Chapter 1307 Balance Point
Although he arrived at the port in the middle of the night, the port was not completely dark. Liu Shang was surprised to find that there was a dock that operated all night, and many workers were still loading and unloading goods from the ship under the lighting of torches and lanterns. He had only seen such a busy port scene in Sanya before. Zhang Qianzhi said that this is the normal situation in Haikou Port, which shows that the trade prosperity here is probably not much worse than that in Sanya.
Naturally, there is no need to expect the local chief executive to come to the dock to greet them at this time, but the corresponding reception work has been arranged in advance. After disembarking from the ship, someone will take them to the government-run guest house located in the former Qiongzhou City. This place was originally a private residence for officials, but the original owner "missed" when Haihan took over the place a few years ago. After the confiscation, the house was converted into an official guest house, specially used to receive Haihan. Han officials and visiting foreign envoys.
This guest house has four courtyards, and the inspection team was concentrated in one of the courtyards. Although it was already midnight, the guest house quickly provided them with supper and hot water, and the service level was not bad. Liu Shang has now learned to judge the prosperity of a region from the environment of the local guest house. Judging from the living environment here and the furniture, bedding, and decoration levels in the rooms, the economic situation in Haikou is obviously not bad, and may be better than before Danzhou, which I have just been to, is even better.
But it makes sense when you think about it. After all, this used to be the capital of Qiongzhou Island. The political and economic center of the island had a much better foundation than other areas on the island. To operate a new city on the basis of the original Qiongzhou capital city, the starting point is naturally higher than that of other places. Moreover, there is only the Qiongzhou Strait, which is ten nautical miles wide, between this place and the mainland. It is the closest city to the Ming Dynasty on this island, and has a unique geographical advantage in trading with the Ming Dynasty. With Haihan's management level, it is not difficult to turn this place into a prosperous trading port.
There was nothing to say all night, but early the next morning, the local chief executive Qiu Yuan took the initiative to come to the guest house and meet with the inspection team.
Qiu Yuan can be regarded as someone who started his career relatively early in the Cross Travel Group. He was the person in charge of commercial affairs in the Yazhou Working Group, Haihan's first overseas agency. Later, he was transferred back to Sanya and served as the director of the Shengli Port Management Committee for a period of time. After that, he was assigned to Qiongbei and became the person in charge of the Haikou area.
Qiu Yuan is only thirty-four or five years old now. He is in the prime of life and is already a high-ranking member of the party. He has rich experience in governing. Many people believe that he will be one of the strong contenders to join the executive committee in the future. Since he took control of Haikou, the changes and development of this area have indeed been obvious. Not only has the cargo throughput and trade volume increased significantly, but the local population size and infrastructure level have also increased with the tide, which has been greatly improved compared to the Ming Dynasty. .
Of course, these words were very unpleasant to Liu Shang's ears. After the Haihan people took over this place, they did better than the Ming Dynasty. Doesn't this mean that the Haihan people's governance ability is better than that of the Ming Dynasty? Even so, Liu Shang would never agree with Haihan's approach as an invader and occupying territory that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty. For the Ming Dynasty, these Haihan people are not good people who save the people of Dawn, but real bandits. No matter what achievements they have made here, they cannot change the nature of their invasion of the Ming Dynasty.
However, the Haihan people obviously did not care too much about the attitude of the Ming Dynasty. What this group of people care about is to continuously expand the scope of activities, increase the scale of trade, and earn more wealth from import and export trade, so as to build the country they control. areas, and attracted more immigrants to move to these areas where life was stable and prosperous under the rule of Haihan. The government in the south of the Ming Dynasty obviously had no effective means of curbing these intentions of the Haihan people. They could only watch helplessly as they continued to suck blood from the Ming Dynasty through trade and population migration after taking over Hainan Island.
"According to statistics from the Haikou Immigration Bureau, the number of immigrants entering from the local area in the first half of this year reached more than 14,000, and the registered population increased by more than 6,000, a slight increase compared with the same period last year. However, the labor gap in Haikou is still Obviously, the demand for at least 2,000 laborers in Haikou Port and Qiongbei Military Port on the west coast alone cannot be met, so I hope that the Ministry of Civil Affairs can give a certain preference to the immigration quota applied by Haikou City. Fill this labor gap as soon as possible.”
After Qiu Yuan briefly explained the local population changes, he changed the topic and made a request. However, of course, Yu Xiaobao could not be expected to make a decision on this matter. Qiu Yuan only asked him to play a role in passing on the news.
When Liu Shang heard this, he secretly thought that along the way, except for the Shilu Mine, which used a large number of prisoners as labor force, officials in almost every place claimed that the demand for labor was not being met, and Haihan One of the main purposes of manufacturing and promoting the use of steam engines in large quantities at all costs is to make up for the lack of manpower. From this point of view, Haihan's population demand is indeed a shortcoming that restricts its development speed. If some articles can be written in this area, it may be able to inhibit Haihan's development slightly.
In Haikou alone, more than 10,000 immigrants have entered the country in half a year. Presumably, Sanya, as the largest immigration entrance to Haihan, will absorb even more immigrants during this period. This does not include the immigrants absorbed by the coastal areas controlled by Haihan in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places. A rough estimate shows that Haihan absorbs at least tens of thousands of immigrants from Daming every year and migrates overseas. This number is quite large.
However, if the southern coastal areas were to completely ban nationals from migrating overseas, the movement would definitely be huge, and it would not be difficult for Haihan to realize who this measure was aimed at. If they break up for this, then Ming will have to face the threat of war, and then there will be a risk that the gains outweigh the losses. Therefore, if the method is too simple and crude, it may lead to direct revenge from Haihan, which may be a blow that the current Ming Dynasty cannot bear.
But if not, how can we curb the outflow of people from the south to Haihan? Most of the people who emigrated from the Ming Dynasty were attracted and organized by Haihan's immigration recruitment activities. Can the current Ming Dynasty provide the stability and prosperity they yearn for? Liu Shang is not optimistic. At least in the towns under Haihan he visited, the public security is far better than the Ming cities he knows, and you will never see beggars on the streets. It seems that in Haihan There is no room for idlers to survive.
The income level of the citizens of Haihan is indeed higher than that of the Ming Dynasty, especially the various craftsmen with special skills. There are many people who are successful in Haihan by virtue of their craftsmanship. For example, Liu Shang heard that Zhang Qianzhi's father, Zhang Tiangui, was just an old shipwright before coming to Haihan, but now he is a master figure in the Haihan shipbuilding industry. All of them have obtained official status. Zhang Qianzhi is just his youngest son, and now he has become an influential young official in Haihan. Imagine if his family had not moved to Haihan, Zhang Qianzhi might still be working as a carpenter in a shipbuilding workshop at this time. How could it be as majestic as it is now. For those with skills, moving to Haihan will not only provide them with a better income, but also provide them with more opportunities to use their expertise. They can even become officials based on their skills. This level of remuneration makes it difficult to resist the temptation. . Even the storyteller Liu Shang used to hide his identity could be recruited into the officialdom. What else is impossible?
Daming will definitely not be able to copy the benefits given by Haihan. It seems to be quite difficult to retain Daming's professional talents with favorable conditions. Moreover, this kind of policy-level matter is simply not something Liu Shang can make a difference in. Even if he reports the situation he knows to his superiors, the big shots above may not be willing to follow his suggestions to formulate new population management. policy. Even if it is formulated, it may not be implemented smoothly at the local level. After all, the southern coastal areas have been severely penetrated by Haihan, and the vested interests may not want Haihan's expansion to be hindered. Their interests were tied too deeply and tightly to Haihan's, and they could no longer be easily changed by imperial decree.
The more Liu Shang thought about it, the more headache he felt. The situation Haihan had created in the south was too big. From his perspective, he couldn't think of any effective solution. At this time, Yu Xiaobao and Qiu Yuan were still discussing how to recruit immigrants from the Ming Dynasty more efficiently, which made Liu Shang feel even more irritable after hearing this.
Yu Xiaobao said: "Chief, the biggest employment gap here is the labor force. There are not many requirements for personal labor skills. This application should be easier to pass. In the second half of the year, a batch of immigrants will be shipped back from the north. It’s at least five digits, so keep an eye on it.”
Qiu Yuan snorted and said, "If it were that easy to grab, I wouldn't have mentioned it to you specifically. The northern immigrants transported back from Shandong were so popular that they were intercepted by Zhoushan, Penghu, and Hong Kong along the way. There aren't many left in Hainan Island. We have to compete with other cities and counties for heads... Do you think people like Zhang Xin and Qiao Zhiya will just watch and take action? If I move slower, I might not even be able to drink the soup. One bite! ”
Qiu Yuan's identity is different, so it's not a big deal to complain about his colleagues, but Xiaobao doesn't dare to pick up on his words. It's okay to talk in private, but now there are a group of subordinates present, and if he also casually echoes a few words, it will be a big deal. There is no better or worse performance.
However, Yu Xiaobao had to admit that Qiu Yuan's complaints were somewhat justified. Haihan's demand for population is still very large. Various cities and counties have a large number of agricultural projects and infrastructure projects that require labor force, and they are recruited from the outside every year. The immigrant population cannot fully meet the demand. In particular, immigrants from the Ming Dynasty who share the same ancestors as Haihan can integrate into Haihan society more quickly because there is no cultural barrier. Therefore, they are also an important resource that local governors compete for.
The number of immigrants recruited from Ming Dynasty every year is limited, so who gets more and who gets less is not just a matter of reporting to the executive committee. For the sake of their own governance performance, local officials will make every effort to recruit them. Policy preferences of relevant departments. This kind of competition is not limited to the field of professional talents. The general labor force is also a hot resource. Qiu Yuan spends a lot of energy in this area every year, and he does not dare to slack off. If he doesn't work hard here, other local officials may not stop. When the immigration quota is reduced, there will be no place to cry.
This kind of game situation is also an objective manifestation of the internal competition in the Haihan officialdom. Local officials all hope to pave the way for their official careers by creating political achievements, and trying to obtain more resources will undoubtedly help their jurisdictions. of construction. The most troublesome thing about this situation is actually the Executive Committee. Although nominally the immigration allocation plans are drawn up by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and discussed and issued by the Executive Committee, in actual operation, local officials from all over the country will find ways to complain to the Executive Committee. , hoping to secure more quotas for his jurisdiction. These overt and covert public relations activities will still affect the final decision-making of the Executive Committee to some extent, but they will inevitably be criticized and complained about. After all, the total resources are limited, and no matter how they are allocated, it is impossible to satisfy everyone.
How to grasp the balance between the development speed and resource allocation of each region is a subject that will test the executive committee's governance ability. However, so far, the performance of the Executive Committee in this area can only be described as unsatisfactory, but local officials still have many complaints in private. Yu Xiaobao has actually heard complaints like Qiu Yuan's in other places more or less, but from his standpoint he certainly cannot express his position on this, otherwise it will easily be interpreted as the attitude of the executive committee.
In response to Qiu Yuan's grievances, Yu Xiaobao could only persuade him kindly: "Chief, the immigration quota at Victory Fort is also adjusted every year. Chief Tao also said that the palms and backs of the hands are full of flesh, and no matter who is wronged, No. I think this balance is not easy to grasp. The top priority is to open up the country and think about how to introduce more immigrants from other countries.”
Qiu Yuan snorted and said: "If you ask me to say that fighting is the fastest, think about it. Every time we fight a big war, we will usher in a wave of immigration population growth. The minimum is thousands, and the number is several. Tens of thousands of people, each city and county can get some benefits. The Leizhou Peninsula on the other side of the strait has a population of tens of thousands. You said it would be great if it were directly merged into Haihan and moved some people to Hainan Island. Haikou City is the closest and can receive it. There is no pressure for thousands of people.”
Liu Shang was shocked when he heard this. He originally thought that Qiu Yuan was gentle and seemed to be a good talker, but he didn't expect that this man was very ambitious and had already set his sights on the Ming Dynasty territory across the strait.
(End of chapter)