Chapter 1848
Deep Cooperation
Chapter 1848 Deep Cooperation
North Korea's expenditure during the Anti-Qing War was very huge, and it has exceeded the total domestic military expenditure in the past ten years so far.After emptying the national treasury, the North Korean authorities can only rely on unconventional means such as gentry fundraising and increasing local taxes to temporarily ease the current predicament.
Although there are immediate results, Li Zhen also knows that these measures are not a long-term solution. Domestic economic pressure will gradually turn into social conflicts, which will affect the stability of his rule.Haihan has always been known for being good at managing trade, and has expressed to North Korea many times his willingness to increase the scale of trade. For North Korea, this may be the best solution to revive the economy and enrich the treasury after the war.
Li Jing also knew the purpose of the two senior generals from Haihan coming to Seoul to visit him this time, and they would definitely talk about the in-depth cooperation between the two sides in various fields, and trade was of course one of them.But at present, he is not sure what kind of conditions Haihan will put forward in the negotiation. With the shrewdness of Haihan people, it must be necessary to maximize the benefits from future cooperation.
In the past, Li Jing was not too convinced of the evaluation that "Haihan people are omnipotent", but as he dealt with Haihan more and more times, he finally understood that such a statement was not groundless.Senior military generals like Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom can even act as civil servants and carry out diplomatic and trade negotiations with other countries.
Some time ago, Li Zhen also heard the comment that there are North Korean military generals who can be civil servants, but this is not a compliment, but a belittling of North Korean military generals who will not lead troops to fight. Compared with the general's performance, it is indeed a world of difference.Their military generals are not only good at fighting, but even their performance in the non-military field is much better than that of their own officials, which inevitably makes Li Zhen feel a little sour in his heart.
At present, North Korea's most important minister is undoubtedly Kim Sang-heon, the leader of the main combat faction, but Kim Sang-heon's strength lies in analyzing the current situation and winning people's hearts, but he is not the director when it comes to measures for economic construction.In the past, North Korea paid limited attention to international trade, and there was a serious lack of professional talents in this area. It is bound to be in a relatively passive position to start a war with Haihan in trade negotiations.
Li Xi felt that he made a mistake, that is, he did not recall Li Xi from Haihan State in advance. After all, Li Xi was the only official who had been to Haihan State on behalf of North Korea and truly understood the domestic situation in Haihan.But it was too late to recall Li Xi back to Seoul for this negotiation, but Li Xi still made the best second choice and recalled Jin Shangjiu from the Haihan Army to Seoul.
Jin Shangjiu was sent to Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province last year as a diplomat. Although the locality is not Haihan's native land, it is even the territory of Ming Dynasty in name, but Haihan has indeed realized the rule in the local area, and it can be regarded as a period of time under Haihan's rule.Later, before the war, he was assigned to return to China with the Haihan Fleet, and then he has been fighting with the fleet on the front line. The relationship with Wang Tom is still good, and sending him to participate in the next negotiation is also a means of compensation.
Because of being assigned such an important task, Jin Sangjiu was able to enter Gyeongbokgung Palace today, where he gathered with many big figures to enjoy the king's banquet. This is also a memorable moment in his personal career.
However, even if Jin Shangjiuxuan was disappointed with the banquets at the Gyeongbokgung Palace, compared to those banquets he had seen in Zhoushan, the level of Gyeongbokgung Palace really seemed a bit shabby.Looking at the dishes and dishes, there is a large table, but the content is really light, with very little oil and meat.Jin Shangjiu silently estimated that the value of the food on the table in front of each guest is estimated to be less than five taels of silver—this is of course measured by the standards of Zhoushan restaurants.
In fact, it wasn't that the king Li Zhen was stingy, it was that the treasury was empty, and the king was so tight on daily expenses that he couldn't do anything more.But today's banquet is in the nature of a state banquet, so we still need to pay attention to some ostentation, so we can only add a few more vegetarian dishes to fill the scene.Of course, excluding these factors, the banquets of the Koreans still cannot be compared with countries with relatively more developed food cultures such as Haihan and Daming. When I return to North Korea today and go back to the days when there is only kimchi and miso soup, I can’t help but feel a little bit disappointed.
Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom were very calm about this. The purpose of their visit to Seoul was to negotiate, and the quality of the meal would not affect their emotions.And they probably know the current situation in North Korea, and they even have a little bit of sympathy for Li Zhen's situation. After all, everyone is in the ruling class, and they will definitely have some empathetic thoughts.
Originally, Qian Tiandun planned to mention the cooperation between the two parties at the banquet, but today the banquet held by Li Ji invited as many as a hundred people from the upper class of North Korea, most of them were unfamiliar faces that Qian Tiandun did not recognize, and some words It's not suitable to say it directly in this environment, Qian Tiandun can only give up his thoughts, and deal with the North Korean officials and princes and nobles who are queuing up to toast.
For the dignitaries of North Korea, it is already a great honor to have the opportunity to sit down, drink and chat with General Haihan.It was the first time for many of them to see the general Haihan who led his troops to repel the Qing army this time. Their admiration for the strong made them rush forward to toast. These guys have already sat down to share the table.
Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom are no strangers to this behavior of the Koreans. When Haihan sent troops to help Annan Zheng's win the final victory in the civil war, King Zheng of the Qing Dynasty feasted on Haihan's generals in Thanglong Mansion, posing During the three-day feast, the performance of the Annan people was more fanatical than that of the North Koreans. Not to mention trivial matters such as queuing up to toast, there were as many as dozens of senior Annan officials who announced on the spot that they would marry their youngest daughter to General Haihan. .
Of course, some people at the scene also thought of this kind of means of building relationships, but as soon as the first person to eat crabs opened his mouth, Wang Tom decisively rejected his "kindness": "General Qian has a beautiful wife and beautiful family members. I will marry again. As for my descendants, there are twelve months in a year, only one or two months on shore, and I don’t know where to go ashore, let’s forget about getting married, so as not to harm others.”
It is not impossible to marry a North Korean, but Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun are not interested in it, and they don't want to affect their living conditions because of these things.If it is only to meet their physical needs, they have many ways to achieve their goals, and there is no need to marry a woman from North Korea for this purpose.
At the end of the banquet, the two senior generals of Haihan were also half drunk, and they had a carriage arranged by the North Korean side to send them out of Gyeongbokgung Palace, and went to live in a house in the city that had been prepared in advance. .This house was the residence of a member of the royal family, and the conditions were naturally much better than that of the Datongjiang Base. However, the two of them were already quite tired, and couldn't care less about admiring the garden view of this place, so they went to bed early after washing.
The next day, Jin Shangjiu came to invite Qian and Wang into the palace again to meet with the king Li Ji.Before they came to Seoul, they had already expressed the purpose of this meeting to Li Zhen through Jin Shangxian. Li Zhen thought that he had a good conversation with the two Haihan generals at the banquet yesterday, so he took the initiative to invite them to the palace again to have a talk. The next cooperation between the two parties.
In addition to Li Ji and Jin Shangjiu, the people present are naturally indispensable to Jin Shangxian, who is now quite favored by Li Ji.If it is said that Kim Sang-heon’s influence on Li Ji in the past was mainly concentrated on foreign policy, after the end of the Anti-Qing War, Kim Sang-heon’s opinions on various government affairs will become an important reference for Li Ji.Even though the project to be negotiated with Haihan this time may be a trade field that Jin Shangxian is not good at, Li Yu still called him to participate in this negotiation, which shows his trust and reliance on him.
In fact, as early as last May when Tom Wang led his fleet to Seoul and forced North Korea to sign a covenant, the two sides reached a preliminary agreement on political and military cooperation, opening ports for trade, and immigration exchanges. However, the talks at that time were too hasty. It was too late for Tom to negotiate specific measures with North Korea, so many projects were delayed again and again, until now no substantive progress has been made.And this time when he meets with Li Jing again, Tom Wang will finalize as many projects as possible to win more benefits for Hai Han.
"Since forming an alliance with your country last year, the achievements in the political and military fields are obvious, and His Majesty the King should also have a clear understanding of this. In order to further consolidate the relationship between the two countries, our country hopes to increase cooperation with North Korea. The strength of cooperation can adopt an attitude of mutual trust and mutual assistance in more fields, and promote the continued development of the relationship between the two countries." Tom Wang first offered a set of more official rhetoric to pave the way for the conditions to be discussed later.
Li Ying responded: "Your country's military aid is very important to our country, and I am very grateful, but what makes me feel most comfortable is that your country respects North Korea and is willing to spend time communicating and discussing with us, rather than making unilateral decisions. I hope this attitude will continue in the future.”
The "respect" mentioned by Li Jing is actually an extremely normal behavior in the eyes of the people who travel through. If North Korea is not an ally of Haihan, then naturally there will be no measures for negotiation and communication, and the final result of this communication The purpose is to make North Korea cooperate with Haihan's various demands as much as possible. In the final analysis, it is out of interest considerations, not any sense of awe of North Korea as a country.
However, the respect that Li Jing understands actually has another aspect, and this is what Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun don't even know.The entire Haihan, perhaps only Ning Qi knew the reason, but he might not have noticed this detail.
The detail that Li Zhen cares about involves the origin of the title of King of Korea. The Joseon Dynasty was established by Taizu Li Chenggui in 1392, but he abolished Koryo and let Wang Yao take the throne. The request for canonization was not approved, and only the country name was confirmed as "North Korea" proposed by Li Chenggui.
The first king of Joseon who was actually canonized by the Ming Dynasty was Li Fangyuan, the second son of Li Chenggui, and at that time Minghui Emperor Zhu Yunqi was at war with Yan Wang Zhudi. In order to win North Korea to stand on his side in the civil war, Zhu Yunqi ordered the Ministry of Rites King Li Fangyuan was bestowed with imperial orders.Before him, his father Li Chenggui and his elder brother Li Fangguo, who were in charge of North Korea's military and political power, only had the title of "the right to know North Korea's state affairs", not the justifiable King of North Korea.
After Zhu Di's "Jing Nan" succeeded in enthroning, Li Fangyuan once again presented a congratulatory form. In order to appease the vassal state of North Korea, Zhu Di did not take back the canonization given to him by Zhu Yunqi before, but reconfirmed his status as king.So after that, the successive rulers of Korea were conferred the title of King of Korea by Ming Dynasty as usual, but they could only be called kings and not emperors, they could only call themselves orphans or widows, they could not call themselves Zhen, they could only be called kings and highnesses by ministers , but cannot be called the emperor or your majesty, otherwise it is arrogance.
However, among Haihan and his group of traversers, there are very few people who have a thorough understanding of the standards of these titles, so from the very beginning when dealing with North Korea, they set Li Zhen's title as "His Majesty the King".This was actually a small oolong, and Haihan did not intend to do it, but after Li Zhen noticed this detail, he interpreted it as Haihan's "respect" for himself and North Korea, and because of this, Haihan respected Haihan. released on the question of appellation
"Goodwill" produces good feelings.As a result, important ministers such as Jin Shangxian also began to follow the example of Haihan, and changed their titles to "Your Majesty", which further increased Li Ji's favor for Haihan.
Of course, the reason for this kind of favor, Li Zhen would definitely not take the initiative to mention it to Tom Wang and Qian Tiandun, so they didn't know that the king of North Korea had an inexplicable favor for Hai Han because of such details, even if they knew It may not be able to understand Li Zhen's vanity-like thoughts.
After the two parties exchanged pleasantries, they began to cut to the point.The topics of in-depth cooperation proposed by Haihan this time mainly come from the aspects of politics, economy and military.
In terms of military affairs, after the previous few months of war, the two sides have basically achieved military mutual trust, and Haihan's long-term military presence in North Korea has become a foregone conclusion.In the future, in addition to selling advanced weapons to North Korea, training qualified officers for North Korea and forming a new type of army will also become the main content of military cooperation between the two sides.However, these military cooperation projects inevitably require a large amount of military expenditure as a support. Given the current situation in North Korea, it is difficult to reach an ideal level. Economic problems must be resolved before the military cooperation between the two sides can be sustained.
The solution proposed by Haihan is to allow North Korea to open the door to trade and allow Haihan merchants and various commercial organizations to enter North Korea to operate.It is not just to open a shop to do some small business, but to directly intervene in the operation of some special industries, such as shipping, salt production, smelting, etc. These industries were originally supervised or even monopolized by the government. join in.
(End of this chapter)
North Korea's expenditure during the Anti-Qing War was very huge, and it has exceeded the total domestic military expenditure in the past ten years so far.After emptying the national treasury, the North Korean authorities can only rely on unconventional means such as gentry fundraising and increasing local taxes to temporarily ease the current predicament.
Although there are immediate results, Li Zhen also knows that these measures are not a long-term solution. Domestic economic pressure will gradually turn into social conflicts, which will affect the stability of his rule.Haihan has always been known for being good at managing trade, and has expressed to North Korea many times his willingness to increase the scale of trade. For North Korea, this may be the best solution to revive the economy and enrich the treasury after the war.
Li Jing also knew the purpose of the two senior generals from Haihan coming to Seoul to visit him this time, and they would definitely talk about the in-depth cooperation between the two sides in various fields, and trade was of course one of them.But at present, he is not sure what kind of conditions Haihan will put forward in the negotiation. With the shrewdness of Haihan people, it must be necessary to maximize the benefits from future cooperation.
In the past, Li Jing was not too convinced of the evaluation that "Haihan people are omnipotent", but as he dealt with Haihan more and more times, he finally understood that such a statement was not groundless.Senior military generals like Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom can even act as civil servants and carry out diplomatic and trade negotiations with other countries.
Some time ago, Li Zhen also heard the comment that there are North Korean military generals who can be civil servants, but this is not a compliment, but a belittling of North Korean military generals who will not lead troops to fight. Compared with the general's performance, it is indeed a world of difference.Their military generals are not only good at fighting, but even their performance in the non-military field is much better than that of their own officials, which inevitably makes Li Zhen feel a little sour in his heart.
At present, North Korea's most important minister is undoubtedly Kim Sang-heon, the leader of the main combat faction, but Kim Sang-heon's strength lies in analyzing the current situation and winning people's hearts, but he is not the director when it comes to measures for economic construction.In the past, North Korea paid limited attention to international trade, and there was a serious lack of professional talents in this area. It is bound to be in a relatively passive position to start a war with Haihan in trade negotiations.
Li Xi felt that he made a mistake, that is, he did not recall Li Xi from Haihan State in advance. After all, Li Xi was the only official who had been to Haihan State on behalf of North Korea and truly understood the domestic situation in Haihan.But it was too late to recall Li Xi back to Seoul for this negotiation, but Li Xi still made the best second choice and recalled Jin Shangjiu from the Haihan Army to Seoul.
Jin Shangjiu was sent to Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province last year as a diplomat. Although the locality is not Haihan's native land, it is even the territory of Ming Dynasty in name, but Haihan has indeed realized the rule in the local area, and it can be regarded as a period of time under Haihan's rule.Later, before the war, he was assigned to return to China with the Haihan Fleet, and then he has been fighting with the fleet on the front line. The relationship with Wang Tom is still good, and sending him to participate in the next negotiation is also a means of compensation.
Because of being assigned such an important task, Jin Sangjiu was able to enter Gyeongbokgung Palace today, where he gathered with many big figures to enjoy the king's banquet. This is also a memorable moment in his personal career.
However, even if Jin Shangjiuxuan was disappointed with the banquets at the Gyeongbokgung Palace, compared to those banquets he had seen in Zhoushan, the level of Gyeongbokgung Palace really seemed a bit shabby.Looking at the dishes and dishes, there is a large table, but the content is really light, with very little oil and meat.Jin Shangjiu silently estimated that the value of the food on the table in front of each guest is estimated to be less than five taels of silver—this is of course measured by the standards of Zhoushan restaurants.
In fact, it wasn't that the king Li Zhen was stingy, it was that the treasury was empty, and the king was so tight on daily expenses that he couldn't do anything more.But today's banquet is in the nature of a state banquet, so we still need to pay attention to some ostentation, so we can only add a few more vegetarian dishes to fill the scene.Of course, excluding these factors, the banquets of the Koreans still cannot be compared with countries with relatively more developed food cultures such as Haihan and Daming. When I return to North Korea today and go back to the days when there is only kimchi and miso soup, I can’t help but feel a little bit disappointed.
Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom were very calm about this. The purpose of their visit to Seoul was to negotiate, and the quality of the meal would not affect their emotions.And they probably know the current situation in North Korea, and they even have a little bit of sympathy for Li Zhen's situation. After all, everyone is in the ruling class, and they will definitely have some empathetic thoughts.
Originally, Qian Tiandun planned to mention the cooperation between the two parties at the banquet, but today the banquet held by Li Ji invited as many as a hundred people from the upper class of North Korea, most of them were unfamiliar faces that Qian Tiandun did not recognize, and some words It's not suitable to say it directly in this environment, Qian Tiandun can only give up his thoughts, and deal with the North Korean officials and princes and nobles who are queuing up to toast.
For the dignitaries of North Korea, it is already a great honor to have the opportunity to sit down, drink and chat with General Haihan.It was the first time for many of them to see the general Haihan who led his troops to repel the Qing army this time. Their admiration for the strong made them rush forward to toast. These guys have already sat down to share the table.
Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom are no strangers to this behavior of the Koreans. When Haihan sent troops to help Annan Zheng's win the final victory in the civil war, King Zheng of the Qing Dynasty feasted on Haihan's generals in Thanglong Mansion, posing During the three-day feast, the performance of the Annan people was more fanatical than that of the North Koreans. Not to mention trivial matters such as queuing up to toast, there were as many as dozens of senior Annan officials who announced on the spot that they would marry their youngest daughter to General Haihan. .
Of course, some people at the scene also thought of this kind of means of building relationships, but as soon as the first person to eat crabs opened his mouth, Wang Tom decisively rejected his "kindness": "General Qian has a beautiful wife and beautiful family members. I will marry again. As for my descendants, there are twelve months in a year, only one or two months on shore, and I don’t know where to go ashore, let’s forget about getting married, so as not to harm others.”
It is not impossible to marry a North Korean, but Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun are not interested in it, and they don't want to affect their living conditions because of these things.If it is only to meet their physical needs, they have many ways to achieve their goals, and there is no need to marry a woman from North Korea for this purpose.
At the end of the banquet, the two senior generals of Haihan were also half drunk, and they had a carriage arranged by the North Korean side to send them out of Gyeongbokgung Palace, and went to live in a house in the city that had been prepared in advance. .This house was the residence of a member of the royal family, and the conditions were naturally much better than that of the Datongjiang Base. However, the two of them were already quite tired, and couldn't care less about admiring the garden view of this place, so they went to bed early after washing.
The next day, Jin Shangjiu came to invite Qian and Wang into the palace again to meet with the king Li Ji.Before they came to Seoul, they had already expressed the purpose of this meeting to Li Zhen through Jin Shangxian. Li Zhen thought that he had a good conversation with the two Haihan generals at the banquet yesterday, so he took the initiative to invite them to the palace again to have a talk. The next cooperation between the two parties.
In addition to Li Ji and Jin Shangjiu, the people present are naturally indispensable to Jin Shangxian, who is now quite favored by Li Ji.If it is said that Kim Sang-heon’s influence on Li Ji in the past was mainly concentrated on foreign policy, after the end of the Anti-Qing War, Kim Sang-heon’s opinions on various government affairs will become an important reference for Li Ji.Even though the project to be negotiated with Haihan this time may be a trade field that Jin Shangxian is not good at, Li Yu still called him to participate in this negotiation, which shows his trust and reliance on him.
In fact, as early as last May when Tom Wang led his fleet to Seoul and forced North Korea to sign a covenant, the two sides reached a preliminary agreement on political and military cooperation, opening ports for trade, and immigration exchanges. However, the talks at that time were too hasty. It was too late for Tom to negotiate specific measures with North Korea, so many projects were delayed again and again, until now no substantive progress has been made.And this time when he meets with Li Jing again, Tom Wang will finalize as many projects as possible to win more benefits for Hai Han.
"Since forming an alliance with your country last year, the achievements in the political and military fields are obvious, and His Majesty the King should also have a clear understanding of this. In order to further consolidate the relationship between the two countries, our country hopes to increase cooperation with North Korea. The strength of cooperation can adopt an attitude of mutual trust and mutual assistance in more fields, and promote the continued development of the relationship between the two countries." Tom Wang first offered a set of more official rhetoric to pave the way for the conditions to be discussed later.
Li Ying responded: "Your country's military aid is very important to our country, and I am very grateful, but what makes me feel most comfortable is that your country respects North Korea and is willing to spend time communicating and discussing with us, rather than making unilateral decisions. I hope this attitude will continue in the future.”
The "respect" mentioned by Li Jing is actually an extremely normal behavior in the eyes of the people who travel through. If North Korea is not an ally of Haihan, then naturally there will be no measures for negotiation and communication, and the final result of this communication The purpose is to make North Korea cooperate with Haihan's various demands as much as possible. In the final analysis, it is out of interest considerations, not any sense of awe of North Korea as a country.
However, the respect that Li Jing understands actually has another aspect, and this is what Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun don't even know.The entire Haihan, perhaps only Ning Qi knew the reason, but he might not have noticed this detail.
The detail that Li Zhen cares about involves the origin of the title of King of Korea. The Joseon Dynasty was established by Taizu Li Chenggui in 1392, but he abolished Koryo and let Wang Yao take the throne. The request for canonization was not approved, and only the country name was confirmed as "North Korea" proposed by Li Chenggui.
The first king of Joseon who was actually canonized by the Ming Dynasty was Li Fangyuan, the second son of Li Chenggui, and at that time Minghui Emperor Zhu Yunqi was at war with Yan Wang Zhudi. In order to win North Korea to stand on his side in the civil war, Zhu Yunqi ordered the Ministry of Rites King Li Fangyuan was bestowed with imperial orders.Before him, his father Li Chenggui and his elder brother Li Fangguo, who were in charge of North Korea's military and political power, only had the title of "the right to know North Korea's state affairs", not the justifiable King of North Korea.
After Zhu Di's "Jing Nan" succeeded in enthroning, Li Fangyuan once again presented a congratulatory form. In order to appease the vassal state of North Korea, Zhu Di did not take back the canonization given to him by Zhu Yunqi before, but reconfirmed his status as king.So after that, the successive rulers of Korea were conferred the title of King of Korea by Ming Dynasty as usual, but they could only be called kings and not emperors, they could only call themselves orphans or widows, they could not call themselves Zhen, they could only be called kings and highnesses by ministers , but cannot be called the emperor or your majesty, otherwise it is arrogance.
However, among Haihan and his group of traversers, there are very few people who have a thorough understanding of the standards of these titles, so from the very beginning when dealing with North Korea, they set Li Zhen's title as "His Majesty the King".This was actually a small oolong, and Haihan did not intend to do it, but after Li Zhen noticed this detail, he interpreted it as Haihan's "respect" for himself and North Korea, and because of this, Haihan respected Haihan. released on the question of appellation
"Goodwill" produces good feelings.As a result, important ministers such as Jin Shangxian also began to follow the example of Haihan, and changed their titles to "Your Majesty", which further increased Li Ji's favor for Haihan.
Of course, the reason for this kind of favor, Li Zhen would definitely not take the initiative to mention it to Tom Wang and Qian Tiandun, so they didn't know that the king of North Korea had an inexplicable favor for Hai Han because of such details, even if they knew It may not be able to understand Li Zhen's vanity-like thoughts.
After the two parties exchanged pleasantries, they began to cut to the point.The topics of in-depth cooperation proposed by Haihan this time mainly come from the aspects of politics, economy and military.
In terms of military affairs, after the previous few months of war, the two sides have basically achieved military mutual trust, and Haihan's long-term military presence in North Korea has become a foregone conclusion.In the future, in addition to selling advanced weapons to North Korea, training qualified officers for North Korea and forming a new type of army will also become the main content of military cooperation between the two sides.However, these military cooperation projects inevitably require a large amount of military expenditure as a support. Given the current situation in North Korea, it is difficult to reach an ideal level. Economic problems must be resolved before the military cooperation between the two sides can be sustained.
The solution proposed by Haihan is to allow North Korea to open the door to trade and allow Haihan merchants and various commercial organizations to enter North Korea to operate.It is not just to open a shop to do some small business, but to directly intervene in the operation of some special industries, such as shipping, salt production, smelting, etc. These industries were originally supervised or even monopolized by the government. join in.
(End of this chapter)