Chapter 2228
The ideal is full, but the reality is skinny. Fei Cexian's ideas are just his wishes as a civilian diplomat. If he really wants to regain the lost land from Haihan, relying on his wishful thinking alone will definitely not work.
Even if the Ming Dynasty were to issue a decree banning trade with Haihan, it would be difficult to fully implement it in the coastal state capitals. Especially in the coastal areas south of the Yangtze River Estuary, the rulers of almost every state capital have participated in the trade network built by Haihan to varying degrees, becoming a link in a huge chain of interests. Local governments use this as a source of income. There are thousands of people, and trade relations cannot be broken off easily.
Of course, Fei Cexian is not blind. He is in Sanya and has many opportunities to come into contact with various local classes. Naturally, he can also roughly understand how many Ming people purchased property and land in the areas under Haihan's rule, and even changed their identities. Became a Haihan citizen. And these people are different from the refugees who were forced to make a living and fled to Haihan. Most of them were respectable local gentry in the Ming Dynasty, or even relatives of officials.
What did these people move to Haihantu for? Fei Cexian believes that the first is interests and the second is safety. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, which has been plagued by internal and external troubles in recent years, the areas under Haihan's rule are indeed much more peaceful. Although Haihan goes to war almost every year, they are all attempts to expand territory, and the wars are almost always won by great victories. The end was completely different from the war-torn situation faced by the Ming Dynasty.
These merchants engaged in maritime trade moved their trading locations to the free ports in the areas under Haihan's rule. On the one hand, they could obtain more business opportunities and escape the commercial taxes of the Ming Dynasty. On the other hand, they could logically receive the military protection and protection provided by Haihan. Convenient financial services, no need to worry about the security of money during transactions.
These conditions that were unavailable in the Ming Dynasty were attracting more and more wealthy people to Haihan, followed by the huge wealth transferred from the Ming Dynasty, and the gold diggers attracted by this wealth to Haihan. In the end, the cascading effect of this is that wealth and labor force continue to flow into Haihan, allowing Haihan's national power to continue to grow.
Although Fei Cexian noticed this situation, with his knowledge and ability, he could not come up with any effective way to change the situation. He could only comfort himself with imagination.
Of course, he also wrote down his knowledge and understanding in the memorial, hoping to get clear instructions from the court, but the approval given by the court asked him to be careful in his words and deeds in Sanya and not to go against the Haihan people. Obviously he didn't want to For these things to affect diplomatic relations with Haihan.
Fei Cexian can actually understand the court's attitude. After all, we still have to rely on Haihan to hold off the real strong enemy on the northern border. If he gets into trouble with Haihan over some trivial matter, it will affect the security of northern Xinjiang. The gain outweighs the loss. As for the complex situation in Liaodong, he had already had a relatively thorough understanding of it through all kinds of news in Sanya.
Haihan officials have no special control over relevant information. You can check the Haihan Army's actions in Liaodong in recent years in the Sanya Library. These records are all from reports in official newspapers. Although there is definitely an element of bragging in them, according to the confirmations Fei Cexian has received from various channels, these reports are basically true and there is nothing deliberately fabricated.
Therefore, Fei Cexian could only comfort himself. At least the Haihan people did not carry out further aggression after occupying these places on the Ming coastline. Whether they really just wanted to engage in trade activities, or the diplomatic agreement between the two countries had an effect. It has a restraining effect, so long as it can maintain peace.
That day, Fei Cexian had just finished lunch and was about to lie down for a while when one of his subordinates came to report that someone from Fort Victory had asked him to go to the Executive Committee to talk to him, but he did not explain what was going on.
Although Fei Cexian felt a little guilty in his heart, he did not dare to neglect. He knew that high-ranking officials like Haihan were more pragmatic and would never entertain themselves without something to do. He immediately packed up and took the embassy's carriage to Victory Fort.
As before, the carriage stopped at the gate of Fort Victory. Fei Cexian got out of the car and showed his identity, and then someone took him inside.
Fei Cexian was taken to a conference room to wait. A moment later, Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie arrived hand in hand. When Fei Cexian saw that it was these two people, not Ning Qi and Schneider, who were usually in charge of foreign affairs, who came forward, he knew that it might not be a trivial matter. He immediately cheered up and met with the two of them first.
"Master Fei is invited to come here today, mainly because there is a situation that needs to be reported to your country." Yan Chujie's opening remarks were very brief, and then handed over to Tao Donglai.
Tao Donglai said: "According to the information we have recently received from overseas, the military technology mastered by the Hirado Domain of Japan may be leaked to the Qing Dynasty."
Fei Cexian waited for a while and saw that Tao Donglai had nothing to say, so he asked tentatively: "Is this what you two want to say?"
"It seems that Mr. Fei doesn't quite understand what this means." Tao Donglai saw Fei Cexian's expression and knew that he did not realize the seriousness of the matter. He immediately explained to him: "We previously discovered that the Qing army in Liaodong The trained musketeers later found out that the weapons they were equipped with were produced in Hirado, Japan. If the Qing army mastered the technology of manufacturing these weapons, they might cause big trouble at some point in the future!"
"You mean, the Qing army might make its own muskets and artillery?" After Fei Cexian understood this, he started to get nervous.
Tao Donglai said: "In fact, they have always had this ability, but the military technology of the Hirado Domain came from the Spanish and was more advanced than the technology they currently have. Therefore, once these technologies flow into their hands, they will The weapons and equipment may soon be upgraded to a higher level, Mr. Fei, do you understand what I mean?”
For this reason, how could Fei Cexian still not understand? The Qing State accepted rebel generals such as Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi from the Ming Dynasty, and the troops led by these people when they defected also included some gunsmiths. Therefore, the technology for manufacturing muskets and artillery had actually flowed into the Qing State long ago.
The relevant ordnance technology of the Ming Dynasty originated from the Portuguese, and it is actually of the same origin as the Spanish ordnance technology. However, due to various historical reasons, the relevant technology taught to the Ming Dynasty by the Portuguese was more primitive, and it flowed into the Ming Dynasty through the Spanish. However, the technology in Bazhi's hands has been iteratively updated, and there is a more standard manufacturing process, which can more easily achieve mass production of weapons.
Because there are too few gunsmiths in the rebel army, although the Qing army has obtained relevant ordnance technology, it has not been able to achieve large-scale mass production. Moreover, the firearms they can produce are basically the same as the equipment of the Ming Dynasty official army. It's at the same level, so it can't be said that it poses much of a threat to the Ming Dynasty, and it's even less impressive in front of the Haihan Army.
Tao Donglai has clearly pointed out that the military technology mastered by the Hirado clan is stronger than the current level of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Once it flows into the Qing Dynasty, it will inevitably cause the balance of military technology to be broken, and the Ming Dynasty will for the first time Become the party that lags behind and gets beaten.
Fei Cexian said: "Didn't your country just complete the conquest of the Hirado Domain of Japan a few months ago and win a great victory? Didn't it completely destroy the Hirado Domain's ability to manufacture weapons?" Yan Chujie asked. : "Master Fei may not be familiar with the local situation in Hirado. The main target we attacked was Hirado Island, the seat of the Hirado clan, and we successfully captured the area and eliminated the combat troops and armed fleet of the Hirado clan. . But the Hirado clan’s territory is not only on Hirado Island, but also on the neighboring Kyushu Island. Their musket-making workshop is also on Kyushu Island, but that island is larger than Qiongzhou Island. Ours The expeditionary force cannot capture the entire place and search it slowly.”
Fei Cexian wanted to complain about how you annexed Qiongzhou Island in the first place, but he could only think about it in his mind. If he said it out, he would be asking for trouble. But he didn't immediately accept Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie's warnings, always feeling something was a little strange.
So he continued to ask: "Then I would like to ask, is there any conclusive evidence that the ordnance technology for making weapons has or will flow into the Qing Dynasty?"
"The warning we issued to Daming was an inference based on the existing intelligence information. If we wait until conclusive evidence appears, it may be too late and will not serve as an early warning." Yan Chujie paused and said: "You wouldn't want your army to encounter the Qing army equipped with advanced weapons on the battlefield at the same time as you received the warning, would you?"
"This..." Fei Cexian had to admit that Yan Chujie's words made sense. The most conclusive evidence is that the Qing army showed off their self-made standard weapons on the battlefield, but at that time it was too late to respond.
"We hope that your country will take countermeasures as soon as possible after receiving this warning. Otherwise, once the situation changes, your army will probably suffer heavy losses on the battlefield!" Tao Donglai warned.
Fei Cexian said: "Thank you two adults for your advice. But if we want to deal with such changes, wouldn't the best way be to purchase weapons in large quantities from your country and equip them for our army?"
Yan Chujie shook his head and said: "Master Fei thinks too simply. If we just sell weapons to you without teaching the corresponding tactics to your army, then even if you equip a large number of weapons produced in our country, it will be difficult to exert sufficient power." . Besides, our country currently has no spare weapons to sell to you, so this is not a solution to the problem.”
Fei Cexian had previously thought that the Haihan people's warning was a bluff, with the purpose of promoting the arms trade and selling weapons to the Ming Dynasty at high prices, but now after hearing Yan Chujie's answer, it seemed that was not the case. At least the Haihan people did not seem to have a particularly positive attitude towards selling weapons to Ming Dynasty.
In fact, Haihan has always strictly controlled the export of arms, so as not to shoot himself in the foot in the future, and Ming officials are the key targets. Haihan does not want Ming to have anyone who can compete with him in the military field. strength.
Although Haihan opened up his door to selling weapons to Ming Dynasty after the two countries established diplomatic relations, the actual transaction volume was not large, and was not even as large as the weapons sold to Fujian. Moreover, according to the agreement, these weapons cannot be equipped in areas south of the Yangtze River, otherwise Haihan will interrupt the subsequent supply of ammunition and spare parts to avoid excessive threats to itself from these exported weapons.
As for whether these weapons will be copied after being sold to the Ming Dynasty, Haihan is not too worried. It is certainly possible for skilled craftsmen to imitate the shape of these weapons to 99%, but the material handling, processing technology, organization of mass production, and even ammunition production , the impact of these factors on weapon performance cannot be overcome by imitation. Unless the overall technology transfer from Haihan is obtained, no matter how good the imitation is, there will be a significant performance gap between it and the genuine product.
Fei Cexian's worries are actually a bit overdone. At least for now, Haihan has no plans to take this opportunity to expand the scale of arms trade with the Ming Dynasty.
This is not necessarily because Haihan does not want to make this money, but the export of arms has always been in short supply. Most of the export orders Haihan received were about a year in advance, and there was simply not enough production capacity to supply the large orders that jumped in.
Fei Cexian said: "Then if things really develop in the direction your country speculates, how much buffering time will our country have?"
Yan Chujie said: "It's hard to say yet, but even if the other party has already started taking action, there should be at least a buffer period of more than three months. If after a year and a half, the Qing army still has not trained an organized musketeer unit, it will be very difficult. This may mean that these technologies were still retained in Japan and were not introduced to the Qing Dynasty.”
Fei Cexian asked: "Is the chance of this situation high?"
"Optimistically, it's a 50-50 split between the two scenarios!" Yan Chujie actually didn't have a clear answer in his mind, so he could only fudge it casually.
"We hope that this matter will attract enough attention from your country. Mr. Fei had better write this matter into a memorial and report it to the court." Tao Donglai felt that the discussion was almost done, so he solemnly made the request.
When Fei Cexian left Fort Victory, he still didn't have a clear understanding of the matter in his mind. Although senior Haihan officials described the situation as serious, they also said that this was only an inference based on existing intelligence and there was no real evidence. When this kind of thing was reported to the court, Fei Cexian could guess with his toes that it would definitely trigger a debate about whether it was necessary to make the troops stationed in northern Xinjiang nervous based on the Haihan people's speculation.
And maybe someone will blame him. After all, there is no real evidence for this matter, so he just wrote a note and reported it to the court. It is inevitable that he will be suspected of making false claims.
If the Haihan people's warning comes true later, that would be okay, as they can get some credit. But if a year and a half later, the situation that the Haihan people warned did not occur, of course the fault will not be borne by the Haihan people, but by him, the envoy who heard rumors and interfered with the imperial court's plan to defend against the enemy.
(End of chapter)