Chapter 504 Qiongzhou Fucheng
All joking aside, but the work that needs to be done must still be done. As a representative sent by the military, Wang Tom is not only responsible for inspecting sea conditions, waterways, ports, etc. along the way, but also making professional military assessments of the target area and providing action suggestions on possible military means. In other words, even if the army was ultimately responsible for conquering Danzhou by force, the preparatory work for the inspection would still have to be led by Wang Tom.
Even though there is internal competition between the navy and the army, and the opponent is as weak as a chicken, Wang Tom will not treat the reconnaissance mission as a child's play despite the military orders, and will still operate in accordance with strict operational procedures. The group entered Danzhou City, and after a simple meal at the Danzhou Resident Office, Wang Tom took a few people with him, and asked Zhang Xin to send two reliable naturalized citizens to lead the way, and went out to check the city defense situation. He Xi and Zhang Xin went to visit some of the leading figures in the local officialdom and cultural circles.
That night, the two groups returned to the garrison office to summarize the information collected during the day.
"The situation of the city defense is basically consistent with our expectations and the information previously reported by the garrison office. The garrison here can only be said to be slightly stronger than Yacheng, but it will not cause big trouble to the militia." Wang Tom said at the table He spread out a hand-drawn map and explained to the two of them: "The Danzhou garrison has a total of four lookout posts along the Danzhou Bay. This is also the official's only early warning method in areas outside the city. This is easy for us to solve. But it will be a little troublesome to advance into the city after seizing the city gate.”
"Is it because of the buildings in the city?" He Xi looked at the hand-drawn map and found that in addition to the two main roads in the east, west and north and south, this small city had many winding alleys.
"It's not just a building problem." Wang Tom shook his head and said, "I walked around the city a few times today and noticed that there are too many academies in the city, at least a dozen! If the defenders resist, If we are forced to attack with heavy firepower, the academy will definitely be affected.”
"The overall situation is the most important thing during the war. When I was in Hue City, I heard that you used artillery fire to forcibly tear out a road." He Xi joked.
"The situation in Hue was different at that time! Everyone in that city can be regarded as enemies, and they are not Han people, so we don't need to feel bad about how many people die. After Danzhou City is captured, they will all be ours, not to mention the scholars in this place. If it affects our Haihan reputation, it will be a big deal," Wang Tom explained. He is not a mother-in-law person, but when he went out today and saw the entire street of academies and many scholars, he still had doubts about the previous idea of demotion by force.
"In war, people always die..." He Xi said something that felt wrong: "Which one of us is from the military? I came here to investigate the possibility of peacefully conquering Danzhou. Why do I feel like I am now the one who belongs to the military?" The main war faction? ”
"Then let's talk about your gains first." Wang Tom also stopped talking at the right time.
"In a word, they are all guys who are greedy for money!" He Xi's expression was very disdainful: "I met with several deans of academies and heard that I am a cadre who came from Sanya. Most of them are busy. Ask me if there are any new sponsorship projects for Danzhou’s cultural sector this year.”
"Oh? Then how did you reply?" Wang Tom asked with interest.
"I'm not Ning Qi, so how can I set up flags for him outside." He Xi shook his head and said, "I can't get involved in the affairs of their cultural and educational system."
At that time, He Xi really wanted to think about organizing an "I Love Haihan" essay contest this year. At worst, I would personally use the money to hand out the prizes, but I thought that this thing might stimulate the local literati's self-esteem and patriotism. Enthusiasm, the effect was counterproductive, and in the end I gave up this unrealistic idea.
"What's the attitude of the people in the government?" Wang Tom thought that what He Xi said made sense, so he turned to ask about the official situation.
"None of them came forward directly. They were all the aides and masters of the faction." When talking about this topic, the expression on He Xi's face became a little gloomy: "It seems that the past two years have really made these local officials more and more interested." Hey, even if you don’t say anything yet, you can earn money by talking and talking! You don’t have to worry about taking the money or spending it!”
Zhang Xin responded at this time: "Mr. He, the funds used to bribe local officials every year have been approved by the Executive Committee."
He Xi waved her hands and said: "I am not saying this to blame the Danzhou Office for not getting things done. The Security Department also has ledgers for the money spent in Danzhou officialdom. Don't worry too much. Danzhou is here. The assistant officials are more arrogant than the officials in Guangzhou. When we take Danzhou, I really want to see what these people will look like!”
"If you want money rather than your life, then we have to negotiate!" Wang Tom, however, was not as resentful as He Xi: "Since we want money, we can negotiate the price of everything and let them surrender in Kaicheng. We can probably talk about it.”
Hearing this, He Xi's face relaxed a little: "It's probably a bit difficult to surrender directly to the city. After all, these officials still need a reputation. But if possible, let them give up resistance, or just pretend to do it when the time comes. Surrender, that is possible." He Xi and Wang Tom stayed in Danzhou for only two days, then returned to the seaside, boarded the ship and left the port, continued north, rounded the northwest corner of Hainan Island, turned east, and sailed directly. Go to Qiongzhou Fucheng. Although there are two counties, Lingao and Chengmai, along the coast, according to the information we have, the city defenses of these two counties can only be described as rudimentary and are not enough to hinder Haihan's plan. Therefore, He Xi and Wang Tom decided to go straight to the topic and went directly to Qiongzhou Fucheng.
Qiongzhou Fucheng was built in the fifth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty. It has a history of more than 600 years. It was from that time that the administrative seat of Qiongzhou Island was changed from Yazhou to this new city. However, it was not until the second year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty that Sun An, the Minister of War, led his troops to Qiongzhou Island, and Qiongzhou was upgraded to a prefecture, and this prefectural city came to rule the entire island.
In order to meet the status of a government office, the city once again carried out an expansion project, and the construction period lasted nine years. After completion, the city wall of Qiongzhou Fucheng is 1253 feet long, 2 feet high and 28 feet thick. There are 1843 battlements built on the city wall. There are three gates in the southeast and west, namely Chaoyang Gate, Jingnan Gate and Hue Gate. , although there is no city gate in the north, there is a Wanghai Tower built on the city wall to assist defense. In the seventeenth year of Hongwu, Hainan Guard Commander Sang Zhao led another expansion project and built an earth city with a circumference of 380 feet as a sub-city outside the west gate. This basically announced the completion of the city building project of Qiongzhou City. a paragraph. There is a moat outside the city, and foreign ships can sail from the waterway of the Nandu River to the city.
Qiongzhou Fucheng is the largest city on Qiongzhou Island. In terms of city defense facilities alone, Qiongzhou Fucheng is much stronger than the Danzhou they visited previously. After all, this place is the political and military center of the entire Qiongzhou Island. The strength of the defense is It is definitely much stricter than other border towns.
When they arrived at the capital of Qiongzhou, the two of them no longer behaved as arrogantly as in Danzhou. After listening to the briefings from the staff in the Fucheng office, the two of them each spent a few days in the city for on-site inspections.
The situation in Qiongzhou Fucheng is much more complicated than the cities Haihan had previously penetrated, mainly because the population here is much larger than other places on the island. The population of the city plus the surrounding areas is almost the total population of the other cities on the island combined. He Xi had been here two years ago, but this time he returned to his hometown and could still feel that this city had undergone some significant changes.
You can see a lot of daily necessities manufactured by Haihan on the market, from high-end glass mirrors to cheap soaps and matches. As long as they are sold in Sanya, you can find basically everything here - of course the price is at least one or two times higher than in Sanya. Just times. When the people saw him dressed in Han Chinese attire, they no longer watched with curiosity like they did two years ago. Occasionally, one or two children would come over to follow, but they would soon be scolded and dragged away by their parents: "What are you looking at? Have you never seen Mr. Haihan?"
Encountering such a situation, He Xi was a little bit dumbfounded. There were actually only two or three travelers in the Haihan office in Fucheng, but there were more than 30 people under the office, and these people were basically naturalized citizens. , many of them were determined to follow Haihan and chose to show their loyalty by shaving their heads and disguising themselves. As long as you have been in the Haihan system for a little longer, your temperament and mental outlook will naturally be different from the ordinary people of the Ming Dynasty. And these people can't tell which are the real Haihan people and which are just naturalized people, but for them, In other words, Haihan people are nothing new. You can see a few of them on the street almost every day. There is no need to watch them.
Haihan has not opened any retail stores in Fucheng. This is also a very significant feature of the current Haihan commercial system's external operation - most of the products are sold through dealers and agents to establish sales channels, allowing Daming to businessmen were able to get a share of Haihan's industrialized production methods. The existence of these Ming agents has also cleared the last obstacle for Haihan products to enter the Ming market, and can even become a usable force in the hands of the Executive Committee under certain conditions.
For example, although the official staff of the office in Fucheng is less than forty, the entire Qiongzhou Fucheng accepts Haihan's employment, runs errands for Haihan, and has direct stakeholders, at least two to three thousand people. These people seem to be a small proportion among the tens of thousands of people in Fucheng, but what cannot be ignored are the hidden indirect related people behind them.
For example, the local distribution rights of Haihan Private Salt are in the hands of the brother-in-law of the Hainan Guard Commander. This business can bring an income of at least 5,000 taels of silver to his family every year; and the local distribution rights of Haihan Glass Stationery The sales channel manager is the nephew of the prefect. This business can really be said to be making money while staying at home. There are at least a dozen other related households like this, which almost take over the distribution rights of all Haihan products in Fucheng. These vested interests do not resent the local operation of Haihan business system, but are looking forward to Sanya. They can regularly launch new products so that their stores can have new hype points.
There are not many stores operated by Haihan itself, the most core of which is Haihan Bank. As the main sales market on Qiongzhou Island, the Ministry of Finance also opened a branch in Qiongzhou Fucheng. In the initial stage, it was mainly used to settle payments between Sanya and Qiongzhou Fucheng to facilitate maritime merchants who specialized in traveling between the two places. However, with the gradual expansion of the scope of banking business, the current business of banks is no longer limited to settling payments for merchants. Banknotes with printed fixed face values have begun to gradually circulate in the market.
The fixed-amount banknotes currently issued by Haihan Bank in Qiongzhou Fucheng are the same as those issued locally by the Guangzhou branch. They are divided into three denominations: 10, 50, and 110. They are anonymous and cannot be reported as lost. They can be exchanged at Haihan Bank at any time. Equivalent amount of cash. This kind of small-denomination banknote has been generally praised by the business community after its introduction. Even those who were initially suspicious were invited to the bank's underground vault to see the 100,000 taels stored there after their identity was verified. After Ku Yin, most of his original doubts were dispelled. According to data provided by Haihan Bank, the proportion of transactions using Haihan banknotes as a means of payment in Qiongzhou's business community has reached nearly 50%.
However, the government was not at all wary of Haihan Bank's practice of quietly controlling the lifeline of the local economy - for officials, it was a waste of time to leave the money collected through various channels outside the city. It is far better to have a bank guarded by Haihan militiamen with guns and live ammunition than to dig a big hole in your back garden and bury it in the ground, and then worry about it every night. Anyway, when you need money, just send a message to the Haihan people and hand them the banknote, and the bank's silver truck will transport the full amount of cash to the designated place for delivery within half an hour.
After more than two years of operation, the relevant departments have been able to skillfully use commercial channels to pave the way for other penetration work. Combining promotion in the fields of politics, culture, economy and trade, this entire operating system can produce a much stronger effect than pure trade relations. Haihan's lifestyle, values, cultural concepts, etc., have continuously penetrated into the lives of every resident in Fucheng through this system.
The only problem is probably that it is a little far away from Sanya, so it is unlikely that like Yacheng, it was quickly assimilated by Haihan in just two or three years, and then bypassed the local government and achieved de facto annexation. In fact, Haihan's entire expansion trend on Hainan Island also shows differences in the degree of progress with changes in geographical distance. The closer the distance, the higher the degree of Haihan's control. The farther the distance, the greater the influence of Haihan on the local area. The power is more limited.
(End of chapter)