Chapter 743 Immigration Handover
"Everyone should take their personal belongings, line up, and get off the boat one by one. No crowding! Men should follow the yellow flag, and women should follow the white flag..." A staff member from the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a tin horn and stood on a wooden box to speak to those who had just disembarked. Refugees arriving on the docks loudly repeated the rules of action. Although these refugees have heard more than ten times during the voyage what to do when they arrive and what kind of reception procedures there will be, there will still be tireless propaganda to remind them repeatedly after arriving at the destination.
Haihan has been introducing immigrants from the Ming Dynasty since the time of time travel. It has been operating for several years and has encountered various emergencies. Therefore, it has already had a complete set of responses on how to control the newly arrived immigrants. plan. There are not only police teams on the pier to maintain order, but also doctors responsible for checking physical health, healthy women responsible for taking care of women and young children, civil affairs personnel who count personal belongings and register names, etc., each performing their duties in each link. At the dock, we try our best to eliminate some hidden dangers that immigrant groups may hide.
Although Liu Zhenguo handed over the list to the port staff, he did not relax immediately and insisted on standing by to supervise the reception process on Haihan's side. To him, each of these refugees is equivalent to real money. If the Haihan people single out some unqualified ones, it will be a real loss.
This is not the first time Liu Zhenguo has transported refugees from the north to Fujian. In fact, he had already made a trip in July, but the transaction process was not satisfactory. Nearly one-third of the refugees transported to Fujian One of them was judged as "unqualified" by the Haihan people because of their illness, and their due compensation was greatly reduced. But this did not affect Liu Zhenguo's enthusiasm for trading, because the profits he earned from this kind of human trafficking were much higher than those from other businesses.
All the food needed to recruit refugees to the north was provided by the Haihan people, and Liu Zhenguo himself did not need to spend much cost. After these people were transported to Fujian and handed over to the Haihan people, the reward Liu Zhenguo received was not just money, but various Haihan specialties of equivalent value that were in high demand in the market. Liu Zhenguo only had to transport these things by ship to the northern coast and sell them again, and his profits would immediately double. Therefore, after he sold the Haihan goods from the first trip to the north, he immediately recruited a group of refugees there to transport them back. But this time, he was more careful and specifically selected refugees who were in good physical condition to ensure a "pass rate" when they arrived in Fujian and were handed over to the Haihan people.
This trip went smoothly, and the refugees were in good physical condition during the journey. Liu Zhenguo estimated that the pass rate would be at least much higher than last time. He would have to carefully consider which goods would be more cost-effective to trade back to the Haihan people.
Liu Zhenguo was making a small calculation when he heard a subordinate remind him: "Master, the leader of Haihan is here!"
Liu Zhenguo came to his senses and saw a young Haihan man walking in his direction surrounded by several guards. Liu Zhenguo quickly straightened his clothes, stepped forward and saluted: "Liu Zhenguo, a common man, has met Chief Li."
"Boss Liu, you're welcome!" The director Liu Zhenguo called Director Li was Li Dou, the civil affairs director of the Penghu base who had just taken office.
Li Dou and Chen Yixin both received transfer orders from the Executive Committee after the Battle of Penghu in May this year, and were transferred from Hong Kong to Fujian to take up new positions. The two men, both civil and military, have been partners in Guangdong for several years. They have gradually shed their childishness in the early days of time travel and gradually grown into capable men who can stand alone. The executive committee transferred these two people to work under Qian Tiandun, and its intention to cultivate them was also very obvious.
After Li Dou arrived in Penghu, he was mainly responsible for civil affairs, infrastructure and commerce, and immigration work was undoubtedly one of the key matters within his scope of responsibility. Therefore, although there were only a few hundred immigrants in this group, he still came here specially Terminal, personally supervising the receiving process. Of course, he also came here for another purpose, which was to ask the merchants who transported immigrants about the situation in the north, so that he could make timely adjustments to the local immigration reception methods.
"I heard that these people were transported from Huai'an Prefecture?" Li Dou had no intention of going around in circles with Liu Zhenguo. After a few words of greeting, he got to the point.
Liu Zhenguo immediately responded: "The grassroots recruited these people in Haizhou, Huai'an. Most of them fled south from Anqiu, Zhucheng and other places in Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province and entered the territory of Huai'an Prefecture to avoid the war. These people's homes have been Destroyed, and not knowing when the Denglai Rebellion would end, they had no choice but to flee. Due to the influx of large numbers of refugees in Haizhou, the government was already overwhelmed. The grassroots went to the local area to recruit refugees to go south, and the government was happy to see this happen. ”
The rebellion of Kong Youde's tribe started in August 1631 and has lasted for a full year. The rebels not only occupied the cities in Denglai and Denglai states, but also raided the area from time to time, which seemed to be more troublesome than in the original history. Almost no place in the entire Jiaodong Peninsula was spared, and most of the prefectures and counties were involved in this war. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes and fled west and south. The Jianghuai area adjacent to Shandong was not directly affected by the Denglai Rebellion and was relatively prosperous, so it naturally became the first choice destination for some refugees.
Haizhou in Huai'an Prefecture was later Lianyungang, and its jurisdiction bordered Junan, Shandong Province, so it naturally became the first stop for Shandong refugees heading south to Jianghuai. According to Liu Zhenguo's description, there are at least 50,000 to 60,000 Shandong refugees currently stranded in Haizhou, and their size is almost as large as the local population.
With so many people pouring into the local area, it is obviously difficult to rely solely on government relief to cover the long-term burden, and social resources are not enough to bear the sudden increase in population. Therefore, it is not uncommon for refugees to sell their children and daughters in order to get food, which is not surprising. Liu Zhenguo didn't even need to do much publicity when he went to the local area to recruit immigrants. As long as he was guaranteed to have food on board the ship, many people were willing to choose to go south on the ship and take a gamble when their future was uncertain. No matter where you go, staying alive is better than starving to death on the streets.
Most of these refugees only found out after they were halfway through the voyage that their destination was a large island near Fujian, where a group of wealthy and charitable people would hire them to work or farm, and they would not need food or clothing in the future. No more worries. Although some people wanted to regret it after knowing the destination, Liu Zhenguo would not let those who had already boarded the ship go. As long as they were alive, they were all transported to Penghu and handed over to the Haihan people. He also knew that the Haihan people had many unique skills in this regard, as evidenced by the thousands of men who obeyed their orders on Penghu Island.
Li Dou didn't feel much relaxed after listening to Liu Zhenguo's story. Although there seem to be many war refugees in the north waiting for Haihan to recruit, this situation is likely to change in a short period of time, and Haihan does not have much time to slowly operate this thing. According to the original history, the Denglai Rebellion was coming to an end at this time. In September, the rebels were surrounded in Dengzhou City. In October, Kong Youde led his troops to break out, abandoned the ship and boarded the ship to escape to the Liaodong Peninsula, and in the In the second year, they surrendered to the Tatars outside the pass. If the war situation in Shandong is not much different from that in history, then the war will probably end soon. At that time, after the people who fled abroad got the news, they would definitely choose to return to their hometowns to rebuild their homes one after another, instead of leaving their hometowns to go to a completely unknown environment.
What Haihan has to do is to introduce as many immigrants as possible from the north before the impact of this war ends. But so far, the total number of northern refugees received by the Penghu base has not exceeded 10,000, and the average number of arrivals per day is less than 1,000. This is not even comparable to the flow of immigrants at the Lijiazhuang Immigration Transfer Center in Panyu, Guangdong during its peak period.
Of course, the specific environment in Guangdong is also different. After all, it is only a few hundred miles from the war-torn area to Panyu, so it will not be too difficult for refugees to travel there. However, it takes greater determination and sufficient maritime transport capacity for these northern refugees to move south to meet Haihan's demand for immigrants.
However, because the voyage is too far and the sea conditions and environment along the way are unfamiliar, Haihan currently does not dare to easily send his own fleet north to transport immigrants so far away. This is incomparable to the transport of immigrants along the Annan coast. At that time, the Annan people had almost no maritime power. Even if they knew what the Haihan people were doing, they could only turn a blind eye. However, there were more or less naval forces along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. The scale The huge Haihan fleet entering the northern coast of the Ming Dynasty will definitely attract attention, and it is not necessarily true that the government in every place will be willing to cooperate with Haihan like Fu Guang. Even if Haihan is not afraid of the Ming Navy, he does not want to cause unnecessary trouble.
Li Dou frowned and said: "Boss Liu, is it possible to organize a larger fleet to transport more people at once? As for the price, you can rest assured that we will never start to lower the price just because there are too many people sent."< br>
Liu Zhenguo responded: "Reporting to the chief, Cao Min also has this intention. After returning to Fujian this time, Cao Min has contacted many well-connected maritime merchants and rented ships from them. When the transaction is completed, Cao Min will go north again. , not just these three ships, but at least thirty ships! Next time I come to Penghu, I will send you at least three to four thousand people.”
"That's about the same." Li Dou nodded when he heard this, and encouraged Liu Zhenguo: "If you can transport more than 3,000 immigrants at a time, I can apply to my superiors and give you the Huai'an Prefecture franchise rights for several commodities. . Boss Liu, do you understand what I mean?”
"I understand, understand! The common people thank the chief first!" Liu Zhenguo immediately nodded and responded like a chicken pecking at rice.
If Liu Zhenguo wanted to do business with the Haihan people, of course he had already worked hard to study the Haihan people's business methods. Haihan goods were so popular in Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, it was because of its exquisite production technology and difficult for others to imitate. On the other hand, it was also related to its unique business strategy. Each kind of Haihan goods is often sold in only one or two shops in a place, and this also ensures to the greatest extent that operators will have no other local competitors, thus providing a disguised increase in the profits that can be obtained from operating these goods. Guaranteed.
Anyone who can get the franchise rights of Haihan products in a certain place can often make a lot of money in a short period of time. Even for fast-moving consumer goods such as matches, which have a low unit price and do not seem to be so profitable, if you carefully calculate their sales, it is still not difficult to find the huge benefits brought by this business method.
The Jianghuai area is the most prosperous area in the Ming Dynasty, and its consumption power is still higher than that of Fuzhou and Guangzhou provinces. Most of the local Haihan goods are sold by merchants in Fuguang and southern Zhejiang, and there is no more standardized business model in Fuguang. If the regional franchise rights can be obtained early, even for one or two products, the profit that can be earned is a figure that Liu Zhenguo currently dare not expect. Hearing Li Dou's offer, he naturally agreed hastily. He was already thinking about where he could rent more large-scale sea-going ships. He could bring back thousands of people in one trip. Maybe there would be more Haihan people when they were happy. Give yourself the right to operate several state capitals.
Of course, in line with the safety principle of not putting all eggs in one basket, Liu Zhenguo was not the only one Li Dou offered similar conditions to. Currently, there are seven or eight businesses in Fujian that are engaged in immigrant transportation for Haihan, and the largest among them is naturally Xu Xinsu's Maritime Group. Currently, nearly two-thirds of the immigrants arriving in Penghu were transported by the Xu family. In addition to the maritime merchants in Fujian, there were also two or three maritime merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who realized the business opportunities contained in this kind of trading and began to transport the population needed by Haihan between the two places.
The original plan formulated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs hoped to introduce at least 30,000 to 50,000 immigrants from the north by the end of 1632. Judging from the current transportation speed, the minimum guarantee is basically safe, but if you want to exceed the upper limit, you will have to spend a lot of money. Big effort. Haihan also endured considerable financial pressure for this. Haihan had to pay fifteen to twenty yuan to complete the entire process of transporting an immigrant from a war-torn area to Penghu and then to Hainan Island. And this is only an estimate of basic freight and food costs, and does not take into account other additional expenses such as the construction costs of immigrant camps on Penghu Island.
Qian Tiandun, the top commander of the Penghu base, had previously said with a smile that Haihan could at least build a fully-equipped regional fleet with the expenditure required to complete this immigration goal this year. Considering that the Haihan military's plan to deploy a complete fleet in Fujian has been postponed to next year, this can actually be regarded as the immigration plan having an indirect impact on the expansion of the military's strength. Of course, population is the most important thing, so Qian Tiandun would not go against the executive committee, so he just complained a few words and did not show any resistance to the immigration plan.
(End of chapter)