1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2463
The cultural transformation of North Korea is not a task that can be completed overnight. The Executive Committee also knows that this matter cannot be rushed. In addition to the Liucao Yamen, a special agency was added to promote the application of Chinese characters and revise Korean historical records.

The reason why he wanted to add such an organization besides Liucao, Haihan's intention is also very clear, that is to let this organization not be coerced by other yamen, and have independent operation authority.

Of course, it is not objective enough to say that it is an independent operation. After all, the function of this organization is to implement the orders issued by Haihan.Therefore, in terms of the selection of officials, Haihan also proposed that the two countries should jointly select and send officials to manage this special agency. To put it bluntly, he was worried about letting the North Koreans operate on their own, and had to hold this agency in their own hands.

Regardless of whether Li Yan and senior officials were willing to accept such an arrangement, the matter was finally settled, and under the promotion of Haihan officials, it quickly began to be implemented.A hundred or so mu of land outside Seoul was quickly set aside to start construction as the future office space for this emerging organization.

In the spring of 1646, the Korean Culture Promotion Association was established in Seoul.Although the name of this yamen sounds unofficial, its actual authority is even higher than that of Liucao yamen.Chen Yixin, commander of the Haihan Beihai theater, also serves as the honorary chairman of this organization. This alone is enough to prove how deep the background of this organization is.

The office space is still in the construction stage, and the Council for Cultural Promotion issued the first batch of instructions after its establishment.Within this year, the Chinese literacy textbooks provided by Haehan will be promoted in North Korea, and the Hangeul education system that has been in use for 200 years will be completely stopped.The Cultural Promotion Council will send commissioners to all parts of the country to supervise the implementation. Anyone who opposes and refuses to follow will be punished as disobedience to the king's order.

The revision of North Korea's historical records will also be carried out within this year. At that time, the Council for Cultural Promotion will organize scholars from many countries in East Asia to compile a history of North Korea and pass it on as official history.Of course, scholars who are qualified to participate in the compilation of this national history must first be approved by Haihan. Those Korean literati who want to insist on the so-called inheritance are basically unlikely to have the opportunity to participate in this work.

Haehan's tactics will go some way toward severing North Korea's ability to pursue cultural independence, thereby alleviating the executive committee's inherent distrust of it.

Of course, whether this approach can achieve the desired effect of the Executive Committee will take a few more years of observation before a clearer conclusion can be drawn.Regardless of whether these operations of the Cultural Promotion Council in North Korea are useful or not, they will become valuable reference materials. In the future, there will be many vassal states that Haihan needs to manage in the course of its external expansion. How can these countries maintain long-term respect for Haihan? In awe, the operational experience in North Korea will become a model.

While imposing control measures on North Korea, Shi Diwen, who was in Kyushu, Japan, was not idle.Haihan sent troops to occupy Sasebo Bay, which caused a great shock to the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. Everyone in the shogunate believed that this was a typical foreign invasion.However, it is different from the Yuan army that crossed the sea to attack Japan in the past. The Haihan army has attacked Hirado Island at the northwest tip of Kyushu Island several times before, and retreated completely every time. After capturing Sasebo Bay, the Haihan army has not retreated. The meaning is that the port and fortress were quickly built in the local area, and it seems that they intend to be stationed for a long time.

Naturally, the Tokugawa shogunate would not sit back and watch foreign enemies invade, but there are continuous mountains around Sasebo Bay, which is not conducive to large troops marching and forming formations, and it is undoubtedly very risky to attack this semi-enclosed bay from the sea. After all, the Hirado Navy, known as Japan's No. [-] navy, was wiped out by the guns of the Haihan Fleet a few years ago, and now Japan has no way to pull out another armed fleet that can compete with it.

Later, under the coordination of Portuguese businessmen, the shogunate decided to send people to negotiate with Haihan first. After all, it is not easy to fight with Haihan. If the war can be avoided, the shogunate does not want to use limited resources to fight with Haihan. This kind of monster fights to the death.

The current shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu pursued a policy of locking the country, leaving only Nagasaki as a window for foreign trade in the whole country, so he was quite resistant to the trade requirements proposed by Shi Diwen.Shi Diwen had expected this for a long time, saying that if the shogunate insisted on opposing trade, then Haihan would attack Nagasaki and other important coastal cities next.

As Japan's only foreign trade window, Nagasaki involved huge interests in all aspects. Therefore, after the news was sent back to Edo, those with vested interests believed that war should be avoided as much as possible, and it was completely burned by Haihan. Hirado is a lesson from the past.

But opening up to trade is undoubtedly contrary to Japan's current national policy, and Tokugawa Iemitsu still has many doubts about it.After all, the Haihan people are not as easy to deal with as the Europeans who have dealt with them before.

Due to the extremely slow speed of information transmission, and the officials sent by Japan to negotiate had to consult the shogunate far away in Edo for everything, the progress of the negotiations was also very slow, and nothing was discussed after several months.

In the end, Shi Diwen, who lost his patience, took the initiative to interrupt the negotiation, gathered all the troops, and led the main force of the East China Sea Fleet to set off from Sasebo Bay, bypass the southern tip of Kyushu Island southward, and then head towards the Kanto.On the way, the fleet also stayed in Osaka and near Nagoya Castle of the Owari Domain for several days, and the last stop was Edo Castle where the shogunate was located.

After the fleet sailed into Edo Bay, Shi Diwen was not in a hurry to order the use of force. Instead, he sent people to land to contact the shogunate, and asked Tokugawa Iemitsu to send people to board the ship to observe the sea exercises of the Haihan East China Sea Fleet.

After a demonstration of artillery strikes and amphibious landings, the shogunate naturally realized the gap in force between the two sides, and basically gave up the idea of ​​confronting the Haihan army head-on.

In the summer of 1646, the two countries signed the "Hai-Japan Goodwill Treaty" at the Haihan military base in Sasebo Bay. In addition to the original Nagasaki, four places, Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya, and Yokohama, were added to Haihan Kingdom. It is a treaty port, and Haihan merchants are allowed to purchase real estate in the local area to engage in business activities.

In addition, Sasebo Bay on Kyushu Island will be leased to Haihan indefinitely at the price of 1 taels of silver per year. Of course, this condition is only a formality, so as to legalize Haihan's occupation of Sasebo Bay change.

The black ship incident that originally happened 200 years later in history was abruptly brought forward by Shi Diwen's fleet by two centuries.

(End of this chapter)