1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1911 Goal Direction
In fact, when Li Xi first arrived in Sanya, he was in a situation similar to that of Li Min now. There were various official visits and unofficial invitations to banquets, and there was a constant flow of entertainment and entertainment every day. The compression was extremely limited, which made Li Xi tired of coping for a long time.But Li Lu's status was even more distinguished, and when he arrived in Sanya, he was received with great ceremonies by the Haihan officials. The officials attached great importance to his arrival, and there were more people of all kinds here who wanted to get close to him by various means.

However, with Li Xi acting as the gatekeeper, he first politely declined many invitations to banquets that were dispensable or not urgent.And Li Luo also trusts Li Xi very much, and entrusts him to arrange these social affairs. After all, Li Luo has just arrived and knows little about the local situation. Safer.

In fact, according to Haihan’s official arrangement, today I was supposed to take the train to Tiandu Industrial Zone to visit, but last night Li Wei got drunk, Li Xi knew that he must not recover so quickly, so he went to call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs early He said hello, and temporarily canceled the visit arrangement, lest the weak-handed Li Mo make any disrespectful behavior in front of the high-ranking officials of Haihan.

But Li Lu's recovery is actually better than Li Xi's expectation. After all, he is young and strong, and he has recovered most of his strength after a night of drinking.However, the official arrangement has been cancelled. If Li Wei wants to go out for some activities, Li Xilai can only arrange it temporarily.

The students who came here together from North Korea started their study life after only a short one-day rest, and Li Mo himself still did not find a suitable direction.When walking with Ning Qi yesterday, he also took the opportunity to seek advice from this senior official in charge of cultural and educational affairs in Haihan, to see if the other party could give him a suitable course recommendation.But Ning Qi's answer was still a bit vague, and it was also to persuade Li Wei to give priority to the direction he was interested in, so that Haihan could try his best to arrange relevant courses.

"Ordinary people who come to our country to study, of course we can learn whatever we teach, but Shizi is different. We hope Shizi can learn what he really wants to learn here. We can teach you what you want to learn."

Ning Qi's answer was actually similar to the answer Li Mo had received from other high-ranking Haihan officials earlier. Everyone was very satisfied and said that they would try their best to meet Li Mo's requirements for studying abroad.But the problem is that Li Lu doesn't know what he should learn, and has been in a state of confusion without a goal.

Before going abroad, Li Ji had reminded Li Min that if he was undecided about the direction of studying abroad, he should discuss with Li Xi more, and he should be able to get useful opinions from him.But Li Xi's judgment now seems to have overestimated Li Xi's ability. Although he has been in Haihan for more than a year, his knowledge is indeed unmatched in the entire North Korean country, but he must give some advice on the direction of studying abroad. It is still not enough to come up with useful suggestions.

Everyone, including Li Xi, suggested that Li Luo give priority to his interests, but the problem is that Li Luo feels that he is interested in too many things and knows too little, so it is difficult to determine a clear direction.And the Haihan people also made it very clear that Li Luo could teach him anything he wanted to learn, but there was no guarantee that he could learn some advanced knowledge. It would definitely not be enough for Li Luo to study abroad in Sanya for one or two years.

"If you can't decide the subjects for studying abroad, you will waste another day..." Li Mo couldn't help sighing when he recalled the conversation with Ning Qi yesterday.So far, the only thing that has not gone smoothly in Haihan this time is probably his study abroad arrangement.He even wanted to give up the current pointless insistence, and just choose a major at random and fool around.

"Or according to Haihan's arrangement, first travel in Haihan country. Anyway, the son came here mainly to increase his knowledge, to see more about the customs of Haihan country, and to understand the gap between our country. Maybe the son will I can find the direction of my efforts." Li Xi's advice is actually very objective. Li Wei's knowledge of Haihan is limited, so it is naturally difficult to pick a suitable target as a learning object. It is better to broaden your horizons first, and then consider choosing a target. .

Li Lue sighed, "To travel to Haihan Kingdom, wouldn't that cost a lot of money? Given the current situation in our country, I'm afraid it's not appropriate to make such an arrangement."

Over the past years, students from various countries studying in Sanya have not always had sufficient funds for study and living, and there are also some overseas students who rely on local work to earn money to subsidize living expenses.However, as a political figure who came to study abroad but lived such a tight life, Li Wei is probably No. 1.

When he left North Korea, Li Ji gave him a sum of money privately as living expenses after arriving in Sanya, but the amount of money was not too large. Given the local prices in Sanya, if the expenses were not too restrained, I'm afraid it won't last a few months.Moreover, as soon as Li Luo arrived in Sanya, he received many invitations to banquets, and these favors will be repaid slowly in the future. There will inevitably be a lot of expenses to establish a personal relationship, and he dare not spend the money on hand at will.

Although Li Yu said that he would try to send him funds in the future, God knows when the follow-up will be, and he is also very clear about the situation in North Korea. The money is planned to be used, and the cost of going out for travel, food, accommodation and transportation will definitely exceed that of staying in Sanya, so Li Lu is naturally hesitant about this.

Li Xidao: "Although the cost of going out is high, there is no way to reduce it. If we apply to the Haihan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most of the Haihan people will take the initiative to bear the expenses. As long as there are not too many people going out, the individual travel will be turned into a group Just travel."

"That's true?" Li Mo couldn't help but feel a little moved when he heard this.If the funding problem can be solved, then he doesn't mind walking around and seeing the real face of this island country in the South China Sea since he has no specific goals at the moment.

In fact, Haihan officials had hinted repeatedly to Li Mo that they could arrange for him to travel in Haihan, but Li Mo didn't take it seriously at the time.And Li Xi himself had traveled in and out of Haihan and tasted the sweetness from it, and the Haihan officials also reminded him, so naturally he highly respected it.

But even if it is feasible and there is no need to consider the cost, Li Lu still has concerns: "How long will it take to travel around this island? How long will it take to go to various areas ruled by Haihan in the South China Sea?"

Li Xidao: "If you only go around Hainan Island, half a month is enough. The relatively well-developed places in Haihan are almost all the seaport areas. It is also easy to take a boat around the island and look at it slowly. It's very convenient. But if you want to go to the South China Sea... The South China Sea is quite large, and some overseas enclaves of Haihan Kingdom are three or four thousand miles away from the mainland. If you go all the way, it will probably take a few months. "

After listening to Li Xi's introduction, Li Wei couldn't help thinking of something, and asked Li Xi: "Did the Haihan people send a set of books, the title of which is "The Rise of the South China Sea"."

Li Xi nodded and said: "The prince sent it to the embassy before he arrived, saying that it was the book he asked to read, but there have been a lot of things these two days, so he hasn't reported the matter to the prince in time."

Even if Li Dang asked Li Xi to quickly fetch this set of books, a servant came in with a big wooden box after a while, and the Ganqing Haihan official even specially sent a more expensive hardcover edition.

Li Luo opened the wooden box, and quickly found what he wanted: "Master You from Hong Kong said that the hardcover version contains the latest map of Haihan, so this is it!"

Li Lu removed all the things on the table, then took out the folded map of Haihan from the wooden box, carefully unfolded it and spread it on the table.

The map is about three feet square when opened, and the mainland of Haihan is marked in conspicuous red on the map, as well as many overseas occupied areas extending north and south along the continental shelf, which clearly shows Haihan's sphere of influence. .As for the many coastal ports that originally belonged to Daming, Haihan also marked them in red as his own ruling area without hesitation.

Li Lu only thought of the map when he heard Li Xi mention Hai Han's rule area in the South China Sea, and this map did not disappoint him, it clearly marked the Star Island and Unbuna Island that Hai Han occupied in the South China Sea , Vung Tau Port, Cam Ranh Port and other places, even Manila, which was captured at the beginning of this year, has been marked as the territory of Haihan.

From the map, Haihan's occupied areas in the South China Sea are indeed quite scattered. For example, there is a straight-line distance of more than 2000 miles between Sanya and Manila Bay.If you want to go around the South China Sea, you will probably spend more time on the boat than on the shore.And this is indeed an unfriendly situation for Li Wei, who has limited time.

"Li Xi, how long did you go to Manila with the Haihan army this year?" Li Wei suddenly remembered that Li Xi had been to many places, so he simply asked a place he had been to, and he could deduce more from the time spent. A wide range of navigation takes time away.

Li Xiying said: "When I went, I took the battleship Weifeng of the Haihan Navy, and I arrived in Manila Bay in about five days. When I returned from the local area, I took a merchant ship at a slower speed, and it took twice as long to return to Sanya. "

Li Mo looked at the areas in the South China Sea ruled by Haihan on the map, and thought that it would be smooth to complete a circle in two or three months.But there are so many places, there should be no need to go to all of them, so he asked Li Xi if there was any place worth visiting.

Li Xi thought for a while before answering: "If you can choose, I think there are three places that are worth visiting. One is the Manila area that was just snatched from the Spaniards this year, and the place has been run by the Spaniards for about three generations. , is already considered a big city in the South China Sea, but it was seized by Haihan, which saved a lot of effort. It is said that quite a few businessmen invested money in the post-war Manila enclosure to set up industries. It may not take much In a few years, the Haihan people will be able to earn back all the expenses of fighting this war."

Li Wei nodded and said, "From what you've said, it sounds like a magpie's nest, but the management ability of the Haihan people should be far higher than that of the Spaniards, and they will see results in a few years."

Li Xi went on to introduce: "The second place is Cam Ranh Bay, which Haihan leased from An Nanguo. It is said that the local harbor conditions are excellent, and Haihan also intends to build the largest one in the South China Sea there. military port."

"Bigger than Victory Harbor?"

"As far as I know, the scale of local port construction should be much larger than that of Shengli Port. But the progress of the port construction in Cam Ranh Bay may only be known by going to the local area."

Li Luo thought for a while before saying, "Go on."

Li Xi continued: "The last place is the Ambuna Island in the South China Sea. This island used to belong to Daming, but was later occupied by the Dutch. There is a lot of construction on the island, and the island has been built into a gold-selling cave in the South China Sea. It is said that as long as you have money on the island, you can enjoy the treatment like heaven, and there are many rare wonders, many countries have many Rich and powerful merchants went to Ambuna Island by boat."

This time Li Luo shook his head again and again and said: "This place is not suitable, spending money to buy a happy place is good, but it is not suitable for me."

It's not that Li Luo is not interested, but he is very aware of his financial conditions. Going to a place like a gold-selling cave will not have much fun except to make himself uncomfortable.Li Xi also realized that his last recommendation was a bit out of date, so he immediately apologized to Li Min.

Li Lu was not angry with him, he shook his head and said, "It's okay, but I don't think these places in the South China Sea are suitable for going right now. I think we should set our target on Hainan Island!"

"Your Majesty is right, then I will contact the Haihan diplomats as soon as possible and ask them to arrange a trip around the island." Li Xi saw that Li Luo had made up his mind, so he stopped mentioning those distant destinations in the South China Sea. Arranging this itinerary is the real problem.

"Thank you." Li Wei flatly praised.He silently reminded himself that the purpose of making such an arrangement was not to visit the mountains and rivers in Haihan Country, but to deepen his understanding of Haihan Country, and at the same time to set a feasible study abroad goal for himself.

Because it was the itinerary of the eldest son Li Luo, Li Xi didn't dare to neglect it, so he went to Shengli Fort himself to discuss the itinerary with relevant officials.

In fact, arranging foreign dignitaries to visit the island is also a relatively common propaganda method for Haihan.Needless to say, the few allies who are close to each other need not say much. Most of the high-level figures who come to Haihan will be arranged to inspect various places. Even Haihan’s old rival, the Dutch East India Company, and its current governor Van Diemen also visited Haihan in 1634. In Han Dynasty, Haihan officials arranged a tour around the island.

The son of Joseon chose this project on his own initiative, so of course there is no problem, as long as the two sides agree on some details of the itinerary.

(End of this chapter)