1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2243
After discussing several topics, they failed to reach a consensus, which also made Thomas a little frustrated. Although he also expected that it would not be easy to persuade Schneider, the differences between the two sides on these issues are so big, it is indeed a bit supernatural. than he expected.

However, Thomas does not think that these differences of opinion will affect the relationship between the two countries. After all, the current cooperation between the two parties is in a state of mutual benefit. If it is not necessary, no one will take the initiative to destroy this state.As long as the common interests outweigh the differences, the cooperative relationship between the two countries will not deteriorate.

In order to restore the atmosphere of this meeting, Thomas decided to talk a few more topics that both sides could reach a consensus before ending the conversation.

"Mr. Schneider, I read the newspaper before I went out today. The competition of foreign military personnel studying abroad in your country seems to be a little different from previous years."

Schneider nodded when he heard the words: "The executive committee and the Ministry of National Defense attach great importance to this year's activities, hoping to demonstrate the effectiveness of my country's military assistance to allies through such a contest, so that more countries can understand the role and necessity of military alliances. sex."

"Then it seems that this year's competition will have a lot more guests than in previous years..." Thomas replied thoughtfully.If Haihan expands the scope of invited guests, it is not known whether the Dutch will also be included in the list of invitations.

As if seeing through Thomas' thoughts, Schneider took the initiative to say: "Yes, this time we plan to invite some guests who have not participated in this event in the past, such as representatives of the East India Company in Sanya... They should be very interested in participating in this event. activity."

"It seems that your country intends to use this opportunity to show its force to the outside world." Although he didn't fully agree with Haihan's approach, Thomas still generally understood why Haihan made such an arrangement.

"It's to show the strength of our allies!" Schneider corrected without haste: "We need to let the outside world realize that every member of this military alliance has a strength that cannot be ignored!"

"I will look forward to seeing the excellent performance of soldiers from all over the world at this event." Thomas replied with a smile.

Portugal has no arrangement to send military personnel to Haihan for training. On the contrary, after establishing a military cooperation relationship with Haihan, Portugal has sent soldiers to Sanya for a long time to assist Haihan in training musketeers and artillery.

Although the military technology mastered by Haihan was far ahead of Portugal, the help of the Portuguese did play a certain role under the conditions of relatively primitive weapons and training levels in the early days.

Of course, this kind of help is not provided for free. Haihan's military manufacturing capabilities can just make up for the shortcomings of the Portuguese who cannot mass-produce standard weapons in East Asia.For the standard weapons that the Portuguese want to order, only Haihan has enough industrial capacity to take orders, and even has spare capacity to produce more quantities, so that the Portuguese can transport them back to China to supply their own military equipment.

Therefore, Portugal has always had a special status among Haihan's allies. Although it is impossible to gain Haihan's complete trust due to various reasons, the cooperation between Portugal and Haihan in certain military projects has reached a level that other allies cannot match. Degree.As for the understanding of Haihan's military strength, the Portuguese is undoubtedly No.1 among Haihan's allies.

Haihan will not deliberately hide activities like the foreign military cadet competition from the Portuguese. Basically, every time such an event is held, the Haihan military will take the initiative to send invitations to the Portuguese to observe.Of course, this year's situation is slightly different, because the scope of invitees will be expanded compared with previous years, so this year's invitation letter will probably no longer be exclusively organized by the military, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also be involved.

The official in charge of this matter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is Tian Zheng from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Since this is a new job for the Department of Foreign Affairs, the list of invitees needs to be discussed with the Ministry of Defense. Tian Zheng had to take the initiative to visit the Ministry of Defense in order to be able to do Good communication work.

Tian Zheng has been working in the Yamen for a long time, but this is his first time working in the Ministry of Defense.In order to avoid extra problems, Tian Zheng also specially found the army captain Gai Liangcai who accompanied the Joseon prince to inspect the island last year, and asked him to inquire about the specific departments and personnel responsible for this matter.

Gai Liangcai's participation in the round-the-island inspection mission last year was inherently gilded. Although there were some twists and turns during the mission, fortunately, he handled it safely and finally successfully escorted Li Yi and his party to complete the inspection itinerary.After the mission ended, Gai Liangcai was soon arranged to go to the military academy for advanced studies. After completing the two-month advanced study, he received a transfer order to become a combat staff officer in the Ministry of National Defense, which can be regarded as a successful promotion.

At that time, Tian Zheng, Gai Liangcai and others who were performing missions together also formed friendships because of this trip, and they often kept in touch later, so when Tian Zheng asked Gai Liangcai for help, he did not hesitate. promised to come down.

When Tian Zheng arrived at the Ministry of Defense according to the agreed time, Gai Liangcai had already waited outside the gate ahead of time, and when he saw him arrive, he greeted him and said, "Lord Tian!"

"Master Gai!" Tian Zheng also bowed in return.In fact, the two of them were not so related, and they were called brothers in private. However, there were many people in the Ministry of National Defense. If the two seemed to be too close, they might cause gossip, so they all made a businesslike gesture.

Gai Liang just exchanged a few words of pleasantries, and brought Tian Zheng into the Ministry of National Defense. On the way, he lowered his voice and said to Tian Zheng: "I have already asked, and the person in charge of this matter is Major Lu Ting from the Political Propaganda Department. He is eloquent and good at communication, brother Tian. Don't worry about any problems."

Tian Zheng quickly thanked in a low voice.In fact, there was nothing particularly difficult about his task. The list of invitees was mainly based on the opinions of the military. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was only responsible for checking for omissions and filling vacancies, and was responsible for contacting non-military invitees.Tian Zheng asked Gai Liangcai for help in inquiring about the news in advance, just for stability. Now that he heard that the other party is a good person to deal with, he immediately felt more at ease.

Lu Ting joined the army much earlier than Gai Liangcai, when the Haihan Army was still in the Haihan militia period, Lu Ting had already been a clerk in the army.Later, because he had a certain cultural foundation, he was transferred to the political work and propaganda department.Although the promotion speed of civilian officials is not as fast as that of military attaches in combat troops, Lu Ting joined the army early after all. Over the years, he has been promoted step by step based on his seniority, and now he has been promoted to a major, one level higher than Gai Liangcai.

Lu Ting's work is more leisurely than most officials of the Ministry of National Defense. He doesn't need to spend too much time studying various training plans, exercise plans and battle cases, as long as he handles the various propaganda tasks arranged by the above.

These propaganda tasks are not limited to the internal military, and publicity to civilians and to the outside world is equally important.In the early years, there were not many civilian military officers in charge of this area, and everyone had to write various propaganda materials by themselves.

But now the army has also recruited a lot of educated young people, Lu Ting even has two scholars who have been admitted to the Ming Dynasty as scholars, so most of the time he doesn't need to write by himself, just arrange the work, Just review the manuscript.The affairs that really need him to handle by himself may only be four or five in a month.

And the invitee to arrange the martial arts competition this time is one of the few four or five tasks.

In fact, Lu Ting was in charge of organizing the invitation list and related invitation letters for this event in previous years, so he was familiar with this matter.However, this year, the higher-ups want to change and increase the intensity of publicity for this event, so they can no longer copy the plans of previous years.Moreover, this year's invitees have to be discussed and drafted with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which means that more work has to be done to complete this task.

But Lu Ting is not in a hurry, as long as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not send a thorny head to coordinate this matter, then everyone can sit down and drink tea while completing this work, and can send the invitation letter to the invited party before the time limit. object in hand.

Just as Lu Ting was thinking about this, the visitors arrived. They were Captain Gai Liangcai, an officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Tian Zheng, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It is not surprising that an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was introduced, but it was a captain's staff who introduced him, which made Lu Ting a little surprised.

Gai Liangcai probably also expected Lu Ting's confusion, so he took the initiative to explain to him where his friendship with Tian Zheng came from.

"After the Danzhou attack was solved last year, the relevant articles published in the newspapers were all written by Major Lu Ting. At that time, it was thanks to the major's article that publicized us. Otherwise, I probably would not have had the opportunity to be transferred to the Ministry of Defense." Now that he mentioned the previous experience, Gai Liangcai did not forget to mention Lu Ting's related deeds to Tian Zheng.

"So that's it! I also read the major's article at that time. As expected of the pen of the Ministry of National Defense, I wrote about the experience of that mission very wonderfully!" Tian Zheng also cooperated with knowingly and wittily to give Lu Ting a top hat. .

"The two are really overrated!" Lu Ting was also very happy when he heard that. As a literati, being able to be remembered by others for his works is indeed a special compliment.

At that time, the Ministry of National Defense issued an article in the "Haihan Times" to explain the situation of the Danzhou attack. Of course, it was not the whole truth. The part of the Ministry of Security involved in the investigation was deliberately hidden, so as not to focus the public's attention on the mysterious organization. on the head.

Although Lu Ting did not personally participate in the investigation of the case, it is not too difficult to write a report based on the detailed reports provided by the intelligence department and operatives afterwards.But after more than half a year, he didn't think of Tian Zheng's name appearing in a publicity draft written by him at the first time. It wasn't until Gai Liang took the initiative to mention that inspection operation that he remembered the two things in front of him. Man was a partner in that operation.

In this way, the three of them had the experience of dealing with each other through the air, and their relationship suddenly became much closer.Lu Ting ordered the orderly to make a pot of good tea, and planned to talk about work slowly.

But Gai Liang had something to do, so he didn't sit down too much. Now that the purpose of the introduction had been achieved, he quickly got up to leave and let the two discuss the business.

After Gai Liangcai left, Tian Zheng took the initiative to say: "This is the first time I have come into contact with this matter, and there are still many unknown points. I heard that the activities in the past few years have been organized by the major. Please give me some pointers!"

"This event is actually organized by the Operations and Training Department. I am only responsible for the promotional affairs here. It is equivalent to helping the Operations and Training Department, but it is not as beautiful as Mr. Tian said." Lu Ting replied with a smile: "But I will help you It's also good, it's not so tiring, we only need to draw up the list of invitees, write the invitation letter, and write a few articles to tout the event, it's considered a job. By the way, after you join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this year, you will probably receive work I will do it more carefully, and that is your task, Mr. Tian."

Tian Zhengdao: "I came to visit the major today, just to ask for advice on drawing up the invitation list, and I hope the major can enlighten me."

"I don't dare to teach you, so I will briefly talk about it with Mr. Tian!" Lu Ting stopped talking when the orderly brought tea in, and poured a cup of tea for Tian Zheng himself.

After Tian Zheng thanked him, he went on to say: "This martial arts competition has been held several times in the past, but it has never been made public, so there are not many outsiders invited to watch the scene. Master Tian can probably think of which ones. people."

Lu Ting stopped talking at this point, and looked at Tian Zheng.Tian Zheng knew that this should be because the other party wanted to test his own knowledge, so he responded carefully: "The Xu family in Fujian must be one of the invited guests, and the Zheng family in Annan should also be indispensable... But the approximate date for this year's event has already passed. It's decided, will it be too late to send out the invitation letter at this time?"

Lu Ting said: "Don't worry about it. The two companies Mr. Tian mentioned are old friends of our country. There are people who receive military training from our country in Sanya all the year round. So we will notify them in advance if we want to hold such an event."

Tian Zhengdao: "In this way, there should be a few more companies that will be invited in advance."

Lu Ting nodded and said: "As long as there are personnel who are currently receiving military training in Sanya, we will invite them. If they are far away, we will send a message in advance, or invite their representatives to be stationed in Sanya. In short, we will not let our partners miss it." Such an important activity."

Tian Zhengdao: "In this case, the scope of invitations will be expanded this year, that is to say, we will also invite some forces that have not sent people to Sanya for training?"

"Your understanding is correct." Lu Ting affirmed this: "The higher-ups want to expand the international influence of this event, so we have to invite some people with a certain status. This is what we will do next. .”

(End of this chapter)