Chapter 418 Changhua County
Along the way, Qiao Zhiya introduced the situation of Changhua County to everyone traveling with him. After listening to this, Liu Shanxia not only sighed: "I didn't realize that you are still an experienced driver! You are so familiar with this place!"
Qiao Zhiya said with a smile: "Historical information was given by Mr. Ning. I am not that capable to look up the county annals of Changhua. However, I almost came here during the few field missions last year, so I am quite familiar with it. It’s not bragging either.”
Liu Shanxia said: "I also studied the map here carefully before coming here. If the previously planned route is to be used as the construction plan, then in the future this land passage will be only two or three miles away from Changhua County. The local government of Changhua will Will it affect future mining plans for Shilu Iron Mine? ”
Qiao Zhiya coughed dryly, and Fu Li, who was walking beside him, immediately slowed down his pace knowingly. At the same time, he raised his hand to signal the people following him to slow down as well, and put an appropriate distance away from Qiao Zhiya and Liu Shanxia.
Qiao Zhiya then responded: "Regarding this matter, the Executive Committee has made corresponding preparations in both light and dark directions, which is to ensure that the Shilu Iron Mine Project can be implemented smoothly..."
The so-called two directions of light and dark, the light side naturally communicates to the local officials on the Changhua County Government through official channels. As early as last year, the Executive Committee asked relevant departments to organize personnel to set up an office in Changhua. However, the scale of the Changhua office is relatively small, far less than that of the Guangdong Office and the Cliff Office. The Executive Committee even No time travelers have been sent to take charge, and the few people who have stayed here for a long time are all naturalized citizens. He is usually responsible for collecting information about Changhua and monitoring government movements. At the same time, he sells salt, rice, coal and other public supplies here, and purchases various mountain products, furs, etc. sold by the nearby Li people.
In addition to doing business, the office also often helps the poor, and anyone with good hands and feet without any problems can find a job with pay in the office - of course the job location is not in Changhua. But in Victory Port in the south. In the one year since the office was established, it has sent hundreds of immigrants to the base camp. This achievement is considered quite good in the vast and sparsely populated Changhua area. Several naturalized civilian cadres working in Changhua Daqian Station are therefore expected to be promoted to higher positions after the development here.
These naturalized cadres are good enough to do these basic things, but it is a bit unwieldy to ask them to deal with the government, or even deal with high-level matters such as managing joint negotiations and conditions. For this reason, the executive committee specially used its connections in Yacheng and asked Zhang Qing, the magistrate of Yazhou, to write a letter to the Changhua County government, imploring local officials to give appropriate "care" to the "people of Yazhou" who went to Changhua to engage in business activities. Of course, in addition to Zhang Qing's handwritten letter, the envelope also contained a large-value banknote from Haihan Bank. After all, Changhua is not a territory of Yazhou, and Zhang Qing's face may have limited effect, but the silver thing will definitely work anywhere.
The conditions put forward by the executive committee to the local government were very simple, that is, they claimed to build a road from the seaside to the inland Shilu area, and hoped that the local government would be accommodating. In addition, there are a lot of various materials and tools required for road construction, so some people need to be sent to guard and maintain order at the construction site. Of course, there is no need to trouble the Changhua garrison for this matter. The Haihan Militia will be responsible for the corresponding affairs.
Among the people, it is normal for local gentry and landlords to fund the construction of roads and bridges, so the request made by the Haihan Chamber of Commerce to the Changhua County Government through official channels also seems very normal. Except for one thing, the place where this road leads is the residential area of the Li mountain people. The purpose of building this road seems to be just to facilitate the Li people's activities in the mountains, which is really unreasonable. However, under the powerful money offensive, the Changhua County Government turned a blind eye to this only doubt and pretended not to notice it.
As for Haihan's need to dispatch militia groups to guard road construction materials and maintain order at the construction site, the Changhua County Government didn't care. All states and counties on Qiongzhou Island actually know something about the situation of the Haihan Militia, and no one is willing to provoke this thorn in the side for no reason. Last year, the Haihan Militia received a public commendation from the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Wang Zunde, for its meritorious service in suppressing bandits in Lijiazhuang. After that, the activities of the Haihan Militia in Qiongzhou Island were basically semi-public.
Now the scope of activities of the Haihan militia is not limited to the Sanya area. Almost all large ships under Haihan's name are accompanied by militia soldiers to carry out armed escorts. In all coastal states and counties that have trade relations with Haihan, almost all or more people It is rare to see Haihan militiamen wearing gray clothes and carrying muskets. Changhua is no exception. Every month, the team that delivers supplies to the Haihan office in Changhua is almost always escorted by a squad of Haihan militiamen, but they never bring weapons into the city to avoid suspicion. The people were a little scared and curious at first, but as time went by, they got used to it and became immune.
In short, as long as the armed forces of the Haihan Militia do not enter the city, everything will be fine. Everyone will live in peace if they follow the rules, and the Changhua County Government will not bother to try to suppress the actions of the Haihan Militia - of course they will It’s true that you don’t have this strength. The Haihan Chamber of Commerce also generously expressed to the Changhua County Government that as long as it can provide convenience in road construction, the Haihan Chamber of Commerce will pay a "construction site management fee" to the county government every month in the future. Although The amount is not very large, but for the Changhua County government, which has a vast territory and a sparse population with little tax revenue, it is still a considerable amount of income.
However, these routines are only superficial arrangements. Just in case, the executive committee has made the worst plan, that is, if Danzhou reacts strongly to the Haihan forces taking root in Changhua, they will not allow it. If Haihan builds roads and mines locally, he must be prepared to militaryly occupy the Changhua-Shilu area. The development of Shilu Iron Mine is an important project that must be guaranteed by the Executive Committee in the next few years. If the Haihan regime wants to industrialize and realize foreign military expansion in the future, it must be based on huge steel production capacity. Even if It is to launch a war for the ownership of Shilu, and the executive committee will not look back.
Although the Changhua government claimed that it sent a small number of militiamen to guard the construction site, in fact the permanent force prepared by the Military Commission for the Shilu Iron Mine Project started with a battalion. It is not an exaggeration to say that such a force scale is used to protect a communication line with a length of more than fifty miles, and in the construction of this communication line and subsequent mining projects, a large number of South Vietnamese prisoners of war and local hard labor will be used. These people undoubtedly have certain There are potential safety hazards, and the Executive Committee will not feel at ease if more troops are not deployed to guard it here.
Another person that worries the executive committee is the Li people near Shilu. Because these Li people live in mountainous areas all year round, they have little communication with the outside world and are far away from Sanya. Before this, Haihan did not have much contact with these tribes, and they were not sure what the attitude of these villagers towards outsiders would be. Be friendly or act hostile. This time the special mission team specially brought Fu Li with them, hoping to use his Li identity to obtain a better communication channel with the local indigenous residents. The Executive Committee does not expect the local Li people to provide much help in the development of Shilu Iron Mine. As long as these people don't cause trouble, they will be lucky.
It is of course best if the relations with the Lebanese people can be resolved peacefully, but if it cannot be properly resolved, then you must also be prepared to use force to solve the problem. When necessary, the Military Commission will even transfer the North Vietnamese special operations battalion from Black Earth Port, because only that unit is a combat team truly built with the mountain jungle as the combat environment, and its combat experience in the mountainous areas far exceeds that of the base camp. Vigilante troops.
After listening to Qiao Zhiya's explanation, Liu Shanxia suddenly said: "So after the battle in Hue was over, the Military Commission hurriedly withdrew the troops to prepare for the development of Shilu, right?"
Qiao Zhiya nodded and said: "After all, the troops are still limited! If there are three more battalions... no, even two more battalions of mobile troops, I guess the higher-ups will not withdraw the troops so quickly. At least we can fight again in South Vietnam. Guangzhi City”
"If we are in such a hurry to mine Shilu, we might as well increase the mining volume of Tiandu first. I remember that the reserves of Tiandu Iron Mine are several million tons!" Liu Shanxia knew how difficult it was to develop Shilu and couldn't help but sigh.
"The biggest problem at Tiandu is not the lack of reserves or labor force, but that the mineral veins are too concentrated and the working area is limited. Even if ten times more manpower is invested there, the mineral veins can only be excavated in such a large area. Unless the Ministry of Industry now We can build mechanically powered mining equipment, otherwise it will not have much effect on improving production capacity." Qiao Zhiya spends far more time alone in the fields than Liu Shanxia, and is more familiar with the production conditions of Tiandu Iron Mine. learn.
As they spoke, they had already arrived at Changhua County. Facing them was Ningwu Gate, the north gate of Changhua City. These city fortifications, which were built more than a hundred years ago, have begun to show signs of disrepair after years of wind and rain. When the team arrived at the door, the office staff who had been notified in advance were already waiting here.
Qiao Zhiya looked at the Ming soldiers standing guard at the city gate and asked the naturalized cadre: "Our people all carry long guns, can we go in?"
"It doesn't matter, I have prepared some cover. You can easily pass through the customs and enter the city." The naturalized civilian cadre raised his hand to indicate, and someone immediately came and took a flatbed ox cart filled with dry firewood: "Just put the Put the gun under this pile of firewood and you can enter the city." So the accompanying militiamen put their rifles on the car, piled a few bundles of firewood on top, and headed straight for the city gate. Liu Shanxia noticed that when the guns were being retracted, several Ming troops guarding the gate were obviously watching from a distance, and he asked with some worry: "Is this really okay?"
"They won't check." When Qiao Zhiya said this, he had already noticed that someone rushed in front of the bullock cart and stuffed something into the hands of the soldiers guarding the gate. So when the bullock cart passed by, there were no inspection measures at all. The soldiers guarding the gate just waved their hands and let it pass.
"Is this okay?" Liu Shanxia said in astonishment.
"Money can make the world go round!" Qiao Zhiya said a proverb smoothly. However, Liu Shanxia did not notice Qiao Zhiya's improvement in language skills. He was more concerned about the sparse defenses of Changhua City: "Didn't you say before that armed militia groups would not enter Changhua City?"
"Yes, that's right. Aren't they already disarmed?" Qiao Zhiya led the team towards the city gate with a matter-of-fact expression.
Sure enough, the soldiers guarding the city did not embarrass the militiamen who followed them into the city. It seemed that as long as they did not directly carry their guns into the city, the city defense would be in vain. Liu Shanxia couldn't help but dumbfounded: "What's the difference between guarding the city gate and not guarding it?"
"It's psychological comfort! At least this will let the county magistrate know that Changhua City is still under his control." Qiao Zhiya said with a joking smile.
In fact, there are more than one county like Changhua that has turned a blind eye to the Haihan militia. Changhua and Qingde in the west, Lingshui, Wanning, and Lehui in the east are basically at the same level. If the Executive Committee really wanted to capture these county towns, it would probably only need to send two or three companies to control the city defenses. It is even estimated that there would not even be an armed conflict. The reason why we do not attack these places openly is more due to political considerations rather than military concerns.
More than two years have passed since Haihan landed in Victory Port. While Haihan's military power has been expanding step by step, Ming's actual garrison situation on Qiongzhou Island has also been roughly grasped. According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, there are eleven guard posts on the island, with a total strength of more than 11,000 troops, and another 2,000 frontier troops, mainly naval forces, stationed in Qiongzhou Fucheng and Danzhou in the north and Yazhou in the south. , and the border troops stationed in Yazhou were the Yacheng Water Village under the jurisdiction of Luo Shengdong.
The number of troops deployed by the Ming Dynasty on Qiongzhou Island does not seem to be small, but the shortage of vacancies in the army is very common. The military leaders of the guards rely on short-term quotas to line their own pockets. The actual military strength is probably less than three-thirds of the official figure. Two-thirds of them were divided into two parts, and the number of troops that could actually form combat effectiveness was even pitifully small. The vast majority of the guardsmen had been away from the battlefield for a long time, and they had become farm laborers similar to those of South Vietnamese peasant soldiers. If the Executive Committee were to adopt a strategy of military expansion now, it would be barely able to conquer the entire island with its existing military strength. However, there are currently not many naturalized civilian cadres that can be used to implement Haihan-style rule. The gap between the number required to rule the entire Qiongzhou Island is too large. Therefore, the Executive Committee has always controlled the actual ruling area in the southern part of Qiongzhou Island. Slowly accumulate strength.
The situation in Changhua City makes people who visit here for the first time quickly lose their curiosity. This small county town and the surrounding residents only have a few thousand people. There are no commercial facilities in the city. The largest grocery stores and restaurants are all in the sea. The Han Dynasty's Changhua office was opened, and the atmosphere could be described as depressed.
The accompanying staff introduced: "There are no rich families in Changhua. Most of the young and prosperous people who have a bright future have gone to Sanya. Now some landowners in the city have to pick up hoes and work in the fields again."
Naturally, the landowners in this small county do not have much capital. A household that owns dozens of acres of land can probably be called a landlord. With the large outflow of young people, a lot of cultivated land outside Changhua City has been abandoned. The economic situation in the city has been affected by this, and of course it is not much better.
They were a group of people dressed in strange clothes, but they didn't even attract much attention when they appeared in the city. They walked around the city casually, and it felt like this place was just a rural village with a city wall. With disappointment, everyone went to the office to inspect it again. It was just a courtyard with two entrances. People lived in the backyard to store goods, and a shop was opened in the front yard to sell things. After everyone watched for a while, they saw that what was sold here were only half a catty of salt, ten catties of rice and other scattered businesses, and they lost interest in checking the accounts. After entering the city for only an hour, everyone left the city and returned the same way. To use Fu Li's words to describe it, this trip to the county town is not as interesting as fishing on the boat.
The special team waited for another day in the seaside fishing village, and finally arrived at Tian Yeyou, who had arrived belatedly. After letting Tian Yeyou rest for a night in the fishing village, the special team finally embarked on this trip into the mountains.
This journey into the mountains was not easy. In addition to a large number of equipment and tools used for surveying and exploration, there were also some gifts brought to the Li people's villages, such as ironware, salt, sucrose, medicine, etc., plus these The supplies, luggage and weapons for a group of nearly forty people weighed two to three tons.
Fortunately, the conditions now are much more convenient than when we first visited Fushandong when we first landed. For this trip, the Executive Committee specially prepared more than ten mules and pack horses for the special mission team, which greatly reduced their burden on the way. . The Changhua office also hired two Li guides for them in advance who were familiar with the geography and people's conditions near Shilu to serve them during the journey into the mountains.
Due to the need to revise the construction plan, we had to constantly stop to survey the surrounding environment and make detailed records during the process. Therefore, the progress was very slow. We only walked about 20 miles on the first day. After about fifty miles away from the coast, they had already walked out of the area inhabited by the Han people and began to enter the activities of the Li people.
On the morning of the fourth day, Fu Li communicated with two Li guides and told Qiao Zhiya that the front had entered the sphere of influence of Shizi Cave, and the jurisdiction of this cave happened to include the planned mining area of Shilu Iron Mine. .
Fu Li's suggestion was to first send a guide to Shizidong to inform him of his intention. If the other party is willing to receive the guests, then go directly to the village to visit. Generally, such a friendly visit will not be rejected by the cave owner, but no one dares to guarantee how to discuss the follow-up matters.
So the special team was stationed by the Changhua River and sent a guide to Shizidong to ask for an audience.
(End of chapter)