Chapter 1281 Preaching Activities
Liu Shang has always admired Haihan's ability in business operations. He knew that these people would always find a way to sell tofu at the price of meat. The salt business was probably just another area that reflected this extraordinary ability.
Luo Shengdong picked up the samples and showed them to Yu Xiaobao, while explaining the production and sales status of these products. Liu Shang stood not far away and listened with his ears raised, but he could basically hear clearly. He couldn't help but be surprised again by the scale of Haihan's salt trade.
At present, tens of thousands of kilograms of salt are sold from here to foreign countries every day. In the ranking of fiscal and tax payments by administrative cities and counties to the Ministry of Finance last year, Yinggehai County ranked third, second only to Sanya City and Haikou City, and even surpassed Danzhou City, which shows the profitability of this place. Strong.
Ironically, most of the residents of Yinggehai County are salt households who moved from various places along the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty. As Haihan Salt has gradually occupied the salt market in these areas in recent years, local salt farms have closed down due to unprofitability. These salt households have made a living from salt production for generations, and it is not easy to switch to other businesses. Haihan launched immigration recruitment activities in these salt fields in a timely manner, recruiting unemployed salt households in batches to Hainan Island to resume their old businesses. With a little training, these skilled workers will be able to operate Haihan's improved seawater salt production process. , which is also one of the main reasons why the Yinggehai Salt Field has been able to develop to its current scale in just a few years.
Liu Shang also felt a little speechless after listening to Luo Shengdong's introduction. Haihan relied on the cheap salt produced on a large scale to defeat the government-run salt farms in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty, and then recruited unemployed salt farmers to his side to further expand the scale of production. In the long run, , the lifeline of the salt industry in the southeastern region of the Ming Dynasty will gradually be controlled by them, and they will not even have a chance to stand up.
If Liu Shang could have a higher perspective, he would find that similar situations are not limited to the salt production industry. Many other technical types of work are also in this process. A large number of technicians and craftsmen with professional skills have been expelled from overseas. The Han Dynasty was recruited to Hainan Island through various methods, and the corresponding production areas of the Ming Dynasty were constantly being weakened without most people noticing.
The main purpose of Luo Shengdong's introduction was to highlight the local industrial development since he took office, and he also listed a large number of figures to highlight his political achievements - he knew very well that what Haihan's senior management valued most was various data, and he was early on in this regard. Be prepared.
After watching the quality inspection process, Luo Shengdong took everyone out to visit the production site, and also gave everyone a general introduction to the local salt production process. Liu Shang was not very interested in the production process of brine production, crystallization, and purification in the salt farm. He was more concerned about the errands he would be assigned at this stop. Because before setting off in the morning, Yu Xiaobao had told him that there might be a preaching event in Yinggehai County today, so he was taking advantage of the visit to recall the manuscript he had memorized before.
The visit to the salt fields lasted until noon. After visiting three salt fields, Luo Shengdong took everyone back to the county seat. However, Yinggehai County is different from Yacheng. There is no traditional Chinese city outline on the periphery, and it is completely an open town. Moreover, there are almost no military facilities in the local area. In Liu Shang's view, it is just an undefended city. But this arrangement seems to be reasonable. The channel in and out of Yinggehai is extremely narrow, and except for a small section of the coastline where docks are built, the rest of the coastline is almost entirely covered with salt fields.
Except for a few forts built next to the entry and exit channels a few years ago, there are basically no other military facilities in the local area, and there is only one company of garrison troops. Local security is mainly maintained by the police and militia. However, the local life is affluent, and Haihan has cleaned up the nearby waters in recent years, so there is actually no big hidden danger in terms of safety.
Needless to say, the sumptuousness of the luncheon was needless to say, but since there were other business matters to be done in the afternoon, Luo Shengdong did not invite everyone to drink. After lunch, Luo Shengdong took everyone to a pre-built venue outside the county town. This was a venue specially prepared for the inspection team to hold propaganda activities.
Liu Shang was arranged to be second in line to give a speech, just behind Xiaobao. Even though he had been performing in teahouses for the past month, he was still a little nervous when encountering such a formal official occasion. Before the show started, I took the time to go through the manuscript again.
It didn’t take long for the audience to arrive one after another. At least half of them were salt merchants, and the other half were made up of local boat operators, salt farm officials and mass representatives. The total number of people was only sixty or seventy, and Luo Shengdong had prepared a list in advance and notified them. Liu Shang calmed down a little when he saw that there were not too many people.
Seeing that the audience was almost seated, Yu Xiaobao and Luo Shengdong walked to the front together, and Luo Shengdong introduced to the audience the identities of Yu Xiaobao and his party and the purpose of coming here to preach. People who had heard of Yu Xiaobao's name immediately took the lead in applauding, hoping to leave a good impression on this rising star in Haihan's officialdom. If you don’t know this person, please quickly ask each other about his background.
In fact, it is very simple to introduce Yu Xiaobao's status. The position of chief officer of the Youth League is enough. Not only Haihan citizens, but also foreign merchants who often come to Hainan Island also know that the Haihan Youth League is almost equivalent to a reserve team of young officials, and the officials who manage this reserve team have such a high status that The great influence is self-evident. It is difficult to get in touch with such a big man, so everyone naturally braced themselves to listen to the next lecture.
Yu Xiaobao's speech did not have very specific content. It mainly conveyed to the audience some of the recent major policies of the Executive Committee, such as further increasing the development of agricultural projects in Hainan Island and the South China Sea colonies, increasing maritime transport capacity, and strengthening cooperation with neighboring countries. maritime security cooperation, etc. These issues do not have much practical significance for people who are not so politically sensitive, but those who are more flexible can understand some of Haihan's latest political trends and whether they contain any information that can be exploited. business opportunities, that is a matter of benevolence and wisdom.
After Yu Xiaobao finished speaking, it was finally Liu Shang's turn to perform. When the matter came to an end, Liu Shang was not so nervous anymore. The audience present now actually looked not much different from the tea guests at Xinlong Teahouse, except that the script he was going to talk about at the moment was changed. Although the content of this book is a bit boring, Liu Shang believes that he should be able to finish the content relatively smoothly.
Liu Shang went up to the podium, clasped his fists towards the audience and said, "I have just listened to Director Yu's speech. I think you will all feel that it has benefited a lot. I would like to give you some detailed explanations on the topic that Director Yu just talked about." Explanation, please listen carefully." Liu Shang was out of habit and almost reached out to touch the non-existent Xingmu after finishing speaking, but he reacted in time, cleared his throat and started talking. The document that Yu Xiaobao handed over to him contains a lot of guidance for business operators, and it can be said to be very detailed and specific. It just doesn't clearly explain where to go and what business to make money. . But for businessmen with a certain degree of economic acumen, this level of reminder is enough for them to understand the spirit.
This manuscript does not require Liu Shang to interpret it in the form of a storyteller, and he does not need to work hard and add drama to it. However, using his basic storytelling skills to preach, his words will naturally be much smoother than those of an untrained person. Yu Xiaobao was sitting in the first row of the audience watching his performance. He was secretly glad that he was lucky enough to temporarily choose someone to take his place. This replacement seemed to be more powerful than the original candidate, and the whole speech was unscripted. It can be seen that this person's brain is really good. Since he is on top of this errand, there is no need to worry about anything going wrong in the next few stops.
Liu Shang didn't know that Yu Xiaobao had already given him such a high evaluation in his heart. He just wanted to try his best to complete this task properly and not give Yu Xiaobao or Zhang Qianzhi a chance to find fault.
It took Liu Shang about two sticks of incense to finish the manuscript. He bowed slightly to the audience and then withdrew. He felt that his mouth was dry after a long absence, and he was secretly worried about whether the effect of the preaching could meet the requirements of the Haihan people. When he finished speaking, there was not as warm applause as when Yu Xiaobao finished speaking, but this is understandable. After all, the identity of this "publicity officer" is like a passerby compared to Yu Xiaobao. If the audience reacted enthusiastically, it would be more It will look weird.
While he was feeling uneasy, he vaguely felt eyes watching him from beside him. When he looked sideways, it was Yu Xiaobao who nodded slightly towards him in confirmation, and then he felt relieved. It seems that the boss is quite satisfied with his performance just now. Now he shouldn't have to worry about being dismissed due to unqualified performance.
But in this case, I am afraid that this errand will have to follow Yu Xiaobao around Hainan Island before returning to Sanya. With the current progress, it will take at least half a month to complete this circle. I can only pray that Liao Yuan is in Sanya. Don’t drive yourself crazy waiting for yourself to show up. If something happens to Liao Yuan, he might be thrown directly into jail after returning to Sanya.
Despite such a big risk, Liu Shang believes that this trip is still worth trying. Although he has only made two stops so far, the level of information he has come into contact with is far beyond what an ordinary latent identity can achieve, and for the emerging regime of Haihan understanding, and a more comprehensive and in-depth image is constructed from this information. Liu Shang believed that if he could complete this errand, he would not only have a chance to be appreciated by senior officials of Haihan, but the value of the information collected would far exceed what he had obtained in the past few years. Even if the superiors arrange for ten or hundreds of people to lurk in Hainan Island, they may not be able to achieve as much gain as the mission at hand.
Liu Shang was thinking about his own concerns, but the lecture activity on the stage did not end there. In addition to the economic and trade topics he lectured on, there were also special personnel responsible for preaching on security, culture, education, and medical and health topics. After the lecture by Yu Xiaobao and his party, Luo Shengdong came to the stage again and expressed his loyalty in front of everyone, saying that he would follow the instructions of the executive committee and continue to properly handle the government affairs of Yinggehai County. So much.
After the speech was over, Luo Shengdong announced that the meeting was adjourned, but many people in the audience stayed. Some people were planning to ask questions that they were interested in during the lecture, while others were planning to get acquainted in the name of asking questions. Yu Xiaobao et al. So Yu Xiaobao held a small seminar on the spot. Once the chatter started, he couldn't stop it. Everyone continued to discuss it in the open-air venue until nightfall. If Luo Shengdong had not spoken out to end the discussion, everyone would probably have lit up the torch and continued talking.
There were many wealthy salt merchants among the people present, and they were eager to entertain Yu Xiaobao and his party for dinner. But in the end, no one could beat Luo Shengdong for this qualification. Because the inspection team will leave Yinggehai early tomorrow morning, Luo Shengdong's reasons are also very good - the meal at noon is to catch the wind, and the meal in the evening is to practice it. .
As expected, Yu Xiaobao praised Liu Shang's performance during the banquet and said that he would continue to leave the preaching work for the next few stops to him. Liu Shang was overjoyed and quickly thanked Xiaobao.
Early the next morning, Luo Shengdong arrived at the guest house early and took everyone to the dock to board the ship. His attitude was quite correct. Yu Xiaobao had already understood his demands, and when they parted, he said that after returning to Sanya, he would personally explain the situation to Tao Donglai and Bai Kesi, and submit an application for them to expand the use of steam engines in the Yinggehai Salt Field.
Because we set off earlier, we didn’t encounter traffic jams at the channel entering and exiting the harbor when we left Yinggehai. It is about 50 nautical miles from the Yinggehai Salt Field to the next destination of Changhua County. For this ship, it will take more than half a day to arrive, but Liu Shang is worried that he will bump into Zhang Qianzhi while wandering around on the ship. , that day, he simply locked himself in the cabin and fell asleep, only going out to eat something at noon.
However, Liu Shang's worries are a bit unnecessary. Zhang Qianzhi doesn't have that much energy to focus on him. The Ministry of Security has arranged agencies and manpower in each county. He also had contact with local security personnel during previous visits. . Although these places are not under his jurisdiction, with his status and authority, he can still intervene in local security affairs.
Haihan's security work is loose on the outside and tight on the inside. Although the security department has a poor reputation externally, the operation of this department has never stopped. Haihan has mastered many black technologies that are ahead of the entire era, and relied on some of these advanced technologies to establish a country in the South China Sea. There are many forces that covet this from the outside world, and these are all potential opponents of the Ministry of Security. However, Zhang Qianzhi probably could not have imagined that there would be spies lurking in the same boat as him at this time.
(End of chapter)