Chapter 2305
For Andao Shi and Pu Hongye, a group of civil and military officials who accompanied Li Xie to study in Haihan, the year they spent in Sanya was actually their gilded journey. Before they went abroad, they knew that the experience of studying abroad in Haihan would become an important asset for their career advancement in the future.
In the eyes of the outside world, they are a group of people who bear the brand of the Crown Prince. They are a group of courtiers specially trained by the king for the Crown Prince to take over the power in the future. When the day comes when the Crown Prince ascends the throne, this group of people loyal to the Crown Prince will soon He took over various official agencies and the army, and became an important court minister in the next era of Joseon.
With such a bright development prospect, these civil and military officials naturally regarded the crown prince Li Xie as their future allegiance, and they were eager to return to the country after completing their studies, and then be promoted to the third level and enter the ranks of the powerful.
Of course, they had all imagined various scenarios of returning home in fine clothes, but they never imagined that one day they would be afraid of returning home. At present, the domestic chaos in North Korea is uncertain and the situation is unclear. It is very likely that their group will become the targets of the rebels when they return to the country. The risk is even greater than that of the Crown Prince himself. After all, the Crown Prince may be temporarily saved due to his political use value, but any force that wants to use the Crown Prince for profit will definitely try to cut off the Crown Prince's party members first - that is, they are the civil and military officials around the Crown Prince. .
Once something goes wrong, they will be the first targets, and everyone knows this. Therefore, after setting off from Dinghai Port, the atmosphere on the ship was also very heavy, and many people were even mentally prepared to die.
But An Daoshi is an outlier among them. He believes that the situation after returning to the country may not be as dangerous as everyone thinks, and it may not be as difficult for the prince to regain power as imagined.
"My basis is Haihan! I believe that the people of Haihan will eventually choose to side with the crown prince and provide him with the support he needs!" Ahn Do-seok said to Park Hongye in a firm tone: "They have been thousands of miles apart before this. The action of sending troops to our country, if we just let it go and let our country fall into chaos, this is not consistent with their previous attitude, and it is not in their interests!”
Andao Shi received a year of training in Haihan, and what he learned was not just military skills. Compiling intelligence and analyzing the situation was also part of the training. Before going abroad, he might not have been able to have such a well-founded debate with a civil servant, but things are different now. Andao Shi is much more eloquent than before, and he does not show weakness when discussing the international and domestic situation with a civil servant like Park Hongye. .
Of course, this discussion between the two people was conducted in private, and they also knew that it would be difficult to discuss these issues in depth in front of Li Xie-for topics related to Haihan, Li Xie had more to be afraid of than There are many more of them, and many topics are difficult to express directly.
Pu Hongye shook his head and said: "Mr. An, Haihan pursues profit, and everyone knows that the choices they make are beneficial to him without exception, including the actions of sending troops to help our country repel the Qing army. Do the people who are causing trouble in the country, Are you unaware of this? What I'm most worried about is that they had already reached a tacit agreement with Haihan before they started the rebellion. You said it was not in their interests to let Haihan just sit back and watch. But it may be more in their interest to ignore this moment and the other moment!”
"Lord Park, what you said is wrong!" Ahn Dao-seok also shook his head and replied: "None of what you said can explain why the Haihan people wanted to inform the crown prince to return to the country. If they want to plunge our country into chaos, or support others to sit on the throne , it is possible to hide the news from the prince and not arrange for him to return to the country to help the king quell the chaos. But now Haihan is escorted by warships all the way, and extremely careful protection is arranged everywhere, lest the prince does anything wrong, this is not the case. To allow domestic rebellion? ”
What Ahn Do-seok said is also the evidence that most exposes the contradictions in Park Hongye's theory in the whole matter. As long as Haihan does not arrange for Li Xie to return to the country, or delays the news for ten days and a half, he can continue the civil strife in North Korea and even have the power to steer the situation in the direction most beneficial to him.
Park Hongye couldn't give a perfect explanation for this, but he would not be convinced by An Daoshi and still insisted on his own opinion: "The Haihan people may just take their reputation into consideration to avoid being discovered by other allies in the future. They will arrange for the crown prince to return to the country, but they are worried about causing trouble, so they will keep news from us during the journey. Otherwise, even if there is chaos in the country, how can the Haihan people not have even the slightest news? Don't forget that there are many Haihan people inside and outside Seoul. Industry! ”
Since the end of the Korean War last year, a large number of Haihan businessmen have poured into Seoul and set up business institutions there, including giants with official backgrounds such as Haihan Bank and Golden Shield. The suburbs outside Seoul even formed an area where Haihan commercial institutions gathered in a short period of time, which was called "Haihan Street" by the people.
These foreign commercial institutions have brought a large number of local employment opportunities to Seoul, and at least thousands of North Koreans serve these institutions directly or indirectly. If an armed rebellion breaks out in the Seoul area, the rebels may not dare to touch these Haihan properties - if the Haihan Army intervenes on this grounds, it is likely that the rebels will have lost all their previous efforts.
Park Hongye continued: "We came all the way here, and the senior officials from Haihan we met insisted that the military currently stationed in our country did not intervene in this chaos, which should mean that Haihan's properties in Seoul were not involved in the war. But these Haihan people Will they wait for the war to end near Seoul? Obviously it is impossible. Some of them will definitely find a way to leave Seoul to escape the war. The information these people bring cannot be just what the Haihan people revealed to us. . So my conclusion is that the Haihan people must be hiding something from us, and this may not be done out of good intentions.”
Each of them felt that they had evidence to support their views, but it was difficult for them to persuade the other to accept their views based only on these inferences without reliable empirical evidence.
However, in comparison, Andorite still has the upper hand. This is not because his speculation has more basis, but because Park Hongye can only reiterate that he cannot believe the statements of the Haihan people, but cannot come up with any effective solutions. Andao Shi advocated continuing to rely on Haihan's power to calm the domestic chaos. Regardless of whether Haihan was reliable or not, this was at least a feasible plan.
Both of them are determined people. Even if they think there is some truth in what the other person says, they still will not give up their opinions. However, Li Zhi obviously didn't like the atmosphere of their discussions. When he discussed countermeasures with them several times, he stopped their disputes and asked them to focus on how to quell the chaos and restore the country, instead of studying the only way to help them at present. Are the allies in Shangfeng reliable?
However, their discussion was actually a bit like a closed-door discussion. Without Haihan's senior officials on board, no matter what the outcome of the discussion was, they would not be able to communicate and negotiate with Haihan in a timely manner. All Li Zhi can do now is to assume various situations that he may encounter after returning home, and then formulate different response plans.
A few days later, the outline of land finally appeared on the sea level in front of the fleet. According to the route, it should have reached the waters near Jindo County at the southern tip of the peninsula.
The North Koreans on the ship were very excited to return to their homeland after a year. However, apart from the excitement, they were also a little worried. They wondered whether the domestic situation had changed again during the past few days of isolation at sea.
After arriving at their destination, how to contact officials who are still loyal to Li Zhu, gather the armed forces, regain control of Seoul, etc. are all difficult tasks that they need to complete one by one. Of course, if we can get Haihan's help in this process, then maybe things will be much simpler.
In order to race against time, the fleet did not stop in Jindo County, but headed north along the coastline. It is still more than 700 miles away from Ganghwa Island at the mouth of the Han River, and the journey still takes some time.
According to Haihan's arrangement, they would not return directly to Seoul, but first settle on Ganghwa Island at the mouth of the Han River. This was also the first choice place for the royal family to flee when wars broke out in Korea in the past. During the Dingmao Rebellion in 1627, the Later Jin Army, led by General Amin, successively defeated North Korea's Yiju, Dingzhou, Guosan, Anju, Pyongyang, Huangzhou, Pingshan Zhucheng, and Li Jian, who was already the king of Joseon at the time, fled from Seoul to Ganghwa Island to escape the war.
Li Zhi was not disgusted with Haihan's arrangement. The first was to keep them away from the frontline battlefields and avoid being involved in the war as soon as they returned home. Secondly, they could also inquire about news on Ganghwa Island to see if any members of the royal family had escaped. island.
Of course, he would like to see the assembled Haihan army on Ganghwa Island. That may be his real hope for restoration. For Li Zhi, who was already in a drowning state, Haihanjun was the life-saving straw he desperately wanted to grab at this time.
However, although he felt uneasy, Li Xie still tried his best to show a calm side in front of his subordinates. He knew that if he panicked, the group of people under his command would completely lose their backbone. When the people are distracted, there might be someone who is not determined and will betray him to the troublemakers in exchange for benefits.
Although the fleet that Li Zhi and his party were in was not large in size, they all flew the two-color flag of Haihan. There were occasional civilian ships near the coast along the way. If they saw the flag of this fleet, they would take the initiative to avoid it and did not dare to approach it at all. .
Two more days later, the fleet hurriedly and slowly arrived at Ganghwa Island. This journey has gone smoothly without any incident, but everyone knows that the real trouble may have just begun from now on.
The fleet arrived at the port on the west side of Ganghwa Island. The wharf and port facilities here were built by the government. It is also the only large port on the island. Just a few miles away from the port is the palace of the Joseon royal family. In the past, Li Zhu fled here to escape the war and lived temporarily in the palace.
What gave Li Zhi some peace of mind was that when the fleet docked at the port, he saw several Haihan warships moored at the pier. It was obvious that the Haihan army was already stationed here, and it was even possible that the Haihan warships were stationed here. under direct control. Although it seems strange that this place has become a place governed by foreigners, Li Xie believes that this may be the best situation at present. At least within the control of the Haihan people, the personal safety of his group is still guaranteed.
A group of heavily armed Haihan soldiers soon arrived at the pier. The Haihan officer leading the team required the ships to be inspected first to confirm their identities and intentions, and only after receiving permission could the passengers on board be allowed to disembark.
"The closer you get to the door of your home, the stricter the inspection will be!" Li Xie didn't like the treatment of having to be checked by foreign troops in his own country, but he also knew that he could only accept such a helpless move. Thinking on the bright side, when the military has secured the dock, at least no assassins or the like will be able to approach him.
After confirming the identities of Li Zhi and others, they were still required to wait for notification on the ship. However, the inspection work on several other warships serving as escort missions was quickly completed because they were all filled with Haihan soldiers, and the sailors were allowed to disembark.
Regarding such treatment, Li Xie did not dare to complain too much and could only wait patiently for the Haihan people to make the next arrangement.
After about an hour of burning incense, several North Korean officials in official uniforms came to the dock. These people ran all the way to the boat. When they saw Li Xie, they quickly knelt down on the ground and saluted.
Li Zhi didn't care about putting on airs at this time, and quickly asked them to get up and reply. Seeing that the highest-ranking official among them was Shen Jingzhen, the military judge, he greeted him: "Master Shen, what is the situation on the island now? Can we get off the boat?"
Shen Jingzhen responded: "Your Majesty, please be patient. General Wang and General Qian of Haihan are both on the island. They should have received the news at this time and will come to the port to welcome the Crown Prince back home later."
Li Zhi was indeed relieved when he heard the news. Since Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun had already arrived at Jianghua Island, it at least meant that the environment on the island would be safer. Moreover, he believed that his personal relationship with the two Haihan generals was quite good, and there would be no big obstacles in subsequent contacts. And since the other party is willing to deign to come to the port to greet you, it means that the other party will still pay enough attention to you. With such an attitude, it is possible to negotiate subsequent matters.
One of Li Zhi's biggest worries on the way was that he would become Haihan's abandoned son before arriving in Seoul. But judging from the current situation, this worry seems to be unnecessary. But his attention immediately returned to Shen Jingzhen in front of him: "Master Shen, where is my father now? Where are the other adults?"
(End of chapter)