Chapter 525 Another Plan
Although He Xi's statement was relatively subtle, Maliko could still understand what "artificially creating tension" meant. It is nothing more than mobilizing these civilian armed forces to carry out some low-intensity raids on surrounding areas, creating an atmosphere of panic among the people, and forcing those timid people to flee in large numbers.
Guangdong has been experiencing constant natural and man-made disasters in the past few years. The rogue bandits in the province have even caused trouble to the extent that the Ming army has to avoid them. Two years ago, several groups of bandits gathered thousands of people to attack Lijiazhuang. The garrison in Guangzhou did not dare to go to the local area to rescue them. As a result, the Haihan militia was given a chance to become famous. At that time, there were tens of thousands of refugees in Guangdong Province. Many people had abandoned all worries in order to survive. A large pot of gruel could attract hundreds of people to sign up to immigrate. However, due to traffic conditions and other objective reasons, the number of immigrants organized to be sent to Hainan Island was not particularly large. However, the situation of the refugees gathering near Guangzhou at that time was still deeply imprinted in the hearts of the people in the Guangdong Office.
Now the Executive Committee has ordered that we must try to quickly recruit a large number of immigrants. If we follow the normal process, Guangdong will definitely not be able to complete the task in full. And artificially creating refugees is indeed a way to solve the problem.
Due to the widespread banditry in Guangdong in the past two years, people have more or less psychological shadows about this. Once bandits appear in the local area, it is easy to habitually flee their homes. Guangzhou Prefecture and its subordinate Panyu County, known as the safest in Guangdong, are undoubtedly the best places to take refuge.
Guangzhou's city defenses are solid, but bandits and bandits don't have the guts or the ability to attack. For refugees, entering Guangzhou means entering a safe zone. Panyu County, located forty miles south of Guangzhou City, is a completely different choice. The Haihan militia, known as the strongest militia in Guangdong, is stationed there, and it hosts refugees all year round. As long as you are willing to follow the Haihan people, you will be able to have food and housing immediately.
The only thing that makes people worry is that if they enter the Haihan shelter, they must follow the arrangements of the Haihan people and move to Qiongzhou Island overseas to settle. This is an unacceptable condition for many people. Only those refugees who have lost all their property in the disaster and are already helpless will have to choose this road in order to survive.
Maliko frowned and said: "Isn't this method... not very safe? How many of the civilian armed forces you contacted can be obedient and accept control?"
"Are you worried that you won't be able to stop it when you get too big?" He Xi knew what Maliko was worried about when he heard his tone.
Maliko nodded without hesitation and said: "If it is our own people and can take command, we can give it a try. But people outside... With all due respect, whether the task of recruiting immigrants can be completed or not is another matter. , if there is any big mess that is difficult to clean up, you and I, including the departments under you, will be in trouble!”
He Xi responded: "I know you think this is too risky, so we might as well think about it and see if there are any ways to make the risk more controllable."
Malico shook his head and said: "There are too many links and too many uncontrollable factors. Unless you can simplify the plan to the point where we can directly control it, I still can't agree with this approach. I have other ideas. , instead of working hard here in Guangzhou, it is better to think about starting somewhere else.”
"For example?"
"For example, the place closest to Hainan Island." Maliko stood up, walked to the map hanging behind his back, and pointed to the north of the Qiongzhou Strait: "Leizhou Prefecture, Lianzhou Prefecture, and Gaozhou Prefecture, these are all good target areas. .”
Compared with the location of Guangzhou, the distance between the several state capitals located in Leizhou Peninsula and surrounding areas and Hainan Island is indeed much closer. The voyage from Leizhou to Qiongzhou City is only more than ten nautical miles. If it is Haihan's clipper, the two It only takes three hours, and the distance is dozens of times closer than Guangzhou. However, precisely because of the long distance, the Office in Guangdong Province had very limited influence in these areas during its external development in the first few years.
He Xi hesitated and said: "These places are closer to Hainan Island than to us. If we go there to recruit immigrants, it will be more time-consuming and laborious for us to do!"
"Don't worry, it's not bright in the west, but it's bright in the east!" Maliko raised his arm and pointed to the area east of the Pearl River Estuary: "Huizhou Prefecture, Chaozhou Prefecture, and the Fujian area further east, these are all we can do That’s the place to start!”
"Fujian is Xu Xinsu's territory!" He Xi did not forget to remind Malik. Although Xu Xinsu Group and Haihan have a relatively deep cooperative relationship, the cooperation is only limited to the fields of arms transactions and economic and trade. As for politics, especially when it comes to sensitive content such as local jurisdiction, both parties have a tacit understanding of maintaining not to interfere with each other.
Xu Xinsu has also sent many groups of officers to Sanya to receive military training from Haihan in the past two years. She is quite familiar with the fact that the southern part of Qiongzhou Island has fallen under Haihan's actual control. However, Fujian did not infringe on the Ming Dynasty because of this. He became hostile to Haihan due to his interests, and the cooperation between the two parties still continued at the same pace as before.
Haihan also knew exactly what the so-called "Navy" under Xu Xinsu's command was. Even though this group of pirates who came ashore were wearing Ming Dynasty military uniforms, they were still engaged in armed smuggling most of the time. In places such as Zhangzhou Prefecture and Quanzhou Prefecture controlled by Xu Xinsu's forces, the local power and influence of the Ming Dynasty officials may have fallen to the level of that of Yacheng officials.
Both parties have consciously avoided this area during cooperation and not interfere with the other party's local practices. Haihan had previously commissioned Xu Xinsu to hire a large number of craftsmen from all walks of life from Fujian, but he had never really imported people from Fujian under the guise of soliciting immigrants. Any ruler with a normal mind would not easily see the population under his rule lose a large amount. As a businessman, Xu Xinsu certainly had a good understanding of these issues. Therefore, Haihan never asked Haihan He made such requests.
Maliko shook his head and said: "We wouldn't do this before because the time was not mature yet, but now that we have taken over the base of Hainan Island, I think we can renegotiate the terms of cooperation with Xu Xinsu now! Lao He , in your opinion, how loyal is Xu Xinsu to Ming Dynasty?”
"In a ten-point system, four points cannot be more!" He Xi expressed his judgment without hesitation: "The only reason why he chose to submit to the Ming Dynasty was to use this backer to develop his own power, just like in the original history. Zheng Zhilong did the same thing. But now for him, in addition to Daming as his backer, our backer is also indispensable." In the original history, Zheng Zhilong also chose to accept Fujian soon after killing Xu Xinsu. Governor Xiong Wencan recruited An to submit to the Ming court and became the chief soldier. What he did after taking control of the sea route was to collect protection fees from all merchant ships passing through Fujian waters. In fact, what he did was not much different from a bandit who dominated the mountain.
However, in this time and space, Xu Xinsu has successfully avoided the original tragic ending because she received military assistance from Haihan. In the past two years, the battle with the "Eighteen Zhi" pirate gang has been quite successful, with more wins than losses. . But if he really destroyed the "Eighteen Zhi", then his subsequent actions would probably follow the same path of Zheng Zhilong in the original history. Therefore, while Haihan provided military assistance to him, he also maintained some control so that his military strength would not expand too fast and Xu Xinsu would not be allowed to destroy the "Eighteen Zhi" opponent too early.
Malico continued: "I agree with you. Xu Xinsu's loyalty to Ming Dynasty is limited. What he pursues is to rely on Ming Dynasty and our two backers to defeat the opponent Shiba Zhi in front of us. In the past, we needed to control The intensity of our assistance to Xu Xinsu is because our own maritime power is too weak. When we cannot affect the situation in the Fujian Strait, we can only hope that Xu Xinsu and Zheng Zhilong can maintain an offensive and defensive balance. But now we have also occupied Hainan Island, the base area. Now that we have a fleet, I think we can look further and start making preparations in Fujian.”
He Xi asked tentatively: "You mean to increase military aid to Xu Xinsu and use this condition in exchange for immigrants from Fujian?"
"That's right." Maliko nodded: "Xu Xinsu has advantages in Fujian that we don't have in Guangdong. He organizes large-scale immigration in an official capacity, and no one can do anything to him. And his biggest need for us is It is to buy our military equipment and provide more weapons to the Fujian side, so that they can defeat Shibazhi faster, wear down his strength, and clear the way for us to go to the Fujian Strait in the future."
He Xi was silent for a while before speaking: "There are also huge risks in doing this!"
"But the proportion of support for this plan in the executive committee will definitely be higher than the plan you just mentioned." Malik explained: "At least we have two natural allies. The first is the military industry units. In addition to Haihan Ordnance Industry, In addition, it is possible to add the Victory Port Shipyard. The second is the military, especially the Navy. I heard that the Navy's third 'Dignity-class' warship was stranded due to funding and purpose issues, but if the Navy If the opportunity to go to Fujian arises, the executive committee will definitely approve the subsequent shipbuilding plan. ”
"Isn't this enough?" He Xi asked.
Malico continued to explain: "The most important thing is that the risks of this plan are more controllable. We only need to deal with Xu Xinsu's family, not the many families in your previous plan, and the unexpected variables will be reduced a lot. And Xu Xinsu is very dependent on us in terms of weapons and equipment. If he loses our ammunition support, his troops can only fight for a month or two at most. He doesn't understand this."
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He Xi said nothing and started writing and drawing with a pen and paper. Maliko didn't rush him, sat back in his seat and waited quietly.
After a long while, He Xi put down the pen in his hand, looked at Malike and said: "I have listed the pros and cons of the two options. It is true that your option is more feasible, but the disadvantages are also obvious, that is Issues of cycle time and cost.”
"I know these two problems, but I can't solve them." Maliko shrugged: "It's so far from Fujian to Hainan Island. The longer the journey, the longer the cycle, and the cost of transporting immigrants will also rise. But. As long as the transportation capacity is guaranteed, I think it is possible to obtain a large number of immigrants in the short term. What the Executive Committee wants now is population. I think cost is a secondary issue. As for the cost-effectiveness, that's it. Let’s leave it to the executive committee to weigh it.”
He Xi thought that there was no other way out for the time being, so she agreed with Malik's opinion. Immediately, the two began to draft a report, of course also including the first plan proposed by He Xi, and then sent it back to Sanya in the form of a telegram.
The Executive Committee obviously attached great importance to this matter. It responded to the telegram the next day, asking the Guangdong side to learn from the previous successful experience of exchanging weapons for people in Annan, make detailed plans for the second option, and contact Fujian as soon as possible. Contact the other party to test whether the exchange of arms for population can be recognized by the other party.
On November 10, Maliko came to a manor in the north of Guangzhou City, where he met Dong Yanyun, the representative of Fujian Xu Xinsu Group in Guangzhou.
After the meeting and greetings, Ma Like informed Haihan that he hoped to reach a new cooperation method with Fujian, and Dong Yanyun's surprise was written directly on his face: "What Director Ma means is that we use the population to In exchange for your restricted weapons?”
"That's right." Maliko nodded: "We also know that you have been trying to purchase weapons in large quantities, but our production capacity is really limited and there is no way to supply the quantity you need. But starting next year, this situation will Things have changed. We will expand the iron mines and arsenal and increase the scale of weapons production. Of course, the premise is that we can obtain a sufficient number of labor, and this is the main reason why we proposed this new cooperation method to you. ”
Dong Yanyun frowned and said: "Then how do you plan to calculate the price for exchanging weapons for people? This seems... to be suspected of buying and selling people!"
"No, no, no, this is not human trafficking." Maliko corrected him seriously: "This is just an exchange of conditions. You provide us with labor, and we provide you with the fruits of labor. There will be no problems in this process. Numbers such as population prices, and we will not sell the people of Ming Dynasty as commodities. ”
"Haihan people are so shameless. This is really serious nonsense! If you compare it to being thick-skinned, you will really lose!" Looking at Maliko, who looked confident and confident, Dong Yanyun couldn't help but complain a few words in his heart. .
(End of chapter)