Chapter 2406

How to weigh the pros and cons in complex international relations is a task that tests the vision and wisdom of decision-makers. Although the travelers of Haihan have a seemingly cheating historical perspective, when the country they built is actually in it

Sometimes, you will still face many difficult choices.

The development of Haihan cannot be separated from the resources and markets provided by the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, maintaining the stable rule of the Ming Dynasty at this stage so that it will not be replaced by barbarians or peasant armies outside the customs in the short term is of extremely important significance to Haihan. This

This is also the consensus of the vast majority of travelers. For this reason, Haihan spent a lot of money to open up the northern route, build military strongholds and colonial areas, and deployed the country's most powerful army on the northern border for a long time to directly form a military force with the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Confrontation was used to prolong the life of the Ming Dynasty, which was already crumbling.

In addition to the huge financial investment, such military deployment also invisibly limits Haihan's expansion progress in other directions. Wang Tom's exploration trip this past winter has proved that the environment of continuing to the north is not

It is suitable to establish a Haihan-style colonial trading port, and the difficulty of developing natural resources in the alpine zone will be far greater than that in low latitudes. However, from the sea to the south and west, there are wider and more livable areas for Haihan

What is lacking in exploration now is the investment of military power.

If the international situation in Northeast Asia can ease, then Haihan can transfer the idle elite troops to other directions to perform more valuable tasks. This will obviously be better than letting them guard two or three military strongholds in the north.

Be more meaningful.

But from the standpoint of Ming Dynasty and Yue Yongshou, they would not realize what impact the armistice in Liaodong would have on Haihan. Limited to the information he had, Yue Yongshou could at most think that Haihan would save money after the armistice.

A large amount of military spending, but unable to understand Haihan's review and weighing of international relations at a higher level.

It is of course impossible for Yue Yongshou to convince Qian Tiandun with just one word. All he can do now is just to plead with Qian Tiandun not to agree to the Manchu and Qing Dynasty's proposal, and try his best to delay the negotiation process between the Manchu and Haihan.

, buying more time for Ming Dynasty to come up with some more attractive conditions.

But could the Ming Dynasty really make an offer that Haihan could not refuse? Yue Yongshou was actually not sure about this at all. He knew that the court's attitude towards Haihan was complicated and contradictory. He wanted to use the Haihan army to deal with the Manchus, but was unwilling to let the Qing Dynasty use it.

Haihan continued to take advantage of Ming Dynasty and encroached on Ming Dynasty's land. As for the conditions Haihan wanted, such as trade, immigration, recognition of the ownership of disputed areas, etc., Ming Dynasty had always been very resistant. Even if the current situation was unfavorable, the court might not be willing.

Compromise with Haihan.

Yue Yongshou spent a lot of time and asked round and round for a long time, but Qian Tiandun did not mention a word about what conditions the Manchu and Qing envoys offered for the armistice and peace talks, which made it very difficult for him. If he could master the Manchu and Qing envoys,

If the conditions were cleared, then Ming could at least offer similar conditions to Haihan. In that case, Haihan would definitely stand by Ming in consideration of alliance relations. But now the Haihan people are trying to be mysterious and refuse to reveal their relationship with Ming.

The key information in the Manchu and Qing negotiations was how Yue Yongshou reported it to the court.

But in any case, the Manchu and Qing envoys have now arrived in Jinzhou, and there can be no delay in this matter. Yue Yongshou said goodbye to Qian Tiandun and quickly returned to the embassy to start drafting a memorial. This news must be sent back to the capital as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, if the Manchu and Qing dynasties are left to negotiate with Haihan, the Ming Dynasty may not be able to make the trip even if it offers generous terms.

Of course, no matter whether Yue Yongshou used 800 miles to rush or fly pigeons to send messages, the speed of delivering messages would definitely not be as fast as the telegraph system used by Haihan. This urgent message was sent out on the same day that Qian Tiandun sent it from Jinzhou.

It has been put on the executive committee meeting table.

"This is roughly the situation. I hope everyone can speak freely and share their views on this matter." After Tao Donglai finished reading the content of the long telegram, he handed over the rest of the speech to others present.

people.

Regarding Haihan's development strategy for the next period of time, Tao Donglai could not make a decision after receiving the telegram. He decided to follow normal procedures and notify Haihan's senior officials currently in Sanya to immediately hold a meeting at Fort Victory to discuss countermeasures.

Ning Qi was the first to speak: "We decided to send troops to Liaodong back then. After considering the historical development process, we decided to use military intervention to make the situation develop in a direction that is beneficial to our country. If we want to have a truce with the Manchus, then I think

First of all, we must examine whether we have achieved our original goals. By the way, I would also like to remind everyone here that we had three goals at that time. The first was to establish a ruling area in Liaodong as a strategic fulcrum in the Yellow and Bohai Sea regions of Northeast Asia; the second was to control Manchuria.

The Qing carried out military strikes so that it could not divide its troops to invade the Ming Dynasty; the third was to obtain more benefits from the Ming Dynasty and North Korea on the condition of containing the Manchu Qing Dynasty."

"If we look at the current situation, we have basically achieved the goals we set at that time. We have controlled Jinzhou, restrained tens of thousands of Qing troops on the Liaodong Peninsula for a long time, and established alliances with Ming Dynasty and North Korea. Although

Some details were not handled satisfactorily, but the whole process was relatively smooth."

Everyone listened to Ning Qi's analysis and nodded slightly in agreement. It was probably these people who formulated the Liaodong strategy at Fort Victory, so when Ning Qi mentioned the resolution at that time, everyone still had a clear impression.

Yan Chujie said: "Although the goals set at the beginning have indeed been achieved, if we want to have a truce with the Manchus, the local situation may be repeated. The Manchus are not good men and women, and their purpose of trying to truce with our country is conceivable.

And Zhi means to free up your hands and feet to deal with Ming Dynasty!"

Ning Qi said: "We certainly cannot sit back and watch the Ming Dynasty be invaded by the Manchus, but the actual situation is that our containment effect in Liaodong is gradually weakening as the Manchus grow stronger. In the past few months, the Manchus mobilized 100,000

The troops went south to invade the Ming Dynasty, but Liaodong still maintained sufficient troops to confront the Chinese army, which shows that we need to use some new means to contain the Manchu Qing Dynasty."

Yan Chujie said: "If the Executive Committee can approve more military budgets, then of course we can send more troops to Liaodong, or increase the frequency of military operations in Liaodong, so that the Manchu and Qing Dynasties will also have to invest in the Liaodong Peninsula.

More resources to maintain the military balance. But I need to remind everyone that our country’s overseas military deployment is currently in a relatively obvious state of emphasis on the north and light on the south. Unless we can recruit and train organized troops on the spot in the north,

Otherwise, the imbalance between the north and the south in the size of the garrison will further intensify."

"Before investing more military spending in the north, I would also like to remind everyone to consider the input-output ratio." Schneider continued Yan Chujie's words: "As we all know, our country's investment in the north over the years has been beyond its means, especially in Jinzhou.

In order to maintain local operations and maintain the stability of the Golden State Isthmus defense line, we spend millions on various expenses there every year, and so far there is no sign that the income-expenditure gap has evened out."

"Of course, I also know that the strategic significance of Jinzhou to our country cannot be simply measured by the local revenue and expenditure, but you need to know one thing. The Jinzhou area is currently the only area in our country that is in a state of war all year round. Therefore, the local

The level of military expenditure is also much higher than that of other overseas ruling regions. If we can only maintain its containment effect on the Manchu Qing by increasing the size of the garrison, then I am personally worried that Jinzhou will become a bottomless pit that cannot be filled!

"

Yan Chujie glanced at Schneider and responded calmly: "There is no need to complain so quickly, right? Besides, if the Haihan Army had not formed an effective containment in Jinzhou in recent years, Ming Dynasty's decline would have been exposed.

Faster and more thorough!”

"I also think that increasing troops in the east of Liaodong will not help solve the current problem. We should change our thinking, increase revenue and reduce expenditure, and consider ways to check and balance the Manchu and Qing Dynasties from other directions." Bai Kesi suggested: "Why don't we increase the export of arms to the Ming Dynasty?

Let the Ming Dynasty arm more firearms troops so that they can cope with the military pressure exerted by the Manchu Qing on their own."

Gu Kai, who was sitting next to him, immediately shook his head and objected: "I'm afraid this is not appropriate. This time the Qing army fought all the way to Shandong, it has exposed many problems in the Ming army's combat system. There are only so many troops that can really fight.

There are only a few arms, and the person in charge has little influence in the Ming Dynasty. If we sell arms directly to the Ming Dynasty, they may not reach the hands of these people who are determined to kill the enemy."

"We can try to trade directly with these people. Who are more reliable? I think Ning Qi can compile a detailed list based on historical data. As long as we establish a relationship with these high-ranking officials who lead troops, we can slowly move towards the Ming Dynasty.

The main war faction exerts influence." Bai Kesi was prepared for this and immediately responded to Gu Kai's question.

"But selling large quantities of weapons to the Ming army may also become a hidden danger that threatens our country's interests in the future." Gu Kai still does not agree with the idea of ​​arming the Ming army to check and balance the Qing Dynasty.

"I'm afraid it is imperative to sell weapons and equipment to Ming Dynasty." Tao Donglai interjected: "Please let Minister He tell you the latest news."

He Xi, who was sitting in the back row, said: "According to the intelligence collected by the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau in the fighting areas in Shandong, the Qing troops attacking Jinan Prefecture this time have already included organic musketeers and artillery units.

Its combat effectiveness seems to be still higher than that of the Ming army. We have reason to believe that the ordnance manufacturing technology mastered by the Spanish has flowed into Liaodong through the Hirado Domain of Japan, and achieved a certain scale of mass production in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. But regarding the firearms unit

At present, we do not have more detailed information about the establishment scale and the production capacity of related weapons and equipment, and further investigation is needed."

After listening to He Xi's words, Gu Kai understood what Tao Donglai just said: "This means that if we don't provide weapons and equipment to the Ming Dynasty, the gap in combat effectiveness of the Ming army will also widen?"

Tao Donglai nodded slightly and said: "That's exactly it. If we don't intervene at all, maybe in two or three years, the Ming army will be completely unable to defeat the Qing army on the frontal battlefield."

In fact, at this time, it was only about five years before the Qing army entered the pass and captured the capital to replace the Ming Dynasty. However, the butterfly effect caused by the appearance of Haihan in this time and space allowed the Manchu and Qing Dynasties to master the manufacturing technology of advanced weapons.

Perhaps the Manchu Qing Dynasty will be launched earlier than in history.

"Off topic, let's discuss the issues that need to be dealt with in Jinzhou first." Ning Qi tried hard to bring the topic back to its original track: "Should we accept the Manchu Qing's request for peace talks?"

Tao Donglai said: "Actually, this is also related to what we just discussed, and the two are not contradictory. If we accept the armistice plan proposed by the Manchu Qing, it means that we may have to give up the containment of Liaodong and the Ming Dynasty.

direct military intervention. In order for the Ming Dynasty to protect itself in this situation, perhaps it can only be achieved by upgrading the armed forces of the Ming army."

Ning Qi asked: "Then can we ask the Manchu Qing Dynasty to enter an armistice state with our country while also entering a state of armistice with the Ming Dynasty? If necessary, we can also involve North Korea as part of the armistice conditions."

Tao Donglai frowned slightly and said: "You can try, but the hope is slim. The Manchu Qing Dynasty must have seen through this invasion of Shandong that we and the Ming Dynasty are seemingly inseparable, and thought there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, so they proposed to us again.

demand for an armistice and peace talks.”

In the year before the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Huang Taiji personally led an army of 100,000, preparing to cross the Yalu River to conquer North Korea. However, before crossing the river, Haihan began to send armed warships on the Yalu River to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river, and then directly sent troops to intervene.

During the war, they blocked the main force of the Qing army on the banks of the Datong River, and later drove the Qing army all the way to the north bank of the Yalu River before retreating. In this invasion of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing army broke into Shandong and even crossed the Yellow River to capture Jinan Prefecture.

I saw the shadow of the Haihan Army.

Comparing the performance of the Haihan army on the Korean battlefield the year before last, there are only two possibilities. One is that the Ming Dynasty refused to let Haihan send troops to help out of suspicion, and would rather be beaten to pieces than let Haihan intervene; the other is that although the Ming Dynasty

Asked Haihan for help, but due to failure to negotiate certain conditions, Haihan finally chose to stand aside.

But no matter which case it is, there is no doubt that there is a huge gap between the two countries, and the military alliance declared on the surface has not been fulfilled. Since the war ended like this, even Haihan did not intervene, then who stood on the side of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties

From a standpoint, it is natural to try to see if Haihan can stop his actions in Liaodong, so as to relieve his worries about his future attacks on Ming Dynasty.

If Haihan wants to bring Ming or North Korea into the armistice negotiations and make the Manchu and Qing Dynasties promise to enter a state of armistice with these two countries at the same time, this is tantamount to making the Manchu and Qing Dynasties tie their own hands. If such conditions can be negotiated,

Then the only one who suffered a loss among the negotiating parties was probably Manqing.
Chapter completed!