Chapter 1309 Feeling inferior
These private houses are built according to the standard immigrant village model of Haihan. Although the structure is simple and the area is not large, they are still standard brick houses. They can be protected from wind and rain. They are even better than what most immigrants lived before coming to Haihan. The conditions are even better. Although the new immigrants may not understand and accept Haihan's land policy, few will complain about the poor living environment. The houses with mud walls and thatched roofs used to house immigrants in the early days have now been gradually phased out. Most of the new immigrants arriving in the past two or three years have been assigned to brick and tile resettlement houses. This aspect can also reflect the significant improvement of Haihan's national strength.
Of course, immigrants from relatively well-off families may not necessarily accept such a resettlement environment. After all, the conditions of this kind of free resettlement housing are still relatively simple, and there are no complete supporting facilities. There are also many people who first bought a house somewhere in Hainan Island and then moved here to settle down. Several major cities in Sanya, Haikou and Danzhou have built commercial housing specifically for sales, and the sales volume in recent years has been quite good.
Rich people at a higher level will even apply directly to the government for a piece of homestead land to build their own homes. This special right to use land is naturally expensive, but in order to live more comfortably in Haihan Kingdom, the richest people do not. Will care about this basic expense. For example, wealthy families such as the Li family in Guangdong, the Xu family in Fujian, and the Zheng family in Annan had almost all acquired land in important cities such as Sanya a few years ago and built their own residences.
In order to prevent the gap between the rich and the poor from being too obvious, the relevant departments also have certain restrictions on the area of this kind of homestead, so as to prevent someone from over-expanding and encircling hundreds or even thousands of acres of land in Haihan Kingdom to build a small palace. What should I do if I play?
After seeing this method of resettling immigrants, Liu Shang could only sigh again that it is great to have money. Many of these immigrants who came to Haihan were poor people or war refugees who could not survive in the Ming Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, if they could get such resettlement conditions, how could they not work wholeheartedly for their new owners.
After Liu Shang walked around the farm and village, his biggest feeling was that Haihan was really attentive to introducing and resettling immigrants. He not only provided them with basic living conditions of food, clothing, housing and transportation, but also provided them with jobs. The arrangements are in place. As long as there is a labor force in the entire village, they have their own labor tasks, and there will never be any idlers. Basic needs such as medical care and education are also arranged very carefully by the government. New immigrants do not need to worry about these issues at all, as long as they focus all their energy on work.
Liu Shang also noticed an interesting phenomenon. Not all the immigrants Haihan placed in this kind of farm came from the Ming Dynasty. There were also immigrants from Annan, Champa and other countries, and even Japanese people from the far north. and Koreans, as well as some Kunlun slaves with dark skin and strong bodies. This kind of immigrant village is a complete hodgepodge of various races. It's a shame that Haihan can manage such a village in an orderly manner.
According to Lao Zengtou's introduction, only about half of the villagers here are from the Ming Dynasty. The origins of the others are varied. Liu Shang even saw two blond and blue-eyed Xifan people. However, the first thing these people did when they were assigned to the farm was not to familiarize themselves with Haihan farm tools, but to learn to speak Haihan Mandarin. Although these people are still not fluent in Mandarin, they are sufficient for daily communication.
Seeing that these immigrants from various countries and races were all citizens with Haihan nationality, Liu Shang did not feel any emotion about the unity of the world's nations, but realized that Haihan's population needs were indeed astonishingly large. , I don’t care at all about concepts such as “Those who are not from my race must have different hearts.” As long as they can work hard for Haihan, they will all be included in their pockets.
Whether this situation is a good thing or a bad thing for Haihan, Liu Shang cannot tell with his knowledge, but one thing is that he can be sure of now. These immigrants introduced from various countries will definitely not be as useful as the Ming immigrants. After all, It will take a long time for the barriers in language, culture and living habits to be slowly eliminated. The Ming immigrants, especially the Han people, will definitely integrate into the Han regime of Haihan much faster.
Therefore, Liu Shang came to the conclusion that Haihan continued to push his line of control northward, and had even reached the northern edge of the Ming Dynasty. Such a move could not be summarized by simple trade needs or aggressive ambitions. There was another The reason is probably that Haihan hopes to transport more Han people back from the north to fill the gap in labor demand.
Before Liu Shang came to Hainan Island, he had heard that the Haihan people had extended their tentacles to the Liaodong area last year. Although the Ming Dynasty lost territory there, there were still a large number of Han people living outside the customs, and most of them became slaves of the Hou Jin Dynasty. The Haihan people landed directly on the Liaodong Peninsula from the sea without informing the Ming Dynasty. This move was probably to take more Han people from the local area for their own use. Of course, the risk of war involved in such an action is very high. Probably only a country like Haihan, which relies on its superior force, would go to such a distant place to fight for its population and resources.
As for whether it is effective, you can actually see it on this farm. At the beginning of the year, immigrants from outside the Liaodong Pass have been resettled here one after another. According to Lao Zengtou, these immigrants are all from the Pidao area outside Liaodong. Liu Shang has heard of this place. It is said that it The location is close to North Korea, and it can be regarded as an overseas enclave after the Ming Dynasty lost the Northeast region. However, the imperial court seems to have stopped supplying local soldiers and civilians a long time ago. Presumably, after the Haihan people arrived there, they played tricks such as exchanging food for population.
Although Liu Shang's guess was not entirely correct, it was not far off. Almost all the immigrants from Liaodong brought back from the north before Haihan came from Pi Island. On the one hand, Haihan provided military and material assistance to the local area, and on the other hand, he also sent ships to pick up immigrants from the local area who voluntarily settled in the south. The Phi Island authorities did not stop this, but gave them highly cooperative support, because for the local people, the island's population was so large that there was a state of continuous famine year after year, which made Haihan Taking away some of the people who voluntarily relocated, the pressure on the island's material supply can also be reduced a lot.
Shen Shikui, the governor of Pi Island, not only asked the people on the island to accept Haihan's arrangement and move to the south, but also took the initiative to pick up the refugees from the coastal areas outside the Liaodong Pass. Shen Shikui saw very clearly that the Ming Dynasty was powerless to deal with the suffering of the Han people outside the Pass, and there was no way to save them. Now that Haihan is willing to take the initiative to take in these refugees, this can be said to be their best way out at present.
Shen Shikui's nephew Shen Zhixiang sailed from the southeast of Shandong with the Haihan fleet last winter and spent the winter in Zhoushan, Zhejiang. He had a relatively objective understanding of Haihan's strength. After returning to Pi Island, he seemed to have become Haihan. No matter, Shen Shikui was advised to use Haihan as the standard in everything. Of course, this kind of imitation will also receive the full support of Haihan. Currently, there are Pi Dao officers receiving training in both Shandong and Zhejiang, and these people from Pi Dao are also responsible for supervising the transfer and resettlement of Liaodong refugees. . Qiu Yuan took over and continued to introduce to the inspection team that since Haihan and Dongjiang Town reached a cooperation agreement in November last year, as of the first half of this year, Haikou alone has accepted more than a thousand immigrants from Liaodong. The collective farm they were visiting now housed eight households with a total of more than 30 people. If the immigration plan goes smoothly, Haikou City will receive at least one to two thousand immigrants from Liaodong during the second half of this year.
Qiu Yuan believes that immigrants from Liaodong have relatively strong bodies. After a little physical conditioning in the south, they will all be strong laborers. Therefore, he plans to try his best to place immigrants from Liaodong into production units like farms in the future. Of course, what he meant by mentioning this was that he hoped that after Yu Xiaobao returned, he could help give the Executive Committee some relief and win as many Liaodong immigration quotas as possible for Haikou.
However, after Yu Xiaobao heard his plan, he said something else: "Chief, the quota for immigrants from Liaodong is not easy to change. The Ministry of National Defense keeps a close eye on it. The Liaodong soldiers recruited since last year are already serving in the army. The response is generally good, so the military hopes to recruit more soldiers from Shandong and Liaodong in future expansion. If you want to recruit people to farm, the Ministry of Defense will definitely not get the priority."
Haihan has always enjoyed high priority in recruiting troops. Whether they are workers, farmers, state agency staff, or new immigrants who have just arrived in Haihan and have not obtained nationality, as long as they sign up to join the army, they will definitely be given priority. Anyone Nothing can be stopped. There are many benefits to joining the army, especially for new immigrants. This is almost the fastest way to obtain nationality and national treatment. In addition, the Haihan Army has a high prestige among the people. New immigrants come from their place of origin. Haihan may have been brainwashed on the way and signed up to join the army before he even waited for Sanya. For example, Sun Zhen, a Shandong soldier who had repeatedly made military exploits in the northern war, joined the army while in transit in Penghu.
Qiu Yuan frowned and said: "I can't control the affairs of the Ministry of National Defense. Anyway, I want to get people here first. If the Ministry of National Defense can attract them to join the army, then I have no choice but to admit it."
Liu Shang felt quite unhappy after hearing this conversation. The sources of troops that these high-ranking Haihan officials were talking about were all people of the Ming Dynasty. However, the situation in the Ming Dynasty was not good now. For the Liaodong area that had been occupied by Hou Jin Unable to take care of it, we could only allow the local Han people to be enslaved by wild boar skins. If the imperial court had the spare capacity to provide certain help to the Han people in Liaodong like Haihan, or even recruit soldiers from them and prepare an army to counterattack Liaodong, it might also be able to relieve the defensive pressure on the important towns on the nine sides.
It's a pity that such thoughts can only exist in Liu Shang's mind. He doesn't know whether the reason why the court did not take such measures is political factors or economic problems, but what the Ming Dynasty cannot do, this Haihan on the border of the South China Sea The country is already implementing it. Moreover, people also thought that the migration of Han people from Liaodong was too slow, so that the army could not recruit the required Liaodong soldiers. This was really embarrassing.
It can be said to be a huge irony that the people of the Ming Dynasty still need to rely on the armies of other countries to save them. Liu Shang simply cannot imagine that if the senior officials in the court learn about what Haihan has done in the Liaodong region, what will happen to them? Will your mentality completely explode? Anyway, Liu Shang's own mentality is a bit unbearable. In addition to feeling inferior to Haihan's immigration feat, Liu Shang can't even think of much sabotage now. Because he knew very well that his energy was limited, even if he carried out some sabotage work to slow down Haihan for a while, it would be difficult for Daming to seize this opportunity to regain the already huge disadvantage.
What is the most beneficial choice for Ming Dynasty? This question has been recurring in Liu Shang's mind recently, but he has never come up with a reliable answer. Along the way, he saw with his own eyes too many advanced aspects of Haihan, some of which Ming Dynasty could imitate, and some of which he couldn't figure out at all. However, Liu Shang felt that these visible aspects were not actually the root cause of the gap between the two countries' development status. This confusion made him very painful, and he even began to doubt whether the mission he shouldered was really meaningful.
For an intelligence officer who needs to lurk in an enemy country for a long time, this situation is very dangerous once he is psychologically shaken. Liu Shang had received various special trainings before coming to Haihan. He considered himself to be quite good mentally and his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty was flawless. However, when he really came to Haihan, he saw the customs, customs and society of this emerging country. After the situation, Liu Shang's psychology inevitably underwent subtle changes. From the beginning of his firm belief in his mission, to now he has doubts about the correctness of some of Daming's important decisions. Such thoughts actually violate his professional standards.
Liu Shang actually knew that many of the thoughts in his mind were rebellious, but he couldn't help but think in these aspects. He has realized that it is no longer possible to solve the Haihan regime by means of under-the-table means, and war cannot ensure that the Ming Dynasty can win. The real feasible solution is to let the Ming Dynasty regain its glory as soon as possible and overwhelm the Haihan regime in terms of national strength. At that time, whether it was trade sanctions or military means, Ming Dynasty could at least have some solutions, so that it would not be as helpless as it is now.
The best way is to imitate Haihan, but Haihan's social system cannot be realized in the Ming Dynasty. This is really disappointing. Liu Shang followed the team to complete the inspection of this collective farm in a depressed mood, and the discussion between Qiu Yuan and Yu Xiaobao about immigrants from Liaodong also ended in vain, but Yu Xiaobao still recorded Qiu Yuan's request. As for the executive committee Whether the immigration quota will be adjusted to give Haikou City more northern immigrants is beyond his control.
(End of chapter)