Chapter 583 A pattern that cannot be copied
But after listening to Wang Tom's boast, Li Jin still didn't understand how Haihan made a profit after investing huge sums of money to build a fleet. If this key issue is not understood, Haihan's "advanced experience" cannot be introduced. Used in Ming Dynasty. Li Jin had to be shameless and asked his previous question again: "General Wang, how can this fleet operate to earn profits?"
Wang Tom stared at Li Jin and couldn't help laughing: "General Li, are you joking or serious?"
Li Jin said: "Of course I am seriously asking for advice, and I beg General Wang to help me clear up my doubts!"
Wang Tom nodded and said: "The Ming Dynasty has been fighting with Wild Boar Skin outside the Pass for so many years in the north. It can be considered that there are wins and losses for each other. But why does Wild Boar Skin still raise troops to attack every year? Has General Li ever thought about the reason behind this?"
Li Jin responded without thinking: "Of course it's because wild boar skins can rob a large amount of property and people from the pass... General Wang means that the Haihan Militia also makes money in this way?"
Tom Wang nodded and said: "The truth is that simple. To maintain a strong army, you have to increase investment. If you want to not spend the money in vain, you have to find a way to gain profits by waging war abroad. Of course, the premise is You have to be able to beat your opponent, otherwise no matter how much you invest, it will be in vain.”
After hearing this, Li Jin was half-disheartened: "So for this method to be effective, we must first invest huge sums of money to build an army like the Haihan Militia?"
Tom Wang responded: "Yes, this is actually the same as doing business. If you don't have capital, you can only do small businesses to make a living. If you want to make big money, you still have to invest more capital in operation."
Li Jin secretly thought that this theory of doing business could only be used by you Haihan people. If it could work in the Ming Dynasty, the northern battlefield would not have been passive for many years. It should have gone out of the customs to burn the houses of wild boar skins. Grabbing the land for the boar skin. However, the fact is that the imperial court invests huge sums of money in military expenditures on the northern battlefield every year, but the Guanning cavalry it builds is difficult to carry out active attacks on the enemy. It is almost always in a passive state of defense. Although it has done meritorious service in defending the territory, it is absolutely impossible to have a Haihan militia. The effectiveness of this so-called "gain through war".
Li Jin endured his dissatisfaction and continued to ask: "What benefits has the Haihan Militia achieved from the war so far? Can General Wang give you some examples?"
Wang Tom smiled and said: "General Li is really curious... Since you asked, I'm not afraid to tell you. First of all, let's talk about this population. As we all know, the Haihan people who crossed the ocean and settled in Qiongzhou Island are not Sanya, where we settled, is a sparsely populated place, but our development model requires a large number of laborers to complete various infrastructure projects and production tasks. In addition to recruiting people from the Ming Dynasty to work for us, we also imported them from Annan. So far, tens of thousands of Annan immigrants have become naturalized people and work for us on this island. Why did the Annan court allow these people to immigrate to Qiongzhou Island? It is precisely because of our heroic militia in Annan? fought and helped them complete the reunification of the country.”
There have been rumors about the Haihan militia fighting across the sea to intervene in Annan's internal affairs for several years. Li Jin had naturally heard of it, but it was only today that he heard a senior Haihan officer admit the truth of these rumors face to face.
Then Wang Tom continued: "We have powerful maritime armed forces, enough to block the entire Annan coastline. At that time, both the Annan court and the southern rebels were under our control from the sea. With the help of the navy, we can bypass Passing through the southern rebels' defense line, we directly attacked the cities behind them, and our approach proved to be very effective. We not only defeated Hoi An, Annan's first port city, but also took over Hue, which is known as Annam's first strong city! "
When Wang Tom said this, he suddenly lowered his voice and said: "I'm not afraid to tell you that after a big city like this is attacked, the income will be calculated in millions of taels of silver."
Li Jin's heartbeat couldn't help but beat several times faster, which was an astronomical figure for him. He has naturally heard of the names of Hoi An and Hue. It is said that their prosperity is not much worse than that of some seaport cities in the Ming Dynasty. The Haihan militia fighting across the sea can even attack local cities and fortresses. Its combat power is indeed amazing. With their method of directly attacking the city, the benefits of natural war would be considerable. Even for Danzhou City, it is said that the losses during the pirate occupation last year were as high as nearly one million taels.
Li Jin coughed dryly and continued to ask: "In addition to population and money, are there other benefits from this strategy?"
"Yes, of course!" Wang Tom nodded and said: "The most important benefit, I'm just going to talk about it now, is land! We now have as many as seven seaport concessions in Annan from north to south. It can be said that almost 90% of Annan's shipping industry is in our hands. These seaports will continue to bring us economic benefits and population in the next few decades, and will control the connection between Daming and Nanyang for us. The route provides necessary mid-way supplies.”
Li Jin automatically ignored the unimportant content of these words, and focused on what Wang Tom said about "controlling the route between Ming Dynasty and Nanyang." Li Jin had been an official in Guangdong before, so he naturally understood how lucrative the ocean trade between Ming Dynasty and Nanyang was. If Haihan could really control this route, then the benefits he would get from it would be described as millions of dollars per day. That's too kind.
Of course, Li Jin did not ignore the necessary prerequisites to achieve this step - first, you must have a strong maritime force. At present, it seems that in the South China Sea, only the Haihan people have such strength. Even if the Ming Dynasty Navy has this idea, it can only stay at the level of imagination and does not have enough funds to realize this kind of idea. Big plans.
Although Li Jin is not a naval officer, he also knows that the combat range of this navy is relatively limited. The voyage from the mainland to Nanyang is thousands of miles away. If there are no supply stations in the middle, there is no way to expect to keep it after such a trip. How much fighting power. Building ports and terminals is definitely a huge project that is time-consuming, laborious and expensive. Only owners like Haihan who are not short of money can afford to build so many ports in foreign countries overseas.
Speaking of this, Li Jin seemed to understand a little bit why Zhang Xin and Wang Tom repeatedly emphasized the importance of "money". Without these large investments, it is indeed impossible for the Haihan people to continue to expand their power overseas, and they are in maritime trade and even The huge gains made in foreign wars are indeed closely related to their investment in military affairs. It is precisely with the support of a strong army and navy that many of the ideas of the Haihan people can be successfully promoted and implemented. But if the same method was applied to Ming Dynasty, there would be too many infeasibility. First of all, the big guys in the imperial court would never agree to the dangerous practice of actively going to war to gain profits. After all, the territory of the Ming Dynasty had been shrinking for more than two hundred years since the Yongle Dynasty. By the Wanli period, the territory of the Ming Dynasty had It is already equivalent to only one-third of the area at its peak during the Yongle period. Over the past two hundred years, the experience of being passively beaten and forced to shrink the country's territory has formed an inherent mindset in the minds of everyone in the court, including the emperor, to protect the territory. As for opening up foreign territories and expanding territory - it's difficult to even defend it now, so don't think too much about it. Even Li Jin himself thought that this kind of external military expansion was simply crazy.
Li Jinxin thought that if he wrote a letter to the Ministry of War, requesting increased investment in the army and taking the initiative to initiate foreign wars, the Minister of War would definitely think that he was crazy, and he would probably immediately order his removal from office and investigate. After all, the Ming Dynasty is currently suffering from internal and external troubles. The Northern Wild Boar Skin is knocking on the gate every year, getting stronger and stronger, while the refugees in the Central Plains are rebelling everywhere and are endlessly suppressed. Under this situation, the Ministry of War has been busy digging up the east wall to make up for the west wall, and deploying troops from all directions. In order to fight for food, there is no spare time to open up new external battlefields.
Therefore, although this practice of the Haihan people has achieved great success in the South China Sea, it is difficult to directly copy it and implement it in the Ming Dynasty. Li Jin shook his head helplessly and said: "I understand what General Wang said, but Haihan's approach makes it difficult for Ming Dynasty to imitate it!"
Wang Tom smiled and said: "Then people are divided into places. Not everything can be copied, but it's not like you can't learn any benefits. You should have heard of the situation in Fujian, right? The current Fujian Commander-in-Chief Xu Xinsu , we have a very close cooperative relationship. The weapons and tactics used by his troops are all provided by us.”
"No wonder the Fujian Navy's performance in recent years is so amazing. It turns out that you are behind it!" Li Jin suddenly realized.
A few years ago, Xu Xinsu was just a sea merchant who donated money to get a military position. This situation is actually not uncommon on the southeast coast. For the convenience of coming and going, sea merchants engaged in smuggling trade spent some money to buy goods from the military. He held an official position in order to allow his ships to enter and leave the harbor freely and avoid paying taxes.
But Xu Xinsu is much stronger than ordinary smugglers. Not only does he have a large number of ships engaged in the smuggling trade, but he also has thousands of armed personnel at his disposal. Therefore, he has some confidence in buying this military attache position. of. But his opponent "Eighteen Zhi" is even more powerful. Not only does he want to destroy Xu Xinsu, he doesn't even pay attention to the entire Fujian Navy. However, in such an unbalanced comparison of strength, the "Eighteen Zhi" were gradually eliminated from the coast of Fujian. However, Xu Xinsu, who had only bought a position with money at the beginning, had been rising year by year by virtue of his achievements in killing pirates, and had already reached the top. As for the position of Fujian General Soldier, his promotion speed is second to none in the officialdom of Southeast China.
Li Jin was an official in Guangdong, so he naturally didn't know how Xu Xinsu fought in Fujian, but there would be a big victory every few months, and Li Jin would often see relevant news in the Di newspaper. Before he and Yan Mingjun came to Qiongzhou to take up their posts, they were waiting for Haihan leader Malik at the dock outside Guangzhou. Malik was late because he was meeting Xu Xinsu. However, it was not until today that Li Jin finally understood that it was the Haihan people who were supporting Xu Xinsu behind his back. It was no wonder that his troops were so capable in fighting that they had gradually won him the position of commander-in-chief of a province.
Wang Tom continued: "Every year, Mr. Xu will select a group of young officers to come to Sanya to receive our military training, and then use our training methods on his troops after returning. In addition, Mr. Xu purchases from us every year Various weapons and equipment amount to hundreds of thousands of taels. It can be said that they are already the second strongest army in the southeastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty! ”
Li Jin almost asked "who is the strongest", but he suddenly came back to his senses. Since the Fujian Navy ranked second, naturally their teacher Haihan Militia ranked first. Li Jin might not have agreed with such a ranking in the past, but after living in Danzhou for these days and seeing the true strength of the Haihan militia, he really had nothing to say about it.
Li Jin still couldn't help but ask: "If the Haihan Militia fought with the Fujian Navy, what would be the odds of victory or defeat?"
"I personally think the Fujian Navy is still capable of fighting." Wang Tom commented calmly.
But before Li Jin could relax, Wang Tom added: "But there is a prerequisite for this kind of battle, that is, the size of their participating troops is at least three to five times that of the Haihan militia. Otherwise, they have no chance." .”
Li Jin almost spat out a mouthful of blood. Looking at Wang Tom's relaxed look, he didn't seem to be bragging about this matter. Li Jin asked: "General Wang is so sure of his own combat power?"
Wang Tom nodded and said: "Our weapons are better than theirs, our equipment is better than theirs, and our tactics are all learned from us. Even the ammunition they need to fight has to be bought from us. You said that if there is a fight, we have What’s the reason for losing?”
"This..." Li Jin was speechless and couldn't find a reason to refute. Combat methods such as muskets and artillery, which rely heavily on the supply of ammunition, if this key point is in the hands of the Haihan people, then indeed this battle will not be fought at all.
Wang Tom continued: "Now Mr. Xu still wants to buy ships from us. In the future, he will still have to rely on us for the upgrading and maintenance of these ships. It can be said that the strongest army in Fujian is the replica of our model in the Ming Dynasty. If they have not gained from the wars over the years, do you think Mr. Xu will continue to invest so much money?”
Why Xu Xinsu from Fujian has been fighting endlessly with the "Eighteen Zhi"? Even a layman knows a little bit about this matter. The ultimate goal is to seize several major trading ports on the Fujian coastline, as well as between Fujian and Dajuan Island. sea routes between. In the original time and space, after Zheng Zhilong killed Xu Xinsu, he began to collect fees from passing ships, but now, Xu Xinsu is doing the same thing.
(End of chapter)