Chapter 973 The plantation outside Yacheng
As the chief official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ning Qi's English level is quite good, even slightly better than Van Diemen from Europe, so the communication between the two parties does not require an interpreter to communicate in the middle, and they can communicate directly. After briefly introducing the distribution and functions of the cabins on the ship to Van Diemen, Ning Qi ordered the ship to set sail. Under the command of the captain, the sailors unmoored and raised the sail as quickly as possible, and their well-trained performance even amazed Van Diemen.
Seeing that Ning Qi did not seem to have arranged for other ships to accompany him, Van Diemen took the initiative and asked: "Mr. Ning, is this the only ship participating in our circumnavigation of the island?"
"Are you worried about safety issues? Please rest assured that the safety of our ship is very high, and there will not be any hostile armed activities in the coastal waters of Hainan Island." Ning Qi replied very proudly: "The next few days The route we are sailing today is probably the safest sea area in the entire South China Sea, and armed ships will be arranged to escort us along the way, so there will be no security issues.”
Van Diemen didn't quite understand what Ning Qi meant when he said the ship was "very safe" at first, but after the Speedy left the dock, he understood where Ning Qi's confidence came from. Because the speed of this ship is so fast, it is at least twice as fast as an ordinary multi-masted sailing ship. Among the sailing ships that Van Diemen has seen in the past, there seems to be no sailing ship that can compete with this ship in terms of speed. A superior opponent. Moreover, this high speed did not bring violent turbulence. The wide and flat hull effectively enhanced the seaworthiness of the ship. When the "Speed" sailed out of Yulin Cape at a speed of more than ten knots, it swayed The glass on the table didn't even sway significantly.
With such a terrifying speed, there is no need to worry about the risk of being intercepted and attacked by the enemy during the sea voyage. Van Diemen believes that even Haihan's own armed sailboat will have a hard time keeping up with the "Speed" moving at full speed. Although the ship was not equipped with heavy weapons such as artillery, Van Diemen could not help but connect the performance of the ship with military purposes. If it was used as a fast ship for reconnaissance and conveying information, its good performance would be Both seaworthiness and high speed should come in handy.
Van Diemen's vision was indeed good. In fact, when the Haihan delegation visited Zhangzhou in 1631, there was another catamaran sailing ship "Lightning" in the fleet, and it did serve as a role in the attack on Nanri Island. The purpose of the reconnaissance ship was that the Dutch had not yet participated in the war at that time and did not know about it. However, after the Navy had a specialized light reconnaissance ship, the two catamaran sailboats rarely took on military missions. On the contrary, a group of people headed by the North American Gang more often sailed out to sea during their vacations.
However, it would be a big mistake to think that these two ships are not equipped with heavy weapons and have low combat effectiveness. During combat missions, the bottom weapons bay on the ship not only contains m249 squad machine guns, but also sometimes light mortars and RPGs. Coupled with various advanced weapons from the North American gang, its combat effectiveness can even be worth less than half A fleet. Although Ning Qi is the only time traveler on the ship now and his team is not equipped with any heavy weapons, there are still more than a dozen breech-loaded rifles in the weapons bay. The sailors can transform into a combat team at any time according to the needs of the situation. If there is an emergency at sea, the radio equipped on the ship can also contact the garrison troops on the coasts of Hainan Island at any time to obtain the nearest support in the shortest possible time.
After the "Speed" sailed out of Yulin Bay, sure enough, there were two expedition-class sailing ships traveling in the same direction on the sea in the distance. However, the "Speed" had to slow down slightly before the two ships could catch up.
When Van Diemen saw that the ship had sailed around Yulinjiao and headed towards the Luhuitou Peninsula, he had done some homework beforehand and immediately asked: "Are we going to Yacheng?"
"Yes, your Excellency the Governor, you can take a look at what the prison city used by the Ming Dynasty to exile prisoners looks like today." The ship has already set sail, and Ning Qi has no need to hide the destination of the first stop. , confessed frankly: "In fact, on the administrative territory of the Ming Dynasty, the entire Sanya also fell under the jurisdiction of Yacheng."
"But that's in the past, isn't it? I think the local government now should obey your executive committee, not the Ming Dynasty's court." Of course Fan Diemen can think of the situation in Yacheng, after all, the entire Hainan Island They are all under the control of Haihan. It is not difficult to judge who actually takes orders from these areas that are still nominally belonging to the Ming Dynasty.
In the month after traveling to this time and space, Haihan, who had not yet established a stable footing, sent troops to Yacheng to contact the local officials. Yacheng was the first market that Haihan opened. Later, the trade relations established with merchants in Guangdong were all established through merchants in Yacheng. The local officials in Yacheng are also the group of people who have most completely surrendered to Haihan in the officialdom of Hainan Island. Since Luo Shengdong and Wei Ping took the initiative, Yacheng officialdom, both civil and military, from top to bottom, has gradually changed its banner. He became Haihan's "accomplice".
In the past seven years, the first thing that the successive magistrates, tong magistrates, tongpans, and generals, etc., did when they took office was to visit the dock at Victory Port and obtain approval from the Haihan Executive Committee before going to Yacheng to take up their posts. . For outgoing officials, Haihan will also give them a "settlement allowance" of varying amounts depending on their performance during their tenure, but the amount will definitely be much more than the salary they received from the court.
The local public security, household registration, property, taxation, judicial and other affairs in Yacheng were all taken over by the Yazhan Office a few years ago. The local yamen, like other local governments on Hainan Island, has basically been reduced to a symbolic function. Totem has no actual operating mechanism and functions. According to statistics compiled by the Haihan Ministry of Civil Affairs last year, the proportion of naturalized residents in the Yacheng area's permanent population has exceeded 80%, and the social structure and mass base are considered quite good.
Despite his expectations for the situation in Cliff City, Van Diemen was surprised by the reaction of the local people when they arrived.
The Yacheng Water Village in the past had been depleted of people and ships a few years ago, and all of them had gone to work as sea transporters, leaving only one establishment hanging under the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty for free pay. The location of Yacheng Water Village, located in the harbor at the mouth of Ningyuan River, has now become a local comprehensive passenger and cargo terminal. When the "Speed" arrived, the dock was already crowded with people. They were all people who had heard the news and came to greet the head of the Executive Committee. At a glance, there were at least six or seven hundred people.
When Ning Qi stepped out of the cabin and appeared on the back deck, the crowd on the shore burst into noise. Many of them have also heard the news that Haihan will establish a country next month, and the people who inspected Yacheng this time were senior officials of the Executive Committee. In the Ming Dynasty, they were basically six ministers, grand masters of palaces, etc. senior position, and there is no emperor in Haihan, it is basically the end of being an official in the executive committee. Such big figures have rarely appeared in Yacheng in recent years. No wonder the people are so excited. Although Van Diemen couldn't understand the content of the crowd's shouts on the shore, he could guess what was going on when he saw these excited faces. The local prestige of Haihan's senior officials was also evident from this. After taking office, he also visited the areas around Batavia, hoping to introduce more labor from the nearby indigenous tribes that were dependent on the East India Company for the reconstruction of Batavia city, but what he did locally was What they received was more blank looks and indifference. Those tribes that had verbally surrendered to the East India Company had no intention of helping. As for the scene of being warmly welcomed by the local people, they had never encountered such a scene before.
There is no doubt that the racial and cultural similarities between Haihan and the Ming Dynasty can indeed help them better achieve colonial rule in the Ming Dynasty. This is an advantage that the Dutch can never have in managing colonies in the Far East.
After Ning Qi landed, the staff of the local cliff office and the current magistrate and other officials hurried forward to see him. Initially, the Yazhan Office composed of the elite members of the Crossing Group was transferred. Due to the gradual decline in the importance of Yacheng, all of them have now been replaced by naturalized cadres. Malike, Qiu Yuan, He Xi, Mu Xiabai, Feng Annan and others who initially served in the Cliff Office have now become independent leaders in various departments. According to Haihan’s internal saying, the Cliff Office can be regarded as It is a feng shui treasure land for career advancement.
For safety reasons, Ning Qi's itinerary was notified to the Cliff Office only one day in advance, but this level of confidentiality was obviously not enough, otherwise there would not have been so many onlookers on the pier. However, the Cliff Office still had some preparation measures for such a situation. Several groups of militiamen kept the people at bay, leaving room for the VIPs to land and change vehicles. There is still about six or seven miles of land route from here to Yacheng, so it would naturally be more convenient to take a carriage there.
Although Yacheng still retains its original city defense facilities and fortifications, there are actually no armed forces deployed to guard the city walls and gates all year round. There are only two platoons of militia troops stationed in Yacheng City. In addition, there is a company of local militiamen. In addition, there are about forty security policemen without firearms, which are all the defense forces here.
The reason why the military has not deployed more troops here is also very simple. Yacheng is no longer the political and economic center at the southern end of Hainan Island. Many locals have chosen to go to Sanya to work after naturalization. After all, the income level there is Much higher. At this time, a considerable number of people living in Yacheng were immigrants from other places, especially those from Annan and Guangdong. These immigrants were uniformly arranged by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to form immigrant villages and settle here, and their livelihood was the cash crop plantations that have blossomed all over Hainan Island in recent years.
"Ramie is grown on both sides of the road." Ning Qi introduced the planting projects along the way to Fan Diemen on the carriage to Yacheng: "This plant can be used to weave cloth, make paper, make feed, and serve as medicine. It has many uses. Extensive.”
Ning Qi's introduction was still a partial ambush. The entire ground part of ramie can be used to extract ethanol, and the hemp shell can extract furfural, an extremely important refining solvent in the chemical industry. These products cannot be bought with money on the market. . Mendeleev would not publish the periodic table of elements until more than two centuries later. At this time, only Haihan has mastered the technology to extract chemical substances directly from plants. Of course, even if these things were told to Van Diemen, he would not be able to understand their meaning at all, and Ning Qi did not want to waste time explaining them to him.
Van Diemen really didn't know this plant, and he couldn't imagine that the Haihan people actually discovered this good thing when they visited Li Dong after crossing here, and then slowly started to promote its cultivation. But he looked out through the glass window and saw that the fields on both sides of the road extending far away were full of ramie fields, and he became curious about this strange plant.
"Farmers grow such a large area of ramie. Who do they sell it to after harvesting? Are there any specialized merchants who purchase it?" Van Diemen asked casually.
Ning Qi responded: "The fields you see are privately operated plantations. We provide planting technical support, and the ramie produced will be purchased by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce. Just near Yacheng, the ramie plantations are Probably more than 10,000 acres.”
Fan Diemen thought that this thing should have huge profits to attract businessmen to come here to invest and operate plantations. From what Ning Qi said, Yacheng was not the only area specializing in ramie cultivation. With such a large planting area, Haihan should have a relatively large demand for it. But the strange thing is that when Van Diemen recalled it, he couldn't seem to recall any linen fabrics among the list of Haihan's export products. It seemed that it had been completely digested internally.
When he was approaching Yacheng, Van Diemen saw another plantation out of the car window, but Ning Qi didn't need to introduce the plants here. He recognized them. They were sugar cane that the Dutch also planted in their colonies in South Asia. .
Sanya special brew has always been one of the best-selling Haihan products on the market, and some of its varieties are rum brewed from sugar cane. Van Diemen had naturally tasted this proud product of the Haihan people, and he had to admit that its taste, packaging and sales operations far exceeded the sugar cane wine also produced by the East India Company. Regardless of the difference in raw materials, the gap in production technology between the two parties is probably difficult to catch up with.
However, what Van Diemen didn't know was that the Haihan people's utilization of sugar cane was far greater than that of their competitors at the same time. In addition to winemaking and sugar refining, the remaining bagasse would also be used for fertilizer and paper making. In this way The value that a sugar cane field can create is naturally far above the average level of this era.
(End of chapter)