Chapter 692 Results of the Autumn Fair
Van Longen had never quite understood why Van der Wegen, who led six armed sailing ships to the battle, was defeated by the Haihan people, but when he saw the Haihan fleet docked at the Victory Port military dock, he could feel it to some extent. Van der Wegen was helpless at first. Yes, the armed forces under the Haihan people are not just merchant ships equipped with a few cannons, but actual combat fleets. Compared with the armed merchant ships of the East India Company, there is a clear gap in strength.
As for how much it would cost to maintain such a huge fleet, Van Longen, as the commander of a merchant fleet, had some idea. The most terrifying thing is that the Haihan people obviously have more than one fleet under their command. They have also deployed a large number of combat ships in Fujian and Annan, which means that there are at least two other fleets. Van Longen believes that the warships seen here must be multiplied by at least three, or even a larger multiple, to determine the true status of Haihan's maritime combat power.
The only good thing is that the company's board of directors did not make a rash decision to attack Sanya or start a full-scale war with Haihan. Otherwise, judging from the current situation, the East India Company would probably suffer heavy losses once a war started.
As an officer, Van der Wegen had already seen it with his eyes straight. After staying in Sanya for more than a month, he finally saw the goal of his trip. But the Haihan people didn't leave him any more time to observe, so he could only glance at it from a distance. The intelligence information that can be collected in this way may be difficult to explain to the bosses on the board of directors after returning.
In order to prevent the Dutch from making any more irrational actions, the Haihan Navy specially dispatched two "Exploration-class" sailing ships to "escort" the Dutch fleet all the way south, and did not turn back until the next day.
After seeing off the Dutch fleet, the Sanya Autumn Fair finally entered its climax. Businessmen from all over the world gathered in Sanya to sign various cooperation agreements. Among them, the larger projects are mainly concentrated in the Qiongbei region. There are seven collective farm projects over 10,000 acres alone this time. In addition, there are also agents from various places signing contracts. This time, in addition to Fujian and Guangzhou, many merchants came all the way from Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places in order to obtain some Haihan products in Daming. Domestic “provincial sales agent qualification”.
As the sales channel network led by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce has been gradually rolled out in Fuzhou and Guangdong provinces in the past two years, the sales area of Haihan products has slowly extended to inland provinces and the central and northern regions of Ming Dynasty. Some merchants with good vision and connections are preparing to follow the example of their counterparts in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, take the initiative to establish business cooperation with Haihan, and underwrite Haihan products in areas that Haihan's own business channels cannot reach.
Almost no one will have doubts about Haihan's strength after inspecting the actual situation on Hainan Island. Wherever they go, including local officials, they obey the Haihan people. This large island is located on the edge of the South China Sea of the Ming Dynasty. It seems to have the atmosphere of a country within a country. However, businessmen don’t care so much whether what the Haihan people do here is not allowed by national law. They only need to know how much profit they can make by cooperating with the Haihan people, and that the Haihan people have enough ability to ensure the stability of this cooperative relationship. And safety is enough. As for whether the Haihan people are loyal to the court and the emperor, can they be turned into white money and put into their pockets?
The Autumn Trade Fair concluded successfully at the end of October. During this period, in addition to receiving a large number of product orders, two provincial-level business guilds, namely the Guanghai Commercial Association and the Fuhai Commercial Association, were also established. This kind of guild is different from the "Qiong Lianfa" previously established by Haihan organization. It is not a profit-making organization based on a joint-stock system, but a relatively loose business alliance spontaneously organized by merchants in the Ming Dynasty.
As the name suggests, the members of this business alliance are all merchants who have business dealings with Haihan. It can be said that they are all stakeholders of Haihan, and the influence of these people after grouping together in the local area is also very considerable. If Haihan only relies on its own strength to operate the values, culture, finance, lifestyle, etc. that it wants to promote to the outside world, it will certainly not be very efficient. However, with the participation of these regional business alliances in the promotion, the effect will be It will be very different.
Taking Guangdong and Guangxi as an example, the members of the Guanghai Business Alliance basically include all the state capitals under Guangdong such as Chaozhou, Huizhou, Nanxiong, Shaozhou, Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Luodingzhou, Gaozhou, Lianzhou and Leizhou. There will be Establish a unified messaging channel. Once a new product or foreign policy comes out in Haihan, it can be promoted to the entire province in a short period of time, without having to rely on word of mouth to slowly expand the scope of influence like in the past. .
The benefits for Ming merchants to participate in this business alliance are also obvious. In addition to being able to obtain the underwriting qualifications for Haihan products at the first time, get the latest market quotations, etc., the most important thing is that with so many powerful merchants gathered together, it is easy to It can intervene in the market and obtain more profits. Moreover, Haihan Bank will also provide more special services to the business alliance to facilitate the settlement of funds during the transaction process of the business alliance members and improve the efficiency of their capital operation.
For Haihan, in addition to the various benefits that can be seen on the surface, this form also has the purpose of using the opportunity to suppress those local governments that are unwilling to cooperate with Haihan, or even adopt a hostile attitude towards Haihan. Merchant. Moreover, with Haihan's strength, he can provide all kinds of help to the people he supports, especially military support that the local wealthy gentry are very interested in.
The Li family supported by Haihan in Guangzhou has become a model for almost all foreign cooperation. Lijiazhuang, which was besieged by bandits a few years ago and almost wiped out, is now known as the number one village in Guangdong and Guangxi, not to mention rich, and has extremely strong military equipment. Golden Shield Escort currently exists in various places in Guangdong and Guangxi in the form of an escort agency. Although it is an escort agency on the surface, those who know the inside story know that this escort agency is no different from a private army. It is not only highly organized, but also uses Weapons and equipment are all specially supplied by the Haihan people, and all personnel are trained by Haihan - many of the escort leaders have even served in the Haihan militia.
Governments in various places also turn a blind eye to the existence of Jindun. Firstly, the power of the Li family and the Haihan people behind Jindun is indeed powerful enough. Generally, grassroots officials of the sixth and seventh grades cannot influence them at all; secondly, occasionally local officials There will also be places where Jindun can be turned to for help, such as escorting bankers, severely punishing criminals, capturing wanted criminals, capturing robbers and bandits, etc. Jindun is much better at these tasks than the local government officials, and they are all involved. It's handled very cleanly and won't cause too much trouble to the government. From the perspective of local big players, armed organizations like the Golden Shield can do even more private work. It can not only look after the home and care for the home, but also clean up the appearance. When dignitaries of the Li family travel now, they are accompanied by escorts carrying Haihan muskets. The pomp is even grander than that of some officials. Who doesn't envy them?
At this Autumn Trade Fair, Haihan conveniently announced that in future foreign cooperation, all members of the business alliance can apply for Haihan's military support, including personnel training, weapons purchase, rescue and disaster relief, etc. This will undoubtedly provide This is an excellent opportunity for those local big business owners who have always been jealous of the Guangzhou Li family and the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa". They finally have the opportunity to be on an equal footing with these pioneers and happily show off.
The special treatment given to business alliance members like this covers almost every aspect imaginable. Haihan Bank will set up a dedicated counter for the business alliance, and there will be a warehouse dedicated to the business alliance at each dock. Any place that can reflect the differences in the status of the business alliance members has been included in the relevant description of the business alliance in detail. Although businessmen do not understand what VIP treatment is, nor do they know what differentiated services are, just these temporary benefits listed on paper can already make them feel the difference of being a member of a business alliance.
Of course, there are entry thresholds for enjoying these benefits. In addition to certain requirements for members' asset size, members of the business alliance must also pay a certain amount of public fees every year. In Schneider's words at the Business Alliance Promotion Conference, this measure is to raise the threshold for entry and not allow the Business Alliance to become a low-level guild where cats and dogs can sneak in. Not only do the tycoons not feel disgusted by this, but they deeply agree with it. The purpose of entering this circle is to make business partners of comparable strength. Who would be willing to cooperate with people whose levels and concepts are too different?
Although Haihan will not directly lead or interfere with the daily operations of the business alliance, he still has great influence in it. The first chairman of the Guanghai Commercial Alliance was held by Li Jifeng, the shopkeeper of "Fu Ruifeng", and this position of the Fuhai Commercial Alliance was held by Xu Xinsu's second brother Xu Xinzhe. Even if someone wanted to cause trouble in the merchant alliance, it would be difficult Seize the real right to speak.
After finishing the affairs of the Autumn Fair, the executive committee began to implement the next step of the plan without stopping, which was to eliminate Shiba Zhi and clean up the waterways along the coast of Fujian and the Taiwan Strait. Although its combat scale is not as good as the Annan Civil War, and its combat distance is not as good as the Ambrosia Islands, this combat goal can still be regarded as a new challenge for Haihan.
The defensive power of the Ambrosia Islands was very limited, and Heihan took it without much effort. After that, he occupied a geographical advantage and it was easier to defend against the Dutch counterattack. However, Shibazhi has occupied Penghu for several years, and still has a young and strong population of nearly 10,000 under its command. Its strength at sea cannot be underestimated. It is impossible to fight as easily as on Ampurna Island. When fighting in Annan, the supply lines were far away from Fujian. In addition, the mobility at sea was obviously superior, so the pressure of combat was much less. If we go to fight in Fujian, we can raise food and grass from Fujian itself, but military supplies basically still have to be transported from Hainan Island. Once the war goes wrong, such a long supply distance will become the biggest obstacle to combat.
In order to solve this trouble, the relevant departments have also prepared a solution. On the one hand, they are negotiating to get the Dutch to quit and no longer provide assistance to Shibazhi. On the other hand, they have also begun to prepare combat supplies and ship them by sea in advance. Transported to Fujian. However, this kind of transportation cannot be made public and must be carried out secretly to avoid alerting the enemy. Therefore, almost all the ships that perform this task are from Daming Maritime, and the Ministry of Shipping's own ships are not used.
On November 5, a fleet of Fuzhou ships passed through the narrow channel outside Tieliang Port and slowly sailed into Tieliang Port. Tielugang, located on the west side of Sanya and in the southeastern corner of Hainan Island, is currently second only to Yinggehai in production capacity among the salt fields controlled by Haihan, and is higher than the production capacity of the Shengli Port Salt Field and the Danzhou Bay Salt Field, which has just been put into production. Take a piece out. At the same time, this is also the main sales point for Haihan's private salt sales to the outside world. Big salt sellers like Luo Shengdong now purchase their goods at Tieliang Port for shipment.
However, the fleet that arrived today is a little different. After arriving at the dock, it did not start loading immediately like other salt ships. Instead, it parked quietly on the shore and did not move. When other salt ships arrive, they are eager to load them up and leave quickly so that they can make one or two more trips every month to earn more money. How can they have the leisure to stop here and waste time - Tieliang Port Because the waterway is narrow, the number of ships that can enter the harbor is limited, so parking here requires hourly charges. Even Luo Shengdong would not let his ship dock here for more than half a day.
However, this fleet that did not hang out its flag has been silent. It is obviously planning to spend the night here. Several other ships carrying private salt hurriedly left before sunset, leaving only this fleet. Leaning alone on the pier on the west bank of the harbor.
After dusk fell, the dock suddenly became lively. Porters appeared pushing teams of carts, and torches and lanterns were lit up on the ship's side. The sailors quickly erected the gangplank, and porters began loading boxes of cargo onto the ship.
These goods were all military supplies produced in Tiandu's workshop, secretly transported through the valley between Tiandu and Tielugang, and then shipped here in the name of private salt. In order to keep it as secret as possible, this kind of shipment is often arranged at night, and the sailors on the ship don't know what the contents of the goods are - they only know that the goods transported in this trip are more valuable than private salt. More, and the wages they can get will also increase a lot.
The shipment of goods was not completed until late at night. When the sky was just getting dark, the fleet silently left Tieliang Port and headed northeast. Their destination is Hong Kong Island at the Pearl River Estuary, where the goods still need to be loaded and unloaded, and then the merchant ships from Fujian will complete the next step of transshipment and transport them to Kinmen Island in Fujian, where the Haihan Military Advisory Group is stationed. place.
(End of chapter)