Chapter 3497
Chapter 3497
Chapter 3497
Yue Shizong had expected that no one would pay attention to him at the meeting. Ever since Hai Han announced its intention to attack Ming because of the assassination in Hangzhou last year, the Ming embassy where he was stationed had quickly entered a state of diplomatic desert.
At that time, a large number of excited people surrounded the embassy every day, and countless rotten eggs and vegetable dumplings were thrown in from the top of the wall. If it were not for the Hai Han army guarding outside, the embassy would have been stormed long ago.
Since then, the Ming Embassy has rarely received visitors. If there are no foreign affairs activities scheduled, Yue Shizong also takes the initiative to reduce the number of times he goes out to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Getting close to Ming meant offending Hai Han, which had become a recognized taboo in the international system built by Hai Han. In particular, vassal states that had close relations with Ming in the past, such as Korea, had taken the initiative to draw a line with Ming in recent years and cut off diplomatic exchanges as much as possible.
If it were the Ming Dynasty in its heyday, it would naturally not have to care about the attitudes of the surrounding small countries. But now that the Ming Dynasty is on the decline and is being eroded step by step by Hai Han, it is indeed miserable at this time that there is not even a helper to wave flags and cheer for it.
But the more unfavorable the environment was for the Ming Dynasty, the more Yue Shizong could not give up foreign affairs. He had to show other countries that although the Ming Dynasty had temporarily lost power, it had not yet perished.
Yue Shizong did not expect to gain allies during the Zhoushan Forum, but he had to attend the event to ensure that Hai Han would not position Ming as a target of public criticism during the forum.
Although Hai Han’s proactive invitation made him judge that such a situation was unlikely, if Hai Han found an excuse to attack Ming again so quickly, it would be a serious dereliction of duty for him as a diplomat.
The booklet in Yue Shizong's hand is the main activity arrangement of this forum, which lists a number of open topics for discussion by the participants. Guests interested in these topics can attend the relevant activities according to the time and place marked on it.
What made him feel a little relieved was that most of these topics were centered around international relations, and at a glance he did not find any content specifically targeting the Ming Dynasty.
Many of these issues are related to Hai Han’s current vigorous development of transnational maritime trade. Route formulation, tariff standards, port facilities, cargo delivery and settlement methods, etc., are all issues that many countries are very concerned about.
However, this basically has nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty, because the original coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty have now fallen into the hands of Hai Han, and the Ming Dynasty has also changed from a country with a long coastline to a landlocked country, and naturally has nothing to do with maritime trade.
Most of the remaining topics were military-related, which was the main theme of this forum. Regardless of whether Yue Shizong was interested or not, he could only focus on this area.
In addition to discussing issues such as military mutual trust, rules of conduct for border garrisons, and military alliances led by Hai Han, there will also be a number of equipment launch conferences that will introduce Hai Han’s latest weapons and equipment, as well as announce equipment models for sale to various countries.
Due to the deterioration of relations, Ming Dynasty is currently unable to purchase weapons and equipment from Hai Han. However, now that there is an opportunity to learn about the progress of Hai Han’s equipment development, Yue Shizong certainly will not miss it.
Yue Shizong closed the book and looked around. There were quite a few familiar faces present, most of whom were diplomats from various countries who were stationed in Hangzhou like him.
However, these people obviously would not come over to greet him at this moment. Even if they made eye contact with him, most of them immediately turned around and looked away as if nothing had happened. Only two or three people would nod slightly at him, which was already a very friendly gesture. Yue Shizong soon discovered that he was not the only one who was ignored in the venue. Not far away, there was someone in a similar situation as him, and that was the envoy from the Qing Dynasty, Geng Jimao.
Geng Jimao is the son of Geng Zhongming, a rebel general of the Ming Dynasty. He holds the hereditary title of King of Jingnan in the Qing Dynasty. His status is much higher than that of diplomats like Yue Shizong. The fact that he represented the Qing Dynasty to attend the event in Zhoushan also shows that the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to this forum.
As we all know, the feud between Hai Han and the Qing Dynasty has a long history. Since Hai Han extended its tentacles to Liaodong more than 20 years ago, armed conflicts between the two countries have continued, and the battlefield of confrontation even expanded to the territory of Korea.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty welcomed the conflict between the two countries and even hoped that they would both suffer losses in the fight, so that the Ming Dynasty might be able to regain the territory that had been eaten away by the two countries.
However, as Hai Han's national strength grew rapidly, the Qing Dynasty gradually lost in the protracted war of attrition, and ultimately had no choice but to surrender to Hai Han, just like the Ming Dynasty.
After the Manchu surrendered, the Qing Dynasty was able to retain part of its territory in the Liaodong mountains and forests, but at the same time it also lost its access to the Yellow Sea.
However, Hai Han still temporarily left it room for development to the north. As long as the Qing Dynasty expanded northward along the direction of Changbai Mountain, it would sooner or later gain a new outlet to the sea along the coast of the Sea of Japan. It would not have to be completely suppressed and turned into a landlocked country like the Ming Dynasty.
Yue Shizong had no idea why Hai Han invited the Qing Dynasty to attend the Zhoushan Forum. He thought that perhaps Hai Han wanted to use the opportunity of releasing new weapons and equipment to deter the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing dynasty was established only a short time ago. Even if we count from the time when Nurhaci founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor, it has only been more than 40 years. If we count from the time when Huang Taiji named the country the Great Qing, it has only been a short 20 years.
With such a short history and its territory always being limited to Liaodong, the Qing Dynasty had almost no diplomatic relations at all.
Its neighboring Korea, Mongolia, Ming Dynasty, and the later-emerging Hai Han were all opponents on the battlefield, and there were only brief diplomatic activities during armistice negotiations.
Now isolated by Hai Han in the deep mountains and forests of Liaodong, it is even more difficult to interact with other countries outside. Its influence is still far behind that of the now declining Ming Dynasty, and is even less than that of its neighboring country North Korea.
Although the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty shared the same fate, there was an irreconcilable hatred between the two countries. It can be said that the decline of the Ming Dynasty was largely due to the Qing Dynasty. As a diplomat of the Ming Dynasty, Yue Shizong would definitely not greet the Qing Dynasty envoy, not to mention that the other party was the son of a Ming Dynasty rebel.
If there was a chance to trip up the other party during the forum, Yue Shizong believed that the other party would be the same as himself and would not hesitate at all. So he was also very careful and planned to pay close attention to the other party's movements during this period.
At this time, a burst of drum music sounded, and several senior officials of the Hai Han Executive Committee walked into the meeting room. Several people in the venue had already stood up and welcomed the arrival of these important figures with Hai Han's own way of applause.
Yue Shizong was naturally in no mood to flatter the Hai Han officials, but it was not appropriate to appear too hostile on such an occasion, so he could only symbolically clapped his hands to deal with it.