Chapter 465: Mutual Reluctance
In an undeveloped area like Da Nang, there is naturally nothing good to eat or drink, and the skills of Chef An Nam cannot be compared with that of the specially trained Hai Han chef. Fortunately, the ingredients are fresh, so we can make do with it. . Of course, Ruan Jinggui, who still had a grudge, would inevitably complain from time to time that the northern cooks brought by Zheng Lin did not know how to use southern spices. Zheng Lin would also retort, saying that villagers in the mountains in the south probably rarely have the opportunity to eat authentic royal cuisine.
Liu Shanxia really wanted to tell these two guys to shut up. The food at Annan's level was only as good as Shaxian's snacks, and they were still arguing over each other to see who was better. From Liu Shanxia's point of view, it was just watching the sky from the bottom of a well.
Early the next morning, Zheng Lin came to Haihan Camp to handle the immigration handover with Ruan Jinggui. Liu Shanxia, on the other hand, took a group of people from the Ministry of Construction to the seaside to survey the terrain and draw construction drawings.
Da Nang is located in the middle of the Indochina Peninsula, 1,500 miles away from Thang Long Province and close to the South China Sea. Its strategic location is very important. In another history of time and space, Da Nang was used by France, Japan, and the Soviet Union in turn as a military base in the South China Sea. Da Nang Harbor is horseshoe-shaped facing north, about 15 kilometers long from north to south and 11 kilometers wide from east to west. The water depth along the coast is mostly more than ten meters, which can build a deep-water dock for large ships to dock. There is Son Tra Peninsula in the south of the harbor and Han Island in the north as a barrier. There are also Marble Mountain and Boksang Mountain along the coast to shield the strong winds from the sea. The wind shelter conditions are very good. The temperature here is around 25 degrees all year round, and with the long coastal beaches, it can be regarded as a quite comfortable resort.
Of course, Liu Shanxia does not have much time to spend slowly here. He must complete the actual survey of this area within half a month and design the development and construction plan of Da Nang accordingly. At that time, the supervision matters will be handed over to other technical personnel from the Ministry of Construction for follow-up, and he himself needs to rush back to Sanya, where there are still a lot of things such as the Hong Kong Island port project that he has to go back to handle in person. Compared with before the time travel, Liu Shanxia hardly enjoyed the benefits brought by time travel. Over the past two years, he spent more than half of the time at the construction site - and the rest of the time was almost spent on the way to the construction site. Spent on the way.
Compared with the topographical survey work, which is strict and does not tolerate any mistakes, it is difficult to have unified implementation standards in the immigration handover process. Originally, according to the prior agreement between the two parties, the labor conditions provided by Annan should be for healthy people between the ages of 16 and 50, with no physical disabilities or obvious diseases. However, the actual situation did not achieve the results Haihan expected. Ruan Jinggui only needed eyes. If you are not blind, you can easily see that there are many people in the crowd who do not meet the requirements.
Ruan Jinggui turned his head and whispered a few instructions to the subordinates next to him. Not long after, militiamen came forward and began to pull those who did not meet the conditions from the team.
Of course Zheng Lin immediately realized something was wrong and asked Ruan Jinggui: "Commissioner Ruan, what does this mean?"
Ruan Jinggui snorted and said: "Special Envoy Zheng, you don't have to pretend to be confused with me, right? Look at these people who were pulled out. They are old, young, and there is a leg among them. This is not the same as what was promised." ! "
"It's inevitable that they are a few years apart. As long as they can work, it's okay?" Zheng Lin also knew that he was wrong and planned to fool him.
"As long as he can work?" Ruan Jinggui stood up angrily and took out a half-year-old child from the crowd who had just been pulled aside: "This child is only seven or eight years old at most. Do you think he can do the work of an adult?" br>
After speaking, Ruan Jinggui pulled out an old man with a cane and white hair and beard from the crowd: "Even if this person is not seventy or eighty, he must be more than fifty years old, right? In his current condition, can he bear the burden?" Can you lift it? Special Envoy Ruan, if you mix in so much sand for the three thousand workers we agreed upon, will the responsibility be yours or mine if the project is delayed? "
Ruan Jinggui knows that the Haihan bureaucracy attaches great importance to the word "responsibility". Since he is responsible for the handover of labor, he will not let go easily. Otherwise, when the time comes, he will definitely be held responsible. For such a big thing as the construction of the port area, being fired might be regarded as a minor matter, or he might just be sent to a hard labor camp to work as a coolie.
Zheng Lin sighed and said: "Commissioner Ruan, this is not my intention. These workers are recruited from the whole village. If these people are specially selected, wouldn't it be necessary to break up countless families?"
The last time Zheng Lin went to Sanya Port to discuss cooperative development matters with the Executive Committee, there were 3,000 people coming to Haihan as soon as he opened his mouth, but there were not so many residents near Da Nang. In order to solve this problem, the Annan government had to recruit people from the vicinity of Hoi An in the south, taking away almost all the few local people and sending them to Da Nang as labor candidates. The problem Zheng Lin mentioned does exist. Since the whole village is being relocated, there must be some unqualified people. However, no matter what the considerations are, it is impossible to drive these people away and let them fend for themselves. , so I simply packaged them all and sent them to Da Nang. Maybe I could top up a few more.
After all, Ruan Jinggui was also from South Vietnam. After hearing Zheng Lin’s explanation, he was somewhat moved: “Didn’t you use prisoners of war to deliver the goods?”
Zheng Lin shook his head and said: "The war has been over for half a year, and we have caught almost everyone we can. We can't catch all those who put down their weapons and go home to farm, right?"
After hearing this, Ruan Jinggui also felt that it made some sense, but Zheng Lin said that the prisoner of war resources were almost exhausted, which was not good news for Haihan. Ruan Jinggui has been in Sanya for half a year and knows that a considerable part of the local naturalized people are from Annan. The introduction of large numbers of immigrants from the outside world has always been a policy that the Executive Committee insists on implementing. If the source of immigrants in Annan is interrupted, it will definitely affect the development process of Haihan to some extent. The base camp may not know about this situation, and it will have to be reported to Liu Shanxia later.
Although Ruan Jinggui also sympathizes with these compatriots, he knows very well which side he is on now, not to mention being able to enter the Haihan system, which is actually a good thing for these people who lack a stable living environment. If he can do more Some compatriots have entered the Haihan system, and Ruan Jinggui is happy to contribute.
"I can recruit these people, but they cannot be counted as qualified labor force. You still have to find a way to get enough of the 3,000 people we want." Ruan Jinggui has been with Schneider for several months, if nothing else. I have learned a lot about this skill of calculating others. Not only must these unqualified people be retained, but Zheng Lin must also try to make up the difference.
Zheng Lin felt that it was a big deal when he heard that. With these three thousand people, he had already plundered all the people in a radius of nearly a hundred miles. If he followed Ruan Jinggui's selection method, he would probably have to select eighteen hundred people out of the three thousand people. If you are not qualified, you will have to ship people over from other places, and the consumption here and inside will be huge.
Zheng Lin immediately shook his head and retorted: "Commissioner Ruan is wrong. When we recruit workers, we do not break up families. We really hope that you can accept them all as workers. But since they are not qualified, then they are not qualified." There is no reason for us to provide it to you for free. "Zheng Lin refused to let Ruan Jinggui take advantage, and Ruan Jinggui did not want to suffer this loss, so the two were in a stalemate. However, Ruan Jinggui's people were not idle. They constantly picked out those who obviously did not meet the conditions from the people's ranks, and the families of these people often followed them out of the ranks because of this, so soon there were people outside the ranks. Hundreds of people were held in solitary confinement. Some half-grown children had no idea what was going on. When they saw the Haihan militiamen holding shining bayonets on their rifles, they couldn't help but howl loudly, and the scene suddenly became chaotic.
"What happened?" At this moment, Liu Shanxia finally came back and happened to encounter this chaotic scene.
The two talked about the cause and effect, and Liu Shanxia was a little dumbfounded after hearing this. Both families have their own reasons for this matter, but from Liu Shanxia's perspective, of course, the priority is to protect himself.
"Special Envoy Zheng, this is not our people's intention to embarrass you. Whatever the original agreement was, we will implement it. No matter where these unqualified people go in the end, you will still have to provide these three thousand qualified workers. , otherwise if the construction period continues to drag on, you will be the ones who suffer the most. You should think about it carefully! "Liu Shanxia won't say who is right or wrong. Anyway, let's not let go of the matter of the three thousand workers. As for what to do with these selected people in the end, he was not in a hurry anyway.
This place is more than a thousand miles away from Shenglong Palace, and Zheng Lin doesn't have Haihan's magical ability to communicate across the air, so he has no choice but to ask the court for instructions as soon as possible. If an envoy was sent back to ask for instructions before coming back, more than half a month would have passed, and the Haihan people obviously would not have the patience to wait in this bay forever.
Zheng Lin hesitated for a long time before responding: "How about this? Let's each take a step back. Those who don't meet the conditions will be converted into one person, so that each other will have less trouble."
Ruan Jinggui caught a glimpse of Liu Shanxia's face hesitating, as if he wanted to agree to Zheng Lin's suggestion, so he rushed ahead and said: "How can two people work as one person? Look at the young ones, the old ones, no one needs to be taken care of. ? In my opinion, at least five people should be converted into one person, which is fair. "
"Five people?" Zheng Lin almost shouted, "Why don't you go and grab it?"
"If you feel something is wrong, then send these people back. Anyway, we can't make them do anything after we take them over. They can only eat food for free." Ruan Jinggui said with an indifferent expression.
Zheng Lin was not willing to let it go, and he argued for a long time. Finally, after Liu Shanxia's "justice", he reached the condition that three people should be compensated for one qualified worker. But even so, the number of workers is still not enough, and Zheng Lin still has to find a way to make up the difference of 3,000 people.
Three thousand people may not be too much, but it is definitely not something Zheng Lin can gather in a short while. The instructions given to him by the imperial court were to build Da Nang as soon as possible and restore the maritime trade channel in southern Annam. As for other situations, the high-ranking officials and dignitaries of Thang Long Palace would not care. In the end, Zheng Lin had to agree to add 500 more young men, but he hoped that Liu Shanxia could start construction here as soon as possible.
However, it is useless to rush this kind of thing. No matter how capable Liu Shanxia is, he does not dare to start directing the construction with his eyes closed. He still has to complete the preparation work one by one. However, considering the specific situation in Annan, Liu Shanxia It was decided to modify the original construction plan and complete the construction work of Da Nang in a way of construction while using it.
Liu Shanxia stayed in Da Nang until mid-October before returning to Sanya. The survey data and research on Hong Kong Island were sent back, and he was needed to come back to organize and coordinate the development plan for the harbor in the southwest of Hong Kong Island.
While infrastructure projects are in full swing, other departments are not idle either. In late October, the first 1,500-ton displacement warship built by the Victory Port Shipyard finally entered the launching and outfitting stage. Although the construction was only 60-70% complete at this time, and it was still too early to be put into use, the big guys on the executive committee were very excited and gathered at the shipyard to watch this big guy.
For reasons of confidentiality, the Executive Committee did not arrange a large-scale celebration for this event, and the vicinity of the dock where the ship was launched was also isolated by high fences and guarded warships on the periphery. No one can get close.
Of course, it is almost impossible to maintain 100% confidentiality. After all, the tall mast on the ship cannot be covered at all. Anyone entering or exiting Victory Port will notice the large sea-going ship being built in this mysterious shipyard, but no one can guess how big the ship is.
Luo Shengdong had also noticed this mysterious ship a long time ago. To be precise, there should be two ships, because he knew that there were two large shipyards in the area subject to strict military control, and according to the sea It was customary for the Han people to build only one ship of a certain model. Luo Shengdong was almost certain that there was another large ship under construction in another shipyard with a slightly slower progress.
There are indeed warships with a larger displacement than the "exploration class" in the Ming Navy, but only the Guangdong Navy is equipped with a few ships, none on Qiongzhou Island, and Luo Shengdong has never seen a real one. However, he speculated from the length and distance of the mast that was protruding from the height that the warship the Haihan people were building not only had a displacement far greater than that of the "exploration class", but it was also probably difficult to find an opponent of the same level among the warships currently in service in the Ming army. Perhaps the treasure ships of Zheng He's voyages to the West had such a tonnage, but now the Ming Dynasty no longer has such huge treasure ships.
Luo Shengdong applied several times to visit the shipyard to visit this new ship, but was rejected by the Military Commission. The reason is also very simple - before this kind of ship is unveiled in public, all circumstances must be kept secret, and even allies are not allowed to enter.
(End of chapter)