Chapter 1621 Deepening of understanding
While Fei Cexian was reading the "Geography of the South China Sea", Zhang Qianzhi sat quietly and waited. He could see that Fei Cexian was really interested in the situation in the South China Sea. This book, which was used as a basic geography textbook by Haihan academies, was almost the only book with reference that Fei Cexian could borrow from the library. value related literature. Although the content in the book seems simple to Zhang Qianzhi, it is far beyond the scope of information held by the Ming Dynasty officials. For Fei Cexian, this is tantamount to a major upgrade of his personal knowledge base.
Fei Cexian did not doubt the authenticity of the content in this book, because he came to the library on an impromptu basis, and it was impossible for Haihan people to prepare for this in advance. Moreover, this document was a textbook for Haihan Academy and was used for It is a reference material for cultivating talents for the country. It is impossible for Haihan officials to deceive the people through fraud.
According to the information described in this book, the current international political situation in the South China Sea is somewhat different from what the Ming Dynasty mastered. Some small countries in the South China Sea that paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty in the early years have disappeared in the long river of history, and in recent decades, The people who emerged in the South China Sea were almost all foreign colonists who came to the South China Sea from the far west by sea. The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal... these Western countries used force to expel or enslave the local indigenous people, and established many colonies throughout the South China Sea.
This so-called colonial method is not unfamiliar to Fei Cexian, because Haihan also used similar methods to expand outward before and after the founding of the country. In particular, the series of control zones established near the coastline of the Ming Dynasty were exactly the same as those used by these Western countries. They first controlled them by force, established settlements, and then forcibly conducted trade with the coastal cities of the Ming Dynasty.
Although Fei Cexian did not understand the deeper colonial purposes of capital export, commodity dumping, and raw material plundering, he knew very well that Haihan was absorbing nutrients from the Ming Dynasty through these coastal colonies to strengthen itself. In fact, there were many officials in the Ming Dynasty who could understand this like him, but officials in the capital were beyond their reach, and local officials were almost all vested interests, so no one could really stand up to stop Haihan's actions.
However, the description of the general situation of the South China Sea in this book is actually not very detailed, especially the relationship between Haihan and the countries in the South China Sea. Many of them are briefly mentioned, and only the member states of the South China Sea Business Alliance are listed, and it is stated that these countries are related to Haihan maintained political, military and economic contacts. Spain, which Fei Cexian was more concerned about before, is naturally not on this list.
After all, Fei Cexian is a scholar and has a strong academic spirit. Although he did not fully understand the content of the book, he still sat patiently in the library until the meal was served. If Zhang Qianzhi hadn't reminded him from the side, he would probably have stayed here until the library closed.
Fei Cexian closed the page reluctantly and sighed to Zhang Qianzhi: "This is only Ding and other documents, but there is so much content. I am becoming more and more curious about the content of that advanced document."
When he checked the catalog previously, Fei Cexian had paid attention to the documents of Class A, B and C. Among the Class A documents, there were even several military reports on the South China Sea marked as written by the Ministry of National Defense. It is thought that the report was written by the Haihan military who had carried out several combat missions in the South China Sea. Its level of detail and credibility should be very high. Unfortunately, Fei Cexian's borrowing authority is far from reaching Class A documents, so he can only I drooled when I looked at the introduction in the catalog.
Zhang Qianzhi responded: "If Mr. Fei is so interested in the situation in the South China Sea, it would be better to wait until the embassy here is completed and then apply to the Executive Committee to go to the South China Sea to inspect and travel and see the exotic customs with his own eyes."< br>
Fei Cexian asked curiously: "Can your country arrange such a thing for you?"
Zhang Qianzhi said: "Others may not be able to do it, but Mr. Fei is an envoy of the Ming Dynasty. If you have any requests, the executive committee will do its best to meet them. If Mr. Fei has plans, I can report it on my behalf."
Zhang Qianzhi is not bragging. In fact, it has become a relatively common practice for Haihan to arrange for foreign envoys to visit and travel within the areas under his control. Even the current Governor of the Dutch East India Company, Van Diemen, was originally an envoy. Visited the main towns on Hainan Island. Nowadays, in Zhejiang, Shandong and even Liaodong, there are also envoys, students, military observers, etc. from other countries, who, under the arrangements of Haihan officials, go there to experience the environment of the Haihan colony.
For the envoys of the Ming Dynasty, the purpose of the Executive Committee is very clear, which is to prevent the other party from spying on confidential information, while also trying to expand their horizons, so as to use Haihan's advanced social system and technological achievements to influence their ideas and political stance. Although these two tasks seem to be a bit contradictory, they are basically clear in execution. As far as the information Fei Cexian has access to so far, except for a discussion he accidentally heard outside Haihan Bank, , everything else is basically under the control of the Security Department. If Fei Cexian can be sent for a tour of the South China Sea, it will naturally be easier to control him. By the way, he can also be shown Haihan's actual control power in the South China Sea.
However, Fei Cexian was quite cautious. Although he was a little tempted, he still did not accept Zhang Qianzhi's suggestion. He only said that the matter needed further consideration. What he was worried about was not whether Haihan could arrange such a trip properly, but that he would run away as soon as the embassy was completed. This would be a bit irresponsible. If someone reported it quietly, he would have to think of a reason to explain it. , wouldn’t it be asking for trouble? Even if you want to travel to the South China Sea, you will have to wait for a while to complete the negotiations and consultations between the two countries.
Zhang Qianzhi failed to achieve his goal, but he was not discouraged. He made the suggestion without expecting the other party to agree to it. He just took this opportunity to show Fei Cexian Haihan's confidence in controlling the situation in the South China Sea. In the future, if Fei Cexian has too much free time in Sanya, he will think of the South China Sea, and he might take the initiative to raise the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Although Fei Cexian was still satisfied with what he saw, he was not allowed to eat in the library, so he had to go out to find a place to eat when it was time for dinner. The two of them left the library immediately, woke up the entourage and the coachman who were waiting outside and were drowsy, and then went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Fei Cexian didn't have any airs, and he didn't let Zhang Qianzhi and others share tables, so the four of them sat down at the same table.
"When I was in the capital, the people who usually came and went were people running errands below, so they weren't so particular." Fei Cexian took the initiative to explain after sitting down: "Besides, this is not an official occasion, just a casual meal outside. That's all, there's no need to make a distinction between superiority and inferiority." Zhang Qianzhi quickly agreed, feeling even more favorable to Fei Cexian. Although the Ming Dynasty envoy was a bit unsmiling on weekdays, he did not have any official airs. He did not shout around or give orders to himself or the construction workers on the embassy construction site. Now that he can take the initiative to sit at the same table with his servants to eat, it can indeed be seen that he has a good character.
After dinner, Fei Cexian went to the library again. When Zhang Qianzhi saw this, he knew that he was like other people who had opened their eyes after entering the Haihan Library for the first time. He wished he could stay in there without having to come out. Find content that interests them in the sea of books. Zhang Qianzhi is happy to see the results of this mentality. First, it is easier to monitor the target's movements and intentions. Second, it can also be used to further launch psychological warfare against the target, using Haihan's huge advantage in knowledge reserves. Let Fei Cexian's position slowly waver.
Of course, Zhang Qianzhi never imagined that the reason why Fei Cexian was so greedy for the library, in addition to his thirst for knowledge, was also to find out how the potential competition between Haihan and Spain would develop. Zhang Qianzhi did not know much about the military's plan, and did not connect Fei Cexian's actions with Haihan's plan to deal with Spain.
So the group returned to the library. This time, Fei Cexian did not borrow any more geography documents on the South China Sea, but found a brief history of Haihan and Han Dynasties. Zhang Qianzhi found an excuse to sneak out of the library, found a contact person from the Security Department nearby, gave a verbal report on the surveillance situation on his side, and asked him to take it back to the Security Department for filing. Zhang Qianzhi is now considered a moderate official in the Security Department, so he can also command some people under his command. He seems to be acting alone during the execution of the mission, but in fact there are still people outside who are cooperating with him and are ready at any time. Take his orders.
Fei Cexian seemed unaware that he was under surveillance. He found that all the questions that Ming Dynasty had about Haihan seemed to be answered in this library. Even if the literature and materials he has access to now are of the most general level, they can already explain some of the problems on his mind.
For example, regarding the origin of the Haihan people, the information the court received was too mixed, and there was no way to verify its authenticity. Some say that the Haihan people are overseas Chinese who came across the sea from the east, some say that they come from thousands of miles away from the west, and some say that the Haihan people are descendants of the previous dynasty and have been hiding on a large island in the South China Sea, waiting for the opportunity to cause trouble. There are supporters of various theories, but there is no conclusive evidence to prove them to be true.
The Haihan people's own explanation is undoubtedly a relatively authoritative statement. After reading it, Fei Cexian found it hard to believe whether there was a Haihan country on the other side of the East China Sea, but at least it was the Haihan people themselves who came up with it. The explanation is definitely much more credible than folk rumors.
Fei Cexian believes that this statement is credible and there is more objective evidence. It took the Haihan people less than ten years to build a powerful country from scratch on the coast of the South China Sea. If they were just a group of pirates, fishermen, merchants or exiled nobles who came here across the ocean, it would obviously be impossible to achieve such results. At most, they could build a larger-scale free port, just like the Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang Province. Like the Shuangyu Port that has appeared.
Fei Cexian believes that only a ruler who has truly governed a country can reorganize a new political power in a foreign country with such familiarity. The abilities displayed by the Haihan people in this regard all prove that their past identities were anything but ordinary people. But what he was not sure about was whether this group of people were the pacifists they claimed to be, or whether they were militants who used the expansion of commerce as an excuse to actually use war to expand outward.
If it is the former, the frequency of Haihan's foreign wars is too frequent. According to the records in this book, there will be a relatively large military operation launched overseas almost every one or two years, and the opponents change very frequently. There are very few times when the same opponent is involved in two consecutive wars. This is definitely a performance that can only be achieved by a warlike country.
But if Haihan is a militant, he spared Ming Dynasty and Annan, which are the closest and easiest to attack. He only occupied several ports on the coastlines of these two countries as strongholds, and did not attempt to invade with force. these two countries. Not only that, Haihan is even trying to help these two countries train new armies and sell them weapons to enhance the combat effectiveness of their armies. Although the benefits to the Ming Dynasty were almost all the private armies of local warlords, at least these local warlords were still loyal to the imperial court on the surface, and there were no signs of rebellion.
According to Haihan's official statement, it is because Haihan is also a Han government and has the same roots as the Ming Dynasty, so it hopes to maintain brotherly relations. But Fei Cexian believes that this is not all the reasons why Haihan chose peace. Haihan obtained labor, raw materials and sales markets from Ming Dynasty. This is probably the main reason why Haihan is willing to live in peace with Ming Dynasty, and it is also included in the Liaodong Agreement. Very explicit expression. If Ming Dynasty refuses to provide it with these conditions, then Haihan may not be as calm as he is now in establishing diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty and putting all disputes on the negotiation table to resolve them.
Fei Cexian did not believe that Haihan's military power was enough to destroy the Ming Dynasty, but he also knew that it was very difficult to organize an armed force in the south that could compete with Haihan, and there was even less hope of winning. Otherwise, the imperial court would not have endured it for so many years, and it would have been long ago to mobilize troops to cross the sea to Qiongzhou Island to suppress the bandits.
The brief history of Haihan has records of wars over the years. Although it is not very detailed, it is enough for Fei Cexian to sort out a timeline of Haihan's rise in his mind. Haihan's external expansion is almost always accompanied by large-scale wars, and this time Haihan dispatched troops deployed on the Ming coastline to gather south. Obviously, the scale of the operation will not be too small. Fei Cexian also wants to know what will happen next. After this military operation ends, what will happen to the areas actually controlled by Haihan?
It's a pity that Fei Cexian is a civilian official, and his understanding of military affairs is limited to what he learned before setting off from the capital. It is really difficult to analyze the direction of Haihan's next war based on the existing information. Otherwise, he should have understood that the meaning of Haihan's attack on the Spanish colonies was not just to avenge old grudges.
(End of chapter)