Chapter 1450 is under control
Haihan spent a lot of effort to support Dongjiang Town. On the one hand, it was because the Pidao Army was familiar enough with Liaodong and could play the role of leading the party during Haihan's march into Liaodong. On the other hand, it was to use their identity as Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers to cover up the invasion. Liaodong launched an operation and at the same time tried to open up channels of communication with the Ming Dynasty.
Although the Haihan Executive Committee was dominated by civilian officials, in the plan for dealing with the Ming Dynasty, they unanimously abandoned the civilian faction who only knew how to save the country with words, and preferred to give priority to contact with the Ming Ministry of War. In any case, with the help of Haihan, Dongjiang Town achieved solid results in Liaodong and regained the lost ground that had been lost for several years. This achievement was enough for the Ming Dynasty military to have the capital to make a voice in the court.
Over the past year or so, Haihan's semi-open contacts with Dongjiang Town have become increasingly frequent. It is no longer a huge secret, and the Ming Dynasty is not completely ignorant of it. It is not difficult for anyone with a discerning eye to find some unusual meanings in the re-emergence of Dongjiang Town. Since Haihan can support the down-and-out Pidao Army to counterattack Liaodong, of course he can also help the Ming Dynasty to resist the Hou Jin Army that continues to invade the south.
Of course, voices calling on the imperial court to introduce Haihan as strong reinforcements did not appear until the Liaodong War began. In fact, in the past few years, memorials continued to be submitted from Fuguang and other places in the south, saying that overseas Chinese were willing to help the Ming Dynasty train troops, and the conditions That is, the Ming Dynasty must recognize its national qualifications and various rights in the South China Sea, such as territorial ownership, trade immigration, judicial jurisdiction, etc.
When Haihan occupied Qiongzhou Island, which belonged to the Ming Dynasty, it was actually tantamount to an invasion. However, due to various reasons, the Ming Dynasty did not start a war. Taking advantage of the fact that Ming had no time to look south, Haihan actually used this condition to blackmail Ming into giving up its right to claim the territory in the South China Sea. Naturally, it would be difficult for the Ming court to approve this kind of robbery-like request. Therefore, although officials at all levels in Fuzhou and Guangzhou successively submitted many memorials to act as lobbyists for Haihan, they ultimately failed to promote the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the two sides.
However, the imperial court did not offend the local officials in Fuzhou and Guangzhou because of this, because this kind of liquidation measure would not have any impact on Haihan, but would put everyone in the local officialdom in danger, and might even directly collude with Haihan to betray the country. . Rather than taking this risk, it is better to stabilize the situation, deal with the more difficult northern opponents first, and then deal with the less eager southern enemies later.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty's small calculations could not be hidden from Haihan. However, at that time, Haihan believed that his foundation was not stable and he was not in a hurry to achieve great things. He still expanded the actual control area to the north step by step. Over the past few years, the control area has also crossed the Fujian Strait from the South China Sea, extending to Zhejiang, Shandong, and even Liaodong at this time. The more chips he has in hand, the more confident he will be in negotiating with Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Haihan has not been in a hurry to reach an official diplomatic agreement with Ming Dynasty in the past few years. Anyway, the longer this kind of thing is delayed, the final initiative will be The more they move closer to Haihan.
Then Shen Zhixiang continued to say: "...Since last year, my uncle has followed your country's wishes and started sending people to establish connections in the capital. Of course, most of the expenses in this process were also funded by your country. The whole process is the same. After a lot of effort, I finally got a chance to get through to a master from the Mei Shilang family of the Ministry of War, and finally the road was paved. Last year, I sent 50,000 taels of silver to Mei Shilang's family in two installments, and I also got a lot of help. The rare goods produced in your country, Mr. Mei has already relaxed and promised to speak for us in Dongjiang Town in the capital.”
Liu Shang pondered: "Fifty thousand taels of silver...can you bribe a third-grade Minister of War?"
Shen Zhixiang coughed dryly and said: "Today is different from the past. The Ministry of War errands are a hot potato. As for the Minister of War, the position has been changed several times in recent years. Very few can last for two years, let alone Not to mention going up further, paying 50,000 taels of silver is already very generous. You can’t even wait for a few months before being kicked out. Who would dare to invest money in such a big risk?”
Liu Shang didn't know much about these special market conditions. After listening to Shen Zhixiang's explanation, he finally got an idea. I think the Haihan people started out as traders, so they must be very shrewd in calculating this kind of interest exchange. This fifty thousand taels should be a relatively safe amount.
Liu Shang then asked: "As for the matter in Liaodong, what are you going to do next?"
Shen Zhixiang was slightly confused when he heard this question, and secretly thought that this plan was originally drawn up by you Haihan, why are you now asking me how to operate it. But then he thought about it, maybe the Haihan people wanted to test whether they would abide by the original agreement, and deliberately asked Liu Shang to confirm again, and then calmly responded: "The captures in the Battle of Jinzhou, the heads chopped off, the enemy troops The corpses of high-ranking officials will be sent to the capital by sea as soon as possible, and the memorial will be drafted directly by us, and Mei Shilang will bypass the cabinet and submit it directly to the emperor."
Liu Shang said in surprise: "Can this be bypassed?"
"You have to go around it if you can't!" Shen Zhixiang said with a wry smile: "Today's cabinet chief minister Wen Tiren only plays tricks to fight for power. He is very wary of the Ministry of War. If this memorial is handed over to the cabinet, he will probably suppress it. . Shilang Mei said that he had a way to send the memorial directly to the imperial study, so I can only believe him for now."
Wen Tiren was a Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli. He served successively as Minister of Rites. He was promoted to Minister in the year when Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne. In the third year of Chongzhen, he entered the cabinet as Minister of Rites and Bachelor of Dongge University, and later became the chief minister of the cabinet. This talent was mediocre in academics, but he had a good way of engaging in political struggles. During his period of assisting the government, his main energy was spent on closing down the party for personal gain and attacking political opponents, but he did nothing in political affairs, and did nothing to deal with the internal and external troubles faced by the Ming Dynasty. But because he has the administrative power of the chief minister of the cabinet, all the superiors submitted to Emperor Chongzhen through the cabinet must go through his hands. Those superiors that are not beneficial to him, such as the impeachment of him by the courtiers, will all be rejected by other officials. He would be detained and then charged with crimes against those who dared to attack him.
Although Wen Tiren had been a powerful minister for several years, due to his limited abilities and jealousy of the virtuous, the people who hung out with him were all mediocre people, and most people were not even as smart as him. These people's own abilities were limited, and there was very little they could do to help him in turn. This led to the fact that when Emperor Chongzhen wanted to deal with him later, he cut his official position and forced him to retire without any trouble.
However, at this time, there is still more than a year before Wen Tiren was dismissed from office in history. At present, he is still the dominant figure in the cabinet. If the memorial in Dongjiang Town was submitted through formal channels, Wen Tiren would probably withhold it, because if the military gained power, it would have a significant impact on the civil servant faction in the court, and he did not want these gangsters to be able to serve in court. Opportunities to serve as opinion leaders in the classroom. As for whether doing this will make Ming Dynasty face greater military pressure, Wen Tiren doesn't care about this kind of thing. Anyway, no matter how ferocious the Jin army is, no matter how hard the peasant army is, no matter how powerful the Haihan people are, there is nothing they can do for the time being. Put a knife to his neck and threaten him. In his opinion, the threat to him from these foreign enemies was not even as great as the political opponents in the court.
Regarding the views on Wen Tiren, the senior officials of Haihan and Dongjiang Town were surprisingly consistent, so they were more accepting of Mei Shilang's plan to bypass the cabinet and directly submit the memorial to the emperor. Haihan doesn't care too much about the expenses involved, as long as the goal can be achieved in the end. Of course, if Mei Shilang failed to get anything done after receiving the money, or simply hacked the money paid by Haihan, then Haihan would not suffer such a dumb loss, and there would be a time to settle the matter in the future.
As for the possibility of this matter finally coming true, even according to the most optimistic estimate from Mr. Mei, it would be good to have a 50% chance of sending the memorial to the imperial study. Whether Emperor Chongzhen will change his previous attitude towards Haihan after reading the memorial is a question that no one can figure out in advance. Of course, the Executive Committee believes that there is a certain degree of hope and will spare no effort to promote this plan, but as the saying goes, it is up to people to make things happen, and it is up to God to make things happen. This kind of thing that has never happened in history, what will happen in the end? The direction is probably only known to God.
On the other hand, people of Liu Shang's level had never been exposed to big figures such as the Six Ministers, Grand Scholars, and Chief Ministers of the Cabinet before coming out of the Ming Dynasty. He had heard of Wen Tiren's name, but he had basically no knowledge of his conduct and deeds. Got it. And Shen Zhixiang commented so unscrupulously on the chief minister of the dynasty, it was obvious that he no longer regarded himself as an official of the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Shang somewhat sympathizes with Shen Zhixiang's mentality. When he decided to give up his identity as a Ming spy and start a new life, his views on Ming were somewhat similar to Shen Zhixiang's. It's just that Liu Shang was lucky enough to enter the Haihan bureaucracy without much effort. After that, he quickly rose to the position by chance and got into one of Haihan's most core power organs in just a few months. Shen Zhixiang wanted to join Haihan but was unable to do so. He could only continue to serve as Haihan's pawn in Liaodong for the time being. However, he began to regard himself as Haihan's subordinate in front of everyone and behind him, and it seemed that he planned to gradually turn this into a subordinate of Haihan. established fact.
But it is a little ironic that although Shen Zhixiang is an outsider, the people he usually deals with are all senior generals in the Haihan Army, and the level of information he has access to is higher than Liu Shang, an "insider", so he is now Most of the situations introduced to Liu Shang were information that Liu Shang had not known before. If he hadn't received this errand assigned by Chen Yixin, Liu Shang would never have imagined that Haihan had paved the road to the capital and even found a direct way to Tianting.
Surprised, Liu Shang also had to sigh that money makes things easier. Only a wealthy owner like Haihan would promote such a complex project that is expensive, time-consuming, and has a low probability of success regardless of the cost. plan.
If you take into account Haihan's early investment in Pidao, the tens of thousands of taels spent on establishing relations with the capital through the help of Dongjiang Town are really nothing. To have such courage, one must have strong financial resources as a foundation.
Thinking carefully about the causes and consequences of this plan, Liu Shang admired the depth of Haihan's senior management. They had been preparing for the march to the north at least a few years ago. Step by step from the south, the control area was advanced along the Ming coastline to Liaodong. Regardless of whether the Ming Dynasty surrendered, Haihan had actually controlled the Ming sea area. Even if the Ming Dynasty wanted to fall out with Haihan, it would be difficult to completely drive Haihan away from the Ming Dynasty offshore waters. out.
And what was Daming doing during this period? The army is struggling to cope with the post-Jinnan invasion year after year and the intensifying peasant uprisings in the country, while the civilian officials, in addition to political struggles, are desperately squeezing those areas where there is no war in order to obtain enough funds to maintain The rule of Ming Dynasty.
One side continues to develop and grow silently, while the other side is constantly changing its tricks day and night. Under the decline of the other, the gap in national power between the two countries is constantly shortening. Liu Shang believed that if the population and territorial area were not so different, Haihan might have already thought of annexing the Ming Dynasty.
Will Haihan stop there after winning a piece of land in Liaodong? Liu Shang doesn't know the long-term plans of the executive committee, but he believes that Haihan will never stop its expansion here. Let Dongjiang Town build a bridge and establish a dialogue channel between Haihan and the top management of Ming Dynasty. Liu Shang believes that the real purpose of this move may be to prepare for further expansion in the future. This kind of expansion would not be Hou Jin's barbaric invasion and plunder, and Haihan would not bother to do such a non-technical thing.
Liu Shang had witnessed many horrific scenes in Fuguang, Zhejiang, and Shandong where local officials were bribed from top to bottom by Haihan. When the personal interests of these officials were tied to Haihan's ship, they had no choice but to do so in the end. Act as a boat tracker to help Haihan move forward. If Haihan is really recognized by the Ming Dynasty one day, receives formal diplomatic treatment, and can freely enter and exit the territory of the Ming Dynasty, then it is conceivable that the speed of Haihanization in coastal areas will be greatly accelerated, and the internal affairs directly affected by Haihan will The mainland area will also be greatly increased than now. Even if the Ming Dynasty could get military assistance from Haihan to conquer the outside world and annex the country inside, it would definitely not be the party that gained the most from this transaction.
After a conversation with Shen Zhixiang, the context in Liu Shang's mind gradually became clear. Haihan hoped to open the country to Ming Dynasty through peaceful means, which involved a rather complicated exchange of interests. Regardless of whether Ming Dynasty finally agrees to Haihan's proposal, this small country rising from the South China Sea will steadily continue to encroach on Ming Dynasty from the coastal areas. It is nothing more than a difference in speed. It was a dilemma for Ming Dynasty, to face destruction or to rely on Haihan to gain a chance to survive. For Haihan, although there are many variables, everything is under control.
(End of chapter)