Chapter 2470
Time enters 1648. In the original history, the Ming Dynasty was at the end of its power at this time, having lost most of its territory and could only barely maintain its rule in a few areas in the south. However, due to the intervention of Haihan in this time and space, the situation between the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty is almost the same. Turned around.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty successfully defended the northern border and regained part of the territory occupied by the Manchu and Qing Dynasties after several hard fights. The Manchu Qing Dynasty could only retreat to the bitter cold land north of Shenyang to survive, which was impossible in a short time. Going south again threatens the rule of Ming Dynasty.
It's just that the price paid by the Ming Dynasty was quite heavy. In order to win this war, almost two-thirds of the coastal areas were lost, and the actual scope of control was greatly reduced. A large number of people and wealth flowed into the Haihan rule. , the balance of strength between the two sides also began to undergo subtle changes.
In the past, Haihan had only relied on Ming for development. Ming's resources, population and market were all necessary conditions for Haihan's development. For its own development, Haihan had to actively maintain diplomatic relations with Ming.
However, as Haihan gradually encroached on Ming's territory over the years and his national power grew rapidly, his attitude towards Ming gradually became less polite than before. In the process of occupying the southern provinces, Haihan did not pay much attention to Ming's reaction. He first occupied the territory by force, and then went back to discuss with Ming the ownership of these areas.
The Ming Dynasty was naturally unwilling to give up a large area of its territory. It had endured the past few years in order to obtain military assistance from Haihan and devote all its troops to the war to quell the civil strife and expel the Tartars. But now that the domestic situation has stabilized and the powerful enemy in the north has been completely defeated, it seems that it is time to clear up the territorial dispute with Haihan.
After the spring of 1648, the Ming Dynasty contacted Haihan through official channels, hoping that Haihan could return the territory "illegally occupied" by the Ming Dynasty after the signing of the Jinzhou Peace Treaty in 1639 as soon as possible.
Haihan is now slowly digesting these new territories, and of course he will not make concessions at the negotiation table and return these areas that he finally obtained to Ming Dynasty. The negotiations between the two parties quickly failed due to different opinions.
In April, the Ming Dynasty sent Hong Chengchou to Ganzhou Prefecture in Jiangxi Province in an attempt to gather the Ming armies from Hunan and Jiangxi, enter Guangdong from Nanxiong Prefecture and Shaozhou Prefecture, and take back the areas occupied by Haihan.
However, the Ming Dynasty took too long to mobilize and assemble the army, and the movement was too great. Before the Ming army was fully assembled, the intelligence had already reached Haihan.
Haihan then did the opposite and mobilized troops to attack Ganzhou from three directions: Nanxiong Prefecture, Huizhou Prefecture, and Chaozhou Prefecture. Xu Xinsu's troops also sent troops from the direction of Tingzhou Prefecture to launch an offensive against Ganzhou from west to east.
Hong Chengchou hurriedly accepted the challenge, barely able to put up any decent resistance, and was pushed all the way to the gate of Ganzhou City by the Haihan army. He had to go out of the city to negotiate with Haihan's army in person, saying that the Ming army's assembly in Ganzhou was just for daily training and was not intended to take action against Haihan.
However, Haihan dispatched thousands of troops for this purpose, and was ready for a full-scale war. It would be difficult to deal with such a scene. Yan Chujie, who was supervising the battle at the front, made a request that the Ming Dynasty should compensate Haihan for the cost of sending troops this time. All expenses will be dealt with at the same time by the warring officials represented by Hong Chengchou in the court. If Ming Dynasty refuses to agree, then the Haihan Army in Liaodong, Shandong, Zhejiang and other places will also take simultaneous actions. At that time, Ming Dynasty will have to bear the consequences. When things came to a close, Chongzhen and his ministers realized that Ming Dynasty was not really ready for a full-scale war. The opponent of Haihan is completely different from the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. To deal with the Manchu Qing, you only need to defend the northern border. There are at least several pass fortresses that can block the opponent's army. However, once Haihan launches an offensive, there will be many enemies along the thousands of miles of coastline. It may become a passage for the invasion of the Haihan army, which is impossible to guard against.
Moreover, there are large plains along the Bohai Sea in the north. Once the Haihan Army lands, the Ming Dynasty will be completely unprotected, and the capital will be directly exposed to the guns of the Haihan Army.
As a result, the ambitious plan quickly failed due to Haihan's proactive attack before it even started to be implemented. However, Chongzhen was concerned about his face and was unwilling to admit defeat publicly. He only asked Hong Chengchou to sign a secret agreement with Haihan on the front line, thereby stopping all hostilities against Haihan and paying Haihan two million taels of silver for his military expenses. As for Haihan's request to deal with the officials from the main war faction, the condition is simple. They just need to temporarily suspend the officials named by Haihan for a period of time, which will not hurt their bones.
For Chongzhen, this seems to be an acceptable result. But if we look at the timeline a little longer, he has broken the Ming Dynasty's tradition of not ceding territory and not paying compensation since the founding of the country. Once this bottom line is broken, it will be difficult for Ming Dynasty's compromising attitude to proactively seek change through diplomatic means.
After that, Haihan did not continue to be in trouble. As long as the Ming Dynasty did not struggle, it would take its time to cut the flesh with a soft knife. The large tracts of land previously annexed also needed time to digest, and there was no rush to completely overthrow the Ming Dynasty.
In July, news came from Fujian that Xu Xinsu suddenly fell seriously ill. Haihan took this very seriously and sent a team of medical experts led by Johnson and Morgan to Fujian to diagnose him. But the results were not optimistic. After consultation, experts believed that Xu Xinsu had a malignant tumor in her chest, which was probably cancerous. In this era, effective treatment would definitely not be possible.
However, Xu Xinsu was already over seventy years old at this time. In terms of the average life expectancy of people in this era, he was considered to have lived a long life. However, after Xu Xinsu's death, the Fujian area controlled by the Xu family will inevitably experience certain turbulence, and there may even be conflicts due to the uneven distribution of family interests. This is not a situation that Haihan is happy to see.
Of course, there is another voice in the Executive Committee, which believes that this rare opportunity can be taken advantage of to bring the Fujian area under the rule of Haihan.
Ever since Xu Xinsu took control of the Fujian region, its ownership has always been quite embarrassing. Although the Ming Dynasty has lost control of Fujian, it is unwilling to grant the throne to Xu Xinsu, making this area completely the private property of the Xu family. . Although the Xu family has always been attached to Haihan, they are unwilling to take the initiative to incorporate the Fujian area into Haihan State. But if the Xu family wanted to establish their own country, neither the Ming Dynasty nor Haihan would allow such a situation to happen.
For this reason, the Executive Committee launched a remote negotiation with Xu Xinsu on the hospital bed via telegram, and the content was about the future ownership of Fujian and the status of the Xu family.
(End of chapter)