Chapter 226 Trip to Vietnam (9)
It was already dark at this time. Although Zheng Zha was a young man, he had put a lot of effort into talking for a long time. At this time, he could no longer hide the fatigue in his eyes. When Tao Donglai saw this, he suggested that he leave the remaining details of the transaction. Let's discuss it tomorrow. The main contents of the transaction had been agreed upon by both parties, and Zheng Zhu felt relaxed, so he agreed to Tao Donglai's proposal.
As soon as Zheng Zha left, Qian Tiandun and others stood up excitedly, shook hands with each other and congratulated each other. The negotiations have reached this stage, and the results achieved have greatly exceeded their previous expectations, and these results will bring actual benefits to the Crossing Group, not only in terms of economic interests, but also to their own military strength, The outward expansion of political influence, and even the long-term plan for the crossing regime to control the entire South China Sea region, have played an excellent role in promoting it.
"Mr. Tao, I am really convinced by you!" Xie Chun sincerely expressed his admiration for Tao Donglai: "From the beginning to the end of the negotiation this afternoon, I was always holding the hand of the little Vietnamese prince. Your nose is moving, you fool...oh, your negotiation skills are really great!”
Tao Donglai's face was also a little tired, but the excitement in his eyes could not be concealed: "We have captured this city. In the next few years, the safety factor in North Vietnam will be greatly improved. And the military industry Our income and source of immigration have been stabilized, and we are finally on the track for steady development! But don’t be careless, the subsequent details still need to be handled properly, so our trade relationship with the Zheng family in North Vietnam is not a one-and-done deal. Many issues must be dealt with carefully. In addition, everyone should not forget that the purpose of our arms trade or other industrial product trade with Vietnam is not only to make money, but also to export our values through trade channels, from the military perspective. Gradually controlling these areas economically and in order to gain sufficient political influence is what we need to do with our heart.”
"The troops that Zheng sent for training must also be the elite of North Vietnam. In five or ten years, a considerable number of officers in the North Vietnamese army will be trained by us. I, Qian Tiandun, can guarantee that by then At that time, most of these people will be more politically inclined to our side," Qian Tiandun said with confidence.
This is true. When it comes to the level of military and political work, no country in the world can compare with Chuan Chuan Group. For a purely agricultural country like North Vietnam, its army has no political function at all. There are only a few professional soldiers, and most of them are peasant soldiers temporarily recruited during wartime. Their combat effectiveness and fighting will are quite poor, so when Ning Qi talked about The strength of the Vietnamese army is also quite disdainful, believing that its actual combat effectiveness poses an extremely limited threat to the crossing group.
But this does not mean that Vietnam is a place that can be pinched casually. The mountains are crisscrossed and the water systems are dense. It is definitely a nightmare for the army's logistics. In this time and space that lacks developed transportation channels, any powerful army will have a headache with its route of advancement when it arrives here - the terrible transportation conditions here are a more powerful opponent than the peasants and soldiers. For modern thermal weapons forces that rely heavily on heavy firepower and logistical supplies, the impact of this shortcoming will be particularly obvious. Tao Donglai disagreed with setting up the future Vietnamese army training camp in the inland Hanoi area. In addition to the plans based on his own needs, the supply inconvenience caused by poor transportation conditions was also one of the important reasons.
The North Vietnamese Zheng family wanted to improve the combat capabilities of its troops by replacing new weapons. In addition to paying a large amount of money to the Crossing Group, the Zheng family also had to hand over soldiers and officers to the Crossing Group for training. Although the training period is not very long, only about three months at best, it is enough for the Military and Police Department to do a lot of things. The first concept that must be instilled in the trained North Vietnamese soldiers is that "the Hai Han army is invincible." Relevant personnel at the base camp had already begun to compile a special "Foreign Military Training Guide" before the caravan set off. The purpose was to make the other party gradually aware of Haihan's military power from the beginning of the contact between military personnel from both sides. The powerful, advanced military technology and clever tactics have formed a strong subconscious mind in their hearts, thereby eliminating the hostility and defensiveness of the North Vietnamese military towards the crossing regime.
This kind of ideological indoctrination may not necessarily be effective quickly, but after years of continuous operation, those North Vietnamese soldiers who survived on the battlefield will gradually realize how useful what they learned from the traversers is, and thus further Deepen their awe of Haihan's military power. And when this sense of awe accumulates to a certain level, it can completely achieve the effect of "conquering the enemy without fighting".
However, there is still a lot of specific work to be done to achieve this goal. For now, it is a matter of setting up training camps for the Vietnamese army. As the leader of this plan, the Traversing Army needs to plan the camp before the opponent's troops arrive, select personnel to serve as military advisors, and formulate corresponding training plans. Of course, the specific hard work of building camps and training facilities will naturally have to be done by the North Vietnamese soldiers in training. Military consultants will not do such rough work.
In addition, although Zheng Zha has agreed to this training plan, the specific costs, including the construction and operation costs of the training camp, as well as the remuneration of the military consultants, still need to be calculated. As for the profits from this, it will be used to allocate it to Qian Tiandun, allowing him to form a real field combat force in the Black Earth Port area.
Qian Tiandun had not carefully calculated how much it would cost to form this new army, but he had already prepared a list of weapons and supplies needed for the new army, and respectfully handed it to Tao Donglai with both hands. : "Mr. Tao, this is the list of military supplies I have made. Please take a look at it."
Tao Donglai took it and looked at it carefully. The military supplies Qian Tiandun requested were not excessive. They included a company of flintlock rifles, a full set of military uniforms, personal equipment for individual soldiers, and two small-caliber 3-pound field guns.
The reason why the 3-pounder gun was chosen instead of the existing 6-pounder gun as the heavy weapon of this unit was explained by Qian Tiandun mainly because of the local terrain in Vietnam. Due to its size and capacity, large artillery is very inconvenient to move in the wild. . For example, although the 6-pound gun is considered a small-caliber gun among existing artillery, its dead weight is still more than 200 kilograms. With the entire set of mobile gun mounts, the actual weight has exceeded 300 kilograms. If there are no livestock such as mules and horses for traction, power, then the mobility of these artillery in the field will be very limited.
Mules and horses are currently strictly controlled strategic materials in Black Earth Port, and they are all used to pull rail coal trucks between the mining area and the port area. Because there are not enough mules and horses, there are still several coal trucks that are pulled by oxen. This situation may only be improved next year when steam engine power begins to be gradually promoted.
The weight of the 3-pound gun is only slightly more than half that of the 6-pound gun, and it can maneuver quickly within a certain distance using only manpower in the field. This is undoubtedly more in line with Qian Tiandun's positioning of "mountain jungle combat" for the new unit.
After listening to his explanation, Tao Donglai put away the list of supplies and continued to ask noncommittally: "After the establishment of this unit, where do you plan to use it as a training area?"
Qian Tiandun had already planned this, and immediately took out his laptop and pulled up a map of the Halong Bay area. Wang Tom and Xie Chun also came over and listened to Qian Tiandun's explanation with great interest.
"According to what we know so far, most of the areas in the waters east of Black Tu Port and to the Guangxi coast in the northeast are no-man's land, and there are no armed forces that can threaten Black Tu Port. Consider actual combat. If necessary, I plan to place the training area for the new troops in the area west of Black Earth Port, especially the unexploited mining area in the west. There are both coastal plains and mountains that stretch for tens of miles. The terrain is complex and changeable, and it is untouched. The human area is very suitable for training this field combat force, and besides training, we can also make some preparations for future development of this area.”
"I would like to add something." Wang Tom has actual inspection experience in this area, and among the people here, he has the best say: "I think the fan-shaped bay in this area is of great development value. At that time, the location of Heitu Port was just a matter of Because the harbor conditions there are more suitable for the requirements, but if we want to comprehensively develop this area in the future, the land to the west is actually more valuable. In addition to a peninsula for coal mining, this area is almost closed. There is also a large area of coastal beach in the bay that can be used to build salt fields. Although it is not as large as Yinggehai, it is at least equivalent to several Tieliang ports." Tao Donglai pondered for a while before saying: "This place is a new place. The training area for the troops can be determined, but there is no rush to develop it before we have sufficient military strength. We still don't want North Vietnam to be too defensive against us. The current coal output of Black Earth Port can fully meet the production needs. What we lack now is not coal production capacity, but maritime transportation capacity. After the deal is negotiated tomorrow, we can notify the base camp to increase orders at the shipyards in Guangzhou and Qiongzhou. In addition, we must hire more crew members and sailors. . Heitu Port is within a hundred nautical miles of Qinzhou and Lianzhou in Guangxi. If you have the opportunity, you can also send a caravan to Guangxi to explore the road and see if you can hire people there. The local sugar, textile, paper, ironware and other industries are relatively developed. You can figure out how to conduct trade. ”
Xie Chun's eyes lit up and he said: "Then can we sell the coal there?"
"Yes! As long as you can sell it." Tao Donglai nodded.
But before Xie Chun and Qian Tiandun could get happy, Tao Donglai immediately added another shot: "But I must remind you that coal is produced locally in Qinzhou. Although it is not as high quality as the coal from Black Tu Port, the coal from Black Tu Port is I’m afraid there won’t be much price advantage if we use cross-port shipping.”
Seeing that the mood of the two people immediately dropped, Tao Donglai could only sigh that these two guys were really not good at doing business. He coughed dryly and reminded: "The so-called trade means buying low and selling high. Think about it. Is there something profitable to traffic in? ”
The two looked at each other and said in unison: "Food!"
The Red River Delta in North Vietnam mainly produces rice. However, serious land annexation in North Vietnam has resulted in a large amount of rice being concentrated in the hands of a very small number of powerful people, and poor people can only purchase a small part of it. Rice is very important to North Vietnamese powerful people. It's just cheap wealth with a limited shelf life. However, the level of sea trade in North Vietnam is not enough to export this excess rice. The crossing group can take advantage of this loophole and traffic the cheap rice produced here to Guangdong and Guangxi via sea routes.
Although many industries in the Qinzhou area are relatively developed, food production is a huge weakness. Historically, it has been a food-deficient area. According to records in the "Guangdong Yearbook", by the 1940s, Qinzhou's average grain yield per mu was only 80 kilograms. It was unable to achieve self-sufficiency and needed to be supplied from other places. This situation was maintained until the 1980s. The era has undergone fundamental changes. In other words, the food gap in the Qinzhou area is very large, and the Guangdong and Guangxi regions are not originally major food producing areas. Therefore, the local food prices are very different from those in North Vietnam, and the profit margins of the food trafficking business are still considerable.
However, what Tao Donglai can give them is only conceptual inspiration. The current base camp cannot give them much help, especially in terms of transportation capacity. Most of the existing maritime transport capacity has been invested in transporting coal between the two places. Next, thousands of immigrants will need to be transported by specialized sea ships every month. It is unlikely that any more transport capacity will be allocated under the current circumstances. Let Heitu Port do the sea trade. If the Black Earth Port Management Committee really wants to take action in this area, it will have to solve the capacity problem on its own.
Several people discussed the future development of Black Earth Port until late at night before they dispersed to rest.
The next morning, the two sides continued to negotiate on unfinished matters. However, because the broad framework has been basically determined in the first day of negotiations, the atmosphere of today's negotiations seems more relaxed. Tao Donglai presented Zheng Zha with a large number of gifts as soon as he arrived. In addition to the various spices mentioned on the first day, there were also various glass products, matches, soaps, military knives, etc. produced by Chuanchuan Group, and even a Specially made flintlock pistols, which are gifts produced in small batches by the military industry department in accordance with the requirements of the Executive Committee, are specially used to give to dignitaries during foreign affairs activities. As the future ruler of Annan Kingdom, Zheng Zha could afford this great gift.
Zheng Zha conducted the test firing with great interest and was very satisfied with the gift. He believed that this kind of well-made handgun was much more advanced than those clumsy matchlock guns - in the newly learned Haihan language, this was called "forced style". The gifts that Zheng Zha received all reflected the "strong style" emphasized by the Haihan people.
Since Vietnam's maritime trade is not developed, the stock of domestic glass products in Vietnam is very small. Based on the limited number of glass products Zheng Zha has seen in the past, he believes that they cannot be compared with the glass products presented by the Haihan people, especially those given by the Haihan people. The glass mirror that can clearly reflect hair and the exquisitely designed glass stationery are regarded as treasures by Zheng Zha. Tao Donglai lost no time in explaining to him, claiming that these things are currently mainly sold to the Ming Dynasty and have been widely praised by users in Guangzhou.
Zheng Zhuo has never been to the Ming Dynasty, but he still knows about Guangzhou. It is the largest and most prosperous city in southern China. According to people who have been to Guangzhou, the city is as big as several Shenglong Prefectures. Outside the city, it is on the Pearl River. There are more ships coming and going than the entire Annan Kingdom combined. Countless merchants rush there from various countries every day to trade. There are even more active merchants in the Guangzhou market than there are residents in Sheng Long Palace. In Zheng Zha's mind, Guangzhou is a very prosperous metropolis, and these daily necessities that the locals like are undoubtedly a "high-class" lifestyle worth imitating. But even leaving aside Guangzhou, Zheng Zha believes that after these exquisitely crafted objects are transported back to Thang Long Palace, they will also cause great repercussions among the country's elite.
Zheng Zha shot the gun, washed his hands, looked in the mirror, and finally tried a match. He couldn't help but admire the exquisite craftsmanship of the Haihan people, which was definitely not comparable to the craftsmen in his own country. After the arms negotiations, Zheng Zha already knew that the Haihan people would never introduce these production workshops to their own country, but they probably wouldn't object to spending money to buy these products - they never seemed to know how to deal with money. I can't make it, everything I do seems to be to make more money.
So in this harmonious and friendly atmosphere, the two sides reached a series of agreements on the trade of daily necessities. The company under Zheng's name has obtained the exclusive agent qualification for Hai Han daily necessities in the area north of Hue. In parallel, Hai Han has also obtained the sole qualification certification as a North Vietnamese rice exporter, so that both parties can Bartering at an agreed price eliminates the need for gold, silver and other precious metals to circulate in the transaction process.
After the farewell lunch at noon that day, Zheng Zha took some of his subordinates and set off to leave. He was eager to return to Thang Long Mansion to show his father the great results of this transaction. Several people from the Vietnamese side stayed to discuss follow-up matters with the Crossing Group, mainly the details of setting up a new army training camp.
But by now, the most important task of Tao Dong's trip has been completed, and there is nothing left to do if he stays here. However, Qian Tiandun and others and the militiamen who came from the base camp still need to be stationed here for a few more days, and they can only take the next step after things in the training camp are clear. In the afternoon of the same day, Tao Donglai and others left the Tushan Peninsula on the sailing ship "Speed" and headed for the second destination of this trip, Heitu Port.
(End of chapter)