Chapter 1732 Rhetoric
For diplomats from various countries, truly important diplomatic affairs should not be communicated and negotiated in public places such as banquets. Especially since there are diplomats from many other countries on site, their country's foreign policy can easily be exposed if they are not careful. So today's occasion is actually only suitable for testing the tone and attitude. As for the real issues, we still have to wait for a separate meeting in the future to slowly communicate.
But this scruple will not keep the diplomatic envoys silent. Although it is not appropriate to talk about their own affairs, it does not prevent them from inquiring about other families' news. For example, Fei Cexian is very interested in knowing how many weapons North Korea bought from Haihan, whether they are the same as those purchased by Ming Dynasty, how much they cost, and when they plan to install them in the army... If these questions are You will definitely not get an answer if you ask Li Xi directly, but you might be able to get a few pieces of information from a senior official in Haihan.
In fact, no matter how many weapons produced by Haihan purchased by North Korea, it will not threaten the security of Ming Dynasty, but Fei Cexian believes that such transactions will encourage North Korea's ambition to break away from Ming Dynasty, which is not a good thing for Ming Dynasty. Moreover, he believed that the Haihan people had no good intentions in selling weapons to North Korea, but they just wanted to use such means to gradually complete control of the North Korean army, just like they had done to Annam, Champa and some other small countries. It is impossible to say that North Korea agreed to some of Haihan's more excessive conditions for this purpose. Otherwise, how could the North Korean envoy look guilty when he saw him?
Now that it was time for envoys from various countries to engage in activities, Fei Cexian was no longer polite, stood up and walked straight towards Tao Donglai. The reason why he didn't go to Ning Qi or Schneider was because after getting in touch with him during this period, he found that these two people were really difficult to deal with, and they often got themselves involved by going around in conversations, often for the purpose of It was not achieved, but was tricked by the other party.
Fei Cexian believes that among the high-ranking officials in Haihan, Tao Donglai is the easier one to deal with, because his official position is actually the nominal leader of Haihan and the uncrowned king of the country. He can be said to follow the law. There is no need to be afraid of anyone or anything, and there is no need to hide your feelings and thoughts.
Of course, this is just Fei Cexian's personal idea. If he had asked envoys from other countries about Tao Donglai's deeds in the diplomatic field before this, he might not have made such an unwise decision.
When the Haihan Executive Committee was first established, Tao Donglai actually shouldered part of the diplomatic mission, and his style was the same as that of the other two. The foreign officials who had fallen into his hands were really unlucky. few. Fei Cexian thought that Tao Donglai would be easier to deal with. This was really a big mistake.
After Fei Cexian stepped forward to meet Tao Donglai, he got straight to the point: "Chief Tao, I have something unclear, and I hope you can give me some advice. North Korea is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and it stands to reason that we should provide them with Military assistance can only be implemented with the consent of our country, but your country’s current approach is to deliberately bypass the Ming Dynasty and even instigate North Korea to conceal the true situation from our country. I dare to say that this is not a good idea. "< br>
Tao Donglai smiled and said: "In your opinion, if you want to provide military assistance to North Korea, how can it be considered reasonable?"
While the two were talking, there were already several listeners beside them. The overt and covert struggle between Haihan and Ming Dynasty is not a secret, but it is rare to hear officials from both sides debating this topic in public. What's more, Tao Donglai has always been regarded by the outside world as the true leader of Haihan Kingdom. He said The words represented Haihan's official attitude, so naturally everyone paid special attention to this. They also really want to know what is Haihan's true attitude towards the Ming Dynasty, and what is the position of North Korea, which has recently been drawn into Haihan's camp, in this.
Seeing that enough spectators had gathered around him, Fei Cexian responded immediately: "If your country wants to provide military assistance to North Korea and sell weapons, it is not impossible, but it should not bypass the Ming Dynasty." To act on your own, you must inform Ming Dynasty before this. In addition, the weapons and equipment sold to North Korea should be delivered to Ming Dynasty first, and then distributed and deployed by Ming Dynasty to North Korea. "
Everyone started talking after hearing Fei Cexian's speech. This was enough to inform the Ming Dynasty. After all, the status of the suzerain state was there, and this was how it should be done according to the rules. But to deliver the weapons and equipment purchased by North Korea to the Ming Dynasty first, and then transfer them to the Ming Dynasty, it is obvious that the geese are plucking their feathers. For Ming to control the weapons available to North Korea, this is certainly not Haihan's original intention of selling weapons to North Korea, and the possibility of compromise is extremely low.
Then I heard Tao Donglai say: "Okay, since Mr. Fei keeps saying that North Korea is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, I would like to ask if the Ming Dynasty, as the suzerain country, should send troops to help North Korea when it is threatened by external force, just like it did during the Wanli period. If so, what was your country doing when Hou Jin was exerting military pressure on North Korea? ”
What is Daming doing? Could it be that Fei Cexian could tell these people in front of him that the Ming Dynasty was in a tight war situation and was unable to care about relieving North Korea on the Northeast battlefield? But he was able to be sent to Haihan as an envoy, and his face was not ordinary. He responded without any hesitation: "Of course our country is deploying troops and generals, preparing to attack Houjin to relieve the pressure on North Korea."
Tao Donglai shook his head and denied his statement: "No, you didn't. Has your country had any victories against the Jin army in recent years? According to our understanding, there is no such thing, and the situation is quite passive, almost We have given up all field operations and can only stick to the city and wait for the enemy to retreat. In this case, it is not surprising that we do not care about our overseas vassal countries.”
Fei Cexian quickly denied: "There is absolutely no such thing. I'm afraid there is something wrong with Chief Tao's source of information. Every year our Ming army fights with the Hou Jin army, all battle reports are sent to the Ministry of War in the capital for archiving. Victory results are not uncommon, but Sanya The news here is blocked and it hasn’t reached here yet.”
Tao Donglai said: "Is that so? I do have a copy of the war report from the Ministry of War. If Mr. Fei wants to take a look, I can ask someone to send it over right away."
Fei Cexian was so angry that he cursed secretly. He never thought that Tao Donglai could play such a big role and even want to publish the information of the Ministry of War. These things are obviously unpublished records. As for how the Haihan people obtained these top-secret information, that is not what he can know. Fei Cexian didn't dare to bet on whether Tao Donglai's words were true or false. If they were true, it would undoubtedly cause a lot of turmoil; if they were false... the documents and records of the Haihan Company's War Department could be falsified, and then sooner or later the Ming Dynasty would be destroyed. over.
Fei Cexian quickly changed the topic and did not let Tao Dong control the direction of the conversation: "As a vassal state of our country, North Korea should have informed our country of military treaties concluded with other countries." "You are thinking too much." Tao Donglai shook his head and said: "Today's North Korea may not continue to regard the Ming Dynasty as its suzerainty. Come here, please invite Mr. Li Xi, the North Korean special envoy, to come over."
Li Xi was actually standing on the periphery of the crowd, listening to the debate between the two men with his ears pricked up. Although he didn't appreciate Tao Donglai's explicit statement, he didn't like Fei Cexian's lies either. If it weren't for the fact that these two companies are old and new backers of North Korea, Li Xi would like to stand up and say that it has nothing to do with me.
But in the end, the two families chose to work together to bring North Korea into trouble. This was certainly not a tacit understanding, but they both wanted to use North Korea as a gun. Last year, Haihan might not have torn his face apart, but as Haihan's layout in the South China Sea gradually improved, he no longer had as many worries about the attitude of the Ming Dynasty as before. The tough attitude shown by Tao Donglai on this occasion today has already announced that Haihan's route of keeping a low profile is undergoing substantial changes.
Fei Cexian had already begun to regret it at this time. He felt that taking the initiative was a huge mistake, and asking Tao Donglai was even more of a mistake. If the person he was debating was Ning Qi or Schneider, then even if the other party showed the same attitude, at least there would still be some room for maneuver before Tao Donglai came forward. But now it was Tao Donglai himself who expressed his attitude, and his words were very serious, making it difficult for him to get his words back on this occasion.
Fei Cexian can only hope that Li Xi will be a better person and find a way to get over this embarrassing situation as soon as possible without leaving any room for Haihan to make excuses.
But Li Xi did not have the ability he expected. Either of these two families was someone North Korea could not afford to offend, and now it was more painful for him to choose one of them than to kill him. If possible, Li Xi would like to faint and fall to the ground immediately to escape this dilemma.
But now that everyone's eyes were on him, it would be too pretentious to pass out at this time. Li Xi coughed dryly, and the people next to him immediately opened a passage for him so that he could join the debate as soon as possible.
Li Xigan smiled and said: "I didn't hear the topic that the two adults were arguing about just now. Could it be related to our country? In fact, it's better for everyone to stop discussing the issues. Don't hurt the harmony because of some fictitious issues."
Li Xi's feeble persuasion had no effect. Tao Donglai said: "As we all know, Korea has been one of the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty in the past period. The king of Korea was also canonized by the Ming Dynasty and was protected by force from the Ming Dynasty. . But this situation has changed after Wanli. The Ming Dynasty can provide less and less help to North Korea, so that North Korea has to fight against the powerful enemies from the north. For North Korea, the Ming Dynasty has no other choice. In addition to being famous, does it have any practical effect? Mr. Li, what do you think?”
As Li Xi listened, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. If someone said such words in North Korea, it would definitely be regarded as treason. But Tao Donglai said it so easily in front of the Ming envoy, obviously not intending to save any face for the Ming Dynasty. However, in the end Tao Donglai asked him to express his attitude. How should he answer this?
Fei Cexian was not willing to give Li Xi a chance to answer the question, so he immediately took over the conversation: "Since Chief Tao also recognizes the subordinate relationship between Ming Dynasty and North Korea, he should not use this baseless so-called change to provoke Relations between the two countries. Our country has had good relations with North Korea for generations, so Chief Tao should save his energy!”
Tao Donglai smiled and said: "Master Fei, even if you don't let Master Li express his position in public, you can't change the objective reality. At this stage, we Haihan can help North Korea, but Ming cannot give it. We are willing to help North Korea, no Because North Korea is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, but because North Korea and our country are complementary in some aspects, in other words, we have no intention of becoming the suzerain state of North Korea. North Korea can only be our partner. To what extent? ”
Can Daming do it? Of course it's impossible. If Korea claims to be on an equal footing with the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court will definitely be furious. Why should a vassal state that relies on the Ming Dynasty be on an equal footing with the Ming Dynasty?
But if you look at North Korea's perspective and face two equally powerful countries, one is willing to get along with North Korea in partnership, while the other wants to ride on your neck and let you call yourself daddy. Which one will win the North Korean royal family more? Where is your joy?
Fei Cexian was not a fool. After listening to Tao Donglai's discussion, he immediately thought of this level. This was a basically unsolvable problem for Ming Dynasty. It is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to give up its status as a suzerain for more than two hundred years, even if a competitor like Haihan appears. If North Korea chooses to fall to Haihan, the relationship between Ming Dynasty and North Korea may eventually break down, and the North Korean royal family may even be declared treasonous. However, under the current internal and external troubles that Ming Dynasty is facing, it is temporarily impossible to spare its hands and feet to punish North Korea - not to mention that North Korea already has a new backer Haihan behind it.
Fei Cexian tried hard to control the anger in his heart. He knew that if he lost his temper at this time, he would actually admit defeat. After several rounds of debate, he had realized that Haihan wanted to influence the Ming Dynasty's control of North Korea, but Fei Cexian still didn't understand why Haihan would do such a thing that was harmful to others and not beneficial to himself. He was just certain that Haihan could never be as kind as Tao Donglai claimed, and the so-called partners must be just an excuse to further loot and plunder North Korea.
"Chief Tao, what you said today may affect the diplomatic agreement that our two countries have reached and will also cause great harm to the relations between the two countries. The diplomatic relations that have been established with great difficulty, don't you Are you going to destroy it so easily?" Fei Cexian asked word by word.
Tao Donglai shook his head and said: "I just want to use this to show our country's diplomatic attitude to all countries, that is, no matter how big or small the country is, we will treat them equally. Maybe Ming and North Korea had a subordinate relationship in the past, but to us Haihan, they are all the same That’s right. Countries that have diplomatic relations with our country are partners, and those that don’t have diplomatic relations with us are opponents.”
(End of chapter)