Chapter 1507 Mei Shilang’s little plan
The Ming court was not completely ignorant of the Haihan people's behavior in Shandong, which was like an invasion. Since the seventh year of Chongzhen, that is, the second half of 1634, urgent memorials from Shandong have been arriving in the capital, saying that the Haihan army invaded from the sea and occupied the Zhifu Island area near the sea in Fushan County, Dengzhou, and built buildings and ports. , have plans to settle down for a long time.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty was troubled by the continuous aggression of the Jin army and the intensifying peasant uprising in the Central Plains. It could not bother to open a third battlefield and start a war with the Haihan people, who were said to be extremely difficult to mess with. Therefore, the imperial court's opinion was rather to ignore it and let the Shandong government decide what to do on its own. However, the overall situation must be taken into consideration and the war in the Shandong Peninsula must not be rekindled.
After all, the imperial court also hoped that Shandong could recover from the previous Denglai Rebellion as soon as possible and support the imperial court with food, manpower and taxes to quell the other two wars. The Haihan people only occupied a small island near the sea in Dengzhou. What is there to shout about? Are there not many islands in the south occupied by the Haihan people? In the eyes of the adults in the court, there was no big chaos in Fuguang, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which were also occupied by Haihan. Only Shandong was complaining, as if the sky was falling. It seems that the ability of this local official There are also some problems.
Of course, the government here in Shandong was in trouble. Although the Haihan Army stationed in Fushan County was small in strength, it was extremely powerful in combat. After one or two attempts by the local guards, they decisively gave up the confrontation. The Haihan Army was also able to free up its hands to wipe out all the bandits and bandits near Fushan County, as if they were the real owners of this place.
Although there have been stumbling blocks between the Shandong government and Haihan in the past two years, and there have been occasional armed conflicts, in general, no real war broke out, which can be regarded as worthy of the court's explanation. The Shandong government's plan to expel Haihan from the local area naturally failed to materialize. On the contrary, Haihan gradually achieved de facto occupation in Fushan County and began to operate in a decent manner there, completely failing to do so. The occupied areas are regarded as Ming territory.
Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, Chen Zhongsheng, the prefect of Dengzhou, and Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan County, are naturally directly responsible for Haihan's public establishment of a control zone in Shandong. But the problem was that the imperial court wanted to drive away the Haihan people but was unwilling to use military means to make the situation uncontrollable, so their dereliction of duty was tolerated by the imperial court. After all, the Haihan people were only active in Fushan County, and there was no sign of a large-scale conquest of Shandong Prefecture. From this point of view, the imperial court believed that they had maintained their merits, and their merits and demerits were offset, so they did not pursue those who failed to drive away the Haihan people. Mistake.
But it's one thing to forgive one's own people, and it's another thing entirely to recognize Haihan's interests and power in Shandong. The two demands put forward by Hao Wanqing are things that Haihan must strive for, but for Ming Dynasty, these are undoubtedly the conditions for losing power and humiliating the country. Even if Minister Mei wanted to get some benefits from Haihan, he would not dare to compromise on such a big issue of right and wrong.
"I'm sorry that I cannot agree to the two conditions proposed by Mr. Hao." Mei Shilang's voice was not loud, but his tone was very firm: "The Ming Dynasty will not cede an inch of land to other countries. Everything on the Ming Dynasty's territory will naturally belong to the Ming Dynasty. All owned by Ming Dynasty.”
Hao Wanqing smiled and said: "Master Mei has misunderstood. Our country is not asking the Ming Dynasty to cede these areas in Fushan County that are actually controlled by our country. The land still belongs to the Ming Dynasty. What our country is asking for is the power to operate and govern. You see, we It has been almost two years since I came to Shandong, but the Ming Dynasty still retains its seat and garrison in Fushan County. I think this is enough to show the goodwill of our country and the Ming Dynasty in peaceful coexistence. "
The purpose of this meeting between Hao Wanqing and Mei Shengchuan was not to determine the ownership of Haihan's rights and interests in the Shandong-controlled area immediately, but to test the bottom line of the Ming court's policy. Of course, Mei Shengchuan, the minister of the Ministry of War, whom he met for the first time, must also be Hao Wanqing's test target. Haihan had no direct experience in dealing with senior Ming officials of this level before, so this time the person in charge of the Security Department was Meet with them in person in order to gain more valuable information during the meeting.
Hao Wanqing will not be stingy about leaving a little room for maneuver to the other party. For Haihan, the ownership of the land is actually just a name. Just like Hainan Island has been in the hands of Haihan for several years, but he has never formally requested ownership from the Guangdong and Guangxi officials. redefinition. At present, what the Executive Committee values more is actual control. As for whether Ming recognizes the sovereignty of these occupied areas, it doesn't matter. Let Ming retain a little face, which is more conducive to Haihan's actions. Trade and immigration, projects with actual benefits, are the conditions that Haihan really cares about.
But does Mei Shengchuan really not understand the truth at all? That's not necessarily the case. In addition to the free money and the continuous victory reports, Dongjiang Town also sent a lot of intelligence content related to Haihan to the capital. Haihan has occupied many places in the Ming Dynasty over the years, and how they use this method to strengthen their own strength is not unknown to the big shots in the capital.
At least Mei Shengchuan is very aware of what the Haihan people have done in Shandong in the past two years, opening and building ports, occupying land for mining, and trading and immigration. The hidden meaning behind these measures is much more technical than the simple and crude robbery of Hou Jin. . The means seemed peaceful, but it was under this situation that the Haihan people gradually turned these controlled areas into a state within a state, and the Ming Dynasty could not come up with any effective countermeasures. After all, money and silk attract people's hearts. Once pulled into Haihan's interest system, it will be difficult for officials or civilians to get out of it.
However, Umeikawa did not expect that the Haihan people would take the initiative to give in on territorial sovereignty. He originally thought that the conditions required by the other party would definitely include the cession of all existing occupied areas to the Haihan people. However, the other party was so generous. Taking a step back was indeed a bit beyond his expectation.
"We can talk about trade and business, but the governance of the place, which is originally our territory of the Ming Dynasty, should naturally be handed over to our government." Mei Shengchuan was not satisfied with this, and continued to point out the inaccuracies in Hao Wanqing's words. place. Like the other party, he also approached this meeting with the idea of testing the bottom line.
Hao Wanqing spread his hands and indicated that he had no intention of arguing with Mei Shengchuan on this issue: "I just said that we have retained the local government and the garrison. As for whether they can perform their original functions of governing the local area, that is not our country's Responsibility.”
The implication of Hao Wanqing's words is that you don't want to blame the leaks in the house. The government agencies are reserved for you. These people can't exercise their authority, so how can they blame us. Of course, Hao Wanqing would definitely not admit the connection between the inability of the local government of the Ming Dynasty to perform its functions and the military pressure exerted by the Haihan garrison. The irony is that as the Minister of War, Mei Shengchuan certainly knows the reason, but if he takes the initiative to bring it up on this occasion, he will undoubtedly be humiliating himself - who told you that the Ming army can't do anything, and the local garrison has no power? Methods to protect the government's dominance. Therefore, Mei Shengchuan could not speak out to expose Hao Wanqing's shirk of responsibility, so he could only hold his nose and admit it.
From this, Hao Wanqing has obtained the information he wants to know - business and trade can be negotiated, which means that the ports, towns, infrastructure facilities and mines developed and built locally by Haihan will all have great opportunities. Obtained official permission from Ming Dynasty officials. As for the flow of population, as the trade problem is solved, this will be solved naturally.
After the meeting between the two lasted for more than an hour, it was already time for dinner. Haihan has always had a tradition of negotiating at the dinner table, and this time was no exception. Hao Wanqing ordered people to prepare a sumptuous banquet early in the morning to welcome the secretly visiting Ming Dynasty officials. However, the location of the banquet was particular. It was not placed in the officers' dining room in Zhifu Port, but on the rooftop of the small building of the Zhifu Island Management Committee.
A pergola is set up on the rooftop, from which you can have an unobstructed view of Zhifu Harbor. The merchant ships and fishing boats that are loading and unloading goods at the port dock, a sailing warship undergoing repairs in the dock, and the outpost on the hill across the bay that originally belonged to the local guard army but now has the Haihan flag flying, can be used. It can be seen clearly with the naked eye.
"When we came here two years ago, there were many refugees on the beach. As long as we promised to give them a bite of food, they would climb onto our boat regardless, and then we would send them wherever we wanted." Hao Wanqing While pouring wine for Mei Shengchuan, he talked about what he saw when he first arrived in Shandong without any scruples: "There are no hungry people or bandits in Fushan County now. Everyone has food to eat. The public security is much better than it was two years ago." Times. People from other nearby states who cannot survive will come here to seek a livelihood. It is no exaggeration to say that now more than half of the people in this place rely on us.”
Mei Shengchuan wanted to refute Hao Wanqing's statement, but he also knew that it was useless to talk to the Haihan people, because they simply would not accept this. These Haihan people are good at calculation and consider everything based on actual interests, and the fact is that their governance results here are better than those of local governments. Mei Shengchuan could only say angrily: "After all, this is the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the people here are the common people of the Ming Dynasty. Some of your country's practices may seem to be overstepping the boundaries of others."
Hao Wanqing said: "What Master Mei said is correct, but the people don't think so. They just want to live well. The Ming Dynasty cannot give them safe shelter, food, clothing and rice, but Haihan can. If Master Mei thinks what I say, It’s not true. You can take the time to visit the local people later and see if they think it’s better to be a Ming person or a Haihan person.”
No matter how much Mei Shengchuan could bear it, he couldn't help but feel a little angry when he heard this. He snorted coldly and said: "These ignorant commoners are short-sighted and only see petty gains in front of them. How do they know how important the identity of the citizens of the Ming Dynasty is!"
Hao Wanqing said with a smile: "The common people don't have much knowledge. Of course, whoever feeds them will be judged as good. But we are different. We need to consider more things for our country and strive for more benefits. Mr. Mei is doing everything. For the sake of Ming Dynasty, I admire you very much. But negotiation is a negotiation, and eating is a meal. When there is good wine and good food, there is no need to say those embarrassing words. "
Hao Wanqing tried a few words, but seeing that Mei Shengchuan was quite sensitive to the topic of people's desires, he decisively stopped the conversation and blocked the other person's mouth with food and wine to divert his attention. Mei Shengchuan stretched out his hand not to hit the smiling man. Since Hao Wanqing stopped talking, he could not continue to have an attack. He silently raised his glass and drank a cup with Hao Wanqing.
Of course, Hao Wanqing would not really keep quiet about business. After eating a few bites of food, he changed a new topic: "Master Mei, please look at the pier closest to us in the south. The two ships docked are heading south. A special cargo ship for transporting copper ingots. The ships parked at the dock next to it are all from Zhejiang. They will leave for Liaodong tomorrow to deliver supplies there. There is also the big ship with black sails. Merchant ships from Fujian specialize in transporting goods from the south to Shandong and sell them through our market in Fushan County. Currently, there are nearly a hundred merchant ships entering and leaving the port here every month. Mr. Mei is working in the Ministry of War. I don’t have a precise understanding of this, so let me briefly describe it. The value of goods entering and exiting Zhifu Port every month is probably more than 300,000 taels of silver. Calculated throughout the year, there are about 4 to 5 million taels of goods. In and out from here ”
Mei Shengchuan was indeed a little confused after listening to the first half, not knowing what Hao Wanqing wanted to express, but after listening to the second half, he vaguely understood. This port doesn't look very big, but its operation scale is actually quite large. Hao Wanqing informed himself of these situations, in addition to bragging about Haihan's business capabilities, he probably also had other purposes.
Sure enough, Hao Wanqing changed the subject and said: "Master Mei may wonder how there are so many bold businessmen who dare to come here to borrow the port we built to do maritime trade. In fact, the reason is very simple, because there may be many people behind these merchant ships. At least some of them have official backgrounds. The shipowner or even the entire shipyard may be the property of a certain adult in a certain state in the south. And we are also happy to cooperate with Ming officials in this kind of trade. On the one hand, everyone is a person of status. , the credibility is relatively guaranteed. On the other hand, Ming officials can indeed provide us with a lot of conveniences, so it will be easier for everyone to make money together.”
Hao Wanqing's words were quite explicit. Mei Shengchuan was not a fool, and he naturally understood that the other party was making it clear to him that if he had the intention of making money, then Haihan could provide such an opportunity.
(End of chapter)