Today, the number of steam warships covered with steel plates in the Xujiazhuang naval fleet has increased to six.
They are Yaowu, Yangwei, Corpse Mountain, Blood Sea, Tianxia, and Invincible. The production of armored warships has now increased to four per year, and two more will be commissioned in the second half of this year.
Twenty sea-borne steam cargo ships followed the operation, carrying a total of 10,000 soldiers from the 1st and 2nd Marine Brigades, as well as a large amount of equipment and materials needed to build the seaport - due to the large number of troops arriving from Fujian
With the addition of skilled shipbuilding craftsmen, the production of sea cargo ships has now increased to fifteen ships per year, that is, one ship is launched every twenty days. If the supply of wood is sufficient, it can be increased to one ship every half month or even every ten days.
This time all six armored warships were dispatched.
Twenty sea cargo ships were dispatched.
For Xujiazhuang's naval fleet, it can be regarded as a full-scale deployment, killing a chicken with a butcher's knife.
…
August 1st, early morning.
The fishing fleet carrying out the code-named "Operation Fishing Protection" arrived near a bay shaped like a dragon's head in the southwest corner of Jeju Island.
Taking advantage of the high tide at night, the 1st and 2nd Marine Brigades carried out landing operations. Without any resistance, tens of thousands of troops landed on the island, set up camp, and stood firm.
Heel.
Then the shipping cargo ship entered Longtou Bay, built a temporary dock with prefabricated parts in the shallow water, and then unloaded a large amount of materials in the cargo hold and transported them to the shore through the temporary dock.
Infrastructure experts also quickly planned the construction plan of a seaport after observing the surrounding terrain. The areas where construction could be carried out in advance allowed workers to get busy immediately. At least the necessary facilities such as barracks, warehouses, and barbed wire were built first.
Let’s talk after you get up.
I was busy until dawn.
Longtou Bay, which was originally very desolate and pristine, has become lively and bustling, and miraculously has the prototype of a port.
Naturally, this quickly alarmed the ordinary people and rulers on the island.
At noon, Cui Wende, the magistrate of Jeju County on the island, learned that a large army of unknown origin had landed on the island.
In the afternoon, Cui Wende forcibly dragged Jiang Chengyuan, the governor general, and led 500 soldiers, Martin Zhuang, to the landing area of the Xujiazhuang fishing fleet. But what was in front of them at this time, already in full formation, was the Xujiajun Marine Corps.
Five thousand elite officers and soldiers of the first brigade set up pocket formations and quickly surrounded the more than 500 people.
"General Jiang, let's die in battle and serve the country." Cui Wende said to Jiang Chengyuan next to him with a look of despair.
"Master Cui, I have a wife, two concubines, multiple children, and a sixty-year-old mother to take care of." Jiang Chengyuan shook his head.
"Is this how you repay the king? Do you want to surrender the thieves?" Cui Wende cursed.
"My lord, what you said makes sense. Please commit suicide first, and I will follow suit." Jiang Chengyuan looked ashamed.
"You——" Cui Wende pulled out his sword and put it across his neck, but he gritted his teeth many times and couldn't do it.
Why!
I had no choice but to throw away the sword in my hand, and suddenly ran not far away from the opposite army, knelt down on the ground with a plop, kowtowed repeatedly: "The junior official is willing to surrender, the junior official is willing to surrender!"
Wow~
With him taking the lead, weapons immediately fell to the ground. Jiang Chengyuan and more than 500 people also surrendered one after another. There was no way, the gap was too big, just from the number, equipment, discipline, etc. of the mysterious army on the opposite side.
From one perspective, there is no chance of winning. If you choose to resist, you will definitely die.
Xu Huoqing, the commander-in-chief in charge of this military operation, ordered these local military forces to be disarmed. Instead of any abuse, he gave each of them a tool and allowed them to join the construction work of the port as captive workers.
middle.
Because he was the first person to surrender, Jeju County Magistrate Cui Wende received courtesy treatment and was not assigned to work. Knowing that Cui Wende was rich in knowledge and could speak fluent Ming Dynasty Mandarin, Xu Huoqing met him in person and had a good chat with him.
Fan.
During the conversation, Xu Huoqing discovered that Cui Wende, who was less than forty years old, was a quite remarkable person.
He is a member of a poor family and does not come from two classes of nobles.
Won second place in the North Korean imperial examination.
Proficient in Ming dialect, Japanese, and a small amount of Dutch, he is a language genius.
He was once highly regarded by the king Li Zhu, and his highest official was the counselor of Zheng Erpin Tang. He was a new star in the political arena who suddenly emerged like a dark horse.
But it soon fell.
He was exiled to Jeju Island and served as a county magistrate.
There is no possibility of ever returning to the court.
After all, the court struggle in the Joseon Kingdom was so fierce that it could not even compare with the Ming Dynasty court, and the fate of the losers was very miserable. It was impossible to make a comeback unless the faction in power completely collapsed.
This is why Cui Wende is reluctant to commit suicide to serve the country. He has been abandoned by the king and ostracized by the court. He is exiled to such a small island. How can he talk about serving the country? Even if he commits suicide, he will not get a few words of praise, so why not surrender?
Forget it.
Even so.
After learning that it was Xu Jiazhuang of the Ming Dynasty who sent a large army to invade Jeju Island, Cui Wende still asked: "General Xu, what crime did our country commit, and why did we launch an army to attack like this?"
"You should take a good look at this report."
Xu Huoqing didn't want to give a long explanation, so he took out a copy of "Oriental Times" and handed it to him. The front page news clearly explained the cause and effect of everything.
Cui Wende quickly read it carefully. Although he didn't recognize a few simplified characters, he understood the general content.
Putting down the newspaper, he explained: "General Xu, the Tsushima waters are our country's traditional fishing ground. Our fishermen have been fishing here for a long time. Your Xujiazhuang fishing boat came to our fishing ground to fish. How can this be done? Expelled
It's a normal thing. Just don't go fishing next time. What's the point of making such a fuss and launching a crusade? It's just two civilians who died. At the most, we can just pay some money. Suddenly a large army is sent to occupy our land.
It’s not wise either.”
"Human life is greater than heaven! What do you mean, just two civilians died?"
Xu Huoqing slammed the table angrily and scolded: "This vast sea is boundless and there are no traditional fishing grounds! There are endless fish and shrimps in the sea, and whoever catches them belongs to them. There is no such thing as robbing the fishing ground. I
Xujiazhuang fishermen have no problem fishing in Tsushima waters, as a matter of course! But they were expelled for no reason, and they also opened fire, killing and wounding many innocent fishermen. This is extremely unreasonable and unsatisfactory.
As a result, we at Xujiazhuang will not let it go!"
"General Xu, what kind of result can be called a satisfactory result?"
Cui Wende's heart sank and he used the topic to play off the topic. Xujiazhuang was using the topic to play off the topic and wanted to take a bite out of it.
"Compensate, apologize, and hand over the perpetrators. From now on, our fishermen can go to Tsushima Fishing Ground wherever they want without obstruction. In addition, Jeju Island is a good place. We want to build a permanent port here to protect fishermen... For the time being...
So many."
Xu Huoqing said.
"General Xu, it is impossible for our country to agree to these conditions. It will only trigger a war and cause destruction to all living beings."
"Fight or fight!"
Xu Huoqing said nonchalantly: "We are ready for battle, just let our horses come over."
Cui Wende fell silent, secretly thinking that something was wrong. Xujiazhuang was deliberately making an excuse to stir up trouble. A war was unavoidable. And with the strength of Xujiazhuang, could it compete with a country? North Korea has 3,000 miles of land and 15 million people.
With a population of hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, could they still be unable to defeat the power of a single merchant?
Arrogant.
This Xujiazhuang is too arrogant and will soon learn the lesson of failure.
"Mr. Cui, in fact, we still love peace. If we can avoid fighting, we should try not to fight."
Although he longed for war in his heart, Xu Huoqing still pretended to be peace-loving and said: "In this case, I would like to ask Mr. Cui to serve as a lobbyist envoy and send him to Wang Jing in your country to meet with your king and ministers.
, explain the situation and relay the terms of negotiation we proposed. If we can reach an agreement, a war may be avoided. If we cannot reach an agreement, then we can negotiate while fighting. This fishery dispute will eventually be resolved."
"I am a guilty minister. If I go to the capital without an edict, I will definitely die." Cui Wende said with a bitter smile. Being a guilty minister is the cruelest punishment. Anyone who dares to struggle will be severely punished, and the king will also be punished.
Furious, he immediately ordered the owl to be killed, because this was contempt for the royal power.
"Don't worry, I will send a warship and five hundred elites to escort you to Wang Jing. If you can complete the task and convey our attitude and conditions clearly, I will treat you as one of my own and trust you when I come back."
." Xu Huoqing said.
"Okay, just go and go."
Cui Wende asked helplessly, if he said no, would he be killed the next moment? Does he have the right and choice to say no?
After negotiation.
In the evening of that day, just after dinner, Cui Wende and several followers boarded the battleship "Yaowu", followed by a cargo ship carrying 500 marines.
In the buzzing whistle.
The three-cylinder steam engine starts.
The battleship Yaowu continued to accelerate and soon reached its maximum speed of twenty knots.
At speedy speeds.
Cui Wende and several of his followers were stunned, and they were all dumbfounded and in disbelief.
Come on, is this boat going too fast?
At this speed, it would take at most half a day to reach Wang Jing, and he might be able to see His Majesty the King tomorrow afternoon.
How did Xujiazhuang do it? Did he master some supernatural power? And with the size of the Yaowu and the armor all over its body, it could severely damage the North Korean navy by just fighting in a bumper boat style.
, but it can't damage the ship in the slightest.
This ship is the reason why Xujiazhuang is so tough!
But it didn't take long.
Cui Wende felt a kind of despair again, the invincible despair of Xujiazhuang.
Because the captain Zuo Xianfu seized this opportunity and conducted a night salvo training of the "Quick Killer Cannon" to familiarize himself with the performance and use of this new artillery.
Boom boom boom!
Boom boom boom!
A total of ten salvoes were carried out, and the artillery on each side of the ship fired five rounds, for a total of 100 rounds of artillery shells.
These shells trailed tracers, pierced the darkness, and exploded, causing huge splashes of water and even smashing a reef to pieces.
It also completely shattered Cui Wende's confidence in his country's victory.
Because with such a rate of fire, range and destructive power, even if the Kingdom of Korea had millions of elite troops, it would definitely end in a disastrous defeat, with no possibility of victory.
Thinking of this, his head drooped and his face was filled with despair, filled with only pessimism and despair.
This negative state lasted for more than an hour, when he was so desperate that he had the will to die and did not want to live to see the loss of his family and country.
But then I thought about it, wasn’t I serving as Xujiazhuang’s special envoy this time?
The monarch and the imperial court regarded me as a criminal, and I would never be able to recover. However, as soon as Xujiazhuang's army captured Jeju Island, they entrusted themselves with important tasks and trusted me. They also sent warships to pick me up and sent out elite troops to escort me.
And once Jeju Island belongs to Xujiazhuang, he will belong to the Xujiazhuang side, and his home and country will be on the Xujiazhuang side of the Ming Dynasty.
What happened to the Kingdom of Korea, what troubles it encountered, and what does it have to do with him? Haven’t the monarch and the ministers in the court completely abandoned him long ago, why did he still come to kneel and lick him? Such a monarch and country,
Is it necessary and valuable to continue to be loyal?
If you join Xujiazhuang, it will be completely different. The future will be brighter, the sky above your head will be wider, and the confidence in your heart will be more than three to five times greater.
Think of this.
Cui Wende suddenly raised his head and straightened his spine!
Standing on the deck of the Yaowu, riding the east wind and watching the waves broken by the bow of the ship, he felt extremely ambitious.
small book booth
He also remembered some of the mission requirements that Xu Huoqing asked him.
Cui Wende has already begun to think about whether his attitude should be more arrogant and his tone tougher or even arrogant when he meets the monarch tomorrow with those ministers and colleagues who have excluded him. After all, he represents the powerful Xujiazhuang.
