Chapter 1852 The Road to a Strong Country
The Korean Peninsula is located between the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. It is sandwiched between the Ming Dynasty, Hou Jin Dynasty and Japan. However, it is the weakest country in terms of national power and combat power. If it hadn't been for worshiping the mountain early and looking for the Ming Dynasty as a protective umbrella, the country of Korea would have been in trouble several times when surrounded by powerful enemies.
Since Li Zhu came to power in 1623, he has been looking for a way to strengthen the country that suits his country's national conditions. However, this is not easy to do. It can be said to be full of difficulties. First, in the second year after he became king, he encountered the military general Li Shi who was dissatisfied with the rewards based on his merits and rebelled. During this period, he even appointed Li Xing, the king of Xing'an, as the king, which made the domestic situation precarious.
Later, Li Zhu finally put down the domestic rebellion, but the peace only lasted for more than two years before the Dingmao Rebellion broke out. Later, the Jin Army, led by General Amin, defeated Yizhou, Dingzhou, Guoshan, and An. Prefecture, Pyongyang, Hwangju, and Pyongsan cities, and Li Zhu also evacuated Seoul and fled to Ganghwa Island to escape the war. The war ended with North Korea surrendering and negotiating a peace, opening the market to Houjin and paying Sui coins.
The only good thing about Li Shu's reign was that Japan, its strong neighbor to the east, was closing itself off during this period. The second-generation Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Hidetada, and his son, the third-generation general Tokugawa Iemitsu, who controlled Japan, and Li The two generations of shoguns who were in power at the same time focused on centralizing domestic rule and expelling Westerners, and had no time to care about their neighbors to the west. Therefore, during the more than ten years he was in power, he did not suffer any large-scale invasion by Japan. From time to time, some Japanese pirates harassed him near the Tsushima Strait in the southwest. Compared with his predecessor who suffered the Imjin Japanese Rebellion, King Guanghaejun Li Huike was much luckier.
The former king, who was still imprisoned on Jeju Island by Li Jie, was only named the crown prince after the Imjin Japanese Rebellion broke out. However, this symbolized that the identity of the crown prince as the heir to the throne was not recognized by the Ming Dynasty until sixteen years later. He spent half of his more than ten years fighting in the palace, and then was caught between Ming and Jin for several years. Finally, he was ousted by his nephew Li Zhu in a coup and deposed the throne. His experience in reign was really Quite bumpy.
Li Jian did not want to continue the decline of his predecessor. As a king who launched a coup to ascend the throne, he had to make some achievements to prove his ability and let his ministers and people know that he was destined to ascend to the throne. Only by yourself can North Korea come out of its decline and become a powerful country that no one in the region dares to underestimate.
However, more than ten years later, Li Zhu's ambitions have not been realized. The economy continues to rely on traditional agriculture, which depends on the weather, and the military is suppressed by the powerful neighbors in the north. There is no chance of turning around at all. There is also little achievement in politics. The only thing worthy of boasting seems to be that he found a new backer, Haihan, to replace the Ming Dynasty. With the protection of Haihan, he repelled the invasion of the powerful neighbor in the north. However, considering that North Korea was still a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty in name, he kept silent. Changing the suzerain state suddenly does not seem to be a glorious act, so naturally it is impossible to write a big book about wooing Haihan.
But even so, Li Zhu's dream of a strong country was not completely shattered. He believed that now was an excellent opportunity. The Qing Kingdom in the north suffered heavy losses in this defeat, and Japan in the east had almost no sense of existence in recent years. The Ming Dynasty Ni Bodhisattva in the west is unable to protect itself across the river. Now it can't care about maintaining diplomatic relations with North Korea, let alone restrain North Korea from choosing other backers. In other words, as long as it can improve its relationship with Haihan, North Korea can at least make great progress in the military field.
Li Zhu was indeed a little wary of the industrial cooperation plan proposed by Haihan. He was also worried that after Haihan intervened in these industries that were involved in the country's economic lifeline, North Korea's economic situation might become more severe. After all, with Haihan's strength, after controlling some key industries, it is not impossible to influence the domestic situation in North Korea.
With this mentality, coupled with the opposition in the court to this cooperation plan, he did not think about these details when he studied Haihan's plan before. He just wanted to delay the matter until Haihan himself. Until you give up. But after listening to Cui Mingji's detailed interrogation of General Haihan today, Li Zhu suddenly felt that this matter was actually profitable. If it is true, as the Haihan people claim, and following their arrangements, the North Korean economy can be greatly boosted and operating income can replenish the national treasury that has bottomed out, then we can gradually build a strong army based on the development models of Annan and Fujian. The army seems to have the possibility of realizing it.
Under Haihan's unremitting propaganda campaign, ordinary people would still have the mentality of "I can do whatever I want" to imitate successful people, not to mention a ruler like Li Zhu who holds great power in a country. Even if North Korea is essentially a weak country, it does not prevent Li Zhu from imagining the future of North Korea to be like the current situation in Annan and Fujian - with a strong military and overseas combat capabilities, able to coordinate with the Haihan Army, even if it is It is capable of fighting against such a powerful enemy as the Qing army.
If there is a Haihan-style army... No, even if it is only half the strength of the Haihan Army, whether it is the Qing Kingdom in the north or the previous suzerain country, the Ming Dynasty, who would dare to treat North Korea with a condescending attitude? One day everyone in the world will realize that North Korea is not made of dough!
Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun didn't know that the expressionless His Majesty the King had already added a lot of drama in his heart. They took turns answering Cui Mingji's questions, and they felt more and more that this person was not simple. Before coming to Seoul, they had discussed the cooperation content with Kim Sang-hyun in advance, but Kim Sang-hyun paid more attention to whether their cooperation method complied with North Korea's laws and regulations, and whether it could ensure that the income level of these industries originally assigned to the national treasury would not be affected. Influence. Cui Mingji's focus is on the feasibility of the cooperation plan and whether it can bring real economic benefits to North Korea. His questioning method is more clever than his political opponents.
In other words, although Cui Mingji joined the negotiation halfway, his understanding of the cooperation plan actually exceeded that of his political opponent Kim Sang-heon and His Majesty the King who likes to simplify complex matters.
Of course, having such a knowledgeable North Korean official to carry out negotiations is a mixed blessing for Haihan. Fortunately, he no longer has to talk to each other. He can sit down and discuss the differences on specific details, and then promote cooperation. implementation of the plan. What's worrying is that since this guy has put in the effort to make more thorough preparations, it's not that easy to fool him.
During the lunch break, Qian and Wang politely declined Li Yan's invitation to have lunch together. They needed some space to reaffirm the negotiation situation and adjust their subsequent negotiation strategies. And Li Zhu didn't force it. He could just ask Cui Mingji for his opinion and see what kind of additional comments he had on Haihan's cooperation plan after this morning's intensive discussion.
"Weichen believes that Haihan people's plan... is feasible." Cui Mingji gave his answer at the dinner table. Contrary to his previous attitude of opposing industrial cooperation, his current view is that this plan is not only feasible , and it is also beneficial to North Korea: "These industries take several months to a year from the start of construction to the start of production. During this period, they will support thousands of people employed by them on behalf of our country. During this period, we will Save a lot of money for relief and use this method to solve the livelihood problem of domestic war refugees.”
"But Mr. Cui didn't seem to have such an attitude before. When he proposed to re-examine Haihan's cooperation plan, saying that this kind of cooperation was traitorous, it must have been Mr. Cui's remarks, right?" Kim Sang-hyun had been holding back all morning. At this time When he gets the chance, he will naturally attack Cui Mingji.
Cui Mingji said sternly: "The reason why I advised your majesty was because I saw some loopholes and shortcomings in this plan, so I took bold action. Today's question and answer session with the Haihan people was in the eyes of your majesty and Lord Jin. How do you betray your country?”
Li Ming also felt that what Cui Mingji said made sense. He actually didn't particularly care what Cui Mingji's original position was, but he just managed to seize an excuse. Li Ming didn't want to make the negotiation atmosphere too bad like before. stiff. Li Zhu quickly spoke up and said, "Master Cui, please tell me, what are the other benefits of this cooperation plan?"
Cui Mingji said: "What the Haihan people mean is to implement the industrial cooperation plan first, and then discuss the in-depth military cooperation. Matters such as purchasing weapons and equipment, training officers, and training professional arms, etc., may have to be avoided in the future. But once it is discussed, Having settled the matter ahead, they are willing to share their best resources with us in the military field.”
Li Zhu said: "The best resource...how should we understand this?"
Cui Mingji said: "According to the Haihan people, the new army will be formed according to the standards of the Fujian Ming Army and Annan Army, and more advanced weapons and equipment will be sold to the new army. In the future, in addition to personnel training, there will also be a lot of participation Opportunities for overseas combat operations—just like coalition forces coming to fight in our country.”
This is undoubtedly a very tempting condition. Although there were provisions for military cooperation when the alliance was signed last year, and there were also projects such as training military personnel and selling weapons and equipment, the intensity was not the same as what Cui Mingji asked today. Comprehensive and in-depth cooperation” has a clear gap. To make the North Korean army a strong force, the existing weapons and training levels are obviously far from enough. Haihan may be the only magic weapon to quickly improve the combat effectiveness of the army.
Seeing Cui Mingji talking eloquently, Jin Sangxian already regretted that he should not cooperate with Li Zhu to slow down the pace of negotiations. Now he is afraid that the credit for this negotiation will be taken away by his opponent.
And Li Jie doesn't care whether Kim Sang-hyun or Cui Ming-gil leads the final negotiation result. He is more concerned about how much he and North Korea can benefit from the result. If training a powerful army for North Korea is also part of this cooperation, then Li Zhu feels that even if there are any drawbacks, he can tolerate it for the time being.
Elsewhere in Gyeongbokgung Palace, Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom were also discussing the progress of today's negotiations. Both of them believed that Cui Mingji's joining had brought great changes to this negotiation. Although this North Korean official was not an economist or military expert, his keen vision developed from his many years in politics was already very powerful. The problems are also very serious, so they must deal with them carefully.
However, the two still remained extremely optimistic about the outcome of the negotiations. They also realized that the North Koreans were far more interested in the military field than industrial cooperation plans, so they deliberately made some adjustments to the North Koreans' attitude during the negotiation process. Combining military cooperation with production capacity cooperation and distinguishing priorities to induce North Koreans to recognize industrial cooperation plans.
"This Cui Mingji is an interesting person... I'm thinking that if we had had contact with him when we came to North Korea, maybe many things would be easier to accomplish." Wang Tom said thoughtfully.
Qian Tiandun also agreed with this view: "This Cui Mingji is smarter than Kim Sang-hyun, but the political stance he chose before was too stupid. He always advocated peace with the Qing army and gave Kim Sang-hyun the opportunity to ascend to power."
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Wang Tom said: "I think that a shrewd person like Cui Mingji must have more considerations when choosing a stance. Maybe his idea is not his true idea, but just taking the blame for others."
"You mean..." Qian Tiandun also suddenly woke up.
"Look, an official who advocated peace talks with the Qing army was not demoted after the war as a warning to others. Instead, he was still thriving in the court and was even allowed to participate in negotiations. Why did he? Just because he pushed Li Zhu during the coup more than ten years ago, should he have paid it off after so many years?" Wang Tom provided further evidence.
In Wang Tom's view, there is only one reasonable explanation for Cui Mingji's seemingly stupid political proposition, and that is that his statement is actually to cater to the wishes of King Li Zhu. It may even be that he is speaking for Li Zhu who is inconvenient to express his stance. . It's just that the main war-denying faction in North Korea, headed by Kim Sang-heon, had a clear upper hand, and later found a way to invite Haihan to send troops. Naturally, the situation of Cui Mingji's faction was not so good.
But since he was doing his best for the king, Li Zhu would naturally not make trouble for him, so after the war, he still allowed Cui Mingji to continue to participate in the decision-making of national affairs. In this way, it seemed that all the doubts were solved.
"Then if Cui Mingji had also expressed his support for war, or had been more conservative in promoting peace through war, the political situation in North Korea would have been very interesting!" Qian Tiandun said playfully: "The two powerful ministers have unified positions, even if the king is different I don’t dare to show my thoughts... Tsk, it’s very interesting to think about this situation.”
(End of chapter)