Chapter 2445
The military's view of the situation in Northeast Asia is definitely different from that of the Executive Committee. For the Executive Committee, the trend of the international situation, geopolitical relations, and Haihan's interests in this region are the primary factors to consider, followed by Issues such as military expenditure, logistics supply, personnel arrangements, etc. But the generals who lead troops on the front line actually have a much simpler view. Whether they have combat missions is the most important thing, because this will not only affect the career development of the generals, but will also be directly related to the treatment and morale of the troops under their command. .
If the war stops here and all countries enter a period of peace, then there will be no need for the several elite troops currently deployed in Northeast Asia to continue to be stationed on the front line. The daily military expenditures for troops such as special operations groups are much higher than those of ordinary troops. It is not cost-effective to deploy them in areas with low risk of war for a long time. Moreover, generals like Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom will definitely not be able to bear loneliness, and will not be willing to let the combat effectiveness of their troops be slowly wasted. Even if the Ministry of National Defense does not make adjustments, they themselves will take the initiative to apply for deployment according to changes in the situation. .
Qian Tiandun was not surprised at all when he heard the conversation between the two men. One of the reasons why he supported the peace talks was that he hoped to liberate the elite troops of the generals from the northern battlefield, because Liaodong was too far away from the mainland of Haihan, and the country There is no way to support them to show their strength here. Continuing to station in Liaodong will only maintain the current confrontation situation. It is a waste of the combat effectiveness of these elite troops.
However, the negotiations have not yet begun. Tao Donglai is actually not sure whether the negotiations can be concluded, so he still has to show caution regarding the imagination of these two generals: "You don't have to rush to plan the next step. , do the things in front of you first. If there is anything I haven’t considered carefully enough, you must remember to remind me.”
Wang Tom responded: "Mr. Tao, now the time, location, and people are all in our hands. Although it is a four-nation negotiation, in fact the other three countries have to look at our faces to act, so I am personally very optimistic about this negotiation." ”
"Don't be too happy too early. Just stay cautiously optimistic." Tao Donglai's attitude is still very conservative: "We don't know what the bottom line is that they can accept. We can only test it slowly during the talks."
The shouting and cursing of the Manchu and Qing envoys outside the Nanguanling camp continued, and the crowd of onlookers also increased from a few hundred people when the Manchu and Qing envoys arrived here a few days ago to thousands. However, due to the reinforcement of the Haihan Army Be on guard, but no one dares to take more radical measures. But these shouting and cursing sounds from the air inevitably spread through the air into the camp and into the tent where the Manchu envoys lived.
"Your Majesty, Haihan deliberately allowed these unruly people to shout and curse outside, why should we swallow our anger? Even if we can't kill these unruly people, we still have to give them some pain!"
In the tent, a Qing army officer was angrily complaining about the shouting and swearing outside. Judging from his accent, he was obviously a Han Chinese. He put one hand on the saber at his waist, as if he would go out to find trouble for those unruly people as soon as his superiors gave the order.
Sitting on the chair opposite him was a muscular man in his thirties, wearing a blue brocade robe, with a long face and yellow skin, broom eyebrows and a mustache. It was Shang Kexi who represented the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the talks. From his appearance, he does not appear to be a decisive and decisive general, but more like a wealthy businessman.
Shang Kexi's mood was obviously much calmer than that of this subordinate, and he responded unhurriedly: "What's the matter if I just let them scold me? Can they scold me and kill a hair on my head? The most important thing is those ignorant people outside." , why are you so anxious?”
The officer was still very angry: "They are so disrespectful to the prince, but the Haihan people don't control them. It's really hateful!"
Shang Kexi shook his head slightly and said: "You think too simply. Not only did the Haihan people not control it, it was probably them who arranged this drama. If I act angry about this, then I will be playing into their trap." Are there fewer people scolding me over the years? If no one scolds me anymore, then there will be a problem.”
Shang Kexi is a native of the Ming Han Dynasty. His ancestral home is Hongdong County, Shanxi Province. His grandfather's generation moved to Haizhou, Liaodong Province to settle down. When Shang Kexi was eighteen years old, his mother died in the war when Hou Jin invaded Liaoshen, and then his father and son joined the Ming army one after another. His father, Shang Xueli, followed Mao Wenlong to serve in Pi Island. Later, after joining the Ming Navy, Shang Kexi also went to Pi Island to find his father, and was adopted by Mao Wenlong as his adopted grandson.
Shang Kexi's father later also died in the war with Hou Jin. It can be said that there was actually a deep hatred between him and Hou Jin. However, due to failure in the power struggle within Dongjiang, Shang Kexi defected to the enemy. But in order to survive, he put all the hatred of the country and family behind. Such behavior naturally attracted a lot of infamy.
But then again, if the Ming Dynasty hadn't scolded him so much that the whole country wanted to drown this traitor with saliva, how would Huang Taiji have believed that a Ming general whose parents died at the hands of the Manchus would sincerely surrender to him, let alone It is said that he later rewarded Shang Kexi as King Zhishun and gave him a fiefdom in Haizhou, his birthplace.
Shang Kexi actually knows his own value very well. He is now Huang Taiji's courtesy corporal, and he has yet to be embodied by Han Chen. As for whether he has the ability to lead troops in war, that is secondary. If Huang Taiji wants to attract Han talents to work for him, it must have Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, Kong Youde and others as role models. The higher the courtesy they, the rebel generals and surrendered ministers of the Ming Dynasty, receive from the Manchus, the smaller the resistance the Manchurians will encounter when they conquer the Ming Dynasty in the future.
But since these people can betray the Ming Dynasty, it is of course difficult to say whether they can remain loyal to the Manchu Qing. In addition to giving high-ranking officials generous salaries, they will definitely monitor their relationship with the Ming Dynasty in case the situation goes wrong one day. These guys Jumped back to Daming again. The more Ming Dynasty officials and people hated them and their attitudes became more hostile, the more Huang Taiji felt relieved about these people. After all, they had no other way out and could only work for the Manchus. It only took Shang Kexi more than ten years to climb from an unknown person to the position of a king. Naturally, his brain was not bad, and he had already figured out the truth in between. So after arriving in Jinzhou, although people outside the camp were yelling at him by name every day, Shang Kexi felt no pressure. He knew that someone would report these situations to Huang Taiji. The more he was scolded and angered in Jinzhou, the more Huang Taiji would feel at ease with him. If he is warmly received when he comes here and no one treats him as a traitor, then he will really be in trouble.
Not to mention the officers under him, even opponents like Qian Tiandun may not be able to understand the complicated truth immediately. Therefore, although Qian Tiandun deliberately did not stop the yelling outside the camp, this behavior actually had a very limited impact on Shang Kexi. The more severe the yelling, the more at ease he felt.
What really makes Shang Kexi feel uneasy is the prospect of this negotiation. Last winter, the Qing army went south to enter the Pass. On the one hand, it was a heavy blow to Ming Dynasty, which had been unwilling to negotiate peace, and to exert further military pressure on it. On the other hand, it also wanted to see the extent of the so-called military alliance between Haihan and Ming Dynasty. Will the Haihan Army directly enter the Ming Dynasty to fight, just like they did in Korea before?
Although the Qing army's southern invasion can be said to have gone as smoothly as cutting melons and vegetables, and no trace of the Haihan army was found in the Ming Dynasty, the Haihan army still launched a new round of looting along the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula this winter. , it seems that you fight yours and I fight mine, neither intending to have a truce with the Manchus, nor do they want to fight on the frontal battlefield. Huang Taiji and his ministers believed that Haihan had already had the ability to send troops to the Ming Dynasty to participate in the war, but in the end he did not send troops and only made some small actions in the Liaodong Peninsula. This only shows that the relationship between Haihan and the Ming Dynasty is not external. So intimate.
And this became an opportunity for Huang Taiji to decide to negotiate peace with Haihan. He believed that since Haihan had no intention of saving the Ming Dynasty, he could use the Haihan people's favorite trade or other feasible conditions in exchange for Haihan. Stop all military operations on the Liaodong Peninsula.
In view of the fact that the generals of the Haihan Army were actually Han Chinese, Huang Taiji also carefully selected Shang Kexi as the person in charge of the armistice peace talks. In Huang Taiji's view, Shang Kexi is very smart, has experience in Dongjiang Town, has a good understanding of the history, humanities, and geography of Liaodong, and has no language and cultural barriers in communicating with the Haihan generals. He should be more suitable to complete this task. . As for the other two kings of the Three Shun Kings, who were also Han Chinese, they were defeated because they had already led troops to fight against the Haihan Army on the Daheishan defense line before, but they hardly took any advantage. Huang Taiji believed that if they sat down and fought Haihan would have a psychological disadvantage in negotiating, so in the end Shang Kexi was chosen to take charge of the matter.
But Shang Kexi believed that there was actually another reason why Huang Taiji chose him, and that was that he had served in Dongjiang Town for many years before joining the Manchus. Now that the people in Dongjiang Town have collectively committed treason and have chosen to join the Haihan people, Shang Ke is happy that there will be no pressure in Jinzhou. After all, the commander-in-chief Shen Shikui and deputy general Jin Riguan who were in charge of Pidao are now working under the Haihan people. To be honest, they are no more noble than Shang Kexi.
However, what makes Shang Kexi slightly regretful is that after entering Jinzhou this time, he has not met his former colleagues yet. Especially Shen Shikui, who wanted to kill him back then. I heard that he has now voluntarily given up military power and turned to business. If he could meet with him, Shang Kexi would definitely laugh at him - he had betrayed the Ming Dynasty and joined the Ming Dynasty. In other countries, I have already become a prince in the Qing Dynasty, but you, Shen Shikui, are living more and more back. Now you don't even have military power. People go to higher places, and water flows to lower places. It is clear at a glance which of the original choices was higher or lower.
It was a pity that Haihan did not arrange such an opportunity for him. After the mission arrived in Jinzhou, they were taken to the Nanguanling Camp to stay. The people outside could not get in, and naturally they could not get out. This Golden State is a war zone, so it is natural to restrict their movements. The local General Haihan did not seem to have any intention of receiving them immediately. He just asked them to live in peace and wait for all parties to arrive before formal talks could begin.
Fortunately, there were no discounts on food, accommodation and treatment. They were provided with delicious food and drinks every day, especially the various fine wines produced by Haihan, which immediately became the favorite of the Manchu envoys. Since they could only move around inside and outside the tent they lived in all day, they were bored and could only drink and chat to pass the time.
However, the supply of these fine wines is not unlimited. There is only a limited amount per day. After drinking, you can only buy more out of your own pocket. The Haihan people also had good reasons. These wines were shipped from the south thousands of miles away. The shipping cost alone was very high. Of course, it was impossible to provide them all for free. In desperation, they could only buy some more wine on their own, but the wine was very expensive. Even though the officials in the mission were wealthy, they still felt a sense of pain.
Shang Kexi joined the army at a young age and spent half of his life in the army. Naturally, he also likes to drink. However, most of the wines he can drink on weekdays are made with crude craftsmanship and the taste is far from the level of Haihan wine, let alone Haihan wine. Hanjiu also has a variety of flavors to choose from, which makes him so addicted that he even feels that the wine he has drank for more than 20 years has been wasted. In just a few days, he had spent hundreds of taels of money on drinks. Even when he was tipsy, he couldn't help but sigh that this Haihan man was indeed as good as the rumors. He was good at business and trade. Even during the armistice and peace talks, he did not forget to seize the opportunity to make money. silver.
But it is not necessarily true that the Haihan people were greedy for money. The people in the envoy took advantage of the opportunity of buying wine to get close to the Haihan soldiers and tried to bribe these people with money, but they were all sternly rejected.
Shang Kexi believed that this could only mean one thing. Selling alcohol to the mission was a deliberate arrangement from the top management of Haihan, and it was the normal state of the military camp to strictly guard against the mission and avoid prying into the news. To put it another way, if someone really leaked the information to them, it was most likely the Haihan people's method. When the fake information is fake, the real information is also fake. They have no way to distinguish the authenticity of the information in this closed environment. Even if they can buy it, The credibility of the news will be questionable.
Why did the Haihan people specially make such an arrangement? Shang Kexi believes that it is not out of good intentions. But it seems unreasonable to deliberately get the officials of the mission drunk. If you really want to do that, you don't have to limit the supply, and you have to ask them to spend extra money to buy it. After thinking about it for a while, Shang Kexi could only think that the Haihan people were preparing for future trade. After all, these wines are really good things. If they can be trafficked into the Qing Dynasty, they will have a good market even if the price is high. There will definitely be a large number of people. Many princes and nobles are willing to spend money to buy these fine wines. And they, the mission officials, are probably the best candidates to do voluntary publicity for these fine wines.
(End of chapter)