Chapter 1621
Chapter 1621
Chapter 1621
When Fei Cexian was flipping through this "Geography of the South China Sea", Zhang Qianzhi sat quietly and waited.He could see that Fei Cexian was really interested in the situation in the South China Sea. This book, which was used as a basic geography textbook by the academies in Haihan, was almost the only book that Fei Cexian could borrow from the library. value related literature.Although the content of the book is very simple to Zhang Qianzhi, it is far beyond the scope of information that Daming officials have. For Fei Cexian, this is tantamount to a major upgrade of his personal knowledge base.
Fei Cexian did not doubt the authenticity of the contents of this book, because he came to the library on a whim, and it was impossible for Haihan people to prepare for it in advance, and this document was the textbook of Haihan Academy, which was used to It is impossible for Haihan officials to cheat the people by deceiving the people as reference materials for the cultivation of talents for the country.
According to the information described in this book, the current international political situation in the South China Sea has been different from the situation that Ming has mastered. Some small countries in the South China Sea that were paid tribute to Ming in the early years have disappeared in the long river of history. The people who rose up in the South China Sea were almost all foreign colonists who came to the South China Sea by sea from the far west.The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal... These Western countries used force to expel or enslave the local aborigines, and established many colonies in various parts of the South China Sea.
Fei Cexian is no stranger to this so-called colonial method, because before and after the founding of Haihan, he also used similar methods to expand outward.In particular, the series of control areas established near the coastline of Daming are exactly the same as those of these Western countries. They are first controlled by force, and after the establishment of settlements, they are forced to start business with the coastal cities of Daming.
Although Fei Cexian doesn't know much about the deeper colonial purposes of capital export, commodity dumping, and raw material plundering, he is very clear that Haihan is using these coastal colonies to absorb nutrients from Ming to strengthen himself.In fact, there are quite a few officials in Daming who can understand this like him, but the officials in the capital are far behind, and the local officials are almost all vested interests. There is no one who can really stand up to stop Haihan's actions.
However, the description of the general situation of the South China Sea in this book is actually not very detailed, especially the relationship between Haihan and the countries in the South China Sea. Haihan maintains political, military and economic contacts.Spain, which Fei Cexian was more concerned about before, is naturally not on this list.
After all, Fei Cexian is a scholar, and he is still full of academic spirit. Although he can't fully understand the content of the book, he still sits patiently in the library until he sees the meal.If Zhang Qianzhi hadn't reminded him from the side, he might have stayed here until the library closed.
Fei Cexian closed the pages of the book unwillingly, and sighed to Zhang Qianzhi: "This is only a document of the Ding class, and there are so many contents. I am even more curious about the content of the high-level document."
When searching the catalog before, Fei Cexian noticed the documents of grades A, B, and C. Among them, there were even several South China Sea military reports marked as written by the Ministry of National Defense in the grade A documents.Presumably, the report written by the Haihan military who has carried out several combat missions in the South China Sea should be very detailed and reliable. Unfortunately, Fei Cexian's borrowing authority is far from reaching Grade A documents. Looking at the introduction on the catalog swallowed.
Zhang Qianzhi replied: "If Master Fei is so interested in the situation in the South China Sea, it is better to wait for the embassy here to be built, and then apply to the executive committee to go to the South China Sea for inspection and travel, and see the exotic customs with your own eyes."
Fei Cexian asked curiously, "Can your country arrange this kind of thing?"
Zhang Qianzhi said: "Others may not be able to do it, but Lord Fei is the envoy of Ming Dynasty, and the executive committee will try his best to satisfy any request. If Lord Fei has a plan, the villain can report it on his behalf."
Zhang Qianzhi is not bragging. In fact, it has become a relatively common practice for Haihan to arrange foreign envoys to visit and travel in the area under their control. Even the current governor of the Dutch East India Company, Van Diemen, used to be an envoy at the beginning. Visited the main towns on Hainan Island.But now in Zhejiang, Shandong and even Liaodong, envoys, students, military observers, etc. from other countries, under the arrangement of Haihan officials, went to experience the environment of the Haihan colony.
For the envoys of the Ming Dynasty, the purpose of the Executive Committee is very clear, that is, while preventing the other party from spying on confidential information, it must also try to broaden their horizons so that they can use Haihan's advanced social system and technological achievements to influence their ideas and political positions.Although these two tasks seem to be a bit contradictory, they can basically be clearly distinguished in execution. The information that Fei Cexian has come into contact with so far, except for the occasional discussion outside Haihan Bank , and the rest are basically under the control of the Ministry of Security.If Fei Cexian can be sent to the South China Sea for a walk, it will naturally be easier to control him, and by the way, he can also show him Haihan's actual control over the South China Sea.
However, Fei Cexian was quite cautious. Although he was a little moved, he still did not follow Zhang Qianzhi's suggestion, and only said that this matter needs to be considered.What he was worried about was not whether Haihan could arrange this kind of itinerary properly, but he thought that he would run away as soon as the embassy was finished. It would be a bit irresponsible to do so. If someone reported it secretly, he would have to think of reasons to explain it. , Isn't it just asking for trouble.Even if you want to travel to the South China Sea, you will have to wait for a while to finish the negotiations between the two countries.
Zhang Qianzhi failed to achieve his goal, but he was not discouraged. He didn't expect the other party to agree to it when he proposed the proposal, but he just took this opportunity to show Fei Cexian the confidence Haihan has in controlling the situation in the South China Sea.In the future, when Fei Cexian is too free to stay in Sanya, he will think of the South China Sea as a place to go, and maybe he will take the initiative to raise this matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at some point.
Although Fei Cexian couldn't get enough of it, he couldn't eat in the library, so he could only go out to find a place to eat when it was time for dinner.Immediately, the two left the library, woke up the drowsy entourage and driver who were waiting outside, and then went to a nearby restaurant for dinner.Fei Cexian didn't have much airs, and he didn't let Zhang Qianzhi and the others divide the table, so the four of them sat down at the same table.
"When I was in the capital, the people who came and went with me usually were the people running errands from below, so I didn't pay much attention." After sitting down, Fei Cexian explained, "Besides, this is not an official occasion, just a casual meal outside. That's all, there's no need to distinguish between superiority and inferiority."
Zhang Qianzhi quickly agreed, but he felt more favorable towards Fei Cexian in his heart.Although the envoy of the Ming Dynasty was a bit unsmiling on weekdays, he really had no official airs, and he didn't shout and order around himself and the construction workers on the embassy construction site.Now that he can take the initiative to sit at the same table with his servants to eat, it can indeed be seen that he has a good character.
After eating, Fei Cexian went to the library again. Seeing this, Zhang Qianzhi knew that he was like other people who had opened their eyes when entering the Haihan Library for the first time. Find what they are interested in in the sea of books.For this kind of mentality, Zhang Qianzhi is happy to see the results. First, it is easier to monitor the target's movements and intentions, and second, it can also further carry out psychological warfare against the target, using Haihan's huge advantages in knowledge reserves to fight against the target. Let Fei Cexian's position slowly shake.
Of course, Zhang Qianzhi really couldn't imagine that the reason why Fei Cexian was so greedy for libraries was that besides his desire for knowledge, he also had another purpose: to find out how this potential competition between Haihan and Spain would develop.Zhang Qianzhi did not know much about the military's plan, and did not connect Fei Cexian's actions with Haihan's plan to deal with Spain at all.
So the group returned to the library. This time Fei Cexian did not borrow any literature on the geography of the South China Sea, but found a brief history of Haihan to read.Zhang Qianzhi found an excuse to sneak out of the library, found a contact person from the security department nearby, and gave a verbal report on the monitoring situation on his side, asking him to take it back to the security department for filing.Zhang Qianzhi is now a moderate official in the Ministry of Security, so he can command some people under his command. He seems to be acting alone during the mission, but in fact there are still people on the periphery who are cooperating with him and are ready at any time. Take his orders.
And Fei Cexian didn't seem to notice that he was under surveillance. He found that all kinds of questions Daming had about Hai Han seemed to be able to find answers in this library.Even if the documents and materials he has access to are at the most general level, they can already explain some of the problems in his mind.
For example, regarding the origin of the Haihan people, the information obtained by the court is too mixed, and it is impossible to verify its authenticity.Some say that the Haihan people are overseas Chinese who came across the sea from the east, some say that they come from thousands of miles away from the west, and some say that the Haihan people are descendants of the former dynasty, who have been hiding on a large island in the South China Sea waiting for an opportunity to revolt.There are supporters for various claims, but there is no conclusive evidence to prove it to be true.
The Haihan people's own explanation is undoubtedly a relatively authoritative statement. After Fei Cexian read it, although it is hard to believe whether there is a Haihan country on the other side of the East China Sea, it is at least the Haihan people themselves. The explanation is definitely much more credible than folk rumors.
Fei Cexian believes that this statement is credible, and there is a more objective evidence.It took less than ten years for the Haihan people to build a powerful country from scratch on the coast of the South China Sea.If they were just a group of pirates, fishermen, merchants, or exiled nobles who came here across the ocean, it is obviously impossible to achieve such results. At most, they can build a larger free port, just like the Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang. Just like the Shuangyu Port that has appeared before.
Fei Cexian believes that only a ruler who has truly governed a country can reorganize a new regime in a foreign country with such proficiency.And the abilities displayed by the Haihan people in this aspect all prove that their past identities are definitely not ordinary people.But what he was not sure of was whether this group of people were the pacifists they claimed, or the militants who used the means of war to expand outwards under the pretext of expanding business and trade.
If it is the former, the frequency of Haihan's foreign wars is too frequent. According to the records in this book, there will be a relatively large military operation overseas almost every one or two years, and the opponents will change very frequently. It is rare that two consecutive wars are fought against the same opponent. This is definitely a performance that only a warlike country will have.
But if Haihan is a militant, he just let go of Daming and Annan, who are the closest to him and the easiest to attack. He just occupied several ports on the coastlines of these two countries as strongholds, and did not try to use force to invade these two countries.Not only that, Haihan is even trying to help these two countries train new types of troops, and sell them weapons to improve the combat effectiveness of their troops.Although the people who benefited from the Ming Dynasty were almost all the private armies of the local warlords, at least these local warlords were still loyal to the imperial court on the surface, and there was no sign of rebellion.
According to Haihan's official statement, it is because Haihan is also a Han regime, and has the same root and family as Ming Dynasty, so they hope to maintain brotherly relations.But Fei Cexian believes that this is not the whole reason why Haihan chose peace. Haihan obtained labor, raw materials and sales markets from Daming. Very explicit performance.If Daming refused to provide him with these conditions, then Haihan might not be able to establish diplomatic relations with Daming as calmly as he is now, and put all the disputes on the negotiating table to resolve them.
Fei Cexian doesn't think that Haihan's military power is enough to destroy Daming, but he also knows that it is very difficult to organize an armed force in the south that can compete with Haihan, and it is even less hopeful to win it.Otherwise, the imperial court would not have endured it helplessly for so many years, and it should have mobilized troops to cross the sea to Qiongzhou Island to suppress the bandits.
The brief history of Haihan has records of the wars over the years. Although it is not very detailed, it is enough for Fei Cexian to sort out a timeline of Haihan's fortune in his mind.Haihan's external expansion is almost always accompanied by large-scale wars, and this time Haihan dispatched troops deployed on the coastline of Daming to gather southward. Obviously, the scale of the operation will not be too small. Fei Cexian also wants to know. After this military operation is over, what will happen to Haihan's actual control area.
It's a pity that Fei Cexian is a civil servant, and his understanding of the military is limited to the bad news before he set off from the capital. It is really difficult to analyze Haihan's next war trend based on the existing information.Otherwise, he should understand that Haihan's attack on the Spanish colonies is not just about revenge for old grievances.
(End of this chapter)
When Fei Cexian was flipping through this "Geography of the South China Sea", Zhang Qianzhi sat quietly and waited.He could see that Fei Cexian was really interested in the situation in the South China Sea. This book, which was used as a basic geography textbook by the academies in Haihan, was almost the only book that Fei Cexian could borrow from the library. value related literature.Although the content of the book is very simple to Zhang Qianzhi, it is far beyond the scope of information that Daming officials have. For Fei Cexian, this is tantamount to a major upgrade of his personal knowledge base.
Fei Cexian did not doubt the authenticity of the contents of this book, because he came to the library on a whim, and it was impossible for Haihan people to prepare for it in advance, and this document was the textbook of Haihan Academy, which was used to It is impossible for Haihan officials to cheat the people by deceiving the people as reference materials for the cultivation of talents for the country.
According to the information described in this book, the current international political situation in the South China Sea has been different from the situation that Ming has mastered. Some small countries in the South China Sea that were paid tribute to Ming in the early years have disappeared in the long river of history. The people who rose up in the South China Sea were almost all foreign colonists who came to the South China Sea by sea from the far west.The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal... These Western countries used force to expel or enslave the local aborigines, and established many colonies in various parts of the South China Sea.
Fei Cexian is no stranger to this so-called colonial method, because before and after the founding of Haihan, he also used similar methods to expand outward.In particular, the series of control areas established near the coastline of Daming are exactly the same as those of these Western countries. They are first controlled by force, and after the establishment of settlements, they are forced to start business with the coastal cities of Daming.
Although Fei Cexian doesn't know much about the deeper colonial purposes of capital export, commodity dumping, and raw material plundering, he is very clear that Haihan is using these coastal colonies to absorb nutrients from Ming to strengthen himself.In fact, there are quite a few officials in Daming who can understand this like him, but the officials in the capital are far behind, and the local officials are almost all vested interests. There is no one who can really stand up to stop Haihan's actions.
However, the description of the general situation of the South China Sea in this book is actually not very detailed, especially the relationship between Haihan and the countries in the South China Sea. Haihan maintains political, military and economic contacts.Spain, which Fei Cexian was more concerned about before, is naturally not on this list.
After all, Fei Cexian is a scholar, and he is still full of academic spirit. Although he can't fully understand the content of the book, he still sits patiently in the library until he sees the meal.If Zhang Qianzhi hadn't reminded him from the side, he might have stayed here until the library closed.
Fei Cexian closed the pages of the book unwillingly, and sighed to Zhang Qianzhi: "This is only a document of the Ding class, and there are so many contents. I am even more curious about the content of the high-level document."
When searching the catalog before, Fei Cexian noticed the documents of grades A, B, and C. Among them, there were even several South China Sea military reports marked as written by the Ministry of National Defense in the grade A documents.Presumably, the report written by the Haihan military who has carried out several combat missions in the South China Sea should be very detailed and reliable. Unfortunately, Fei Cexian's borrowing authority is far from reaching Grade A documents. Looking at the introduction on the catalog swallowed.
Zhang Qianzhi replied: "If Master Fei is so interested in the situation in the South China Sea, it is better to wait for the embassy here to be built, and then apply to the executive committee to go to the South China Sea for inspection and travel, and see the exotic customs with your own eyes."
Fei Cexian asked curiously, "Can your country arrange this kind of thing?"
Zhang Qianzhi said: "Others may not be able to do it, but Lord Fei is the envoy of Ming Dynasty, and the executive committee will try his best to satisfy any request. If Lord Fei has a plan, the villain can report it on his behalf."
Zhang Qianzhi is not bragging. In fact, it has become a relatively common practice for Haihan to arrange foreign envoys to visit and travel in the area under their control. Even the current governor of the Dutch East India Company, Van Diemen, used to be an envoy at the beginning. Visited the main towns on Hainan Island.But now in Zhejiang, Shandong and even Liaodong, envoys, students, military observers, etc. from other countries, under the arrangement of Haihan officials, went to experience the environment of the Haihan colony.
For the envoys of the Ming Dynasty, the purpose of the Executive Committee is very clear, that is, while preventing the other party from spying on confidential information, it must also try to broaden their horizons so that they can use Haihan's advanced social system and technological achievements to influence their ideas and political positions.Although these two tasks seem to be a bit contradictory, they can basically be clearly distinguished in execution. The information that Fei Cexian has come into contact with so far, except for the occasional discussion outside Haihan Bank , and the rest are basically under the control of the Ministry of Security.If Fei Cexian can be sent to the South China Sea for a walk, it will naturally be easier to control him, and by the way, he can also show him Haihan's actual control over the South China Sea.
However, Fei Cexian was quite cautious. Although he was a little moved, he still did not follow Zhang Qianzhi's suggestion, and only said that this matter needs to be considered.What he was worried about was not whether Haihan could arrange this kind of itinerary properly, but he thought that he would run away as soon as the embassy was finished. It would be a bit irresponsible to do so. If someone reported it secretly, he would have to think of reasons to explain it. , Isn't it just asking for trouble.Even if you want to travel to the South China Sea, you will have to wait for a while to finish the negotiations between the two countries.
Zhang Qianzhi failed to achieve his goal, but he was not discouraged. He didn't expect the other party to agree to it when he proposed the proposal, but he just took this opportunity to show Fei Cexian the confidence Haihan has in controlling the situation in the South China Sea.In the future, when Fei Cexian is too free to stay in Sanya, he will think of the South China Sea as a place to go, and maybe he will take the initiative to raise this matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at some point.
Although Fei Cexian couldn't get enough of it, he couldn't eat in the library, so he could only go out to find a place to eat when it was time for dinner.Immediately, the two left the library, woke up the drowsy entourage and driver who were waiting outside, and then went to a nearby restaurant for dinner.Fei Cexian didn't have much airs, and he didn't let Zhang Qianzhi and the others divide the table, so the four of them sat down at the same table.
"When I was in the capital, the people who came and went with me usually were the people running errands from below, so I didn't pay much attention." After sitting down, Fei Cexian explained, "Besides, this is not an official occasion, just a casual meal outside. That's all, there's no need to distinguish between superiority and inferiority."
Zhang Qianzhi quickly agreed, but he felt more favorable towards Fei Cexian in his heart.Although the envoy of the Ming Dynasty was a bit unsmiling on weekdays, he really had no official airs, and he didn't shout and order around himself and the construction workers on the embassy construction site.Now that he can take the initiative to sit at the same table with his servants to eat, it can indeed be seen that he has a good character.
After eating, Fei Cexian went to the library again. Seeing this, Zhang Qianzhi knew that he was like other people who had opened their eyes when entering the Haihan Library for the first time. Find what they are interested in in the sea of books.For this kind of mentality, Zhang Qianzhi is happy to see the results. First, it is easier to monitor the target's movements and intentions, and second, it can also further carry out psychological warfare against the target, using Haihan's huge advantages in knowledge reserves to fight against the target. Let Fei Cexian's position slowly shake.
Of course, Zhang Qianzhi really couldn't imagine that the reason why Fei Cexian was so greedy for libraries was that besides his desire for knowledge, he also had another purpose: to find out how this potential competition between Haihan and Spain would develop.Zhang Qianzhi did not know much about the military's plan, and did not connect Fei Cexian's actions with Haihan's plan to deal with Spain at all.
So the group returned to the library. This time Fei Cexian did not borrow any literature on the geography of the South China Sea, but found a brief history of Haihan to read.Zhang Qianzhi found an excuse to sneak out of the library, found a contact person from the security department nearby, and gave a verbal report on the monitoring situation on his side, asking him to take it back to the security department for filing.Zhang Qianzhi is now a moderate official in the Ministry of Security, so he can command some people under his command. He seems to be acting alone during the mission, but in fact there are still people on the periphery who are cooperating with him and are ready at any time. Take his orders.
And Fei Cexian didn't seem to notice that he was under surveillance. He found that all kinds of questions Daming had about Hai Han seemed to be able to find answers in this library.Even if the documents and materials he has access to are at the most general level, they can already explain some of the problems in his mind.
For example, regarding the origin of the Haihan people, the information obtained by the court is too mixed, and it is impossible to verify its authenticity.Some say that the Haihan people are overseas Chinese who came across the sea from the east, some say that they come from thousands of miles away from the west, and some say that the Haihan people are descendants of the former dynasty, who have been hiding on a large island in the South China Sea waiting for an opportunity to revolt.There are supporters for various claims, but there is no conclusive evidence to prove it to be true.
The Haihan people's own explanation is undoubtedly a relatively authoritative statement. After Fei Cexian read it, although it is hard to believe whether there is a Haihan country on the other side of the East China Sea, it is at least the Haihan people themselves. The explanation is definitely much more credible than folk rumors.
Fei Cexian believes that this statement is credible, and there is a more objective evidence.It took less than ten years for the Haihan people to build a powerful country from scratch on the coast of the South China Sea.If they were just a group of pirates, fishermen, merchants, or exiled nobles who came here across the ocean, it is obviously impossible to achieve such results. At most, they can build a larger free port, just like the Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang. Just like the Shuangyu Port that has appeared before.
Fei Cexian believes that only a ruler who has truly governed a country can reorganize a new regime in a foreign country with such proficiency.And the abilities displayed by the Haihan people in this aspect all prove that their past identities are definitely not ordinary people.But what he was not sure of was whether this group of people were the pacifists they claimed, or the militants who used the means of war to expand outwards under the pretext of expanding business and trade.
If it is the former, the frequency of Haihan's foreign wars is too frequent. According to the records in this book, there will be a relatively large military operation overseas almost every one or two years, and the opponents will change very frequently. It is rare that two consecutive wars are fought against the same opponent. This is definitely a performance that only a warlike country will have.
But if Haihan is a militant, he just let go of Daming and Annan, who are the closest to him and the easiest to attack. He just occupied several ports on the coastlines of these two countries as strongholds, and did not try to use force to invade these two countries.Not only that, Haihan is even trying to help these two countries train new types of troops, and sell them weapons to improve the combat effectiveness of their troops.Although the people who benefited from the Ming Dynasty were almost all the private armies of the local warlords, at least these local warlords were still loyal to the imperial court on the surface, and there was no sign of rebellion.
According to Haihan's official statement, it is because Haihan is also a Han regime, and has the same root and family as Ming Dynasty, so they hope to maintain brotherly relations.But Fei Cexian believes that this is not the whole reason why Haihan chose peace. Haihan obtained labor, raw materials and sales markets from Daming. Very explicit performance.If Daming refused to provide him with these conditions, then Haihan might not be able to establish diplomatic relations with Daming as calmly as he is now, and put all the disputes on the negotiating table to resolve them.
Fei Cexian doesn't think that Haihan's military power is enough to destroy Daming, but he also knows that it is very difficult to organize an armed force in the south that can compete with Haihan, and it is even less hopeful to win it.Otherwise, the imperial court would not have endured it helplessly for so many years, and it should have mobilized troops to cross the sea to Qiongzhou Island to suppress the bandits.
The brief history of Haihan has records of the wars over the years. Although it is not very detailed, it is enough for Fei Cexian to sort out a timeline of Haihan's fortune in his mind.Haihan's external expansion is almost always accompanied by large-scale wars, and this time Haihan dispatched troops deployed on the coastline of Daming to gather southward. Obviously, the scale of the operation will not be too small. Fei Cexian also wants to know. After this military operation is over, what will happen to Haihan's actual control area.
It's a pity that Fei Cexian is a civil servant, and his understanding of the military is limited to the bad news before he set off from the capital. It is really difficult to analyze Haihan's next war trend based on the existing information.Otherwise, he should understand that Haihan's attack on the Spanish colonies is not just about revenge for old grievances.
(End of this chapter)