Chapter 2653
Why did the capital of another country resemble the city of Haihan? The young officials didn't quite understand what Fu Li meant. But later they took a carriage into the city, and what they saw on the way confirmed Fu Li's assessment.
Whether inside or outside the city, you can often see Haihan-style buildings on both sides of the avenue, or shops with signs in Chinese characters. It can be seen that there are quite a lot of Haihan people living in Seoul. However, because the king's ceremonial guard entered the city at this time, all the streets passed by the motorcade were closed under martial law, and they could only take a rough look in the car.
Fu Li rode in the same car with Shi Chengwu and Wang Anguo and asked them: "Let me test you. In what year did our country and North Korea sign the agreement to establish diplomatic relations?"
Wang Anguo responded confidently: "In the year 1636 of the Haihan calendar, that is, nineteen years ago, my father was one of the people who contributed to this incident."
When the Haihan army launched a spring offensive in Jinzhou, Liaodong, and defeated the Manchu Qing forces, Wang Tom took advantage of the situation and led an armed fleet directly to Seoul, forcing King Li Zhu to sign an alliance with Haihan and establish formal diplomatic relations. When the relevant agreement was signed, North Korea was still theoretically a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. It was from this moment on that the relationship between North Korea and the Ming Dynasty began to undergo subtle changes.
Although Haihan, Ming Dynasty, and North Korea later signed the Three Kingdoms Covenant, its purpose was mainly to jointly deal with the Manchu and Qing forces in the north, and Haihan did not stop trying to control North Korea.
The following year, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties moved south to attack North Korea, and Haihan took the opportunity to send troops to North Korea. After the war, Haihan legitimately stationed troops in North Korea for a long time and achieved indirect control of North Korea through military means. In fact, Ming Dynasty has been kicked out, and the so-called vassal relationship has basically come to an end.
When this period of history took place, Shi Chengwu and Wang Anguo were still young children, but like all the new generations of Haihan born during this period, they had studied relevant history in school. Moreover, their parents were participants in creating this history and had told them many inside stories that outsiders did not know in private, so they had more detailed information.
Fu Li nodded and said: "The agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relations signed between our country and North Korea contains provisions on trade and commerce, so from that time on, merchants and various commercial institutions from Haihan entered North Korea to engage in trade activities, and Seoul was of course A must-visit place. ”
"Over the past ten years, according to the data we have, there have been more than 500 commercial institutions belonging to our country in Seoul and the nearby Gyeonggi-do area alone. There are also nearly 10,000 Chinese nationals who have lived in this area for a long time. Every year The various commodities and materials imported to North Korea through Seoul are worth millions of dollars, which is a scale of trade that cannot be ignored even for our country.”
The two stone kings were secretly surprised when they heard that the number Fu Li mentioned was a lot more than they expected.
Then Fu Li continued to say: "Seoul has no natural harbor. From our perspective, it is not a suitable place for sea trade. However, the North Koreans set up their capital here, and at least half of the country's wealth is gathered here, so A regional trade center will naturally form. All the multinational business groups and shipping companies that you can name basically have offices and operating agencies in Seoul.”
When Shi Chengwu heard this, he was secretly thinking about something else. In terms of geographical environment, Seoul and Hangzhou are similar to a certain extent. They are both located in the lower reaches of the river and close to the coast, and both lack natural ports to fully utilize maritime transport capacity.
However, Haihan has the ability to build a land and sea transshipment center in Ningbo, not far from Hangzhou. There are comprehensive ports with mature conditions such as Zhoushan Dinghai Port that can be utilized. In the future, there will be freight railways to solve the logistics problems in the Hangzhou area. The development prospects are bound to be Far better than the traditional city in front of you. Wang Anguo asked: "Since our country has so many local industries, there must be a lot of local people who rely on these industries to make a living, right?"
Fu Li nodded and said: "There are at least 70,000 to 80,000 locals who are employed and work for these industries. The number of people who directly and indirectly benefit from these industries is much larger than this. Of course, these are just private citizens. From this situation, the groups that really benefit the most are the princes, nobles and important officials who have various powers in their hands.”
There is no need for Fu Li to explain the situation in detail. Of course, the two Stone Kings can also understand its meaning, because they themselves belong to such vested interests.
Those industries with the highest profits and the easiest to be monopolized must be in the hands of powerful people. Whether this situation is in North Korea or elsewhere, there is actually not much difference.
The convoy headed north from the banks of the Han River, passed through the urban area of Seoul, and finally arrived at the royal palace at the southern foot of Bukhan Mountain.
Most of the current royal palace complex was rebuilt after the Imjin Japanese Rebellion in 1592. At that time, the Japanese pirates captured Seoul in only nineteen days, and the main palace complexes such as Gyeongbokgung Palace, Changdeokgung Palace, and Changgyeonggung Palace were all burned down in the war.
However, just a few years after the Imjin Japanese Rebellion, Houjin began to invade North Korea. Under the pressure of the war, the North Korean royal family could not spend much money to rebuild the royal palace. Therefore, Li Jian basically did not enjoy any benefits during his reign. What a blessing, the living environment is not even comparable to the palace on Ganghwa Island.
After Li Zhen ascended the throne, North Korea's economic situation improved year by year due to its trade relationship with Haihan, and it was finally able to free up its hands to slowly rebuild the palace. Over the past ten years, the palace complex in the royal city has been basically restored to its original appearance. And because North Korea was no longer under the control of the Ming Dynasty, it no longer had to abide by the previous rules of monarchs and ministers. Under Li Xie's instructions, the scale of the newly built palace was larger than before, and it did not look as shabby as the Ganghwa Island Palace.
At present, Li Zhi's main palace is located in Gyeongbokgung Palace. There are palace buildings such as Qinzheng Palace, Ideological Palace, Kangning Palace, Jiaotai Palace, and Ciqing Palace. The banquet prepared by Li Zhi for the Haihan envoy was held at the Qinghui Building next to an artificial lake in Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Although Qinghui Building has the word building, it actually only has two floors. This place was specially used for the king to hold banquets to entertain ministers or foreign envoys. It was equivalent to a royal banquet hall.
Because this kind of diplomatic banquet involves relations between the two countries, the ceremony is complicated and lengthy, and with the large number of attendees, it is inconvenient to exchange some sensitive topics. Therefore, it is not a pleasant event for the young officials of the Haihan Mission. occasion.
(End of chapter)