1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2307
When Li Yan heard the news, his eyes went dark, and his body went limp. If he hadn't tightly gripped the armrests of the chair with both hands, he might have slipped to the ground.

Although he was already mentally prepared for the whereabouts of his family members, he still couldn't help but feel sad at this moment, and a deep sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart.

If Li Zhen can escape from Seoul in time, then no matter how the rebellious parties struggle in the city, Li Zhen is the ruler recognized by Haihan after all. Even if the situation is unfavorable, it is only a temporary situation. We can rely on the Haihan garrison to reorganize and clear the chaos counterinsurgency.However, Li Zhen, as a symbol of royal power, was captured by the rebel party, and the forces loyal to Li Zhen in the country would become a mess, making it difficult to form a joint force.

This is not the worst situation. If the rebellious party coerces Li Yu to issue a false edict to the whole country, announcing that he is a certain person, then Li Ji's status as the prince's son will be invalidated immediately, and he will re-call forces to suppress the rebellion after returning , it will inevitably appear a bit inappropriate.

The rebellious party only needs to offer another reward to label Li Xun as a villain. At that time, the person who rebelled and rebelled may not be the other party, but Li Xun who is wanted by the court.Under such circumstances, how many people are willing to continue to be loyal to Li Yan, and even work hard for him to restore the country?

Thinking of this episode, Li Yan felt that the future was bleak, and it seemed that there was no hope of a comeback.

Then Tom Wang said: "After we heard the news, in order to prevent the other party from jumping over the wall and murdering the king, we temporarily stopped taking military measures against the Seoul area, and immediately notified Sanya, so that your son can return to China as soon as possible to preside over the overall situation!"

Hearing this, Li Yan cheered up a little. According to Wang Tom, it means that the Haihan people still regard him as the heir to the throne at this time. This statement is an extremely important life-saving straw for Li Yan.

Calculating the time, when Li Yan received the official notification from Haihan in Sanya, it almost coincided with the time Tom Wang said.However, it took more than half a month for Li Yi to return to China. During this period, whether the situation in Seoul has undergone new changes is very important to what kind of coping strategies to adopt next.

Li Yan held back the sadness in his heart, and asked Tom Wang: "General Wang, counting with your fingers, it has been more than half a month since I received the notice and set off on the return journey. Has the situation in Seoul improved?"

Wang Tom also understood what Li Yi meant by "better". He shook his head slightly and said, "So far there is no news about the king and the two great monarchs, but it seems that no one in Seoul has claimed the title of king himself. We think that at this time, no news may be the best news. Seoul did not introduce a new king, perhaps because the internal opinions of the rebels have not yet been unified. According to your country's historical evolution, we think that before the new king takes a firm position , should not easily hurt the king."

There have been many palace coups in the history of North Korea, but there are very few cases in which the new king directly executed the former king, including Li Ji, who basically exiled the overthrown ruler to a certain place—such as Ganghwa Island For a long time, Guang Haijun, who was exiled by Li Zhen, was imprisoned.

If the purpose of the rebels is to fight for the ruling power, then according to the "tradition" of North Korea, the possibility of directly executing Li Yu and others is not very high. and future generations will suffer from it.

Of course, Li Yan is no stranger to the history of his country. He understood the meaning of the other party as soon as Tom Wang said it. He calmed down a bit and continued to ask: "Then, General Wang, can you tell us in detail, which ministers participated in the rebellion?"

After Li Yan arrived at Jianghua Island, Shen Jingzhen was the only important court official he saw. He had to figure out who were the perpetrators and who could still be trusted.

Wang Tom said: "Master Shen happened to be inspecting the security project of the palace on Jianghua Island on the day of the incident, so he was not involved in this chaos. We think that Master Shen should be reliable when the incident happened away from Seoul. As for the other adults, they basically didn’t have time to leave Seoul, and there are all kinds of rumors that we can’t verify at present, involving almost all important officials, and it’s hard to say who is loyal and who is traitor.”

Qian Tiandun said: "We have heard no less than ten versions of the rumors of supporting the two majesties. Some say that the two maharajas each commanded part of the army to fight, and some say that Jin Shangxian and Cui Mingji are two adults. Those who supported the two maharajas separately, and said that the rebels acted in the name of the two maharajas, but in fact they had secretly imprisoned the two maharajas... In short, there are too many rumors, it is difficult to distinguish the truth from the false, Considering the risks involved, we did not act rashly."

After hearing this, Li Xun was also quite speechless, but felt that the objective facts should be like this.It is obviously unreasonable to say that all the civil and military personnel of the Manchu Dynasty participated in the rebellion. Some people should have failed to escape after being controlled by the rebellious party.But it has been a month since the incident happened, and now there is no conclusion on who the main messenger of this rebellion is, which is too strange.

Li Yan asked: "During this period, did no one in Seoul take the initiative to get in touch with you, asking you to send troops to help counter the rebellion?"

Wang Tom said: "Not only are there, but there are quite a few. They come to us for help in various names, asking us to send troops to eliminate so-and-so. We receive such help letters almost every day. Such means should be to interfere with us. Judgment makes it impossible for us to confirm who the real perpetrators are in a short period of time."

Li Yan sighed: "These chaotic parties have planned so thoroughly, it seems that they have been planning for a long time!"

In Li Yan's view, if a rebellious party wants to seize power, it must seek a legitimate way to rise to power.In the past, it was necessary to force the former king to abdicate, otherwise the power change would be illegal and reasonable, but now there is an additional condition, that is, the successor must obtain the approval and support of Haihan, otherwise it will be difficult to sit on the throne forcibly. Convince.

This is also different from the previous Korean king who wanted to seek the official canonization of Daming when he ascended the throne. It's different. There are heavy troops stationed in North Korea all year round, and the guards on the northern border also need to rely on the assistance of the Haihan Navy.

In addition, Haihan now operates many industries in North Korea. It can be said that North Korea's power change is directly linked to Haihan's interests. If he wants to rule this country well, it will be difficult to move forward without Haihan's support.

If the new king fails to gain Haihan's approval, then Haihan doesn't even need to use force directly, as long as he withdraws the naval forces that sheltered North Korea from the wind and rain in the Yalu River Basin, the Qing army can take action on his behalf and teach the new ruler who is not open-eyed .

At present, the attitude of the two generals of the Haihan garrison is obviously more inclined to support Li Yi's restoration of the country. Under such a situation, it will be difficult for the rebels to gain Haihan's approval.Moreover, the Haihan army has already arrived at Jianghua Island at the mouth of the Han River, and they may use force against Seoul at any time. It would be a lie to say that the rioters in the city were not panicked about this.

In order to delay the possible actions of the Haihan army, the most effective way is to make the situation as confusing as possible, disrupting the Haihan army's sight and making it impossible for them to judge the real opponent.Judging from what Tom Wang said, those rioters were clearly well prepared for this, so that the Haihan army had been guarding the mouth of the Han River for so long, but they still couldn't figure out the specific situation of the civil strife in Seoul.

Of course, Haihan is not in a hurry to calm down the situation. Although Seoul is in chaos, it is hundreds of miles away from the Datong River Basin where Haihan operates many large-scale projects, and the rioters dare not approach Haihan Army at all. These areas are directly controlled, so the impact on Haihan will not be too significant in the short term.

The Haihan people who settled in Seoul have basically evacuated safely. Although their business activities have been greatly affected for the time being, their personal safety is safe. In addition, with the support of the Haihan Army, many people did not choose to flee North Korea. , but came to Jianghua Island to stay temporarily, and continued to wait and see the situation under the protection of the Haihan Army.However, whether the success of the restoration of the country by the Li Ying family, or the successful seizure of power by the rebels, they still have to continue to do business with Haihan. At that time, these Haihan commercial organizations will resume normal operations one after another.

Since there was nothing serious on their own side, Tom Wang and Qian Tiandun were happy to continue watching the theater on Jianghua Island, and waited for Li Yi to come back from Haihan by the way.Regardless of the life or death of Li Zhen and his two sons, the Haihan army has Wang Shizi in hand, and can break through Seoul and put down the rebellion under the banner of King Qin at any time.

As for whether to really do this, on the one hand, it depends on the trend of the situation in Seoul, and on the other hand, it probably depends on Li Yan's performance.If there is no benefit of sufficient weight, Hai Hanjun will definitely not easily take the risk to swim in this muddy water.

But Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun were also very patient, they talked with Li Yan for a long time, and announced to him bit by bit the information they had, but they didn't put forward any conditions for soldiers.They probably also want to see if this Li Yan is worthy of help.

In fact, Haihan has already invested a lot in Li Yi. All the expenses for his study abroad in Haihan are borne by the Haihan official. , There are a large group of people when they go out, food, accommodation and transportation are all paid by the public. The cost of each inspection can range from a few thousand to tens of thousands, which is not a small amount in a year.

On this trip to escort Li Yan and his party back to North Korea, the executive committee asked the navy to send warships and supply ships to escort them all the way, and to provide strict security at various places along the way.The cost of the thousands of miles of voyage may be more than the cost of Li Yan's study abroad for a year.

The purpose of Haihan spending so much resources on Li Yi is of course not just to help him sit on the throne of the king, but to ensure that Li Yi will completely fall to Haihan after he ascends the throne, so that North Korea will truly become Haihan's The vassal state provides Haihan with the raw materials, manpower and markets it needs.

In this process, in addition to continuously investing resources in Li Yi and instilling various ideologies that are beneficial to Haihan, it is also part of the overall plan to test Li Yi in various situations with different purposes.

Although the civil strife in Seoul was outside of Haihan's plan, it was immediately regarded by the executive committee as an opportunity to test Li Yi's position and ability.

Faced with such sudden bad news, what kind of reaction Li Yan will have, whether he can weigh the stakes, and maintain unconditional trust in Hai Han, are all the key points for Hai Han to investigate.

If Li Xun behaved weak and helpless during the process, had no assertiveness, dealt with chaos, or even doubted Haihan's role in it, then the executive committee's evaluation of Li Xun might be greatly discounted.If the situation is serious, it may even affect Li Yi's right to inherit the throne.

Li Yan's performance during this period will be continuously reported to Sanya through the intelligence system, and will be sorted out by relevant departments and reported to the executive committee.

Fortunately, Li Yan's performance in this big exam is quite remarkable. After getting the news, he didn't act panicked, and in the case of a serious lack of information, he obeyed Hai Han almost without hesitation. Arranged by Haihan, he left Sanya and returned to China on the fleet arranged by Haihan.

Li Yan's performance during the several stops on the way was also recorded and sent back to Sanya by the Haihan officials who were in charge of receiving him.You Yihan, Yu Yao, and Shi Diwen all spoke well of him. They believed that although Li Yi was preoccupied, he still showed great patience and did not question Haihan's itinerary.

Of course, the most critical test will come after Li Yi returns to China.The Haihan Garrison had barely intervened in the chaos until his arrival, leaving him with a foggy situation.

Of course, Hai Han didn't expect Li Yi to be able to solve the current situation with his own ability. The next thing to see was how Li Yan expressed his position, and then made a request to Hai Han.

In fact, before the meeting with Qian and Wang, Li Yan was already thinking about this matter.It was just because the information he knew at that time was extremely limited, and he didn't know how much help he needed Haihan to restore the country.At this time, while listening to the new information provided by the other party, he was already thinking in his heart how to communicate with these two people so that they could mobilize the Haihan army to help him regain power and calm the chaos.

Li Xun said: "Two generals, it is a great misfortune for our country to be in such great chaos. I believe that you two do not want to see the people of our country fall into the chaos of war again. As the prince's son, I should calm down the chaos and restore peace to the world. For the mission. Our country has an alliance with your country, and we share the same hatred. Now that our country is in trouble, I ask you two to send troops out of the righteousness of the alliance to help me suppress the chaos and take back Seoul!"

(End of this chapter)