(Please give me a red ticket, and thank you to Gengsu Theater and other brothers for your support. I am from Nantong, and everyone in Nantong knows Gengsu Theater, haha)
The situation in Jeju was critical. After November, the Korean navy invaded the Jeju military fortress three times.
Lin Fu temporarily gave up his inspection of the Shengsi Islands and changed his route back to Chongzhou. He summoned Qin Chengzu, Lin Mengde, Hu Zhiyong and others in Chongcheng to discuss countermeasures.
Jeju Island (Damra) is more than a hundred miles deep and has an area more than three times that of Xisha Island. There is a large arable plain in the south and is rich in products. It is the largest island in the East China Sea, except for the four Japanese islands.
When Liaodong was controlled by the Donghu people, Jeju Island was adjacent to Goryeo in the north and across the sea from Japan's Kyushu, Honshu and other islands. Its strategic position can be imagined.
Since ancient times, silk has always been a high-end fabric sought after by wealth and wealth.
Eight years before Chongguan, one pound of silk in Pingjiang Prefecture was worth one tael of silver. Based on the price of rice at that time, one pound of silk was worth two stones of rice.
An acre of good mulberry field for raising silkworms and cocoons for reeling silk can produce eight pounds of raw silk, worth sixteen shi of rice. However, at the same time, a mature field that could harvest three shi of rice annually was already considered a good ripe land in Pingjiang Prefecture.
Compared with farming, growing mulberry and raising sericulture requires much more manpower. However, in Pingjiang Prefecture, which has relatively rich manpower, the benefits of growing mulberry and raising sericulture can be seen.
Eight years after Chongzhou, there were successive severe droughts in the northwest, endless wars in the world, the invasion of the east and the invasion of the south, and the interruption of water transportation. It was difficult for Pingjiang Prefecture's silk and satin to cross the Huaihe River and be sold north. The price of raw silk continued to decline, by about two-thirds.
A catty of raw silk is worth only three coins and slightly more than that.
At the same time, the price of rice in Jiangdong County continued to rise. The price of silk was compared with rice. A pound of raw silk was only worth half a stone of rice.
Because planting mulberry and raising silkworms requires twice as much manpower, but after the market has shrunk sharply, compared with farming, the benefits of raising silkworms and producing silk are already very meager.
However, at this time in Kyushu, Honshu, Goryeo and other places, a pound of raw silk was worth ten kilograms, which was twenty times the price of raw silk in Pingjiang Prefecture. If the prices were compared with silver, copper and other metals, there would be almost such a high gap.
To this end, Chongzhou has just built a silk reeling factory, recruiting thousands of female workers in the first phase. The purpose is to purchase silkworm cocoons from Pyeonggang and Hailingfu, produce raw silk, and transport it from Jeju Island to Goryeo, Honshu, Kyushu and other places for sale.
Take profit.
In addition to raw silk, the prices of cotton cloth, cane sugar, ironware, ceramics, tea and other items in Goryeo, Honshu, Kyushu and other places are also much higher than those in Jiangdong County.
Even if we do not consider the strategic value of Jeju Island, the value of opening a route from Chongju to Jeju and attracting merchants from Honshu, Kyushu and Korea to trade goods in Jeju Island is huge.
At this time, Kyushu and the Honshu Islands were more chaotic than the Dai Viet Dynasty and were in a period of conflict between feudal vassals. The market for high-end commodities such as raw silk, porcelain, and tea was relatively narrow, but the demand for ironware was huge.
For those powerful vassal states who came to dominate Kyushu and Honshu Islands, even if they tighten their belts and go hungry, they still want to buy more sophisticated soldiers and armor.
Lin Fu could plan to transport the fine soldiers and armor mass-produced in Chongzhou to Kyushu first and sell them at high prices on the Honshu Islands. How could there not be a transit base on Jeju Island?
The Liang family cannot infiltrate their power into Qingzhou, cannot control the Jiao Lai River, and do not want the benefits of grain transportation to be given to the Dongyang family alone, so inland water transportation will inevitably be restored to a certain extent.
There is a bottleneck for Chongzhou to make profits from the Tianjin-Hai grain route.
Besides, if the Yanbei defense line is completely penetrated by the Donghu people, Yanjing will not be able to defend it, and if the capital is moved to Jiangning, Chongzhou will not be able to benefit from the Tianjin-Sea Food Road at all.
In this sense, Jeju Island cannot afford to lose anything.
"No matter how much it costs, Jeju must be defended and cannot be driven out by the Koreans!" Lin Fu slammed his fist on the table, which made Lin Mengde and others tremble, fearing that Lin Fu would smash the table.
.
The value of this wooden table placed in the Dongya Assembly Hall is not only that it is made of sandalwood, but also that the map carved on it can be said to be the most accurate maritime map in the world. It is not only intended to outline the Jianghuai, but also
The geography of Zhejiang, Zhejiang, and Shandong, islands such as Korea, Jeju, Kyushu, and Honshu, as well as important ports, as well as several primary and secondary routes utilizing the Blackwater Ocean currents are also marked on the map.
At that time, there was a star-finding technique that could identify latitude, that is, by measuring the angle between the stars and the sea level to identify the latitude. This was one of the most important practical technical achievements of ancient astronomy.
Although Changshan Island is small, it is almost at the same latitude as Jeju. This provides the greatest convenience for sailing from Chongzhou to Jeju via Changshan Island, that is, it is very easy to accurately identify the direction.
After nearly two years of practice and spending huge sums of money to build a directional large-scale lighthouse on Changshan Island, the route from Chongzhou to Jeju via Changshan Island has matured.
As long as it is not sailing in rainy weather, there is almost no possibility of losing its way on a ship heading to Jeju Island.
Driven by Lin Fu, Chongzhou's navigation technology can be said to be ahead of the times.
“The Korean navy is not strong and is mainly concentrated in Hainan in the southwest. Concentrate your forces to mobilize the first and second naval forces to defeat them and destroy their southwest ports. Jeju Island will not be threatened by them for a year or two...
" Hu Zhiyong said.
The current situation of Kyushu, Honshu and other islands also deviates greatly from the history in Lin Fu's memory.
Fuso in the current generation and Japan in later generations, after more than a hundred years of separation between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, have now evolved into a situation of more than a dozen vassal states. There is no relatively strong unified regime.
Except for pirates, Koryo did not face much threat at sea. There was no motivation to develop a navy, and the strength of the navy was limited.
If not, Ge Changgen would only have one battalion of the Jeju Marine Corps (affiliated to the Jinghai No. 1 Marine Battalion) consisting of one Jinhai-class warship and three Jiyun-class warships, with a staff of only 400 soldiers.
It was impossible to repel the invasion of the Goryeo navy three times in a row.
"After Goryeo was defeated by the Donghu people, it became a vassal state of the Donghu people. Most of the troops stationed on its northern border were transferred back to the southern capital, very close to the southwest coast," Qin Chengzu said, "Although it was possible to defeat their navy at this time
, but following that, Goryeo will make every effort to strengthen its navy and strengthen the defense of the southwest sea area, which will add many variables to the future..."
"Don't the Koreans intend to directly station troops on Danluo Island?" Lin Fu said, "Let's lure the Korean troops to the island to annihilate them!"
Although Goryeo was weak, it still had nearly 200 Dingkou and a relatively unified political power. When the Goryeo people concentrated their national power on the defense of the southwest sea frontier, their strength should not be underestimated - this was what Qin Chengzu was worried about.
The Koryo people have just been defeated by the Donglu. If you lure them to the island and annihilate or severely damage their infantry, you can continue to induce the Koryo people to focus on the construction of infantry and cities in the later period. In this way, you can control the power in the Northeast Sea.
The development of the pattern is still well controlled by Chongzhou.
"The Danluo people may not be willing to cooperate!" Lin Mengde said.
"The infiltration from the Shengsi Islands to the south needs to be slowed down for a while," Lin Fu said. "I will lead the personal guard battalion and the second water battalion to Jeju to see the opportunity. It will take at least one or two months, and at most three or four months.
Just come back..."
If the Jeju incident hadn't intervened, Lin Fu's plan was to strengthen Shengsi's defense line, use Daheng Island as a base, penetrate to the south, and compete with the She family for Daishan and prosper the country.
Nowadays, roughly taking the Qianjiang River as the line, Chongzhou's Shengsi Defense Line, Dong Yuan's North Zhejiang Defense Line, Jiangdong County's Huizhou Defense Line, and Jiangxi County share the pressure of the She family's troop deployment. In comparison, the Jiangxi direction is the weakest, and it is very likely that
To give the She family a breakthrough first, Lin Fu wanted to use troops at Shengsi to contain the She family's soldiers and horses so that they could not care about each other.
Now it seems that the Shengsi defense line has to be slowed down, and the Jeju side must be taken care of first.
"Let's transfer the mountain camp to a long one, and then transfer five battalions of infantry from the guard camp to strengthen it..." Qin Chengzu suggested.
The Guards Battalion had just undergone a large-scale expansion and had not fought hard battles, and its combat effectiveness had not yet been tested. The Changshan Battalion led by Ao Canghai was the elite of the three major infantry brigades, Fengli Battalion and Chongzhou Infantry Battalion. Lin Fu wanted to personally
When going to Jeju, Qin Chengzu suggested that it would be safer to take Changshan Camp with him.
"Young tigers will always have to go out foraging alone," Lin Fu said. "Changshan Camp should stay in Chongzhou."
Xiapi fought hard, and Changshan Battalion suffered heavy casualties. Changshan Battalion had only rested for more than two months after returning to Chongzhou. Many wounded soldiers had not returned to the army. The labor camp was expanded, and Changshan Battalion and Fengli Battalion were transferred to old soldiers.
, there are many military attachés, and Lin Fu doesn’t want to adjust the mountain camp for the time being.
"If I accompany you to Jeju, who else should I take with me?" Qin Chengzu asked.
"Mr. Qin, please stay in Chongzhou," Lin Fu said, "Since the troops are divided into three groups, coordination in Chongzhou is the most important. If Mr. Qin is not in Chongzhou, I don't worry about crossing to Jezhou..."
Qin Chengzu did not insist on anything. Lin Mengde was good at internal affairs, but was not familiar with military affairs and was not qualified to stay in Chongzhou.
The Huai defense line and the Shengsi defense line currently look calm, but Sun Zhuang in the north is an extremely unstable factor. No one knows when something will change?
It is not difficult for Cao Ziang to hold Shanyang and Siyang on the front line, but the labor camp has 60,000 men, most of whom are refugees. It is difficult to say whether the surrender of Zhang Gou, Chen Zhi and others will be stable. Chongzhou is in charge of the situation.
A person must be sophisticated enough.
The situation in Jeju cannot be delayed any longer. Now that the decision to send troops to Jeju has been made, mobilization has begun quickly. Food, grass, soldiers, and ordnance have been prepared quickly. The strength of the troops on the north and south fronts must also be adjusted accordingly. In addition to the Jinghai Third Water Battalion,
Some of them will be stationed in Shanyang, and the main force will be transferred back to Chongzhou. As long as the weather is suitable, the troops will be dispatched before the end of the twelfth lunar month.
In addition to Zhou Pu, Zhao Hu, Ge Cunxiong and other generals, Lin Fu specially transferred Lin Jingzhong from Jiangning, made Sun Wenbing responsible for Chongzhou's affairs in Jiangning, and asked Lin Jingzhong to go to Jeju with him.
In any case, Jeju must be comprehensively strengthened.
It was no longer enough for Jeju to have only military officers. Lin Fu wanted to transfer Lin Jingzhong to Jeju to take charge of civil affairs and commercial affairs.