Chapter 1898 Grand Welcome
As one of the largest local infrastructure projects, the train line running through the entire urban area of Sanya has always been regarded by the Executive Committee as an important achievement of Haihan's industrialization construction. Although the total length of this railway is far less than the freight line from Changhua Port to Shilu Iron Mine, the former has far more passengers than the latter because it is located in the densely populated Sanya area. A considerable number of people traveling between Tiandu Industrial Zone, the port area and the city take trains to complete their commute, so the popularity and daily use rate of this train line is much higher.
Important foreign figures visiting Sanya are almost always arranged to visit this advanced infrastructure project from the industrial age. No one has ever remained completely calm when seeing this industrial marvel for the first time, and the Executive Committee was very pleased with the impact it had on visitors. After all, even in the eyes of a pure layman, such an unimaginable large-scale project can definitely be regarded as a symbol of national strength.
After Li Xi came to Sanya, this trip was inevitably arranged. Li Xi admired the Haihan people for being able to build a steel behemoth like a train. At one time, he also wanted to understand the operating principle of this thing and even went to the library. He had read a lot of information in the museum, but in the end because the theoretical knowledge involved was too difficult and obscure, he had to give up his plan to become North Korea's first train expert.
Li Pu's curiosity about the train seemed to be what Li Xi himself was like when he first arrived in Sanya. He could even imagine Li Pu's surprised reaction when he saw the train itself in the future. But if you stay in Sanya for a longer time and see all kinds of incredible things, you will realize that things like trains are just normal operations for Haihan people.
After the official implemented special traffic control on the landscape avenue, the convoy traveled smoothly from the port area to Victory Square and quickly reached its destination. Like the port area, this place has been taken over by the military. There are soldiers on duty in all directions and the public is temporarily prohibited from entering.
Of course, this clearing measure only prohibits people from entering, but it does not prevent people from watching the excitement around Victory Square. Well-informed people have long since heard that officials blocked some ports today and imposed military control on Landscape Avenue and Victory Square. The reason was the visit of the crown prince of North Korea.
"The prince? Isn't that the son of the prince's family? Why is the prince's son so grand?"
"North Korea can only be called king, not emperor, so the prince is the son of the king and the heir to the throne. Do you understand?"
"The future King of Korea...it's no wonder..."
"There is nothing unusual about the future king. Isn't it said that the young prince of Annan who often comes to Sanya is also the heir to the throne?"
"That young man comes too often, and we can't hold such a big welcome ceremony for him every two days!"
Regarding the origin of today's distinguished guest, the onlookers had already started discussing. Today's Haihan is already one of the most prosperous cities in the South China Sea, and it is also the capital of Haihan Kingdom, a rising star. There are quite a few foreign dignitaries visiting every year. The people who have lived in Sanya all year round are naturally well-informed, and are accustomed to the visits of these foreign dignitaries, and they can even talk and laugh about such topics.
Regarding the existence of North Korea, the people of Sanya are not unfamiliar at all. Since the North Korean ambassador arrived in Sanya last year and built the embassy, this country thousands of miles away has begun to enter the eyes of the people of Sanya. After that, Haihan agreed to North Korea's request for help and sent troops to help it resist the Qing invasion. The war even attracted the attention of Haihan throughout the country.
During the period when Haihan sent troops, various newspapers, including the official ones, managed to continuously report on the war, keeping a large number of people paying attention to the Korean battlefield. Although North Korea plays a weak role protected by the coalition forces, under the deliberate guidance of public opinion, most people regard North Korea as "one of their own" like Annan.
Since he is one of his own, it is naturally Haihan's responsibility as the leader to send troops to protect North Korea. What's more, the enemy is Haihan's old rival in the Liaodong region, and now he has changed his identity to the Qing army. The newspaper said that helping Korea to defeat the Qing army was to help Haihan himself eliminate his opponents in the region; the military generals stated that they were incompatible with the Qing army; the executive committee issued a number of orders to mobilize various resources to ensure the combat needs of the expeditionary force. . It can be said that not only Sanya, but most of the Haihan Kingdom were mobilized because of this war.
This summer, the distant country of North Korea is basically indispensable in the daily topics of Haihan citizens. The official Korean war report and obituaries of the sacrificed personnel released through newspapers every half month will affect the emotions of the general public. Although the battles directly participated by the Haihan Army are almost always successful, there will inevitably be casualties during the period. Fortunately, the war did not last long. It only took a little over four months from the beginning to the end. The casualties of the Haihan Army were still acceptable. extent.
Soon after the war ended, news came out that North Korea would select elites to study in Haihan. This was not a big deal to the people of Haihan. After all, accepting foreign students was already a part of Haihan. A tradition. There is a saying in Sanya that local foreigners are divided into four categories - officials, businessmen, sailors and international students. This shows that there are many foreign students studying in Sanya.
However, as far as foreign students are concerned, it is indeed rare to receive such a high-level grand reception. Not to mention the high-ranking officials of the Executive Committee who are dispatched collectively, even measures such as traffic control are rarely used when receiving overseas students. Of course, this time the North Korean study abroad team is indeed quite special, because the crown prince Li Bo is also among them, and Haihan's senior management used a series of high-standard reception measures, naturally they also wanted to exert more influence on the heir to the North Korean throne, so that In the future, North Korea can develop in a direction that is beneficial to Haehan.
Of course, this is not an easy thing to do. Even if it is as powerful as Haihan, if it wants to use soft means to influence another country's position or even its development direction, it will not be achieved overnight.
But one thing Haihan is lucky about is that there have been similar success stories in North Korea before, and there are more than one. When Haihan sent troops to help King Zheng Jie of the Qing capital of Annan to deal with the Ruan clan in the south, and to support Xu Xinsu of Fujian to fight against the pirate gang Shibazhi, they were actually similar in nature to helping North Korea this time. Annan and Fujian established their dependence and trust on Haihan during the war. After the war, they provided Haihan with a large number of production resources, labor force, and sales market for industrial products, and also had a strong political stance. Stand firmly on Haihan's side.
Cooperation with these two parties has allowed Haihan to gain a lot of valuable experience in this field, and he has a broad field of use in the process of dealing with North Korea.
The Executive Committee believes that this is a simple and effective way to win the favor of the Joseon Crown Prince by using high-standard treatment to elevate the other party's status. Although doing this requires the relevant departments to make many arrangements in advance, for the executive committee, this is just a matter of a few orders. As long as the desired results can be achieved, some expenses are completely acceptable. Haihan arranged a small military parade in Victory Square for Li Bo's arrival. The scale was naturally not comparable to the grand military parade held during the National Day every year. However, according to Haihan's diplomatic standards, this was basically the etiquette for receiving foreign heads of state. . Although Li Bo had received the relevant notice before, when the incident came to an end and saw the Hai, Han, Army and Navy standing neatly on one side of the square, he couldn't help but feel a little excited - this was his first time representing When North Korea visited a foreign country, the reception he received was indeed far beyond his expectation. It seems that Haihan's official statement that North Korea is regarded as a brotherly country is not false.
"Your Majesty, please!"
Tao Donglai's invitation made Li Bo come back to his senses from his excitement, barely forced a smile on his face in response, and then walked forward with Tao Donglai to review the Haihan troops in the square.
The soldiers of the troops being reviewed held their guns in both hands, with the muzzles tilted upward on their chests, their chins raised high, and their eyes fixed on the front of themselves. Although it was just a review, there was a faint aura of fighting and iron horses. Each small matrix is lined up in platoons, from the southern end of the square to the gate of Fort Victory at the northern end. Although the number of troops being paraded is not too many, the visual impact it brings is no less than that of thousands of troops. horse.
Li Pu could feel the chilling aura emanating from these soldiers. It was obvious that these troops were not just honor guards for decoration, but professional soldiers who had actually been on the battlefield.
Sure enough, Tao Donglai took the initiative to introduce to him during the march: "What the Crown Prince saw were the main combat troops that participated in the Battle of Manila at the beginning of this year, and were recently transferred back to the mainland in rotation."
Li Pu noticed that not all of these soldiers seemed to be Han Chinese, and some of them had obvious differences in appearance from the Han people. This was probably one of the manifestations that the Haihan population was composed of immigrants from many countries. However, when he visited the Datong River base before, he seemed to rarely find similar situations among the local garrison.
What Li Pu didn't know was that the Haihan Army he saw at the Datong River base was mainly composed of Qian Tiandun's special operations group and the Marine Corps. Priority was given to recruiting Han soldiers. When the special operations group was established in the early days, although a large number of young men of Annan origin and Hainan Island's Limiao and Miao ethnic groups were recruited, due to year-round activities in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, after several military expansions, only senior officers still maintained a certain degree of strength. The proportion of Annan people and the racial structure of ordinary soldiers have long been consciously and gradually changed to mainly Han people.
Since Haihan has recruited a large number of immigrants from foreign countries all year round and has been implementing preferential treatment measures to obtain nationality through enlistment, the proportion of non-Chinese soldiers in the general army is still very considerable. For example, in the Nanhai Independent Battalion stationed in Xingdao, there are a large number of soldiers from Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Peninsula and South Asia.
Of course, the troops that are eligible to be inspected by senior officials of the Executive Committee in Victory Square have also been screened by the military to ensure that these soldiers have been in the army for more than two years and are reliable personnel with a clean background and no hidden dangers. .
When Li Bo came with Tao Dong to review the troops, thousands of people watching around the square were also observing the crown prince of Joseon who was dressed up in attendance.
Compared with the young prince Zheng Zha of Annan who often appeared in Shengli Port City and would often book an entire floor of a restaurant to entertain guests, the young prince of North Korea looked much more reserved and followed Tao step by step. The appearance around Dong Lai looked like a student or a personal secretary. However, as a guest from afar, the people of Sanya still showed great enthusiasm for the visiting Crown Prince of North Korea, expressing their emotions with applause and cheers.
The public's reaction made Li Bo even more excited. He puffed up his chest a little so that he would not look too humble next to the muscular Tao Donglai. He had just noticed that the senior officials in the Haihan Executive Committee were generally tall. Even a few civil servants looked quite strong, about half a head taller than him. Fortunately, Li Pu still wears a gauze hat on his head, which visually ensures that his height is not compromised.
After the simple military parade, Tao Donglai invited Li Bo to the Victory Fort to enjoy a reception dinner specially prepared for him.
According to Li Xi's introduction, Li Pu roughly understood that Victory Fort in Sanya was like Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. It was the place where senior officials from Haihan lived and handled official business. Although this place is small, it is still very mysterious to the outside world. Li Xi has entered Victory Fort several times, but he can only go to a limited number of places.
Victory Fort looks like a small fortress from the outside, with a moat that is more than ten feet wide, well-proportioned city walls, and powerful fortifications. But when you enter it, you will find that the planning inside is more like a comprehensive yamen, with many government affairs They will be distributed here to various agencies for processing. However, there are soldiers on duty everywhere in the fort, and there are many places where foreigners, not even naturalized officials from Haihan's own country, are necessarily qualified to enter.
Most places in Sanya will be open to foreign dignitaries for visits, but this does not include Victory Fort, and Li Bo will not be an exception. Tao Donglai led him straight to the banquet hall in the Victory Fort, where preparations had already been made, waiting for the arrival of the rightful owner.
The attendees at today's welcome banquet are basically public officials from various official agencies in Haihan. In particular, the corresponding reception units for North Korean students have sent their important officials to attend, so that they can communicate with North Korean students as soon as possible. Communicate well.
For example, the military convenience meeting was personally attended by Defense Minister Yan Chujie, and Gu Wei, who specializes in military training, was specially called over so that he could explain the relevant training content to the North Koreans when necessary. Of course, regarding the situation of this group of officer cadets in North Korea, they had already received the intelligence sent back from the front by Qian and Wang, and they already knew something about it.
(End of chapter)