Chapter 1730 Diplomacy
The Haihan logistics department put a lot of thought into the dishes produced for this dinner, which should not only take into account the different dietary tastes of various countries, but also highlight the characteristics of Haihan food culture. Chef Fan Wei, who has long since stopped cooking in person, organized his team of capable people to study the menu and reserve ingredients a month in advance, and spent a lot of time in preparation.
But when it comes to the banquet, not many guests will pay attention to the dishes. The people attending the meeting are all rich or noble. They usually eat a lot of delicacies such as abalone, abalone, fins, ginseng, and delicacies from the mountains and sea. Moreover, many people have been active in Sanya for a long time and have long been accustomed to Hainanese tastes. Even if Haihan's chefs can cook in various ways, there won't be anything special in their eyes.
What really attracted the attention of the guests were some of the signals that Haihan official took the opportunity of this dinner to release, as well as the opportunity to have face-to-face communication with many prominent figures during the dinner. After all, an occasion like this that can facilitate international exchanges is an extremely rare opportunity in the Far East in this era. Even the Ming Dynasty, which once had such a prosperous scene as "all nations come to Korea", would not have such advanced diplomatic concepts as Haihan. To hold such activities.
Those who are interested have already heard some overtones from Tao Donglai's brief speech before the dinner. First, Haihan is now gradually out of the state of keeping a low profile. Tao Donglai even used the word "second to none" in his speech without humility. Words like "strong" and "powerful" are used to describe Haihan today. This is obviously different from Haihan's low-key diplomatic rhetoric in the past few years.
Second, Tao Donglai emphasized Haihan's leading level in multiple fields, which is enough to make allies and partners confident in the prospects of future cooperation. What is the purpose of this emphasis? Those who are interested will naturally associate it with some recent rumors, such as the Ming Dynasty's intention to borrow troops from Haihan to resist the invasion of powerful enemies in the north.
Although this model of providing paid military assistance to other countries is not the first time for Haihan, there is no doubt that the appearance of the Ming Dynasty has greatly increased Haihan's strong attributes. Just imagine that even the first empire of the Far East in the past had requested military assistance from Haihan. Then even a blind man could confirm Haihan's international status in military matters.
As for why Tao Donglai showed a high-profile attitude on this occasion, each participant had their own opinions. Representatives like Annan will be happy to see the results. The growth of Haihan will be more beneficial than harmful to Annan. With this strong backing, Annan will be able to steadily gain the upper hand in the protracted war with Siam.
Western countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands have a somewhat sour mentality. Haihan's strength is not a good thing for their competitors. It means that their goals of occupying colonies in the Far East and expanding trade scale will encounter greater difficulties. resistance. Even if the cooperative relationship between Portugal and Heyhan is very close, it is difficult for Thomas not to consider whether Portugal will become even more humble in the future when the two countries get along.
As for Su Keyi, he felt even worse. Since he entered Sanya as an envoy, he has personally felt that this country is developing and growing at a speed that is almost visible to the naked eye. The speed of infrastructure construction in Sanya alone was many times faster than that of Batavia, which was rebuilt after the war. The prosperity of Victory Port and Sanya Port made him even more envious. In his opinion, what Tao Donglai just said was more like a demonstration, and the East India Company was unable to respond to it. This is really a sad thing.
Of course, the one who suffered the most was not Su Keyi, but Fei Cexian, the envoy of the Ming Dynasty. The faster Haihan develops, the more trouble it will be for Ming Dynasty. Such a powerful and restless neighbor has been a thorn in Ming Dynasty's back in recent years, but it has been unable to take action to get rid of it quickly.
If in the past, the Ming Dynasty could still rely on its advantages in population and land area to offset its disadvantages in the military and economic and trade fields, then as Haihan occupied more and more places in the Far East, especially along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, he established A series of colonizations have attracted immigrants nearby, and the strength gap between the two sides is increasing bit by bit. Tao Donglai's words indicate that Haihan will not stop here and is very likely to continue to encroach on the Ming Dynasty in this way.
Fei Cexian stayed in Sanya for several months. The more he learned about Haihan, the more he realized that it was difficult to make this country accept Ming's arrangements through pure negotiation. In order for Haihan to change his approach, sufficient conditions must be offered, but it is impossible for Ming Dynasty to trade territory or population, so this conflict of interest is fundamentally unsolvable. And every time Fei Cexian thinks about this section, he can't help but feel a deep sense of powerlessness in his heart.
Even if every dish placed in front of him was carefully cooked, Fei Cexian really couldn't muster the appetite to taste it. He was now counting on the meal to end quickly, because according to the arrangement, the formal social reception would not begin until after the meal.
Among the guests at the banquet, Fei Cexian was certainly not the only one who had similar thoughts. In a social occasion like today, eating is just a ritual, and most people are waiting for the real highlight later.
Everyone had their own concerns. Some anxious people ate a few bites of the main course and then put down their chopsticks and wiped their mouths, waiting for the senior official Haihan to announce the upcoming arrangements. They didn't wait too long, and Ning Qi soon stood up and announced that he could move around on his own during the dinner and follow-up activities could be arranged freely.
The high-ranking officials of Haihan were the first to be surrounded, but most of these quick-moving people were businessmen from various countries who came to consult with them for commercial purposes. The envoys relied on their status, but no one planned to compete with these people for ranking. .
Fei Cexian also sat motionless. As an envoy of the Ming Dynasty, he naturally had to act like a big country and would never take the initiative until the right time came. However, he still looked around carefully to see which guests were present at the banquet. As soon as I came in, I was pulled to talk, but I didn't have time to take a good look around.
At this glance, he saw an envoy from North Korea sitting not far away from him. It was not difficult for him to identify the North Korean official uniform. When Fei Cexian saw that the other party was looking towards him, he nodded slightly as a greeting.
Li Xi couldn't sit still now. North Korea was still a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Since the envoys of the Ming Dynasty had noticed his existence, it would not be good to continue to sit there and pretend that nothing was wrong. He quickly stood up, poured himself a glass of wine, and then went over to toast Fei Cexian.
Although Fei Cexian had some opinions about North Korea's attitude in his heart, he didn't reach out to hit the smiling man, and he didn't deliberately put on airs to embarrass Li Xi, so he invited him to sit down and have a drink.
"I heard that a North Korean envoy has arrived in Sanya, but I haven't had time to make an appointment with you yet, but anyway, today is a good occasion." After putting down his wine glass, Fei Cexian took the initiative and spoke: "But the seats in the Haihan row are There is something wrong. I know that my country has a profound relationship with your country, so why don’t I sit in an adjacent seat? ”
Li Xi was shocked when he heard this, and quickly defended: "I have just arrived in Sanya, and I haven't had time to visit Mr. Fei yet. I hope Mr. Fei can forgive me for being disrespectful." Although Li Xi did not want to meet the Ming envoy in Sanya, But he also didn't want to offend the other party because of these etiquette issues. If he reported the news to the capital in a embellished manner, then the envoys from North Korea to the Ming Dynasty would probably have a very difficult time. As for the issue of arranging seats, Fei Cexian dared to say it casually, but he did not dare to agree with it. There were people coming and going in this place. If someone heard this and poked the Haihan people, wouldn't it be easy to offend him? Haihan people.
Of course, from Li Xi's heart, he actually preferred the seat arranged by Haihan. After all, it was a bit embarrassing to sit next to Fei Cexian on such an occasion. If he hadn't met Fei Cexian's eyes just now, he would have planned to go to an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Haihan to introduce him, which would make him look more formal.
Fei Cexian asked: "I wonder what Master Li has to say about what Master Haihan Tao just said?"
Li Xi responded: "I dare not express my opinion. I think what Mr. Tao said is very true. A strong Haihan should bring more benefits than disadvantages to neighboring countries. As long as we have good relations with Haihan, we should all benefit from it."
Fei Cexian nodded calmly and continued to ask: "I wonder what benefits Mr. Li thinks the North Korean Congress will gain from it?"
Li Xi hesitated for a moment when he heard this question. If he didn't answer it well, he might easily offend the other party.
As if he saw Li Xi's difficulty, Fei Cexian comforted him: "Today is not a formal negotiation occasion. It should just be a chat after drinking. Just say so."
Li Xi thought to himself, "Is it so easy for you to deceive a three-year-old child?" However, he still responded to the other party's question after slandering: "To be honest, Sir Fei, the biggest threat facing our country at present is Houjin. It is said that Houjin's enemy, Chief Taiji, originally planned to personally lead an army of 100,000 to conquer our country last year. But it happened that the Haihan army also entered Liaodong last year, stalling Hou Jin's eastward expedition plan, and our country was spared from the war. Moreover, when they negotiated an alliance with Haihan last year, they also promised our country that if Hou Jin sent troops to invade our country. , then they will provide military assistance to North Korea.”
Fei Cexian said: "Although the Haihan people are powerful in military force, they will not fight for other countries in vain, let alone send troops for free to defend your country against foreign enemies like our Ming Dynasty. The promises they made are not reliable. Your country needs Think twice before you act! ”
The "free troops" mentioned by Fei Cexian refer to the troops sent to defend Korea against the Japanese invasion during the Wanli period. At that time, even the capital city of Korea was captured by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army, and seven of the eight Korean provinces had fallen. If the Ming Dynasty had not sent troops to aid Korea in time, the Korean Peninsula would have become Japanese territory more than 40 years ago.
The Ming Dynasty sent tens of thousands of elites and spent millions of taels of silver to save the country for North Korea. In the Ming Dynasty's view, this was undoubtedly a huge favor that the Korean people could not repay for generations to come.
As for such selfless military assistance, Fei Cexian was certain that the Haihan people would not be able to provide it. First, the Haihan people were always good at calculations and would never make a loss-making business, let alone a war that cost human lives; secondly, the Haihan people The homeland is too far away from Korea, and the cost of sending troops to Korea will only be higher than the Ming Dynasty's operation. And Korea has only been recuperating for a generation after being plundered by Japan, and there is simply not enough remuneration to satisfy Haihan. Fei Cexian believed that if he wanted Haihan to send troops to assist, North Korea had only two choices, either to donate its land or to provide its population.
Fei Cexian used this as a basis to warn Li Xi, which was not slandering Haihan, but his purpose was to use this method to make North Koreans doubt their future cooperation with Haihan. Even if North Korea cannot be brought back to the Ming Dynasty, at least it cannot be allowed to join Haihan's camp so quickly.
As a member of the royal family, Li Xi knew a little bit about the content of the agreement negotiated between North Korea and Haihan. He also knew that Haihan's military assistance was by no means free, but the price North Korea had to pay for it was higher than the cost of national subjugation. The serious consequences seem trivial. However, he would not say such words to Fei Cexian, because the other party simply could not understand how North Korea's situation required the support of strong people. The Ming Dynasty is already in a state where it cannot save itself, and it can no longer provide military assistance to North Korea like it did during the Wanli Period. Now the only life-saving straw North Korea can grasp is that although it is snobbish, it is also very powerful. The Haihan people.
No matter how harsh the conditions offered by Haihan were, their troops were really defeated in Liaodong and the Jin army could not hold their heads up. Moreover, the military assistance mentioned was not purely a cake to satisfy hunger, sold by Haihan to North Korea. The first batch of muskets and artillery arrived in North Korea at the end of last year, and the officer cadets selected by North Korea also went to Liaodong to receive military training from Haihan on the battlefield and learn advanced firearms tactics that could defeat the Jin army.
Although with North Korea's national strength, even with the help provided by Haihan, it is impossible to defeat Hou Jin for a while, but this at least gives North Korea a little hope, and they no longer have to look forward to it like in previous years. Daming's help came, but in the end nothing came of it. Although the Haihan people are greedy, they are unambiguous in what they do after receiving money. At least their business reputation is trustworthy.
But Li Xi really couldn't tell Fei Cexian frankly about these things. Abandoning the Ming Dynasty and choosing Haihan's assistance, this approach will definitely be understood as disrespectful to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Li Xi could only bow his head and thank Fei Cexian for his warning and did not dare to refute it.
Seeing that Li Xi had a better attitude, Fei Cexian felt that his persuasion should have worked to some extent, so he continued: "When your country establishes diplomatic relations with Haihan, don't just see the immediate benefits. I think when they first arrived in Qiongzhou, they Who would have thought at that time that this group of people would annex the entire Qiongzhou Island when they bribed local officials? You should never forget the past and the future. Your country needs to be more vigilant about the cunning of the Haihan people."
(End of chapter)