Chapter 343: Forcibly taking advantage of someone
Although the influence of the Yacheng government in most areas of Yazhou has gradually declined, the executive committee does not intend to completely take over the functions of the government in the near future. The existence of the Ming government can still play a role in the development of Chuanchuan Group. It has a certain positive effect. In the future, it will not only maintain its existence, but also try to use the Yacheng government to increase the influence of the Crossing Group on Qiongzhou Island.
Of course, this strategy of the Executive Committee is also experimental in nature. After all, there is no relevant experience and examples to learn from on how to coexist with the Ming government on Qiongzhou Island. Everyone is crossing the river by feeling the stones. Judging from the current development situation, it seems that the method of gradually evacuating local governments is relatively feasible. This basically ensures the stability of the surrounding environment to the greatest extent and allows the Cross-Travel Group to quickly enrich its own strength. And the degree of this isolation is also very important. If it is too much, it will inevitably arouse the hatred and resistance of Ming officials and cause unnecessary conflicts. If it is too little, the policies of the executive committee will not be implemented within the region and affect the development plan. .
Schneider spent two days in Yazhou and basically finalized most of the issues regarding land ownership. Although Zhang Qing and other Yazhou officials may not be convinced by the executive committee's aggressiveness, in the current environment, their best choice is to cooperate.
Nowadays, everyone in Yazhou knows that life in the area under the jurisdiction of the Haihan people is peaceful, their income is high, and they are not squeezed by the government. The people who have moved to the Shengli Port area are no longer just bankrupt and helpless people like in the beginning. Since the anniversary celebration in Victory Port, some Yacheng residents with land and property have begun to try to acquire land near Victory Port.
If we really want to name the originator of this trend, we have to remember Luo Shengdong. The first batch of Yacheng dignitaries who bought properties in Shengli Port were basically attracted by Luo Shengdong. When these people visited Victory Port and saw the local living environment on the spot, they quickly dispelled their doubts - Victory Port had far surpassed Yacheng in terms of living environment, social security and material supply levels.
Of course, there are also many people who choose to continue to live in Yacheng. After all, the materials produced by Victory Port have never stopped being transported to Yacheng. Ships from Annan even regularly deliver shiploads of high-quality coal and The prices of rice and some daily necessities have been significantly lower than in the past. But while they enjoy this convenient life, they must also face the inconveniences caused by the shrinking local employable labor force.
With the development of Sanya's new urban area, Chuanchuan Group's demand for labor has risen to a new level, with thousands of laborers needed for various infrastructure projects alone. Since the Haihan people paid high wages and were able to take care of food and housing while working, more and more people from the Ming Dynasty came to work in the New City Development Zone. Many of them decided to make decisions after arriving at Victory Port and receiving short-term brainwashing propaganda. You need to become a naturalized citizen in order to get better job benefits.
Of course, the civil affairs department did not separate the citizenship of naturalized citizens from the identity of Ming citizens. The propaganda to ordinary people is still that they will continue to retain the identity of Ming citizens - it is just that the department that manages them is no longer in the Ming Dynasty. The official government, but the Supreme Executive Committee composed of Haihan people.
Ordinary people are not particularly concerned about who has the final say in Yazhou. What they care about is basically inseparable from the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, housing and transportation. As long as the Haihan Executive Committee can provide them with better Living environment, most of them actually don't care whether their household registration is in Yacheng or Shengli Port in the future.
On the mainland, he successfully repelled the siege of many rogue bandits and killed the bandit leader Liao Dabi in the battle. This achievement made Lijiazhuang become a hot topic among the people in Guangdong in a short period of time. Many wealthy families have asked the Li family through various connections to find out what kind of power allowed them to repel the siege of thousands of rogue bandits. The Li family also took advantage of this momentum to provide services to the "Golden Shield Security" that had just opened. An excellent publicity campaign was conducted.
The only regret is that after the body of the bandit leader Liao Dabi was sent to the Guangzhou government, although the identification of the body and the reward went smoothly, he failed to get the reward from the leading figure. But it makes sense when you think about it. After all, the Li family had a falling out with Li Fengjie, a leader in Guangdong official circles. It was a blessing that they didn't take the initiative to cause trouble for "Fu Ruifeng".
But after the incident in Lijiazhuang, a wave of self-organized militia groups broke out across the province. Whenever a village like Lijiazhuang is inhabited by clans, they have begun to organize local armed forces to protect the village. These spontaneous organizations, without exception, set the target of imitation to be the Lijiazhuang militia with outstanding records, and sent people to visit Lijiazhuang one after another. Hope to get some technical guidance.
Naturally, the Li family did not dare to take over the whole matter, but took the initiative to find military representatives from the Guangzhou Garrison Office to discuss it. After being approved by the Executive Committee, the Guangdong Office decided to use Lijiazhuang as a model to help establish a group of militia organizations using the Haihan military establishment in the surrounding areas of Guangzhou City.
In order to facilitate operations and avoid risks, the backstage bosses of these places who are fortunate enough to be the recipients of Haihan military support must also have certain trade records with Haihan. Some bosses who are shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" can directly Trainees are selected and sent to Port Victory to receive military training ranging from three months to half a year.
Although these personnel selected for training were either family members or loyal servants, and it would be difficult to completely lead them to Haihan through brainwashing, the military still decided to accept these trainees. The military does not expect these trainees to turn all local militia groups into the Haihan Association Army after they return, but it can at least establish the concept of "Haihan is invincible" during their training. In the future, they will be able to guide the Haihan forces. On the mainland, these civilian armed forces will not jump out and become a stumbling block for the Haihan army.
Of course, the export of weapons is also part of the military's large-scale training plan, especially products such as matchlocks and small-caliber cast iron artillery, which are very suitable for use by civilian armed forces, and the buyer's dependence on ammunition will also allow the military to Better control these civil armed forces in Ming Dynasty.
On June 17, the first ship of the "Expedition-class" warship with a displacement of 500 tons, the "Expedition", was launched at the Port of Victory Shipyard pier and began to enter the final outfitting stage. The hull of this three-masted sailboat can basically be regarded as an enlarged model of the "Exploration-class" warship, and it also continues to use the "Haihan-style sail" that combines Chinese and Western styles. This 50-meter-long warship will be equipped with a total of fourteen 12-pound naval guns, as well as one 18-pound long-barreled gun at the bow and stern. The rated crew is a total of 168 people, including 120 combat personnel and 48 crew members, sailors and other shipboard staff. After completing the outfitting and officially entering the fleet, the "Exploration" warship will serve as the flagship of the Haihan Militia Naval Force for at least a year until the next new model warship has a larger displacement and more complete combat functions. Until entering the water.
However, at least during the year, neither the Navy nor the shipyards have plans to continue building larger combat ships. On the one hand, this is because the cost of building warships is too high. The "exploration-class" warship is almost at the limit of what the current navy budget can afford, and there is no more development and construction costs to complete the next step of improvements. On the other hand, it is also because the navy's own maintenance costs are quite high. According to the navy's plan, at least two "exploration-class" and eight "exploration-class" warships must be completed within the year to form the first true combat force. Fleet, this means that the navy must have at least a thousand personnel. It is very difficult to support such a large fleet with financial allocations alone.
In the final analysis, there is actually no money. Compared with the army, the navy does not have much external oil and water to use to subsidize military expenditures. In the current operations, the main role of the navy is still to transport army troops. This results in the navy's share of the subsequent military expenditure settlement being extremely limited.
Of course, if you really want the navy to be dragged out to fight with people at sea, it is really not practical. So far, almost every battle carried out on the water surface can crush the opponent in terms of strength, and it is not too difficult. But if it really needs to face the armed fleets of "Eighteen Zhi", Xu Xinsu or Western colonial companies, then the navy will This strength is indeed far from enough, and the Military Commission will never risk being blamed by others by sending the navy out to face the enemy head-on. However, the Military Commission would not be willing to spend military funds to support this army in vain. Therefore, after returning from Guangdong, Wang Tom and several senior military officials began to plan to find a new opponent for the navy to train troops.
The "Eighteen Zhi" in the north will definitely not be able to do it. The Military Commission ruled out this target in the first place. There are not many targets left to choose from in the surrounding areas - either cross the entire South China Sea and go to the Philippine Islands in the east to find trouble with the Spaniards, or go south to find the old rival Annan Nguyen Dynasty to continue fighting.
Among such candidate answers, it should be said that the Military Commission does not find it difficult to choose. South Vietnam's maritime strength had been proven to be vulnerable in January, and attacking South Vietnam's coastal areas should be a relatively low-risk combat plan. However, the military excitedly sent this plan to the Do Son Peninsula via telegram to coordinate with the North Vietnamese court, hoping that they could send troops to cooperate in the battle, but the other party abruptly rejected the plan.
North Vietnam's reason was quite practical, and it was just two words - no money. After the war in January, the North Vietnamese court, which owed Hai Han a huge amount of military expenses and was unable to repay it, had no choice but to pay in installments and repay the cost based on the immigrant population. Although as of June, North Vietnam had basically repaid the arrears from the last war, its domestic economy has inevitably been affected to a considerable extent. For a period of time, the trading company under Zheng's name even had to use rice as a means of exchange, instead of gold and silver, to purchase refined salt, weapons and other goods from Haihan.
The North Vietnamese court was not led by idiots. They knew very well that if they had to ask the Hai Han people to send troops to help in every battle, then the biggest beneficiary of the continuation of the civil war would not be North Vietnam, but these Hai Han people who were happy to act as mercenaries. If now we have to shell out more than ten or two hundred thousand taels of silver to hire the Hai Han people to conquer the South Vietnamese rebels, then the dignitaries of Thang Long House will not have to live in the second half of the year.
The most feasible way is for North Vietnam to purchase Hai Han weapons, receive Hai Han style military training, and obtain a force affiliated with Thang Long House. This force can then conquer the Nguyen rebels in the south and unify the country. However, this plan had two major drawbacks that the North Vietnamese senior leaders could not ignore. One was the high cost of forming an army, and the other was the long time it took to form an army.
In the past, North Vietnam's wars were extremely simple. A small number of professional troops were surrounded by temporarily recruited peasant soldiers. They did not need to go through too much complicated training. They were issued weapons and went directly to the battlefield. If they won, they would get some benefits from the spoils. If you lose, everyone will consider themselves unlucky, and there won't be any post-war pensions or anything like that. But since cooperating with Haihan, this combat concept has slowly changed. The officers believe that peasant soldiers who have not received formal military training are completely useless, and the soldiers in the regular army also believe that they should be like the Haihan people, who are injured. Or providing generous pensions in the event of death in battle can effectively guarantee the combat effectiveness of the troops.
This is of course all due to the Haihan-style education in the Bai Tushan training camp. According to the Haihan people's army standards, training a musketeer in North Vietnam requires about twenty taels of silver in the upfront cost, which includes the purchase of individual soldiers. Twelve taels of silver for a complete set of weapons and equipment, 30 taels of silver for military pay during training, and 5 taels of training fees paid to the Tushan training camp - although the Haihan people used the guise of free military training, what is free is only tuition, and you must use it There are still fees for various equipment in the training camp and various materials consumed during training.
To train a reinforced battalion equipped with an artillery battery, the North Vietnamese court had to spend at least thirty thousand taels of silver. This cost was sky-high compared to Annan's previous military expenditure standards. And if you carefully calculate the military expenditures, you can find that almost 25,000 taels of the 30,000 taels of silver ended up in the pockets of the Haihan people under various names. According to the North Vietnamese military's own estimates, if it wanted to gain a one-sided advantage on the battlefield and successfully complete the crusade against the South Vietnamese rebels, it would require at least ten reinforced battalions and a new army of approximately 10,000 people. And now even if Shenglong Mansion resorts to selling everything, it will not be easy to raise the money in a short period of time.
Therefore, there are two completely opposite views in Thang Long Province. One is that we should rely on our own military power to complete the great cause of unification. Even if it costs more and takes longer, it is worth it. After all, this army is ultimately the North Vietnamese court. own wealth. Another view is that instead of giving so much money to the Haihan people in disguise, it would be better to directly pay them to destroy the South Vietnamese army, which would at least save a lot of time. By then, the north and south of Annan will be unified, and private taxes will be doubled, and the pressure on military expenditures to build the army will be much less.
When the Haihan people's invitation to participate in the battle was submitted to Shenglong Mansion, it aroused fierce debate between the two sides. Some people thought that we should take advantage of this opportunity to summon the combat troops on the front line of Hengshan and Jiangjiang to go south and wipe out the rebels in one go. With their combat experience, there is no doubt about the combat effectiveness of the Haihan Militia, and they will definitely be able to push through all the way. But more people think that the Hai Han people may not have such good intentions. I am afraid that their invitation to fight is not to help North Vietnam complete the reunification, but has an ulterior motive. People who hold this view even include the top commander of the North Vietnamese defense line. Including Zheng Bai and the young prince Zheng Zha who had many contacts with the Haihan people.
This school of thought believes that the Haihan people are most likely to export weapons to North Vietnam in the long term and will not sincerely help North Vietnam complete the reunification of the north and the south in the short term. The reason why they will take the initiative to launch an attack on South Vietnam in advance this time is probably just to train troops. It was just a matter of making some extra money from North Vietnam at the same time - this was almost the truth.
In the face of overwhelming opposition, North Vietnam ultimately chose to reject Haihan's proposal. Of course, North Vietnam didn't say anything too harshly - it was okay to fight, but the military expenditures needed to be discussed by both sides. In short, they could not follow the same standards as last time.
Victory Port did not expect such a result at all. The executive committee even passed the resolution to send troops in advance, because everyone believed that such operations could both train troops and make money, and the risks were relatively small. There was really no objection. reason. But after receiving the reply from the Tushan training camp, everyone was stunned, and they were somewhat unprepared for North Vietnam's unexpected reaction. It took a long time before Yan Chujie said: "I really can't treat these monkeys as fools, but they can actually see through our purpose!"
"It's useless to see through it. They have to rely on us in the end. It's just a matter of time." Tao Donglai seemed a little calmer about North Vietnam's reaction: "I think there is one thing that they may not be aware of, or maybe The understanding is not deep enough.”
"What's the matter?" Yan Chujie asked casually.
"The North Vietnamese rejected our proposal simply because they felt that the cost we required was too high, and they planned to slowly train their troops to complete the crusade against the south. However, they probably forgot that in order to train a usable new army, It's not enough for them to rely on themselves." Tao Donglai paused, turned to Bai Kesi and said, "I think if necessary, I can pinch their necks and let them figure out who said this. Count.”
Bai Kesi answered understandingly: "It just so happens that we have to rush to make new guns for Qian Tiandun's army during this period. I think the production line of matchlock guns can be stopped for a while."
(End of chapter)