Chapter 2307
When Li Xie heard the news, his eyes suddenly darkened and his body went limp. If he hadn't tightly grasped the armrests of the chair with both hands, he might have slipped to the ground.
Although he was mentally prepared for his family's whereabouts, he still couldn't help but feel sad at this moment, and a deep sense of powerlessness filled his heart.
If Li Jie can escape from Seoul in time, no matter how much trouble the rebels make in the city, Li Jie will be the ruler recognized by Haihan after all. Even if the situation is unfavorable, it will only be a temporary situation. He can rely on the Haihan garrison to reorganize his forces to clear up the chaos. counterinsurgency. But if Li Zhu, a symbol of royal power, was captured by the rebels, the forces loyal to Li Zhu in the country would become scattered and it would be difficult to form a joint force.
This is not the worst case scenario. If the rebellious party coerces Li Shi to issue a false edict to the whole country, announcing that he will be succeeded by someone, then Li Shi's identity as the crown prince will be invalidated immediately. He will have to regroup his forces after returning to the country to put down the rebellion. , it will inevitably appear to be somewhat unfair.
The rebellious party only needs to put another reward on the wanted list and label Li Zhi as a villain. By then, the person who rebels and rebels may not be the other party, but Li Zhi, who is wanted by the court. Under such circumstances, how many people are willing to continue to be loyal to Li Xie, or even work for him to restore the country?
When Li Zhi thought about this section, he felt that the future was even more bleak, and it seemed that there was no hope of a comeback.
Then I heard Wang Tom say: "After we learned the news, in order to prevent the other party from jumping over the wall to murder the king, we temporarily stopped taking military measures in the Seoul area, and immediately notified Sanya, asking the prince to return to China as soon as possible to take charge of the overall situation!"
When Li Xie heard this, he cheered up a little. According to Wang Tom, it meant that the Haihan people still regarded him as the successor to the throne. This statement was an extremely important life-saving straw for Li Xie.
Calculating the time, when Li Zhi received the official notification from Haihan in Sanya, it almost coincided with the time mentioned by Wang Tom. However, Li Zhen's trip back to China also took more than half a month. During this period, whether the situation in Seoul has changed again will be very important for what response strategy to adopt next.
Li Zhi suppressed the sadness in his heart and asked Wang Tom: "General Wang, if you count on your fingers, more than half a month has passed since I received the notice to set off on the return journey. Has the situation in Seoul improved?"
Wang Tom also understood what Li Xie meant by "getting better", he shook his head slightly and said: "So far there is no news about the king and the two monarchs, but it seems that no one in Seoul has proclaimed himself king yet. We think that at this time, no news may be the best news. Seoul has not introduced a new king, perhaps because the rebels' internal opinions cannot be unified. Based on the history of your country, we think that before the new king can take a firm position. , should not harm the king easily.”
There have been many palace coups in the history of North Korea, but there are very few cases where the new party directly executed the previous king. Including Li Jian, they basically exiled the overthrown ruler to a certain place-such as Ganghwa Island. He once imprisoned Lord Gwanghae who was exiled by Li Zhu for a long time.
If the purpose of the rebellion is to fight for dominance, then according to North Korea's "tradition", it is unlikely that Li Jian and others will be executed directly. After all, the rebels know that once this kind of thing sets a precedent, they will not be able to do it in a few years. and future generations will suffer greatly.
Of course, Li Zhi was no stranger to the history of his country. He understood what Tom Wang meant as soon as he said it. After calming down for a while, he continued to ask: "Can General Wang tell you in detail, which ministers participated in the rebellion?"
After Li Yan arrived at Jianghua Island, the only important official in the court he saw was Shen Jingzhen. He had to first figure out who were the troublemakers and who he could still trust.
Wang Tom said: "On the day of the incident, Mr. Shen happened to be on Ganghwa Island inspecting the security project of the palace on the island, so he was not involved in this chaos. We believe that Mr. Shen was far away from Seoul when the incident occurred and should be trustworthy. As for the other adults, they basically didn’t have time to leave Seoul, and there are various rumors that we can’t verify at the moment, involving almost all important officials. It’s difficult to determine who is loyal and who is traitorous.”
< br>
Qian Tiandun said: "Just the rumors about the establishment of two great monarchs, we have heard no less than ten versions. Some said that the two great monarchs each commanded part of the army to fight, and some said that the two great monarchs Kim Sang-heon and Cui Ming-gil There are those who support the two monarchs respectively, and some say that the rebels are acting in the name of the two monarchs, but in fact they have secretly imprisoned the two monarchs... In short, there are too many rumors, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false. We considered the risks and did not act rashly.”
Li Xie was speechless after hearing this, but felt that this was the objective fact. It is obviously unreasonable to say that all civil and military personnel of the Manchu Dynasty participated in the rebellion. Some people should have been unable to escape after the rebels took control of the city defense. But a month has passed since the incident happened, and now there is no conclusion about who is the main messenger of this rebellion. This is too strange.
Li Zhi asked: "During this period, didn't anyone from Seoul take the initiative to contact you and ask you to send troops to help quell the rebellion?"
Wang Tom said: "Not only are there, but there are quite a lot of them. They come to us in various names to ask for help, asking us to send troops to destroy so and so. We receive such letters for help almost every day. Such means should be to interfere with our Judgment makes it impossible for us to confirm who the real perpetrators are in a short period of time.”
Li Zhen sighed: "These rogue gangs have planned so carefully. It seems they have been planning for a long time!"
In Li Zhi's view, if a rebellious party wants to seize power, it must eventually find a legitimate way to ascend to power. In the past, the previous king had to be forced to abdicate, otherwise the change of power would be illegal. But now there is an additional condition, that is, the successor must obtain the recognition and support of Haihan, otherwise it will be difficult to sit on the throne even if he is forced to do so. Convince the public.
This is also different from the previous time when the North Korean king ascended the throne and sought the official canonization of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty did not have much involvement in the change of power in North Korea, and basically just went through the motions. But now Haihan, who has replaced the Ming Dynasty as the suzerain, can It’s different. There are heavy troops stationed in North Korea all year round, and the guards on the northern border also need to rely on the assistance of the Haihan Navy.
In addition, Haihan now operates many industries in North Korea. It can be said that the change of power in North Korea is directly linked to Haihan's interests. If you want to rule this country well, it will be difficult to do without Haihan's support.
If the new king fails to gain Haihan's approval, Haihan does not even need to use force directly. As long as he withdraws the naval forces that shield North Korea from the wind and rain in the Yalu River Basin, the Qing army can take action to teach the new ruler a lesson. . At present, the attitudes of the two generals stationed in Haihan are obviously more inclined to support Li Zhi's restoration of the country. Under such a situation, it will be difficult for the rebels to gain the approval of Haihan. Moreover, the Haihan Army has arrived at Ganghwa Island at the mouth of the Han River, and may use force against Seoul at any time. It would be a lie to say that the troublemakers in the city are not panicked about this.
In order to delay the possible actions of the Haihan Army, the most effective way is to make the situation as confusing as possible, disrupting the Haihan Army's sight and making it impossible to judge the real opponent. Judging from what Wang Tom said, the rebels were obviously fully prepared for this, so much so that the Haihan Army had been guarding the mouth of the Han River for so long, but they still couldn't figure out the specific situation of the civil strife in Seoul.
Of course, Haihan's side is not in a hurry to calm down the situation. Although Seoul is in chaos, it is hundreds of miles away from the Datong River Basin where Haihan operates many large-scale projects, and the troublemakers dare not approach Haihan's army at all. These areas are under direct control, so the impact on Haihan will not be too significant in the short term.
The Haihan people who settled in Seoul have basically evacuated safely. Although their business activities have been temporarily affected, their personal safety is not in danger. In addition, with the support of the Haihan Army, many people have not chosen to flee North Korea. , but came to Ganghwa Island to stay temporarily, and continued to wait and see the direction of the situation under the protection of the Haihan Army. Regardless of whether Li Zhu and his family succeeded in restoring the country, or whether the rebels succeeded in seizing power, they would still have to continue doing business with Haihan. When the time comes, these Haihan commercial institutions will gradually resume normal operations.
Since they had nothing serious to do, Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun were happy to continue watching the theater in Jianghua Island and wait for Li Xie to come back from Haihan. Regardless of whether Li Zhu and his two sons were alive or dead, the Haihan Army had Wang Shizi in charge, and they could break through Seoul and put down the rebellion at any time under the banner of King Qin.
As for whether we really want to do this, on the one hand, it depends on the direction of the situation in Seoul, and on the other hand, it probably depends on Li Xie's performance. If there were not enough benefits, Haihanjun would definitely not take the risk to go into this muddy water easily.
But Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun were also very patient. They talked with Li Xie for a long time and announced to him bit by bit the information they had, but they did not put forward any conditions for the war. They probably also wanted to see if Li Xie was someone worthy of support.
In fact, Haihan's investment in Li Xie is not small. All the expenses for his study abroad in Haihan were borne by the Haihan official. During the period, various inspection activities were arranged, accompanied by officials, guards, and Li Xie's entourage. , there is a large group of people as soon as you go out, and the food, accommodation and transportation are all paid for by the public. The cost of each inspection ranges from thousands to tens of thousands, which is not a small amount in a year.
As for this trip to escort Li Zhi and his party back to North Korea, the Executive Committee asked the navy to send warships and supply ships to escort them all the way, and strict security was provided at various places along the way. The cost of a flight of several thousand miles may be more than what Li Xie spent studying abroad for a year.
The purpose of Haihan spending so many resources on Li Zhi is, of course, not just to help him sit on the throne of the king, but to ensure that Li Zhi will completely turn to Haihan after he ascends the throne, so that Korea can truly become Haihan's. The vassal state provided Haihan with the raw materials, manpower and market it needed.
In this process, in addition to continuously investing resources in Li Xie and instilling various ideologies that are beneficial to Haihan, it is also part of the entire plan to test Li Xie with different purposes under various situations.
Although the civil strife in Seoul was outside Haihan's plan, it was immediately regarded by the Executive Committee as an opportunity to test Li Xie's position and ability.
How Li Xie would react to such sudden bad news, whether he could weigh the interests and maintain unconditional trust in Haihan, are all areas that Haihan will focus on investigating.
If Li Zhi behaves weakly and helplessly during this process, has no independent opinion, deals with chaos, or even doubts Haihan's role in it, then the executive committee's evaluation of Li Zhi may be greatly reduced. If the situation is serious, it may even affect Li Xie's right to inherit the throne.
Li Xie's performance during this period will be continuously reported to Sanya through the intelligence system, and will be compiled by relevant departments and reported to the executive committee.
Fortunately, Li Zhi's performance in this exam was quite remarkable. He did not panic after receiving the news, and even in the face of a serious lack of information, he obeyed Haihan almost without hesitation. Arrangements were made to leave Sanya and return to China on a fleet arranged by Haihan.
Li Zhi's behavior during his stay at several stops along the way was all recorded and sent back to Sanya by the Haihan officials responsible for receiving him. You Yihan, Yu Yao, and Shi Diwen all spoke highly of him, saying that although Li Zhen was worried, he still showed great patience and did not question Haihan's schedule.
Of course, the most critical test will come after Li Xie returns to China. The Haihan garrison had been almost completely uninvolved in the chaos before his arrival, leaving him with a confusing situation.
Of course, Haihan did not expect Li Xie to be able to solve the current situation entirely by relying on his own abilities. The next thing to see is how Li Xie expresses his position and then makes demands to Haihan.
In fact, Li Xie was already thinking about this matter before meeting Qian and Wang. Just because the information he knew at the time was extremely limited, he didn't know how much help he needed Haihan to provide to restore the country. At this time, while listening to the new information provided by the other party, he was already thinking about how to communicate with these two people so that they could mobilize the Haihan Army to help him regain power and quell the chaos.
Li Zhi said: "Two generals, it is really unfortunate that our country is in chaos. I believe that you two do not want to see our people fall into war again. As the crown prince, I should calm down the chaos and restore peace to the world." This is a mission. Our country has an alliance with you and shares the same enemy. Now that our country is in trouble, I would like to ask you to send troops to help King Qin suppress the chaos and recapture Seoul!”
(End of chapter)