Chapter 946 Strong
Most of the people here were unfamiliar with the place name "Star Island". Yan Chujie ordered people to hang up a map of the South China Sea and pointed out to everyone the island located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and just named by Haihan.
Except for Champa and Annam, which went south with Haihan's fleet, and the "victim" Johor, all other parties involved in the meeting did not learn that Haihan actually sent an army to the Malacca Strait area until this time. Countries far away from each other, such as Daming and Annan, did not feel anything special, but the expressions of representatives from neighboring Aceh, Johor and Portugal changed.
These countries have almost never stopped fighting in order to compete for control of the Strait of Malacca. Now, another family has entered the already very complicated chessboard, and the strength of this family far exceeds the existing ones on the chessboard. Players, the future situation in this area may be more troublesome for them.
Portuguese representative Ricardo coughed dryly and said: "Our country supports providing the necessary military support for the South China Sea Trade Alliance, but sending a fleet to this... star island, isn't it a bit inappropriate? According to the current actual situation Generally speaking, this place should belong to the country’s sphere of influence. Even if armed personnel are required to be stationed, the country should be responsible for organizing and implementing it.”
Before Yan Chujie responded, Johor representative Ajisa had already retorted: "This island is owned by our country and has nothing to do with you Portuguese people. Please don't talk to yourself."
Immediately, the representative of Aceh also joined the debate: "Don't argue. This island was captured by the country's army five years ago. This place should belong to the country of Aceh."
For the countries surrounding Star Island, this is indeed a strategic location worth fighting for. However, given the strength of these parties, it is difficult for them to establish a long-term stronghold on the island. Don't even think about the strategy of sitting down and attacking and harassing other forces trying to establish a stronghold on the island so that they cannot settle here safely.
Of course, this trick has worked in the past because the countries competing here have limited strength and cannot completely suppress their competitors in terms of force. But now that the powerful Haihan is involved in this area, this move may not be effective. There are many people who have fought against Haihan, but no one has tasted the sweetness - the South Vietnamese regime was beaten to complete destruction, the Portuguese surrendered and became Haihan's followers, and although the Dutch were tougher, they ran away this time. Coming to Ambona Island to participate in talks has actually shown the change in his attitude.
Among the three parties, only Aceh has not yet faced off against Haihan, but the "evil reputation" of Haihan's army has already spread overseas, and the countries in South Asia are no strangers to Haihan's past achievements. These three families are arguing about the ownership of Star Island, but no one wants to drag Haihan into the water. It seems that doing so can exclude Haihan.
"Everyone, I don't think you need to continue arguing." Yan Chujie finally spoke up, ending the three-party argument: "The future ownership of Xingdao is not part of the discussion at this meeting. I am just informing you on behalf of Haihan. This situation does not require you to discuss which side this island belongs to.”
"Please turn your attention back to what we really need to pay attention to now." Schneider also spoke again: "The purpose of us sending troops to Star Island is to ensure that peace can be restored in this area and that the sea connecting the east and west The safety of the route can be guaranteed. If anyone tries to disrupt this situation, it may not only offend the countries in this region, but also become a common enemy of the South China Sea Trade Alliance in the future! We will take all necessary measures to deal with it! Punishment and sanctions will be imposed on those who violate the peace! ”
Schneider and Yan Chujie did not mention the sovereignty of Xingdao. They first raised the banner of "maintaining peace" and "protecting trade". Anyone who opposed Haihan's troops stationed there had evil intentions and wanted to violate the entire South China Sea Trade Alliance. Be against. No one is willing to bear this charge. Although they are dissatisfied, the representatives of these parties can only stop their activities and wait for another opportunity to argue.
After all, military means serve political purposes, and Haihan is no exception. The main purpose of sending a fleet to Star Island is to frighten neighboring countries and armed forces, rather than really intending to occupy the entire Malacca Strait area. What Haihan needs is the market, supply of raw materials and labor in this area, as well as the safety of maritime navigation, rather than simply occupying the land here. Of course, if there are militant elements like the one in Johor that are not peaceful enough and try to challenge Haihan, Haihan will naturally use the military means he is good at to give a certain response.
Schneider said solemnly: "I hope you will not treat the Trade Alliance as a monster. The purpose of establishing this alliance is not to invade the territory of any country, nor to plunder the wealth of any country, but to provide all members with An open trading platform allows everyone to earn benefits from international trade. Win-win cooperation is our goal. I hope everyone here can understand and cooperate after joining the alliance. ”
"Then what will be the consequences if you are unwilling to join this alliance?" The person who spoke was the Portuguese representative Ricardo. Of course, his question did not really represent the opinions of the Portuguese camp. He was just cooperating with Haihan to ask questions to avoid being criticized by some people who were hostile to the sea. If the hostile person asks first, the situation may not be easy to control.
Schneider grinned, showing two rows of white teeth: "It's not going to be a big deal. It's just that in the future, doing business with countries in this alliance will impose higher tariffs, and you won't be able to enjoy the various benefits that only alliance members can have. and special treatment.”
"Oh? Then please ask Mr. Schneider to tell us about the discounts and special treatment!" Ricardo immediately got off the slope and helped Schneider set the pace.
Schneider clapped his hands gently, and the person next to him immediately replaced the South China Sea map hanging on the wall with a new wall map.
"This is the operational draft of the South China Sea Trade Alliance that we have formulated. Next, I will explain the specific content to you..." Schneider said while the staff next to him also distributed more detailed explanatory materials to everyone present. in hand. What surprised the attendees was that the explanatory materials they received actually had different text labels to ensure that they could understand the content. The trade alliance planned by Schneider drew heavily on the models of later international trade organizations in its operational plan. It was not just about representatives from various countries sitting down to discuss conditions and signing a written agreement, and that was it. There was also a lot of specific work that needed to be carried out one by one. implementation.
For example, the service functions that the South China Sea Trade Alliance will provide to member states in the future include commerce, communications, transportation, sales, education and training, finance, tourism, etc., and more than ten major items. Each major item also contains a number of small items. . For example, business services are subdivided into many professional projects such as law, accounting, taxation, architecture, engineering, research and development, real estate, leasing, advertising, printing, consulting, etc. It is not possible to say this in detail. It's over.
Although the representatives sent by various countries are basically responsible persons with relatively corresponding professions, who are relatively knowledgeable about business and trade, and even have many years of practical operation experience, they have never seen anyone who theoretically refines business operations to such an extent. precedent. Even those who had previously had doubts about Haihan's plan could feel that Haihan was very serious about this plan while listening to Schneider's explanation. The idea that originally seemed very mysterious seemed to be more feasible after being broken down into specific tasks.
This plan is not what the participants had expected. Everyone sits down and talks about reducing import and export trade tariffs, but it involves all aspects of international trade. Almost all the issues that anyone can think of have been written into Haihan's plan. This explanatory material was drafted by the Ministry of Commerce.
The explanation of the operating details of the trade alliance took two full days to come to an end. For all participants, these two days were like receiving an extremely rich and advanced training course, but they were forcefully indoctrinated in a short period of time. There are so many concepts and theories that have entered my mind that it is difficult to digest them thoroughly at one time.
But Schneider is actually not particularly satisfied with this, because in his opinion, such an explanation is still too superficial, and it is difficult to fully convey the subtleties of this plan to the participants. It's just that the objective conditions would not allow him to spend ten days and a half to teach these participants. Being able to achieve the current level is considered quite good.
Although not everyone can fully understand and absorb the content taught by Schneider, the effect is still there. After listening to the two-day class, the vast majority of participants were impressed by the trade alliance plan conceived by Haihan and also deeply understood it. This explains why Haihan people are so good at business, because their depth of understanding in the field of business is simply beyond the reach of ordinary people. Schneider is like a general commanding thousands of troops. He has already arranged everything well before the march begins. The probability of such a unit performing well on the battlefield is naturally much higher than that of a temporary organization of stragglers.
Of course, after the participants marveled at the breadth and depth of the trade alliance plan, the final focus was on the country or camp they represented. What substantial benefits could they gain from joining this trade alliance? What would they face if they refused to join? Such a difficult situation.
As for the pros and cons of an alliance, after two days of Schneider's cramming teaching instructions, most people actually already have a relatively clear understanding. This is not just an issue that is easy to notice on the surface, such as trade barriers, tariff standards, etc. , but also involves many long-term effects. In the long run, member states will definitely be able to gain benefits from various tangible and intangible assets from the alliance system, and gain more foreign trade opportunities, but the price they need to pay for this is that they must introduce various operations advocated by Haihan Mechanisms and technical standards. As representatives of the ruling class, these participants do not only focus on the so-called economic benefits, but also pay attention to some of the negative impacts of the introduction of the Haihan mechanism.
If nothing else, you must learn Chinese characters first. Otherwise, how can you deal with the Haihan people? The Haihan people unceremoniously set the legal language of this trade alliance in Chinese. From now on, all official agreements, and even private trade agreements, will probably have to be in Chinese to be legally binding.
Countries like Annan that are adjacent to the Ming Dynasty are not bad. After all, they are in the same line with the Central Plains culture. The official characters used in the country are originally Chinese characters, so there are no big cultural barriers to overcome. However, it is relatively difficult for other countries to implement it. Fortunately, the Han people are also widely distributed in Southeast Asia, so there is no need to worry about finding people who understand Chinese locally.
However, after the introduction of words, measurement units, and system mechanisms, it is almost certain that the local political and cultural trends will be affected by Haihan. Not every country is willing to open its doors and embrace Haihan like Annan. After all, Annan relied on Haihan to establish his country, but other countries have not had such experience and are more or less vigilant.
To say that for the sake of the independence of the country and nation, these people may not be able to directly give up joining the trade alliance led by Haihan. After all, after Schneider’s detailed explanation, the huge economy that will be brought about by the trade alliance in the future The interests cannot be ignored, not to mention the technological output that Haihan promised to everyone, which is also something that all countries dream of.
In addition to business models in business and trade, the technologies that Haihan plans to export to the members of the trade alliance also include a large number of practical technologies, such as deep processing technology of various agricultural and forestry raw materials, professional knowledge in infrastructure, shipbuilding, mining, smelting and other fields, and even There will also be content on weapons manufacturing, and any one of them will be a hot topic for all parties to fight for. If you can't get these good things that you can't buy with money on the market and let neighboring countries get them, the gap in national power between the two countries may widen within a few years. By then, this mistake will not be so easy to make up for. .
Schneider was not in a hurry to urge representatives from various countries to express their stance immediately. In the next few days, he began to hold intensive talks with representatives from various countries to discuss specific conditions for joining. At the same time, representatives from various countries also began to visit each other frequently, inquiring about other people's attitudes while figuring out which choice they should make is most beneficial. Of course, there are also some smart people among them who have begun to form cliques among various countries and accumulate strength in order to obtain better preferential conditions in the subsequent negotiations with Haihan.
(End of chapter)