Chapter 445 Exchange Conditions
Zheng Lin was not angry because he encountered such a soft nail in front of Schneider. His real mission of visiting Sanya this time was not to investigate and accuse Haihan, but in essence to plead with Haihan to start construction and start the port earlier. construction project. Now the entire commercial and trade system in southern Annam has come to a standstill due to the destruction of several major seaports. The court now urgently needs to restore the situation in the south to pre-war levels so that it can gain profits from foreign trade. In order to achieve this goal, The Haihan people had to be involved as soon as possible.
Zheng Lin has been dealing with the Haihan people for much longer than ordinary Annan officials. His long stay at Black Earth Port also gave him a deeper understanding of Haihan's strength. He is very clear about the level of construction in his country and the The gap that exists between Haihan and Haihan means that if the development of the four southern ports had not been led by Haihan, it would have taken Annan several times longer to build a new commercial port with its own strength. The subject of this negotiation is not the ownership of the four southern ports, but when the development plan promised by Haihan before the war can be implemented.
"Mr. Shi is right. I made a mistake just now." Zheng Lin did not argue with the other party on this issue, and quickly brought the topic back to business: "Now that the situation in the south has been determined, what are your plans for the construction of the commercial port?" Is there a final decision? If there is any need for our country’s cooperation, you might as well bring it up and discuss it in detail.”
Tom Wang and Schneider looked at each other with a hint of surprise in their hearts. In the opinion of the Executive Committee, the Annan court was mostly dissatisfied with the existence of the concession. At the end of last year, in order to invite the Haihan militia to send troops to help, the Annan court had to reluctantly agree to the Lion Party of the Haihan Executive Committee. Speaking of which, in addition to the astronomical military compensation, they also have to take out the four best natural ports on the southern coastline and hand them over to Haihan as a long-term concession. If you ignore the small rent, in fact, these places It's almost like giving it away for free.
Although the Annan court finally agreed to all the requests made by Hai Hanfang, even a fool would not believe it if they agreed willingly. Moreover, after the Battle of Hue, the Hai Han Militia sheltered a group of Nguyen clan survivors and officials from the former South Vietnamese small court to leave Hue. This measure also made the Annan court, which was trying to eradicate the root cause, somewhat dissatisfied. After the Battle of Hue in March, the relationship between the two sides actually entered a relatively cold period. During this period, the two sides only maintained normal business exchanges, while political and military exchanges were at a standstill, and the Executive Committee also It can be felt that the Annan court should be expressing dissatisfaction to itself in this way.
During this delicate period of the relationship between the two parties, it also happened that the Shilu development project required a large amount of engineering construction resources. The executive committee naturally chose to suspend the southern port plan and devote its main energy to the Changhua to Shilu project. Infrastructure projects are under construction. The Executive Committee even imagined that when Haihan restarted the four southern ports project in a year and a half, the Annan court would deliberately make Tiezi uncooperative, and even deny Haihan's concession rights in these places.
If an unplanned situation like this occurs, the two sides may still have to negotiate. Most of the executive committee members regard the handling of bilateral relations as one of the necessary external conditions for the smooth progress of the four southern ports project. But even those with a greater imagination did not expect that the Annan court would change its attitude so quickly and actually send someone to the door to actively urge the matter.
Wang Tom responded: "Special Envoy Zheng, the development of the Southern Commercial Port involves many aspects, and the preparations that need to be done are also very complicated. We will not start the development and construction until everything is ready. Plan.”
Zheng Lin said: "Two of you, let's be honest. The imperial court hopes that you can start construction as soon as possible. If you need our country's help and cooperation, you can just ask for it and we will report it as appropriate and try our best to cooperate."
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Schneider is such a shrewd person. Seeing that Zheng Lin's attitude was so low, he had already guessed some of the truth of the matter. He smiled and asked tentatively: "The economic situation in your country in recent months has not been ideal, right?"< br>
Without waiting for Zheng Lin to answer, Schneider took the initiative and said: "More than 90% of the Ming Dynasty merchants who were doing maritime trade in South Vietnam have already evacuated the area. In order not to offend us, the Portuguese also took the initiative to withdraw from the South Vietnam area. Now there is no one in South Vietnam. There is no decent seaport, and there is no large-scale maritime trade business. The land that North Vietnam has worked hard to recover for so long has not received the expected benefits. I am afraid that the officials in the court will be very unhappy about this. Are you satisfied?”
Zheng Lingong cupped his hands and said: "Mr. Shi is really powerful. Although he didn't win all the prizes, he's not far behind! At that time, all the princes in the court supported the King of Qingdu. Even if the whole country was in debt, they still wanted to attack the small court of South Vietnam. In fact, they were also interested in the south. Including the revenue from sea trade, as long as the previous scale of sea trade is maintained, the military expenditure gap of the southern expedition can be filled in only one or two years. It is still worth taking this risk. However, after the war, the southern commercial ports were destroyed and sea trade declined. , far from what was originally expected, the princes in the court put all the responsibility for this matter on the head of the Qingdu King who was the main battler. "
"The treasury has no money, and the King of Qingdu certainly can't build a new port, so this matter can only be blamed on us." Schneider didn't wait for Zheng Lin to finish speaking, then took over: "So the general situation of the matter That’s it?”
Although Schneider's words were aggressive, Zheng Lin was indeed a person who had lived in Heitu Port for a year. He had long learned how to talk to the Haihan people. He avoided answering and said: "If you take the lead in the construction of the port, the funds and technology can be guaranteed, and our country can provide a certain number of laborers to assist you in the construction. ”
Schneider asked: "What is a certain number?"
"No less than 3,000 people, depending on the needs of the project." Zheng Lin responded immediately.
Schneider nodded and said: "Then how will the wages, food and accommodation of these workers be solved?"
Zheng Lindao: "We are only responsible for hiring people, and the labor costs will naturally be borne by you. After the project is completed, these workers can join Haihan citizenship according to their personal wishes."
"The conditions sound good!" Wang Tom touched his chin and sighed.
When most people thought that the development of the four southern ports would have to be postponed until next year, the new conditions imposed by the Annan people gave Haihan a new opportunity. And judging from Zheng Lin's description, this time The conditions offered are considered sincere and indeed worthy of serious consideration.
Of course, Schneider was not naive enough to think that the other party would only give without asking for anything in return. He took the initiative to ask: "Then what is the exchange condition you want?" "We need more shipyards and seagoing ships." Zheng Lin did not agree either. The purpose of concealment directly stated our own conditions: "You will build no less than three shipyards for our country within next year, and the number of 400-material sea-going ships delivered to us before the end of next year will not be less than 20."
Twenty ships with 400 materials each are not a big deal. If it is really needed, the Ministry of Shipping can now pull out a cargo fleet of this size - of course, there will be no new ships among them. If Annan could afford the price and pay cash, it would not be a big deal to sell 20 sea-going ships one after another next year. Anyway, the "Exploration-class" civilian merchant ships at the Victory Port Shipyard have already begun to be launched, with great navigation performance and cargo loading capacity. All are much better than the Fuchuan Guangzhou used in the past. The Ministry of Shipping's major ship replacement this year and next is a definite matter. The old ships that have been eliminated just need to find a less picky next home to deal with, and Annan is undoubtedly an excellent candidate.
However, the conditions for the construction of three new shipyards required by Zheng Lin were not something that Schneider and Tom Wang could directly make a decision on, but had to be discussed at a meeting. At present, Annan and Haihan have a cooperative shipyard located in Heitu Port, but its shipbuilding capacity is still relatively limited. Currently, it can only build sea-going ships of 200 materials. For larger ships, it can only do maintenance and repair work. There is currently no construction capability. Moreover, the ships built by this shipyard not only need to be supplied to the Annan court, but also need to meet the needs of Heitu Port and the other two concession ports. Therefore, it is a normal reaction for the Annan court to be dissatisfied with its supply capacity and will require the construction of more The shipyard is also a reasonable thing.
In the past two years, Haihan helped Thang Long Mansion fight several battles. The Annan military should have been deeply aware of its own shortcomings. In addition to weapons and weapons, mobility was also a huge shortcoming. If it were not for the Hai Han fleet that took on the cargo task from the Red River Delta to the fighting front, the North Vietnamese army, which was at a passive disadvantage at the time, would have been overwhelmed by its backward logistics supply system without the need for fighting. The several successful cases of the Hai Han Militia using warships to carry out raids deep behind enemy lines made the North Vietnamese military realize the importance of surface combat capabilities.
The gap in civilian maritime transport capacity is even greater. After the Hai Han militia captured Hoi An and Hue, they took away all captured ships regardless of size when evacuating. This caused the southern coastal areas to be almost without ships. situation. If we count on the Black Earth Port Shipyard, we don’t know how many years and months it will take before the prosperity of southern maritime trade can be restored.
"The ship matter can be discussed, but building a new shipyard may be a bit difficult..." Schneider shook his head and began to speak in an official tone: "Special Envoy Zheng, this shipyard can't just be built. I, Haihan, have been here for three years, and there is only one shipyard on Qiongzhou Island. Your country is planning to build three new shipyards as soon as possible, which is a bit embarrassing. "
Zheng Lin came to Sanya for the first time and had never visited the Victory Port Shipyard. Hearing this, he was stunned and said: "So many of your cargo ships and warships are all built by one shipyard? Dare I ask? How many slipways does your shipyard have? How many large ships can it build every year? ”
Schneider couldn't help but secretly regret that he had said the wrong thing, and he shouldn't use it as an excuse. The Shengli Port Shipyard now has two large slipways of more than 1,000 tons, and more than ten 500-ton, 300-ton and smaller slipways. A shipyard of this size, let alone Qiongzhou Island, even in During this period, East Asia was probably one of the top large-scale shipyards. Of course, the resources consumed by a shipyard of this size are also quite staggering. There are more than ten supporting units including carpentry workshops for processing raw materials, drying rooms for drying wood, and workshops for manufacturing metal parts. Thousands of employees.
There are hundreds of professional shipbuilding technicians in the shipyard, and most of them are professional shipwrights who have been hired back from coastal areas with high wages through various means in the past year or so. The various tools used here, ranging from various planers, chisels and hammer saws made of fine steel to the large lifting frames required to install keels and masts, are almost all unique to Haihan and cannot be copied by the outside world. come out. As for the design drawings of the various ships built by Haihan, they are even more top-secret information. Those who have access to these drawings are naturalized citizens with high loyalty.
It was impossible for Schneider to explain these technical advantages to Zheng Lin, such as the number of slipways and the specific number of ships built each year. These are also projects that must be kept secret. Schneider could only answer vaguely: "There is nothing to do about it." Please forgive me, Special Envoy Zheng!”
Zheng Lin shook his head and said: "Even if Mr. Shi doesn't say it, I can guess a lot. Presumably, the scale of this shipyard in Sanya is far beyond what Heitugang Shipyard can compare with. Mr. Shi used this shipyard to compare the three-dimensional shipyard required by our country. Even a shipyard might think it’s unfair, right?”
Seeing that Schneider was a little embarrassed, Wang Tom coughed and interrupted: "Then I wonder what size the shipyard proposed by your country will be?"
"It's very simple. Each shipyard only needs to have the ability to build 400-material seagoing ships." Zheng Lin added: "Even if there is only one slipway."
Tom Wang thought to himself, "You think I'm just an amateur? It doesn't make much difference whether you have one slipway or two slipways. As long as you master the corresponding shipbuilding technology, expanding to ten slipways is just a matter of how much money you spend."
At that moment, Tom Wang responded calmly: "We can't tell you immediately whether it is OK or not. According to our procedures, the final decision must be made through collective discussion by the Executive Committee. If Special Envoy Zheng doesn't If you are in a hurry to return to your hometown, you might as well stay in Sanya for a few more days.”
Zheng Lin cupped his hands and said, "I am planning to harass you for a few days, so I would rather obey my orders than to be respectful. I wonder if I can move around during my stay here?"
"Don't worry, special envoy, we will arrange a special visit itinerary for you, and there will also be dedicated reception staff to accompany you throughout the entire journey, while ensuring your personal safety." Wang Tom responded immediately.
If Zheng Lin understands these words, he should understand that Wang Tom means something - we will arrange for you to go where you should go, and you should stop worrying about the places you should not go, we will always arrange it. People are monitoring you, so you'd better not do any tricks and remember that your life is always under our control.
(End of chapter)