In fact, the Dachu Empire doesn't care too much about the Tokugawa family's response... So what if they actively mobilize their troops to fight, the actual fight will only take a matter of minutes.
You must know that the Dachu Empire has continued to gather troops at the Busan Port in Donghae Province on the Koryo Peninsula. There are not many troops. They are just preparing to transfer two new divisions.
These two divisions are used as strategic reserves for the Fuso incident. If necessary, these two divisions can cross the Tsushima Strait and reach Kyushu Island at any time.
By then, the Great Chu Empire Army will have assembled three infantry divisions, with a total strength of more than 50,000 people. With the weapons and equipment of the Chu Army and the comprehensive combat quality that surpassed the Fuso Army for several generations, it will be easy to sweep across the Fuso Islands.
The Tokugawa family has concentrated its forces in advance, so that it will be easier to fight by then. A few large-scale battles will basically be over, and there will be no need to go around looking for enemies to fight.
Because of the weapons, equipment and tactical characteristics of the Chu army, they were actually better at large-scale combat, especially frontal combat.
If the enemy spreads out and engages them in various small-scale ambushes, the Chu army will actually have more headaches.
Not to mention the Chu army, this is a headache for any strong army, because you have strong combat power, but you can't find the enemy... The enemy will hide and hide with you, and then fight when you have the chance. A cold shot and a cold arrow.
When the enemy is in darkness and we are clear, these sporadic small-scale attacks will actually cause greater casualties to the Chu army than frontal combat.
Therefore, when the Tokugawa family mobilized troops to fight, the Chu Empire was not worried but happy to see the results.
Therefore, when the Tokugawa family mobilized their troops to prepare for the battle, the Chu army was doing its own thing. It was not in a hurry to directly kill the land of Kyushu Island. Instead, it carried out some infrastructure construction on Hirado Island, such as repairing and strengthening The Fuso people left the coastal defense forts, and then installed some retired second-hand medium and large-caliber naval guns brought over from the navy.
At the same time, port facilities were built to facilitate the berthing and supply of the subsequent large fleet.
Then a large number of military camps will be built, because more soldiers will arrive and be stationed on Hirado Island in the future, especially a large number of soldiers from the 45th Division who are already on the way, and they will arrive here soon.
This camp always needs to be prepared in advance, right?
For administrative convenience, they began to recruit the young and strong Fuso women on the island to build various fortifications, buildings, etc. for themselves, and forcibly expelled many irrelevant personnel.
According to the plan of the senior leaders of the Dachu Empire, they are preparing to use Hirado Island as an outpost to march into the entire Fuso Islands, a base camp for team transfer, garrison and logistics.
Therefore, Hirado Island is very important, even more important than Tsushima Island.
As for the envoys sent by the Tokugawa family to inquire about the situation, the officials from the Fuso Office of the Domain Affairs Bureau finished drinking tea and watching the play. They came directly to criticize them, saying that the Tokugawa family had instructed the Zong family, and the Matsuura family was against the Chu Empire. Conducted large-scale smuggling and smuggled numerous contraband items, such as flintlocks, grenades and other strategic materials that were strictly prohibited from export by the Chu Empire.
The Tokugawa family was required to immediately severely punish the murderer and apologize to the Great Chu Empire. The emperor should take the title of emperor and declare himself a vassal to the empire, and offer the emperor's legitimate daughter and Tokugawa's legitimate daughter in marriage.
The annual tribute is three million Chu Yuan.
And a one-time compensation of 30 million Chu Yuan was made to compensate for the huge losses the empire had suffered in the previous smuggling and to compensate for the cost of sending troops this time.
Fusang unilaterally opened all ports in the territory, allowing merchants from the Chu Empire to freely go to any place to conduct trade, mining, road construction and other commercial activities, and allowed the empire to establish leased lands in necessary areas for the residence and business of imperial subjects. and are free to station an unlimited number of armed personnel to protect the subjects of the Empire.
In order to protect the imperial subjects, the imperial military has the right to freely pass anywhere on the Fuso Islands, even the emperor's harem.
In order to protect the freedom of trade between the two sides and prevent Fuso's convenient customs personnel from disrupting the trade between the two countries, Fuso's customs agencies should be supervised and specifically responsible by the empire. The tariff rate is determined by negotiation between the two countries, and the tariff on any goods must not exceed 100%. five.
Any declaration of war, war, peace talks, signing of treaties, etc. with foreign countries must be subject to the guidance of the empire. Without the permission of the empire, Fuso cannot conduct diplomatic activities with third-party countries without authorization.
The financial, military and other power agencies of the Fuso Edo Shogunate accepted the guidance and supervision of supervisors sent by the empire.
These series... are even more stringent than the conditions that the Chu Empire offered to Cambodia, Siam, Myanmar, the Kingdom of Aceh and other countries.
Even if the Tokugawa family's brains are collectively broken, I am afraid they will not agree to such conditions.
If you really agree to it, then the country will be subjugated and it will be even worse.
In fact, it is impossible for the Tokugawa family to agree, and it is even impossible to negotiate.
There is no sincerity in this condition, so the Tokugawa family can only bite the bullet and continue to mobilize troops to prepare for the battle.
Soon, 50,000 troops first gathered in Nagasaki, and more troops came from other directions, especially from the direction of Honshu Island.
These days, the Fuso people have a population of nearly 20 million, and the average life expectancy is very low, which means that if they don't care about the life and death of the people, the shogunate and the daimyo can actually recruit hundreds of thousands of troops.
Of course, enough young men can be recruited, but weapons and equipment cannot be guaranteed. It is already great to be able to prepare a spear or knife for most soldiers.
The Chu army had already anticipated the Tokugawa family's preparations, and had not made any obstruction or interference. Otherwise, as long as the Chu Imperial Navy randomly sent a fleet to block the horse route between Kyushu Island and Honshu Island, It will be very troublesome for the shogunate to mobilize troops from Honshu Island if they pass the Strait.
But the Chu army did not stop him!
Again, if you are just looking for enemies scattered here and there to fight, it is better to wait for the enemies to gather themselves and then have a large-scale battle to kill them directly.
We can even block the Shimonoseki Strait and beat the dog!
So far, the progress of the situation in Fuso is within the expectations of the senior officials of the Da Chu Empire.
First, they captured the advanced base of Hirado Island, and then put forward a series of harsh conditions, forcing the Tokugawa shogunate to sue for peace and had no choice but to mobilize troops to fight.
Next, the Chu army can kill the troops mobilized by the Tokugawa shogunate with one slap.
Only by completely killing the Tokugawa shogunate's army can they better understand the reality, give up all illusions, and then accept a series of conditions from the Da Chu Empire to fully and actually control Fuso for the Da Chu Empire. , and then laid a good foundation for colonization and plundering economic benefits.
That's right, the Da Chu Empire wanted more than just equal trade with Fusang.
What the Da Chu Empire wanted was a colony where it could unilaterally plunder economic benefits.
At least in the short term, this is the case. First, plunder economic benefits. As for annexation... the empire has no such idea for the time being.
It is naturally impossible to make Fuso a colony obediently, so they have to completely break their spines first.
This is how the current seemingly unconventional plan came about.
While the Tokugawa family continued to mobilize troops from all over the Fuso Islands to gather on Kyushu Island, the Dachu Empire also continued to mobilize troops.
First, the follow-up troops of the 45th Division were transported to Hirado Island, and then the 53rd Division and the 62nd Division also arrived at Hirado Island through the Tsushima Strait.
By April of the 23rd year of Chengshun, the Army of the Dachu Empire had gathered 50,000 troops on Hirado Island, with a total of more than 160 field artillery pieces, and a temporary reinforcements. City Artillery Regiment '19th Heavy Artillery Regiment'.
Based on these units, the Army established the 23rd Army.
This is also the first time that the Chu Empire has established a new army-level field command structure after establishing the 22nd Army in the Nanyang region.
This kind of field army with a formal designation is different from the previous Lena River Expedition Army, Yenisey Expedition Army, Ob River Expedition Army and other temporary units in Siberia, which were temporarily abolished after the battle.
Once such a formal field army is established, it will exist for a long time and maintain a considerable number of troops.
This shows that the Dachu Empire is very determined towards Fusang, and it does not intend to leave now...
In addition to the army's strength, the navy also dispatched the Fifth Marine Regiment, a mixed regiment with a total strength of more than 5,000 men.
The navy's Marine Corps, which is used for large-scale ground operations, is basically organized into mixed battalions and regiments. The total strength is quite large, with a total of more than 50,000 people. However, the garrison areas are very scattered, and any It is very heavy, so it has always been difficult for the Navy to assemble a large number of marines for a certain battle.
Normally there are thousands of troops, but only when encountering large-scale battles, a mixed regiment-sized Marine Corps will be dispatched.
There are more than 50,000 troops in the army and more than 5,000 marines in the navy. This means that the Chu army has gathered on Hirado Island and the total force available for ground combat has exceeded 60,000.
This is a quite large number, especially in the case of cross-sea operations.
In order to maintain the combat operations of these 60,000 ground combat troops and the huge fleet, the Dachu Empire began to transport and hoard a large amount of supplies to Busan last year, and began to prepare various transport ships.
After the military officially started taking action, in addition to the army and navy's own more than 100 transport ships of various types, it also recruited more than 100 merchant ships or armed merchant ships of various types from the two major armed trading companies.
For this battle, the Dachu Empire used more than two hundred armed transports/merchant ships alone, and they were all medium and large armed transports/armed merchant ships with relatively large displacements. When necessary, in addition to transporting personnel and materials, they also The kind that can directly join the battle!
More than two hundred transport ships continue to sail between Busan Port and Tsushima and Hirado Islands, transporting various weapons, equipment and supplies to Hirado Island. They will also be responsible for transporting the garrison on Hirado Island and a large amount of supplies to Hirado Island. Missions on the main island of Kyushu.
These two hundred or so armed transport ships/merchant ships are an important support for maintaining 60,000 ground combat troops and naval combat fleets!
In addition, there are many ships of domestic shipping companies that are hired by orders to transport various supplies to Hirado Island for the military from many coastal and river ports in the country.
The army and navy of the Dachu Empire are still very well prepared in terms of logistics, and it is impossible for the logistics to be unable to support the situation after sending troops there.
After all, the Chu Army has always relied heavily on logistics and has always attached great importance to logistics.
This was the case in the Siberian region before, and it is the same in the Fuso battle now.
If the logistics are not settled, the Chu army will not engage in any large-scale operations.
Just as the army and navy of the Chu Empire continued to transport personnel and supplies to Hirado Island, they were preparing to do a big thing on Kyushu Island and completely interrupt the ridge beam of the Edo Shogunate.
In his native city of Jinling, Luo Zhixue boarded a steamship with a dozen concubines.
This is an iron-ribbed, wooden-hulled sailing ship with a displacement of over a thousand tons. It is not a battleship or a merchant ship. It is a very pure passenger ship.
The number of passengers expected to be carried is very small, and the decoration on the ship is also very luxurious.
The reason why this ship is so special is purely because it is a royal private cruise ship. Last year, the Palace Affairs Department placed an order with the Guangzhou Shipyard to build a royal cruise ship specially for the royal family to travel.
Although the royal family members don't travel much, there are many royal family members... dozens of children plus hundreds of concubines, and these concubines can occasionally get permission to visit relatives.
If you can take a boat on the way, you will go there by boat. The Palace Affairs Office has previously ordered several sailboats of different sizes, specifically to meet the travel needs of royal members.
Three years ago, Concubine Lu Yuan, the biological mother of the emperor's sixth son, was allowed to return to Fuzhou to visit her relatives. She took a royal ship of more than 1,000 tons from the Palace Affairs Department all the way out of the Yangtze River and then arrived in Fuzhou by sea and land.
Therefore, the royal family has always had ships with high requirements for riding comfort. Now that steamships have come out, the Palace Affairs Office has also placed orders for several ships. The big ones weigh more than a thousand tons, which is the Asia in front of them, and the smaller ones. There are also river cruise ships of two to three hundred tons.
After all, most members of the royal family don’t travel along major rivers and along the coast. In fact, they travel more often by small rivers.
As an order from the Palace Affairs Department and a cruise ship used by the royal family, the Guangzhou Shipyard attached great importance to the Asia, giving priority to arranging materials and labor for production, and working overtime to make the progress very quickly.
After it is completed, the Guards fleet under the Guards will send crews to accept it and drive it back to Jinling City.
】
Yes, the Great Chu Empire Guards actually has a fleet, and its scale is quite large... It has more than thirty ships, most of which are inland river gunboats, and a few are large-tonnage warships with thousands of tons.
The ships under the Palace Affairs Department are usually maintained and maintained by the Guards Fleet.
After the Asia arrived at Jinling City, after several days of maintenance and preparation, Luo Zhixue took a dozen concubines on board and prepared to take a lap on the Yangtze River.
Although the Palace Affairs Department also had royal ships in the past, Luo Zhixue had no interest in pure sailboats, but he liked sail-powered cruise ships.
I just happened to take advantage of the good weather with the spring breeze to take a boat ride.
However, I didn't go too far by boat. I just took a stroll on the Yangtze River near Jinling City and then got off the boat and returned to the palace.
Well, if you go too far or stay too long, it will be difficult to do security work, and it will have a great impact on people's livelihood. Luo Zhixue cannot be too willful.
After all, it was very important for the emperor to travel, even if he just took a boat for two rounds, in order to ensure that Luo Zhixue had fun and was safe when taking the boat.
The Guards Fleet directly dispatched warships to block both ends of the Yangtze River, and no ships were allowed to enter this section.
All docks in the lane are also blocked, and any ship is prohibited from leaving the port. Anyone who leaves the port without authorization will immediately be warned by the Guards gunboats and even sunk.
At the same time, when the Asia was sailing, there were more than a dozen small steamships of the Guards guarding it. They were not guarding against enemies or anything like that, but purely to prevent any problems from happening on the Asia, such as a leak and sinking. They could transfer Luo Zhixue and the concubines to a safe ship as soon as possible.
Since traveling by boat has such a big impact, Luo Zhixue can only try it briefly and enjoy it.
Moreover, traveling by boat, even a motorboat, is not very safe. God knows when it will sink... This makes Luo Zhixue not feel much sense of security.
He is still more inclined to wait for the railway network to be built before taking special trains.
When getting off the ship, Luo Zhixue took the carriage back at the dedicated pier of the Guards Army and saw the train on the port railway in the distance slowing down.
Looking at the train, he looked forward to the rapid construction of Jinling City and the surrounding railway network, so that travel would be more convenient in the future, and he would be able to see the great rivers and mountains of the empire under his rule.
And judging from the current railway construction situation, he doesn't have to wait many years.
After all, the railway construction in the Dachu Empire was still very fast and the scale was very large, especially stimulated by the ultra-high profits after the commercial operation of the Songjiang Railway.
The construction pace of the railway company is very large, and the banks are also very willing to provide loans.
With determination, funds secured, and the railway still being built on flat terrain, things would be much simpler.
The railway company started comprehensive railway construction last year.
This year, most of the Su-Song Railway has been completed, and it is estimated that it will be open to traffic early next year.
At the same time, the railway from Jinling City to Dangtu Industrial Zone is nearing completion and is now undergoing final finishing works. It won't take long, and in three months, you will be able to take a train from Jinling City to Dangtu Industrial Zone, the industrial center of the empire.
At the same time, the railway from Jinling City to Zhenjiang is also expected to be completed this fall.
The two sections of railway from Zhenjiang to Changzhou and Changzhou to Suzhou are also under simultaneous construction and will be completed in the first half of next year.
When these separately constructed railway lines are completed one after another and are connected to each other, it means that the main line of the Jiangnan Railway, that is, the Songjiang Prefecture Shanghai to Yingtian Prefecture Dangtu Industrial Zone, a railway line of more than 300 kilometers, is expected to be completed. It will be fully completed in the first half of next year.
This was of great strategic significance to the Chu Empire.
It is not that the Dachu Empire has no railways. On the contrary, the Dachu Empire already had more than a thousand kilometers of railway lines before the emergence of trains. However, these railways were all non-standard mining area railways and port railways.
And most of them are narrow gauge, basically small railways with a gauge between 75 centimeters and one meter, and very few can reach a gauge of one meter or two.
These railways are not connected into a network, but are only a few kilometers here, more than ten or twenty kilometers there, scattered across the country, and most of them are in sparsely populated areas...
After all, most mining areas are located in rural areas or even mountainous areas, and there are not many people in them.
Therefore, the previous more than 1,000 kilometers of railways in mining areas or port areas had no intuitive feeling for Luo Zhixue.
Only the Jiangnan Railway, a mainline railway that directly spans multiple cities and connects multiple cities and towns along the way, can make Luo Zhixue sigh.
He also looks forward to being able to take a train to travel to distant places after the Jiangnan Railway and other railways are completed.
Therefore, at the Imperial Transportation General Meeting held in mid-April, Luo Zhixue once again instructed the Ministry of Transportation on the infrastructure construction requirements for railways, which are related to the national economy and people's livelihood, can drive the development of the empire's industrial and commercial economy, and bring more convenient travel to the people. Great support.
For railway lines that are more difficult to build, have relatively large expected operating income, and can bring relatively high economic benefits to the local area, you can be bolder and move faster!
Although the current scale of railway construction is not small, and the Railway Corporation has successively launched construction plans for more than a dozen railway lines, the actual total mileage is not very large.
In the 22nd year of Chengshun, last year, a total of more than 800 kilometers of railway lines were started. However, the number of railway lines that have been started or planned to be started this year is only more than 1,500 kilometers.
It seems that the number is high, but it is still not enough for the huge Chu Empire, far from enough.
Luo Zhixue's requirements are not too high, he just hopes that the planned two horizontal and two vertical railway trunk lines can be completed as soon as possible.
Connect the major provinces in the country, especially the provinces with large populations and large economies, with railways.
Such as the Ning-Heng Railway after the Jiangnan Railway and the Hu-Guang Railway are connected.
This Ningbo-Hengzhou railway runs from Ningbo to Shanghai, then to Jinling City, and then to Jiujiang Hukou. After ferrying through Hukou here, people or goods enter the Huguang railway network. The Huguang railway network can lead to Wuchang and then to Yueyang and Changsha. , Hengyang, deep in the hinterland of southern Chu.
At the same time, you can also take a ferry in Wuchang, take a train in Hankou and go north, and take the planned Han-Zheng Railway, which can go all the way north from Han-Tian-Hankou to Zhengzhou.
For example, the Northern Railway runs from Jinling City to Jiangpu in the north to Xuzhou, and then all the way north to Tianjin, which is the Beijing-Tianjin Railway.
And you can enter Jinan, Shandong through several railway branch lines, go out of Shanhaiguan to Liaodong, and go out of Zhangjiakou to Datong, Shanxi.
Another example is the Haixi Railway, which goes all the way from Haizhou to Xuzhou, passes through Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Tongguan, then enters Shaanxi and reaches Xi'an.
These railway trunk lines will eventually form a two-horizontal and two-vertical railway network.
This was also the main railway line plan that the senior leaders of the Dachu Empire had finalized last year.
As long as there are these four trunk railways, you can take a train from Jinling City to Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in the east, and Hengyang in the southwest.
Liaodong can be reached by heading northeast.
Going north, you can reach Datong, Shanxi and even Monan.
You can reach Xi'an by heading northwest.
The world is so big that I can’t say that I can go everywhere, but it can still connect most of the population and economically important provinces in the empire.
Well, except Guangdong!
