Chapter 2740

Haihan has always been happy to see the competitive relationship between North Korea and Japan. Although North Korea is now a vassal state of Haihan, the fundamental reason for its dependence on Haihan is to seek asylum and support. If there is no external power at all,

pressure, it’s hard to say how long this loyalty can last. If the gap in military strength between North Korea and Japan further widens, North Korea’s ambitions will inevitably grow, and it will become more difficult for Haihan to control the situation in East Asia.

Quite a few.

In the early years, Japan invaded North Korea on a large scale and almost destroyed the country. Such a huge hatred has not yet been settled. However, North Korea has risen rapidly in the past ten years. To say that Japan is not afraid of retaliation is definitely deceiving itself. This time the North Korean naval fleet

Following the mission to Edo, it really aroused the deep fear in the shogunate's heart, forcing it to face up to the military threats posed by neighboring countries. Purchasing arms from Kaihan seemed like a desperate move to seek medical treatment, but in fact it revealed

The shogunate has an urgent need to make up for its own shortcomings.

What Haihan has to do is to try to maintain the state of unbreakable fighting between the two countries and allow the arms race to continue to develop. And conduct arms trade with these two countries separately so that there will not be too big a gap in their military strength.

It is the main means to master balance.

The original intention of having An Daoshi lead the North Korean Navy to visit Japan was to stimulate the nerves of the shogunate, but he did not expect to achieve immediate results, and the mission did not prepare an arms sales plan in advance. Fortunately, Shi Chengwu was very interested in arms.

I am no stranger to trade, so I accepted this big deal that appeared out of thin air in a hurry.

In the end, the shogunate decided to send someone to follow the returning Haihan delegation to Zhoushan. For such a large military purchase order, you can't just pay the deposit without seeing the items. You have to inspect the goods first. As for

The shogunate can choose whether to complete the handover in Zhoushan or Edo, but there will definitely be a price difference in freight.

Everyone was very excited when they returned to the embassy. Although many agreements were negotiated during this trip, the arms deal negotiated with the shogunate was completely the result of the mission's own operations without any plan.

Moreover, once the Japanese market is opened, there is likely to be a steady stream of orders in the future. Afterwards, the executive committee will discuss merits and reward everyone, and everyone will definitely receive a commendation order.

Of course, Shi Chengwu took the lead in the entire negotiation process and must have taken the greatest credit. Everyone also expressed congratulations to him.

Shi Chengwu smiled and said: "The purchase list issued by the shogunate has already specified the model of each equipment. This is obviously not a temporary idea, but has been done secretly for a long time. But this is fine, we don't need to spend time anymore.

They introduced each one one by one."

Tao Hongfang said: "I saw many local Japanese businessmen at Dinghai Port in Zhoushan before, and there must be some of them who work for the shogunate. Most of the information about our country's weapons and equipment was obtained from these people."

Shicheng Budao: "The information they can obtain is basically just some public information, which does not affect the overall situation. We will also do some processing on the second-hand equipment we will sell to them, so that they will not easily grasp the true combat performance of these equipments.

."

Zhu Zian said: "Master Shi, I have something unclear. Since North Korea and Japan have unresolved old grudges and are obviously hostile to each other, why not provoke these two countries into a war? Then they will all rush to buy weapons and equipment from Haihan.

?”

Shicheng Budao: "For our country, these two countries will not pose a threat in the foreseeable period, so there is no need to weaken their strength through war. Although war can quickly increase the scale of arms trade, At the same time, it will also affect the role of these two countries as my country's raw material suppliers and commodity sales markets."

Zhu Zian suddenly said: "So if North Korea and Japan go to war on a large scale, it will actually do more harm than good to Haihan, so the best situation is to let them fight without breaking through, which will not affect normal trade, and can continue to sell arms to them

."

Shi Chengwu nodded and said: "That's exactly it."

Shi Chengwu actually had another unspoken reason, which was to keep North Korea and Japan in the current state of competition and opposition, which would be more conducive for Haihan to concentrate on taking over the Ming Dynasty's ruling area.

As long as the two countries continue to be wary of each other, they will rely on Haihan's wings to prevent the other party from using Haihan's military power to attack them. Of course, what Haihan cares about most at this time is to take over Ming's territory as soon as possible and station them there.

Some of the armed forces of North Korea and Japan will also be transferred back to the country. However, this is certainly not good news for Zhu Zian, and Shi Chengwu has no intention of irritating him, so he took the initiative to skip this section.

At this point, the mission's mission in Edo has been basically completed, and after two days of rest, it is time to embark on the return journey. In addition to the food needed on the return journey, the mission also left a large amount of supplies for the Edo embassy, ​​including liquor and cigarettes.

, candies, daily necessities, etc. On the one hand, this is because it is inconvenient for Ma Boran and other foreign personnel to purchase here. On the other hand, it is also to provide samples to the embassy. If there is an opportunity, they can sell them here. If we can open up sales, there will be more in the future.

A way to make money.

After the mission clarified the departure time, the shogunate quickly determined the candidates sent to Haihan to inspect and accept weapons and equipment. The name Masuyama Masatoshi was very unfamiliar to the mission, and even Ma Boran, who had lived in Edo for a long time, was not too familiar with it.

I know the origin of this person, but I know that he is definitely not an important official of the shogunate.

Later, after some inquiries, I found out that this person turned out to be Tokugawa Ietsuna's uncle, who rarely appeared in public. However, Tokugawa Ietsuna's biological mother had passed away three years ago, and she could no longer provide help to her family.

My uncle did not hold an actual official position in the shogunate, but was granted a salary of 10,000 koku as a close relative.

However, not having an official position does not mean that there is no power. It is obvious that Tokugawa Ietsuna has great trust in this uncle, which is why he handed over the important task of overseas inspection to Masuyama Masato. Tokugawa Ietsuna's mother's family was from a commoner family, so this uncle

The only backer is the current shogun, whose loyalty should be unquestionable.

As for Haihan, the shogunate has sent such a strange person to take charge of this matter. It may take a lot of effort to win over this person. But the advantage is that this person is directly connected to the Tokugawa Ietsuna and will not get involved.

Following the interests of various factions in Japan, subsequent negotiations will be simpler.

After Masuyama Masato took office, he immediately took the initiative to visit the embassy. According to his claim, he was born in the ninth year of Yuanhe, that is, in 1623. He was in his early thirties, had a gentle face, and seemed to be an honest man.
Chapter completed!