Chapter 3516
No matter what the real reason is for Haihan to clean up Japan, it at least shows one thing, that is, Haihan's attention has turned elsewhere at this stage. Daming is no longer Haihan's primary target for the time being, and the Ming Dynasty, which is under huge pressure, has Yue Shizong can also breathe a little sigh of relief.
He believed that the imperial court's failure to send important figures to attend the Zhoushan Forum was a major mistake. The large amount of information that could be accessed during the event was actually far better than the blind speculation of those in the capital behind closed doors.
If the imperial court could send a powerful bachelor or relative of the emperor to come over, there would be much more room for maneuver in negotiating with the Haihan Executive Committee, even Wang Chengen, the eunuch who negotiated the truce with Haihan on behalf of the Ming Dynasty last year.
And Yue Shizong himself was just a doctor in the Ministry of Rites, an ordinary fifth-rank official. He could usually act as a loudspeaker to convey messages between the two parties, but when it came time to bargain, his qualifications were not enough.
Moreover, going to Japan to investigate this matter is a once-in-a-lifetime situation. If you miss this time, you won’t know what year or month it will be next.
In fact, Yue Shizong wanted to sign up the first time he heard about this arrangement. However, in order to save Daming's face, he delayed signing up until the last deadline. This made it appear that Daming was at least relatively independent and would not be easily manipulated by Haihan.
Taking advantage of the break between forum activities, Yue Shizong also visited several exhibitions held on Zhoushan Island.
However, compared to those envoys from small countries who were amazed by Haihan's industrial products, Yue Shizong seemed much calmer. He is based in Hangzhou and sees a lot of all kinds of weird and weird things on weekdays. In his opinion, there is not much new in these exhibitions.
Moreover, not everything you see at the exhibition can be bought. Many of the things are not for sale to demonstrate technical strength. The steam engine exhibition, which is only open to political figures from various countries participating in the forum, is one of them.
For example, the steam engine that represents Haihan's advanced technology has long been leaked out, and many countries, including the Ming Dynasty, have been quietly imitating it. However, so far, no imitation from any country has been able to achieve the performance of the Haihan steam engine. Not to mention achieving mass production and large-scale use.
Moreover, the Haihan steam engine has never been sold to other countries, and even its closest vassal states have been unable to purchase it for many years.
The steam power equipment exhibited in Zhoushan this time are all new model series developed in the past two years. They have been widely used in mining, textile, transportation, agricultural product processing and other industries. The production efficiency is enough to make guests visiting the exhibition envious. Drooling.
The most eye-catching thing at the exhibition was a huge steam locomotive.
For some guests who have never seen the Haihan Railway and trains, this large iron lump that is several feet long and weighs more than 100,000 kilograms is really visually impactful.
Qiao Zhiya, who attended the steam engine exhibition on behalf of the Executive Committee, introduced the purpose of this steam locomotive to the guests present - it will be deployed on the Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway under construction and become the main transportation force between Ningbo and Hangzhou in the future.
And its performance even made the guests stunned. It is said that this steam locomotive can run hundreds of miles in an hour without stopping to rest like a carriage. The load weight it can drag is equivalent to thousands of carriages.
After the Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway is completed, it will only take half a day by train to reach Hangzhou, which is 300 miles away, from Zhenhai Port at the mouth of the Yongjiang River in Ningbo.
Zheng Zha, Li Xie and others who were lucky enough to ride the train in Hainan Island spared no effort to prove to other guests that what Qiao Zhiya said was true and that the Haihan train did have such amazing transportation capacity. Of course, there cannot be such a perfect thing in the world, and the shortcomings of trains are also very obvious, that is, an extremely expensive railway system must be built first.
There were indeed many guests present who were interested in this, but after asking about it, they found out that the country simply could not afford the initial construction costs.
Not counting the cost of the project, dozens of kilograms of steel alone are required for every foot of railway extension. The 300-mile-long Hangzhou-Nanjing Railway needs to be built with double tracks, which requires tens of millions of kilograms of steel. Apart from Haihan, which country in the world has enough steel production to use it to build roads?
Haihan not only wants to build the Hangzhou-Nanjing Railway, but also has many railways that are being planned or even ready to start construction.
For example, the planned length of the railway from Shenyang City to Jinzhou in the Northern Region is actually three times that of the Hangzhou-Nanjing Railway, and the construction period is expected to be as long as ten years.
As for railways with a length of less than a hundred miles, there are no fewer than ten plans submitted to the executive committee. Even the North American region on the other side of the ocean is planning to build a freight railway from Jinshan Port to the inland to mine local gold mines.
From this, various countries have a clearer understanding of Haihan's national strength. Many people immediately thought that if such terrifying steel production capacity was used to make weapons and armor, how many troops could be armed? If Haihan, who is already invincible, sends millions more armored troops, who else in the world can stop him?
Those who love Haihan naturally shout that he is awesome, their hearts of admiration cannot be increased, and they are even more determined to follow Haihan; and some people who regard themselves as Haihan's competitors can't help but feel heavy, after all, facing Haihan's strength The opponent has no chance of winning no matter what he does.
As for those who regarded Haihan as their enemies, they were greatly shocked. The disparity in strength was simply despairing.
What's even more fatal is that this gap is still widening, because Haihan's investment in infrastructure projects will slowly be transformed into long-term benefits and become part of Haihan's national strength.
Although Haihan did not plan to sell various steam engines at the exhibition, with the blessing of this advanced equipment, it promoted many industrial cooperation projects to various countries.
Whether it is a cooperative mining or a plantation, there is no doubt that the steam engine can greatly improve production efficiency. This also makes the countries receiving promotion convinced that cooperation with Haihan can ensure that they will get more benefits.
Among the participating countries, the only country that could not get a share of the pie was probably the Ming Dynasty.
Due to the war last year, there is no talk of cooperation between the two sides. Yue Shizong can only watch other countries negotiate projects with Haihan.
Yue Shizong knew very well that once these countries established cooperative business projects with Haihan, they would basically be tied to Haihan's chariot, and they would no longer be able to speak for Daming in the future.
Yue Shizong suddenly felt that the court's thinking was really stubborn. Even the Manchus and Qing Dynasties were trying to find ways to resolve conflicts with Haihan and seek cooperation. So why did the Ming Dynasty go all the way to the dark side and continue to be so hostile to Haihan?
If the imperial court, like other countries, regards Haihan as its co-owner and considers itself a vassal state, would life be easier?
This thought flashed through Yue Shizong's mind, and he suppressed it immediately. This was too rebellious. If anyone knew about it, it would be a trivial matter to lose his official position, and he might be labeled as treason and collaboration with the enemy.