Chapter 1118 Aid and Conditions

During his service in the navy, Xie Li had dealt with Ming generals in many places in Fuguang, and was no stranger to such diplomatic contacts. After landing to meet Shen Zhixiang, he calmly announced his identity and where he was coming.

The intention of peace talks.

"Haihan? Are you not from my Ming Dynasty?" Shen Zhixiang felt a little confused after hearing the self-introduction of the other party. The name of this country was very unfamiliar to him, and he did not remember that there was such a country with a navy around the Yellow Sea.

The other party spoke with a northern accent and looked Han Chinese. Except for his strange clothing, he didn't look like a foreign visitor at all.

"We are an ally of the Ming Dynasty, but we are less active in the north. If you have been to the Lingnan area, you should know that we have always cooperated happily with the local government, and we are also willing to help the Ming Dynasty solve various difficult problems, such as relieving refugees and defending against foreign enemies."

Xie Li explained calmly: "We heard that the recent situation on Pi Island is not very good, so we came here from Dengzhou, hoping to provide some help to the Ming army and people here."

Shen Zhixiang half understood what he heard, but it sounded like he had good intentions and had no intention of persuading Hou Jin to surrender. However, out of caution, he still asked one more question: "Then you and the gold thief... shouldn't be on the same road.

?”

Xie Li responded: "Your Excellency, you have misunderstood. We are on the same side as the Ming Dynasty. The gold thieves are the enemies of the Ming Dynasty, and naturally they are also the enemies of our Haihan."

Xie Li was actually from the south, and had no personal experience of the disasters caused by Hou Jin outside the customs, nor could he say that he had much hatred. He had been involved in Haihan for several years, and his allegiance had long been switched to the Haihan Executive Committee.

He no longer regarded himself as a Ming Dynasty man, and Ming Dynasty's predicament in the north was not his real concern.

However, the level of information he has access to is relatively high, and he also knows that the Executive Committee has big plans in Northeast Asia. Houjin is one of the targets that Haihan must attack. This is the reason why Haihan will attack Houjin.

The main reason for being an opponent, and the grudge between Ming Dynasty and Hou Jin was just an excuse. Wang Tom decided to visit Phi Island halfway. The main purpose was also to visit the population of the island. If Ming Dynasty here

If the army's attitude was good enough, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to give him some support. Xie Li also understood this well, and his words when facing the Ming army were naturally modified with some purpose.

After hearing this statement, Shen Zhixiang's nervousness eased slightly. Since the other party was not a Houjin man, but an friendly country from the south, he could make contact and see what kind of help they could provide to Pidao.

Immediately, he took Xie Li to see Shen Shikui.

Pi Dao is no better than the Ming Dynasty. It is isolated overseas and it is difficult to receive material and military assistance from the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Pi Dao has always been willing to accept foreign forces that are willing to offer help. Although this "Haihan Kingdom"

I have never even heard of the name before, but just looking at the opponent's fleet parked at sea, if this fleet can build such a large ship, it is at least quite powerful in shipping. If it can pass the sea channel to Pidao San

Supporting some supplies and food from time to time would be pie in the sky.

As for military assistance, Shen Zhixiang has not thought that much yet. Even the nearby North Korea does not dare to give Pidao much explicit military assistance, let alone foreign aid from the south.

Shen Shikui was more cautious. After hearing Shen Zhixiang's introduction, he still did not believe Xie Li's unilateral statement: "Since we are a friendly country, does the special envoy have any evidence?"

Xie Li was quite prepared for this. Before the fleet sailed north to Liaodong this time, Wang Tom specially brought various announcements issued by various state capitals in the south and the Fushan County Government in Dengzhou specifically for Haihan, in order to inform Haihan when necessary.

A third party confirmed the "friendly relationship" between Haihan and Ming Dynasty. Since Shen Shikui took the initiative to ask about it, Xie Li asked Sun Bing to take out these documents and show them to him.

Although Shen Shikui has been an official for many years, he has never seen government notices from so many places at once, and he couldn't help but feel a little dumbfounded at the moment. However, he is still a high-ranking official, and he still has basic self-cultivation, and he quickly recovered from the shock.

, checked these notices one by one.

The contents of the notices are similar. Basically, they inform the public that there are Hai-Han business groups in the local area, and they can trade with them or accept their employment under the supervision of the government. There are signatures and official seals of various local officials below, and their nature is obviously that the government is here.

Endorsement for Haihan. However, the area covered by these government offices is so wide that it is shocking. From Guangdong and Guangxi to Fujian and then to Zhejiang, the official seals of most coastal states appeared in front of Shen Shikui. If it were not for such a place on the sea,

With the fleet right in front of him, Shen Shikui would definitely think that the people in front of him were liars who forged government notices.

Of course, the most eye-catching one is the last notice from Fushan County. Although the content above is similar to other places, it is the only official document issued by the government in Shandong, and it also mentions Haihan assisting the government in Fushan County.

The glorious deed of defeating the bandit-armed Wanjiajun and capturing the bandit leader. Looking at the signature above, it was only about ten days ago.

For Shen Shikui, this not only means higher credibility, but more importantly, it proves that these Haihan people have settled in Shandong. Coupled with their strong shipping capabilities, it is indeed possible to provide some assistance to Pi Island.

It is possible. The Denglai Rebellion caused Shandong to lose most of its military ships. Nowadays, aid from the Ming Dynasty is intermittent, and food is often cut off. It would be really great if there could be a fleet that could provide regular shipping services to Pi Island.

This solved Shen Shikui's urgent need.

"Come here, please serve tea to the special envoy!" Shen Shikui quickly made a balance. No matter who the Haihan people are, as long as they can help him, they deserve to be treated with courtesy. As for whether this special envoy is Han Chinese

Or foreigners who can speak Chinese, those are all trivial issues, there is no need to get to the bottom of it at this time, the actual benefits are the most important.

"I wonder how you found Pidao? And why did you come from the north?" After Xie Li took his seat, Shen Shikui couldn't wait to ask the questions he was concerned about. He now needed to understand the other party's motives for coming here.

What is it? Is it a spontaneous act, or is it entrusted by the Shandong government? By the way, let's verify the other party's origin and see if there is any doubt. After all, it is better to be careful about this kind of strange pie-in-the-sky thing.

After completing the voyage from the Liaodong Peninsula to the northern part of the Yellow Sea, Xie Li had a preliminary understanding of the situation in the Liaodong region. He could roughly guess where Shen Shikui's doubts came from, and he immediately explained to him: "Our team

The fleet came north from Zhejiang. It originally hoped to build a dock and set up a business inn in Dengzhou Prefecture, and to see if it could expand the trade route to Liaodong and North Korea, so it headed northeast along the Liaodong coastline.

We have already been to Lushun, Changshan Islands, and Zhenjiang Fort. When we got here, we heard that Ming Dynasty troops were still stationed on Phi Island, so we came here to visit. If there is anything on the island where we need our help, please

Lord Shen made it clear."

Shen Shikui said: "You must have heard about the rebellion caused by the Kong thieves in Denglai, right? After this chaos, Shandong was unable to take care of the supplies of Dongjiang Town. In addition, the gold thieves continued their offensive and continued to encroach on our jurisdiction of Dongjiang Town. Now the supplies

Food and grass is indeed a big problem. The special envoy has also seen that Pi Island is full of sand and gravel and is not suitable for growing food. This fact is an urgent need at the moment. If you can purchase grain from the Ming Dynasty and organize transportation to Pi Island, you may be able to resolve the current dilemma.

.”

Xie Li thought that if the other party took the initiative to propose this plan, it would save him a lot of saliva, and he would not have to waste time and effort in persuading him. However, Haihan's help to Pi Dao would not be provided free of charge, and Xie Li had to first find out what the other party could do.

What conditions are provided for Haihan?

At that moment, Xie Li asked: "Excuse me, Master Shen, what is the current population of this island?"

Shen Shikui did not lose his vigilance, and he also had reservations in his answer to this question: "There are now more than 46,000 people on the island, and there are at least one or two thousand Han people who flee here from Liaodong via North Korea every month." He only said

Talking about the civilian population but keeping silent about the number of garrison troops is also a deliberate attempt to keep military secrets to avoid inadvertently exposing the country's strength.

Xie Li heard the reservations in Shen Shikui's words and did not point it out at the moment. He just turned the topic back to food: "If we want to supply the food and grass needed by tens of thousands of mouths for a long time, we may not be able to do it!"

Shen Shikui hurriedly advised: "Whatever you have, as long as there is food, fewer people will starve to death on the island."

Xie Lidao: "Master Shen also said just now that the soil on this island is not suitable for growing food. Even if more food is brought from the outside world, it is only an emergency measure and cannot fundamentally solve the food problem on Pi Island. In my opinion,

This approach is not the best option.”

Hearing this tone, Shen Shikui knew that the other party did not say everything, so he immediately answered: "If the special envoy has any clever ideas, you might as well tell them."

"I can't tell you a brilliant idea. There are some simple principles that I would like to invite you to discuss in detail." Seeing that Shen Shikui was also very interested, Xie Li immediately came up with a Haihan-style solution: "It is better to block these refugees and common people than to block them."

If they are kept in captivity on the island and have nothing to do, it is better to transport them to other places for resettlement, so that they can open up wasteland in other places, and part of the food they produce can be fed back to Dongjiang Town. The people are also saved, and the food of Dongjiang Town

Supply can also solve part of the problem, isn’t it the best of both worlds?”

Shen Shikui sighed and said: "I don't know this truth. It's just that the Changshan Islands that can produce food have been lost. It will be difficult to find other places to resettle these refugees for a while. Originally, the refugees from Liaodong could be resettled directly in Shandong.

But with the killings of the Denglai Rebellion, I’m afraid it won’t be possible to heal the rift for several generations to come.”

The regional conflict Shen Shikui refers to is the murderous conflict between Shandong natives and Liaodong immigrants during the Denglai Rebellion. Both sides tried to get rid of each other quickly, and there was no sense of friendship between fellow Ming citizens. Denglai

During the Lai Rebellion, tens of thousands of people died in such regional conflicts. This war completely separated the identity of the people in the two places. Both sides regarded the other as the enemy, and there was no hope for peace in the short term.

Got along.

There are so many refugees on Phi Island who are a burden to Dongjiang Town since Mao Wenlong's period. However, several governors have not been able to completely solve this problem. They can only try their best to transfer the refugees to islands that can produce food. But

In the past year, the war situation in Dongjiang Town has been unfavorable. The territory has been gradually compressed by opponents. Most of the grain-producing island has been lost. The situation has become quite difficult, and it is no longer able to resettle the refugees on the island.

Shen Shikui's hair has turned a lot gray recently in order to solve the problem of food for the people on the island. His sigh is not an act. Almost all the places around the Yellow Sea that can be resettled for refugees are occupied by Hou Jin, and there is no way to relocate the people on the island.

It turns out that if he had not taken the relationship between the two countries into consideration, he would have raised troops to occupy the territory of the neighboring Korean country.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Xie Li said insinuatingly: "Master Shen, if you can nod, we can try to send the people on the island to the south for resettlement. From now on, their output in the south will also be collected in the form of grain tax.

Part of it was sent to Pi Island for consumption by the Ming army."

"South?" Shen Shikui frowned and said, "You mean south of Shandong?"

"That's right." Xie Li nodded and replied: "I, Haihan, own many islands and fertile fields along the coasts of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong and Guangxi. It is absolutely no problem to resettle tens of thousands of people in batches. The population on the islands is small. I believe Master Shen's pressure

It’s not that big. As for the food that these people who have immigrated to other places can produce in the future, we can also advance part of it to Dongjiang Town to meet the island’s urgent needs.”

Shen Shikui did not respond immediately. The solution provided by Xie Li was undoubtedly very tempting to him. Not only could it reasonably and legally get rid of these "burdens" on the island, but it would also produce continuous output in the future.

The return should be a good deal in terms of benefits. Moreover, I just saw so many notices about rehabilitating the people, which seems to show how influential Haihan is in the south. It is credible that the other party has the ability to arrange thousands of people to settle in the south.

The degree is also relatively high.

"You... can you really send people to the south for resettlement?" This is the point that Shen Shikui feels most uneasy about at the moment. In his opinion, Haihan is undoubtedly asking for trouble by doing this, and will bring thousands of people to the rescue.

People were sent to the south for resettlement, and part of their output was sent back to the north to supply Pi Island. This was not a cost-effective deal no matter how you looked at it. These Haihan people were not from the Ming Dynasty. Shen Shikui didn't understand why they would take the initiative to do this.

"sacrifice".

Xie Li had already made a record of this and responded confidently: "This is our first time dealing with the adults. It is normal for the adults to feel uneasy about the way we operate. But this is easy to handle. As the saying goes, hearing is false and seeing is believing.

Now that we have set up a base in Zhifu Bay, Fushan County, Dengzhou, all you need to do is send someone to the area to see if what we say is true or false."
Chapter completed!