Joseon Military Officer, Establishing Balhae - Chapter 299



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Episode 299

Rapidly changing situation (1)

A military conference was held under the chairmanship of Taegeon. The agenda was, of course, the great war that was just around the corner.

First, the newly appointed Dokri Kim Sol of the Ikmunsa came forward and reported on the enemy situation. When the Liaodong Province was converted to a civilian government the year before last, the previous Dokri Kwon Hyung transferred to the first Liaodong Province governor, and Kim Sol, who had been active as the head of information at the Namhae Province, took over.

“The number of Ming troops gathered in the Liaodong Taoist temple so far is approximately 160,000.”

This was the first figure to come out today. The military officials’ mouths dropped open at this one word.

“Oh my god… How come there are 160,000? I expected it to be a little over 100,000.”

General Jin Tae-jong, who was in charge of the 1st Operations Command, muttered with a bewildered expression. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement at Jin Tae-jong’s remark.

Currently, the Balhae Army has been converted to an operational command system. Therefore, the 1st and 2nd Corps have become the 1st and 2nd operational commands. In preparation for this war, the newly created divisions were concentrated in the 1st and 2nd Corps, and this system was naturally established.

Originally, the reorganization of these two enlarged corps should have been carried out first, but since the reserve corps had to be created, there was still not enough manpower and equipment to form more than two corps command posts. Instead, during actual operations, it was planned to have two or three divisions paired up and conduct operations by forming a left and right corps.

“Of these, 40,000 are in the Gaeju area, 40,000 in the Yeonsan-gwan area, 20,000 in the northern mountainous area of ​​Suam, and the remaining 60,000 remain in Yangyang. It seems likely that they will serve as reserves or rearguard forces.”

Unlike the commanders who were somewhat flustered, Taegeon still maintained his composure.

“If it’s 160,000, should we consider that Ming risked his life in this war?”

“It seems to be somewhat like that. Also, I suspect that they are planning to use it as a way to discard the Yodong Taoist priest depending on the future situation.”

It was the opinion of Marshal Jeong Gang-bin, who had switched places with his close friend Song Chan-hwang and became the new Army Chief of Staff.

“Why did you think so?”

Taegeon asked.

“From Ming’s perspective, due to the rise of Balhae and the Later Jin, Liaodong has become a land that is difficult to defend. Therefore, it seems that he has staked his Liaodong Taoist army on this war. If he succeeds, it will relieve the nation of its worries, but if he fails, he will naturally lose the land of Liaodong. Of course, the national fortunes may be shaken to some extent, but he seems determined to accept that.”

“You saw it exactly. What are the circumstances of the latter half?”

Kim Sol continued her report.

“Because the Later Jin army moved frequently, we could not fully determine its exact location and troop size. However, we estimate that approximately 60,000 to 80,000 troops will be mobilized from the Manchurian and Mongolian bannerets.”

The Later Jin Dynasty completed the Mongol 8th era much earlier than actual history, so it had a total of 16 eras.

“So does that mean the rest of the troops won’t move?”

“Yes. There are still Rickdan Khan forces beyond the southwestern border, and since they cannot completely trust the Ming, they will likely leave quite a few troops behind.”

“So does that mean we have to deal with up to 240,000 people?”

Tae-Geon smiled bitterly. The military commanders were also surprised by the scale and shook their heads.

But no one was afraid. Even though the Balhae Army had firepower several times superior to that of the enemy, an excessively large number of troops were to be mobilized. In the case of the 1st Corps, five divisions were mobilized, excluding the 19th Division deployed in the northern sea area and the 23rd Division in charge of defending the capital, and the 2nd Corps and the 3rd Corps, which were reserve units, were also mobilized with five divisions, totaling a whopping 190,000 troops.

Currently, the number of soldiers in the Balhae Army and Marine Corps divisions has increased to 12,000, and the firepower of each command has been further strengthened, making it incomparable to that of the First Northeast Asian War.

“What is the status of the reserve force mobilization?”

“It’s mostly finished and distribution is also complete.”

Military adviser Song Chan-hwang gave a short answer.

“Have you taken your positions by division?”

“Yes, we have deployed them according to the operational plan.”

“What is the situation in the north that the 1st Corps is in charge of?”

“The police force is being deployed.”

The Balhae military greatly increased the armed police force of the Gyeongmucheong in order to deploy the army troops deployed in the northern border to this war. Therefore, they were deployed to the border fortresses north of the Heilongjiang River and the post stations in the middle. Of course, the decision to increase the police force was made in consideration of the increased demand for police forces in areas that would be converted from military-occupied areas to civilian residential areas in the future.

“What’s the status of the grenade supply?”

“Since production is not yet sufficient, it seems that only grenadiers and troops can be used for now.”

Hand grenades had also been developed in the past, and had already been improved once. However, the number of grenades was still small, so only grenadiers could use them, not all infantry. With the spread of hand grenades, flowers naturally entered the military warehouse.

“That went well.”

As Taegeon nodded, the Minister of War, Hwang Jin, spoke to Taegeon.

“The Navy has something to report too.”

“Yes, let me hear it.”

When Tae-Geon’s gaze turned to Admiral Lee Cheon-Ho, he quickly stood up from his seat.

“This is information I gathered through a merchant from the Old World who frequently travels to Macau. Unlike before, Dutch ships are frequently appearing in the nearby waters. So there is a rumor going around that Ming will soon lease land near Macau to a Dutch company. It seems that the information leaked by the British Lord Middleton is being revealed to be true.”

“Can you lend me some land near Macau?”

Tae-Gun asked back with a slightly surprised expression.

“Yes, Geometry.”

“Is this an island?”

“Until that point…….”

“Haha! Right. That could be possible.”

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Taegeon naturally thought of Hong Kong as an area near Macau that could be leased.

“yes?”

“Did you know that the Dutch company is greedy for Macau?”

“Yes, Geometry.”

In fact, later on, the Dutch East India Company landed troops in Macau and fought with the Portuguese in an attempt to take over Macau.

So Taegeon took advantage of the power dynamics between Balhae and Ming and concluded that the Netherlands was targeting Hong Kong Island instead of Macau.

Macau was now enjoying greater prosperity than before. Since Spain and Portugal had become allies, Spanish galleons were freely coming and going to Macau to trade. As a result, more silver flowed into the Ming through Macau. The Dutch East India Company coveted Macau.

“Because in Ming’s eyes, both Macau and Hong Kong are just useless pieces of land. I could easily give up Hong Kong. There are a lot of things coming in despite it being a piece of land.”

“Where is Hong Kong?”

Lee Cheon-ho asked.

“It’s a small island east of Macau. If the lease negotiations actually go ahead, that’s where the target will be. Also, if the Netherlands participates in this war, they’ll need a naval base, so they have no choice but to give it to us, even if it’s temporarily.”

“Oh, I remember. I’ve seen it on the map around Macau.”

Lee Cheon-ho finally remembered the location of Hong Kong Island.

“So what’s the solution?”

“As a precaution, we are considering sending one more squadron to Formosa.”

“Which squadron?”

“I think it would be good to send the 35th Squadron to Formosa, the 32nd Squadron to take charge of the central and southern waters of the South Sea, and the 33rd Squadron to the Ryukyu Islands.”

The Balhae base in the Ryukyu Sea was now being relocated to Yuldo. Some of the facilities had already been built and were being used together with the Geumseongjin base. Once the construction of the Yuldo naval base is completed, the relocation of the base should be completed as promised.

“What do you think, Minister of the Armed Forces?”

“I agree with you.”

When Hwang Jin-do agreed, Tae-geon instructed Lee Cheon-ho to put it into action.

“There’s not much left now.”

“If we look at the enemy’s movements, it seems like war will break out within a month at the earliest. It wouldn’t be strange if a signal fire were to go off tomorrow.”

Everyone seemed to agree with Song Chan-Hwang’s diagnosis.

* * *

Golminala Castle, the capital of the Later Jin Dynasty.

The Golminara Fortress has become larger and more solid, to the point where it is hard to recall the days of the Yeohe Kingdom of the past. The actual national title of the Later Jin is ‘Daejin’ and it is an empire that uses its own era name, so it continued to expand its capital to match that.

At this time, Nurhachi’s attention was entirely on Balhae. He was chewing over the information collected by his spies and discussing countermeasures with his subordinates.

“Are you saying that there are about 50,000 troops deployed in Liaodong and 50,000 troops deployed along our eastern border?”

“Yes, that’s what we know so far. Of course, it will increase more once the war starts.”

These were the words of my younger brother, Shurhachi.

“That’s right. In the past, troops far exceeding our expectations participated in the war.”

No matter how good the Later Jin’s intelligence was, it could not know the inside story of Balhae. In reality, the Later Jin’s spies were only focusing on the border regions.

“Just like us, even if they come late, there’s little need to protect the northern border. Furthermore, Joseon’s military power is so weak that the effect of dispersing Balhae’s troops will not be great. Phew! I can’t even guess how many troops will participate in this war.”

The expressions of the subjects hardened at Nurhachi’s words.

“But fortunately, Ming is planning to deploy as many as 160,000 troops, right? We will also be sending up a considerable number of troops to match them. No matter how strong the rear-facing navy is, it will be difficult to handle such a large number of troops.”

The eldest son, Chewing, offered a counterargument that was also comforting.

“Have you forgotten the last Battle of Liaodong?”

Nurhachi had been collecting and analyzing all information about the battles in the Yalu River and Liaodong regions where Balhae and Ming had previously fought.

“Even though they mobilized a large army, in actual individual battles, they often achieved overwhelming victories with significantly fewer troops. Looking at that, we can get a partial idea of ​​the strength of the navy that arrived later. It may be stronger than we expected, so we must keep that in mind!”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Phew! We’ve never really fought against a second-generation navy before.”

Nurhachi was sorry that there was no information that could be directly connected to the skin. The first clash between the Later Jin and Balhae armies was in the northern part of the Yalu River, in the Juseo-ri region. They fought briefly, but a ceasefire was soon established, so it was impossible to fully understand the strength of the Later Balhae navy. Moreover, that incident had occurred a long time ago. They had joined forces in the Ulla War and attacked Ulla Castle, but that was also a long time ago, so it was difficult to determine the strength of the Balhae army based on that experience.

“What about the Joseon side?”

“We will soon get the answer we want. We asked the Yodong Taoist priests and got this answer.”

“That’s right. If Joseon doesn’t join the alliance, we have no choice but to cancel this war.”

Another reason why Ming harassed Joseon was to persuade the Later Jin.

Nurhachi could not completely trust the order. So, as if Joseon were a guarantor, he threatened that he would only participate in the war if Joseon joined the alliance. This was because Nurhachi’s will to conquer Balhae had weakened slightly.

When he won against Likdan Khan, he was full of confidence, but when he actually gathered information about Balhae’s military power and the war became a reality, he began to question the principles again. However, Balhae and the Later Jin could not coexist, so war was a constant, not a variable, and he thought that a certain guarantee was necessary. When the Ming first tried to seduce the Later Jin, it was a condition that Joseon join, and he took that up.

His subjects also thought it was reasonable, because in order to win a war, all conditions had to be perfectly met.

“An Pi-yang-gu requests an audience.”

As soon as Anpiyanggu entered the power outage, he began to deliver surprising news.

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