Chapter 784 New Colonial Port
When Dong Yanyun saw this place, he had some impressions in his mind. In his early years, he often traveled between Zhangzhou and Damuan Port and other places. He had also passed by this place by boat and knew that there was a large harbor in the narrow mouth of the bay. However, he has never had the experience of landing in this place, because it is said that the natives here are very ferocious. Not only do they like to eat human flesh, but its taste is very strong, and they must wait for the corpse to decay and become infested with insects before eating it. Of course, this is actually just a rumor. Although Taoist Makka does have a strong taste, it has not reached the point of cannibalism. Regardless of the purpose of the person who spread such rumors, the sensational rumors are enough to deter people like Dong Yanyun who do not know the truth.
Dong Yanyun was still somewhat interested in this place at the time, and planned to ask Xu Xinsu to send more manpower to him later, and then explore whether this place had the value of immigration development. However, the relationship between Xu Xinsu and Zheng Zhilong took a turn for the worse later, and they had to spend money to buy an official position in exchange for a protective umbrella. Later, Shibazhi occupied Penghu and took over the waterway between the mainland and Damuan Port. Xu Xinsu also broke off trade relations with the Dutch. , and thus lost the opportunity to occupy this place.
Shiba Zhi has a large-scale immigration and colonization area in Bengang, north of Taiyuan Port. With their strength, it will be difficult to open another colonial area in a short time. Moreover, most of Shiba Zhi's ships are docked in Magong Port in Penghu does not have high requirements for port conditions on Taiwan Island. The Dutch, who were so close at hand, couldn't even build their own nest. It took almost eight years to build the city of Relanja and it was only about half completed. Naturally, they had no time to come back here to open mines. As a result, after a lot of twists and turns, this place took advantage of the Haihan people who finally arrived, and they sent people to occupy the place without saying a word.
Throughout the history of Haihan's fortune, as long as the territory he eats into his mouth, he has never spit it out again, and this place will definitely be no exception. In the end, it is just to see whether it will be as devoted as Haihan advertises. A large amount of resources to build it into a large seaport city in the region.
Dong Yanyun also admired the decisiveness of the Haihan people in opening up colonies. As long as they saw the target correctly, they could start very quickly. Moreover, the scale of resources mobilized in a short period of time was simply incomparable to the Ming Dynasty's government. Every move was like thunder, unable to do anything. Prevent. Similar to the development of Kaohsiung Port this time, the Haihan people used military strength to suppress the neighboring Dutch, and at the same time deliberately concealed their early preparations from the Fujian government, eliminating any possible obstacles. Obviously, they had already made a comprehensive plan. . Whether it is the Dutch or the Fujian government, it is probably difficult to influence Haihan's development plan.
As the sailboat slowly sailed into the strait, Dong Yanyun also noticed that there were many fire pot cursors set up on both sides of the coast. The purpose was to prevent ships entering the port in the dark from being stranded on the shore due to unclear directions. Although it was already dark and no one could be seen on the shore, Dong Yanyun could imagine that there must be more than one pair of eyes on the shore watching the boat he was on in the darkness.
After the sailboat sailed through the narrow channel mouth, the water in front suddenly opened up, and you could already see the lights on the pier in the distance. A strange thought suddenly came to Dong Yanyun's mind. Since the lighthouses built by the Haihan people at the port were still temporary facilities, it must have not been time to build a fort here. If we launch an offensive here, we might be able to seize this place from the Haihan people.
However, this idea only existed in his mind for a short while and then disappeared, because he had already seen a row of Haihan warships parked on the coast. Not only were there "exploration ships" of the same level as the sailing ship he was on -class" warships, and even a larger "exploration-class" warship. Regardless of whether the Haihan people have time to build coastal defenses on the coast, the deployment of the militia navy alone is enough to guard this harbor. .
"Haihan people have always been shrewd, how could they leave obvious loopholes for others to take advantage of?" Dong Yanyun not only felt that his previous idea was a bit ridiculous, but Haihan had always been the only one to plot against others, but he had never heard of anyone plotting against Haihan. .
The sailboat slowly docked, and after setting up the springboard, Yang Yun came to ask Dong Yanyun to come ashore. Dong Yanyun went down to the dock and immediately saw Anxi. He knew that after he set off from Penghu, Qian Tiandun must have contacted this place by telegram, so he quickly took the initiative to greet him and said: "How dare you have Mr. Labor and Safety!"
Sure enough, Anxi smiled and bowed in return: "Mr. Dong has worked hard. In order to come to this remote place, he took a whole day's boat ride from Penghu. It must not be easy."
The two stood and exchanged a few words, and Anxi invited Dong Yanyun to have a meal in the canteen of the Port Center. Dong Yanyun hadn't had dinner on the boat yet, and he was indeed a little hungry at this time, so he responded readily.
The base of Kaohsiung Port has just been established and is not even open to the public. Of course, there are no restaurants or other places to entertain guests. Only the port center has a canteen specifically for naturalized cadres and Chief Haihan. The environment is natural. It is not as good as other ports that have become climatic under the Han rule in Shanghai. It is just a bamboo shed with ventilation on all sides. However, the dishes are the same. Almost everything you can eat at Sanya Victory Fort is also available here, but the dining conditions are a little shabby.
Dong Yanyun didn't mind such details. The purpose of coming to Kaohsiung Port was to see the development progress here and to get close to the local supervisor Haihan. The conditions of food and accommodation were not his focus. However, after arriving at the cafeteria, he was very happy to meet another acquaintance, Chen Yixin, a young officer of the Haihan Militia.
The three of them didn't talk too much about the development status of Kaohsiung Port at the dinner table. Dong Yanyun did try to bring the topic to the development progress several times, but Anxi changed the topic tactfully and only said that he would meet in person tomorrow. Take him around. Hearing is false, seeing is believing. Since the Haihan people did not intend to discuss this matter at the wine table, Dong Yanyun stopped asking further.
Early the next morning, staff brought breakfast to Dong Yanyun and his two entourages. Not long after breakfast, Anxi came to the door and invited Dong Yanyun to visit the local development situation.
The first stop of the inspection was the immigrant camp not far from the shore, which was also next to where Dong Yanyun lived. It was too dark last night, and the immigration camp was still under curfew. Dong Yanyun did not see how big the camp was. When it was daytime, Dong Yanyun secretly took a breath of air-conditioning. Just looking at the rows of large tents and the simple prefabricated houses being built in the distance, he could roughly deduce the immigrants Haihan sent here. It’s already over a thousand.
Judging from the time alone, Haihan began to implement the immigration plan after the Penghu garrison landed on Taiwan Island for the second time. It has only been about ten days since then, and so many immigrants have already been resettled here. Based on Haihan's approach to developing colonies in the past, what I saw was probably just the first batch of advance teams arriving here to work on infrastructure, and there must be many more batches to follow.
The Dutch have been operating in Taiyuan Port for eight years. Now including their servants and natives, the local population is only two to three thousand. Shibazhi has been operating in Bengang for about the same time as the Dutch. The population in the control area is slightly larger than that of the Dutch. However, since the local area does not have better port conditions, it is only connected to the outside world by an inland port. Therefore, The degree of commercial development is extremely low. The vast majority of the local population relies on farming and fishing to make a living, and their ability to create wealth is extremely limited.
The Haihan people's routine in this regard is obviously much smarter and stronger than that of their competitors. From the very beginning, they chose the location based on the operational needs of the trading port, introduced a large number of immigrants in the early stage, and provided strong armed protection. The immigrants who came here dare not say anything else, but at least they should be reassured in terms of safety. If the place where the Haihan Militia is stationed is not safe, then there will be no safe place in the entire southeastern sea.
Anxi took Dong Yanyun into the camp and walked around. Just like the Haihan colonies that Dong Yanyun had visited before, the camp here was also equipped with all kinds of public facilities. There are shallow drainage ditches outside every simple board house and temporary tent. Each camp area has special public toilets, bathhouses and garbage stations. There is even an artesian well in the corner of the camp area, and a small two-foot square was built next to it. cistern.
After the previous theft case in the camp, the management agency also increased corresponding security maintenance efforts. Police and militia teams alternately patrol the camp from time to time. In this way, if there are still people who dare to commit crimes against the wind, they probably really want to stay in a hard labor camp until they die. "Excuse me, Mr. An, what is the current local population? Are there any plans to introduce immigrants in the future? Can you tell me something?" Dong Yanyun asked about this at the dinner table last night, but Anxi did not give a positive answer at that time. Today I saw With the situation here, he couldn't help but ask the questions in his heart again.
This time Anxi was very happy and did not avoid the easy matter: "The current immigrant population is about 1,677 people. Counting the militia troops and some craftsmen temporarily stationed here, there should be 2,000 people. As for the follow-up... about every year There will be 1,800 people sent here every month, and when the local permanent residents reach 5,000, it may slow down a bit.”
Dong Yanyun Xindao Haihan people were said to have numbered only five hundred when they first landed in Victory Port, but now they can easily settle five thousand people in the new colony. In addition to port infrastructure, there is probably no local industry that requires so many labor forces in a short period of time. It is conceivable that Haihan's statement that he wants to build a large port here is not bragging.
"If Mr. Dong is interested, we can go and take a look at the planned port area." Anxi took the initiative to invite.
Dong Yanyun naturally would not refuse such an invitation, and immediately nodded in agreement: "Then there will be Mr. Lao An!"
An Xi immediately ordered: "Come here, bring two horses!"
Dong Yanyun wondered: "The port is not more than a hundred feet away from here. It can be reached in a short walk. Why do we need to ride there?"
Anxi smiled and said: "What Mr. Dong saw when he came last night was only a small section of the port area we planned. I want to take you to see how big the scope of the first phase of the Kaohsiung Port project we are planning is."
Then someone brought in two pack horses. Although their appearance was not majestic, there was nothing special about riding them in this wilderness. Dong Yanyun got on the horse with doubts, held the reins and moved forward side by side with Anxi.
It was too dark when he entered the harbor last night, and Dong Yanyun could not see clearly what was going on in the harbor. When he went to the coast today, he found that the harbor was much larger than he had imagined.
At present, the temporary dock where Haihan ships are docked is just a small harbor surrounded by a U-shaped coastline within a large harbor. However, just at the end of this small harbor, the coastline is about ten miles long. According to Anxi's introduction, the area of this small harbor in the entire Kaohsiung Port is only about one-fifth. This stretch of coast alone is enough to create dozens of docks. When Dong Yanyun heard this, he was convinced that the statement he heard from Qian Tiandun was not a boast. The seaport here could indeed accommodate the coexistence of maritime merchants from Fuzhou and Guangzhou, and it was more than enough.
"Mr. An, is that the construction site of Furifeng in Guangzhou Prefecture over there?" Dong Yanyun suddenly saw a familiar face among the people working on the shore, and immediately asked An Xi.
Anxi nodded and said: "This place has indeed been allocated to Furifeng. It seems that you know their foreman!"
Dong Yanyun responded: "It's not that we know each other. I met him several times when I was in Guangzhou before, and I know that he is from the Li family. Can Mr. An reveal how much land the Li family has allocated here?"
"One hundred and fifty feet of coastline have been allocated to them on the dock side, and an adjacent 60 acres of land have been allocated for them to build warehouses and commercial stores." Anxi didn't mean to help the Li family hide it. Speak up. As the top local chief executive, in addition to managing administrative affairs, investment promotion is also part of his job. Judging from the competition among maritime merchants in Fujian and Guangdong, even in the land enclosure and infrastructure construction stage, Fujian will probably not let its counterparts in Guangdong gain the upper hand.
Sure enough, Dong Yanyun immediately answered: "Then please allow me, Mr. Xu, to apply for a dock land here. If the rules allow, the land will be twice as big as the land allocated by Furifeng. As for the cost, Mr. An does not need to worry about it. .”
Anxi smiled and said: "I'm not worried about whether you can get the money, but if you allocate such a large piece of land, how many people do you plan to transport for construction?"
Dong Yanyun responded without hesitation: "It doesn't matter, at least it's much closer than coming from Guangdong."
Now that it has become a foregone conclusion that Cantonese people will settle here, Dong Yanyun decided to change his approach, at least to suppress his competitors in terms of business scale.
(End of chapter)