensives against the Datong River base, and then voluntarily withdrew from the battlefield after suffering thousands of casualties. Although the battle situation predicted in the newspaper did not appear in the end, the coalition forces'

This battle was indeed won without any dispute.

On the same page as this topic article, there is also related news about Haihan's domestic support for the Korean War. The arsenal worked overtime to produce weapons and ammunition for the front line, the shipping company proactively contacted the Ministry of National Defense to deliver supplies to the troops on the expedition, and the cultural circles produced works

The charity sale raises resettlement pensions for domestic soldiers who were killed or wounded in overseas battlefields, etc. It looks like the whole country is working on this war.

Li Ming thought that the Haihan people were united. He thought about the quarrel between the main warlords and the officials of the two factions in the court. If the whole country could support the country's war with the same hatred and hatred as the Haihan people did when Ding Mao was in chaos, that would not be the case.

As for being in such a passive situation - at least the attitude can be tougher, and he will not compromise and sign any kind of brotherly alliance with Hou Jin.
Chapter completed!