Chapter 2740
Haihan has always been happy to see the competitive relationship between North Korea and Japan. Although North Korea is now a vassal state of Haihan, the fundamental reason for its dependence on Haihan is to seek asylum and support. If there is no external pressure at all, it is hard to say how long this loyalty can last. If the gap in military strength between North Korea and Japan further widens, North Korea's ambitions will inevitably grow accordingly, and it will become much more difficult for Haihan to control the situation in East Asia.
In the early years, Japan invaded North Korea on a large scale and almost destroyed the country. Such a huge hatred has not yet been settled. However, North Korea has risen rapidly in the past ten years. To say that Japan is not afraid of retaliation is definitely deceiving itself. This time the North Korean naval fleet followed the mission to Edo, which indeed completely aroused the fear deep in the shogunate's heart, forcing it to face up to the military threats posed by neighboring countries. Purchasing arms from Haihan seemed like a desperate decision to seek medical treatment, but it actually revealed the shogunate's urgent need to make up for its own shortcomings.
What Haihan has to do is to try his best to maintain the state of fighting between the two countries without breaking up, and let the arms race continue to develop. Carrying out arms trade with these two countries respectively, so that there will not be a big gap in their military strength, is the main means to maintain balance.
The original intention of having Andoshi lead the North Korean navy to visit Japan was to stimulate the shogunate's nerves, but he did not expect to achieve immediate results, and the mission did not prepare an arms sales plan in advance. Fortunately, Shi Chengwu was no stranger to the arms trade, so he hurriedly accepted this big deal that appeared out of thin air.
In the end, the shogunate decided to send someone to follow the returning Haihan delegation to Zhoushan. For such a large military purchase order, you can't just pay the deposit without seeing the items. You have to inspect the goods first. As for whether the handover will be completed in Zhoushan or Edo, the shogunate can choose by itself, but there will definitely be a price difference in freight.
Back at the embassy, everyone was very excited. Although many agreements were negotiated during this trip, the arms deal negotiated with the shogunate was entirely the result of the mission's own operations without any plan. Moreover, once the Japanese market is opened, the follow-up will be very difficult. There may also be a steady stream of orders. Afterwards, the executive committee will discuss merit and reward everyone, and everyone will definitely receive a commendation order.
Of course, Shi Chengwu took the lead in the entire negotiation process and must have taken the greatest credit. Everyone also expressed congratulations to him.
Shi Chengwu smiled and said: "The purchase list issued by the shogunate has already specified the model of each equipment. This is obviously not a temporary idea, but has been done secretly for a long time. But this is fine, we don't need to spend time anymore. They introduced each one one by one.”
Tao Hongfang said: "I saw a lot of Japanese businessmen in Zhoushan Dinghai Port earlier, and there must be some of them who work for the shogunate. Most of the information about our country's weapons and equipment was obtained from these people."
Shi Chengwudao: "The information they can obtain is basically just some public information, which does not affect the overall situation. We will also do some processing on the second-hand equipment we will sell to them, so that they will not easily grasp the true combat performance of these equipments. .”
Zhu Zian said: "Master Shi, I have something unclear. Since North Korea and Japan have unresolved old grudges and are obviously hostile to each other, why not provoke these two countries into a war? Then they will all rush to buy weapons and equipment from Haihan. ”
Shi Chengwudao: "For our country, these two countries will not pose a threat in the foreseeable period, so there is no need to use war to weaken their strength. Although war can quickly increase the scale of arms trade, At the same time, it will also affect the role of these two countries as my country's raw material suppliers and commodity sales markets." Zhu Zian suddenly said: "So if North Korea and Japan go to war on a large scale, it will actually do more harm than good to Haihan, so it is best. The situation is to let them fight without breaking through, without affecting normal trade, and at the same time, we can continue to sell arms to them.”
Shi Chengwu nodded and said: "That's right."
Shi Chengwu actually had another unspoken reason, which was to keep North Korea and Japan in the current state of competition and opposition, which would be more conducive for Haihan to concentrate on taking over the Ming Dynasty's ruling area.
As long as the two countries continue to be wary of each other, they will rely on Haihan's wings to prevent the other party from using Haihan's military power to attack them. Of course, what Haihan cares about most at this time is to take over the Ming Dynasty's territory as soon as possible. Some of the armed forces stationed in North Korea and Japan will also be transferred back to the country. However, this matter was certainly not good news to be happy about for Zhu Zian. Shi Chengwu had no intention of irritating him, so he took the initiative to skip this section.
At this point, the mission's mission in Edo has been basically completed, and after two days of rest, it will embark on its return journey. In addition to the food needed on the way back, the mission also left a large amount of supplies to the Edo embassy, including liquor, cigarettes, candies, daily necessities, etc. On the one hand, this is because it is inconvenient for Ma Boran and other foreign personnel to purchase here. On the other hand, it is to provide samples to the embassy so that they can sell them here if they have the opportunity. If sales can be opened, there will be many ways to make money in the future.
After the mission clarified the departure time, the shogunate quickly determined the candidates sent to Haihan to inspect and accept the weapons and equipment. The name Masuyama Masatoshi was very unfamiliar to the mission. Even Ma Boran, who had lived in Edo for a long time, was not very clear about this person's origins. He only knew that this person was definitely not an important minister of the shogunate.
Later, after some inquiring, I found out that this person was Tokugawa Ietsuna's uncle, and he rarely appeared in public. However, Tokugawa Ietsuna's biological mother passed away three years ago and could no longer provide help to her family. His uncle did not hold an actual official position in the shogunate, but was only granted a salary of 10,000 koku as a close relative.
However, not having an official position does not mean that there is no power. It is obvious that Tokugawa Ietsuna has great trust in this uncle, which is why he handed over the important task of studying abroad to Masato Masuyama. Tsunao's mother's family was from a commoner family, so this uncle's only supporter was the current shogun, and there should be no doubt about his loyalty.
As for Haihan, the shogunate sent such a strange person to take charge of this matter, and I am afraid it will take a lot of effort to win over this person. However, the advantage is that this person will directly contact Tokugawa Ietsuna and will not interfere with the interests of various factions in Japan. Subsequent negotiations will be simpler.
After Masato Masuyama took office, he immediately took the initiative to visit the embassy. According to his claim, he was born in the ninth year of Yuanhe, that is, 1623. He was in his early thirties, had a gentle face, and seemed to be an honest man.
(End of chapter)