Chapter 2309
How to exercise indirect control over an extraterritorial country to the greatest extent is a very complex topic, but for Haihan, who is constantly expanding his sphere of influence, it is a key project that must be studied with great effort. North Korea, which has a relatively weak national power and has become accustomed to being under the wings of strong men over the past few hundred years, is exactly an experimental subject with extremely suitable conditions.
Influencing other countries through trade, culture, military and other means is Haihan's best method. In the more than two years since the establishment of diplomatic relations with North Korea, Haihan has used these methods in turn, and has achieved quite good results so far.
The resources, markets, and manpower needed by Haihan are now provided by North Korea with both hands, and the country has opened its doors to allow Haihan to station troops in the country all year round, as if it respects Haihan as a protector and suzerain. Later, civil and military officials led by Prince Wang were sent to study in Haihan, with the intention that even the country's governance strategy and bureaucracy would gradually move closer to Haihan.
But is this enough? At least in the eyes of the Haehan Executive Committee, it is still not enough. The domestic political situation in North Korea is not stable, and there are still voices that oppose the royal family's complete surrender to Haehan for various reasons. These unstable factors will threaten Haehan's interests in North Korea, and also It will affect Haihan’s long-term planning in Northeast Asia.
The Executive Committee hopes that North Korea's political situation will be more peaceful, its attitude will be more respectful, and it will be more open to Haihan. However, the study abroad training provided to Li Zhen and others will not have immediate results. After all, except for The foundation of these young officials other than Li Zhi in the country is far from enough, and it may take several years to slowly climb to the peak of power.
But at this time, the internal crisis in North Korea that the Executive Committee had been worried about suddenly broke out without warning. The capital was in chaos, the king and some court officials were held hostage by the rebels, and the prince was far away in the South China Sea. It seemed that North Korea was about to encounter another extraordinary situation. Change of power in the normal way.
This is a major crisis for North Korea and the diplomatic relations between the two countries, which have just been on the right track. However, the Executive Committee also saw the "opportunity" in the crisis, and how to deal with Haihan's situation in the process of dealing with this emergency. Maximizing interests and trying to achieve those originally stumbling demands that were not officially recognized by North Korea have become a major focus of the Executive Committee.
But how to solve this emergency incident satisfactorily does not seem to be that important. After all, the rebellious party did not attack the Haihan people living in Seoul, and they did not dare to touch operating institutions with Haihan official background, such as Haihan Bank and Golden Shield Escort. It was obvious that they were also preparing to resume contact with Haihan in the future. Get off the back road.
No matter how much trouble there is in Seoul, they will eventually have to face thousands of Haihan troops who have arrived at Ganghwa Island. If the trouble is too much, even if the rebels seize the throne, they will not be able to deal with the eager Haihan army. Therefore, both sides had a tacit understanding and did not take further military action, forming a confrontation hundreds of miles apart.
The Haihan side still has a relatively high degree of confidence in controlling the situation, so it is not in a hurry to resolve the civil strife in Seoul. Now that the banner of Prince Li Zhen is available, it can wait for the new ruler elected by the rebellious party to take the initiative to contact its side. , in any case already in an invincible position, it’s just a matter of how much trouble there is in the process.
Of course, when they brought Li Zhi back from Sanya, they would not expect him to lead his civil and military officials to turn the tide and calm the situation in Seoul on his own. Instead, Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun needed the crown prince of Korea in the army. Any action taken against Seoul will be justified.
Of course, there is another reason, that is, when the life or death of King Li Zhu is uncertain, and the rebel party has not introduced a new ruler, the only one who can discuss the conditions for quelling the rebellion with Haihan is Li Zhi. Taking Li Zhi to Ganghwa Island, which is relatively close to Seoul, can not only protect his safety, but also make him feel the pressure of being outside the home but not being able to get in. Under such circumstances, wearing down his patience will It is more conducive for Haihan to negotiate exchange terms with him, which also includes what Wang Tom just mentioned.
However, things were still slightly different from what the executive committee had expected. Wang Qian and his two men prepared a gradual pressure package for Li Xie on Ganghwa Island, and finally forced him to give in and agree to the exchange conditions proposed by Haihan. But he didn't expect that Li Zhi's patience and reserve had been exhausted on the way back to North Korea. After arriving at Ganghwa Island, he just wanted to use Haihan's armed force to fight back to Seoul as soon as possible and regain the royal power. As for whether the conditions proposed by Haihan were It would harm North Korea's interests. Even if he had realized it, he could only put it behind him.
Therefore, without much effort from Tom Wang, Li Xie readily agreed to establish the special organization requested by Haihan, much faster than they expected. A lot of pressure methods that were originally prepared had already achieved their goals just after the beginning, so all the subsequent ones were scrapped before they could be used.
Wang Tom even had a little doubt that he didn't express his meaning clearly, so that Li Xie didn't fully understand what this request meant.
Such a special institution established by the Haehan organization, although nominally loyal to the King of Korea, Haehan's influence in it is obvious. This institution has great power. It manages the common people at its lower level and important officials of the imperial court at its upper level. It may even include some members of the royal family under its supervision. This is an unprecedented situation in North Korea.
Are these surveillance measures just to ensure the king's right to rule? Of course, it doesn't stop there. According to Wang Tom's explanation, in addition to reporting all kinds of information obtained by this agency to the king, it will also be reported to Haihan, and it has the power to deal with those dangerous people who threaten the king's rule.
As for who is a dangerous person, not only the king has the final say, but Haihan can also make a judgment. It is even very likely that Haihan will make the final judgment most of the time.
It's not certain whether those who oppose the king will die, but those who oppose Haihan will definitely be in trouble.
The purpose of this organization is to serve Haihan and incidentally help the King of Korea maintain the stability of his rule. But this purpose can only be done, not said, otherwise it will affect the king's ruling status. So when Wang Tom said it, the meaning of this institution became a knife in the king's hand. Wherever the blade points, it is the king's will. It sounds very majestic.
Of course Wang Tom understood the twists and turns, but he didn't know if Li Xie also understood it after listening to his explanation.
Li Zhi actually understood, but he couldn't show that he understood. Sometimes pretending to be confused was the best cover. What's more, he was the weak one now and needed to rely on Haihan to regain the king's power. At this time, if he showed Being too shrewd may not be a good thing.
But no matter what, this condition has been basically agreed upon. For Li Xie, this was really a huge concession. If his father was still here, he would probably not agree to such an exchange to gain Haihan's support. But Li Zhi had no choice. If Haihan couldn't be allowed to take action, he would soon become a worthless useless person. Compared with this result, even if he takes a few big steps back, he will grit his teeth and agree to it.
"Are the two generals ready to send troops?"
Li Zhi didn't want to waste time on meaningless bargaining, so he quickly returned the topic to the current situation: "If we could send troops one day earlier, maybe the rebels in the city would have one less day to prepare for war. , This can also reduce your army’s battle losses.”
The expression on Qian Tiandun's face was half-smile but not a smile: "Your Majesty, do you think the rebels in Seoul dare to start a military confrontation with us?" Li Xie thought to himself, why should they dare to jump over the wall in a hurry? Can they be expected to surrender voluntarily, but he was very polite: "I made a mistake. Those rebels will definitely organize rebels to attack the places that refuse to surrender to them. But if they have to fight against your army, they will not be seeking death."
Of course, Li Zhi did not dare to question the prestige of Haihanjun, so he could only explain his position forcefully.
Qian Tiandun said: "Does the prince want to pay homage first and then send troops, or does he want to directly send troops to attack Seoul?"
Li Zhi responded: "I am not good at military affairs, how dare I talk nonsense in front of the two generals."
Qian Tiandun said: "It doesn't matter. The prince grew up in Seoul and is much more familiar with the situation in the city and the situation between the government and the public than we are. Of course we also need to listen to the prince's opinions before taking action."
Wang Tom also said: "General Qian's words are not polite. The information that the Crown Prince can provide is of great reference value for us. Especially for the civil and military officials who are still in the city, who are trustworthy and who are not? , I think the Crown Prince must know better than us who are the real dangers. If the Crown Prince can provide more opinions, we can prevent us from accidentally killing good people during our operations."
Wang Tom's words sounded okay at first, but Li Xie felt a faint chill on his back. This was not the first time he had dealt with Wang Tom, and he knew that General Haihan seemed carefree and very bold, but in fact he was thoughtful, had a purpose in everything he said and did, and would never waste his words talking nonsense.
Wang Tom wants Li Xie to provide information to avoid accidentally killing good people. This can only mean one thing. He is actually ready to use force, and will take this opportunity to get rid of some specific targets. As for who are the "dangerous people" who need to be paid special attention to, Wang Tom gave Li Xie a chance to name them.
In other words, this implies that Li Zhi can take this opportunity to use reasonable and legal means to get rid of all those who may block his way forward.
Whether it is a senior official of the court or a member of the royal family, anyone who is inconvenient for Li Zhu or him to deal with, in the current situation, the Haihan people can easily plant a treason charge and then disappear from the world.
Is there such an object? Not only are there, but there are quite a lot of them.
Counting from the founding of Korea in 1392 when Li Chenggui replaced Wang's family, the Li family has ruled North Korea for more than 200 years. The clan has long been extremely large. Almost every generation has a number of careerists trying to get a hold of the throne. Li Jian himself is the one who has achieved this goal. one of these goals. There are not a few people who have tried to overthrow him and replace him after he ascended the throne, but so far there has been no real success.
However, most members of the royal family have no real power and only have a title that is only useful when receiving a salary. Even if they want to rebel, it is actually difficult to organize enough troops and logistical support on their own. It is even more difficult to gain the recognition of senior officials in the court. .
Therefore, the real threat is actually those conspirators who lurk in the court and are ostensibly loyal to the ruler on the throne, but secretly collude and try to introduce a new ruler so that they can become the regent.
During Li Zhu's more than ten years in power, dissatisfied members of the royal family and ambitious ministers continued to emerge. Li Zhu killed many people and exiled many in an attempt to prevent the tradition of coups from happening to him, but this attempt ultimately failed.
It's not that Li Zhu didn't know the ambitions of some people, but from his position, he couldn't get rid of anyone he wanted. If some people were gone, they might cause more trouble than when they were alive. He needs these people to keep the various factions in balance and to govern the country.
But such a balance is extremely difficult to maintain for a long time. Before Li Zhu could come up with a complete solution, the balance he had worked so hard to maintain collapsed.
Li Zhi has assisted his father in running the government in recent years, so he has naturally witnessed these overt and covert power struggles, and he also roughly knows who his father trusts, who he hates, and who he is afraid of. On the way back home, he recalled these lists in his mind no less than a hundred times, wondering which daring people dared to commit such a heinous act.
At the same time, he also secretly made up his mind that if he ascended the throne and took power in the future, he would never be as hesitant and hesitant as his father. Whenever he found someone who was disadvantageous to him, he must eradicate it as soon as possible. He would never sit back and watch it develop and grow until it was too late.
But Li Zhi didn't have much experience in how to do this kind of thing. The people his father killed and exiled were almost all people who openly jumped out to rebel, and he didn't teach him any powerful methods. How to find reasons to arrange charges to eliminate hidden dangers inside and outside the court, Li Zhi actually had no good idea.
This may be one of the reasons why he agreed without much discussion after hearing the conditions proposed by Tom Wang previously. In the future, it may not be a bad thing to have such an agency dedicated to dealing with careerists.
However, the establishment of an organization is still far away, and Wang Tom seems not to wait until then to start taking action against dissidents in the North Korean royal family and official circles. As long as Li Xie speaks, the Haihan Army will take advantage of this opportunity to quell the chaos and help him deal with the troublesome people inside and outside the court.
(End of chapter)