Chapter 1848 In-depth cooperation
North Korea's expenditure during the Anti-Qing War was very huge, and so far it has exceeded the total domestic military expenditure in the past ten years. After emptying the national treasury, the North Korean authorities could only rely on unconventional means such as gentry fundraising and increasing local taxes to temporarily alleviate the current predicament.
Although there were immediate results, Li Zhu also knew that these methods were not a long-term solution. Domestic economic pressure would gradually transform into social conflicts, thus affecting the stability of his rule. Haihan has always been known for being good at managing trade, and has expressed his willingness to increase trade scale to North Korea many times. For North Korea, this may be the best solution to revitalize the economy after the war and replenish the national treasury.
Li Li also knew that the purpose of the two senior generals from Haihan coming to Seoul to visit him was that they would inevitably talk about the in-depth cooperation between the two parties in various fields, and trade was certainly one of them. However, he is currently not sure what kind of conditions Haihan will propose in the negotiations. With the shrewdness of Haihan people, it is inevitable to maximize the benefits from future cooperation.
In the past, Li Zhu was not too convinced by the comment that "Haihan people are omnipotent", but as he dealt with Haihan more and more times, he finally understood that this statement was not groundless. Senior generals like Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom could actually take on the role of civil servants and carry out diplomatic and trade negotiations with other countries.
Some time ago, Li Jian also heard comments from the public that North Korean military generals could serve as civil servants, but this was not a compliment, but a disparagement of North Korean military generals who could not lead troops to fight, and their role on the battlefield was almost the same as that of civilian officials. This was not the same as Haihan. Comparing the performance of the generals, it was indeed a huge difference. Their generals were not only great at fighting, but their performance in non-military fields was also much better than that of their own officials, which inevitably made Li Zhu feel a little sour in his heart.
The most important minister in North Korea at the moment is undoubtedly Kim Sang-heon, the leader of the main war faction. However, Kim Sang-heon's strength lies in analyzing the current situation and winning over people's hearts. Specific measures for economic construction are not his strength. In the past, North Korea paid limited attention to international trade, and there was a serious lack of professional talents in this area. If it wants to start a trade negotiation with Haihan, it will inevitably be in a relatively passive position.
Li Zhu felt that he had made a mistake in not recalling Li Xi from Haihan State in advance. After all, he had been to Haihan State on behalf of North Korea. Li Xi was the only official who truly understood the situation in Haihan State and was more reliable. But it was too late to recall Li Xi to Seoul to rush for the negotiation, but Li Zhu still did the next best thing and recalled Jin Shangjiu from the Haihan Army to Seoul.
Jin Shangjiu was sent to Zhoushan, Zhejiang last year as a diplomat. Although the place was not Haihan's native land, and was even nominally the territory of the Ming Dynasty, Haihan did rule the area, and he could be considered to have spent some time under Haihan's rule. After that, he was assigned to return home with the Haihan fleet before the war started, and then he followed the fleet to fight on the front line. He still had a good relationship with Wang Tom, and sending him to participate in the subsequent negotiations was also a way to make up for it.
Because he was assigned such an important task, Kim Sang-joo was qualified to enter Gyeongbokgung Palace today, and gathered with many important figures to enjoy the banquet given by the king. This was a memorable moment in his personal career.
However, even though Jin Sangjiuxuan was disappointed with the banquet at Gyeongbokgung Palace, compared to the banquets he had seen in Zhoushan, the level of Gyeongbokgung Palace really seemed a bit shabby. Looking at the dishes, a large table was set up, but the content was really light and there was very little oil or meat. Jin Shangjiu silently estimated that the value of the food on the table in front of each guest was less than five taels of silver - this was of course measured by the standards of Zhoushan restaurants.
In fact, this is not because King Li is being stingy. In fact, the treasury is empty. The king is tight on daily living expenses and can no longer do anything big. But today's banquet is a state banquet, and it still requires a bit of pomp, so we can only prepare a few more vegetarian dishes to fill the occasion. Of course, excluding these factors, the banquets of Koreans still cannot be compared with those of countries with relatively more developed food cultures such as Haihan and Daming. After Jin Shangjiu stayed in Zhoushan for more than half a year, his taste has long been spoiled by local delicacies, such as Now that I'm back in North Korea, I can't help but feel a little disappointed when I go back to the days when I only had kimchi and miso soup.
Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom were very calm about this. The purpose of their coming to Seoul was for negotiation, and the quality of the meal would not affect their emotions. Moreover, they probably know the current situation in North Korea, and they even have a little sympathy for Li Zhu's situation. After all, everyone is the ruling class, and they will definitely have some sympathetic thoughts.
Originally Qian Tiandun planned to mention the cooperation between the two parties at the banquet, but today the banquet hosted by Li Zhu invited as many as a hundred people from North Korea's upper class, most of whom were unfamiliar faces that Qian Tiandun did not recognize. Some words It was not suitable to speak directly in such an environment. Qian Tiandun could only give up his thoughts and first deal with the North Korean officials and princes and nobles who were queuing up to propose a toast.
For these dignitaries in North Korea, it is already a great honor to have the opportunity to sit down and have a drink and chat with General Haihan. This was the first time for many of them to see General Haihan who led his troops to defeat the Qing army. Their admiration for the strong man made them rush forward to propose a toast. If King Li Zhu hadn't been sitting nearby, they would probably have These guys had already sat down to share the table.
Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom are not unfamiliar with this kind of performance of the Koreans. When Haihan sent troops to help the Annan Zheng family win the final victory in the civil war, the Qing Dynasty King Zheng Jie held a banquet for General Haihan in Thanglong Palace. For three days, the Annan people were even more fanatical than the North Koreans. Not to mention such trivial matters as queuing up for a toast, there were dozens of Annan senior officials who actively announced on the spot that they would marry their little girl to General Haihan. .
Of course, some people at the scene thought of this method of building relationships, but as soon as the first person opened his mouth, Tom Wang decisively rejected his "good intention": "General Qian already has a beautiful wife at home, no? I will marry again. As for me, I only spend one or two months ashore out of the twelve months of the year, and I don’t know where I will go ashore. Let’s just forget about getting married, so as not to harm anyone.”
It is not impossible to marry a Korean, but neither Wang Tom nor Qian Tiandun is interested in this, and they do not want these things to affect their living conditions. If it is just to meet their physiological needs, they have many ways to achieve their goals, and there is no need to marry a woman from North Korea for this purpose.
At the end of the banquet, the two senior generals of Haihan were also seventy or eighty percent drunk. A carriage arranged by North Korea took them out of Gyeongbokgung Palace and went to stay in a house in the city that had been prepared in advance. . This house is the residence of a certain member of the royal family, and the conditions are naturally much better than those at the Datong River base. However, the two of them were already quite tired and did not care to appreciate the courtyard landscape here. After washing, they went to bed early. The next day, Jin Shangjiu came to invite Qian and Wang to enter the palace again to meet with King Li Zhu. Before they came to Seoul, they had expressed the purpose of this meeting to Li Zhu through Jin Sangxian. Li Zhu thought that he had a good chat with the two Haihan generals at the banquet yesterday, so he took the initiative to invite them to the palace again to meet and talk. future cooperation between the two parties.
In addition to Li Zhu and Jin Sangjiu, the people present naturally included Jin Sangxian, who was now quite favored by Li Zhu. If in the past Kim Sang-hyun's influence on Li Jie was mainly focused on foreign policy, after the end of the Anti-Qing War, Kim Sang-heon's opinions on various government affairs will become an important reference for Li Jie. Even though the project that he was going to focus on negotiating with Haihan this time might be a trade area that Kim Sang-hyun was not good at, Li Zhu still summoned him to participate in this negotiation, which showed his trust and reliance on him.
In fact, as early as last May when Wang Tom led his fleet to Seoul and forced North Korea to sign an alliance, the two sides reached a preliminary agreement on political and military cooperation, opening of ports for trade, immigration exchanges and other matters. However, the talks at that time were too hasty, and Wang Tom also had no time to agree on specific measures with North Korea, so many projects have been delayed again and again, and no substantial progress has been made until now. When meeting with Li Zhu again this time, Wang Tom will finalize as many projects as possible to obtain more benefits for Haihan.
"Since our alliance with your country last year, the results achieved in the political and military fields are obvious, and His Majesty the King should also have a clear understanding of this. In order to further consolidate the relationship between the two countries, our country hopes to increase cooperation with North Korea Cooperation can adopt an attitude of mutual trust and mutual assistance in more fields and promote the continued development of relations between the two countries." Wang Tom first offered a more official rhetoric to pave the way for the conditions to be discussed later.
Li Zhu responded: "Your country's military assistance is very important to our country, and I am very grateful. But what makes me feel most comfortable is that your country respects North Korea and is willing to take the time to communicate and discuss with us instead of making unilateral decisions." I hope this attitude can be maintained in the future.”
The "respect" Li Zhu mentioned is actually a very normal behavior in the eyes of the traveling public. If North Korea were not Haihan's ally, then naturally there would be no measures for discussion and communication, and the final outcome of this communication would be The purpose is to get North Korea to cooperate with Haihan's various requests as much as possible. In the final analysis, it is out of interest considerations rather than any sense of awe for the country North Korea.
However, there is actually another aspect of respect that Li Zhu understands, and this is something that even Tom Wang and Qian Tiandun don't know. In the whole Haihan, Ning Qi may be the only one who knows the reason, but he may not have noticed this detail.
The detail that Li Zhu is interested in involves the origin of the title King of Joseon. The Joseon Dynasty was established by Taizu Li Chenggui in 1392, but he abolished Goryeo and put Wang Wangyao on the throne. At that time, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang proposed to Li Chenggui. The request for canonization was not approved, and only the country name "North Korea" proposed by Li Chenggui was confirmed.
The first Korean king who was actually canonized by the Ming Dynasty was Li Chenggui's second son Li Fangyuan. At that time, Emperor Hui of Ming Dynasty Zhu Yunwen was at war with King Zhu Di of Yan. In order to win over North Korea to his side in the civil war, Zhu Yunwen issued an order to the Ministry of Rites. Li Fangyuan was given the royal decree. His father Li Chenggui and his elder brother Li Bangguo, who were in charge of North Korea's military and political power before him, were only entitled to have "the right to know the state affairs of North Korea" and were not the legitimate kings of North Korea.
After Zhu Di successfully ascended the throne with "Jingnan", Li Fangyuan once again sent a congratulatory message. In order to appease the vassal state of Korea, Zhu Di did not withdraw the canonization given to him by Zhu Yunwen before, but once again confirmed his status as king. So after that, successive Korean rulers were canonized as kings of Korea by the Ming Dynasty as a rule. However, they could only be called kings but not emperors. They could only call themselves orphans or widowers. They could not call themselves I. They could only be called kings and royal highnesses by ministers. , but cannot call the emperor or your majesty, otherwise it would be trespassing.
However, there are very few people in Haihan's group of time travelers who have a thorough understanding of the standards of these titles. Therefore, from the beginning of their dealings with North Korea, Li Jiao's title was set as "His Majesty the King." This was actually a small mistake, and it was not Haihan's intention. However, after Li Zhu noticed this detail, he understood it as Haihan's "respect" for himself and North Korea, and therefore treated Haihan Released on the issue of title
"Goodwill" creates good feelings. As a result, later, important ministers such as Kim Sang-heon also began to follow Haehan's example and changed their title to "Your Majesty", which further increased Li Zhu's favorable impression of Haehan.
Of course, Li Zhu would definitely not take the initiative to mention the reason for this good impression to Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun, so they did not know that the North Korean king had an inexplicable liking for Haihan because of such details. Even if they knew They may not be able to understand Li Zhu's vanity.
After the two parties finished their greetings, they began to get to the point. The in-depth cooperation issues proposed by Haihan this time mainly come from the political, economic and military aspects.
In terms of military affairs, after the previous months of war, the two sides have basically achieved mutual military trust, and it has become a foregone conclusion that Haihan will station troops in North Korea for a long time. In the future, in addition to selling advanced weapons to North Korea, training qualified officers for North Korea and forming a new army will also become the main content of military cooperation between the two sides. However, these military cooperation projects inevitably require a large amount of military spending as support. It is difficult to reach an ideal level under North Korea's current situation. Economic problems must be solved first before the military cooperation between the two parties can be sustained.
The solution given by Haihan is to let North Korea open its door to trade and allow Haihan merchants and various commercial institutions to enter and operate in North Korea. It's not just about opening a shop to do small business, but directly getting involved in the operation of certain special industries, such as shipping, salt production, smelting, etc. These industries that were originally regulated by the government or even monopolized, Haihan wants to Get involved.
(End of chapter)