1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2403
Daming's current way of dealing with internal and external wars is not much different from the original history, and the measures taken are mostly helpless and ineffective.Although Haihan's intervention effectively slowed down the pace of the Manchu Qing's invasion of the Ming Dynasty, it was still not enough to change the general trend of history. The Ming Dynasty, which was suffering from internal and external troubles, was still slowly sliding into the abyss of collapse.

Although ministers like Lu Xiangsheng wanted to serve the country, their influence was limited. There was no way to persuade the emperor and the court to change their strategy, put down the airs of going to court in heaven, and seek joint foreign aid to fight against the Qing Dynasty.All Lu Xiangsheng can do is probably to raise as much military expenses as possible, and try to find Haihan to buy some more ammunition to arm his troops.

Daming thinks that teaming up with Haihan will harm his own interests, but other families rush to do things that Daming is unwilling to do, and his attitude is much more proactive than Daming.Da Ming may still not understand the benefits of cooperating with Hai Han, but others have already calculated the pros and cons clearly.

The one who took the initiative to find Hai Han was not North Korea, which had just completed the transfer of power, but Man Qing, who had just stolen a large amount of wool from Ming Dynasty.Before Chen Yixin returned to Shandong from Jinzhou, Man Qing had already appointed Shang Kexi to contact Chen Yixin, trying to start a truce and peace talks with Haihan.Although Shang Qing, the confidant Shang Kexi sent to Jinzhou at that time, encountered a setback with Chen Yixin, it did not make Shang Kexi completely give up on this direction of endeavor.After the Qing army withdrew from Daming territory, Shang Kexi asked Shang Qing to come to Jinzhou again to see General Haihan.

At this time, it was Qian Tiandun who was temporarily guarding Jinzhou on Chen Yixin's behalf. Regarding Shang Kexi's pursuit of peace talks, Chen Yixin had informed him earlier, so Qian Tiandun was not surprised by the visit of the Manchu envoy.Moreover, he was also a little curious about what kind of conditions the Manchu peace faction represented by Shang Kexi could come up with.

Although Haihan has been in a state of war with the Manchu Qing in the past few years, and almost every year there are several battles, large and small, but the two countries still maintain a certain tacit understanding regarding the envoys during the truce. Exchange activities such as prisoners of war, bones, and relics must also be completed through exchanges.It's just that one of the parties offered to negotiate an armistice and peace talks, which has never happened in the past few years.

"When you came here last time, I think General Chen has already clearly expressed our country's attitude to you. This time, you are not planning to bring up the old matter again?" Qian Tiandun asked expressionlessly.

Shang Qing replied: "General Qian, when General Chen met with the villain last time, he did express his unwillingness to enter into an armistice and peace talks with our country. But my lord is grateful for the years of war that have caused too much harm to the people of Li, and still hopes to continue Discuss with your country to resolve conflicts as soon as possible, so that the people can live in peace."

Qian Tiandun sneered and said, "Shang Kexi really thinks so? But as far as I know, the [-] Qing troops who invaded Daming at the end of last year just withdrew from Daming recently. It is said that the Qing army captured several soldiers during this invasion." One hundred thousand people of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Taiji has no intention of letting the people of the Ming Dynasty live in peace!"

Shang Qing's psychological quality is very good, and he didn't mess up at all when he was confronted face to face. He calmly responded to Qian Tiandun's accusation: "The people my prince said naturally refer to the people of our Qing Dynasty and your country. Including the people of Daming. Besides, the civil strife in Ming Dynasty has continued in recent years, and the imperial court has been unable to quell the chaos caused by the peasant army in various places. The people taken away by our country may not be able to live a peaceful life even if they stay in Daming. After they arrived in Liaodong, Instead, you can live a peaceful life without war."

"Come on, what is the situation in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and what kind of treatment the Han people in the Ming Dynasty were treated in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, we all know very well. The Han people captured in the war will only become slaves if they go to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and they will be driven and squeezed by the Manchus , is this considered to be a peaceful life?" Qian Tiandun scoffed at Shang Qing's remarks, and immediately debunked them.

Seeing that Qian Tiandun's tone was not friendly, Shang Qing quickly argued again: "What General Qian said is the old calendar. The emperor of our country has stipulated that each manor can only keep eight Han people at most, and the rest of the Han people are compiled as The same is true for ordinary households and the Han people captured in the war. Moreover, our country has allocated a large amount of land to the Han people in Liaodong to engage in farming. Your country has sent troops to the coast of Liaodong many times. I must know about this. In addition, the emperor is also willing Appointing Han people as officials, now there are many Han people serving as important officials in the court, and there is no gap between Man and Han."

Qian Tiandun said: "The important ministers of the Han people you are talking about are people like Fan Wencheng, Ning Wanwo, and King Sanshun including your prince? That's right, these people did gain power and status in the Qing Dynasty , but the reason why they can be treated like this is because they betrayed Daming!"

But Shang Qing continued to argue: "A good bird chooses a tree to live in, and a virtuous minister chooses a master to do things. This is a wise move. Besides, this kind of thing is not unique to our country. As far as the villain knows, many officials in your country also They were all born in Ming Dynasty, but now they are loyal to Haihan, is there anything wrong with that?"

Qian Tiandun was at a loss for words for a while, but he did not expect that the emissary was so eloquent and so good at arguing.But Shang Qing’s words do have some truth. The reason for Haihan’s rapid rise is that a large part of it has absorbed a large amount of resources, including talents, from Daming. Among them, there are indeed some officials from Daming who have changed their families to join Haihan.It's just that Haihan's hostility towards Daming is not as strong as that of Manqing, so the harm these people recruited by Haihan to Daming is naturally not as good as that of Shangkexi.

But from Qian Tiandun's point of view, he has always rejected the possibility of peace talks with the Manchu Qing. No matter whether he can argue against the opponent or not, he will not list peace talks as the first option.And these fallacies listed by Shang Qing made him feel even more upset.

Shang Qing observed his words, but did not continue this topic to embarrass Qian Tiandun. Instead, he said: "Actually, besides the service of courtiers from Ming Dynasty, our country and your country also have many similarities. It took a few years to expand their national power, and they were able to compete with Ming Dynasty. They all have close contacts with North Korea, and they all advocate the use of force to open up borders... If we count them down, the two countries will definitely find more common ground.”

Qian Tiandun replied in a deep voice: "There are things in common, but no common interests. I think your country should have seen clearly that our two countries have irreconcilable conflicts of interests in the Liaodong region, and war is inevitable unless it is One of us is willing to bow his head and admit defeat, giving up some of our interests in exchange for peaceful coexistence."

If you want peace talks, you can admit defeat first. This is the prerequisite Qian Tiandun set for the peace talks.But for Man Qing, this is not a condition that can be accepted calmly.

Shang Qing said: "Actually, our country is very sincere to make some concessions in exchange for peace, but the conditions proposed by General Chen on behalf of your country last time are too outrageous. If General Qian thinks that our two countries can achieve peace through negotiations, then why not Let's take a look at our respective interests in the Liaodong area calmly, and see which parts of the conflict can be resolved through negotiation."

When Chen Yixin met Shang Qing last time, the lion opened his mouth and made an extremely exaggerated condition, that is, he asked the Qing army to retreat to the north of the line connecting the mouth of the Daliao River and the Yalu River, and cede control of the entire Liaodong Peninsula to Haihan. .Naturally, it was impossible for Man Qing to agree to such a condition, but Shang Kexi did not want to give up the possibility of peace talks, so after careful planning, he sent Shang Qing to Jinzhou as a lobbyist.

Shang Qing believed that Jinzhou had changed the master at this time, which might be helpful to the negotiations, but he did not expect that Qian Tiandun's position was almost the same as that of Chen Yixin, and his antipathy towards the Manchu Qing was even stronger. It is not easy for Qian Tiandun to let go.

If Qian Tiandun hadn't been idle around, how could he have spent so much time arguing with Shang Qing? Hearing this, he said, "Then tell me what kind of conditions your lord has set. If you want our country to withdraw from the There is no need to talk about Jinzhou, or draw a clear line with Ming Dynasty."

When Shang Qing came to discuss with Chen Yixin last time, he hadn't even mentioned the step of revealing his own conditions, and he was already driven away by Chen Yixin's outrageous conditions.But this time Qian Tiandun was willing to listen to his conditions, which is quite a big progress.

Shang Qing thought about it for a while, and then said: "My prince also knows that your country has many interests in Daming, and it is probably impossible to draw a clear line with Daming. As for the withdrawal of the Haihan Army from Jinzhou, my prince does not expect Through negotiations, we can achieve results that cannot be obtained on the battlefield, so the general does not have to worry about our country making such unreasonable conditions."

Hearing that what he said was reasonable, Qian Tiandun nodded slightly, signaling him to continue talking.

Shang Qing continued: "As the general said just now, there are two main reasons for the conflict between my country and your country. One is that both of us want to fight for the control of the Liaodong area. Lack of common interests. If we can solve these two problems together, is it possible to live in peace?"

As soon as Qian Tiandun heard it, he knew that the other party had come prepared this time. Obviously, he had carefully analyzed the situation of the two countries based on various intelligences before he could conclude these two main points.Although Haihan's hostile attitude towards the Manchu Qing has some reasons from the inherent ideology of the traversers, in the final analysis, the main reason is the conflict of interests.

The development of Haihan needs a relatively stable sales market and resource supply place, and the continuous invasion of Ming Dynasty by the Qing army will seriously damage the trading environment needed by Haihan, so there will inevitably be a conflict of interest with Haihan.As for the Qing army's invasion of the northern part of Ming Dynasty and North Korea, it also hindered Haihan's long-term strategy in Northeast Asia to some extent. Since these actions are already in a place where Haihan can project large-scale forces, they will naturally not be harmful. The Qing army stood by and watched.

However, Haihan and the Manchu Qing had only had a hostile relationship since the beginning of contact, and had no trade contacts, so naturally there was no common interest at all.From the point of view that both countries are absorbing resources from Ming Dynasty, they are even competitors, but Haihan's methods are relatively mild.

Qian Tiandun asked calmly: "Then how does your country plan to solve these two problems?"

Shang Qing said: "The first thing is to stop the war in Jinzhou, and then start formal peace talks. The location can be set in Jinzhou, or the capital of our country."

Shang Qing knew that people were soft-spoken, and if he really wanted to start a formal negotiation with the Haihan people, it probably wouldn't be the turn for a small person like him to come forward.So he didn't immediately offer conditions to Qian Tiandun, and observed Qian Tiandun's reaction while talking.

Qian Tiandun didn't respond, and seemed to be waiting for him to continue.But as long as Qian Tiandun didn't interrupt, Shang Qing would already be thankful, and hurriedly continued: "To resolve the conflict between the two countries, we need General Qian to discuss with a big man like my prince, and the villain doesn't dare to speak too much at this time. But The villain has some ideas about creating common interests. Your country is good at managing cross-sea trade, and the areas under the rule of the Qing Dynasty are rich in products. If you can sell them to the south by sea, you will definitely gain a lot. If your country can consider cooperation in this area , then the two countries can completely turn Jinzhou into a big trading city, relying on the port here, and exchange goods from the north and the south, won’t there be common interests?”

After hearing this, Qian Tiandun couldn't help but sighed: "It seems that you have expert advice behind you!"

Shang Qing was not sure whether Qian Tiandun's words were praise or derogation, so he could only say a few polite words at the moment.His idea is indeed not something that can be said casually. This is a strategy formulated by the Han think tanks in the Manchu and Qing courts specifically for Haihan's characteristics.

Qian Tiandun said: "You may think that as long as the Haihan people are profitable, they will accept any business. But in fact, this is not the case. The interests we consider are not only money income, but also many other factors."

Shang Qing said: "General, you don't have to say too much. Although the Qing Dynasty is located in the bitter cold north, but the treasury is full, and there are many commodities that I want to trade with your country. If our two countries can establish trade relations, it will be inevitable. It will be of great benefit to each other. Your country and the impoverished North Korea are still able to cooperate, and the situation of my Qing Dynasty is hundreds of times better than that of North Korea. Your country can send people to our country for field inspections before making a decision. "

Shang Qing’s words are not bragging. The abundance of products in the Liaodong region can almost cover the various needs of Haihan at the current stage. Although the social productivity of the Manchu Qing is backward, the wealth looted back from neighboring countries over the years is incomparable. Countless, and nowhere to spend, this will also give Haihan's various industrial products great sales potential.

Of course, Shang Qingming didn't need to say, Qian Tiandun could also think of what Haihan products Man Qing was most interested in.The Qing army has been fighting the Haihan army for several years, and now they are no longer willing to fight the Haihan army on the frontal battlefield. The reason is that they are afraid of the various types of powerful weapons equipped by the Haihan army.If the two countries establish trade relations, the first thing that the Manchu Qing would buy would probably be the standard weapons produced by Haihan.

(End of this chapter)