Chapter 2459
For Haihan, the entire East Asia region should be brought under his control in the future, and the main sea lanes entering East Asia have naturally become key areas that Haihan must control. Such as the Sunda Strait and the Strait of Malacca at the north and south ends of Sumatra, the Lombok Strait at the east end of Java, the Makassar Strait between Kalimantan and Sulawesi, etc. In the long run, the importance of these key waterways In fact, it is no less than the Fujian Strait.
In the past, these key waterways were controlled by the Western colonial armed forces who struck first, but as Haihan's strength grew, it was natural that he would try to regain control of these areas bit by bit.
Haihan's proactive attack naturally caused uneasiness among the Dutch and Portuguese. Although they were nominally allies of Haihan, they were deeply separated from each other, and they were not sure whether Haihan would succeed after gradually taking control of these places. They will take action to expel themselves. After all, excluding competitors in the region is the most common method used by Western counterparts. What's more, Haihan's current actions have shown that their scope of activities will not stop at these straits, and will definitely continue to expand westward.
However, Haihan was not as eager as they thought. After gradually gaining control over these important waterways, Haihan once again turned his attention back to the northern continent.
At this time, the southern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty had been encroached a lot by the Haihan, and Fujian had also fallen into a de facto state of division. In addition, the coastal areas of Shandong and Zhejiang were completely controlled by the Haihan. The territory of the Ming Dynasty was being forced to move towards The state of inland contraction.
The Ming Dynasty had no time to take into account the deterioration of the situation in the south, because the military pressure on the north had directly threatened the security of the capital. The wars with the Manchu and Qing Dynasties became more and more frequent, and the resulting consumption of personnel and materials was also very huge. Although the fighting situation in the past year or so was no longer as passive as before, the Ming army could even sometimes occupy There are some advantages, but this kind of war of attrition inevitably quickly drains away the little money in the treasury.
At this time, Haihan gave a solution to the problem: Haihan provided war loans to Ming Dynasty, but these loans could only be used for various arms and equipment produced by Haihan. The collateral used to obtain these loans were the state capitals along the Ming Dynasty that were currently occupied by Haihan.
Haihan's purpose has been made very clear, which is to find a reasonable and official way to officially take over these places.
To raise enough military expenditures, one has to either use Haihan's loan proposal to solve urgent needs, or one can only make efforts internally and levy more taxes from the private sector. But no matter which plan is used, it is an extremely difficult choice for Daming.
This triggered an extremely fierce dispute in the court. Both the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household hoped to get assistance from Haihan, otherwise the frontline troops would be unable to maintain their due combat effectiveness. If they become enemies, it will only make the current situation more difficult. There may even be a situation where the north and the south are attacking from both sides.
Some officials, represented by Yan Guan, insisted that the court should not compromise with Haihan and believed that troops should be sent to quell the chaos in Fuguang and other places in the south and recover the territory that belonged to the Ming Dynasty. Of course, these officials don't know and don't care how many troops Ming will send, how much money and supplies will be spent, and how many people will leave their homes and die on the battlefield during this process.
However, the change in the situation did not give the Ming Dynasty time to deal with it calmly. Soon the Manchu and Qing Dynasties organized another large-scale offensive with one hundred thousand troops to push the front westward to Shanhaiguan.
Forced by desperation, Chongzhen could only forcibly suppress the opposition in the court and let Yang Sichang come forward to negotiate with Haihan to raise military expenditures and combat supplies needed to resist the Manchu Qing. In the autumn of 1644, Yang Sichang secretly met with Shi Diwen in Ningbo and reached a new cooperation agreement on behalf of the two countries. Haihan will provide Ming with a war loan totaling 10 million taels of silver, 80% of which will be delivered to Ming in the form of weapons, equipment and various supplies, and the rest will be provided by Haihan Bank in silver checks that can be deposited and redeemed.
As loan collateral, Daming will recognize Haihan's interests in Lianzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture, Gaozhou Prefecture, Zhaoqing Prefecture, Zhejiang Ningbo Prefecture, Shandong Dengzhou Prefecture and other places in Guangdong, and Haihan will also continue to retain in these areas. the existing local government system. Although the wording was cryptic, the reality was that the Ming Dynasty had given up its control over these places, and Haihan cooperated to save some face for the Ming Dynasty and did not immediately clear out these local officials.
On the surface, it seems that Haihan exchanged 10 million taels of silver for these places, but in fact Haihan's contribution was far less than that. Haihan's gross profit from eight million taels of arms and supplies was almost half. This agreement avoided the outbreak of a large-scale armed conflict with the Ming Dynasty, and the military expenditures saved by this agreement were also considerable.
After acquiring such a large area, Haihan's income from operations will far exceed the taxes during the Ming Dynasty, and he will be able to get his capital back within one or two years at the earliest.
As for the Fujian area currently controlled by Xu Xinsu, it is not within the scope of this agreement. As long as Xu Xinsu does not establish an independent government, Haihan will not interfere too much in Fujian affairs. How Ming Dynasty will deal with the situation in Fujian is not a headache for the Haihan Executive Committee.
After receiving the help from Haihan, Ming's combat effectiveness on the northern front has also been significantly improved. In a battle in November 1644, the Ming Dynasty used 200 artillery pieces secretly transported to the front line of Shanhaiguan to deploy a powerful pocket position, which defeated the main force of the Qing army trying to attack Shanhaiguan and annihilated more than 4,000 Qing troops. They killed and injured many Qing generals and achieved a rare victory since the beginning of the Anti-Qing War.
Huang Taiji suffered this big loss, and of course he immediately linked the decline of the Qing army on the battlefield to Haihan. However, Haihan did not directly send troops, nor did it violate the agreement between the two countries, leaving Huang Taiji unable to express his pain.
So this period presented a strange situation. Haihan purchased a large amount of Central Plains products in Shandong, part of which would be transported across the sea to Jinzhou, and bartered with the Manchus. Some of the specialties from outside the customs returned from Jinzhou would flow into Ming Dynasty through Shandong, Zhejiang and other places.
The Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty were fighting to the death near the coast of Liaodong Bay. At the same time, Haihan, as a middleman, was making money on both sides and even had the energy to communicate on some special matters between the two sides. For example, if an important figure was captured by the other party during the war, it would obviously be difficult to get him back on the battlefield. However, through Haihan's communication, whether it was prisoner exchange or ransom payment, there would finally be room for operation.
(End of chapter)