Chapter 1734
Change of Attitude
Chapter 1734 Change of Attitude
The reason for such a premise is actually closely related to the changes in the international situation in the Far East in the past two years.Of course, the root causes of these changes all come from the results of Haihan's previous foreign wars.
In the range of thousands of miles in the north and south directions of Hainan Island, the record of the Haihan Army has fully proved its combat effectiveness.However, not everyone can understand Haihan's choice of force to attack.In particular, several military allies with close ties to Haihan have been privately suggesting that Haihan should make Ming the first choice for military expansion.
The benefits of targeting Daming are obvious. After Haihan occupied the entire territory of Hainan Island, Daming and Hainan were only separated by a narrow Qiongzhou Strait.With Haihan's cross-sea combat capability, no one doubts that places like the Leizhou Peninsula and the Pearl River Estuary will be captured by the Haihan army in a short period of time.And the government in these places has long been infiltrated and bought by Haihan, and the willingness to resist may not be as strong as that of the civilian landlords.
Regardless of whether it is from the perspective of combat difficulty or military expenditure, Haihan will undoubtedly gain much more benefits from these places as the first choice for external expansion than Lao Shi's expedition, and the speed of digesting these occupied areas after the war will be much faster. .
Of course, these countries that encouraged Haihan to go to war against Ming Dynasty would not simply watch the fun from the sidelines.Like this kind of war that is sure to win, as long as you follow Haihan, you can get money steadily. Once the war starts, you will definitely send troops to fight together in order to get a piece of the pie after the war, even if you can get one or two on the coast of Guangdong. An exclusive port is also a great gain.
But Da Ming and Hai Han reached a diplomatic agreement last year and officially established diplomatic relations at the official level. This is undoubtedly a big blow to the onlookers who want to follow Hai Han to pick up bargains.They knew that since Haihan took the initiative to establish diplomatic relations with Daming, the possibility of tearing up his face was not great.And if anyone wants to bypass Haihan and start a war with Ming Dynasty, the consequences may be extremely serious-the Houjin Kingdom far away in Liaodong is an excellent example.
Just when everyone was gradually losing hope about this matter, Haihan started to separately investigate the opinions of these allies on this occasion today, whether they can guarantee to stand firmly in Haihan in the event of a military conflict between Haihan and Ming Dynasty. party.Although it is still unclear what the real purpose of Hai Han's measure is, all the people who were asked took it as a sign——Hai Han may have already seriously considered the plan to fight Da Ming.
Without exception, everyone who was questioned by Haihan's senior officials chose to stand by Haihan's side.Even North Korea, which had always been regarded as Ming's most loyal vassal state in the past, Li Xi nodded after hesitating for a while, expressing his willingness to act according to Hai Han's wishes.
It wasn't that Li Xi wanted to take the initiative to choose to betray Daming, but he understood that the question asked by the Haihan people didn't leave him a choice at all.What Tao Donglai said earlier is very clear, Haihan only has two kinds of diplomatic relations, one is a partner, and the other is an opponent.
If you don't choose to stand on Haihan's side, you will automatically become Haihan's opponent, and with North Korea's current national strength, it is really not qualified to be Haihan's opponent.Haihan doesn't even need to send troops to attack North Korea. He only needs to show Houjin a little bit, relax the situation in Liaodong, and use Houjin's hand to destroy North Korea.
The small court of North Korea also saw this situation very clearly. With no hope of Ming Dynasty, Haihan became the only life-saving straw that North Korea could grasp.As for whether North Korea should continue to show allegiance to Ming Dynasty as it has done in the past 200 years, Li Xi believes that North Korea must first be allowed to continue to exist, and then the question of who to show allegiance to can be discussed.And North Korea now has only one way to survive, and that is to hold Haihan's thigh tightly.
No matter whether Li Xi is willing or not, he can only choose to compromise with Haihan, and North Korea cannot be caught between these two powerful countries as cannon fodder.
And those who have a clear and positive attitude towards this team are Annan, Portugal and the Netherlands.Annan had been at war with Ming Dynasty since the beginning of the fifteenth century. He had already had plans for Yunnan and Guangxi bordering the north. He hoped that Haihan would come out to lead the way, so he followed behind and fought all the way.
Portugal and the Netherlands are the traditions of colonial countries. As long as they can occupy land in the Far East, especially the many ports in the south of Ming Dynasty, they don't mind sending armed forces to fight in the territory of Ming Dynasty with Haihan.Compared with Haihan, who is keen to promote the international trade system, Daming's self-isolation really makes it difficult for these western colonial countries to adapt. If it weren't for the existence of Haihan, these two countries would have already thought of using force against Daming .
As for the other countries in the South China Sea, although they dare not express their opinions easily due to the power of Daming, compared to Daming who has basically given up on the South China Sea, Haihan is the object they are most in awe of at present.Not long ago, the Spaniards, who were across the entire South China Sea from Hainan Island, were chased by the Haihan army and beaten up. They even lost the city of Manila, which had been in business for more than half a century. Who would dare to say no to the Haihan people? ?
Therefore, before the envoy of Ming Dynasty Fei Cexian was aware of it, Haihan quickly completed the unification of opinions on the envoys of various countries. If the two countries go to war, then these countries will stand on Haihan's side and give up on the other countries. Daming any form of support.
Everyone thought this was part of Hai Han's pre-war preparations, even including Fei Cexian who had just been informed of the situation by Ning Qi.When he heard that Ning Qi took the initiative to admit such an arrangement, he almost couldn't restrain his emotions and wanted to quarrel with Ning Qi.
While filling Fei Cexian's glass, Ning Qi said, "Master Fei, don't panic. I'm telling you this to let you know that our country has no malicious intentions."
Fei Cexian was so angry that his lips trembled: "You...you don't mean to be malicious? You think that our country is weak and deceitful, right?"
Ning Qi explained: "Right now there are too many people who want to take advantage of your country. In order to prevent the situation from getting out of control, we simply let our country take the lead. In the future, whoever wants to make things difficult for Daming is equivalent to stealing from our country. Now that the business is over, people with such thoughts will naturally have to weigh the consequences. To put it bluntly, it is actually protecting your country in disguise, Master Fei understands?"
"What a protection!" Fei Cexian laughed angrily: "I don't think it's appropriate to call it protection, it's better to say coercion."
Regarding Ning Qi's explanation, Fei Cexian thinks it's nonsense. Haihan may have some good intentions in doing this. It is clearly to separate Daming from these countries. When Haihan wants to do something in the future, Daming will also You can only fight alone, and there will be no support and assistance from other countries.
Ning Qi spread his hands and said: "Master Fei must understand in such an extreme direction, then I can't help it. But Lord Fei can think about it, if our country really wants to use force against Ming, then why bother, why bother?" Let me tell you in advance? Our country only needs to transfer the troops deployed in Liaodong back to the south. Where can the coastal provinces not take them down?"
Fei Cexian snorted coldly, but didn't answer Ning Qi's words.Of course he knew that there was a huge difference in the strength of the armies of the two countries. The only advantage that Ming had in military affairs was that the army was far larger than Haihan. Almost all of them were initiated from the sea, and Da Ming was simply unable to defend the long coastline, and could not quickly form a military advantage on local battlefields.
And just like what Ning Qi said, there is only one reason why Hai Han didn't take such an action, that is, Hai Han didn't want to do it.Otherwise, with Haihan's combat strength in Liaodong, it would be no problem to attack any coastal state capital of Ming Dynasty. This gap in hard power is really unacceptable.
Ning Qi continued: "Master Fei, think again, from the secret negotiations before the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries last year to the agreement reached later, how much trouble has been spent in the middle. If our country intends to use force against your country, why bother?" It’s over if we don’t fight? You see, did our country deliberately cover up before the war when we sent troops to fight against Houjin and Spain?”
This is also one of the things that Fei Cexian doesn't understand. If Haihan wants to be unfavorable to Daming, why spend so much effort in the past few years to open up the joints of the imperial court? He must establish diplomatic relations with Daming. The money is probably enough for Haihan to start a few more foreign wars.Moreover, after Haihan fought, Jin and Spain both declared war first and then sent troops. They indeed defeated their opponents in an upright manner, and it seemed that there was no need to go around in circles around Daming.
Fei Cexian said: "Although that is the case, please forgive me for not being able to trust your country's actions!"
Ning Qi said: "It's understandable that Mr. Fei doesn't understand the painstaking efforts of our country. Since Mr. Fei won't listen to what I say, let's talk about this first. Let time tell us what our country's true attitude is. !"
Fei Cexian panicked for no reason when he heard this. If Haihan really planned to invade Daming, then the verification process would probably only be done through war.One of the most important tasks of his mission to Haihan is to maintain the peaceful coexistence between the two countries. If Haihan initiates a war on his own initiative, it will be considered his negligence.
"Wait a minute!" Fei Cexian stopped Ning Qi who was about to get up and leave: "Since Chief Ning speaks with certainty, can you give me some confidence as to where the Haihan Army will use its troops next?"
Ning Qi asked back: "Then where is your country's hope? I think Emperor Chongzhen must be very happy to let our army continue to fight in Liaodong, right?"
Ning Qi brought Chongzhen out to speak, but Fei Cexian didn't dare to answer the question, so he could only respond: "I have a low official position, so I don't dare to speculate on the holy will casually."
Ning Qi said: "I'm in charge of diplomatic, cultural and educational affairs. I don't care about military matters. But the next step of the Haihan Army's deployment of troops will definitely not be in the Ming Dynasty. This can reassure Sir Fei ?"
Fei Cexian said in his heart that there is no difference between what you said and what you didn't say, how can I feel at ease?He suddenly felt that this group of Haihan people seemed to be far less organized than in other fields in terms of diplomacy. This set of tactics was so chaotic that he couldn't understand what the other party's real intentions were, or maybe this was what Haihan wanted to achieve?
In the past, the foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty at the national level was very simple. Those who were willing to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty were treated as vassal states, and those who were disobedient would send troops to conquer.But peace is war, and the reason for war is rarely made through diplomatic channels, let alone using diplomatic means to calculate the opponent and weaken the opponent's strength in a non-war manner.The international relations that Fei Cexian was able to come into contact with during his errands in the Ministry of Rites were relatively simple, and he could not imagine some more advanced operation methods at all.
For Haihan, Daming is a source of resources, a sales market, and a source of manpower, but at the same time it is also an opponent that needs to be carefully guarded against.For his own benefit, Haihan wants to continue Daming's state, and even send troops to defend against foreign enemies, but at the same time, he must carefully weaken Daming's defense against himself, so that he can control the trend of the regional situation.
For this reason, when Haihan established diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty, he deliberately created some signs that he might use force against Ming Dynasty, and tried to suppress Ming Dynasty's international status.The Executive Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have devised some extremely complicated and even seemingly contradictory measures and means to achieve this goal.Sure enough, Fei Cexian couldn't understand this complicated situation at all. He was dizzy and could only be led by Hai Han step by step.
"Lord Fei, you have to trust us, otherwise it will be really easy to lose the rare peace." Ning Qi continued to infuse the other party with ecstasy: "You must know that not everyone in our country is in favor of providing military services to your country. Aid, the existing diplomatic relations are hard-won and fragile, and we need to maintain them together.”
Fei Cexian thought to himself, how can I say that the person who seems to want to destroy the peace has become me?You guys are the ones who spread the word that they want to do something to Daming!Moreover, this attitude kept changing. Fei Cexian became more and more confused about what Haihan's true intention was.
What Fei Cexian didn't know was that at the same time, the envoys from other countries who were talking to senior Haihan officials had already lowered their expectations for Ming Dynasty, because they all believed that once Haihan declared war on Ming Dynasty, they would be the first to fall into the flames of war. The most important must be rich places such as the Pearl River Delta, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.What will be affected next is the price of Ming's export commodities, which will reduce production capacity and increase prices due to the war.Some people are already thinking in their minds that they should notify merchants in their countries to stock up on Ming products as soon as possible, and maybe they can take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune.
Of course, no matter how fast their actions are, it is impossible for them to be faster than Haihan who arranged this situation. For the high-end goods markets such as silk, porcelain, and tea, Haihan has already started planning several months in advance.Taking into account the delay in delivery, some commodities have entered Haihan's monopoly procurement list in the second half of last year.Foreign businessmen who want to purchase certain commodities can probably only buy goods with higher prices from Haihan.
(End of this chapter)
The reason for such a premise is actually closely related to the changes in the international situation in the Far East in the past two years.Of course, the root causes of these changes all come from the results of Haihan's previous foreign wars.
In the range of thousands of miles in the north and south directions of Hainan Island, the record of the Haihan Army has fully proved its combat effectiveness.However, not everyone can understand Haihan's choice of force to attack.In particular, several military allies with close ties to Haihan have been privately suggesting that Haihan should make Ming the first choice for military expansion.
The benefits of targeting Daming are obvious. After Haihan occupied the entire territory of Hainan Island, Daming and Hainan were only separated by a narrow Qiongzhou Strait.With Haihan's cross-sea combat capability, no one doubts that places like the Leizhou Peninsula and the Pearl River Estuary will be captured by the Haihan army in a short period of time.And the government in these places has long been infiltrated and bought by Haihan, and the willingness to resist may not be as strong as that of the civilian landlords.
Regardless of whether it is from the perspective of combat difficulty or military expenditure, Haihan will undoubtedly gain much more benefits from these places as the first choice for external expansion than Lao Shi's expedition, and the speed of digesting these occupied areas after the war will be much faster. .
Of course, these countries that encouraged Haihan to go to war against Ming Dynasty would not simply watch the fun from the sidelines.Like this kind of war that is sure to win, as long as you follow Haihan, you can get money steadily. Once the war starts, you will definitely send troops to fight together in order to get a piece of the pie after the war, even if you can get one or two on the coast of Guangdong. An exclusive port is also a great gain.
But Da Ming and Hai Han reached a diplomatic agreement last year and officially established diplomatic relations at the official level. This is undoubtedly a big blow to the onlookers who want to follow Hai Han to pick up bargains.They knew that since Haihan took the initiative to establish diplomatic relations with Daming, the possibility of tearing up his face was not great.And if anyone wants to bypass Haihan and start a war with Ming Dynasty, the consequences may be extremely serious-the Houjin Kingdom far away in Liaodong is an excellent example.
Just when everyone was gradually losing hope about this matter, Haihan started to separately investigate the opinions of these allies on this occasion today, whether they can guarantee to stand firmly in Haihan in the event of a military conflict between Haihan and Ming Dynasty. party.Although it is still unclear what the real purpose of Hai Han's measure is, all the people who were asked took it as a sign——Hai Han may have already seriously considered the plan to fight Da Ming.
Without exception, everyone who was questioned by Haihan's senior officials chose to stand by Haihan's side.Even North Korea, which had always been regarded as Ming's most loyal vassal state in the past, Li Xi nodded after hesitating for a while, expressing his willingness to act according to Hai Han's wishes.
It wasn't that Li Xi wanted to take the initiative to choose to betray Daming, but he understood that the question asked by the Haihan people didn't leave him a choice at all.What Tao Donglai said earlier is very clear, Haihan only has two kinds of diplomatic relations, one is a partner, and the other is an opponent.
If you don't choose to stand on Haihan's side, you will automatically become Haihan's opponent, and with North Korea's current national strength, it is really not qualified to be Haihan's opponent.Haihan doesn't even need to send troops to attack North Korea. He only needs to show Houjin a little bit, relax the situation in Liaodong, and use Houjin's hand to destroy North Korea.
The small court of North Korea also saw this situation very clearly. With no hope of Ming Dynasty, Haihan became the only life-saving straw that North Korea could grasp.As for whether North Korea should continue to show allegiance to Ming Dynasty as it has done in the past 200 years, Li Xi believes that North Korea must first be allowed to continue to exist, and then the question of who to show allegiance to can be discussed.And North Korea now has only one way to survive, and that is to hold Haihan's thigh tightly.
No matter whether Li Xi is willing or not, he can only choose to compromise with Haihan, and North Korea cannot be caught between these two powerful countries as cannon fodder.
And those who have a clear and positive attitude towards this team are Annan, Portugal and the Netherlands.Annan had been at war with Ming Dynasty since the beginning of the fifteenth century. He had already had plans for Yunnan and Guangxi bordering the north. He hoped that Haihan would come out to lead the way, so he followed behind and fought all the way.
Portugal and the Netherlands are the traditions of colonial countries. As long as they can occupy land in the Far East, especially the many ports in the south of Ming Dynasty, they don't mind sending armed forces to fight in the territory of Ming Dynasty with Haihan.Compared with Haihan, who is keen to promote the international trade system, Daming's self-isolation really makes it difficult for these western colonial countries to adapt. If it weren't for the existence of Haihan, these two countries would have already thought of using force against Daming .
As for the other countries in the South China Sea, although they dare not express their opinions easily due to the power of Daming, compared to Daming who has basically given up on the South China Sea, Haihan is the object they are most in awe of at present.Not long ago, the Spaniards, who were across the entire South China Sea from Hainan Island, were chased by the Haihan army and beaten up. They even lost the city of Manila, which had been in business for more than half a century. Who would dare to say no to the Haihan people? ?
Therefore, before the envoy of Ming Dynasty Fei Cexian was aware of it, Haihan quickly completed the unification of opinions on the envoys of various countries. If the two countries go to war, then these countries will stand on Haihan's side and give up on the other countries. Daming any form of support.
Everyone thought this was part of Hai Han's pre-war preparations, even including Fei Cexian who had just been informed of the situation by Ning Qi.When he heard that Ning Qi took the initiative to admit such an arrangement, he almost couldn't restrain his emotions and wanted to quarrel with Ning Qi.
While filling Fei Cexian's glass, Ning Qi said, "Master Fei, don't panic. I'm telling you this to let you know that our country has no malicious intentions."
Fei Cexian was so angry that his lips trembled: "You...you don't mean to be malicious? You think that our country is weak and deceitful, right?"
Ning Qi explained: "Right now there are too many people who want to take advantage of your country. In order to prevent the situation from getting out of control, we simply let our country take the lead. In the future, whoever wants to make things difficult for Daming is equivalent to stealing from our country. Now that the business is over, people with such thoughts will naturally have to weigh the consequences. To put it bluntly, it is actually protecting your country in disguise, Master Fei understands?"
"What a protection!" Fei Cexian laughed angrily: "I don't think it's appropriate to call it protection, it's better to say coercion."
Regarding Ning Qi's explanation, Fei Cexian thinks it's nonsense. Haihan may have some good intentions in doing this. It is clearly to separate Daming from these countries. When Haihan wants to do something in the future, Daming will also You can only fight alone, and there will be no support and assistance from other countries.
Ning Qi spread his hands and said: "Master Fei must understand in such an extreme direction, then I can't help it. But Lord Fei can think about it, if our country really wants to use force against Ming, then why bother, why bother?" Let me tell you in advance? Our country only needs to transfer the troops deployed in Liaodong back to the south. Where can the coastal provinces not take them down?"
Fei Cexian snorted coldly, but didn't answer Ning Qi's words.Of course he knew that there was a huge difference in the strength of the armies of the two countries. The only advantage that Ming had in military affairs was that the army was far larger than Haihan. Almost all of them were initiated from the sea, and Da Ming was simply unable to defend the long coastline, and could not quickly form a military advantage on local battlefields.
And just like what Ning Qi said, there is only one reason why Hai Han didn't take such an action, that is, Hai Han didn't want to do it.Otherwise, with Haihan's combat strength in Liaodong, it would be no problem to attack any coastal state capital of Ming Dynasty. This gap in hard power is really unacceptable.
Ning Qi continued: "Master Fei, think again, from the secret negotiations before the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries last year to the agreement reached later, how much trouble has been spent in the middle. If our country intends to use force against your country, why bother?" It’s over if we don’t fight? You see, did our country deliberately cover up before the war when we sent troops to fight against Houjin and Spain?”
This is also one of the things that Fei Cexian doesn't understand. If Haihan wants to be unfavorable to Daming, why spend so much effort in the past few years to open up the joints of the imperial court? He must establish diplomatic relations with Daming. The money is probably enough for Haihan to start a few more foreign wars.Moreover, after Haihan fought, Jin and Spain both declared war first and then sent troops. They indeed defeated their opponents in an upright manner, and it seemed that there was no need to go around in circles around Daming.
Fei Cexian said: "Although that is the case, please forgive me for not being able to trust your country's actions!"
Ning Qi said: "It's understandable that Mr. Fei doesn't understand the painstaking efforts of our country. Since Mr. Fei won't listen to what I say, let's talk about this first. Let time tell us what our country's true attitude is. !"
Fei Cexian panicked for no reason when he heard this. If Haihan really planned to invade Daming, then the verification process would probably only be done through war.One of the most important tasks of his mission to Haihan is to maintain the peaceful coexistence between the two countries. If Haihan initiates a war on his own initiative, it will be considered his negligence.
"Wait a minute!" Fei Cexian stopped Ning Qi who was about to get up and leave: "Since Chief Ning speaks with certainty, can you give me some confidence as to where the Haihan Army will use its troops next?"
Ning Qi asked back: "Then where is your country's hope? I think Emperor Chongzhen must be very happy to let our army continue to fight in Liaodong, right?"
Ning Qi brought Chongzhen out to speak, but Fei Cexian didn't dare to answer the question, so he could only respond: "I have a low official position, so I don't dare to speculate on the holy will casually."
Ning Qi said: "I'm in charge of diplomatic, cultural and educational affairs. I don't care about military matters. But the next step of the Haihan Army's deployment of troops will definitely not be in the Ming Dynasty. This can reassure Sir Fei ?"
Fei Cexian said in his heart that there is no difference between what you said and what you didn't say, how can I feel at ease?He suddenly felt that this group of Haihan people seemed to be far less organized than in other fields in terms of diplomacy. This set of tactics was so chaotic that he couldn't understand what the other party's real intentions were, or maybe this was what Haihan wanted to achieve?
In the past, the foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty at the national level was very simple. Those who were willing to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty were treated as vassal states, and those who were disobedient would send troops to conquer.But peace is war, and the reason for war is rarely made through diplomatic channels, let alone using diplomatic means to calculate the opponent and weaken the opponent's strength in a non-war manner.The international relations that Fei Cexian was able to come into contact with during his errands in the Ministry of Rites were relatively simple, and he could not imagine some more advanced operation methods at all.
For Haihan, Daming is a source of resources, a sales market, and a source of manpower, but at the same time it is also an opponent that needs to be carefully guarded against.For his own benefit, Haihan wants to continue Daming's state, and even send troops to defend against foreign enemies, but at the same time, he must carefully weaken Daming's defense against himself, so that he can control the trend of the regional situation.
For this reason, when Haihan established diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty, he deliberately created some signs that he might use force against Ming Dynasty, and tried to suppress Ming Dynasty's international status.The Executive Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have devised some extremely complicated and even seemingly contradictory measures and means to achieve this goal.Sure enough, Fei Cexian couldn't understand this complicated situation at all. He was dizzy and could only be led by Hai Han step by step.
"Lord Fei, you have to trust us, otherwise it will be really easy to lose the rare peace." Ning Qi continued to infuse the other party with ecstasy: "You must know that not everyone in our country is in favor of providing military services to your country. Aid, the existing diplomatic relations are hard-won and fragile, and we need to maintain them together.”
Fei Cexian thought to himself, how can I say that the person who seems to want to destroy the peace has become me?You guys are the ones who spread the word that they want to do something to Daming!Moreover, this attitude kept changing. Fei Cexian became more and more confused about what Haihan's true intention was.
What Fei Cexian didn't know was that at the same time, the envoys from other countries who were talking to senior Haihan officials had already lowered their expectations for Ming Dynasty, because they all believed that once Haihan declared war on Ming Dynasty, they would be the first to fall into the flames of war. The most important must be rich places such as the Pearl River Delta, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.What will be affected next is the price of Ming's export commodities, which will reduce production capacity and increase prices due to the war.Some people are already thinking in their minds that they should notify merchants in their countries to stock up on Ming products as soon as possible, and maybe they can take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune.
Of course, no matter how fast their actions are, it is impossible for them to be faster than Haihan who arranged this situation. For the high-end goods markets such as silk, porcelain, and tea, Haihan has already started planning several months in advance.Taking into account the delay in delivery, some commodities have entered Haihan's monopoly procurement list in the second half of last year.Foreign businessmen who want to purchase certain commodities can probably only buy goods with higher prices from Haihan.
(End of this chapter)