Chapter 2302
After sailing eastward from Hong Kong and out of the Fotangmen Strait, the fleet entered the boundless ocean again. In this environment, you may not be able to see a few ships within your field of vision throughout the day, let alone obtain any information from the outside world.
Li Zhi didn't know whether the several Haihan warships escorted by him had radio stations that could transmit information across the air, but he felt that even if the Haihan people got new news on the way, they might not take the initiative to inform him. After listening to Park Hongye's theory, Li Nai also vaguely felt that the Haihan people seemed to be intentionally blocking their own sources of information and concealing the current situation in North Korea, making it impossible for him to make a correct judgment.
But in the current situation, besides relying on Haihan, Li Zhi has no other choice. If the domestic chaos still cannot be quelled, he may have to borrow troops from Haihan to quell the chaos. As for whether Haihan is willing to help, he believes that his identity may not be the decisive factor, otherwise Haihan's attitude would not be as vague as it is now.
Based on his experience in dealing with Haihan’s senior officials in the past year or so, Li Xie knows that the starting points of these leaders, including the Haihan Executive Committee, are very realistic when considering issues. They care more about Haihan’s own interests rather than the interests of Haihan itself. Ming Dynasty cares so much about false reputation. Unless they are driven by sufficient interests, the Haihan people are likely to sit on the sidelines and wait for the situation to become clear before choosing an attitude that is most beneficial to them to deal with subsequent diplomatic issues.
Haihan's current ambiguous attitude may cause Li Xie to miss the best opportunity to deal with the domestic chaos, so he must consider how to make Haihan clarify his position as soon as possible and help him quell the civil strife.
If you want Haihan to intervene in the domestic chaos as soon as possible, you must first promise the other party sufficient benefits. Just like when it asked Haihan for help in fighting the Qing Dynasty last year, North Korea also agreed to raise the military supplies needed for the war. After the war, Haihan was allowed to garrison troops, trade, jointly develop domestic resources and other conditions, in exchange for the coalition forces led by Haihan to go north to support.
To put it bluntly, Haihan's support for North Korea is based on North Korea's payment of certain exchange conditions and is not the result of Haihan's benevolence. Of course, if North Korea had not come up with these conditions in exchange for military assistance from Haihan, then perhaps there would be no North Korea under the rule of Lee today. As for the outbreak of civil strife in North Korea this time, if Haihan wants to take action again, he should only follow the previous practice and exchange practical benefits for military assistance.
So the question becomes, what kind of benefits can get Haihan to take action again?
Judging from the information Li Zhi has, it seems that there are two resources that Haihan cares about most, one is minerals, and the other is population. North Korea can provide both of these resources, but the degree of official control over them varies greatly.
Since North Korea has very limited mineral exploration and mining technologies, it actually has little to lose in jointly developing domestic mineral resources with Haihan. For example, the iron ore development along the lower reaches of the Datong River was explored and mined by Haihan throughout the process. Guide mine construction and mining.
North Korea is only responsible for providing labor force in this project, but it can harvest nearly half of the revenue from the iron ore, thus solving the employment problem of tens of thousands of laborers and the livelihood problem of several times that number of people. Instead of being said to suffer a loss, it can be said that North Korea is only responsible for providing labor force. It's the party that takes advantage - at least that's how King Li Zhu understands it.
However, North Korea is relatively tight on population outflow. The kings and ministers of North Korea all know that the living environment of Haihan Kingdom is better than that of their own country. If this immigration window is opened, it will inevitably cause a massive outflow of people. By then, the domestic labor force will be insufficient, social production capacity will decline, and the taxes collected will also be reduced. It will inevitably decrease significantly, and even affect national security in the long run. Therefore, North Korea has always been tight on immigration. Even if Haihan made repeated requests, Li Zhu never let go.
But if this civil strife has affected the Lee royal family's rule over North Korea, and external intervention is necessary to quell the chaos, then Li Zhen believes that perhaps some concessions on the immigration issue can be exchanged for a change in Haihan's attitude.
In view of the fact that the domestic situation cannot be confirmed at present, Li Zhi believes that he must fight for it as soon as possible, because once someone becomes king in the country and is willing to compromise with Haihan in more areas, Haihan will most likely be affected by reality. He gave up Li Zhu and his son for the sake of their own interests and established a new king. If changing someone to rule can allow Haihan to get more benefits from North Korea, then why wouldn't they do it?
Therefore, not long after leaving Hong Kong, Li Zhi decided to try to further communicate with the Haihan people the next time he docked at Haihan port for supplies.
However, the next stop is Magong Port in Penghu, which is more than a thousand miles away from Hong Kong, so it will not be reached in a short time. Even if Li Xie is anxious, he can only wait patiently on the boat. If everything goes well, it will only take three days.
The local governor currently in charge of local military and political affairs in Penghu is Yu Yao, who is affiliated with the Ministry of National Defense. He is also responsible for the security and defense of the entire Fujian Strait and the Haihan Colonial Areas on the west coast of Taiwan Island, and has considerable authority.
In the past few years, the Haihan Army had teamed up with the Fujian Xu Jiajun to wipe out the Shibazhi forces in this area, and the Dutch, who had suffered so much, could only retreat to Damuan Port, accept the supervision of Haihan, and were no longer allowed to go anywhere in the area. Develop military facilities. In such a general environment, Yu Yao's jurisdiction was actually relatively peaceful, and very few combat operations had been carried out in the past two or three years.
Of course, Yu Yao also enjoyed his leisure time. He married two Fujian women and gave birth to a son and a daughter. He built holiday estates in Kaohsiung and Taipei, and occasionally visited Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. His life could be described as relaxed and comfortable.
Yu Yao relied on his wife's natal family connections to run a boat shop and a chain of shops. With the power he had, it was easy to make money. Therefore, even without him personally coming forward, these businesses are still running smoothly, and they earn a lot of money every year. And the income from this plus his dividends as a member of the Time Travel Group are enough for him to live the life of a top rich man here.
Yu Yao is quite satisfied with this kind of life, at least now it is much higher than his expectations when he participated in the time traveling operation. With money, soldiers and connections, he could be regarded as a local emperor.
However, Yu Yao also knew very well where his power and wealth came from. He would try his best to cooperate with the instructions issued by the Executive Committee. Otherwise, if the Executive Committee replaced him with someone else, where would he go? Find a job that is so ideal.
Therefore, when the fleet escorting the Crown Prince of Joseon arrived in Penghu, Yu Yao also followed the instructions of the Executive Committee and took extremely thorough security measures, dispatching two companies of garrison troops, plus his own personal guards, to move the ship to Penghu. The pier where the team docked was tightly surrounded. When people who don't know see such a battle, they will definitely think that some high-ranking official from the country is inspecting Penghu.
The reception process that Li Zhi received here was almost exactly the same as that in Hong Kong. From the moment he disembarked from the ship, he could only have contact with Haihan soldiers and officials, and the security level was very high. But now, in his opinion, this strict security measure has changed a bit, as if he is under house arrest, with almost no access to outside information.
The only thing that made Li Zhi feel lucky was that as the local governor, Yu Yao was from the military. This may be an opportunity for him to obtain more domestic information. He believed that even if Haihan's troops stationed in North Korea would not intervene in the civil strife, they would at least maintain monitoring of the situation. Information about the situation would definitely be transmitted back to Sanya through here, and perhaps a breakthrough could be opened from Yu Yao. "I can only say that I am very sorry to the crown prince. Regarding the current situation in your country, I have not received any further news yet."
At the reception banquet later, Li Zhi was greatly disappointed by Yu Yao's answer. He wanted to point out that the other party's answer was too perfunctory. Haihan's intelligence system could not be so slow. It had been so many days and he still hadn't figured out what happened in North Korea. What kind of civil strife?
But this kind of condemnation can only be thought about in my heart. If I say it out loud and break my face, it will be difficult to lower my voice and ask Haihan for help later.
Li Zhi could only respond with a wry smile and said tactfully: "I hope your country's garrison on the Datong River can take action as soon as possible. Otherwise, if bad guys take advantage of this opportunity to seize power, it will not only cause great harm to our country, but may also cause destruction." Diplomatic relations between our two countries ”
Yu Yao responded: "The prince is right, but there is no need to be too nervous. The news I know does not include the movements of the troops stationed in Datong River, so I think the situation has not yet developed to a stage where it is completely uncontrollable."
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Although this is not direct evidence, and it is even difficult to judge whether it is true or false, it is long-lost good news for Li Xie. Since there was no movement from the troops stationed in the Datong River, maybe the situation was not as bad as he thought.
Of course, this may just be Yu Yao's way of comforting him. He may not know whether the garrison at the Datong River base has moved or not, as far away as Penghu.
Since the Haihan people were secretive about this, Li Xie could only resort to his big move and take the initiative to express his attitude to Yu Yao.
"General Yu, in fact, regardless of whether the domestic chaos has been calmed down, I hope that your country can send troops to help our country tide over this difficulty. If the Haihan Army needs us to provide certain conditions, then I can make the decision at this moment and cooperate with your country. The country signed relevant agreements! ”
When Yu Yao heard this, he could feel Li Xie's determination and expectations, but confidentiality measures were required by the executive committee, and he did not want his judgment and future to be affected by Li Xie's words.
But Li Zhi took the initiative to make it clear, and he was obviously panicked about the direction of the domestic situation. If Haihan did not take the opportunity to gain some benefits from it, he would have missed the opportunity to make the other party take the initiative to compromise. However, Yu Yao would definitely not take the bait so quickly. He would have to test Li Xie's trump card first.
"Sending troops to intervene... Then it is up to the Executive Committee to decide. We who lead the troops are only responsible for fighting, and we can only send troops after receiving orders. Otherwise, it will be a violation of military law." Yu Yao said with a look of helplessness on his face: "This I believe the prince can understand the truth. Maybe the executive committee will make a decision after waiting a little longer.”
Of course Li Zhi understood the problem. Haihan sent troops to intervene in the situation in North Korea, first of all as a diplomatic issue, and then as a military issue. If it is not recognized by the Haihan Executive Committee at the diplomatic level, then sending troops will be just a blank check that is difficult to cash. Although senior generals like Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun have great authority to operate overseas, this matter may have exceeded their ability to make decisions.
But Li Zhi didn't dare to wait, because the decision made by the executive committee might not be beneficial to him. The longer he delayed, the more detrimental it would be to him.
So he changed to a more direct way of expression: "I would like to ask General Yu to tell the Executive Committee on your behalf that if your country can assist our country in resolving the civil strife, then some of the issues that have been temporarily shelved before can also be brought up for discussion again. . For example, we can talk about your country’s participation in industrial operations in our country, opening up immigration channels, etc.”
Yu Yao paid attention to Li Xie's expression and saw that he didn't look like he was talking nonsense, so he concluded that Li Xie was really anxious. He could understand Li Xie's mentality and knew what Li Xie was afraid of. Now that Li Xie began to take the initiative to reveal his trump card, Yu Yao felt that it might be time for the executive committee to make a weigh-in.
"Since the Crown Prince is so eager, let me see it this way. I will inform the Executive Committee of the Crown Prince's intentions first, and the Executive Committee will make a judgment on whether to send troops to your country." Yu Yao did not say too harshly. This is to leave some room for maneuver in subsequent negotiations.
Seeing that Yu Yao finally relented, Li Zhen quickly thanked him. What he needs now is such an information channel to communicate with the executive committee and buy himself as much time as possible.
We had just reached Penghu at this time, and were not even halfway back. If we could operate well and make Haihan clear his attitude before arriving in North Korea, then even if there was a civil war, there would still be the possibility of calming down the situation and taking power back into his own hands.
However, although telegrams are a fast method of transmitting information, it does not mean that you will receive an immediate reply after sending them. Yu Yao told Li Zhi that for such a major decision as sending troops, no executive committee member can make the final decision alone. Meetings must be held to discuss, weigh the pros and cons, prepare various materials needed, and discuss these issues. Clearly, it may take one or two days, or three to five days, before there is a reply from Sanya.
Li Zhi was eager to return home. He couldn't bear to wait a few more days in Penghu. He immediately said that he had to go north as soon as possible and could only entrust the matter to Yu Yao. When the next stop is Zhoushan, you may be able to receive a reply from the executive committee.
Just like in Hong Kong, the fleet only rested for one night at Magong Port and set out again the next day, rushing north. However, after the exchange with Yu Yao in Penghu, he seemed to have seen a glimmer of hope, and Li Xie felt a little more relaxed.
(End of chapter)