Chapter 449 The Deterrence of Word of Mouth
Although the two people have a clear division of labor and are each responsible for work in one area, in the final analysis, the scope of Malik's management is only Guangdong, while the authority in He Xi's hands can involve all areas that Haihan's power can reach - even in In distant Batavia, the Nanyang Intelligence Station was in its infancy stage, and its administrative affiliation was also under the Ministry of Security under He Xi's jurisdiction.
Coupled with the special nature of the intelligence department's all-pervasive and omniscient nature, Maliko, the head of the Guangzhou Guangdong Office, can no longer hold He Xi's head firmly as he did during the Cliff Office.
Fortunately, He Xi is not a person who likes to fight for power. In fact, he has a very clear view of his status. Due to the special nature of the security intelligence department, this supervisory position will most likely be the pinnacle of his career in the future.
However, He Xike did not want to throw away what he was doing. A large part of the reason why he chose to join the time-travel operation was that he hoped to get a stage where he could freely perform and build the intelligence empire in his mind.
The organizing committee that presided over the time-travel operation at that time indeed gave He Xi very wide authority after arriving in this time and space, allowing him the opportunity to build Haihan's exclusive intelligence agency from scratch.
For He Xi, a job in security intelligence is far more attractive than simply working in politics, not to mention that the top-level structure of the Haihan bureaucracy has stabilized and is unlikely to undergo major changes at least in the next few years. .
Therefore, there is currently no conflict of political interest between Maliko and He Xi. Instead, they are tied together because of the importance and particularity of the General Office. The relationship between the two is much more harmonious than during the Yacheng period.
Malico wisely left most of the foreign affairs dealing with the Guangdong government to He Xi, while he only focused on business and immigration.
However, the arms trade with Ming Dynasty is indeed of great importance. Even if Malico does not personally participate in the negotiation process, the success or failure of this matter will still be counted as his share. Therefore, Malico also showed rare concern about the negotiation process last night.
"But it's not all bad news. Although Liu Qian hasn't relented yet, he hasn't made it clear that it can't be done. There should still be a chance." He Xi was not completely disappointed with the progress of his work yesterday.
"Even if he can't handle this, he might drag you down deliberately in order to get benefits from you." Malik reminded.
"There is indeed such a possibility." He Xi nodded and acknowledged Maliko's statement: "But I think if he simply planned to defraud some money from us, he would have weighed the consequences of doing so in advance. After all, he would have offended someone. For our people, the results are often not very good.”
Rumors that the Haihan people are good at predicting changes in heaven have spread among the people since they first arrived in Guangdong the year before last. Subsequent major events such as the change of throne in the Ming Dynasty, the sudden collapse of the Eunuch Party in its heyday, and the replacement of governors of Guangdong and Guangxi have all been verified. This mysterious ability of the Haihan people.
Although there are very few people who actually get first-hand information from Haihan, it is precisely because of this that the effect of these rumors after being spread among the people is even more magical.
Especially among the upper class society in Guangdong, quite a few people believe that the Haihan people do possess some special skills that can predict the future - which is naturally why the Li family vigorously touts it.
Rumors like this spread from ten to ten, and over time, they gradually became a common belief among the people, that is, the Haihan people's ability is enough to turn disasters into good fortune, and anyone who wants to follow them People who do the right thing will inevitably end up in bad luck for no apparent reason. Moreover, this statement has been linked to various major events in Guangdong in the past two years to prove its reliability.
For example, Wei Zhongxian suddenly fell after the throne changed. It is said that it was because the eunuchs wanted to get the limited-sale Haihan specialties and paid tribute to Wei eunuch. After killing them, everyone knows the result.
The powerful eunuchs from Wei Zhongxian on down were all investigated by the new emperor Chongzhen. Wei Zhongxian, who was once known as "nine thousand years old", also hanged himself on the way back to Beijing after being accused of ten major crimes.
Moreover, he was not forgiven by the emperor after his death. Chongzhen issued an edict to dismember Wei Zhongxian and hang his head in Hejian Mansion for public display, and his accomplices were also investigated and punished. At that time, twenty or thirty people in the official circles of Guangdong and Guangxi were dismissed for being implicated in the eunuch party.
As for the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Li Fengjie, who was inexplicably dismissed by the court, wasn't it because his eldest son had a conflict with the third son Li, who had a close personal relationship with the Haihan people, in a restaurant?
In the eyes of the people, Mr. Li's sudden resignation was actually a typical case of a naughty child cheating on his father, provoking the wrong people.
At that time, when the "Fu Ruifeng" Li family publicly stated that they would not bow to the Governor's Office, many people believed that Li Jifeng was seeking death by challenging the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. However, things took a turn for the worse. It didn't take long for Li Fengjie to be removed and replaced, and the court The newly sent Governor Wang is said to have a good relationship with Li Jifeng's family.
No one would believe that the Haihan people had not intervened in these matters, not to mention that Li Jifeng himself had said on different occasions that the prosperous business of "Furuifeng" in the past two years was due to the guidance of experts. Isn't the expert who has the closest relationship with "Fu Ruifeng" the Haihan people who are said to be the best at doing business in the entire Guangdong, Guangxi and Qiongzhou Islands?
In addition, there are some things that Haihan did not predict at all, and the public has reached a consensus that Haihan did it intentionally.
For example, the previous year Lijiazhuang was besieged by multiple bandits. This incident was originally an unexpected incident, but because the Haihan Militia arrived in time to provide military support, the result was a one-sided and terrible result.
Many people among the people believed afterward that the Haihan people had long expected something would happen in Lijiazhuang, so they had set up traps and dug holes in the area in advance to wait for the rogues to attack. This was why the officials had nothing to say. great victory.
In short, in the past two or three years, anyone who provoked Haihan had no good ending in the end. Once this kind of thing formed a pattern, it would have a strong deterrent effect on people's hearts. That's why He Xi dared to give Maliko a guarantee, thinking that the other party didn't have enough courage to play tricks on him.
"But Master Liu can afford to delay, but we can't afford to delay. Although the Executive Committee has stated that it will not push, did you pay attention to the official document sent this time? It says 'in order to formulate next year's military budget as soon as possible' "According to last year's rules, the fiscal budget should be released in October and November, so we only have two or three months to implement this matter, which is a bit tight!" Maliko said anxiously.
"That's why I asked Gong Qiqi to rush back from Qingyuan." He Xi seemed unhurried: "When necessary, we can still use some unconventional means, such as finding ways to dig out this person. Mr. Liu’s dark history.”
"He is an outsider. I'm afraid it's not easy to dig up this dark history!" Malik questioned He Xi's statement.
"It doesn't matter, we can't dig it up. We can help him create some dark history." He Xi seemed to have a plan in mind: "If he doesn't cooperate, we will find a way to make him stink and make him unable to stay in Guangzhou." Malik After hearing this, I stopped asking any more questions.
Since He Xi said there is a way, it can definitely be done. As for the specific method, Malik didn't want to find out clearly - He Xi said it was an unconventional method, so there must be something that violates ordinary principles. .
Although Malico was not a mysophobic, he did not want to know about the shady things of the intelligence department.
After the two reached a basic agreement on this topic, they started to deal with the next official matter.
Yu Yao walked in with an official document and handed it to Maliko: "This is an official document from the Executive Committee sent by the ship that just arrived this morning. The content is about the recruitment of militiamen."
"Shouldn't the recruitment wait until we send the immigrants to Victory Port?" Malico said as he opened the official document and began to read its contents.
This official document was issued after the previous executive committee meeting approved the military expansion plan. The main content of this document is to notify various units stationed abroad of several arrangements and adjustments related to this military expansion plan.
The one most closely related to the Guangdong Office is that the Executive Committee plans to gradually liberalize the Office's recruitment authority and allow the Office's military team to recruit militiamen on the spot in Guangdong.
Of course, given that Guangdong currently does not have relatively mature large-scale military training institutions and is a politically sensitive area, this kind of recruitment will not be carried out with great fanfare.
The most likely method is to select young people from the immigrants and form local patrol teams to play a side game.
Moreover, after these soldiers recruited from the mainland have undergone simple basic training, they will still be transferred to the Victory Port Military Base in batches on a regular basis to receive more specialized training - and more importantly, let them see the power of the Haihan group. strength, and use the prosperity of the Sanya region to conduct a relatively thorough ideological transformation of these soldiers.
Maliko read the official document very quickly, and then handed it to He Xi next to him. He himself asked Yu Yao: "Conscription is a decision of the Executive Committee. I have no objection to this, but there is a problem. The recruitment office From what channels will the expenses be incurred? ”
"The Ministry of Finance will soon allocate special supplementary military expenditures. The relevant expenditures will be accounted for by the military expenditures. Don't worry, Director Ma. It will not affect the economic situation of the General Office of the People's Republic of China." Yu Yao responded with a smile. road.
"You have already made your plans!" Malik tutted: "With so many units, I think the army is the most efficient."
"That's still the scoring situation." Yu Yao shook his head and disagreed with Malico: "We started making reports at the beginning of the year, requesting that the control area of the Pearl River Estuary be expanded eastward. Now that we have entered the second half of the year, this matter is still There has been no reply. Every time I send a report to you, the executive committee and the staff always push me back with excuses such as 'the time is not right'. Can you tell me how efficient this is?"
< br>
Maliko smiled and said: "You are not just expanding eastward, you are directly planning to occupy Hong Kong Island! There are also garrison troops of the Ming Dynasty over there. How can the Executive Committee approve your crazy plan?"
Yu Yao disapproved and said: "It is better to occupy Hong Kong Island late than to occupy it early. The sooner we occupy Hong Kong Island, the sooner we can achieve actual control of the important waterway between Fuzhou and Guangzhou."
When Xiao Liang and Yu Yao first arrived in Guangzhou, they wanted to establish a military base at the mouth of the Pearl River and control the chokepoint leading in and out of the Pearl River. However, they waited for more than half a year before finally welcoming the executive committee's development of Dawanshan Island.
After the establishment of Wanshan Port, their eyes have been set on Hong Kong Island, which has better conditions and a larger area.
Compared with the small Dawanshan Island, Hong Kong Island, which covers an area of nearly 80 square kilometers, obviously has greater development potential.
There are natural harbors with excellent conditions on both the north and south sides of Hong Kong Island. The channel between the north and the mainland is the only way for ships from Fujian direction to enter and exit the Pearl River. Its strategic position is far beyond that of the small Dawanshan Island. .
If Dawanshan Island is only suitable for use as a maritime outpost in the Pearl River Estuary, then Hong Kong Island is the place that the military really wants to seize to build a large military base.
Of course, if Hong Kong Island is really captured one day, the local use will definitely be more than just a military base, and its role in commerce and trade should be no less than a military deterrent.
If it is managed properly, it will not be difficult to turn it into the largest commercial center on the southeast coast in a few years - the prerequisite is that the place must be captured.
As the top military officials feared, Hong Kong Island is still under the direct control of the Ming Dynasty, and there are garrison and water fortresses of the Guangdong Navy on the island.
Under such circumstances, it is probably impossible for the Haihan militia to occupy the island in a completely peaceful manner. As for the outbreak of armed conflict with Ming Dynasty, not only the executive committee did not want to see it, but even the bellicose military leaders also did not want to break up with Ming Dynasty at this stage.
Until a reasonable way is found to capture Hong Kong Island, the Executive Committee will definitely hold on to the plan submitted by the military team of the General Office of the People's Republic of China. Yu Yao himself knows this very well. The reason for complaining is actually It’s just that I am unwilling to accept this status quo.
(End of chapter)