Chapter 603 Traveling to Zhangzhou City
Ning Qi saw that Xu Xinsu remained silent after responding. He could roughly guess the other party's psychology, and immediately offered another preferential condition: "Considering the long-term cooperative relationship between us, during this joint military exercise, Our military expenses will be borne by ourselves, so you don’t have to worry about the cost.”
"How can this be done!" Xu Xinsu was exposed by Ning Qi and quickly objected: "This joint military exercise is of great benefit to the Ming army. I really want it. We should bear the cost."
Ning Qi waved his hand and said: "Master Xu, there is no need to argue. The cost of the military exercise is a trivial matter. You just need to promise me another thing."
"Mr. Ning, please speak!" Seeing Ning Qi's firm attitude, Xu Xinsu stopped arguing and planned to listen to Ning Qi's conditions first. If Ning Qi wanted to use this to blackmail him into giving up the peace talks, he would have to reconsider.
Then I heard Ning Qi say: "I plan to invite Mr. Xu to come to our flagship 'Prestige Signal' to coordinate and command this joint military exercise. I wonder if Mr. Xu can give me a favor?"
Xu Xinsu asked in shock: "Is this Mr. Ning's condition?" He originally thought that Ning Qi would definitely put forward some conditions that would embarrass him, but he never thought that he would just be invited to board the ship to observe the military exercise. When the "powerful signal" appeared at the port of Zhongzuo Suo, Xu Xinsu and his navy generals were already drooling at the sight. Although they wanted to take the opportunity to request to board the ship for a visit, they felt that the warship was Haihan. Most of the people would not allow outsiders to visit the big killing weapon. They were afraid that they would lose face if they were directly rejected by the Haihan people, so they never mentioned it. Unexpectedly, Ning Qi took the initiative to invite him before he asked.
Ning Qi smiled and said: "Although I have no intention of raising conditions, it doesn't matter if Mr. Xu understands this as our condition."
Xu Xinsu knew that she had made a mistake, so she had to force a smile and say: "Mr. Ning invited me kindly, but I was disrespectful. I would like to ask Mr. Ning, when is the best time to arrange this joint military exercise? How many troops do we need to participate? Is it possible? Corresponding plan? ”
Ning Qi turned to Morgan and said, "It's your turn now."
Morgan coughed dryly, and then said: "Sir Xu, our maritime military exercise is planned to take two to three days. The main training content is maritime patrol, coordinated attack, and maritime rescue. If time is enough, we can also practice amphibious landing operations. . But first I need to know how many troops and warships you can dispatch without causing a big impact on Fujian's coastal defense. Then we can formulate a corresponding exercise and combat plan. In this link, we will also prepare materials and mobilize personnel. It will probably take four or five days.”
Xu Xinsu pondered for a while before responding: "How about we agree with you? We will do as many people as you want to participate in the performance. As for how many ships you want to send, this old man Rong has a big saying, as long as you need it, two to three hundred A sea ship can still be mobilized at any time.”
Morgan emphasized: "What I'm talking about is a warship, not an ordinary civilian ship."
Xu Xinsu twisted his beard and said with a smile: "The ships under my command, even the merchant ships, are equipped with a few cannons and a few muskets. If necessary, they can also be temporarily used as warships. Although they are not as strong as Haihan's ship cannons It’s powerful, but it’s barely enough to deal with Shibazhi’s attack offshore.”
What Xu Xinsu said was true. Due to the rampant piracy activities along the coast of Fujian, unarmed merchant ships simply did not dare to go to sea. Generally, some melee firearms were prepared on board the ships. Of course, these weapons are completely different from the ship-based weapons equipped by the Haihan Navy. The weapons of the Haihan Navy are designed to damage and sink enemy ships, and have powerful firepower and long range. The purpose of the firearms on these ships is to kill the opponent's crew at close range. As for attacking the ship, the power of these firearms is still slightly smaller.
Xu Xinsu may have deliberately not mentioned the weapon configuration of the Ming Navy warships, but in fact, although the Ming Navy was equipped with many firearms, their power was not that strong, especially in terms of range and shooting accuracy. There is a relatively large performance gap with the Haihan naval gun. And this gap is not a secret. Most of the Fujian naval officers who have gone to Sanya for training in recent years have personally seen the power of Haihan Navy’s artillery. To equip a warship with double-digit artillery, for the current There are still many technical obstacles for the Fujian Navy. Of course, Haihan's purchase restriction on various types of artillery is probably one of the reasons why the Fujian Navy's combat readiness has stagnated. Even if they want to buy cannons from Haihan and install them on the ship themselves, they will have to because of insufficient quantities. Prioritize meeting the needs of city defense.
Although the warships under the Fujian Navy are limited, Xu Xinsu still has many ships under his personal name that are initially armed. As he said, these ships can be temporarily requisitioned as warships during wartime. Even if their combat performance is average, the opponent's ships will not be much better. However, if Shibazhi wins, the number of ships he wins will be at least two or three times greater than that of Xu Xinsu. Under the situation that the individual strengths of both sides are similar, Shibazhi can gain an overwhelming advantage in terms of numbers.
But this advantage is only for old sailing ships. The performance of the "Exploration Class" warship purchased by the Fujian Ming Army from Haihan has greatly exceeded that of the old sailing ships. It is not only fast in speed and flexible in operation, but also has strong firepower. It is completely It can carry out unilateral bombardment at the enemy from a relatively safe distance. Even if the opponent has more ships, the "Exploration Class" can escape safely by virtue of its speed advantage. Tricks such as sticking, blocking, and intercepting that Shibazhi used to plunder at sea in the past will be difficult to use in the face of "exploration-class" warships.
Xu Xinsu was obviously very excited to be able to personally participate in the military exercises organized by the Haihan military. During the subsequent discussion with Morgan about the details, Xu Xinsu almost responded to every request. Morgan even proposed that the Haihan side should take command of the fleet after it went to sea. , Xu Xinsu also agreed immediately.
Ning Qi and Morgan also deliberately did not mention the peace talks. They were not prepared to exchange military exercises for Xu Xinsu's compromise, but wanted to use their strength to tell Xu Xinsu who he should hold tightly to. Put the thigh.
The two sides talked until noon, Xu Xinsu asked someone to open the table and continued to talk while eating. After lunch, Xu Xinsu called several generals under her command to the mansion to discuss the details of the exercise with Morgan. Ning Qi, a civil servant, had nothing to do. He immediately proposed to Xu Xinsu that he wanted to go around Zhangzhou City and see the local people.
Seeing this, Xu Xinsu called a housekeeper from the house and asked him to take someone to accompany Ning Qi to the city. When Ning Qi was about to leave, he was stopped by Morgan. Morgan pulled him to the porch outside the house, then took out a pistol and handed it to him: "We have serious business to discuss here, and you can only rely on yourself for safety." "Don't worry." Ning Qi patted Morgan on the shoulder and took it. He picked up the pistol and put it in his briefcase: "I will be careful."
"Remember to turn on the safety first when shooting. Also, this Glock 18 is an automatic pistol. Don't shoot out all the bullets when you are nervous. This baby doesn't have much bullet reserve." Morgan was afraid that Ning Qi would forget, and I gave a special warning.
In fact, Ning Qi did not go to Zhangzhou City alone. In addition to Xu Xinsu who mobilized a team of people in civilian clothes to protect him, Ning Qi also had four personal guards belonging to the Executive Committee's security company following him. This guard also has very strict selection criteria. Not only must he be bold and skilled, but more importantly, he must be 100% loyal to Haihan and be willing to sacrifice himself at critical moments to protect Haihan's important people. When they need to block knives and arrows and act as human shields, they are the last line of defense around the time traveler.
Of course, this scarce resource cannot be allocated to every traveler. Only a few senior members of the executive committee will be equipped with personal guards, and each person only has two personal guards. When they leave the Sanya base area to perform official duties, Only then can we be allowed to allocate two more places.
Guard company soldiers are not equipped with rifles, and their standard personal weapons are short guns and daggers. The short gun is a revolver that was successfully trial-produced at the Tiandu Arsenal at the beginning of this year. It is also a revolver that often appears in Western movies. However, due to the relatively high manufacturing and use costs of this kind of close-range weapon, at this stage only the special department of the Guard Company is equipped with a small amount, and the performance of the weapon is still in the experimental state, and is far from reaching the military level. required level.
The housekeeper at Xu Xinsu's house also prepared a soft sedan for Ning Qi, but Ning Qi didn't want to sit in the sedan and parade around the streets, so he politely declined the offer, but the tour guide who arranged it for him happily accepted it.
The person who acted as a tour guide for Ning Qi was a young man. It was said that he was the son of a steward in Xu Xinsu's house. His name was Wang Lin. He was under twenty years old and had also studied abroad in Sanya for more than a year earlier. After the Haihan Executive Committee established "Qiong Lianfa" in the second year of time travel, it opened up some professional and technical learning opportunities in order to attract shareholders. At that time, each shareholder sent reliable young people to Shengli Port to learn these advanced technologies. Wang Lin is one of them. However, what he studied at that time was business and finance, and he had no experience of being a student under Ning Qi. Of course, although Ning Qi didn't recognize him, he recognized Ning Qi, the big shot at the top of Haihan's power pyramid.
After Xu Yuzhuo received the Haihan Mission fleet on Dongshan Island a few days ago, he had already sent a speedboat ahead to deliver a letter back to inform him of the personnel composition of the Haihan Mission. Xu Xinsu specially summoned Wang Lin and other subordinates who had studied abroad and asked them about the personnel of the Haihan Mission. Roughly speaking, it means getting to know the preferences, taboos, etc. of several senior members of the mission, so that you can cater to them during the reception. The point-to-point reception and accompanying tasks after the mission arrived in Zhangzhou were basically assigned to these former overseas students.
Any international student who has lived in Shengli Port for a period of time will obviously have a much higher sense of identification with Haihan than ordinary Ming people, and Wang Lin is no exception. After meeting Ning Qi, he took the initiative to ask about the construction status of Victory Port, especially the steam locomotive running between Victory Port and Tiandu in the thick of smoke. This was the focus of Wang Lin's concern - he really wanted to know about the sea. Will Han one day promote this kind of steel monster car driving on the track to the entire Qiongzhou Island?
Ning Qi smiled and said: "This is our long-term goal, but it cannot be achieved yet. Building railway tracks is a time-consuming, laborious and expensive job. Even if the labor force is sufficient, it will probably take several years to build a railway on Qiongzhou Island. .”
Wang Lin was slightly disappointed after hearing this answer: "If this is the case, will I still be able to see it in my lifetime?"
Ning Qi said: "You are only nineteen years old. It is still early in your lifetime. Not only will you have the opportunity to see the island-circulating railway, but you will also have the opportunity to witness other Haihan miracles with your own eyes. Well, maybe by the time you get old, Fujian will There are also many places where railway tracks have been opened.”
"If this day comes, that little man must be one of the first passengers." Wang Lin immediately became excited again, obviously very interested in steam locomotives.
Ning Qi asked curiously: "You just said that you studied commercial finance in Shengli Port. Since you are so interested in motorcycles, why didn't you take a mechanical course in the first place?"
Wang Lin shook his head helplessly and said: "This is the arrangement of the adults. No matter what your identity is, I don't have the right to choose your own courses."
"If you are really interested in this knowledge, then I can recommend you to study abroad in Sanya." After hearing what he said, Ning Qi became more motivated to be a teacher. As long as there are young people who are interested in Haihan culture and knowledge, Ning Qi has the desire to bring them into his circle. As long as these young people have the opportunity to receive a few years of "orthodox" Haihan education, their values and worldview will change significantly, and they are very likely to become supporters of the Haihan system - this has already happened recently. This is well reflected in the steady stream of young naturalized residents trained in Sanya over the past few years.
These young people from the middle and lower classes of society will not follow the old ways. They have not personally experienced how powerful the emperor's favor is and how wise the court is. However, they actually enjoy the personal benefits brought by the Haihan system and gain access to this social system. opportunities for continuous upward development. Haihan's relatively more complete social security also allows them to reduce their worries and make some attempts in Haihan's ruling area that may have seemed deviant in the past.
Things like steam locomotives were regarded as monsters by many people when they first appeared in Sanya. However, there are also many young people like Wang Lin who quickly accepted new things and were curious about whether its operating principle was magic or magic. What Haihan calls "the avenue of science". Once this door of knowledge is opened, the basic theories of governance such as the "Mandate of Heaven" promoted by the feudal dynasty will be completely destroyed, and the authority of the Ming Dynasty will also be rapidly reduced in the minds of these people.
(End of chapter)