1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2653
Why does the capital of another country resemble the city of Haihan? The young officials don't quite understand the meaning of Fuli.But later they entered the city in a carriage, and the sights they saw on the way verified Fu Li's evaluation.

No matter inside or outside the city, on both sides of the avenue, you can see Haihan-style buildings from time to time, or shops with Chinese signboards. It can be seen that there are really many Haihan people living in Seoul.But at this time, because the king's guard of honor entered the city, all the streets the convoy passed were closed to martial law, and they could only take a rough look in the car.

Fu Li was in the same car with Shi Chengwu and Wang Anguo, and asked them: "Let me test you. When was the agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relations between my country and North Korea signed?"

Wang Anguo responded confidently: "In 1636 of the Haihan calendar, that is, 19 years ago, my father was one of the people who made this happen."

Back then, the Haihan army launched a spring offensive in Jinzhou, Liaodong, and defeated the Manchu and Qing armed forces. Wang Tom took advantage of the opportunity and led the armed fleet to Seoul, forcing King Li Ji to sign an alliance with Haihan and establish formal diplomatic relations.When the relevant agreement was signed at that time, North Korea was theoretically still a vassal state of Ming Dynasty, and it was from this moment that the relationship between North Korea and Ming Dynasty began to undergo subtle changes.

Although Haihan, Ming Dynasty, and North Korea signed the Three Kingdoms Covenant, the main purpose was to work together to deal with the Manchu Qing armed forces in the north, and Haihan did not stop trying to control North Korea.

In the following year, the Manchu Qing aggressively went south to attack North Korea, and Haihan took the opportunity to send troops to North Korea.After the end of the war, Haihan stationed troops in North Korea for a long time and achieved indirect control of North Korea through military means.In fact, Daming has been kicked out, and the so-called vassal relationship has basically come to an end.

When this period of history happened, Shi Chengwu and Wang Anguo were still young children, but they, like all the new generation of Haihan born in this period, had learned relevant history in school.Moreover, their parents were the participants in the creation of this history, and privately told them many inside stories that outsiders do not know, so the information they have is more detailed.

Fu Li nodded and said: "The agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relations signed between our country and North Korea included the terms of trade and commerce, so from that time on, merchants and various commercial organizations from Haihan entered North Korea to engage in trade activities, and of course Seoul is A must-go place."

"After more than ten years, according to the data we have, there are more than [-] commercial organizations belonging to our country in Seoul and the nearby Gyeonggi-do area. There are also nearly [-] Chinese nationals who have lived in this area for a long time. Every year The value of various goods and materials imported into North Korea through Seoul is as high as several million yuan, and even for our country, it is a trade scale that cannot be ignored."

The two stone kings were secretly surprised when they heard that, the amount Fu Li said was much more than what they had expected.

Then I heard Fu Li continue to say: "There is no natural good port in Seoul. From the perspective of our country, it is not a place suitable for maritime trade, but the Koreans set up their capital here, and at least half of the country's wealth is gathered here, so A regional trade center will still be formed naturally. As long as you can name the multinational business groups and shipping companies, they basically have offices and business organizations in Seoul."

When Shi Chengwu heard this, he was secretly thinking about another matter.In terms of geographical environment, Seoul and Hangzhou are similar to a certain extent. They are both located in the lower reaches of the river and close to the coast, and both lack natural ports to make full use of sea transportation capacity.

However, Haihan has the ability to build a land-sea transshipment center in Ningbo, which is not far from Hangzhou. There is a comprehensive port with mature conditions such as Zhoushan Dinghai Port that can be used. In the later stage, there will be a freight railway to solve the logistics problems in the Hangzhou area. The development prospect is bound to be It is far better than the traditional city in front of you.

Wang Anguo asked: "Since our country has so many local industries, there must be a lot of local people who rely on these industries for a living, right?"

Fu Li nodded and said: "Only accepting employment, there are at least [-] to [-] locals working for these industries. The population that directly and indirectly benefits from these industries is far greater than this. Of course, these are just folks. In the current situation, the groups that really benefit the most are those princes and nobles and court officials who hold all kinds of power in their hands."

There is no need for Fu Li to elaborate on the situation in the middle, and Shi Wang and the two of them can certainly understand the meaning, because they themselves belong to such vested interests.

Those industries with the highest profits and the easiest to be monopolized must be in the hands of powerful people.Whether this situation is in North Korea or elsewhere, there is actually not much difference.

The convoy headed north from the banks of the Han River, passed through downtown Seoul, and finally arrived at the palace at the southern foot of Bukhan Mountain.

Most of the current royal palace complex was rebuilt after the Imjin Japanese Invasion in 1592.At that time, the Japanese pirates captured Seoul in only [-] days, and the main palace complexes such as Gyeongbokgung Palace, Changdeok Palace, and Changqing Palace were all burned down during the war.

However, within a few years after the Imjin Japanese Invasion, Hou Jin began to invade North Korea. Under the pressure of the war, the Korean royal family could not spend much money to rebuild the royal palace, so Li Zhen basically did not enjoy it during his reign. What a blessing, the living environment is not even comparable to the palace on Jianghua Island.

After Li Yan ascended the throne, North Korea's economic situation improved year by year due to its commercial relationship with Haihan, and finally it was able to free up its hands to slowly rebuild the palace.After more than ten years, the original appearance of the royal palace complex has basically been restored.And because North Korea was out of the Ming Dynasty's control, it no longer had to abide by the previous rules of monarchs and ministers. Under Li Yan's instruction, the scale of the newly built palace was larger than before, and it didn't look as shabby as the Ganghwa Island Palace.

At present, the main palace of Li Yi is located in Jingfu Palace, and there are palace buildings such as Qinzheng Hall, Sizheng Hall, Kangning Hall, Jiaotai Hall, and Ciqing Hall.The banquet prepared by Li Yan for the Haihan mission was held in the Qinghui Building beside an artificial lake in Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Although Qinghui Building bears the word building, it actually only has two floors.This place is specially used for the king to hold banquets to entertain ministers or foreign envoys, which is equivalent to a royal banquet hall.

Because this kind of diplomatic banquet involves the relationship between the two countries, the ceremony is complicated and lengthy. In addition, there are a large number of people present, and it is not convenient to exchange some sensitive topics. Therefore, for the young officials of the Haihan Mission, this is not a pleasant one. occasion.

(End of this chapter)