Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2127 Naowen City and Hulunbeier ([-])

Let's go forward in time by two or three months.

In late October 1690, the weather in Manchuria was already very cold.Outside a wooden camp to the east of Naowen City, North Korean soldier Kim Sanpao breathed heavily into his palms, as if doing so would warm his fingers, which were already red and swollen like carrots, and make him feel better.But in the freezing weather of Manchuria, this seems destined to be just an extravagant hope. The Jinsanpao, which is poorly equipped to keep out the cold, is still unbearably frozen.

Kim Sanpao is a Taoist soldier from Pyongyang, North Korea. He is a musketeer. He was originally stationed in various places in Pyongan Province. He is a relatively low-level second-line force in the Kingdom of Korea.North Korea was really able to fight a little bit more, or the soldiers of the imperial camp stationed in Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-do and other places, which are commonly known as the Korean Imperial Army by people on the east coast.

These people are basically equipped with East Coast-made equipment, and the training is also planned by East Coast officers. The proportion of cold weapons is relatively low, and the reform of firearms has been implemented very deeply. It can be said that it is a new type of army, and it still has a certain combat effectiveness— ——The "certain combat power" means that it is still possible to fight a smooth battle behind the ass of the East Coast people, but if you fight a tough battle, it will be enough, and it is estimated that something will happen.

Compared with the Forbidden Army, the combat effectiveness of the North Korean local troops who became the Dao Army by the people on the east bank is hard to say.First of all, they are definitely not as good as the Forbidden Army, but to what extent they are not as good as they are, there is a big difference!The officers and soldiers living in Ping'an, Hamgyong and other roads living in bitter cold areas have relatively difficult living conditions and relatively low levels of corruption, and their combat effectiveness is relatively good. They can undertake some more important combat tasks, such as clearing out the aborigines in Manchuria who did not obey the people on the east bank tribe and more.They have been doing these things throughout history, and they have done relatively well.Otherwise, why do you think the border of the Kingdom of Korea can extend from the coast of the Taedong River all the way north to the Yalu River?They snatched it from the Jurchen and other Tunguskas.

The combat effectiveness of the Pingan Dao Army where Jin Sanpao is located is not bad.Although in terms of equipment, they are not as good as soldiers in Gyeonggi, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang provinces in the south, they are more tenacious in fighting, relatively daring to fight, and easier to use.Before the Denglai Pioneering Team signed a peace agreement with the Qing Dynasty, they repeatedly recruited North Korean soldiers from the other side of the Yalu River to help in the war.These North Korean soldiers with their own dry food (and some soldiers from the imperial army) participated in many wars against the Qing army. Although most of them could not fight in field battles, they were still fine if they were used to defend the rear fortress, transport the wounded, and guard the prisoners. A lot of credit has been paid.

And it is these accumulative credits that make the people on the east bank look at the Korean kingdom with admiration and are willing to give them a relatively good position in the ruling system of the Far East.For example, many people on the east coast of technology block Shun and Qing countries, but they don't block North Korea very much.Take the iron smelting and coal mining industries that have developed rapidly in northern North Korea in recent years. People on the east bank sold a lot of machinery and equipment to them to improve their labor efficiency.Shunguo's coal mines in Jiangxi and Hunan are all eagerly waiting to purchase these things, but the people on the east coast have been saying that they are "out of stock", but the North Koreans have been buying them for many years, which is the difference!

Of course, the North Koreans are not only regarded differently by the people on the east coast because of their military achievements.In fact, they have sent a large number of laborers abroad many times to help people on the east bank build roads, dig rivers, build houses, serve as soldiers, and so on.Especially the recent construction of the city of Vladivostok is the most obvious, where the population is sparsely populated and the labor force is seriously insufficient.Therefore, under several coercions and lures from the people on the east coast, the Kingdom of Korea sent a total of more than 6 masters to go abroad to work in Vladivostok. They used their hardworking hands to dig the soil, cut down trees, burn bricks, and polish stones. The contribution to building a beautiful city is indeed so great that Lu Xiaofeng, who has always looked down on the Koreans a lot, admired it, and felt that the Koreans can bear hardships and stand hard work, which is a great advantage.

In addition to these two things, the Kingdom of Korea produced a large amount of food, medicinal materials, fruits, primary minerals (Sakhalin Island imported a large amount of Korean pig iron for smelting), daily necessities, and hundreds of other commodities that were urgently needed by the Far East, and the prices were absolutely low. , the quality is not bad, and it is an important part of the economy of the five kingdoms of the Far East.

They also imported a large amount of textiles, horses, medicines, furs, hardware products, steel bars, Nanyang specialties, machinery and equipment, weapons and equipment from the east coast, and were important importers of goods from the east coast.It can be seen from these that the Kingdom of Korea has undertaken a part of the industrial division of labor in the economic system dominated by the east coast of the Far East, and is at the middle end of the industrial chain because it has a certain industrial foundation.

Therefore, the current Kingdom of Korea has basically been firmly bound by the people on the east coast. Whether it is the upper class or the lower class, the two countries have more common interests than differences, and they are relatively stable allies.Moreover, a series of treaties were signed with the East Bank decades ago, and since the opening of trade, the political and economic outlook of the Kingdom of Korea has also undergone tremendous changes.In today’s North Korean society, talking about business is no longer an indecent thing that needs to be avoided by others—especially scholars. It was like a cloud and mud when the country first opened.

Moreover, after Zhao Chuyan traveled to the east bank and returned to China in the past few years, the book "Dongxinglu" he personally reviewed, sorted out and published also caused a great sensation among the intellectuals in North Korea. In short, there are those who yell at each other, and there are also those who have mixed praise and criticism.But no matter what, this travel book has greatly broadened the horizons of North Koreans, letting them know that the outside world has developed to this extent, and they were still muddled before, living their lives like a hermit.I believe that if the sea and land armies of the people from the east coast did not come to the door and force them to implement the reform policy, they would have to shut themselves down. In the long run, the consequences would be disastrous.

These developments in North Korea's ideological circles have undoubtedly boosted the development of its domestic industry and commerce.Although there are still many conservative powers in the country, and conservative ideas still occupy a certain advantage, but to be honest, its power is dying and weakening almost every year, the scale of its industry and commerce is getting bigger every year, and the national strength of the North Korean government is also slowly increasing. .Strictly speaking, this is actually somewhat similar to Qing and Shun, the two strongest powers in mainland China today.The Qing and Shun countries faced serious financial difficulties brought about by successive years of wars, and needed huge wealth brought by the development of industry and commerce. At the same time, the war also stimulated them to constantly pursue new technologies. These are the two countries’ ideological and social environments have been loosened to a certain extent. , an important factor for the development of industry and commerce.As for North Korea, although there is no war, there is a country outside it (the east coast) that not only urges it to formulate various policies and reform various measures, but basically achieves the same effect, that is, to promote the entire country to move towards a more modernized state. direction.

Of course, North Korea’s industry and commerce have been running in small steps for so many years. Although the development results are not bad, due to the poor foundation in the past and the problem of wealth distribution, the country and the people are still not very rich.No, the treatment of the three or four thousand Taoist soldiers sent from Ping'an Road to North Manchuria this time is not very good, and their equipment is also poor.Among other things, the severe shortage of warm clothes alone means that the logistics supply of the North Koreans is very short. I don’t know if their country is poor and they are not willing to equip the second-line troops with cotton coats and gloves, or the logistics officials themselves are greedy. lost, or both.

The people on the east bank judged that this should be the outbreak of the narrow-mindedness unique to the North Koreans, and they wanted to take advantage of the people on the east bank.That is to say, they originally planned to distribute warm clothes to them, but because the North Koreans recruited these troops from the east bank, they withheld the warm clothes that should have been distributed to Ping'an Road—the North Koreans had just been delivered by Ningbo. A considerable number of cotton coats, quilts, gloves, cotton shoes, etc. - let them go to the people on the east coast to rub things.

There is no doubt that the North Koreans' desire to take advantage of a small advantage has succeeded this time.Because after discussing with Wei Wendu, Major Bei Zhensheng, who is in charge of the affairs here, decided to distribute a batch of cotton padded clothes or gloves to the North Koreans so that they would not suffer from non-combat attrition such as frostbite, which would affect their combat effectiveness.You must know that now is the critical moment to attack Naowen City, and it is absolutely impossible to affect the overall situation because of such a little clothes and quilts!

It is said that Naowen City is already the last large-scale stronghold of the Qing Dynasty in the North Manchuria area.Needless to say, the geographical location of this stronghold is very critical.To the east, you can go to Harbin Fort, which has been run by people from the east bank for many years. To the south, you can go to Jilin, and to the west, you can go to Hulun Buir Grassland.

People from the east coast did not attack here before, because their main expansion direction is not here, but in the east near the sea.And after spending several years infiltrating and cleaning up the traditional sites of Ninggu Pagoda and Haixi Jurchen, they spent time rectifying and building them roughly, which indeed took up a lot of energy.

Of course, on the west side, they never gave up.Although the main force of Harbin Fort has been invested in the east, it does not mean that they do nothing in the west!In fact, the Hulunbeier advance detachment formed in the north of Heilongjiang was like a sharp knife piercing the waist of Naowen City. At the same time, the people on the east coast have begun to exert their strength in the layout of the grassland for many years.With the combination of the two, Naowen City has a sense of being isolated.

Once isolated, the people from the east coast will have a chance to seize Naowen City.So you can see that outside the city of Naowen in the winter of 1690, thousands of troops under the command of Army Major Bei Zhensheng had assembled, ready to launch a fatal blow to the city of Naowen at any time.

(End of this chapter)