Chapter 3515
Chapter 3515
Chapter 3515
No matter how much Geng Jimao pleaded, he was ultimately unable to secure a sea passage to Liaodong for the Qing Dynasty. This meant that for a period of time to come, if the Qing Dynasty wanted to trade with the outside world, it would still have to rely on the channels provided by Hai Han.
This also meant that Geng Jimao's meetings with other countries during his stay in Zhoushan would hardly yield any results. After all, if other countries wanted to visit the Qing Dynasty, they had to obtain Hai Han's permission before they could pass through Hai Han's controlled areas and enter the Qing Dynasty's territory.
However, Yan Chujie did not go too far. He agreed to some of the fifteen demands put forward by Geng Jimao and promised to gradually relax the control measures on border trade activities so that the Manchu border residents could more conveniently enter the Hai Han territory to work.
The reason for making adjustments in this regard actually came from the suggestions of Chen Yixin, Chief Executive of the Northern Region.
The development of Liaodong requires a large amount of manpower, and the cross-border workers sent by the Qing Dynasty are paid much lower than those of Hai Han citizens, which can greatly reduce local labor costs.
In coal and iron mines in places like Anshan and Benxi, thousands of Manchu laborers now accept long-term employment from Hai Han and have become the main group of local miners.
However, Chen Yixin was not satisfied with the existing scale of foreign workers. He hoped to obtain more cheap labor from the Qing Dynasty.
This would not only poach the young and strong labor force of the Qing Dynasty and reduce its war potential, but also meet the needs of the northern region's own development, killing two birds with one stone.
The Qing Dynasty also hoped that through such cooperation, Hai Han would gradually reduce its regulatory efforts and more conveniently obtain scarce materials from the outside world.
The Qing court had long ago expressed to Chen Yixin its intention to regain access to the sea in the direction of Liaodong. However, this matter involved the country's long-term development strategy and must be decided by the Executive Committee. Chen Yixin could not make the decision alone.
For this reason, Chen Yixin took the initiative to invite the Qing Dynasty to send someone to attend the Zhoushan Forum and arranged a high-level one-on-one meeting on their behalf.
Although Geng Jimao failed to achieve his main goal, he still gained something, so the trip was not in vain. He could also give an explanation to his superiors when he returned.
Yue Shizong, who met with the Executive Committee on behalf of the Ming Dynasty, was not so lucky. He put forward 20 suggestions on improving relations between the two countries, but all of them were rejected by Ning Qi on the grounds of being "inappropriate" and "difficult to achieve".
The twenty suggestions put forward by Yue Shizong were basically based on the standpoint of the Ming Dynasty, requiring Hai Han to give up its control over certain disputed areas, relax various sanctions and restrictions on the Ming Dynasty, promise not to launch military operations against the Ming Dynasty, etc. These suggestions seemed reasonable, but in Ning Qi's view they were unreasonable and beyond the limit.
This also includes a demand similar to that of the Qing Dynasty, that is, to regain at least one route to the sea from Hai Han.
"I would like to remind Lord Yue that the Ming Dynasty was a defeated country, and all treatment was clearly stated in the armistice treaty signed last year. It's not even a year later, and your country is thinking about overturning the previous agreement. It's a bit too hasty."
Ning Qi refuted Yue Shizong mercilessly, not giving the other party any face at all.
Since the Ming Dynasty only sent an ambassador as a representative, rather than important officials of the court or princes and nobles, it means that the Ming Dynasty attaches limited importance to this forum, and there is no need to waste too much time on talks of this level.
Yue Shizong could only smile bitterly at this accusation. As a long-term ambassador to Hai Han, he knew that once these twenty points were proposed, they would be immediately refuted by Hai Han. However, these demands were not Yue Shizong's personal wishes, but were drafted by Emperor Chongzhen and the cabinet ministers. He was just a loudspeaker to read out the demands and had no right to influence the decision-making in the court.
Yue Shizong actually did not approve of this purely empty talk, because it would not only be difficult to achieve results, but it might also anger Hai Han and lead to unpredictable consequences.
But Yue Shizong had no ability to change the minds of the bigwigs in the capital. They felt that after the defeat on the battlefield, they had to regain face elsewhere, and such a strongly worded diplomatic statement might be the easiest means to implement at the moment.
Even if it ultimately has no actual results, it can be seen as a demonstration of the Ming court's indomitable spirit in the face of powerful enemies and used as material for internal propaganda.
However, Ning Qi just brought up something that was not relevant and directly brought up the armistice agreement signed by the two countries last year, thus blocking all room for discussion.
Not only that, Ning Qi also asked Yue Shizong in turn to urge the Ming court to speed up the payment of war reparations.
In the armistice negotiations signed by both sides last year, the amount of war reparations involved was huge. The Ming Dynasty was unable to pay the full amount at once, so it could only owe most of it first and then negotiate repayment in installments.
This naturally became a death rope around the neck of the Ming Dynasty. Hai Han would tighten it from time to time, making the Ming Dynasty very uncomfortable.
It is only natural to pay back debts. If the Ming Dynasty wants to avoid paying the money, it can only fight Hai Han again. However, past experience has shown that the more times the Ming Dynasty fights Hai Han, the greater the amount of war reparations will be, and it will only increase, not decrease.
Yue Shizong was also well aware of the interests involved, so he naturally could not be tough on this topic. He could only humbly state that the Ming Dynasty would pay the war reparations on time according to the previous agreement.
In the end, the talks between the two sides achieved almost nothing. The only consensus reached was to continue to implement the ceasefire agreement signed by the two sides last year and try to avoid further conflicts.
Of course, in the related reports published in the newspapers afterwards, there was probably only diplomatic rhetoric such as "the two sides exchanged views in a friendly and cordial manner and reached consensus on issues of common concern." Ordinary people would not have thought that the actual relationship between the two countries had actually deteriorated to the point where they no longer trusted each other.
However, for Yue Shizong, the failure to reach a new agreement with Hai Han was already expected, and he could not say he was very disappointed.
Yue Shizong believed that the real gain of this trip was not the one-on-one meeting with senior officials of the Hai Han Executive Committee, but the fact that it made it clear that Hai Han’s main target at this stage was not the Ming Dynasty.
Hai Han had organized many foreign dignitaries to visit Japan with great fanfare. In Yue Shizong's opinion, this was clearly an attempt to use Japan as a chessboard and a shooting range, allowing other countries to observe up close how Hai Han manipulated a country and pushed it into the abyss of war.
At the same time, Hai Han will also take this opportunity to demonstrate the actual combat performance of its weapons and equipment, and will inevitably have to promote them to other countries.
Although the Ming Dynasty had lost its qualification to be a buyer, Yue Shizong was still very concerned about the situation of Hai Han's exported weapons. He also wanted to see what the Japanese army, which was said to have purchased a large number of Hai Han weapons, was like now.