Chapter 1734 Attitude Change
The reason why this premise appears is actually closely related to the changes in the international situation in the Far East region in the past two years. Of course, the root causes of these changes are the results of Haihan's previous foreign wars.
In the area that spans thousands of miles in the north and south directions of Hainan Island, the Haihan Army's achievements have fully proved its combat effectiveness. However, not everyone can understand Haihan's choice of targets to attack with force. In particular, several military allies who have close relations with Haihan have been privately suggesting that Haihan should make Ming Dynasty his first choice for military expansion.
The benefits of targeting the Ming Dynasty are obvious. After Haihan occupied the entire Hainan Island, the Ming Dynasty and Hainan were only separated by the narrow Qiongzhou Strait. With Haihan's cross-sea combat capabilities, no one would doubt that places like the Leizhou Peninsula and the Pearl River Estuary would be captured by the Haihan army in a very short period of time. The governments in these places have long been infiltrated and bribed by Haihan, and their willingness to resist may not be as strong as the private armed landlords.
Regardless of whether it is from the perspective of combat difficulty or military expenditure, by making these places the first choice for external expansion, Haihan will undoubtedly gain much greater benefits than the labor expedition, and the speed of digesting these occupied areas after the war will be much faster. .
Of course, the countries that encouraged Haihan to go to war with Ming Dynasty would not simply watch from the sidelines. In a war like this that is certain to be won, as long as you follow Haihan, you can make sure money. Once the war starts, you will definitely send troops to fight together in order to get a share of the pie after the war, even if you can get one or two on the coast of Guangdong. An exclusive port is also a huge gain.
However, Ming Dynasty and Haihan reached a diplomatic agreement last year and officially established diplomatic relations at the official level. This is undoubtedly a big blow to the onlookers who want to follow Haihan and take advantage. They knew that since Haihan took the initiative to establish diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty, it was unlikely that they would break up again. And if anyone wants to bypass Haihan and start a war with the Ming Dynasty, the consequences are likely to be extremely serious - the Houjin Kingdom far away in Liaodong is an excellent example.
Just when everyone was gradually losing hope in this matter, Haihan began to separately investigate the opinions of these allies on today's occasion to see if they could guarantee that they would firmly stand by Haihan in the event of a military conflict between Haihan and Ming Dynasty. one party. Although it is not yet clear what the true purpose of Haihan's measure was, everyone who was asked saw this as a sign that Haihan might have been seriously considering a plan to fight against the Ming Dynasty.
Without exception, everyone who was asked by Haihan's senior officials chose to side with Haihan. Even North Korea, which had always been regarded as the most loyal vassal state of the Ming Dynasty in the past, Li Xi nodded after hesitating for a while, expressing his willingness to comply with Haihan's wishes.
It was not that Li Xi wanted to actively choose to betray the Ming Dynasty, but he understood that the question asked by the Haihan people did not leave him any choice at all. What Tao Donglai said before is already very clear. Haihan has only two kinds of diplomatic relations, one is a partner, and the other is an opponent.
If you don't choose to side with Haehan, you will automatically become Haehan's opponent. And with North Korea's current national strength, it is really not qualified to be Haehan's opponent. Hai and Han did not need to send troops to attack North Korea. They only needed to give Hou Jin a slight signal to relax the situation in Liaodong, and then North Korea could be destroyed with Hou Jin's hand.
The small court of North Korea also saw this situation very clearly. Without counting on the Ming Dynasty, Haihan became the only life-saving straw that North Korea could grasp. As for whether North Korea should continue to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty as it has been for more than two hundred years, Li Xi believes that North Korea must first continue to exist, and then we can discuss the issue of who to be loyal to. Now North Korea has only one way to survive if it wants to survive, and that is to hug Haehan's thigh tightly.
Regardless of whether Li Xi is willing or not, he can only choose to compromise with Haihan. He cannot let North Korea be used as cannon fodder between these two powerful countries.
Those who have a clear positive attitude towards this team are Annan, Portugal and the Netherlands. Annan had been constantly fighting with the Ming Dynasty since the beginning of the 15th century. He had long had plans for Yunnan and Guangxi, which bordered the north. He was eager for Haihan to come out and take the lead, so he followed behind and fought all the way.
Portugal and the Netherlands have the tradition of colonial powers. As long as they can occupy land in the Far East, especially the many ports in the south of the Ming Dynasty, they do not mind sending armed forces to enter the Ming Dynasty to fight with Haihan. Compared with Haihan, who was keen on promoting the international trade system, Ming's self-isolation was really difficult for these Western colonial countries to adapt to. If they were not concerned about Haihan's existence, these two countries would have already thought about using force against Ming. .
As for some other countries in the South China Sea, although they dare not express their stance easily due to the power of the Ming Dynasty, compared with the Ming Dynasty that has basically given up on the South China Sea, Haihan is the object of their most awe. Not long ago, the Spaniards, who were separated from Hainan Island by the entire South China Sea, were kicked out by the Haihan army and beaten to death. Even the city of Manila, which had been in operation for more than half a century, was lost. Who dares to say no in front of the Haihan people? ?
Therefore, before Fei Cexian, the Ming Dynasty envoy, was aware of it, Haihan quickly completed the unification of opinions on the envoys of various countries. If the two countries went to war, then these countries would side with Haihan and give up their opposition. Daming any kind of support.
Everyone believed that this was part of Haihan's pre-war preparations, even Fei Cexian, who had just been informed of the situation by Ning Qi. When he heard Ning Qi take the initiative to admit such an arrangement, he almost couldn't control his emotions and wanted to quarrel with Ning Qi.
Ning Qi filled Fei Cexian's wine glass and said, "Master Fei, don't panic. I'm telling you this just to let you know that our country actually has no malicious intentions."
Fei Cexian was so angry that his lips trembled: "You...you don't have any malice in doing this? You unite all the countries to attack the Ming Dynasty. Do you think our country is weak and can be bullied?"
Ning Qi explained: "There are too many people who want to take advantage of your country at the moment. In order to prevent the situation from getting out of control, we simply let our country take the lead. Anyone who wants to make trouble with the Ming Dynasty in the future is equivalent to taking it from our country. After the business is done, people who think like this will naturally have to consider the consequences. To put it bluntly, they are actually protecting your country in disguise. Do you understand, Mr. Fei?”
"What a protection!" Fei Cexian laughed angrily: "I don't think it's appropriate to call it protection. It's better to call it coercion."
Regarding Ning Qi's explanation, Fei Cexian thought it was nonsense. Haihan might have done this out of good intentions. He clearly wanted to separate Ming Dynasty from these countries. When Haihan tried to take action in the future, Ming Dynasty also We can only fight it alone, without support and assistance from other countries.
Ning Qi spread his hands and said: "Master Fei must go in such an extreme direction to understand, then I can't help it. But Master Fei can think about it, if our country really wants to use force against the Ming Dynasty, why bother? Let me tell you in advance? Our country only needs to transfer the troops deployed in Liaodong back to the south. What parts of the coastal provinces can't be taken?" Fei Cexian snorted, but did not answer Ning Qi's words. Of course he knew that there was a huge disparity in military strength between the two countries. Ming's only military advantage was probably that its army was far larger than Haihan's, but if it wanted to fight Haihan, this advantage would actually be of little use, because Haihan's battle Almost all attacks were launched from the sea, and the Ming Dynasty was unable to defend its long coastline and could not quickly form a military advantage on local battlefields.
And as Ning Qi said, the reason why Haihan didn't take such action was because Haihan didn't want to do it. Otherwise, with the intensity of Haihan's operations in Liaodong, it would be easy to attack any coastal state capital of the Ming Dynasty. This gap in hard power is really unacceptable.
Ning Qi continued: "Master Fei, think about it again, from the secret negotiations before the two countries established diplomatic relations last year to the subsequent agreement, how many twists and turns it took. If our country is determined to use force against your country, why bother? Isn’t it all over after the war? Do you think our country did any cover-up before the war when it sent troops to attack Jin and Spain?”
This is also one of the things Fei Cexian doesn't understand. If Haihan was going to be detrimental to the Ming Dynasty, then why did he spend so much time to get through the joints of the court in the past few years? He must establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty. All the costs involved The money is probably enough for Haihan to start a few more foreign wars. Moreover, after Haihan fought, Jin and Spain both declared war first and sent troops. They indeed defeated their opponents in an upright manner. It seemed that there was no need to go around in circles here in Ming Dynasty.
Fei Cexian said: "That being said, I cannot trust your country's approach!"
Ning Qi said: "It's understandable that Mr. Fei doesn't understand our country's painstaking efforts now. Since Mr. Fei can't listen to anything I say, let's talk about this first. Let time verify our country's true attitude. ! ”
Fei Cexian was a little panicked for no reason when he heard this. If Haihan really planned to invade the Ming Dynasty, then the verification process would probably have to be carried out through war. One of the most important tasks of his mission to Haihan was to maintain peaceful coexistence between the two countries. If Haihan took the initiative to start a war, it would be considered a dereliction of duty on his part.
"Wait a minute!" Fei Cexian stopped Ning Qi, who was about to get up and leave: "Since Chief Ning is so sure of his words, can he give us an accurate indication of where the Haihan Army will use its troops next?"
< br>
Ning Qi asked: "Then what is your country's hope? I think Emperor Chongzhen must be happy to let our army continue to fight in Liaodong, right?"
Ning Qi brought Chongzhen out to speak. Fei Cexian did not dare to answer the question and could only respond: "I have a low official position and I dare not speculate on the holy will casually."
Ning Qi said: "I am in charge of diplomatic, cultural and educational affairs, and military matters do not count if I say anything. But the next direction of the Haihan Army's deployment of troops will definitely not be in the Ming Dynasty. This can make Mr. Fei feel more at ease. ”
Fei Cexian thought to himself that it makes no difference whether you said it or not. How can I rest assured? He suddenly felt that this group of Haihan people seemed to be far less organized in diplomacy than in other fields. The routine was so chaotic that he couldn't understand the real intention of the other party. Or maybe this was what Haihan wanted to achieve?
In the past, the Ming Dynasty's foreign policy at the national level was very simple. Those who were willing to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty were treated as vassal states, and those who were disobedient were sent to conquer. But peace is war, and why to fight? Decisions are rarely made through diplomatic channels, let alone the use of diplomatic means to calculate opponents and weaken the opponent's strength in non-war forms. The international relations that Fei Cexian had access to while working in the Ministry of Rites were relatively simple, and he could not imagine some more advanced operations.
For Haihan, Daming is a source of resources, a sales market, and a source of manpower, but it is also an opponent that needs to be watched out for. For his own benefit, Haihan wanted to try to continue the Ming Dynasty and even send troops to defend it from foreign enemies. However, at the same time, he also had to carefully weaken the Ming Dynasty's defense against him so that he could control the trend of the regional situation.
For this reason, while establishing diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty, Haihan deliberately created some signs that he might use force against Ming Dynasty, and tried to suppress Ming Dynasty's international status. The Executive Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have designed extremely complex and even seemingly contradictory measures and means to achieve this goal. Sure enough, Fei Cexian couldn't understand this complicated situation at all. He was so confused that he could only be led by Haihan step by step.
"Master Fei, you must believe in us, otherwise it is really easy to lose the rare peace." Ning Qi continued to pour ecstasy on the other party: "You have to know that not everyone in our country agrees with providing military supplies to your country. Aid, existing diplomatic relations are hard-won and fragile, and we need to jointly maintain them.”
Fei Cexian thought, why is it that I am the one who wants to destroy the peace? You are obviously the one who spread the rumors about taking action against Daming! Moreover, this attitude keeps changing. Fei Cexian is becoming more and more confused as to what Haihan's true intention is.
What Fei Cexian didn't know was that at the same time, envoys from other countries who were talking to senior officials of Haihan had all lowered their expectations for Ming, because they all believed that once Haihan declared war on Ming, they would be the first to fall into war. It must be rich places such as the Pearl River Delta, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. What will be affected next is the price of Daming's export commodities. Due to the war, production capacity will be reduced and prices will rise. Some people are already planning in their minds to notify merchants in their countries to stock up on Ming Dynasty goods as soon as possible, and they may be able to take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune.
Of course, no matter how fast they move, they cannot be faster than Haihan, who arranged this situation. Haihan has already started laying out the market for high-end goods such as silk, porcelain, and tea several months in advance. Taking into account the delay in delivery, some products have entered Haihan's monopoly purchase list in the second half of last year. Foreign businessmen who want to purchase certain products can probably only buy the goods at higher prices from Haihan.
(End of chapter)