1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1972
There are two main reasons why Haihan has been able to hold down its contemporary Western competitors in the South China Sea over the years.First, relying on the various black technologies brought by crossing, it has obvious technological advantages in key fields such as military affairs, navigation, and manufacturing; second, because Haihan chose Hainan Island as its base, backed by the mainland, the population and The supply of various resources can be better guaranteed. Compared with the western colonists who are hundreds of thousands of miles away from the mainland and can only choose to establish strongholds on islands in the South China Sea, Haihan has occupied a larger geographical area since its inception. Advantage.

In recent years, Haihan has continuously used war means to consolidate its influence in the South China Sea region, and the Netherlands, Portugal and other countries have also chosen to compromise or simply join Haihan's camp in exchange for their own influence in the South China Sea region. stable position.But such a situation does not mean that the Western colleagues are willing to bow down to Haihan. If they have the opportunity to secretly cause some troubles for Haihan, then they probably will not show mercy.So Zhang Xin's reminder is not unreasonable. Considering the identity of the opponent lurking in the dark, one must not forget the competitors in the region.

But Bai Kesi quickly raised a new question: "Assuming that there are forces in the south, or even the South China Sea region, who are also involved, then the question arises, how did they get in touch with the Qing Dynasty so far away?"

Zhang Xin couldn't think of a reasonable explanation for a while. The Qing Dynasty itself had extremely limited navigation capabilities. There is no doubt about it. State navy rebels, and these people have lived in the north for a long time, and they don't know much about the maritime environment in the south. It's hard to imagine that they can sail south by themselves and get in touch with the anti-Haihan forces in the south.

Of course, the forces in the south went north by sea and got in touch with the Qing Dynasty in Liaodong. This is theoretically possible.Although the Haihan Navy will clean up the Liaodong coast from time to time, it is impossible to completely ban ships from entering and leaving the Liaodong coastal area. This is just a means to restrict the development of the Qing Dynasty to the sea.If you wanted to avoid the patrols of the Haihan Fleet and enter the territory of the Qing Dynasty from the mouth of the river, you could actually do it.

But the problem is that doing so will inevitably require taking huge risks, and the resources required must be a lot, and there may not be returns. Who is willing to do such an attempt at any cost?

"Liaodong is too far away, and we can't coordinate actions, which is unreasonable." Beks thought for a long time, but still shook his head, feeling that the possibility that the two speculated just now was not high.

Beks didn't speak very clearly, but Zhang Xin understood.The communication technology in this era is still very primitive. Only Haihan has the telegraph, an advanced technology that can realize long-distance and fast communication, while other countries do not have this technology, and they have to maintain communication at distances of thousands of miles. , is a very difficult thing to achieve.On land, it may be possible to use flying pigeons to send letters to shorten the time required for communication, but it is also unlikely to set up a special pigeon route from Liaodong to the south of Daming. This distance is too long, and it needs to be divided into several sections. Even if it is Haihan, it is difficult to realize such a plan by setting up a transit point.

If you can't get in touch in time, you can't exchange information effectively, and two or more parties have to coordinate actions within such a large range, which seems to be a dream.

Seeing that Wang Baisuo who was standing next to him seemed hesitant to speak, Zhang Xin took the initiative to ask him, "Wang Baisuo, what do you think?"

Wang Baisuo said: "I think that the two lords have overcomplicated the matter. If we assume that the beneficiary Qing Guo is behind the scenes, and there are people in the south to cooperate, then it is not so difficult to organize such an attack."

"Oh? Then tell me, if you were responsible for carrying out the attack on the son of Joseon, how would you plan the action?" Beks asked with great interest.

Wang Baisuo knew that this was an opportunity to show his ability, so he quickly cleared his throat and said, "Sending people from Liaodong not only cannot adapt to the southern environment in the short term, but also because of physical characteristics, accent, living habits, etc., it will be difficult for them to come to Hainan Island. It is easy to attract the attention of others. If I were in charge, the first thing to do would be to find a partner in the south, ask them to find a reliable mercenary army in the south, and pay others to do it. As for the specific action plan, Even if it is formulated in advance, it is tantamount to asking for a sword, so I will only give the goal, and will not limit the means of the implementer."

Wang Baisuo saw that the two bosses were listening to his explanation carefully, so he continued: "If there are dates or not, let's take a shot first. If I don't achieve the goal, I will lose some money at most, but this should be done. It is the easiest resource to obtain, and if it is at the national level, these expenses are nothing more than a small amount of money."

Bai Kesi listened very carefully. What Wang Baisuo said was not unreasonable. He thought that the Qing Dynasty did not need to personally send people to the south to do it. However, his previous thoughts were indeed too complicated, and he ignored the simplest possibility.If this is the situation Wang Baisuo imagined, then some details seem to make more sense.

Zhang Xin asked: "But I remember the investigation results you mentioned earlier, it seems that the members of this team are not all from the same camp?"

Wang Baisuo said: "This result is not contradictory to what Beizhi said, and there may not be only one or two forces in the south that are hostile to our country. Zhang Qianzhi thinks that this team may be composed of several groups, but there is obviously a lack of detailed information beforehand. The plan is likely to be done in a hurry, and the humble official has the same view on this."

Beks frowned and said, "You mean, if this matter was instigated by the Qing Dynasty, then they probably didn't send people here, but hired a group of people here to try their luck?"

Wang Baisuo added: "It is also possible that the Qing Dynasty provided the news that the son of Joseon went south to visit our country, and then its collaborators in the south believed that this would be an opportunity to weaken our country, so they organized such an attack."

Bai Kesi felt that after listening to Wang Baisuo's explanation, things didn't seem to become easier, but because there was one more possibility, which would extend and develop more branch possibilities, he immediately felt a little headache.After all, he is in charge of industry rather than criminal investigation. Even if he has made some judgments with his logical reasoning ability, the specific information he has is definitely not as good as Wang Baisuo, who has taken over the case for many days, and the conclusion he draws is naturally the latter's. more reliable.

In fact, Wang Baisuo has not listed all the possibilities, because some situations are too sensitive, and I am afraid that it will embarrass the superiors.For example, the news that the son of Joseon went south to visit Haihan must have been spread when he left North Korea at the latest, so that he would be targeted by Xue Zheng and his gang not long after arriving in Sanya.Whether it was the spies of another country who spread the news, or someone from North Korea with ulterior motives—who the biggest beneficiary of Li Min's accident actually remains to be verified.

"Forget it, I'll leave the case to you to investigate, and I won't interfere too much." Beks waved his hand, indicating that there is no need to continue discussing this topic.

Seeing this, Zhang Xin asked Wang Baisuo to retreat first.Wang Baisuo was slightly disappointed to see that the two superiors seemed not interested in this case. He really wanted to use this case to earn a little more credit for himself, but now it seems that unless some serious information is dug out from it, the senior officials will not pay attention to this case. The force will probably be transferred elsewhere soon.

After Wang Baisuo left, Bai Kesi said: "Tiandu has put a lot of work on there, and I will take a boat back to Sanya later. You should pay close attention to the investigation here, no matter who is behind the scenes when you find out in the end, The matter is not over, and the executive committee will definitely express something about this unfriendly behavior, so we must investigate the facts of the case and not be misled to draw wrong conclusions."

Zhang Xin can probably imagine what Bex said by "expressing something". Haihan has never been the one who takes anger and keeps quiet. It is Haihan's consistent style of revenge. Then one must have the awareness to bear Hai Han's revenge.However, the circumstances of the case are not yet clear, and there is no evidence for the judgment of the mastermind behind the scenes. It will probably have to wait for the Ministry of Security and other agencies to investigate slowly for a period of time before reaching a conclusion.And what Bai Kesi was worried about was that the direction of the investigation was wrong, leading to wrong conclusions, and the subsequent retaliation might be imposed on the wrong target, so he specifically told Zhang Xin to pay close attention to the investigation work.

Bex hurriedly left Danzhou by boat that afternoon, which meant that he only stayed for half a day, confirmed that the case that had delayed his trip for many days had been solved, and then rushed back to Sanya to deal with the backlog. business of the day.

And Li Wei, who had been in Heitugang for many days, was also full of energy. After the luncheon, he only rested for about an hour, and then moved forward the itinerary originally scheduled for the next day to visit the famous cultural landscape Dongpo Academy in Danzhou. .

In the fourth year of Song Zhezong Shaosheng, that is, in 1097 AD, Su Dongpo was demoted to Qiongzhou Biejia and spent three years in Danzhou.While Su Dongpo lived in Danzhou, he gave lectures and lectures to students of Han and Li ethnic groups in his residence, spreading the culture of the Central Plains.According to the allusion of "Zaijiu Wenzi" in "Hanshu·Yang Xiong Biography", he named his residence "Zaijiutang". The name has since been used.

However, when Haihan took over Danzhou, Dongpo Academy had actually become a cultural landscape rather than an educational institution in operation. Its daily repairs and maintenance depended on government funding and private donations.After discussing with Yan Mingjun, who is in charge of cultural and educational affairs, Zhang Xin did not change the status quo. He still regarded Dongpo Academy as a cultural attraction open to the public, and its daily maintenance was handed over to the Federation of Literary and Art Circles under the jurisdiction of Yan Mingjun. to take charge.

"At that time, the imperial court imposed three prohibitions on Mr. Dongpo after he was relegated. One was not to eat official food, the other was not to live in an official house, and the third was not to sign letters for official business. Therefore, life in Danzhou was quite difficult. Relying on the relief of the local people. And Mr. Dongpo spared no effort to spread the civilization of the Central Plains to the local people, and Danzhou has the civilized atmosphere it is today."

The one responsible for explaining the origin of Dongpo Academy to Li Lu was naturally Yan Mingjun. He also proposed to visit this place on his own initiative. After all, the current cultural atmosphere in Danzhou is mostly due to the influence of Su Dongpo back then. Danzhou has a special symbolic meaning.

Li Lu is certainly not unfamiliar with Su Dongpo's name, but he didn't know that the great writer of the Song Dynasty had lived in Danzhou for three years, so he asked curiously, "Before Mr. Dongpo came here, what did you do?" Is there no academy in Danzhou?"

Yan Mingjun shook his head and said: "Danzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty was not comparable to Danzhou under the rule of our Haihan Kingdom. At that time, it was mostly a barren land, and Zaijiutang was just a few rooms built by local gentry for Mr. Dongpo next to his house. It’s just a hut. There may be one or two private schools, but the academies are gone. Of course, seven out of ten of the existing academies in the local area were opened after the Haihan Kingdom took charge of Danzhou. Therefore, Danzhou’s literary style is flourishing today. , Mr. Dongpo will naturally take the lead, and my country, Haihan, will carry it forward, and it is an indispensable contribution, which will be done by future generations!"

By praising Su Dongpo, Yan Mingjun boasted a lot about Haihan's achievements in education. This kind of publicity method made Tian Zheng, Hong Jingwen, Gai Liangcai and others who were accompanying him quite admirable. No wonder This master Yan will be retained by the Danzhou government until now after abandoning the dark and turning to the bright. This awareness and quality really have two brushes.

When it comes to propaganda, Yan Mingjun has been in Danzhou for so many years, and he has long understood how the Haihan people use various means and topics to promote propaganda.He has a certain level of cultural accomplishment and has been in the officialdom all year round. As long as he masters the general method, he can use it with ease.

The task Zhang Xin gave him before was to let the son of the Joseon Dynasty fully feel the local cultural atmosphere during his visit to Danzhou, and to clearly realize that the achievements of Danzhou in cultural construction all came from the attention of the government. And well governed.This task is not difficult to say, simple is not easy, the main thing is to pay attention to a method, and this is the field that Yan Mingjun is good at.

Dongpo Academy has a total of three courtyards, with two small courtyards from east to west. The area is actually not too large. However, since this place is famous for its cultural attractions, the various plaques, inscriptions, and paintings inside are all worthy of the name. It is a cultural relic and historical material with considerable historical value, which is naturally very attractive to Li Wei, a lover of Han culture.And Yan Mingjun's explanations are also very detailed. Every place in this academy, he can eloquently tell a lot of relevant origins, and finally lead the topic to Haihan's contribution to the development of local cultural and educational undertakings without any trace.

(End of this chapter)