Chapter 810: Better to Rent Than to Build, Better to Lease Than to Rent

The contracting parties to the "Four-Nation South Seas Agreement" are the Great Ming, Holland, England, and Portugal — and all four of these countries are at odds with Spain.

So Spain's fleet in the Philippines is simply not worth much at all. Even if the entire fleet stationed on the Pacific side of New Spain were sent over, it still could not defeat the Dutch East India Company!

As for moving naval forces from the Atlantic — would France seize the chance to take Spain's Caribbean colonies?

The war between France and Spain is still going on right now!

So Caballero, García, and Morales all at once realized that their own country was rather isolated here in East Asia as well, with only the Great Mongol Nation as a friend.

And Spain's only friend in the East was at this very moment being stirred up by others to drag Spain into the war!

Shengjing Imperial Palace, the Hall of Diligent Governance.

The Great Qing Prince Regent and Imperial Uncle Dodo was receiving the envoy of the Kingdom of Joseon, Song Siyeol.

It was a private audience, with no outsiders present.

"Your Highness, according to what this subject has learned, the combined fleet of the Land of Japan that invaded Busanpo is in fact a combined fleet of Japan and the Great Ming. The ships were all provided by the Great Ming, while the sailors were half Japanese and half Chinese, and the troops who landed were all wokou. And their purpose in landing at Busanpo was not to seize any amount of Joseon territory, but to use Busan as a base from which to raid the sea lanes outside Haishenwai, cut off trade between the Great Qing and the Kingdom of Spain, and prevent the Great Qing from obtaining the sharp Spanish muskets."

The one falsely accusing the Japanese was Song Siyeol — he was working very hard to draw the two forces of disaster, the Great Qing and the Land of Japan, together.

Only if war broke out between Qing and Japan, and both sides were badly weakened, could the Kingdom of Joseon be secure!

Dodo's brows furrowed slightly. The Kingdom of Joseon was an important tributary of the Great Qing, and every year it had to supply Haishenwai and Nurgan with at least 100,000 shi of rice.

With those 100,000 shi, Dodo could stabilize the situation in the Heilongjiang basin and along the Jingqili River — in that region lived roughly twenty to thirty thousand households of Solon and Barga people. With grain, cloth, and iron tools, the Great Qing could control them and obtain furs and eastern pearls from them.

Once Joseon's tribute rice could no longer reach Nurgan City, the Great Qing's rule over the Heilongjiang basin and the Jingqili River would run into serious trouble.

Song Siyeol went on: "Our country has also learned that the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan is about to send troops to Sakhalin Island again. In fact, last time they did not completely fail — they even built a castle called Akasaka in the southern part of Sakhalin.

Now the Tokugawa shogunate is preparing to use Akasaka Castle as a base and continue advancing toward the northern part of Sakhalin."

Sakhalin Island is very large, more than seventy thousand square kilometers. To defend it thoroughly would require stationing at least ten thousand troops, but that is impossible. Oboi took too few troops onto Sakhalin; they could manage a field battle, but they were not enough to assault the Japanese stronghold.

So after defeating Kusunoki Masayuki, Oboi did not press an attack on the Japanese Akasaka Castle. Instead, he built several forts on Sakhalin as well, moved the originally scattered Sakhalin natives into these forts, and armed them with captured Japanese weapons and armor.

However, because of the subsequent civil war between the Great Qing's two prince regents, Oboi himself and the Great Qing's Nine Banner troops did not remain on Sakhalin, and have now withdrawn to the Heilongjiang basin.

Once fighting breaks out again on Sakhalin, Dodo will have to send a large force there again — truly a headache!

"Your Highness," Song Siyeol, seeing that Dodo had not spoken for a long while and seemed sunk in thought, made a suggestion in a low voice, "on my way to Shengjing, this subject did think of a way to deal with the Ming-Japanese combined forces, but I do not know whether it is proper to speak of it."

"Speak!" Dodo said only the one word.

"As commanded!" Song Siyeol said. "This subject has heard that the Great Qing has a Pacific Fleet. Why not send the Pacific Fleet to strike at Japan's Tsushima Island? Once Tsushima is taken, the Japanese fleet at Busanpo will naturally be unable to hold its position. Moreover, the Great Qing could use Tsushima as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Japan, to make them withdraw from Sakhalin."

"But…" Dodo said, "this so-called Pacific Fleet is nothing but an empty shell. It has hardly any ships at all!"

The Pacific Fleet was nothing more than a "shell fleet" — apart from the shell, it had three or five merchant ships, all secondhand vessels scavenged from the Ming side. Its firepower was pitifully weak as well, with only cheap 3-pound cast-iron cannon that took a long time to cool down after each shot.

"Your Highness," Song Siyeol said, "if there are no ships, you can rent them!"

Dodo frowned. "Rent? Rent from whom?"

Song Siyeol said: "You can rent from the Kingdom of Spain!"

Dodo still shook his head: "Renting Spanish warships would be useless. The Great Qing has almost no one who can handle large seagoing ships!"

"You can rent the ships together with their crews!"

That can be done?

Dodo was taken aback. The ships rented, the crews rented — the cannon, muskets, and naval officers would surely have to be rented too! Then what would the Great Qing provide?

"As long as the rented Spanish warships fly the Great Qing's banners, won't the Great Qing's Pacific Fleet have warships?"

Oh, so the Great Qing just provides the banners? Dodo thought to himself: That would be easy enough. Although the Great Qing's Pacific Fleet does not yet have a flag, someone can be ordered to make some right away… Now it all depends on whether the Spanish are willing.

"Your Highness the Imperial Uncle, the matter of leasing naval warships must be approved by His Majesty the King of our country. Shengjing is too far from Madrid — a round trip would likely take more than a year! The fighting on the Whale Sea is urgent; can your noble country afford to wait?"

When Dodo received Caballero the next day, the other party did not say he was unwilling to lease, but raised one fatal detail — the leasing of warships would certainly require the approval of King Philip IV!

But Philip IV lived in Madrid, and without a year or two, the Great Qing side would have no way of getting an answer. If they had to wait that long, the daylily would not merely be cold — it would have rotted to mush!

This matter clearly would not work.

"Your Highness," Caballero went on, "you would do better to lease armed merchantmen through Spain's Pacific Trading Company.

Although armed merchantmen are not as strong in combat as warships, the naval strength of the Land of Japan is not great either, so they would be more than sufficient. And as long as your noble country's warriors can reach Tsushima aboard these armed merchantmen, your noble country will have a bargaining chip in negotiations with Japan."

A Japanese navy did not exist, but the Great Ming naval fleet had not performed particularly well in its earlier interception of Spanish armed merchantmen. According to what Caballero had learned, the Great Ming navy had at that time sent out seven Dutch-style galleons, divided into two columns, to pursue the "Pacific" and the "New Orient" respectively.

Of these, the ones pursuing the "New Orient" were four 600-ton galleons. Although they held an absolute advantage in strength, the "New Orient" still relied on the superb seamanship of her crew to skirmish with the enemy, fighting as she sailed, dragging things out until nightfall, and then using the darkness to shake off her pursuers. Afterward, the two sides played hide-and-seek on the Whale Sea for several days before cautiously making for Haishenwai.

Of course, if the four Dutch-style galleons that engaged the "New Orient" were entirely commanded by Chinese captains and crews, then the progress they had made in these past few years was truly enormous!

After all, before this, they had never handled square-rigged ships on long voyages or taken part in naval combat.

Still, Caballero believed that with leased armed merchantmen, the Great Qing — ah, rather, the Great Mongol Nation's naval Pacific Fleet — would be enough to deal with the Great Ming navy, which had not yet fully matured.

Dodo thought for a long while, then asked a string of questions: "How many armed merchantmen can your trading house lease for our court? When can they all arrive? Also, where is this Tsushima Island? How far is it from the coast of Joseon? Are the surrounding seas rough? What is the strength of the Japanese troops defending the island?"

Caballero said: "Your Highness, there are quite a number of Western armed merchantmen currently operating in the East. As long as the price is right, at least ten can be leased. As for when they can arrive, that depends on where they are to assemble. If they are to assemble at Haishenwai, it will take longer, because the port facilities there are too poor and it is not yet suitable to serve as a naval base.

So I suggest leasing Ulsan Harbor as the navy's home port, with Spanish engineers responsible for its construction and the Great Qing's land forces garrisoning it. In a year at most, the leased armed merchantmen can arrive.

As for Tsushima's location, it is only about 100 li from the coast of Joseon. For most of the year the surrounding seas are fairly calm, and the garrison on the island is not large. I estimate that if about 2,000 elite troops from a firearms battalion can be sent, Tsushima can be taken smoothly."

(End of Chapter)