Chapter 253 The situation of occupying the city
Only now did Zhan Gui understand why the Haihan people held such a grand celebration ceremony for the launch of a new ship. This was really not just for fun. This weird-looking sailboat is not only extremely fast on the sea and can turn flexibly, but it is also equipped with powerful firepower output! Zhan Gui boasts that he has been traveling all over the country for many years and has seen many Ming navy warships, but he has never seen a gunboat with such powerful firepower. The Haihan people are going to defy heaven!
Of course, with Zhan Gui's professional vision, it is not difficult to see that it is not difficult to transform this thorny gunboat into a merchant ship, and it will have a greater cost advantage than a warship in terms of cost and construction speed. Since the Haihan people attach so much importance to shipping, they certainly would not have thought of this. Perhaps by this time next year, there will be such a fleet running between various commercial ports in the South China Sea.
Luo Shengdong was as calm as water at this time. After witnessing the firepower display of the "Exploration", he had confirmed the strength gap between the Ming Navy and the Haihan people. This gap is so big that it can no longer be made up simply by relying on numerical superiority - at least relying on these dilapidated warships in Yazhou with a minimum service life of more than fifteen years is definitely hopeless. From then on, the Ming Navy probably no longer had the final say on the sea south of Qiongzhou.
As a professional soldier, Luo Shengdong was of course very aware of the threat that Haihan gunboats would pose to the Ming Dynasty's waters. The only way to eliminate this threat was to immediately inform his superiors and mobilize naval forces from Guangdong to encircle Victory Port. Take advantage of the fledgling Haihan people to completely extinguish this momentum. But Luo Shengdong also knew that this idea was unrealistic. Not to mention how long it would take the Guangdong Navy to prepare for the expedition. After arriving at Victory Port, whether it could defeat the fierce Haihan armed force was just a matter of time. The requirement of reporting for troops may no longer be achievable.
Now almost the entire Yazhou officialdom has been linked to Haihan's interest chain. Whether they are low-level officials like Luo Shengdong and Wei Ping, or local officials at the level of generals and governors, there are many Taking advantage of the Haihan people, several senior officials who were about to retire even directly approached the Haihan people with the idea of pensions. For these people, without the Haihan people, the personal income they would lose every year would be thousands of taels - Luo Shengdong estimated that his personal income next year would even be as high as 5,000 taels.
Such a huge benefit cannot be thrown away easily. There are at least hundreds of people living off the Haihan people in Yazhou City, and a considerable number of them are people "within the system". Even Jinyiwei and Dong There are people in the factory who are bribed by the Haihan people. Luo Shengdong can completely imagine that if anyone really plans to go through formal channels to report for troops, I am afraid that the news has not even left Yazhou, and Shengli Port will already know about it. The possibility of relying on force to solve this problem is not high, unless the Haihan people take the initiative to provoke or even rebel and attack the city - this is even less likely than the Yazhou Navy to single-handedly take out the Haihan people.
After being in contact for a long time, Luo Shengdong also knew very well that the Haihan people would not easily adopt a hostile attitude towards the Ming Dynasty. These people attached great importance to practical interests. For this reason, they even did not hesitate to "compromise" and followed the instructions of the local government to move the Shengli Port to Shengli Port. Under the rule of Yazhou - of course, not even a single copper plate of the benefits they handed over to Yazhou went into the treasury.
Luo Shengdong thought that the gentlemen in Yazhou were happy to receive the red envelopes, but it was obvious that they did not know what kind of people lived in Shengli Port, a hundred miles away from Yazhou. The Haihan people are not obedient lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Under their seemingly docile appearance, they are actually a group of hungry wolves with green eyes that are constantly devouring all resources. When Luo Shengdong first met the Haihan people a few months ago, they were just a group of merchants who had just landed in Victory Port. Three to five hundred people lived in tents. They looked no different from the pirates who plundered the shore. But now the population under their control has been ten times that of the original, and they have established a huge situation in Victory Port. Even the unruly Li Miao people nearby are working for them. This is not something that maritime merchants can do. But the men in Yazhou are not aware of such a threat, and will not be interested in it. As long as the Haihan people provide benefits on a regular basis, not to mention a victory port, they even want to let the Haihan people include several nearby towns. Taken over.
Under such an environment, Luo Shengdong put aside those restless thoughts early on and went about his smuggling business with peace of mind. What's more, the Haihan people are now offering to help his father-in-law to take over the position of magistrate of Yazhou next year. If he comes up with any tricks at this time, his father-in-law will probably not let him go without the Haihan people taking action.
Li Nai did not think about things as complicated as Luo Shengdong. He was listening attentively to Tao Donglai's explanation. For this new ship, he only understood what he had visited the shipyard a few days ago after seeing the actual operation. I just scratched the surface, and there are still too many things I don’t understand. And Tao Donglai's explanation could just answer some of the questions in his mind at this time.
Tao Donglai talked eloquently: "...We will build a large number of these sailing ships in the next two or three years, mainly for maritime transportation tasks. As for the artillery equipped on the ship, you don't have to worry, we don't plan to build it. There are too many gunboats, because we do not plan to start a war, and after installing so many artillery guns on the ship, we can no longer load cargo. We are not interested in spending manpower and material resources to send a large number of armed gunboats to patrol the sea. This kind of drudgery This thing should be the work that Mr. Luo Ba and his navy should complete... By the way, I think we need to change our habits soon and call ourselves "Mr. Luo Qian"."
Luo Shengdong suddenly came out of his reverie, clasped his fists and said he didn't dare. After everyone else heard about it, they also congratulated Luo Shengdong.
It had only been half a year since Luo Shengdong was promoted from the humble Chief Hundred Officer to the rank of Seventh-grade Military Attaché General. Logically speaking, it was unlikely that he would get a second promotion in such a short period of time. However, since the Executive Committee intends to cultivate its own spokesperson in the Ming Dynasty officialdom, it can naturally find reasonable ways to push him.
The opportunity to find this opportunity came from the Indochina Peninsula across the sea. A considerable part of the first batch of immigrants organized by North Vietnam were prisoners of war from South Vietnam and severe prisoners from North Vietnam. After simple screening, these people were put into the extremely labor-intensive Tianduk Iron Mine as miners. . The Executive Committee had no intention of allowing these people to become naturalized citizens from the beginning, so it was relatively thorough in its use - within one month after arriving in Hong Kong, these more than 500 people One tenth of them died from fatigue and various work accidents.
After these people died, the bodies were not wasted and were immediately sent to the medical department for autopsy. The medical department is currently conducting training for naturalized medical staff, and the bodies of these prisoners can be used in the course. The executive committee also thought of Luo Shengdong - the reason why Luo Shengdong was promoted was because he brought a group of pirate heads back to Yazhou to report his merits.
So Luo Shengdong once again received the assistance of the Executive Committee, and with the record of "killing more than 50 pirates, sinking two pirate ships, and capturing several swords and guns", his immediate superior, General He Wenhui, personally wrote a report and sent it to He went to Qiongzhou Fucheng to report his merits and asked to promote Luo Shengdong, who was "unparalleled in loyalty and bravery, and had won many battles" as appropriate. Of course, things like swords, guns, flags, etc. were also props prepared for him by Victory Port.
The achievement of annihilating incoming pirate gangs twice within a year is unique in the entire Guangdong Province. Compared with the situation where the Fujian officers and soldiers had been beaten by the "Eighteen Zhi" and could not leave the port at all, Yazhou's "bandit suppression" record was dazzling. Moreover, the heads sent to Qiongzhou Prefecture for merit examination all have obvious characteristics of the natives of the South China Sea, and they are not an act of killing good people and taking merit. He Wenhui believes that Luo Shengdong is very hopeful that he will get his second job promotion within a year, from general manager to general manager Qian. Although Yazhou Shuizhai currently does not have the position of General Qian, this is not a problem - the position setting of military attachés here has been unusual from the beginning. The establishment of 500 people only has a staff general. Then it seems that it is not unreasonable to add another Qianzong below the general.
If it were not for the fact that promotions require a step-by-step rule, the seventh-grade general can only be promoted to the sixth-grade thousand general at most. General He even had the intention to directly recommend Luo Shengdong for a defensive or even guerrilla position - anyway, the Haihan people A message came from the side that Luo Shengdong would immediately give two thousand taels of silver as long as he was promoted to one level, and five thousand taels for two levels. If He Wenhui had the ability to let Luo Shengdong directly take over his position as a general, then the Haihan people Willing to pay five figures for it.
This amount of money does not include the cost of fixing the joints. For He Wenhui, it is pure income. But He Wenhui could only lament that his influence was limited and he could not meet the expectations of the Haihan people - the appointment of a military attaché at the level of Luo Shengdong was not something that a military attache of Luo Shengdong's level could get involved in. Even the Nanjing Ministry of War couldn't make the decision on this matter. You have to report to the Ministry of War in Beijing. However, since he couldn't get much money, He Wenhui thought that it would be no problem for him to at least let Luo Shengdong advance to another level before retiring.
Luo Shengdong also held the same view on this. His promotion was only a matter of time, and it didn't even have much to do with whether He Wenhui was in charge. The reason why Luo Shengdong is so confident is because he has the support of the Haihan people behind him. Tao Donglai even told him privately that if his merits this time were not enough to upgrade him, then next time he would send a hundred heads to Qiongzhou Fucheng to report his merits. If not, he would send two hundred or three hundred heads. This way It keeps adding up until he is promoted - anyway, there is a constant war in Vietnam, so it is not difficult to ask Zheng for some enemy heads. Luo Shengdong didn't know very well where the Haihan people got the heads of so many South China Sea natives, but there was no doubt about the credibility of what Tao Donglai said. Even if he accumulated military exploits, he should be promoted to Chief Qian soon. . But the excitement that this kind of promotion brought to Luo Shengdong was not even as good as the time when he escaped from death and returned to Yazhou. At that time, Luo Shengdong thought that his promotion to the boss would be the pinnacle of his life, but later he discovered that the height he could reach was directly linked to the strength of the support from Haihan people behind him. Not to mention the current President Qian, Luo Shengdong now feels that there is no hope of taking up the post as a future general or even as a general. But no matter how high his position is, he still can't break away from Haihan's control. If he has second thoughts one day, Haihan people will surely launch a "pirate attack" without hesitation, allowing himself, a naval officer, to directly Die somewhere. Luo Shengdong was even thinking that the Haihan people specially invited him to go out to sea to watch this performance today, probably to shock and warn him.
After watching the "Discovery" test gun, the "Lightning" they were on sailed back, leaving another catamaran "Speed" to continue to follow the "Discovery" as an escort. There will be many tests on the ultimate performance of the ship in the future. The Executive Committee does not want everything about the "Discovery" to be exposed to the outside world prematurely. A moderate show of force is enough.
After returning to the port, Tao Donglai and others met Zhan Gui alone and listened to the process of his transaction in Champa.
As expected by the executive committee, the five thousand kilograms of salt Zhan Gui brought this time was successfully sold to the locals. Due to the Civil War, the important salt-producing areas of the Indochina Peninsula completely stopped production. Although there were some small salt farms in Champa, the output was completely insufficient to supply the people. The salt shortage was even more serious than that in North Vietnam. According to what Zhan Gui learned from local businessmen, the salt gap in the Champa area will be at least hundreds of thousands of kilograms in the next year.
In addition, Zhan Gui also got some information about another matter that the executive committee was concerned about. The Cam Ranh Bay area is indeed under the name of the Champa State, and due to the geographical environment of the natural harbor, there are still many fishermen living there. However, due to the decline of the Champa royal family in recent years, it has lost its actual jurisdiction in many places. It is said that the same is true in Cam Ranh Bay. There is no official management agency for Champa, just like the Victory Port before the Crossing Group landed.
For this reason, Zhan Gui has not come into contact with the official agency that manages Cam Ranh Bay, but he believes that there is no need to contact the government to set up a local business store - the Champa government doesn't even care about its own people, so how can it control outsiders? personnel.
In addition, there is another thing in the situation reported by Zhan Gui that attracted the attention of the Executive Committee. A considerable number of Portuguese and French missionaries have appeared in the Champa area, and a certain number of matchlock guns have been imported into the area. Moreover, it is said that some missionaries have gone to the area north of Champa, under the jurisdiction of the Nguyen clan in South Vietnam, a few months ago. It is believed that they should have made contact with the Nguyen clan's regime by this time.
The infiltration activities of Western forces in the Indochina Peninsula had been specifically raised when the Black Earth Port colonization operation was originally planned, and it also attracted sufficient attention from the Executive Committee. The coastal area in the southern part of the Indochina Peninsula is the chokepoint of the waterway between Port of Victory and the Strait of Malacca. From a development perspective, the crossing group must first control this maritime artery in order to ensure its future access to Malacca and even the Indian Ocean. Safety. The presence of Western forces in the local area is undoubtedly a hidden threat to the crossing group - these white-skinned colonists will never coexist peacefully with other races on the earth. The encounters between black Africans and American Indians have fully proved this. a little.
The Executive Committee does not expect them to adopt a different approach after coming to Asia. After all, dogs cannot change their behavior. After a few hundred years, the methods of Western countries will not change much from the colonial period. It just adds the decoration of "democracy" and "freedom". The Executive Committee will not have the slightest pity for these competitors who will pose a threat to the Chuan regime in the future - exterminating the Western forces on the Indochina Peninsula as soon as possible is the best security guarantee for the Chuan group.
Of course, to take such action, you must first establish a certain degree of power in the local area or reach a certain degree of cooperative relationship with local officials. And such cooperation may not be possible just by smuggling salt.
In return for the information provided by Zhan Gui, the Executive Committee specially approved 5 tons of salt and a small amount of glassware for Zhan Gui to sell wherever he wanted, as long as they were not sold locally on Qiongzhou Island. The valuable commodities such as ebony, ivory, and rhinoceros horns that Zhan Gui transported back from Champa this time were directly placed in Victory Port and were not intended to be transported back to the mainland.
Although the Haihan people did not reveal their intention to acquire these things, Zhan Gui believed that even if he did not sell them to the Haihan people, he could still make a lot of money by selling these things to mainland businessmen in Victory Port. The reason is very simple. The Haihan people only charge one thousandth of the transaction amount as a handling fee from both parties for mutual transactions between foreign merchants in Victory Port. The zero-tariff setting will soon attract more mainland merchants to come with goods. Trade here is because it is the only place in East Asia and South Asia that implements a zero-tariff policy on imported goods - whether it is Yuegang, Guangzhou, Macau, Jelanja, Manila or Batavia, as long as you enter the port If there are goods on the cargo ship, duties will be charged.
The zero-tariff policy currently implemented by Victory Port is irresistible to merchants. Because there is no tariff cost, the transaction price of goods sold and purchased here will be lower than that of other commercial ports. The more valuable the goods, the higher the price. The better the deal. Zhan Gui has even begun to plan to move his base near Guangzhou to Shengli Port in Yazhou, and then carry out activities around this center, which can save a considerable amount of money every year in various taxes alone.
There are indeed many maritime merchants with the same idea. After the last batch of merchants who visited Victory Port returned to Guangzhou carrying various goods and novel experiences, Victory Port, an originally unknown small port in the South China Sea, immediately attracted the attention of maritime merchants. of attention.
It’s the end of the month soon. Let’s take a look at your hands to see if you still have any unvoted monthly votes. Don’t waste them. You understand.
(End of chapter)