Chapter 1450 It’s all under control

Haihan spent a lot of effort to support Dongjiang Town. On the one hand, it was because the Pidao Army was familiar enough with Liaodong and could play the role of leading the party during Haihan's march into Liaodong. On the other hand, it was to use their identity as Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers to cover up the invasion.

Liaodong launched an operation and at the same time tried to open up channels of communication with the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Haihan Executive Committee is dominated by civilian officials, in the plan for dealing with the Ming Dynasty, they unanimously abandoned the civil servants who only know how to save the country with words, and preferred to give priority to contact with the Ming Ministry of War. In any case, Dongjiang

With the support of Haihan, Zhen achieved solid results in Liaodong and regained the lost ground that had been lost for several years. This achievement was enough to give the Ming military the capital to make a voice in the court.

Over the past year or so, Haihan's semi-open contacts with Dongjiang Town have become increasingly frequent. It is no longer a big secret, and the Ming Dynasty is not ignorant of it. Anyone with a discerning eye will not find it difficult to learn from the re-emergence of Dongjiang Town.

Some unusual meanings were found in it. Since Haihan was able to support the down-and-out Pidao Army to counterattack Liaodong, he certainly had the ability to help the Ming Dynasty resist the Jin Army that continued to invade south.

Of course, the voice calling on the imperial court to introduce strong reinforcements from Haihan did not appear until the Liaodong War began. In fact, in the past few years, memorials continued to be submitted from Fuguang and other places in the south, saying that overseas Chinese were willing to help the Ming Dynasty train troops, but the conditions

That is, the Ming Dynasty must recognize its national qualifications and various rights in the South China Sea, such as territorial ownership, trade immigration, judicial jurisdiction, etc.

When Haihan occupied Qiongzhou Island, which belonged to the Ming Dynasty, it was actually tantamount to an invasion. However, due to various reasons, the Ming Dynasty did not start a war. But when the Ming Dynasty had no time to look south, Haihan actually used this condition to blackmail the Ming Dynasty into giving up.

It is naturally difficult for the Ming Dynasty to recognize this kind of robberies for the right of recourse to the South China Sea territory. Therefore, although officials at all levels in Fujian and Guangzhou successively submitted many memorials to act as lobbyists for Haihan,

In the end, it failed to establish formal diplomatic relations between the two sides.

However, the imperial court did not offend the local officials in Fuzhou and Guangzhou because of this, because this liquidation measure would not have any impact on Haihan, but would put everyone in the local officialdom in danger, and might even directly collude with Haihan to betray the country.

Rather than taking this risk, it is better to stabilize the situation, deal with the more difficult northern opponents first, and then deal with the less eager southern enemies later.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty's small calculations could not be hidden from Haihan. However, at that time, Haihan believed that his foundation was not stable and he was not in a hurry to achieve great things. He still expanded the actual control area to the north step by step. Over the past few years, the control area has

It also crossed the Fujian Strait from the South China Sea and extended to Zhejiang, Shandong, and even Liaodong at this time. The more bargaining chips in hand, the stronger the confidence in negotiating with the Ming Dynasty, so Haihan has not been eager to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty in the past few years.

The Ming Dynasty reached an official diplomatic agreement. Anyway, the longer this matter is delayed, the closer the final initiative will be to Haihan's side.

Then Shen Zhixiang continued to say: "...Since last year, my uncle has followed your country's wishes and started sending people to establish connections in the capital. Of course, most of the expenses in this process were also funded by your country. The whole process is the same.

After a lot of effort, I finally got a ride with a master from the Mei Shilang family of the Ministry of War, and finally the road was paved. Last year, I sent 50,000 taels of silver to Mei Shilang's family in two installments, and I also got a lot of help.

As for the rare goods produced in your country, Mr. Mei has already relented and promised to speak for us in Dongjiang Town in the capital."

Liu Shang pondered and said: "Fifty thousand taels of silver... can you bribe a third-grade Minister of War?"

Shen Zhixiang coughed dryly and said: "Today is different from the past. The Ministry of War errands are a hot potato. As for the Minister of War, the position has been changed several times in recent years. Very few can last for two years, let alone

Don't talk about going up further, giving fifty thousand taels of silver is already very generous. You can't even stay in the position for a few months before being removed. Who would dare to invest money in it with such a huge risk?"

Liu Shang didn't know much about these special market conditions. After listening to Shen Zhixiang's explanation, he got a little idea. I think the Haihan people started out as traders, so they must be very shrewd in calculating this kind of interest exchange, and these fifty thousand taels should be the same.

A relatively safe number.

Liu Shang then asked: "As for the matter in Liaodong, what are you going to do next?"

Shen Zhixiang was slightly confused when he heard this question, and secretly thought that this plan was originally drawn up by Haihan, so why are you asking me how to operate it now? But then he thought about it, maybe this is Haihan people who want to test whether they will abide by the original agreement.

, deliberately asked Liu Shanglai to confirm again, and responded calmly: "The captures in the Battle of Jinzhou, the severed heads, and the corpses of high-ranking enemy officials will be sent to the capital by sea as soon as possible and reported directly to the Ministry of War." The memorial was given by

We will draft the draft here, and Mr. Mei will submit it directly to the emperor for us, bypassing the cabinet."

Liu Shang said in surprise: "Can this be bypassed?"

"You have to go around it if you can't!" Shen Zhixiang said with a wry smile: "Today's cabinet chief minister Wen Tiren only plays tricks to fight for power. He is very wary of the Ministry of War. If this memorial is handed over to the cabinet, he will most likely suppress it.

Mr. Mei said that he has a way to send the memorial directly to the imperial study, so I can only believe him for now."

Wen Tiren was a Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli. He served successively as Minister of Rites. In the year when Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he was promoted to Minister. In the third year of Chongzhen, he entered the cabinet as Minister of Rites and Bachelor of Dongge University, and later became the chief assistant of the cabinet.

The talent is mediocre, but he has a good way of engaging in political struggles. During the period of assisting the government, the main energy was spent on closing down the party for personal gain and attacking political opponents, but he did nothing in political affairs, and did nothing to deal with the internal and external troubles faced by the Ming Dynasty. But because

He held the administrative power of the chief minister of the cabinet. All reports submitted to Emperor Chongzhen through the cabinet would go through his hands. Those reports that were not beneficial to him, such as court officials impeaching him, would be withheld by him.

, and then punish those who dare to attack him.

Although Wen Tiren had been a powerful minister for several years, due to his limited abilities and jealousy of the virtuous, the people who hung out with him were all mediocre people, and most of them were even less intelligent than him. These people had limited abilities, and in the end

There were very few places that could help him in turn, which led to the fact that when Emperor Chongzhen wanted to deal with him later, he cut his official position and forced him to retire without any trouble.

However, at this time, there is still more than a year before Wen Tiren was dismissed from office in history. At present, he is still the most powerful figure in the cabinet. If Dongjiang Town's memorial was submitted according to formal channels, Wen Tiren would probably withhold it, because if the military

If he gains power, it will have a significant impact on the civil servant faction in the court. He does not want these gangsters to have the opportunity to serve as opinion leaders in the court.

As for whether doing this will make Ming Dynasty face greater military pressure, Wen Tiren doesn't care about this kind of thing. Anyway, no matter how ferocious the Jin army is, no matter how hard the peasant army is, no matter how powerful the Haihan people are, there is nothing we can do for the time being.

Threatening him by putting a knife to his neck. In his opinion, the threat to him from these foreign enemies was not even as great as the political opponents in the court.

Regarding the views on Wen Tiren, Haihan's senior management and Dongjiang Town are surprisingly consistent, so they are more acceptable to Mei Shilang's plan of bypassing the cabinet and directly submitting the memorial to the emperor. Haihan doesn't care too much about the expenses involved.

, as long as the goal can be achieved in the end. Of course, if Mei Shilang failed to accomplish the task after receiving the money, or simply hacked the money paid by Haihan, then Haihan will not suffer such a dumb loss, and there will be liquidation in the future.

when.

As for the possibility of this matter finally coming true, even according to the most optimistic estimate from Mei Shilang, it would be good to have a 50% chance of sending the memorial to the imperial study. After reading the memorial, will Emperor Chongzhen change his previous attitude towards the sea?

Han's attitude is a problem that no one can figure out in advance. Of course, the executive committee believes that there is a certain degree of hope and will spare no effort to promote this plan. But as the saying goes, everything depends on people and God.

This kind of thing that has never happened in history, probably only God knows what the final direction will be.

On the other hand, a figure of Liu Shang's level had never been exposed to big figures such as the Six Ministers, Grand Scholars, and Chief Ministers of the Cabinet before he came out of the Ming Dynasty. He had heard of Wen Tiren's name, but he had basically no knowledge of his conduct and deeds.

Got it. But Shen Zhixiang commented so unscrupulously on the chief minister of the dynasty. It was obvious that he no longer regarded himself as an official of the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Shang somewhat sympathizes with Shen Zhixiang's mentality. When he decided to give up his identity as a spy for the Ming Dynasty and start a new life, his views on the Ming Dynasty were somewhat similar to Shen Zhixiang's. It's just that Liu Shang had a good life and didn't spend much effort.

He entered the Haihan bureaucracy, and then quickly rose to the position by chance. In just a few months, he got into one of the core power organs of Haihan. However, Shen Zhixiang wanted to join Haihan but was never able to get in.

However, he could only continue to serve as Haihan's pawn in Liaodong for the time being. However, he began to regard himself as Haihan's subordinate in front of everyone and behind him, and it seemed that he planned to gradually turn this into an established fact.

But it is a little ironic that although Shen Zhixiang is an outsider, the people he usually deals with are all senior generals in the Haihan Army, and the level of information he has access to is higher than Liu Shang, an "insider", so he is now

Most of the situations introduced to Liu Shang were information that Liu Shang had not known before. If he had not received this errand assigned by Chen Yixin, Liu Shang would never have imagined that Haihan had already paved the way to the capital, and even

Found a direct way to Tianting.

Surprised, Liu Shang also had to sigh that money makes things easier. Only a wealthy owner like Haihan would push forward such a complex project that would cost a lot of money, take a long time, and have a low probability of success regardless of the cost.

plan.

If you take into account Haihan's early investment in Pidao, the tens of thousands of taels of silver he spent on building relationships with the capital through the hands of Dongjiang Town are really nothing. To have such courage, one must be strong.

Only with financial resources as the basis.

Thinking carefully about the causes and consequences of this plan, Liu Shang admired the depth of Haihan's high-level planning. They started preparing for the march to the north at least a few years ago. From the south, they pushed the control area along the Ming coastline to Liaodong step by step.

Regardless of whether the Ming Dynasty surrendered or not, Haihan had actually controlled the Ming Dynasty's maritime territory. Even if the Ming Dynasty wanted to fall out with Haihan, it would be difficult to completely expel Haihan from the Ming Dynasty's offshore waters.

And what was the Ming Dynasty doing during this period? The troops were struggling to cope with the post-Jinnan invasion year after year, as well as the intensifying peasant uprisings in the country, while the civil servants, in addition to political struggles, desperately squeezed those who were not involved in the war.

region in order to obtain enough funds to maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

One side continues to develop and grow silently, while the other side is constantly changing its tricks day and night. Under the ebb and flow of the other, the gap in national power between the two countries is constantly shortening. Liu Shang believes that if it were not for the population and territory

The difference in area is so huge that Haihan might have already had the idea of ​​annexing the Ming Dynasty.

Will Haihan stop here after winning a piece of land in Liaodong? Liu Shang doesn't know the long-term plan of the executive committee, but he believes that Haihan will never stop its expansion here. Let Dongjiang Town build a bridge between Haihan and

Liu Shang believed that the real purpose of this move may be to prepare for further expansion in the future. This kind of expansion will not be the barbaric invasion and plunder of Hou Jin, and Haihan did not bother to do this.

It's something without technical content.

Liu Shang had witnessed many horrific scenes in Fuguang, Zhejiang, and Shandong where local officials were bribed from top to bottom by Haihan. When the personal interests of these officials were tied to Haihan's ship, they had no choice but to do so in the end.

Acting as boat trackers, they provide assistance for Haihan's progress. If Haihan is really recognized by the Ming Dynasty one day, receives formal diplomatic treatment, and can freely enter and exit the territory of the Ming Dynasty, then one can imagine the speed of Haihanization in the coastal areas.

It will also be greatly accelerated, and the inland areas directly affected by Haihan will also be greatly increased than now. Even if the Ming Dynasty can get military assistance from Haihan to complete the war against foreigners and internal peace, it will definitely not be part of this deal.

The one with the greatest benefit.

After a conversation with Shen Zhixiang, the context in Liu Shang's mind gradually became clear. Haihan hoped to open the country to Ming Dynasty through peaceful means, which involved a rather complicated exchange of interests. Regardless of whether Ming Dynasty finally agreed with Haihan's plan

It is suggested that this small country rising from the South China Sea will steadily continue to encroach on the Ming Dynasty from the coastal areas. It is nothing more than a difference in speed. For the Ming Dynasty, it is a dilemma whether to face destruction directly or rely on Haihan to gain a chance to survive; and for the Ming Dynasty, it is a dilemma.

For Han, although there are many variables, everything is under control.
Chapter completed!