Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1922 Returning to Japan ([-]) Jia Feiji Arrives
When Gao Wushi received the news of Daoshan's defeat, it happened that Jia Feiji finally arrived in Chaonan from Japan and landed directly in Gimhae.

Jia Feiji came to the south this time, which is a bit thrilling to say, because the fleet first encountered a typhoon of moderate size. According to the statement of the fleet later, it probably touched the edge of the typhoon.

This accident caused the ship to be slightly damaged, but overall it can only be said that there was no danger, but after sailing for another day, they encountered real danger-the fleet collided with the Japanese navy and its ships. Come to North Korea for reinforcements.

The most serious problem of this accident is the disparity in strength between the two sides: Jia Fei Ji's fleet itself is only a small team, with only five ships in total.

The mission of this fleet was originally planned to send the silver earned in Japan back to Daming, and store it in the Federal Reserve’s treasury as the principal of the small-value banknotes issued by the Ming Federal Reserve Bank. However, it was because of a high-level order to carry Kai Feiji to North Korea. An additional task for Gase.

Originally, according to the plan, the fleet did not need to approach the North Korean coast.It should start from Misaki Castle, follow the coastline of South Japan to Shimizu City assigned to the Maritime Trade Alliance by the Shimadzu family, install the Maritime Trade Alliance’s profit in Kyushu Island in Qingshui City, and then set sail again, from the south and west of Jeju Island Enter the Yellow Sea, and finally go straight to Tianjin Port to complete the handover.

However, due to the new task of sending Kaiji to the south, after installing the income from Kyushu Island in Qingshui City, he went all the way north, planning to go straight to Yupu from the west of Tsushima Island (this place is south of Jinhai, Yupu The naval battle broke out in its sea area)... As a result, the above two accidents occurred.

There is nothing to say about the typhoon, and according to the standards of later generations, it may not be called a typhoon. Maybe it is just a tropical storm that blows to the edge of the Yellow Sea and the Sea of ​​Japan (Sea of ​​Japan).

But it is very strange to meet the Japanese navy, because this Japanese navy is not only huge in number, but also has more than 40 Japanese self-modified ships and Jinghua armed transport ships for large ships.

The number of armed transport ships purchased by Japan from Jinghua is limited, a total of more than 30 ships, and some of them have been sent to Busan before, and the remaining ships in the mainland are no more than [-] ships.When I ran into the Kaiji fleet this time, I found that there were at least fourteen armed transport ships in it. This shows that Toyotomi Hideyoshi can't even take care of Osaka Bay now, and he is forcibly fighting for the invasion.

As for the Da'an house ship, it was newly built after Japan discovered that its maritime strength was not enough. There were already many in Busan Port, and this time there were more than [-] ships.According to Japan's production strength, I am afraid that this scale is almost all out.

The reason why this crisis can finally be resolved, at first glance, is thanks to the Japanese navy's preference for "iron armor".Regardless of the Da'an house or the armed transport ship, after the addition of iron armor (covered with a thin layer of iron), there was a problem of speed reduction, which gave the silver transport fleet a chance to evacuate.

But is this really the case?In fact, it is not. The decrease in speed brought about by iron armor is indeed obvious, but the main problem is that they are facing the shipping and silver formation of the Maritime Trade Alliance.

Since it was transporting silver, it obviously carried a lot of weight. Can this ship be light if it is full of silver?If we really want to talk about the speed of the ship, it is only half a catty compared with the main combat force in the Japanese navy at that time, the Oataka and the iron-clad armed transport ship, and it does not really form any advantage.

So in the end, Gao Huichang, the commander of the Yunyin formation and the captain of the formation flagship "Xuanyuanguan" (located in the northwest of Dengfeng County, Henan Province), came up with the idea to make the formation behave like a decoy formation.

Specifically, he took the initiative to step forward and rely on the advantage of the artillery range to provoke the Japanese navy, and once the Japanese navy began to prepare for combat against it, he turned around and fled with the other four ships.The firepower of the Japanese army in pursuit couldn't reach him, but he kept on provoking with the stern gun while running away.

Later, the Japanese army began to find that something was wrong, mainly because their formation gradually lost their combat formation, so they slowed down and reorganized their formation.Originally, this seemed like a good opportunity to get away, but instead of running away, Gao Huichang turned around and fired a few more shots, so the Japanese army chased him again—the cycle started.

After three cycles like this, the Japanese navy concluded that Gao Huichang’s small fleet must be a decoy formation. The reason is obvious. There are two main points: First, since they are armed transport ships that have not been modified by iron armor, their speed should be faster than their own. Fast, but the enemy formation has always "not accelerated", which shows that there are ghosts in it.

Second, as long as the team slows down and reorganizes, the enemy fleet immediately turns to attack and harass with broadsides, preventing the team from completing the formation, but at the same time firmly refuses to approach the team—in other words, the enemy fleet doesn’t care about the accuracy of the bombardment at all. , they thought it was enough as long as they kept firing at the Japanese navy.

What does it mean?Of course, it is because the task of the enemy fleet is not to sink or injure our navy, but to continue to anger our navy, make our navy lose their minds, pursue desperately, and finally rush into the encirclement of the enemy's main force in a chaotic formation what!

It has to be said that the Japanese naval forces have suffered from being lured into encirclement and beating many times during the Korean War in the past few years, and now they have finally learned how to behave.

So this time, they decided: resolutely not to chase, we have to complete our main task first-send the reinforcements led by Hideaki Kobayakawa to the front line of Ulsan first!

In this way, the support fleet of the Japanese navy no longer paid attention to Gao Huichang, who seemed arrogant but did not cause much damage to them, and turned to go straight to Busan (or go to Busan first), while Gao Huichang continued to harass for a while. After a while, he pretended to fail in the lure mission and "leave away in sorrow".

Gao Huichang did not stay after sending Jia Feiji and his party to Yupu, but simply replenished some fresh water and other supplies, and then set off to Tianjin Port to pay the silver. However, Jia Feiji was very impressed by this battle, and she asked Gao Wushi to He reported these situations in detail.

Although Gao Pragmatism does not understand the specific tactics of naval warfare, Gao Huichang's performance in this crisis really caught his eye.Gao Yushi himself is the best at "predicting people like a god", and Gao Huichang's actions this time are also the embodiment of "predicting people like a god", which obviously made Gao Yushi take a look.

After thinking about it, Gao Wushi remembered that this year he planned to expand the Kanto Fleet by more than a dozen ships, so he simply ordered a reward, and at the same time appointed Gao Huichang as the deputy commander of the Kanto Fleet. Then lead the new ship formation to Misaki Castle to take office.

Once the incident was over, the battle report from the Ulsan front line came in. Only then did Gao Wushi know that Doosan had suffered a bit, and that there was still discord within the coalition forces of the Ming Dynasty and the Joseon Dynasty.

Gao Wushi was still thinking about the personnel issues involved, but Jia Feiji walked to the side of the structure map of Ulsan-Dosan Waseong provided by Gao Qi and looked at it.

Unlike Gao Pragmatic who carefully distinguishes which of the two sides is closer to the truth, Jia Feiji is thinking about purely military issues.

When it comes to the offensive and defensive issues of the Japanese city, Jia Feiji is probably more professional than the entire Ming army at all levels, because she herself is an expert in the Japanese city defense system. —Although Kaesong had to be handed over in the end due to political changes, it is no longer a military issue.

Gao Wushi was silent for a long time, and Jia Feiji couldn't help but said: "Master, the situation of Ulsan and Dosan is very clear. I think that unless there is a time limit, I just need to besieged for a long time. Why do I have to attack by force? "

Gao Wushi asked rhetorically: "If you want to besiege, how long do you think it will take to force the Japanese army in the city to surrender, or make them lose their combat effectiveness?"

Jia Feiji said: "It depends on a variety of factors, such as whether the city's material preparations are sufficient, whether the siege can ensure that it cannot receive foreign aid, and whether the morale of the city will unexpectedly collapse due to some things, etc."

Gao Wushi's heart moved, and he said, "If Toyotomi Hideyoshi is dead, will the news cause the Japanese army in the city to collapse?"

"It's very possible." Kaiji doesn't have a good impression of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, especially in recent years there have been a lot of rumors about Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Japan. The little respect of this man in the world gradually disappeared.

In addition, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has been forcing Tokugawa Ieyasu to deal with Misaki Castle and Tamanawa Castle. Although Tokugawa Ieyasu insisted on delaying it through various means, and only acted a little bit, it also deepened Kaiji's attitude towards Toyotomi anyway. Hideyoshi's disgust, so she was very indifferent to the news that Toyotomi Hideyoshi might be seriously ill, and even looked forward to it.

Upon seeing this, Gao Wushi said: "Having said that, it is best to win the Battle of Ulsan on the battlefield. This will help us to deter Japan more concretely in the future."

Jia Feiji frowned slightly, and asked: "That is to say, does the master still hope to take down the twin cities of Ulsan and Dosan by military means?"

"Yes, do you have any ideas or suggestions?" Gao Yushi asked directly without hiding it.

Jia Feiji cast her eyes on the structural diagram, and thought about it: "Then it must be attacked by water and land, and I am afraid that the master must be prepared for... a relatively large loss."

"Tell me."

"Yes, sir." Jia Feiji said: "Master, looking at this Dosan Wa Fortress, regardless of its connection with Ulsan Wa Fortress, you will find two characteristics just by looking at its structure. That is, it is close to the mountains and the sea.

Being close to the mountain makes it possible to build this kind of terraced defense line, so that our army not only needs to attack upwards at every step, but also the space between the circles is quite narrow, which cannot accommodate too many soldiers. The advantage of the large army Can not reflect.

And the heights of the 'terraces' in this round shape are quite different, which is rare even in Japan, I think this should be Kato Kiyomasa's intentional purpose for the characteristics of our army..."

Gao Wushi interjected and asked, "How do you say that?"

"Ah, this is because in Japan, each faction only has a few guns at most, and there are not many practical artillery, so the height difference between the looped defense lines does not need to be particularly large, and they even deliberately keep it on the defensive side. The range of the musket can perfectly cover the next level of 'terraces'.

But our army is different. Our army has many powerful artillery, which makes Kato Kiyomasa have to use the method of raising the height of the "terraced fields" to make our artillery unable to effectively threaten the upper defenders. After all, the elevation angle of the artillery is limited. It is also not possible to increase the elevation angle at will to 'shoot the sky', so that the advantage of our army's artillery can be weakened to the greatest extent.

Although doing so may cause the Japanese defenders' guns to be insufficient to cover the entire range of the lower 'terraced fields', considering that our army's artillery threatens it too much, such a compromise should be acceptable to Kato Kiyomasa. "

Gao Wushi understood, nodded and said: "You are right, Magui and the others mentioned in the battle report that the structure of the Japanese city makes the artillery almost completely ineffective...you continue to talk."

"Then relying on the sea." Jia Feiji said: "Relying on the sea means that you can obtain supplies from the sea. Although this can only be achieved by taking advantage of the current special weather characteristics, as long as they can achieve it, it means that they have become our army's Weaknesses, we must find a way to overcome."

Gao Wushi asked, "How to overcome it?"

Jia Feiji hesitated for a moment, and asked: "As far as I know, the Pingwa Fleet is still carrying out the blockade mission to Busan, and the Fleet of the Maritime Trade Alliance has never carried out this mission...Master, why is that?"

"Because the nature is different." Gao Wushi sighed, and said: "The fleet of the Maritime Trade Alliance is certainly powerful, but the operation and maintenance of this fleet is not spent by the imperial court, but the Maritime Trade Union is responsible for it.

If I don't care about spending more money, then maybe it's justified, but many of the alliance fleets are ships of various nobles. If I let them perform missions that are too risky, too difficult, and cause more damage Seriously, that's a bit of a hassle for me too.

Of course, the most important question is whether these efforts can be paid off - you have to know that although the Sea Trade Alliance has strong military strength, this organization is ultimately a commercial organization, and interests are the core link.

In other words, if I give them too many tasks and too many responsibilities, it means that I must give them enough benefits after the war, as a tacit agreement between us. "

Jia Feiji wondered: "The captured Japanese warships are also worth a lot of money, so it should be enough to pay them off?"

Gao Wushi smiled wryly and said, "There are some troubles in this matter, and I'm still trying to figure out a solution." He couldn't bluntly say that the emperor was trying to capture those warships, so he had to prevaricate first.

Jia Fei Ji is very clever in this regard, and she knows best what not to ask, and she is determined not to ask, but in this way, she is somewhat limited in her ability to take down the island of Wajo Castle militarily. Mountains and seas have to do something, I have a plan, maybe I can give it a try."
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Thanks to book friends "Clouds Covering the Moon and Rain" and "CosifanTutte" for their monthly support, thank you!
PS: Yesterday’s business was not going well, and I didn’t even have time to go home at night, so yesterday’s chapter was delayed until today, I’m very sorry.However, delays belong to delays, and it does not mean asking for leave or absenteeism. This chapter is still updated yesterday, and what should be updated today remains unchanged.

(End of this chapter)