Chapter 58 Investigation Report
At the executive committee meeting at Base 2 that night, Yan Chujie, as the leader of the action team, made a report on the process and results of the Yazhou inspection operation.
"First of all, let me talk about the results of the military investigation. The garrison in Yazhou is divided into two armies: water and land. Among them, we generally know the situation of the water village. Although we were not able to enter the water village this time, according to our observations, the general situation should be As Luo Shengdong explained before, the garrison in Yazhou is mainly composed of about 1,700 troops, stationed at the west gate of Yazhou. We managed to get close to the military camp and found that most of the barracks were empty. , if this is not a coincidence, we believe that the actual number of garrison troops in Yazhou City is about 700 to 1,000. In addition, the proportion of old and weak soldiers among these Ming soldiers is very high, which is consistent with the large number of deserted troops we know about in the late Ming Dynasty. The historical facts of the battle are consistent.”
"In terms of city defense, the Yazhou city wall is six to seven meters high and more than three meters thick. The four walls are 500 to 700 meters long respectively. The defense facilities on the city wall are relatively intact, but there are no large-caliber artillery or forts. Later, Luo Sheng Dong also confirmed this. According to what we know, the proportion of Yazhou Ming army equipped with fire guns is about one third, but there is very little experience in live ammunition shooting, and the army is not equipped with long-range firepower, only a small amount. The Fo Lang machine gun was equipped during the Jiajing period. Whether it can be launched now is a question.”
"The defense outside the city mainly uses Yazhou Water Village and Nanshan Inspection Department as water and land gateways. It's hard to say how capable Yazhou Water Village is in water combat. Nanshan's Inspection Department only has more than 40 people, so it won't be very big. In addition, there are no Yazhou official agencies stationed in Tianya Town and Fenghuang Town between Yazhou and Shengli Port. I think the executive committee can consider sending work teams to these places as soon as possible.”
"Finally, according to the assessment of our military team, it is not recommended to attack Yazhou with force before sufficient heavy weapons are built. Even if we do not consider the consumption of materials and forcibly capture Yazhou City, we will inevitably encounter difficulties in the process of entering the city. If there are casualties when encountering resistance, it may turn into bloody street fighting, which will be very detrimental to our future governance in Yazhou.”
Yan Chujie closed his notebook and said: "This is the military situation. Regarding the trade situation, please ask Schneider to report to you."
Schneider stood up and walked to the front desk and began his report: "As far as I know, there are about 4,000 households living in and outside Yazhou City. Counting the garrison and various prisoners, the total population is about 20,000. Up and down. Although this consumer market is not big, the actual consumption power is not bad. What I observed in two commercial banks in Yazhou is that they sell some relatively high-priced non-daily necessities, such as high-end stationery. , porcelain, jewelry, etc. The turnover of these two firms is about 500 to 800 taels per month. Considering the population base of Yazhou and the existence of other small shops and private traders, this turnover is from a commercial perspective. It is said to be very good, and it also shows that the private purchasing power of Yazhou is higher than we thought.”
"In addition, we need to note that Yazhou also administratively governs five counties: Ningyuan, Ganfen, Changhua, Lingshui, and Wanxian. The actual controlled population and area are far beyond what we currently understand. In the future, Yazhou will be one of our main business targets, and these areas will also become our business radiation areas.”
"Currently, most of the goods sold in Yazhou City are produced locally, and a considerable part of daily necessities are shipped from Qiongzhou and Guangzhou. Not only are the prices high, but the supply is also very limited. In addition, the Executive Committee is concerned Regarding the issue of salt, currently the salt on the Yazhou market is basically shipped from the Yangpu Salt Farm in Danzhou, and the sales price is three to four hundred yuan. I think our products are very competitive in terms of price and quality. . And we have also convinced Luo Shengdong to use Yazhou Shuizhai's ship to help us traffic in private salt. Of course, the top priority in this matter is to get our salt farm started as soon as possible, since there is one in Hainan Island alone. There is about 500 tons of salt market every year waiting for us to capture! ”
“Our export products should be mainly glass products with higher added value in the initial stage. It is said that the glass products shipped by the Spanish are in short supply in Guangzhou. It is recommended that the executive committee consider setting up an office in Guangzhou as soon as possible to ship our products directly. In the past, they entered the Guangzhou market to steal Spanish jobs..."
"We don't have that much available ocean shipping capacity to run the Guangzhou route at this stage." Sun Changmi of the Ministry of Shipping interrupted Schneider's impassioned speech without mercy: "Now we only have one Guangzhou ship and one Haicang ship on hand. The Haicang ship is still a warship and cannot carry much cargo. If two ships go to Guangzhou, they can bring back only twenty or thirty tons of cargo. How useful is it? "
Schneider smiled and said: "I have actually considered these issues you mentioned. We can not only use our own transportation capacity, but our trading partners can also work for us. For example, the 'Furuifeng' that has reached a deal with us this time It's the Guangzhou trading company. They promised to ship the materials we need from Guangzhou in the future. We just need to calculate the freight. When we set up a Guangzhou office and have more products, there will definitely be more trading companies. The goods come to Victory Port to trade with us... By the way, speaking of this, I must remind the Executive Committee that the tonnage of our temporary terminal is very limited, and it is time to build a larger permanent terminal."
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"No one is available!" Ning Qi complained immediately: "The salt fields and farms will soon start to form communes, which will take away at least two hundred laborers. The land passage from Base 2 to Victory Port has been opened However, manpower must be organized to renovate the ground before oxcarts can pass. It will take at least a month for the construction site of the hydropower station to be completed. The Tiandu Iron Mine must be officially mined, the charcoal kiln must be expanded, and the cement kiln and iron-making workshop must be expanded. The glass kiln and the glass kiln will be put into operation immediately. Tell me, where can we organize a large number of laborers to repair the dock in Victory Port?" Before Schneider could reply, Tao Donglai spoke: "By the way, you are going out to inspect this time to introduce the population? Any new ideas for the question? ”
"It's okay to say that these nearby villages and towns are mostly poor people. If they can find a place with stable food and income, I believe there are many people willing to come. However, it will be more troublesome in places further away. If you are in Yazhou I don’t know if recruiting workers on a large scale will attract official attention.” Schneider was also helpless about this. The executive committee had money and food, but it wanted to make the residents near Yazhou abandon their current lives and come to them. Life in the wilderness is not an easy task.
"Didn't Luo Shengdong say that we can dispatch prisoners to do hard labor in Victory Port?" Gu Kai interrupted and asked.
"That's what I said, but he is still the CEO, and his power is too small to reach his place. He has to wait for Qiongzhou City to give him a promotion order before he can find a way to allocate labor to us." Regarding this matter, Schneider I had already asked Luo Shengdong in detail at the wine table, so he knew more clearly.
"I don't think there will be that many ships coming to Victory Port in the short term. Those who are building the pier will wait a while and wait until Luo Shengdong has specific news before arranging construction." Tao Donglai finally made the decision: "Glass The kiln and salt field must be put into operation as soon as possible, and the manpower can be prioritized. As for the establishment of the Guangzhou office, I suggest that we wait until the hydropower station project is completed. After all, this is a major event that requires coordination from multiple departments. We can’t spare a moment now. Dedicate so much energy to prepare for this matter.”
Next, each department reported on the procurement of materials. Except for the shipping department, which was quite satisfied with the purchase of the tung oil, cloth and shipbuilding tools they needed, most of the other procurement projects were not completed. Sulfur, saltpeter, cassiterite, and cinnabar were purchased separately. The purchase price ranged from tens to one or two hundred kilograms. However, coke and coal, which were in great demand, only purchased 500 kilograms and 1,400 kilograms respectively. This was simply a drop in the bucket for the industrial projects that the Executive Committee was planning to launch. . Fortunately, the two trading houses in Yazhou have already stated that they will organize the supply of goods as soon as possible and transport them to Victory Port for trading.
After the report about the field trip to Yazhou, the next topic is some relatively trivial matters. The person in charge of each project raised various problems encountered in actual operations and discussed solutions together. This discussion will be held every night, and the executive committee will make adjustments to the next development plan based on the difficulties encountered by each project.
Although many of them were specialized technical talents in the past, in the past large-scale industrial era where social division of labor was extremely detailed, the vast majority of them did not have much practical experience in the project construction process. This has resulted in most projects crossing the river by feeling the stones, with endless problems emerging.
For example, Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi, who are studying shipbuilding, have a professional background and are familiar with various ship hull structures. It is not too difficult to design a sea-going ship, but they have to pick up an ax and saw to build a sea-going ship from wood. After I came out, it was not as easy as talking, and my hands-on ability was far inferior to that of Cai Hongzhan, who had been a carpenter. The same situation is reflected to varying degrees in almost every project, which slowly exposes the weakness of the group's crowd structure - there are enough people with theoretical knowledge, but too few people with practical experience.
Faced with this situation, the Executive Committee has no better solution. It can only encourage everyone to boldly try while paying attention to safety. Even if they fail, it will only be regarded as paying tuition. The only thing that makes people feel gratified is that the foundation of agriculture is very solid. There have never been any problems in time travel so far. All agricultural plans made in advance are being completed step by step. This at least allows people in time travel not to worry because no one knows how to farm. Starve to death in this era.
(End of chapter)