Chapter 1878 Conveying Benefits
Jin Shangjiu has stayed in Zhoushan for a long time and looks at the problem from a more comprehensive perspective than Li Bo. He believes that the trade model dominated by Haihan brought prosperity to some coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty. In the process, the local government of the Ming Dynasty was also constantly eroded. Many Ming Dynasty officials who held real power became frequent visitors to Zhoushan Island. Having said that, if the local governments in Jiangsu and Zhejiang had not provided Haihan with many conveniences, it would have been difficult for even the powerful Haihan to achieve such a big situation in just one or two years.
Jiangsu and Zhejiang were originally prosperous areas of the Ming Dynasty. Officials here generally had good family backgrounds, but they still couldn't withstand Haihan's sugar-coated bullets. If it were North Korea, I'm afraid local officials would fall faster to Haihan's interest offensive. Jin Sangjiu considers himself to be quite determined, but he has been in contact with the Haihan people for a long time, and he has received a lot of benefits from them. However, Haihan has never asked him to do anything to betray North Korea, so he can still feel at ease for the time being. Di advised Li Bo not to have too high expectations for Haihan's trade model.
"Your Majesty, the Haihan people are not only good at trade, they are also good at using trade to open up joints and win people's hearts. If we want to introduce this to our country, we must prevent the Haihan people from using this to win over our ministers." Although he knew that such words might make Li He was not very happy, but Jin Shangjiu's duty was to remind Li Bo to be careful of Haihan's methods.
Li Bo stopped writing when he heard this and asked: "According to this, the military attachés and generals of the Ming Dynasty we saw the day before yesterday should have received a lot of benefits from Haihan, so they appeared on the island collectively?"
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Jin Shangjiu said: "The Crown Prince Mingjian! Most of these military attachés of the Ming Dynasty secretly have trade relations with Haihan. Many of them also control the sales authority of certain Haihan products in coastal states, and they make huge profits from them every year. There are also some Ambitious people are trying to copy the model of the Xu family in Fujian to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and want to become the overlord by winning the support of Haihan."
Li Shu couldn't help but frowned after hearing this. The goal he wanted to achieve was to make his country's international trade as prosperous as here, but he did not carefully consider the possible side effects. He had also studied the history of the Xu family in Fujian with the limited information at hand, and knew how the warlord who dominated the southern part of the Ming Dynasty climbed up step by step with the help of Haihan's backer. If someone like this appears in North Korea in the future, it will undoubtedly be a huge threat to the rule of the imperial court.
But even without introducing Haihan’s trade model, can this kind of benefit transfer be completely cut off? Li Bo thinks that's not necessarily the case. As far as he knew, there were quite a few high-ranking officials in the country who were flirting with Haihan. It could be said that they were asking Haihan to send troops to save the country. It was understandable that he behaved humblely, but after the war, there were still many people who wished they could be friends with him. When it comes to the Haihan people, the reason can only be due to interests.
After the war, North Korea not only faced the reconstruction work of the northern war zone, but also many large-scale cooperation projects with Haihan, as well as a package of military aid and arms purchase plans. These are all projects that require a large amount of investment, and also mean that these projects There will be a lot of oil and water in it. If you want to get benefits from projects related to Haihan, the first priority is naturally to have a good relationship with the Haihan people, and there are many people who start their mental activities from this.
If you are just greedy for some oil and water from the project, it is actually not a big deal. When the water is clear, there will be no fish. Li Bo still understands. But if someone had the audacity to imitate the Xu family in Fujian, rely on Haihan in exchange for support, and thus become a warlord, that would not be tolerated by the imperial court.
The Fujian Xu family has now become too powerful and no longer obeys the orders of the Ming Dynasty. This matter has long been no news. From the fact that Xu Xinsu sent troops to Korea to participate in the war on his own, it can be seen that Xu Xinsu no longer takes the imperial court's ideas seriously. Although Li Bo was grateful to the Fujian Xu family for sending troops, he did not want such a situation to occur in his country a few years later.
"Counsellor Jin, do you have any preventive measures against this situation where officials are bribed?" Li Bo understood that Jin Shangjiu knew much more about Haihan than he did, and it would definitely not help if he listened more to the other party's opinions. harm.
Jin Shangjiu responded with a wry smile: "To be honest with you, I'm afraid it will be difficult to take any effective measures to prevent this matter. Otherwise, how could the Ming Dynasty sit back and watch the rise of Haihan? The best way is to not have any contact with Haihan at all. But of course this is impossible. ”
The two countries completed a formal alliance last year, so how could they suddenly cut off contacts? There are currently thousands of Haihan troops stationed in North Korea, as well as a large number of cooperation projects waiting to be started. The relationship between the two countries is in the honeymoon period. If Kim Sang-jiu's advice is heard by the Haihan people, he just It's hard to say whether he can retain the post of Councilor Li Cao after being promoted. Being able to say these words to Li Bo can be considered very loyal to the country.
Li Bo fell into silence again after hearing this. Since Jin Shangjiu said this, of course he could hear the seriousness of the problem. If, as Kim Sang-joo said, some of the country's officials will inevitably be bribed by Haihan, then we must consider how to minimize the damage to the country. But this is undoubtedly a difficult problem to solve for him who has extremely limited political and diplomatic knowledge.
Since Jin Shangjiu couldn't give him an effective solution to the problem, there was no point in further questioning, so he sent him back to rest. Li Pu thought about it alone for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out. After thinking about it for a long time, he still didn't write this part into the letter he was going to send back home. Li Bo was worried that after his father knew about this situation, his attitude towards Haihan would change, and that might cause Haihan's dissatisfaction, which might not be a good thing for the future development of North Korea, and the consequences might even be It is far more serious than the bribery of high-ranking court officials and the emergence of several local warlords.
“I still haven’t seen enough of the world!”
Li Bo finally found a plausible reason for his helplessness. Indeed, for him who went abroad for the first time, everything he saw in Haihan seemed novel and full of challenges. He tried to get more knowledge from Haihan to help his country, but now he discovered that something It seems that it is not as simple as expected, and the relationship between countries is not simply allies and opponents.
Li Pu now finds that his experience in assisting his father in handling government affairs, which he was quite proud of in the past, is almost completely useless in the current situation, which also makes him feel very frustrated at the moment.
The next day, Shi Diwen still invited Li Bo to visit the trading center and business district. Li Bo readily agreed to this, knowing that the more he knew about Haihan, the more likely he would be able to find a solution for the two countries to live in harmony. And after I have a better understanding of Haihan's trade model, I may be able to deal with the hidden dangers raised by Jin Shangjiu. The more he saw, the more Li Mu admired Haihan's production and research and development capabilities. He really couldn't imagine how the Haihan people developed so many kinds of products, and how the Haihan people who used these things lived their lives. What a lifestyle. But there seems to be no doubt that the Haihan people who have the financial ability to afford these things are indeed worthy of the word rich.
During the visit accompanied by Shi Diwen, Li Bo happened to meet a Ming businessman who came to order the kind of tall full-length mirror that he had taken a fancy to yesterday. Li Bo didn't have the nerve to ask about the price yesterday. When he saw someone wanted to buy this mirror, he quietly came closer. Shi Diwen guessed Li Bo's thoughts, but did not reveal it and allowed him to eavesdrop on the quotation.
Li Bo quickly turned around and came back. Although his expression was calm, he was still surprised by the high price of this mirror. The price of this mirror is enough to buy several thousand kilograms of grain in the North Korean market. If he had to pay for it himself, he would probably hesitate for a long time. However, there seemed to be many wealthy people in Ming Dynasty. The businessman who ordered the mirror did not counter-offer at all. Instead, he asked if he could increase the price and deliver the goods in advance.
Li Pu had to secretly sigh that it was great to have money. Thinking about the fact that as the prince of North Korea, he went to study abroad this time, and he only had a few thousand taels of money with him. And half of them have been deposited in Haihan Bank in Zhoushan according to Jin Shangjiu's suggestion, and exchanged into Haihan domestic banknotes that are more convenient to use. Of course, Haihan was responsible for all the food and lodging during Li Pu's trip to Sanya, and with a hospitable host like Shi Diwen, he could give him whatever he liked, and it didn't cost much.
At noon, Shi Diwen was still the host, but during the dinner he declared to Li Bo that he would not accompany Li Bo to continue the visit because he had other business matters in the afternoon.
Li Bo had long noticed that several groups of officers came to Shi Diwen to ask for instructions and reports this morning, and immediately asked curiously: "Master Shi, I dare to ask, is it possible that your country's army wants to take action?"
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"Operation? What action?" Shi Diwen was a little confused by this question. He shook his head and denied: "Our army has not arranged any major military operations on the coast of Zhejiang in the near future, and there are no opponents that require us to take military measures. In the afternoon I want to meet the crown prince the day before yesterday We are meeting with the Ming Dynasty military attachés. They are not here to visit Zhoushan Island. They have been bargaining with us for the past two days and are preparing to purchase weapons and equipment. We have almost reached the point of negotiation. We will meet with them in the afternoon to confirm the contents of the transaction. "
When Li Bo heard that it was a weapons transaction, he immediately became interested. However, he also knew that this kind of transaction was relatively sensitive. Shi Diwen might not be willing to let him know the inside story, so he had to ask in a different way: "Excuse me, Mr. Shi, generally such transactions , can people other than the parties to the transaction be allowed to observe? ”
As soon as Shi Diwen heard his explicit question, he knew that Li Bo was curious about this matter, and immediately responded: "Considering the interests of our customers, in principle we will not allow third parties to observe the transaction process... But, Prince He is a distinguished guest invited by our country, and there is no possibility of armed conflict between your country and the Ming Dynasty. I think it will not be harmful to arrange for the prince to watch.”
Li Bo was overjoyed when he heard this and quickly thanked Shi Diwen.
In fact, it is not a secret that Haihan sells weapons and equipment to these military leaders in coastal state capitals, and Shi Diwen also knows that not all the weapons purchased by these military leaders are for their own use, and some of them will be turned over to the Zhejiang Capital Command. Only for unified arrangement. In other words, not all of these military leaders want to establish armed separatism as local warlords. Some of the weapons and equipment they bought from Zhoushan will enter the Ming military's weapons depot and will most likely be transported to the north and distributed to suppress the Peasant army or troops stationed on the northern frontier.
It is precisely because of this that the amount of weapons and equipment sold to the Ming Dynasty from Zhoushan is quite considerable, even more than the purchase volume of the Fujian Ming Army. Of course, as a loyal ally of Haihan, the weapons models Xu Xinsu can buy are more advanced than those sold here in Zhoushan.
The reason why Ming Dynasty adopted such a curve to save the country was mainly because Haihan deliberately controlled the scale of official arms sales to Ming Dynasty. The weapons entering Ming Dynasty through this method were higher than the price of Ming Dynasty's bulk purchase in Sanya. At least 30% to 40%, Haihan is also happy to use such channels to make extra money.
As for why the price is so high, the reason is very simple. The channels through which these weapons are sold to local garrisons do not comply with the laws of the Ming Dynasty. If you want to become a warlord, you have to spend more money. The Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty wanted more Haihan weapons to arm the northern combat troops, but there was no way to obtain the supply of Haihan through official procurement channels, so it could only hold its nose and subscribe to such high-priced goods.
However, Haihan will not take the initiative to announce the specific transaction prices of each buyer. After all, the relationship between each buyer and Haihan is different, and the purchase volume is also different, so the prices will naturally vary. The reason why Shi Diwen agreed to let Li Bo watch was because the transaction in the afternoon did not involve the payment price that had been negotiated long ago. It was just delivery and acceptance. Even if Li Bo went to see it, he could only watch the excitement. , will not know the true transaction price of these weapons.
It is worth mentioning that the weapons sold by Zhoushan this time are rare in recent times, which is why these Ming army generals were so active. They all went to Zhoushan Island to bid for them in person, fearing that they would be snapped up by other colleagues. Of course, since there is no need to wait for delivery and the items can be picked up and shipped immediately after purchase, the price of this batch of weapons and equipment is naturally higher than usual.
Of course, Li Bo could not have imagined that there was so much more to this weapons deal, but his purpose was actually relatively simple. Even if he could not know the specific price of weapons sold by Haihan to Ming Dynasty, he could at least see the scale of weapons purchased by Ming Dynasty's military. and grade, and guess from the side the gap in military power between our country and these two countries.
(End of chapter)