Chapter 711 The Future of Penghu
Objectively speaking, as long as you don't mess around, being assigned to be an official in the Haihan area is actually a very good job. Not only is it leisurely, but the income is not bad. Wei Ping from the Yulin Inspection Department has lived a comfortable life in Sanya after accepting the reality. Not only has he purchased a property there and settled down, but he also serves as a concurrent employee of the "Sanya Public Security Brigade" under the name of the Haihan Ministry of Justice. As a deputy captain, responsible for the security affairs of new immigrants from arrival to naturalization, it can be said that the future is tightly tied to Haihan.
Of course, Wei Ping's situation is relatively special, because his brother-in-law is a Yazhou Tongzhi and is considered a powerful figure in the local area. At that time, Haihan, out of the need for united front, was willing to cooperate with people like Wei Ping and Luo Shengdong. All the officers of the Ming Dynasty tried their best to fight for it and were given relatively generous treatment.
The situation in other places on Hainan Island is generally the same. As long as they are willing to cooperate with Haihan and give up their power, their official positions within the Ming system will be recognized by the Haihan Executive Committee and they will receive corresponding economic benefits. compensation. Those who are willing to make money by doing business can follow Luo Shengdong's example and make a fortune by underwriting products for Haihan. Those who want to continue to be officials can also stay within the Ming Dynasty's bureaucracy. After Changhua's chief Xiao Yin defected to Haihan, he was quickly promoted to Qianhu of Danzhou Guards Station. Yan Mingjun, the governor of Danzhou who took office last year, was After changing his attitude, he also kept his official position below his buttocks. There are also many Ming officials like Danzhou General Li Jin and Jinyiwei Baihu Li Qingyang who simply changed their families and joined the Haihan family.
Although these officials who came from the Ming Dynasty and switched to Haihan generally had low-level positions, there were many capable people like Li Qingyang among them, which also alleviated the shortage of professional cadre reserves in Haihan to a certain extent. Although the loyalty of some personnel is not particularly reliable, the Executive Committee is relatively supportive of the practice of absorbing officials who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Haihan still holds a relatively relaxed attitude towards retaining Ming Dynasty's local government agencies. As long as he does not go against Haihan, everything is easy to talk about. If the officials sent by Ming Dynasty could be used by Haihan, a lot of things could be saved.
Setting up an inspection department in a place like Penghu actually has certain benefits for Haihan. The executive committee's intention is to build this place into a free trade base along the coast of Fujian and a bridgehead to continue to expand its sphere of influence to the north. Preserving the local institutions of the Ming Dynasty here can make the Ming merchants who come to trade here feel more secure. Especially for businessmen from the north of Fujian who have not had much dealings with Haihan, the existence of the inspection department will make them feel more at ease about the trading environment in Penghu. Even if the Penghu Inspection Department is just a facade, it is a trustworthy endorsement for Ming merchants. After all, this place has been the most famous pirate den on the southeast coast in the past few years. Not everyone dares to rest assured. Boldly come here with your treasures to do business.
Xu Xinsu had no objection to Yan Chujie's answer. His focus was not on the actual control of Penghu, because this place had been outside the control of the Fujian government in the past few years. The reason why he wanted to attack here was just to catch up. It's just a hostile force like Shibazhi. Taking back a Penghu Island that had no output had no practical significance for the Fujian government and the Ming Dynasty. The purpose of setting up an inspection department here is more to make the memorial written to the court appear fuller - the pirates and Japanese pirates in Fujian have been causing trouble for so many years, and successive officials have not solved this problem well, and finally drove away the pirates and recaptured it. Penghu also reestablished the Inspection Department on the island. The person who made this great contribution was the current Fujian Commander-in-Chief Xu Xinsu.
Of course, Xu Xinsu has another identity besides the Fujian general soldier. The Haihan people want to build a commercial port and develop trade here in Penghu. Xu Xinsu, as the spokesperson of Fujian maritime merchants, will naturally not let go of such an opportunity. Xu Xinsu hurriedly transferred hundreds of craftsmen from Fujian to Penghu, not only to serve the Haihan people, but some of them came here to build warehouses and other facilities for the trading company under Xu's name. After the scale of trade here gradually develops, the Xu family can successfully catch this free ride and become a truly famous family in Fujian.
The inspiration for Xu Xinsu's approach came from the Li family in Guangzhou. Since Li Jifeng reached a cooperative relationship with Haihan, in just four or five years, the Li family's influence in Guangdong has become very amazing. Panyu County, Guangzhou Prefecture has almost It has become the private domain of the Li family. Compared with the Li family in Guangzhou, the Xu family in Fujian, represented by Xu Xinsu, now has many people with official status and stronger political capital. As long as the power of the Haihan people is used in the right way, Xu Xinsu believes that his family can rise. The speed will be much faster than Guangzhou Lijia.
When the Haihan delegation visited Fujian last year, Xu Xinsu discussed the future development of Penghu with Haihan representative Ning Qi. Ning Qi said at the time that Haihan would invest a lot of resources in the Penghu area and imitate the operation model of Victory Port. , turning it into a large trading port on the southeast coast.
Xu Xinsu once personally visited Sanya for inspection, and also knew how the Haihan people operated the port based on the concept of free trade. This approach would definitely not work in the Ming Dynasty, but Xu Xinsu was very optimistic about the Haihan people operating another port in Penghu. Victory Port" prospects. The reason is simple. If maritime merchants from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, North Korea, and Japan want to go south to trade, especially to purchase various commodities produced in Haihan, Magong Port in Penghu will be their first choice in the future. The many novel trade methods of the Haihan people will also attract those maritime merchants who originally regarded Zhangzhou and Quanzhou as their destinations to change their original intentions.
Yan Chujie continued: "Although the future of Penghu is to build a commercial port, for security reasons, we will still station a certain size of militia troops here. Mr. Xu will not have any objection to this, right?"
In fact, the two sides had already communicated about this issue. Yan Chujie brought it up again just to confirm the attitude of the Fujian government again. Xu Xinsu nodded and said: "With the Haihan militia stationed here to protect us, merchants coming and going here will no longer have to worry about safety. General Yan can rest assured, it has been clearly stated in the memorial to the court. After the pirates are expelled from Penghu, the Inspection Department will organize a militia here to guard the border. Maybe the adults in the court will be happy and reward the militia with an official position. "
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Of course, it is impossible for the Penghu Inspection Department to organize another armed militia. In the future, there will be and only be the Haihan Militia here. The method Xu Xinsu mentioned is actually to give the Haihan Militia stationed in Penghu an officially recognized force. The argument is that this is not a private armed force, but a local armed force organized by the Fujian government. He has been dealing with the Haihan people for several years, and he also knows that they don't particularly care about such formal things, as long as they can achieve the effect they want.
Sure enough, Yan Chujie immediately agreed with this solution: "Mr. Xu can say whatever you want to the court. Our purpose is to protect the peace and tranquility here, as long as there is no misunderstanding about us." Of course, this is just official. It's just a superficial statement. Haihan's military not only regards this place as a port that needs armed protection, but also a springboard and important strategic node for Haihan to expand its sphere of influence northward in the future.
From a geographical point of view, the distance between Sanya and Hong Kong Island and Hong Kong Island and Penghu is more than 300 nautical miles. Whether it is military support or logistical supplies, this distance can make more efficient use of maritime transport capacity and reduce risks that may occur during maritime voyages. Moreover, Penghu happens to guard the entrance and exit of the southern channel of the Taiwan Strait, and its role in wartime is no less than that of Hong Kong Island at the mouth of the Pearl River.
The military's plan to expand its strength northward is to go all the way north along the coastline and establish strongholds in places with comparable navigation distances as much as possible. There is no dispute that the next target chosen by the military along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang is the Zhoushan Islands, which can control both the Yangtze River estuary and Hangzhou Bay. The voyage from Zhoushan Islands to Hong Kong Island is more than 700 nautical miles. If Hong Kong Island is used as a strategic springboard, it is indeed a bit far away. However, the voyage to Penghu is about 400 nautical miles. This distance is very suitable for the Haihan military's consistent leapfrog development strategy. .
The port conditions of Penghu itself are also very suitable for the construction of a military port. In addition to Magong Port, the Penghu Bay composed of Penghu Island and its surrounding islands is actually a natural harbor with excellent conditions. The three Haihan fleets that attacked Penghu this time are currently stationed in this huge bay south of Magong Port.
However, there is still a lot of work required to build a military port in Penghu that meets the requirements of the Haihan Navy. Due to the special structure and manufacturing process of the Haihan warship, it is relatively difficult to perform maintenance and repairs in overseas ports. In addition to being able to dock fleets and provide supplies, a comprehensive military port also needs specialized docks, hoisting tools and ship technology teams. The construction speed of this type of professional facilities is much slower than that of civilian facilities such as commercial warehouses and warehouses, and it will be difficult to complete in less than one or two years. The Cam Ranh Bay military port designated by Haihan on the coast of Indochina has been developed for more than two years. So far, it has only completed the first phase of the project, which can repair and maintain "exploration-class" warships. As for the larger "exploration-class" warships, it has been developed for more than two years. At present, only the Victory Port Shipyard can carry out subsequent repairs and maintenance for the Majesty-class warship.
Therefore, although the military has a relatively clear plan for the military use of Penghu, its implementation will still be restricted by many objective conditions. However, the good news is that after reviewing the immigration plan proposed by Ning Qi and others at the beginning of the year, the Executive Committee has decided to use Penghu as a key overseas construction port in 1632.
In history, extremely serious civil strife broke out in Shandong and Shanxi provinces in 1632. A large number of war refugees would appear in the Ming Dynasty. Ning Qi once proposed ways to introduce refugees from the northern region to enrich the labor force needed for the development of Hainan Island. Although Haihan himself does not have the ability to directly go to the north to absorb refugees, the executive committee believes that this plan is still feasible. Schneider also proposed an operation plan to exchange industrial products for population.
However, if this plan is implemented, Penghu will definitely become a maritime transit point for refugees heading south in the future. This function is equivalent to the original immigration transfer station established in Lijiazhuang, Guangzhou. A large number of refugees were gathered and screened here. After completing the preliminary screening, they were organized to immigrate to various areas under Haihan's rule to settle and start their lives again. If northern refugees can rest and recuperate here in Penghu, it will play a certain role in helping them adapt to the southern climate and environment and ensuring the survival rate of immigrants.
To complete such a transshipment task, both maritime transport capacity and local port reception capabilities will undergo a great test. Magong Port is not a big problem as a commercial port, but in order to absorb immigrants and station the navy, it is necessary to build another local port terminal.
On May 5, seeing that the situation was decided, the Haihan militia began to gradually withdraw from Penghu. Shi Diwen's fleet set off first and escorted a battalion of the army on the voyage back to Sanya. One day later, Roger's fleet also left the port, accompanied by artillery battalions specially gathered from all over Hainan Island this time. However, the artillery battalion did not make any gains in the Battle of Penghu this time. There was no large-scale firefight at all after arriving on the island. The artillery battalion only went out to increase their presence when attacking a few strongholds. What they gained His military exploits were far inferior to those of his counterparts in the navy.
On May 9, Yan Chujie and Wang Tom also led their troops to leave Penghu and return to Sanya. In addition to the militia army going south with them, there is also a new batch of grassroots officers sent by the Fujian military to Sanya for three months of military training. At the same time, this is also the sixth batch of overseas-study officers sent by Xu Xinsu and Haihan since their cooperation.
Almost all of this group of officers are from the Fujian Navy. During their arrival in Sanya, in addition to learning various tactics of the Haihan Navy, they also had a very important task to receive the two newly launched "Exploration-class" warships. This is also The last two of the first batch of eight warships customized by Haihan for the Fujian military. However, the Victory Port Shipyard did not have to worry about losing orders, because after the Battle of Penghu, Xu Xinsu placed an order for eight more warships from Haihan. Xu Xinsu was so heroic mainly because the quick end of the Penghu Battle allowed him to save a large budget, and this money could be used to expand the Fujian Navy and gradually phase out those old ships that had long been outdated.
Qian Tiandun will be stationed in the new stronghold. In the future, he will control the military and political power of Penghu alone. At least until the Penghu Commercial Port begins to take shape, the headquarters will send people over to take over civil affairs.
(End of chapter)