Chapter 3492
During their visits to Hangzhou, dignitaries from various countries, in addition to visiting various infrastructure achievements inside and outside the capital, also had other important arrangements with the Haihan Executive Committee and various meetings with various countries.
With Haihan in the middle, it became very simple to organize meetings between dignitaries from various countries, and even the venue for the meeting was prepared by Haihan.
Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, Li Zhen also asked Haihan to meet with dignitaries and diplomats from Portugal, the Netherlands, Champa, Siam and other countries on his behalf.
Li Zhi hopes to take advantage of this opportunity to come to Haihan and find more trading partners for North Korea.
The meeting went smoothly, but the effect was not ideal, and there were still many problems that needed to be solved by Li Zhen.
Although countries in Southeast Asia are also willing to establish trade relations with North Korea, the navigation level of these countries is often not ideal, and most of them are even worse than North Korea. Their ability to build large ocean-going sailing ships is almost zero.
As a country that does not even have an ocean-going fleet, its trade capabilities can be imagined, and the actual benefits it can bring to North Korea are very limited.
Although countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands do not have such a problem, they have not shown much interest in the foreign trade products North Korea can provide.
The goods that North Korea can currently export are still mainly agriculture and animal husbandry, which is not attractive enough to businessmen coming from Europe. After all, traveling so far to load several shipments of agricultural products was not the business they wanted to do when they came all the way to East Asia.
What Europeans really want are high-value commodities such as spices, ivory, gems, tea, silk, and porcelain. However, these commodities are either not produced in North Korea at all, or their quality is far inferior to that of other places of origin. The advantages can be said.
Li Zhen spent a lot of money to get the other party to agree to increase the purchase of silk products produced in North Korea - this is also one of the few commodities in North Korea that is relatively affordable. Although the quality is not as good as that produced in the Jiangnan region of China, fortunately the price is cheap, so you can make do with it after it is sold back to Europe.
But the problem is that North Korea's silk industry is still at the level of traditional handicrafts, and its production capacity is very limited. However, industrialized silk-cutting factories and silk weaving factories have appeared in the silk-producing areas under Haihan's rule. The silk products supplied to the market are at least North Korea's production capacity. A hundred times as much.
The industrial chain formed by the small-scale peasant economy and small handicraft industry certainly has little competitiveness in the face of Haihan's industrialized advanced production capacity. The agreement reached by Li Xie with the Europeans can only play a small role in boosting the country's silk industry. It's just a drop in the bucket.
However, during his contacts with other countries, Li Zhi discovered something else.
Although his brother Li Hao did not come to Hangzhou in person, he quietly sent his senior officials to come and was also in contact with other countries on trade matters.
Compared with the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, which lacks industrial raw materials, the northern area under Li Hao's jurisdiction has coal and various metal mineral deposits. As early as the period when Haihan garrisoned the Datong River, coal and iron composite industries began to be built along the coast, which exposed it to primary industrialization. The time is much earlier than in the south.
The situation in northern North Korea is quite similar to Annan. With the blessing of mining, the various ores and rough-processed products supplied to Haihan every year are enough to make the small court under Li Hao's jurisdiction very comfortable.
The shipyard built by Haihan near the Datong River base in the early years made the shipbuilding industry in the northern region far ahead of the southern region.
As a result, Pyongyang's foreign trade advantage after separation is still higher than that of Seoul. This really makes Li Zhi, who calls himself an orthodox person, a little uncomfortable. Li Zhi had no way of knowing how much business had been negotiated here by the people sent by Li Hao, but at least one thing was certain, that is, this move must have been approved by Haihan, and it was even possible that Haihan was deliberately pushing it behind the scenes. affected the progress of this matter.
During the meeting with senior officials of the Executive Committee, Ri Zhi once again expressed dissatisfaction with the situation of the Korean Peninsula being divided into two, and asked Haihan to stop supporting the Pyongyang authorities and allow the Korean Kingdom to return to a unified situation.
However, Li Zhi's complaint was just a commonplace. He could only make demands, but could not offer any exchange conditions that could convince the executive committee.
The division of North Korea was one of the Executive Committee's long-term strategies against North Korea. The method of dividing the two dynasties was used to ensure that this vassal state could always remain loyal to Haihan. However, Li Zhi was unable to prove to the Executive Committee that a unified Korean kingdom would be more beneficial to Haihan than the current situation.
Compared with this unattainable goal, another matter that Li Zhi had to negotiate with the executive committee was much smoother.
Li Zhen proposed that he hope to send his fourth son, Li Xuan, to study in Hangzhou, and at the same time, allow his eldest son, Li Bai, who was over 18 years old, to return to China and start studying governance.
Perhaps because he had greeted Ning Qi the day he first arrived in Hangzhou, the executive committee did not embarrass him on this matter and readily agreed to Li Xie's request. After Li Zhi's visit is over, he can return to China with Li Bai.
This made Li Zhi breathe a big sigh of relief. When he came, he was still a little worried that Haihan would not let him go, leaving Li Bai here to continue to instill some unreasonable consciousness.
After all, Li Zhen himself had studied abroad in Haihan for a period of time, and he was well aware of the power of Haihan's brainwashing skills. When talking to Li Bai the day before yesterday, he had already shown his unwillingness to return to China, and he was not allowed to stay here any longer. In a few years, I am afraid that I will become a complete Haihan.
While Li Bai has not yet been completely brainwashed, allowing him to return to China for a change of environment and prepare him to inherit the throne is far more important to Li Xie than continuing to study abroad.
The third topic raised by Li Zhi was inspired by his previous meeting with King Zheng Zha of Annan, hoping to increase the scale of labor exports to Haihan.
Li Xie's change of course was beyond the expectations of everyone on the executive committee. Although the two generations of Korean kings, Li Zhu and Li Zhi, were willing to cooperate with Haihan, they had always been cautious about the population loss caused by their people changing nationalities and defecting to Haihan, and were unwilling to promote the export of labor services at the official level.
But this time, Li Zhi suddenly came to his senses and actively requested to strengthen cooperation in the export of labor services. It seemed that he was also affected by some external influences.
Tao Donglai took the initiative and asked: "Li Zhi, when I asked you to organize North Korean people to go abroad to work, you always resisted, with various reasons. Why did you suddenly change your mind?"
Li Yan said seriously: "Xiao Wang suddenly realized a few days ago that our country has contributed too little to Haihan and enjoyed too much, which is really not the case. Organizing more people to work in your country will actually have many benefits for our country. It’s just that Xiao Wang’s knowledge was shallow before, so I hope you will forgive me.”
Tao Donglai wanted to test it, so he continued to ask: "If your people are allowed to go to a place thousands of miles away from Korea, would you be willing?"
Li Zhi responded without hesitation: "I am willing to obey your country's arrangements on all matters."