Chapter 1618 He Xi’s request
Zhang Qianzhi stood in front of He Xi, bowing slightly, waiting for He Xi to give instructions on the report he submitted. He had been in contact with Fei Cexian, the Ming envoy, for nearly ten days, and based on this, he submitted the first observation report to He Xi. Zhang Qianzhi knew that this report might be submitted to the Executive Committee for review, so he was particularly attentive when dealing with Fei Cexian these days, trying to find out this person's true inner thoughts.
It took He Xi a cup of tea to read the written report. Zhang Qianzhi's records were very detailed, recording almost every detail. Through his description, you can basically see a living image of Fei Cexian. Logically speaking, with such a detailed report, He should not be able to find any faults, but He Xi believed that there were still some imperfections.
"What does Fei Cexian want? Official reputation? Money? Social status? What is his weakness? How can wine, sex, wealth and wealth subdue him?" He Xi slowly closed the cover page and asked Zhang Qianzhi: " Are these contents reflected in your report? No. Although the records are detailed, there is too much junk information. I don’t need to teach you how to filter out valuable information.”
Zhang Qianzhi lowered his head and responded: "It's the fault of my humble position. Please give me another half day...no, two hours, so I can revise the content of the report."
"There's no need to change it. Let's just leave it as it is. It's just right to hand it over to the executive committee so that they don't worry about whether this will work or that." He Xi changed the topic and did not hold Zhang Qianzhi accountable. Instead, he said that this report also has uses. . After all, he has been his disciple for so many years, so it is not appropriate to criticize the other party too harshly on this issue. And He Xi could probably guess what kind of person Fei Cexian was after reading the report. This is not entirely due to Zhang Qianzhi's incompetence, but that this person has indeed not revealed any flaws so far.
However, although Fei Cexian was not caught with obvious weaknesses, he did not show any hostility towards Haihan, which is good news. Haihan's biggest worry was that the envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty were hostile, which would make communication difficult. Zhang Qianzhi had already denied this possibility in his report, which saved Haihan a lot of trouble.
Although Fei Cexian seemed a bit difficult to deal with, He Xi would not be anxious because of it. When he first started dealing with the Ming Dynasty a few years ago, there were many officials who were more difficult to deal with than Fei Cexian. In the end, he was not beaten by Haihan. Bit by bit it eats away at the coastline. He Xi believes that as long as Fei Cexian stays in Sanya for a long time, his values will inevitably be subtly affected, and his political stance will slowly change as his horizons broaden. Although it seems to be invulnerable now, it will be difficult to say in a year and a half. In Fuzhou and Guangzhou, there are many officials who were initially hostile to Haihan, but were later slapped in the face by Zhenxiang.
"Continue to test him slowly. No matter what he wants, try to satisfy him. Not many people in the Ming Dynasty will take officials from the seventh grade seriously. Give him treatment that the Ming Dynasty cannot give first and feed his appetite." He Xi ordered.
"Yes!" Zhang Qianzhi responded quickly. Since He Xi gave clear instructions, he just had to follow them. He Xi allowed him to continue performing this task and had no intention of finding anyone else to replace him. This was a sign of full trust in him.
If the previous attempts to win over were just tests, then some more explicit methods may be used next. Haihan has extremely rich operational experience in this area, and He Xi does not need to issue more detailed orders. If Zhang Qianzhi doesn't even know how to do such a thing, then there is no need to stay in the Security Department.
Fei Cexian didn't know that the Haihan Security Department had adjusted its measures to deal with him. He basically stayed at the embassy construction site throughout the day these days. Although the Haihan Construction Department specially sent an experienced construction team and foreman to take charge of this project, and all the building materials requested by Fei Cexian were delivered in almost the shortest time, he still did not dare to carry out such an important project. Leave the responsibility entirely to the Haihan people. If anything goes wrong, the person who will be held accountable by the court is not the Haihan man in charge of the construction, but him, a junior deputy of the seventh rank. Even though he is now the envoy to Haihan, if something really goes wrong, the court can bring him back to his original form with just a transfer order.
If you can't think of any problems, you have to keep an eye on yourself. Even if you are a little tired, you must ensure that the project can proceed smoothly. Of course, in fact, this job can’t be said to be very tiring. I go around the construction site every day, chat with the foreman, and then sit under the awning set up nearby to drink tea and read the newspaper. If I’m hungry, I’ll have something fresh to eat. If I’m tired, Someone would massage your legs, and someone would run errands as soon as you gave me an order. When my butt hurt from sitting, I got up and walked around the construction site to check on the progress. I wanted to chat with Zhang Qianzhi, a good conversation partner. I could chat with him about anything from all over the world. Speaking of freedom, what other errands can be compared to this environment at the moment?
According to the current construction progress, the main building of the embassy can probably be completed by the end of the year, but to complete all the interior and exterior decoration and layout, it will probably have to wait until around the Spring Festival next year. This means that it will probably take about two months before the embassy is officially put into use. But with the current living and working conditions, let alone two months, what if it takes another two years? Although Fei Cexian knew that his mentality was a bit too lazy, but in the environment provided by Haihan, there was nothing else to worry about, so there seemed to be nothing wrong with taking things as they came.
However, Fei Cexian could not have imagined that such a comfortable life would be further upgraded. After receiving instructions from He Xi, Zhang Qianzhi had someone find a sofa chair to replace the rattan chair under the pergola of the construction site. Because the production process is complicated and the production capacity is extremely limited, the price of this thing on the market has always been high. No less, even the guest house does not have it as a standard feature.
Fei Cexian tried to sit down after Zhang Qianzhi's introduction. Sure enough, he felt that you get what you pay for. The soft and elastic touch under the buttocks was not something that a wicker chair could provide.
Zhang Qianzhi bowed to the side and continued: "Master Fei, I heard that you are guarding the construction site every day. I am worried that you are too tired, so I specially ordered the villain to go to the warehouse to bring a sofa chair. This sofa chair passed by But the treatment that only the chiefs can enjoy seems to have a very good impression on Mr. Fei!”
Fei Cexian felt greatly benefited from what he heard. He said a few words of humility, but he had no intention of standing up and sitting back on the wicker chair. Zhang Qianzhi saw it in his eyes and remembered it in his heart, secretly thinking that no matter how difficult it was to bribe this Ming envoy, he would still want to enjoy it. As long as he shows that he wants something, the rest of the matter will be easy to handle.
Regarding material enjoyment, this group of rulers of Haihan Kingdom are probably the most particular and knowledgeable group of people in this era. Although due to the productivity limitations of this era, many things that were commonplace in the original time and space could not be manufactured at all, they still tried their best to restore the various comfortable daily necessities they had experienced in the first half of their lives. And these things are a completely new experience for people of this era.
Fei Cexian paid attention to etiquette, justice and integrity and was unwilling to directly accept the money given by Haihan, but it was difficult to refuse Haihan's penetration in terms of living conditions. If he wanted to live in Sanya for a long time, it would be impossible for him to be isolated from the outside world. During his employment, his food, clothing, housing and transportation must partly rely on the conditions provided by Haihan officials. He Xi understood this very clearly, so he gave some advice. Zhang Qianzhi should work more on this aspect. Whether this method can work, Zhang Qianzhi has already tested the opponent's reaction in the first round. Since Fei Cexian didn't refuse, he could slowly add more ingredients.
At the regular meeting of the Executive Committee, He Xi also gave a brief report on Zhang Qianzhi's progress to the Executive Committee. Regarding the diplomatic process with Ming Dynasty, the Executive Committee is no longer as anxious as it was a few months ago. Firstly, because the two countries have officially agreed on a general framework, and the remaining issues are considered trivial matters; secondly, Haihan's layout along the coast of the Ming Dynasty still has many tasks that have not yet been completed, such as the penetration and integration of various industries in Zhejiang. It just so happens that we should seize the time to get started during this period. When the Ming Dynasty embassy is built, the two sides will start formal negotiations. Some methods It's hard to show it openly anymore.
"So can Fei Cexian handle this?" After Tao Donglai listened to the report, he still wanted to get a more concise answer from He Xi.
"There is a high probability that it can be done, but it will take a little more time." He Xi responded.
"Time can be given, but it cannot affect subsequent negotiations. If this person's attitude has not changed and is unwilling to cooperate with us, it may cause unnecessary trouble to us." Tao Donglai reminded.
He Xi nodded and responded: "If this is the case then, I will try to deal with it."
He Xi knew very well what trouble Tao Donglai was referring to. Haihan had too many related interests in the coastal areas of Ming Dynasty, and one of the purposes of establishing diplomatic relations was to legalize and make these interests public. Many details needed to be resolved through fees. Ce Xian came to reach an agreement with Ming Dynasty. If the Ming envoy is not willing to cooperate enough, or is even hostile to Haihan, then this will inevitably damage Haihan's interests in the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, the Ministry of Security has a backup plan for the worst case scenario. Although it is unlikely that the Ming envoy will disappear for no reason or die mysteriously in Sanya, it is not difficult to persuade him to retreat by some means. For example, using drugs to make him seriously ill, sending him back to Daming for treatment, and then asking Daming to replace him with someone else. Technically it is not difficult to achieve a similar effect, it just requires mastering the appropriate timing of implementation.
Fei Cexian did not know that his life trajectory had bifurcated due to the interference of the Haihan Executive Committee. If he did not make a choice that was beneficial to him in the next period of time, what awaited him might be It's not a happy ending. However, considering the current situation, he has not considered this possibility at all. Life here is far more comfortable than in the capital. He does not have to do anything every day, and he lives a life of food, clothes, and hands. Everyone has seen it. He would politely call him "Master Fei", which was a preferential treatment he had never enjoyed in the past decades.
Of course, Fei Cexian is not a fool. He can naturally realize that there must be elements of Haihan's deliberate arrangement. He understands that if the Haihan people give him such high courtesy, he will definitely ask for something in the future. But if he was asked to refuse such a courtesy, he seemed to have no way to say it. Could it be that he was asking Haihan to be colder and less enthusiastic towards him? This is obviously impossible, and Fei Cexian can only silently remind himself not to be fooled by Haihan's methods. The bottom line of loyalty to the court cannot be changed.
While Fei Cexian was enjoying himself, he did not forget one of his tasks, which was to sift out valuable intelligence from various local public information and compile it into a written report. But he didn't know that most of the information he had access to was deliberately arranged by Haihan. Even the newspapers he could buy were actually screened in advance by the Ministry of Security to ensure that the content he could see so far was within the monitoring range.
Although such intelligence control methods are time-consuming and laborious, because the target is Ming Dynasty, He Xi is still willing to let the Ministry of Security invest a lot of manpower and resources to complete this task. As for the final result, it is still difficult to say. He Xi only hopes that Ming's defense against Haihan will not be further strengthened before Fei Cexian's intention is confirmed.
Because Haihan had already opened the general deposit and exchange business of Haihan Bank between Guangzhou and Sanya, after the funds provided by Ming Dynasty to the embassy arrived in Guangzhou, they followed the trend and followed the trend under the instructions of the governor's Yamen. , only send the check to Sanya, and then Fei Cexian will withdraw it at the bank here, eliminating the trouble of transporting cash.
However, Fei Cexian was dumbfounded when he went to the bank to handle business, because it was near the end of the year and many commercial banks began to take inventory of the income and expenditures of the year according to Haihan's chronological method. The settlements that should be settled should be negotiated. The debt was settled. Long queues began to form at the entrance of the Haihan Bank headquarters in Sanya every day, all businessmen from various countries waiting to go through the procedures. For this reason, the bank even specially arranged a number of long benches to be placed at the door to facilitate these customers to take a rest while queuing.
Fei Cexian took a look and saw that there must be at least two to three hundred people queuing up. How long would it take for him to get in line? He originally planned to go back and ask Zhang Qianzhi to see if he could handle the matter through the channels of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs without having to wait in this long queue. But when he was about to leave, he heard some interesting things discussed by the businessmen at the end of the queue, so he gave up the idea of leaving and quietly joined the long queue at the door of the bank.
(End of chapter)