Chapter 979 A Different Danzhou
Compared with other states and counties on Hainan Island, Danzhou has such a not-so-glamorous "record" and has been the focus of the military and security departments since then. Even the annual routine anti-enemy and anti-special drills in the Qiongbei region have always been conducted in Danzhou, with the purpose of deterring the "remnants of disobedience" among the people who still have evil intentions. However, Haihan has been in a period of rapid rise in the past few years, and people can naturally feel that the environment they are in is constantly changing for the better. In addition, Haihan has never relaxed his publicity work and is constantly being criticized by other ethnic groups. With the population structure diluted by naturalized people, the vast majority of Han people have gradually accepted their identity changes.
The current proportion of naturalized citizens under Danzhou's rule accounts for just over 70% of the registered population, while the naturalized proportion of Han people has reached as high as 90%. Most of the remaining unnaturalized people are left-behind people from some inland Li and Miao villages. , unwilling to go out of the mountains to register for any "household registration" in Danzhou City. For this kind of people, the civil affairs department does not force them. Most of the young people in the Li-Miao village have already left the mountains and come to the outside world to work for Haihan. In just a few years, when these young Li and Miao people have settled down outside the mountains and have the next generation, the impact of traditional ethnic differences will naturally be eliminated.
The current official in charge of power in Danzhou is still Zhang Xin. During his stay in Danzhou, he has married two wives and has a pair of children. Last year, the executive committee asked for his opinion on whether to transfer back to Sanya. As a result, after Zhang Xin consulted his family's opinions, he decided to stay in Danzhou for a while and wait for his younger daughter, who was not in good health, to get better before considering a job transfer.
Escorted by two exploration-class sailing ships, the Speedy sailed slowly into Danzhou Bay and docked at Baimajing Pier. Just like the previous stops on this inspection trip, an area on the pier had already been separated by Haihan soldiers with live ammunition. The local gentry and people who came to greet the nobles were blocked from this cordon.
After Zhang Xin met with Ning Qi and his party, he introduced the local administrative personnel to him. Because Danzhou has learned from the past, Haihan's governance here is no longer an office model similar to that of Yacheng, but has truly taken over the local administration in an all-round way. Although the Yamen of the Ming Dynasty in Danzhou still remains, it has ceased daily operations and is no longer open to the public. In fact, it has become a historical relic. The institutions set up by Haihan in Danzhou are relatively comprehensive. There are corresponding departments in charge of administration, civil affairs, commerce and finance, culture, education and health, and military security. There are directors of each unit who are qualified to stand behind Zhang Xin and get identity introductions. There are as many as seven or eight people.
After introducing these people, Zhang Xin asked the guards to bring several local gentry representatives from outside the isolation zone and introduce them to Ning Qi. Ning Qi himself is the chief official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Of course, he also understands the necessity of establishing good relations with the upper class people in these places. At the moment, he is extremely patient and greets them one by one with a smile.
Among these people are local wealthy businessmen, celebrities in the cultural world, well-known local elders, and retired Ming Dynasty officials. Most of them had already learned about Haihan's plan to establish a country through various news channels. This time, they also inquired with Zhang Xin in advance and knew that the person who visited Danzhou recently was an important person like an imperial envoy. They were all people who planned to stay under Haihan's rule for a long time, so they naturally wanted to seize this opportunity to curry favor with the big shots from Sanya.
Seeing this posture, Van Diemen knew that the next event today would probably be the customary reception banquet. Although he really wanted to cancel this activity, he felt that it would be a pity to give up an opportunity to contact the local people. After all, one of the purposes of this island tour was to contact the people under Haihan's rule in order to collect the first First-hand information. These people are obviously local dignitaries, and the information obtained from them will definitely be of greater value than the information that the lower-level people can provide.
Sure enough, after greeting the local gentry, Zhang Xin mentioned the arrangements for the reception banquet, saying that the banquet had been set up in the city at the Nanhai Restaurant where Haihan set up a bureau to arrest the local gangster Huang Zixing and others. Seeing that Fan Diemen had no objection to this arrangement, Ning Qi agreed to Zhang Xin's arrangement.
Nanhai Restaurant is one of the oldest and largest restaurants in Danzhou. After the arrests were carried out here, not only was the restaurant's business not negatively affected, but it became even more prosperous. The shop owner also specially found someone to write an engraved version of "Ode to Capturing Thieves" and hung it on the wall of the shop on the ground floor to praise Haihan's achievements in pacifying the place. Although there are obvious signs of flattery in doing so, the effect is indeed good. Over the past few years, it has become a special cultural landscape in Danzhou City. Zhang Xin is naturally happy to see this kind of praise come to fruition. Although he also knows that the purpose of the shop owner's doing this is to flatter and hype, it is indeed beneficial and harmless to consolidate Haihan's local rule and his personal reputation. Therefore, Just turn a blind eye to this.
Many carriages that everyone was riding in stopped outside the Nanhai Restaurant one after another. The owner and shopkeeper of the restaurant, who had been notified in advance, as well as several waiters and cooks, all respectfully lined up outside the restaurant to greet them. The pomp and ceremony was also complete. . Several teams of black-clad police officers had already deployed controls inside and outside the restaurant in advance, and even specially cleared a safe area on the street. The security work was very thorough and in place.
In order to cater to the tastes of Haihan's upper class, the chefs in the Nanhai Restaurant have all been specially sent to Sanya to receive cooking training. Their cooking skills are quite high. Some common Haihan dishes can even be made similar to those in Victory Fort. The chefs are on par with each other. Zhang Xin arranged the reception banquet here not only for safety reasons, but also because of the strength of the restaurant itself.
Of course, Zhang Xin does not need to pay for this meal personally or from an official organization. These guests here have already prepaid for this meal, which can be considered as a way to buy this meal with the senior leader from Sanya. Opportunity, in terms of per capita cost, this deal is actually quite cost-effective.
As for why Chief Ning brought an envoy from a foreign country along with him during his patrol, everyone thought it didn't matter. They thought he wanted to use this to show his strength to the red-haired people, just like the previous resident office would often spend its own money to send some valuable locals to the local area. Just like influential people going to Sanya to study and study, anyone who has stayed there for a period of time will no longer question Haihan's strength.
Although Van Diemen couldn't understand Chinese, fortunately, Ning Qi translated for him sentence by sentence, and he was able to roughly understand what everyone was talking about during the banquet. Of course, during this period, people kept getting up and toasting, but after this period of training, Fan Diemen also learned how to deal with it - he saw Ning Qi respond to the toasts of his subordinates by raising a glass and touching his lips, even if he drank a round , so he followed suit. With this way of drinking, you won't get drunk even if you drink it for a whole day.
After Zhang Xin's naturalized cadres walked around, it was the turn of the local civil representatives. The first person to come up and toast was Yan Mingjun, the magistrate of Danzhou who was still in office. However, after the Danzhou assassination three years ago, Yan Mingjun wisely chose to hand over his power and enjoy a leisurely life with peace of mind. In addition to the salary from the court, Haihan will also give him a large amount of "office allowance" every year, and all he needs to do is to praise Haihan in regular official documents and vigorously promote Haihan. Han’s local contributions.
Of course, Haihan built bridges and paved roads in the local area, revitalized commerce and trade, and promoted culture and education. These are indeed real deeds and are not fabricated lies. Therefore, Yan Mingjun does not need to overstate Haihan's presence in Danzhou in official documents. All you have to do is maintain an objective attitude and describe it truthfully. Yan Mingjun also knew that if what he did in Danzhou was known to the court, he would inevitably be charged with dereliction of duty. Therefore, after he took refuge in Haihan, he successively brought his family from Luodingzhou, Guangdong to Danzhou, and felt at ease here. Bian settled down. Yan Mingjun thought very clearly that if the court held people accountable in the future, he would have no choice but to betray the Ming Dynasty completely. Haihan's approach in this regard is quite kind, and will provide necessary protection means to all Ming officials who surrender to them. Even if they are listed as guilty persons by Ming Dynasty, as long as Haihan abides by the law, they will still get protection. Haihan officials provide jobs to make ends meet.
For example, Yan Mingjun's current main job, apart from his idle position as the governor of Danzhou, is the special consultant of the Danzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Yan Mingjun was originally fond of poetry and poetry. This job that only required dealing with the literary circle was a joy for him. Although he lost the prestige of a local official, the corresponding pressure was also relieved. At least Yan Mingjun doesn't have to worry that if Haihan really wants to rebel one day, he will pull out a local official and chop him down to sacrifice to the sky.
Yan Mingjun only heard about the news that Haihan was about to be founded a few years later. However, unlike most people who were uneasy after hearing the news, Yan Mingjun felt relieved. As a former fifth-rank imperial official, Yan Mingjun must have viewed Haihan from a much higher perspective than ordinary people, so the changes in the situation he felt were more profound and comprehensive.
When Yan Mingjun was threatened by Haihan in Danzhou and had to give in to save his life, he thought Haihan was just a group of gangsters trying to cause trouble. But as time went by, he slowly discovered that these overseas visitors really Qiongzhou Island is governed as a country, and its ability to govern the country is really good. Almost all fields are developing rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, especially the investment in infrastructure, culture and education, which far exceeds Daming.
Although Haihan also adopted some violent methods to deal with the rebels, most of the time he used relatively mild methods to gradually win the trust and support of the people. These comprehensive measures of kindness and power allowed Haihan to conquer the people in just a few years. local public sentiment. As the proportion of naturalized people increases, Yan Mingjun also knows that the possibility of Qiongzhou Island returning to the hands of the Ming Dynasty is getting smaller and smaller. In fact, it has been separated from the control of the Ming Dynasty. The final step is to see the sea When did the Han Dynasty declare its founding?
At this time last year, Yan Mingjun felt that the time was ripe, but the Haihan army sent to Fujian to attack Taiwan Island, and then went north to Zhejiang to attack Zhoushan. In the second half of the year, the Haihan army reportedly went to Nanyang and made a large circle. As a result, the founding of the country The matter was postponed until this year. Haihan announced the founding of the country, and Yan Mingjun completely died and returned to the Ming Dynasty, planning to be a rich man in Danzhou with peace of mind.
"Master Yan, I need you to take more care of the official affairs recently." Ning Qi saw Yan Mingjun coming to toast, and he was very polite to him at the moment.
Yan Mingjun hurriedly said humbly: "From now on, the leader must not mention the word "sir" again. I have not been an official in Haihan, so how dare I call you "sir" in vain!"
Seeing that he was well-informed and knowledgeable, Ning Qi became more fond of him, and immediately said: "Master Yan, you're welcome. After we found the country, we will organize local people to set up supervisory agencies to assist local officials in governing the areas. People like Master Yan have political experience." People like us will definitely be able to give us a lot of help in the future.”
Yan Mingjun knew Ning Qi's identity, so he immediately regarded his words as the Executive Committee's statement, and quickly thanked him: "I am so virtuous and capable, I'm afraid I will betray the Executive Committee's trust!"
Ning Qi smiled and said: "We have all seen Mr. Yan's performance in recent years. We have already made a decision on whether and how to appoint him. The future development of Danzhou does require Yan. When people of insight like you join in and work together, you no longer need to be humble and decline.”
Ning Qi's words gave Yan Mingjun, who had already given up his career as an official, a glimmer of hope. Although Ning Qi's tone suggested that he was not directly appointed as an official, he at least had some say, which was better than today's "Federation of Literary and Art Circles". "Consultant" is much better. If a civil servant like him does not have particularly outstanding qualifications in governance, it will be difficult for him to be appointed by Haihan. In this regard, he will suffer a lot compared to the military attache. Danzhou General Li Jin, who arrived with him at the time, was quickly absorbed by the Haihan military after defecting to Haihan. Now he is an officer with a formal establishment in the Haihan militia army, and he can move faster than him. Yan Mingjun is much faster.
If he could get a chance to return to officialdom, Yan Mingjun would still be willing to give it a try. Although this seemed to be somewhat inconsistent with his status as the magistrate of Ming Dynasty, which he still held a temporary post in, it was at the beginning of the founding of Haihan and he was an official in Haihan at this time. , that can be regarded as the founding hero of the country. From now on, the next generation of the Yan family will seek wealth, and this is also one of the capitals that can be used. Of course, as to whether the capital is thin or thick, and whether it is substantial enough, it depends on whether Yan Mingjun can seize the opportunity to climb up.
(End of chapter)