Chapter 904: Inspection to the North (6)

Tsushima Island is located right in the middle of the Korean Strait. It can be used as a base to block the channel in wartime. However, for Haihan, the first candidate naval base location in this area is still Sasebo Bay, such as Tsushima Island.

The environment can only be temporarily stationed at most, but it is difficult to maintain the daily operation of a Haihan fleet for a long time. Moreover, with the strength of the Haihan fleet, it is almost impossible to encounter an opponent that can match it in the waters of Northeast Asia. There is no need to pass through it for the time being.

Occupy Tsushima Island to expand the already huge advantage. Even if the military wants to do this, the Executive Committee will probably not approve such a plan where the investment is not proportional to the results, unless it is really necessary to block the Korean Strait in the future.

Occupying this place is just a waste of military expenditures.

After the fleet sailed past the northern end of Tsushima Island, across the sea was Busan Port, one of the main ports on the Korean Peninsula. Busan means "cauldron-shaped mountain". As early as the early 15th century, Busan was known as the Korean Peninsula.

The Busan Dynasty designated it as a foreign trade port. However, in terms of business scale, Busan Port still lags behind Nagasaki Port in the south. Most Western merchants use Nagasaki Port or Hirado Port as the last stop in the Far East.

, rarely continue sailing north to Busan.

However, the purpose of the Haihan fleet's trip was to examine the actual situation in Northeast Asia, and naturally it would not miss the important point of the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. In order to smoothly enter the Busan Port, the fleet even stopped at Tsushima Island.

One day, the purpose was to hire Koreans from local businesses as guides.

What makes Chen Yixin gratified is that North Koreans are not ignorant about "Haihan". As early as two or three years ago, Haihan products have flowed into the Korean Peninsula through trade channels, and it is even said that some of them were presented as tributes.

In the palace. However, because these products are shipped across the sea and are extremely rare in quantity, their prices have remained high. According to North Korean guide Kim Nam-yi, the limited Haihan products on the North Korean market are almost all bought by relatives of the emperor.

It's all wrapped up, so no matter how high the price is, you won't have to worry about sales.

Several nautical miles away from Busan Port, Chen Yixin could already see Taejongdae at the southern end of Jueying Island in Busan Port through the telescope. This place is said to be named after King Taejong Muyeol of Silla unified the Korean Peninsula.

After visiting this place, it was named Taizongtai.

Although Busan Port was one of the world's largest comprehensive trading ports in later generations, its construction level in this era was very shabby. There were only a few wooden trestles extending into the sea on the pier, and there were obvious differences in specifications and age.

, obviously not the product of unified planning. Just looking at the size and facilities of the port, there is still a clear gap compared to the two ports of Hirado and Nagasaki operated by the Japanese, not to mention the port operated by Haihan itself.

Already.

Shortly after the fleet docked at the pier, North Korean officials came to collect the docking fees. What surprised Chen Yixin was that, despite the guide's negotiation, the North Korean officials still insisted on charging each ship thirty taels of silver per day for docking.

Fei Chen Yixin believes that this money will probably not be included in the local fiscal revenue, and will probably go directly into the pockets of some people. Although this kind of thing can also happen in ports in other places, it is so blatant as North Korean officials

It was the first time Chen Yixin encountered someone asking for money.

Of course, Chen Yixin would not argue with North Korean officials for such a small amount of money. His mission was to collect intelligence, and the expenses were secondary. But after half a day, he suddenly felt that the money he handed over was not worth it.

The commercial level of Busan is far less than the two ports of Hirado and Nagasaki where I was stationed in Japan before. It is more appropriate to call it a cargo terminal than a trading port. The people sent by Chen Yixin only spent more than an hour.

I got a clear picture of the situation in the port. This was not because of the incompetence of the scouts and intelligence personnel, but because there was really nothing to investigate in this place. You can see the port area at a glance, and more than 90% of the ships docked here are

When traveling between Japan and North Korea, the goods transported on each trip and the price remain unchanged for a long time. You can find out just by asking.

However, based on what is known, the value of this information is really very limited, because the cargo volume of Busan Port is too small, and even if the data is obtained, it has no practical significance. After Chen Yixin convened his subordinates to discuss, he decided to

The three-day stay in Busan was reduced to two days. If it were not for collecting geographical information here, Chen Yixin even felt that two days was a bit redundant.

Money makes things easier. This trip to Busan once again proved this unbreakable truth. Since North Korean officials like money, this road is easy to open up. When the fleet left Busan Port two days later, the person responsible for managing the port

North Korean officials actually went to the dock to see him off, and their attitude became a bit flattering - after seeing the financial resources of the Haihan people, it is difficult for anyone to keep their integrity intact.

After departing from Busan Port, the fleet sailed westward along the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. After entering the boundary of Hainan County, it turned south and sailed to Jeju Island, the last stop of the expedition.

The current administrative establishment of Jeju Island is Jeju Mu, which governs Daejong and Jeongui counties. However, Jeju Island does not have an officially established foreign trade port. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Chen Yixin did not land on the Jeju Strait.

, but patiently walked around most of Jeju Island, and finally found a secluded beach on the southern coast to land.

At this time, there were only 20,000 to 30,000 residents on Jeju Island. The environment was vast and sparsely populated. Only after the landing scouts walked out three or four miles away did they see the smoke of the village in the distance. According to the intelligence collected in advance, it was not far away from the landing.

The nearest garrison is thirty miles away, so there is no need to worry about running into the North Korean army here. However, this kind of on-foot reconnaissance is not very useful for a large island covering an area of ​​hundreds of square kilometers. It is just a look at the local area.

People’s living environment, farmland farming conditions, etc.

Of course, having said that, the garrison on this island is only about a thousand people. It can be used to maintain public security on the island and prevent small groups of pirates from landing and plundering. However, compared with the Haihan Militia, their combat effectiveness is far behind.

, there is not much need to investigate it. In Chen Yixin's opinion, a fully reinforced reinforcement company is enough to push back the North Korean garrison on the island, so why bother to conduct an investigation at the risk of alerting the enemy?

With time saved, it may be more practical to find a few more places on the southern coastline that are suitable for landing in order to prepare for possible subsequent military operations on Jeju Island.

On the third day of the reconnaissance operation, they finally attracted the attention of the local garrison in Jeju, and sent two boats to try to cooperate with the shore to drive away these unidentified uninvited guests. However, when they found that the sailing boat of the uninvited guests was larger than their own boat,

It was much larger, and the ship was equipped with a lot of artillery. I immediately turned the ship around and ran back without any intention of trying to expel it.

This kind of action of the local defenders also made Chen Yixin a little bit dumbfounded. The defenders on Jeju Island have such weak will to fight. If they really want to attack this place in the future, they can save a lot of trouble.

Now that his whereabouts had been exposed, Chen Yixin simply ordered an open operation to survey and map the terrain along the south coast of Jeju Island. During this period, the defenders of Jeju Island had been unable to retreat, and they were actually very cooperative with Haihan's reconnaissance operations. The fleet was in

After staying on the south coast of Jeju Island for another two days, Chen Yixin asked someone to buy some food supplies in a local village with money, and then left calmly.

Sailing about 300 nautical miles southwest from Jeju Island, we returned to Zhoushan, where the fleet started. Except for a small-scale armed conflict in Sasebo Bay, this trip was relatively smooth, and the intelligence gathering team

The difficulty is actually much lower than expected before departure. This is due to the fact that people in this era are generally less vigilant about intelligence information. Many times they are not aware of the other purposes hidden by the Haihan people under the excuse of negotiating trade.

, and a very small number of people who noticed that Haihan's motives were impure, such as Ricardo, the Portuguese consul in Hirado Port, would not hinder Haihan's actions out of consideration of their own interests, and would even add fuel to the flames and help.

.

After arriving in Hong Kong, Chen Yixin only took a short rest and then rushed to the headquarters to report to Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen on the results of the northward inspection.

"... We had been worried that Zheng Zhilong would be disconnected from Japan or even seek asylum. It seems that this has not happened so far. Although Zheng Zhilong's people have been active in Hirado, the Matsuura family in charge of the local area is not willing to intervene in Shibazhi

Conflict with us. In my personal opinion, the Matsuura clan is much more interested in establishing trade relations with us than avenging Zheng Zhilong. I also invited the Matsuura clan to send people to Zhoushan to discuss specific matters at the appropriate time.

Cooperation matters.”

Chen Yixin took a sip of water and continued: "But if we plan to build a colony in Sasebo Bay, it is difficult to judge the attitude of the Matsuura family. The two places are too close to each other, and they may consider them a threat, which will affect the

Our trade progress in Japan.”

"Then what are your thoughts on solving this problem?" Qian Tiandun asked.

"If we don't intend to offend the Matsuura clan, then it's best to wait for the Matsuura clan to send people to interview us and convince them that we have no intention of occupying Hirado before taking action against Sasebo Bay." Chen Yixin also had some thoughts on this.

I was ready and immediately expressed my thoughts.

"Zheng Zhilong has no way out of Hirado, so he basically has nowhere to escape." Shi Diwen is not very interested in the prospects of trade between Haihan and Japan. He is more concerned about the next war.

The state of preparations for war. If Haihan wants to establish trade relations with Japan, the Eighteen Shiba Party on Miyako Island must be cleaned up first.

"You may not be able to attack Miyako Island!" Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "Zhoushan has not been completely pacified yet, and the Military Commission will not let your fleet leave here easily. I think that when we attack Miyako Island, we will

If we are to mobilize additional troops from the south, it is unlikely that we will be able to mobilize troops from Zhoushan."

Shi Diwen said: "Deploying troops from the south? Then Tom Wang can only go out in person?"

"Perhaps Mr. Yan will also join in. After all, they haven't had any activities for a long time." Qian Tiandun reminded.

Shi Diwen sighed and said: "If this is really the arrangement, then you and I will really be out of luck."

"We'll talk about Miyako Island later. Let's listen to Chen Yixin's briefing first." Qian Tiandun returned the topic to the current business: "How is Jeju Island?"

Chen Yixin responded: "The defenders on Jeju Island have lost their will to fight. Although they discovered our activities, they did not take effective measures to drive us away. I think it will not be too difficult to attack Jeju Island, but the island is not very large.

If we want to completely occupy the area, we cannot send too few troops. In addition, there is no relatively large natural harbor on the south coast of Jeju Island, so it is not suitable for development as a trade zone."

Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "I discussed this matter with the Ministry of Agriculture. What they mean is that if there is a chance to take over Jeju Island in the future, it will mainly be developed as agricultural land. Plant food, cash crops, and develop animal husbandry.

, and then develop some supporting industries for deep processing after forming a scale. One advantage of Jeju Island is that it is close to the Korean Peninsula. This situation is somewhat similar to when we were in Hainan Island in the early days of our journey. We can rely on the population and market of the Korean Peninsula to build

develop."

Chen Yixin said: "Our original source of immigrants was very complicated and we did not completely rely on the Ming Dynasty. Jeju Island may have to rely mainly on imported people from the Korean Peninsula, but Koreans may not be willing to immigrate to Jeju Island."

Qian Tiandun responded: "This is not a big problem. The immigration policy we implemented in Ming Dynasty is relatively conservative because we do not want to offend the Ming Dynasty court and affect our relationship with the Ming Dynasty trade market. But North Korea

It's different here. We don't need to have so many scruples in our actions. If we encounter resistance, we can just take necessary measures to solve it. If the number of voluntary immigrants is not enough, then we can use coercive measures. I originally settled on the island of Taiwan from Fujian

How many of the Han people went there voluntarily? As long as we can provide them with basic living security, a safe living environment, and a reasonable path for advancement, we can quickly calm people's hearts."

Qian Tiandun's words were very straightforward, and Chen Yixin naturally understood what he meant. If the traditional method of recruiting immigrants cannot meet the labor demand of Jeju Island, then simply send troops to the Korean Peninsula to plunder the population and force them to

Move to Jeju Island to settle. Although this approach seems simple and crude, it is almost the only feasible way to obtain a large number of laborers in a short period of time. Of course, if such a method is adopted, the conflict with the Lee Dynasty of North Korea will basically be eliminated.

It's inevitable.
Chapter completed!