1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2402
How to achieve actual control of a certain area without going to war with Ming Dynasty, Haihan has made various attempts over the years, and has relatively rich practical experience in this regard.But in fact, it is not like what Chen Yixin said, only through the infiltration of trade activities can gradually control the area, or even completely evade the local government.All overt or covert methods must be based on Haihan's strong military strength, otherwise, no matter how good Haihan is at management, he is just a fat sheep in the eyes of the government.

Haihan's success in Fushan County was first of all due to the existence of the Zhifu Island military base. It was after the establishment of this base that Haihan was able to conduct trade activities in Shandong.If Haihan is now trying to expand the control area to the entire Dengzhou, or even a larger area, it may be difficult to achieve the goal smoothly only by relying on trade activities.

However, in his publicity to the outside world, Haihan will never mention his use of military means to control these areas.Although Ma Dongqiang is Chen Yixin's father-in-law, Chen Yixin is still extremely cautious when talking about these sensitive topics, so as not to be taken advantage of when the father-in-law conveys his thoughts to the outside world in the future.

Ma Dongqiang was not dazzled by this appointment. He knew why he was able to gain Chen Yixin's trust. This kind of trust did not come from his own outstanding ability, but from the interest relationship between the two parties after marriage. Received great support from Haihan and enjoyed various special benefits.And the position of the person in charge of the Shanhaihui is of course another example of this special treatment.

With Ma Dongqiang's ability, if he only focuses on his own business, he can continue to expand the scale of operations with the support of Haihan, allowing the Ma family to gradually grow into one of the largest private businessmen in Shandong.But it is really difficult for him to let him manage a chamber of commerce, deal with people from various places in Shandong and manage contacts.

If Chen Yixin insists on entrusting this job to him, then Ma Dongqiang will be responsible for any problems in the future management or the unsatisfactory operation of the Shanhaihui.

"My son-in-law, do you want to think about this arrangement again? You haven't been in Shandong for a long time. If there is any emergency in the mountains and seas, it's not convenient for me to ask someone for instructions." Ma Dongqiang thought over and over again, and expressed it tactfully own worries.

Chen Yixin was very calm: "Father-in-law, don't worry, Minister Hao will be in charge of Shanhaihui's affairs, and if there are any difficult things, he will also handle them on his behalf."

What is Hao Wanqing's identity? Although Chen Yixin has never made it clear, Ma Dongqiang has a general understanding of Hao Wanqing's identity after a long time. point.It seems that the Shanhaihui is actually a cover for Hao Wanqing's convenience. Although Ma Dongqiang is the president in name, when encountering major events, the person who makes the decision may be Hao Wanqing who is behind the scenes.

But this is also good, with Hao Wanqing behind the scenes, Ma Dongqiang no longer has to worry about being unable to manage this business organization.If you shouldn't take care of things yourself, just pretend you don't know.But Chen Yixin has admitted that he will gradually launch actions against Dengzhou like controlling Fushan County. The role of the Shanhai Association is definitely not just a chamber of commerce.

In Chen Yixin's plan, the establishment of the Shanhaihui is an important pawn for Haihan to expand its influence in Shandong, and it is also a necessary condition for Haihan to expand its actual control area beyond Fushan County.

Currently, Dengzhou Prefecture has Ninghai Prefecture, Penglai County, Huang County, Fushan County, Qixia County, Zhaoyuan County, Laiyang County, and Wendeng County under its jurisdiction. However, in terms of wealth, Fushan County has surpassed other regions in just a few years. A lot of it.During the Shandong turmoil this time, Dengzhou was the least affected place after being hit by the refugee wave. Instead, it was Fushan County, which had the largest number of refugees.

Prosperity, stability, and a great development situation, these obvious characteristics are naturally due to the operation of Haihan behind the scenes.The good operation of Fushan County provides an excellent model for other surrounding areas, and at the same time, it will gradually dispel the public's suspicion of Haihan.Although it will take much longer to exert influence on other regions in a peaceful way than to use military means, but with Haihan's current investment in the north, there is not enough troops to occupy an area that is too large, so it will be subtle way is more suitable.

Of course, for areas with special resources, Haihan's methods will be more direct.For example, in the Zhaoyuan area where new veins have been found, the local gold deposits are worthy of Haihan's use of some unconventional means.However, there are still a large number of refugees gathering in Zhaoyuan County. If you want to mine the local gold mines, you have to wait until the local social order returns to normal.

Although these actions of Haihan in Dengzhou could not be hidden from Daming's eyes and ears, Daming could no longer care about these trivial matters with Haihan.The Qing army's invasion this time spanned more than [-] miles in the capital and Shandong areas, and lost more than [-] large and small cities and towns. Hundreds of thousands of people were taken away, and countless materials and money were taken away, which caused great damage to the warring areas. .However, the Ming army failed to win a decent victory in the half-year-long battle, but lost tens of thousands of troops.

Although this war finally ended with the Qing army voluntarily withdrawing its troops, the situation in Ming Dynasty did not improve because of the enemy's retreat. Many places in Gyeonggi and Shandong have become no-man's land, social production has completely stagnated, and the damaged National strength cannot be recovered quickly in a short period of time.

And because of this war, the number of people who left their homes and became refugees was even more than that taken away by the Qing army.Due to the lack of food and clothing during the winter fleeing, many people did not even survive the war.Even according to the most conservative estimate, the Ming Dynasty lost more than 40 people in this war.

In addition, where the refugee influx is caused, many places simply cannot afford the food supplies needed to relieve the refugees, which has also led to the outbreak of various secondary disasters.Only in Dongchang Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture, Qingzhou Prefecture and other places around Jinan Prefecture, there were dozens of refugee riots, large and small, and there was even a farce where thousands of refugees gathered to attack the county seat.

This may be caused by the peasant army forces from the Central Plains, or it may be that the rebels who survived by chance want to take advantage of the fire, but objectively, these areas have fallen into the second wave of chaos.And the government has no way of judging which people are real refugees and which people are lurking rioters. Once something is wrong, they can only use rough methods to eliminate hidden dangers, but this often leads to more intense conflicts.

For such a big mess, the imperial court will definitely hold the responsibility after the fact, but the top decision-maker must not be responsible for the blame, and then the local governments at all levels can only be liquidated for their ineffective resistance to the clean-up.

Originally, the person responsible for this should be Yang Sichang, Minister of the Ministry of War who formulated the countermeasures, but this Lord Yang would not be willing to take the blame on his own, so he wrote a letter invoking the five major crimes against the local government at all levels and the Ming army.

The first is losing opportunity while guarding the frontier, the second is the dilapidated city, the third is the loss of feudal vassals, the fourth is the loss of the commander-in-chief, and the fifth is waiting and watching with troops.So after some ingenious evasion and dumping operations by him, Chongzhen ordered to deal with a large number of scapegoats.

These include Zheng Xizhao, the director general of Jizhen, Sun Maolin, the sub-supervisor, Chen Zubao, the governor of Shuntian, Zhang Qiping, the governor of Baoding, Wu Guojun and Chen Guowei, the generals of Jizhen, Ni Chong, the governor of Shandong, Zu Kuan and Li Li A total of 36 officials from Zhongzhen, and its deputy generals down to prefectural and county Yousi, including Yan Jizu, the governor of Shandong who wanted to set up a defense line in Dezhou to stop the Qing army, were sentenced to death.As for the officials who have been demoted and cut, the number is several times that, which can be described as a huge shock in the officialdom.

The only thing to be thankful for is that Lu Xiangsheng, the servant of the Ministry of War who was unfortunately killed in this battle in history, survived by luck.This objectively also benefited from some weapons and equipment provided by Haihan earlier, among which [-] cannons helped Lu Xiangsheng defend Jiazhuang at the last moment and repel the siege of the Qing army.It's just that Yang Sichang is on top of him, so he will inevitably be accused of underestimating the enemy's fear of war. If there are not hundreds of Qing soldiers' heads to pay for the crime, then his position as Minister of the Ministry of War will probably be demoted .

So many officials have been dealt with, but the real decision-makers in the court are unscathed. This is equivalent to an edict to the world that it is the local civil and military officials at all levels who lose the war, not the Ming Dynasty under the rule of the Zhu family.

And the dozens of high-ranking officials released in this breath naturally attracted the coveting of many people. The intrigue and exchange of interests surrounding these officials made the entire court's attention not focus on what could have controlled the situation. On Haihan.

No one dared to mention in the court hall why the Qing army invaded and Ming did not ask Haihan for support in time. If Haihan could send troops into Ming Dynasty to fight like he rescued North Korea, then relying on the deep defense belt in the Gyeonggi area, it may not be impossible. Block the Qing army in the mountains north of the capital.

If this matter is pursued, it will be a slap in the face of Chongzhen, because the person who vetoed the foreign aid was the Emperor Chongzhen.But in fact, in the half-year-long battle, the Ming army fought decently in one of the few battles, and almost all the troops participating in the battle used more or less weapons produced by Haihan.

In particular, Lu Xiangsheng, who was lucky enough to escape the siege of the Qing army in Julu Jiazhuang, was equipped with [-] Haihan cannons and [-] Haihan muskets, which played a very good role in the battle with the Qing army. Due to its efficiency, the Qing army, which had an absolute advantage in military strength, finally had to voluntarily give up the siege of Jiazhuang.

Although such a record failed to be publicly commended by the imperial court after the war, how can a person like Lu Xiangsheng not know the secret of repelling the Qing army?Therefore, after the Qing army retreated, he also wrote to the court, suggesting that the Ministry of War contact Haihan to purchase a large number of Haihan weapons, and hire Haihan officers to train the Ming army to practice more advanced firearm tactics.

However, Minister of the Ministry of War Yang Sichang clearly opposed Lu Xiangsheng's proposal. His reason was that although Haihan was a military ally in name, he now openly occupied many territories of Ming Dynasty, and he had no intention of returning control of these areas to Ming Dynasty. .In addition, Haihan deliberately coerced Annan and North Korea, the traditional vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, and let these small countries break away from the vassal system of the Ming Dynasty, which would really damage the authority of the heavenly kingdom.

As for the Haihan weapons that Lu Xiangsheng has been strongly recommending, Yang Sichang also claimed that the Ministry of Industry’s Military Weapons Bureau, Weapons Bureau, Gunpowder Bureau and other departments can imitate Haihan guns without having to pay back when military expenditures are tight. Using a huge amount of money to buy Haihan weapons, Lu Xiangsheng insisted on buying the weapons produced by Haihan, probably because he wanted to benefit from it.

After Chongzhen thought about it, it seemed that this was indeed the case. Now that the national treasury is empty, if I want to buy expensive Haihan weapons, I am afraid that I will have to pay more taxes to the people. But since these weapons can be imitated, why should I pay a high price for them.As for whether Lu Xiangsheng's suggestion came from the bottom of his heart or for self-interest, Chongzhen didn't bother to ponder the truth. He only hoped that Ming's border guards could be equipped with better weapons as soon as possible, so as to block the evil neighbors in the north from the border. In order to have time to recuperate and restore national strength.

Both Chongzhen and Yang Sichang are ignorant of military technology, and have never personally experienced the combat power of Haihan weapons on the battlefield. Everything they know comes from various written and oral reports. If they can make accurate judgments, they will be damned. up.What's more, Yang Sichang has a lot of selfishness, and he wants to suppress Lu Xiangsheng, so as not to be replaced by him after he takes military exploits, and he is not willing to let the court use resources to improve the combat effectiveness of Lu Xiangsheng's troops.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Lu Xiangsheng's proposal failed to gain the attention of the court at all, but Yang Sichang's plan to increase the levy and training salary was approved by Chongzhen without any trouble.

Yang Sichang suggested that Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi, Yansui, Ningxia, Gansu, Guyuan, Lintao, Liaodong, and Jizhen, as well as Baoding, Jifu, Shandong, and Hebei towns, should train elite soldiers separately from the towns, governors, and generals. Counseling, the police will arrive immediately.As for the required military expenditure, it will be obtained through increasing private taxes.

Therefore, the place where Liao's and Suppression's levies were supposed to be levied, now has to add another levying rate. For this reason, the whole country has to collect 730 million taels of silver from the people. 670 million taels.This has made countless already poor families worse, especially in areas where the Central Plains Peasant Army is active, and more people will be forced to join the rebellion because they cannot afford these salaries.

Of course, these long-term disadvantages have not yet emerged, and only a very few people of insight will realize the consequences of such oppression of the people.However, the opinion of the court was to stop the annual invasion of the Qing army regardless of everything, and then slowly resolve internal conflicts, so no one could persuade Chongzhen to give priority to the harm caused by these measures.

(End of this chapter)