Chapter 458: Tricks to attract immigrants
For Haihan, who now has at least two 200-ton new ships launched every month on average, shipbuilding technology is no longer the main factor restricting the speed of maritime expansion. The lack of sailors with maritime navigation experience is currently the biggest problem for the executive committee. A headache.
Even if the establishment of the militia navy is not included, the various cargo ships, fishing boats, etc. under the Ministry of Shipping require nearly a thousand sailors to ensure normal operation. After the Navy was separated from the militia last year, a large number of experienced personnel in the original crew establishment of the Maritime Transport Department were assigned to the Navy. In addition, the shipbuilding direction throughout last year was mainly for military use, resulting in a decrease in the crew establishment of the Maritime Transport Department. There is such a huge gap that after the Victory Port Shipyard started building large-scale civilian ships this year, the number of crew members has begun to exceed demand.
Almost all people in the southern part of Hainan Island who have experience in sailing boats have accepted Haihan's employment and become naturalized citizens. Even some people in Yazhou Water Village have left their military status and joined Haihan. But even so, the recruitment speed of sailors is still not keeping up with the pace.
After Gu Kai came to Hong Kong Island to learn about the local situation, he had already started thinking about recruiting people here. Among the hundreds of local residents, fishermen account for almost 70%. It should be reasonable to select two to three hundred qualified sailors after excluding the old, weak, women and children. If we rely on the existing immigration introduction system for recruitment, it may take three months or even longer to reach this number. Some time ago, in order to capture the Jinyiwei spies, the Li family and the Guangdong Office jointly set up a stall on the Pearl River Pier outside the south gate of Guangzhou for several days to recruit sailors. In such a large formation, in the end, they only recruited seven or eight sailors in total. Only ten qualified candidates.
If a group of sailors can be recruited here, firstly, it can solve the resettlement problem of local people after land acquisition, and secondly, it can also alleviate the pressure on the Ministry of Shipping's establishment gap in the near future. It will undoubtedly be a best-of-both-worlds solution for the Executive Committee. . Now that Gu Kai had discovered this opportunity, he naturally would not let it go easily. He immediately pulled Huang Sanyuan and explained the key points of Haihan's policy of recruiting naturalized citizens. Huang Sanyuan was stunned for a moment.
For Huang Sanyuan, a living situation with food, food, housing and high remuneration sounds much better than their current situation. These things sound much more sincere than the land treatment methods Gu Kai mentioned before. If the Haihan people can really achieve the treatment mentioned, then the hard life of the people in the fishing village will be over.
Gu Kai spent more than an hour discussing with Huang Sanyuan, and then asked his subordinates to take ten taels of silver and give it to Huang Sanyuan in the name of hard work. Huang Sanyuan declined a few words, but he still couldn't resist the temptation of this free money and finally accepted it. As for how Huang Sanyuan will tell the local people after he returns, Gu Kai doesn't really care. The general trend of Haihan occupying this place will not change just because of the opinions of local people of this magnitude. Even if the people here are not happy, Haihan still followed his own plan to turn this place into a new port. Of course, if the people here choose to cooperate, their future lives will definitely be better protected than they are now. As for how to choose, it all depends on their thoughts.
Compared with these ordinary people who can be dispatched with a small amount of money, Gu Kai still cares more about this group of wealthy businessmen from Guangzhou. After yesterday's briefing meeting, Gu Kai made some inquiries at the evening dinner. The amount of foreign funds with general investment intentions exceeded at least 300,000 taels of silver. This amount of money would not only develop the bay, but even develop the entire Hong Kong Island. It's enough to save some money.
Of course, Gu Kai will not be satisfied just because the Guangzhou Guangdong Office has attracted so much intentional funds. No one can have too much money. The more money you spend here, the more complete the Hong Kong Island stronghold can be built in the future. Even if you can build an extra breakwater and build an extra fort, that would be good. In fact, there is too much money to use up. In the future, we can build several vacation villas exclusively for travelers on Taiping Mountain, so that everyone can have the opportunity to enjoy the feeling of being a wealthy person.
Although Gu Kai was not an engineering professional, it was related to Haihan's development plans in the mainland. He still responsibly followed the engineers sent by the Ministry of Construction to conduct a survey of the local topography.
The bay between Hong Kong Island and Ap Lei Chau undoubtedly has excellent port conditions. In another time and space, Aberdeen Bay, Sham Wan, and Tai Shue Wan all had large-scale wharves, and Ap Lei Chau Island faced There are also vast areas of port areas built towards the northeast of Hong Kong Island. If a fort is built on the commanding heights of Ap Lei Chau according to the plan submitted by the military team of the General Office of the People's Republic of China, then the small island of Ap Lei Chau will definitely be assigned to the military as a military zone in the future.
In addition to the commanding heights on Ap Lei Chau, the mountains in the southeastern part of the bay are also excellent observation points. The location of Hong Kong Ocean Park in another time and space can be used as a lookout to monitor the southern waters.
If there is any shortcoming in the natural conditions here, it should be that the plain area near the sea is too small. According to the preliminary calculations of the engineering staff, this narrow seaside area surrounded by mountains from the northeast and two directions has an area of less than two square kilometers. Even including the pitiful flat terrain on Ap Lei Chau, at most It is about the same size as the area of Victory Port when it was first developed.
These conditions are barely enough to establish an overseas cargo transshipment port or a military base, but if you want to build a business center, it will obviously be severely restricted. Therefore, in the long run, occupying the entire Hong Kong Island is still a move that Haihan must make in the next period of time. However, neither the General Office nor the Executive Committee are too eager to take this step. As long as they take root in one corner of Hong Kong Island first, it is only a matter of time before they can control the entire island.
As for the Ming naval force stationed in the north of the island, the Executive Committee is not actually worried about conflicts with it. After all, the Liu Xiang pirate gang has been entrenched in the nearby waters for several years, and the navy has not dared to take any action. As long as the militia and navy do not take the initiative to attack, I believe the navy will play the role of transparent little people with a tacit understanding. . Based on the previous successful examples, within a year or two, this water village will probably be like the Yazhou water village, which will be penetrated to the point of being nothing more than a shell.
On the afternoon of the third day when the inspection team stayed in the local area, Huang Sanyuan approached Gu Kai again and said that after discussions with the local fishing village people, they were willing to accept the crew employment agreement offered by Haihan, but hoped that Haihan would allow these fishermen to continue to retain their rights. Local land and properties. After hearing this, Gu Kai shook his head and said: "Old man, your request is unreasonable. First of all, the government has handed over this area to us. Legally speaking, this area already belongs to us Haihan. If you want to go to the government We will definitely be responsible for the lawsuit. Secondly, as long as you are willing to work for us, we will properly solve your housing and living problems and will not cause you to have livelihood problems. I still say the same thing. , As long as we can produce the property deed issued by the government, we will accept it. If we are willing to sell it, we will spend money to buy it. If we are not willing to sell it, we will not force it.”
Seeing that Huang Sanyuan remained silent, Gu Kai continued to persuade: "We could have ignored this at all, but out of morality, we are willing to give the people living here a better way out. As long as they follow our guidance, everyone can have a chance. Isn’t it a good thing to live a more prosperous life? ”
Huang Sanyuan hesitated for a while before speaking: "Mr. Gu, it's not that I don't believe what you said, but it's unfounded. This is at least related to the livelihood of hundreds of people..."
"Aren't you just worried about your future life after joining us? This is easy to handle. You will know if you go and see it with your own eyes." The executive committee has long been familiar with a set of handling methods for this situation, and Gu Kai naturally also uses it. It was very pure: "You can recommend a few representatives to return to Qiongzhou Island with our ship to see our local business conditions, ask the tens of thousands of local people working for us, and find out about our Have there ever been times when promises were not fulfilled? Hearing is false, seeing is believing. It would be more intuitive for you to go and see for yourself as I am blowing the air here. As for the cost issue, there is no need to worry about it. All costs are borne by us, and you don’t need to pay a cent.”
Now Huang Sanyuan really couldn't find a reason to refuse, so he said goodbye to Gu Kai and went back to greet the villagers to elect representatives.
The business inspection team brought by Malico from Guangzhou only stayed here for three days before leaving. At this time, the survey work of the engineering staff was not over yet, so the merchants were unable to obtain more detailed investment plans in time. However, all the merchants retained their intention to invest after this trip, and no one planned to apply for a refund of the deposit, which shows that these merchants have full confidence in Haihan. It is no exaggeration to say that the Ming Dynasty investors attracted by the Guangdong Guangdong Office relied entirely on the good business reputation accumulated by Haihan in the past and the words of Malik and others.
After the business delegation returns to Guangzhou, the process of establishing the "Hong Kong Island Joint Development Company" will be started immediately. Although the project budget and detailed development plan have not yet been made, Malik plans to apply the "Qiong Lianfa" model first to trap this group of investors. If we make good use of the period before the project development details are officially announced, there may be an opportunity to attract another group of investors from Guangdong. The more local tycoons this project brings in, the less official pressure Haihan will face to annex Hong Kong Island in the future.
After staying here for a full week, the expedition team led by Gu Kai returned to Sanya. Before leaving, he also brought three representatives elected by the local fishing village with him. Their mission was to go to Sanya to visit the emerging social form under the rule of the Haihan Executive Committee and to confirm whether the various promises Gu Kai had made before would be fulfilled. accomplish.
Fishermen on Hong Kong Island are not the first to make observations like this. In the process of Haihan's expansion of its strength, there have been many such operations. For example, the most recent one was when the working group going to the Shilu area persuaded the local Li Dong to send the envoy Huangque to Sanya. Witness the true strength of Heihan to ensure that those promises made to them by the working group are not just puffery.
What Huangque saw and heard in Sanya undoubtedly shocked him greatly, and just as the relevant departments expected, Huangque brought this shock back to Lidong in Shilu and convinced his fellow villagers Accept the Haihan people's plan, gradually move their residence to coastal areas at the appropriate time, and begin to learn to adapt to the Haihan-style social system and lifestyle.
Using this method to realize land acquisition and resettlement plans is undoubtedly much more acceptable than using force to suppress it. This method has been gradually improved through repeated use. When these public representatives arrive in Sanya, people from the Ministry of Civil Affairs will naturally take over and use various propaganda methods to brainwash them with information bombing in a short period of time. . In just a few days, these people will naturally be completely cleansed by repeated information indoctrination and psychological suggestions. If all goes well, when these people return to the fishing village in half a month, they will probably have become loyal followers. Believers of Haihan civilization. They will spare no effort to persuade relatives and friends around them to give up their current lifestyle and join Haihan's social system.
In the next nearly two months, the entire Ministry of Construction was operating at almost overload. Even Tao Donglai, a leader who rarely went out for foreign affairs, had to temporarily suspend operations due to the shortage of engineering and technical personnel. Put down other part-time responsibilities and focus on completing the work of the Construction Department.
In late August, a seagoing ship returned to Hong Kong Island carrying three fishermen who had become fans of Haihan. Also arriving with them was the project budget that the engineering department had rushed to produce through unlimited overtime. The project budget is divided into three parts: civilian, commercial and military. The military has the highest degree of confidentiality. Although the project cost is very high, military projects never absorb external funds, and this time is no exception. The civil and commercial parts will be developed through joint investment and joint operation. Simply put, each merchant will jointly inject capital into the Hong Kong company, and then the Hong Kong company will invest in the construction, and then gradually recover the cost through future operations. , generate income.
Although the initial investment of this method of investing in industry will be much higher than other businesses, the advantage is that the returns are stable and the benefits are considerable. The most important thing is that for the businessmen who invest here, they can obtain many conveniences and benefits in this place by virtue of their status as investors in the future. When this place gradually prospers, it will not be easy to buy with money. Treated.
(End of chapter)