Chapter 2073
Chapter 2073
Chapter 2073
The Ministry of Security has been interrogating several of the survivors arrested in Danzhou for several months, and almost exhausted all kinds of coercion and inducement. However, the information obtained from the criminal Xue Zheng and others is still extremely limited.It's not that Xue Zheng and others are so stubborn that the Ministry of Security has nothing to do, but that the bounty killers know very little about the situation, and they don't know the real purpose of their employer's arrangement for the attack.The contact between them and the employer had already been cut off by the other party, which made it difficult to carry out subsequent investigations.
The Ministry of Security has several inferences about the reasons behind the attempted attack, but there has always been a lack of clear evidence to prove it. Although Li Yan is very grateful for the protective measures provided by Haihan, he is unwilling to talk about any object of suspicion.After all, the person who will intersect with Li Yan's succession to the throne is either a member of the royal family or a senior official of the court. Any statement he makes to Haihan may soon cause political turmoil in the country, so for him, he should manage himself now. Your mouth is more important than tracking down the mastermind behind the scenes.
In contrast, the military's investigation went much smoother, and several counterattacks and arrests overseas were also led by the military.Although He Xi intends to continue to investigate the case about Li Yi, but due to limited conditions, it is difficult to make a breakthrough in a short period of time.
He Xi coughed dryly and said, "As for the clues about North Korea, for well-known reasons, Li Yan is not too willing to provide us with more information, so it may be that the person who planned this matter behind the scenes will take the initiative to reveal his feet before we can Confirm the real purpose of the attack. But now Japan has the most clues, and I think we should concentrate on investigating this direction first, and maybe solve these cases that have not been answered before."
"However, the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau have not stationed intelligence personnel in Japan, so how do we conduct this investigation?" Ning Qi immediately questioned He Xi's opinion: "If we send personnel to Japan now, how long will it take to see results? "
What Ning Qi was worried about was indeed true. Although several overseas ports under Haihan's control had unofficial trade with Japan, Haihan's intelligence department did not invest manpower in the direction of Japan out of comprehensive considerations.After all, compared to Japan, which has a limited trade scale and is far away from the mainland of Haihan, it is a more correct choice to send a limited number of intelligence personnel to the direction of Ming Dynasty.
What Tao Donglai is worried about is a bigger problem: "If the Eighteenth Zhiyu Party colludes with the Hirado clan officials, the things we want to investigate may lead to larger-scale armed conflicts, or even war!"
For Haihan, who takes war as a daily routine, of course he is not afraid of breaking out of war with other countries, but the question is whether the means of war can solve the problem and whether it can bring substantial benefits to Haihan.
Haihan's external expansion strategy at this stage is to control the coastline of the East Asian continent as much as possible, as well as some key waterways with critical geographical locations, so as to achieve sea control.For this reason, the Haihan Society will not hesitate to launch wars to achieve its goals. Over the past ten years, it has successfully formed control of the long coastline from the Strait of Malacca in the south to the Liaodong Peninsula in the north, thus indirectly controlling the maritime trade in these areas.
As for areas that are far away from the mainland and not near important waterways, Haihan has never been the focus of attention. Even if it is a natural seaport with superior conditions like Manila Bay, if the Spaniards have not been persistent in trying to compete with Haihan. Han probably would not take the initiative to send troops across the entire South China Sea to attack the area.
Occupying these islands far away from the mainland by means of war is not a matter of finishing the war. Haihan has to send a large number of people to manage and guard it. After the war, the manpower and material resources invested will still be huge. In the short term, in the long run It is not as cost-effective to establish a colony near the coast of the mainland.
And Japan is one of the places that Haihan is not very interested in. Hirado is [-] miles away from the nearest Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, and it is not on the main trade route.And Japan has mountainous terrain, and cultivated land and minerals are scarce resources, which are not very attractive to Haihan, so Haihan has always paid very limited attention to Japan, and even the intelligence department thinks that there is no future It is necessary as a key monitoring object.
Although the Dutch East India Company was very concerned about the trade relationship with Japan, Haihan was not very interested in the limited amount of trade that Japan was currently open to foreign businessmen, and he had no intention of asking Japan to expand the scale of trade.In other words, Japan is not attractive to Hai Han at all. If the case currently being investigated leads to a war, it will be difficult for Hai Han to gain economic benefits by defeating the other party.
Yan Chujie immediately understood what Tao Donglai meant: "You are worried that things will get worse and worse. In the end, we can only use war to solve the problem, but this is not the best result for us."
Tao Donglai said: "Exactly. If it involves war, then we must carefully consider the expected goals and actual possible results, and seek a solution with the highest cost performance."
"Mr. Tao, I'm afraid this matter will not be resolved as you hoped." He Xi immediately expressed her opinion: "The remnants of Shibazhi's party can get asylum in Japan, after all, it is because of interests. Whether it is military strength or economic Income, the benefits they can bring to the Hirado Clan must be much more than ours. If I were the head of the Matsuura Clan, I might also choose this group of people as partners. I know you want to let The Matsuura family gave up their protection and support to this group of people, but I don’t think we can offer enough benefits to buy them off.”
Yan Chujie also expressed his support for He Xi: "We still don't know the extent of Matsuura's participation in this series of incidents. In this case, trying to negotiate with him to solve the problem is actually exposing his shortcomings and letting the other party grasp Take the initiative. I think it is still necessary to express our attitude to the other party by exerting military pressure. The other party may not be able to listen to good words. Lao Tao, don’t forget that there is a place that has begun to close the country, and their rulers You may not be clear about the grievances between our country and Shibazhi, and you may miscalculate your own situation."
Even Ning Qi, who has always been opposed to resolving disputes by means of war, believes that the current situation is actually not optimistic: "The opponent has mass-produced muskets, trained soldiers, and even the fish that slipped through the net and fought against us before. , how could it be possible to choose to compromise with us so easily? Although I don’t advocate taking the initiative to go to war, we do have to make corresponding preparations first. If the other party notices that the branches deployed in various places have been destroyed by us, they may take risks and take some more measures. Extreme measures."
"What does the God of Wealth think?" Tao Donglai was noncommittal to everyone's statement, and then looked at Schneider who had not expressed his opinion.As the helm of Haihan's finances, Schneider's views often represent whether military operations can obtain sufficient military budget support, so although the military has the final say on whether to fight or not, Schneider's opinions also have an impact on the military's decision-making. extremely important meaning.
Schneider sat up straight, glanced at everyone present, but there was a hint of excitement in his tone: "Gentlemen, do you know about the black ship incident in history? I think Ning Qi should know about it, right?"
Ning Qi just nodded but didn't respond, he was thinking quickly about the purpose of Schneider mentioning the black ship incident at this time.
In July 1853, Matthew Perry, commander of the US East India Fleet, arrived in Edo with four black warships and threatened the Tokugawa shogunate with force to open up trade.At that time, although Masahiro Abe persuaded Perry to retreat under the excuse that he needed the emperor's approval to accept the American request, but at the beginning of the second year, Perry led the fleet to Edo again, and the number of warships also increased to seven.This armed fleet swaggered deep into Edo Bay, and did not stop until it arrived near Yokohama. Right under the eyes of the shogunate, it made a tough posture of going to war without founding the country.
In the end, the shogunate chose to compromise and signed the "Japan-US Treaty of Amity" with the Americans in Yokohama, and the era of seclusion that lasted for more than two hundred years also came to an end.After that, the United Kingdom, Russia, the Netherlands and other countries followed suit, asking Japan for trade and signing similar treaties with it.Affected by this, the shogunate system established by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the seventeenth century quickly collapsed, and the movements of honoring the king and expelling barbarians and overthrowing the curtain continued one after another. Finally, the Tokugawa shogunate was driven off the stage of history in 1868.
Schneider said: "The Americans used force to open the door to Japan in the 200th century, forcing Japan to open up trade, and gained a lot of benefits from it. If we have a ready-made excuse for war, maybe we can also follow the example of the Americans in history. This approach will end the era of Japan's closed-door policy [-] years earlier!"
When everyone heard it, it turned out that Schneider's ambition was the greatest.The goal of the Ministry of Security is to find out the truth, and the goal of the military is to eliminate the [-]th Party, but Schneider wants to use this as an opportunity to persuade the military to send a large number of troops to Japan to reverse the situation that would have happened two centuries later. Advance to the present to make Haihan the biggest beneficiary.
Ning Qi shook his head and expressed his objection: "When the black ship incident happened, Japan's domestic situation and international environment were completely different from what it is now, and it was difficult to achieve the desired effect in the same way. Although the Americans achieved their goal without bloodshed However, this does not mean that the threat of force we are using now will have the same effect."
When the Black Ship incident happened, the rule of the shogunate in Japan was actually not strong enough. It was precisely because of the fear that the defeat would trigger a series of vicious reactions in the country that the shogunate chose to bully the United States before the war. people compromise.The current leader of the Tokugawa shogunate, the third-generation shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, is the leading figure in vigorously implementing the policy of closing the country, and the purpose of this national policy is to strengthen the shogunate's domestic rule and reduce the influence from the outside world .If other countries threaten the shogunate with force during this period, Ning Qi does not think that those in power will choose to compromise because they are afraid of starting a war.
Tao Donglai asked: "In your opinion, under the premise that armed conflict may break out, how should we deal with the current situation is the best solution?"
After thinking for a while, Ning Qi replied: "Control the scale and area of the battle as much as possible. Even if we want to start a war, the target of our war is not the Tokugawa Shogunate, but a local vassal state like the Hirado Clan. This can effectively reduce the shogunate's involvement in the conflict. possibility."
"Hirado and Nagasaki are currently the only two foreign trade ports in Japan. If we go to war with Hirado, the shogunate will not stand by?" Yan Chujie asked.
Ning Qi explained: "In fact, Nagasaki is regarded as a port directly controlled by the shogunate. Only a small part of the benefits that Hirado obtained from international trade was handed over to the shogunate. Therefore, in the original history, the shogunate forcibly The purpose of moving the Dutch business house from Hirado to Nagasaki is to let this part of the foreign trade income go into the pockets of the shogunate. If Hirado is in chaos, the shogunate may be very happy to watch the show.”
"It turns out that there is still such an internal competition!" Yan Chujie sighed, "Well, as long as the shogunate does not intervene, it will actually be much easier to start a war against Hirado."
For the military, no matter how much money the Hirado Clan can make, it is only a local vassal state, and the number of troops it can mobilize is as high as [-]. As for the surface armed ships, it cannot be compared with Haihan.As for a trading port like Hirado Port, as long as its entry and exit channels are blocked, the local trade volume will inevitably plummet. At that time, whether it is negotiations, wars, or talks while fighting, Haihan will There can be more chips available.
Yan Chujie was also worried that it would be difficult to control the scale of the battle after the start of the war. If the war, which was originally not lucrative, turned into a large-scale war between the two countries, it would not mean much to Haihan even if he won.But if the Tokugawa shogunate can stay out of the matter and not participate in the conflict of Haihan's liquidation of the [-]th Zhiyu Party, then the difficulty of the Haihan army's operations will be much lower.
Of course, the level of difficulty of the operation is only relative. Any military expedition overseas can never be as simple as holding a meeting with senior officials of the Executive Committee.In particular, the Haihan Army, which relies heavily on logistical supplies, often spends several times the cost of preparing for a war compared to traditional warfare.Even if you are sure of winning, you need to carefully calculate the pros and cons before going to war.
"Tom Wang is still in North Korea. I'll send him a telegram later, asking him to arrange early stage reconnaissance and preparations, so that the northern navy can prepare early." Yan Chujie is a man of action. If it is feasible, he intends to prepare the naval forces in advance.
(End of this chapter)
The Ministry of Security has been interrogating several of the survivors arrested in Danzhou for several months, and almost exhausted all kinds of coercion and inducement. However, the information obtained from the criminal Xue Zheng and others is still extremely limited.It's not that Xue Zheng and others are so stubborn that the Ministry of Security has nothing to do, but that the bounty killers know very little about the situation, and they don't know the real purpose of their employer's arrangement for the attack.The contact between them and the employer had already been cut off by the other party, which made it difficult to carry out subsequent investigations.
The Ministry of Security has several inferences about the reasons behind the attempted attack, but there has always been a lack of clear evidence to prove it. Although Li Yan is very grateful for the protective measures provided by Haihan, he is unwilling to talk about any object of suspicion.After all, the person who will intersect with Li Yan's succession to the throne is either a member of the royal family or a senior official of the court. Any statement he makes to Haihan may soon cause political turmoil in the country, so for him, he should manage himself now. Your mouth is more important than tracking down the mastermind behind the scenes.
In contrast, the military's investigation went much smoother, and several counterattacks and arrests overseas were also led by the military.Although He Xi intends to continue to investigate the case about Li Yi, but due to limited conditions, it is difficult to make a breakthrough in a short period of time.
He Xi coughed dryly and said, "As for the clues about North Korea, for well-known reasons, Li Yan is not too willing to provide us with more information, so it may be that the person who planned this matter behind the scenes will take the initiative to reveal his feet before we can Confirm the real purpose of the attack. But now Japan has the most clues, and I think we should concentrate on investigating this direction first, and maybe solve these cases that have not been answered before."
"However, the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau have not stationed intelligence personnel in Japan, so how do we conduct this investigation?" Ning Qi immediately questioned He Xi's opinion: "If we send personnel to Japan now, how long will it take to see results? "
What Ning Qi was worried about was indeed true. Although several overseas ports under Haihan's control had unofficial trade with Japan, Haihan's intelligence department did not invest manpower in the direction of Japan out of comprehensive considerations.After all, compared to Japan, which has a limited trade scale and is far away from the mainland of Haihan, it is a more correct choice to send a limited number of intelligence personnel to the direction of Ming Dynasty.
What Tao Donglai is worried about is a bigger problem: "If the Eighteenth Zhiyu Party colludes with the Hirado clan officials, the things we want to investigate may lead to larger-scale armed conflicts, or even war!"
For Haihan, who takes war as a daily routine, of course he is not afraid of breaking out of war with other countries, but the question is whether the means of war can solve the problem and whether it can bring substantial benefits to Haihan.
Haihan's external expansion strategy at this stage is to control the coastline of the East Asian continent as much as possible, as well as some key waterways with critical geographical locations, so as to achieve sea control.For this reason, the Haihan Society will not hesitate to launch wars to achieve its goals. Over the past ten years, it has successfully formed control of the long coastline from the Strait of Malacca in the south to the Liaodong Peninsula in the north, thus indirectly controlling the maritime trade in these areas.
As for areas that are far away from the mainland and not near important waterways, Haihan has never been the focus of attention. Even if it is a natural seaport with superior conditions like Manila Bay, if the Spaniards have not been persistent in trying to compete with Haihan. Han probably would not take the initiative to send troops across the entire South China Sea to attack the area.
Occupying these islands far away from the mainland by means of war is not a matter of finishing the war. Haihan has to send a large number of people to manage and guard it. After the war, the manpower and material resources invested will still be huge. In the short term, in the long run It is not as cost-effective to establish a colony near the coast of the mainland.
And Japan is one of the places that Haihan is not very interested in. Hirado is [-] miles away from the nearest Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, and it is not on the main trade route.And Japan has mountainous terrain, and cultivated land and minerals are scarce resources, which are not very attractive to Haihan, so Haihan has always paid very limited attention to Japan, and even the intelligence department thinks that there is no future It is necessary as a key monitoring object.
Although the Dutch East India Company was very concerned about the trade relationship with Japan, Haihan was not very interested in the limited amount of trade that Japan was currently open to foreign businessmen, and he had no intention of asking Japan to expand the scale of trade.In other words, Japan is not attractive to Hai Han at all. If the case currently being investigated leads to a war, it will be difficult for Hai Han to gain economic benefits by defeating the other party.
Yan Chujie immediately understood what Tao Donglai meant: "You are worried that things will get worse and worse. In the end, we can only use war to solve the problem, but this is not the best result for us."
Tao Donglai said: "Exactly. If it involves war, then we must carefully consider the expected goals and actual possible results, and seek a solution with the highest cost performance."
"Mr. Tao, I'm afraid this matter will not be resolved as you hoped." He Xi immediately expressed her opinion: "The remnants of Shibazhi's party can get asylum in Japan, after all, it is because of interests. Whether it is military strength or economic Income, the benefits they can bring to the Hirado Clan must be much more than ours. If I were the head of the Matsuura Clan, I might also choose this group of people as partners. I know you want to let The Matsuura family gave up their protection and support to this group of people, but I don’t think we can offer enough benefits to buy them off.”
Yan Chujie also expressed his support for He Xi: "We still don't know the extent of Matsuura's participation in this series of incidents. In this case, trying to negotiate with him to solve the problem is actually exposing his shortcomings and letting the other party grasp Take the initiative. I think it is still necessary to express our attitude to the other party by exerting military pressure. The other party may not be able to listen to good words. Lao Tao, don’t forget that there is a place that has begun to close the country, and their rulers You may not be clear about the grievances between our country and Shibazhi, and you may miscalculate your own situation."
Even Ning Qi, who has always been opposed to resolving disputes by means of war, believes that the current situation is actually not optimistic: "The opponent has mass-produced muskets, trained soldiers, and even the fish that slipped through the net and fought against us before. , how could it be possible to choose to compromise with us so easily? Although I don’t advocate taking the initiative to go to war, we do have to make corresponding preparations first. If the other party notices that the branches deployed in various places have been destroyed by us, they may take risks and take some more measures. Extreme measures."
"What does the God of Wealth think?" Tao Donglai was noncommittal to everyone's statement, and then looked at Schneider who had not expressed his opinion.As the helm of Haihan's finances, Schneider's views often represent whether military operations can obtain sufficient military budget support, so although the military has the final say on whether to fight or not, Schneider's opinions also have an impact on the military's decision-making. extremely important meaning.
Schneider sat up straight, glanced at everyone present, but there was a hint of excitement in his tone: "Gentlemen, do you know about the black ship incident in history? I think Ning Qi should know about it, right?"
Ning Qi just nodded but didn't respond, he was thinking quickly about the purpose of Schneider mentioning the black ship incident at this time.
In July 1853, Matthew Perry, commander of the US East India Fleet, arrived in Edo with four black warships and threatened the Tokugawa shogunate with force to open up trade.At that time, although Masahiro Abe persuaded Perry to retreat under the excuse that he needed the emperor's approval to accept the American request, but at the beginning of the second year, Perry led the fleet to Edo again, and the number of warships also increased to seven.This armed fleet swaggered deep into Edo Bay, and did not stop until it arrived near Yokohama. Right under the eyes of the shogunate, it made a tough posture of going to war without founding the country.
In the end, the shogunate chose to compromise and signed the "Japan-US Treaty of Amity" with the Americans in Yokohama, and the era of seclusion that lasted for more than two hundred years also came to an end.After that, the United Kingdom, Russia, the Netherlands and other countries followed suit, asking Japan for trade and signing similar treaties with it.Affected by this, the shogunate system established by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the seventeenth century quickly collapsed, and the movements of honoring the king and expelling barbarians and overthrowing the curtain continued one after another. Finally, the Tokugawa shogunate was driven off the stage of history in 1868.
Schneider said: "The Americans used force to open the door to Japan in the 200th century, forcing Japan to open up trade, and gained a lot of benefits from it. If we have a ready-made excuse for war, maybe we can also follow the example of the Americans in history. This approach will end the era of Japan's closed-door policy [-] years earlier!"
When everyone heard it, it turned out that Schneider's ambition was the greatest.The goal of the Ministry of Security is to find out the truth, and the goal of the military is to eliminate the [-]th Party, but Schneider wants to use this as an opportunity to persuade the military to send a large number of troops to Japan to reverse the situation that would have happened two centuries later. Advance to the present to make Haihan the biggest beneficiary.
Ning Qi shook his head and expressed his objection: "When the black ship incident happened, Japan's domestic situation and international environment were completely different from what it is now, and it was difficult to achieve the desired effect in the same way. Although the Americans achieved their goal without bloodshed However, this does not mean that the threat of force we are using now will have the same effect."
When the Black Ship incident happened, the rule of the shogunate in Japan was actually not strong enough. It was precisely because of the fear that the defeat would trigger a series of vicious reactions in the country that the shogunate chose to bully the United States before the war. people compromise.The current leader of the Tokugawa shogunate, the third-generation shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, is the leading figure in vigorously implementing the policy of closing the country, and the purpose of this national policy is to strengthen the shogunate's domestic rule and reduce the influence from the outside world .If other countries threaten the shogunate with force during this period, Ning Qi does not think that those in power will choose to compromise because they are afraid of starting a war.
Tao Donglai asked: "In your opinion, under the premise that armed conflict may break out, how should we deal with the current situation is the best solution?"
After thinking for a while, Ning Qi replied: "Control the scale and area of the battle as much as possible. Even if we want to start a war, the target of our war is not the Tokugawa Shogunate, but a local vassal state like the Hirado Clan. This can effectively reduce the shogunate's involvement in the conflict. possibility."
"Hirado and Nagasaki are currently the only two foreign trade ports in Japan. If we go to war with Hirado, the shogunate will not stand by?" Yan Chujie asked.
Ning Qi explained: "In fact, Nagasaki is regarded as a port directly controlled by the shogunate. Only a small part of the benefits that Hirado obtained from international trade was handed over to the shogunate. Therefore, in the original history, the shogunate forcibly The purpose of moving the Dutch business house from Hirado to Nagasaki is to let this part of the foreign trade income go into the pockets of the shogunate. If Hirado is in chaos, the shogunate may be very happy to watch the show.”
"It turns out that there is still such an internal competition!" Yan Chujie sighed, "Well, as long as the shogunate does not intervene, it will actually be much easier to start a war against Hirado."
For the military, no matter how much money the Hirado Clan can make, it is only a local vassal state, and the number of troops it can mobilize is as high as [-]. As for the surface armed ships, it cannot be compared with Haihan.As for a trading port like Hirado Port, as long as its entry and exit channels are blocked, the local trade volume will inevitably plummet. At that time, whether it is negotiations, wars, or talks while fighting, Haihan will There can be more chips available.
Yan Chujie was also worried that it would be difficult to control the scale of the battle after the start of the war. If the war, which was originally not lucrative, turned into a large-scale war between the two countries, it would not mean much to Haihan even if he won.But if the Tokugawa shogunate can stay out of the matter and not participate in the conflict of Haihan's liquidation of the [-]th Zhiyu Party, then the difficulty of the Haihan army's operations will be much lower.
Of course, the level of difficulty of the operation is only relative. Any military expedition overseas can never be as simple as holding a meeting with senior officials of the Executive Committee.In particular, the Haihan Army, which relies heavily on logistical supplies, often spends several times the cost of preparing for a war compared to traditional warfare.Even if you are sure of winning, you need to carefully calculate the pros and cons before going to war.
"Tom Wang is still in North Korea. I'll send him a telegram later, asking him to arrange early stage reconnaissance and preparations, so that the northern navy can prepare early." Yan Chujie is a man of action. If it is feasible, he intends to prepare the naval forces in advance.
(End of this chapter)