Chapter 1471 Northern Route (4)
The people who could sit in the county government office to interview Zhang Zhixian were all businessmen who had accepted Haihan's conditions and had in-depth cooperation with Haihan. Therefore, although they were a little surprised by Zhang Pucheng's attitude, they would never say anything. be opposed to. After all, everyone's position is similar, and they all want to cling to Haihan's thigh to gain more benefits. However, as a local official, Zhang Pucheng needs to consider the beneficiaries besides himself, but also the local people.
The purpose of Haihan officials bringing these businessmen to meet Zhang Pucheng was to give them another reassurance and to let them experience for themselves how reliable Haihan's business in Shandong was. Although the official in front of him was just a county magistrate and not a big shot, these businessmen were all people who had seen the market and understood how difficult it was for Haihan to achieve such results in Shandong. With the endorsement of the local officials, at least they don't have to worry about their fleet being troubled by the officials during their stay in Shandong.
Because He Li had an elder brother who worked as an aide in the prefect's yamen, his understanding of politics was a little deeper than that of ordinary businessmen, so he had a deeper feeling about it. Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan County, openly sided with Haihan. Either Dengzhou had a similar attitude and acquiesced to his actions, or the higher-level government had completely lost control and influence over Fushan County. , we can only let things happen here, and we dare not change local officials easily in order to maintain the current peaceful situation.
Of course, this peaceful situation is not only due to the restraint of the local officials in Shandong. Haihan obviously has no plans to conduct a large-scale conquest in the local area. He only included Zhifu Island in the military defense zone. Places like Fushan County are still controlled by the local government. . He Li estimated that the Dengzhou Prefecture and even the Chief Envoy of Shandong were happy to see the outcome of this situation, and were unwilling to overly provoke the Haihan people. After all, the Haihan people had always been soft-spoken rather than tough. If they wanted to use military means to drive them away, the local government might not Be able to bear the consequences.
After coming out of the county government office, Fushan County Chief Huang Qu took everyone around the county town again, and finally took them to a restaurant in the county town for lunch. Of course, this meal was definitely not paid for out of his own pocket, Haihan would settle the bill himself. This arrangement was naturally intended to show the southern businessmen the reality that local civil and military officials had surrendered.
Huang Qu is now a casual military attache. All the symbolic guards at the county gate have been withdrawn, so he doesn't need to worry about defense anymore. Following the advice given by the Haihan people, he invested his own money and opened a horse and cart business, specializing in the ore transportation business of the Fushan Copper Mine. Now, not only is he making a lot of money every month, but at least it is better than before. The free pay of the big-headed soldiers is much better. He has now figured it out. The Haihan people are just here to do business. As long as they don't block the way of making money, they won't make it too difficult for him. Since the court didn't say anything, it probably wouldn't hurt to make some extra money by doing business with the Haihan people.
Huang Qu didn't have any objection to the Haihan people arranging for him to come out to receive the southern merchants. This kind of job was not in vain. After the end, he would get a reward for his hard work. Huang Qu had nothing to complain about because he ate and took it. Moreover, this had long been the case. The first batch of merchants from the south were just a routine matter to him.
Since a visit was scheduled in the afternoon, the banquet at noon ended quickly. After taking a short rest in the restaurant, the visiting team left the county and rushed to the next visit location.
As soon as the team left the county town, there was a group of cavalry waiting outside, and then they set off with the motorcade, seemingly serving as a guard. This made everyone a little curious about the place they were going to. The team headed west from the county seat, followed the official road for about ten miles, and then began to turn into the mountainous area.
Seeing that the surrounding environment was becoming more and more desolate, and when everyone began to worry, the entourage explained to them that the place they were about to go to was a copper mine. Of course, the current owner of this copper mine is not the Ming Dynasty government, but the Haihan people who discovered and mined this copper mine. The official road leading to the copper mine was only built after Haihan began to mine the mineral deposits.
He Li remembered that when he met Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan County, he had mentioned that all the local criminals were taken away by the Haihan people to do hard labor in the mines. This must be the place he was talking about. After walking for a while, they finally saw a convoy of horse-drawn carriages transporting supplies running on this road. There were as many as twenty vehicles. Only then did everyone confirm that there was indeed a mine in this mountainous area.
However, when they actually saw the real thing, He Li and others were a little doubtful of the nature of this destination, because it looked more like a military stronghold than the image of mines and pits everywhere. This group of businessmen have been to quite a few places, but they have never seen a mine where the entire area is surrounded by tall barbed wire, with an anti-climbing device on top. The accompanying officer explained that this was to prevent criminals serving in the mine from escaping.
He Li and others thought that this was just a big prison, right? To put it more seriously, this means that the Haihan people set up private prisons in Shandong to imprison and arrest the people of the Ming Dynasty. This means that the local officials are pretending to be deaf and dumb. If they take it seriously, this can be regarded as the crime of Haihan's invasion of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, it is not difficult to think that the Haihan people must have troops stationed here, and the use of force is an option that the local government should try to avoid, so although this kind of thing is unreasonable, it still happened here.
The accompanying officer briefly introduced to them the battle in which the Dengzhou garrison raided the mines in 1634. In order to save the face of the Ming army in front of these people, the officer simply called it "repelling the Ming army's offensive" in an understatement. In exchange for the peace that this place enjoys today. He said it easily, but the audience could imagine that the matter was not as simple as he said. It is estimated that the Dengzhou army suffered a lot, so they could not even think of revenge and could only acquiesce to Haihan. occupation of this copper mine.
Then everyone got off the car at the gate and entered the mine to visit. Haihan has been mining this copper mine for nearly two years. Some steam equipment with relatively simple maintenance, such as ore conveyor belts, stone crushers, steam trains, etc., have also begun to be gradually put into use in the mine. After He Li and others saw these things, they finally understood why Haihan sent a large amount of coal to Fushan County by sea. The purpose was to use these mining machines to improve mining efficiency. After they saw it, they knew that these steel beasts could only be played by the Haihan people, and it seemed unrealistic to expect them to be introduced to the Ming Dynasty.
As for the so-called hard labor of criminals, He Li and others knew at a glance that there was something wrong with it, because there could not be so many young people in any county-level prison, and not even two elderly people could be seen. If you use your brain a little, you will be able to figure out that these people will definitely not all be fished out of the prisons in Fushan County. As expected by He Li and others, these hard laborers, in addition to coming from the prisons of Fushan County, were mostly bandits and bandits captured in previous battles and prisoners of the Ming army. As for those who are older and in poor health, they have basically died of exhaustion and illness in the mines. The remaining people who can persevere are naturally young and strong. Of course, the officer who led them to visit this place would definitely not tell the truth about this cruel truth.
Of course, these hard labors were not the main purpose of Haihan's arrangement for them to visit this place. He just wanted to use this trip to make these southern businessmen realize that Haihan had enough profitable projects in Shandong to support the development of this colony, and this kind of trip Sustainable development will also bring more transportation tasks and profit-making opportunities to these partners. As for how to seize these opportunities, it depends on each person's ability to comprehend and act. Haihan has given opportunities, but only those who are prepared can seize them.
After visiting the copper ingot warehouse of the mine, the merchants all roughly understood why Haihan sent troops to garrison here. This was not only to guard the hard laborers, but more importantly, to protect these valuable precious metals. He Li even had a very malicious idea in his mind. With Haihan's craftsmanship, if copper coins were cast to impact the Ming Dynasty's money market, the power might be greater than the armed offensive of the army.
Of course, Haihan will definitely not use precious copper on such a boring project as coining money. The development of industry requires a large amount of copper as raw material. Even if the output of all the copper mines under Haihan's current rule is added together, It is far from enough to meet the demand. And for industrial manufacturing and production, such a use is obviously not something that businessmen like He Li can understand, so the military accompanying personnel did not mention the whereabouts and use of these copper ingots at all.
After visiting the copper mine, He Li saw that it was getting late and thought that Haihan would arrange to stay at the mine, but he never thought that there would be arrangements for the next stop. The officer leading the team said: "Due to time constraints, we have only arranged one day for you to visit, so we can only suffer the hardship and have to go to the last place."
Everyone said they didn't dare, but Haihan was willing to organize them to visit around. This in itself was a great trust. These businessmen were well-informed and knowledgeable people, so naturally they would not make the organizers feel embarrassed. Besides, they were also really curious about what kind of place the other party was planning to arrange for them to visit as the last local stop.
Everyone got out of the mine and got on the carriage, and after a lot of bumps, they arrived at a seemingly prosperous town. Looking at the carriages, sedan chairs, and pedestrians going in and out of the town, He Li felt that this place seemed to be more lively than the county seat he had visited in the morning.
The entourage introduced to everyone: "This is Majiazhuang, which is currently the largest trade distribution center in Fushan County. It is also our country's trade window in Shandong. As you can see, the floating population here is mainly caravans from other places, Shandong There are stores in all states. They bring special products from all over Shandong and exchange them here for gold and silver, or various goods produced in my country. I can say without exaggeration that the trade volume here is even greater than that of Dengzhou City. Much larger, there may still be a gap between the trade scale of Jinan Prefecture, but it will probably be a matter of time before we catch up.”
Naturally, everyone had never heard of a place like Majiazhuang, but the sight in front of them convinced them that Haihan had created an exclusive trading center here. Judging from the prosperity here, the introduction I just heard is probably not false. The situation Haihan has managed here is obviously more clever than the government. Even if this place is not making money every day, its prospects are not. Estimate. And from the fact that so many caravans appeared here, it can be inferred that the Shandong government has obviously turned a blind eye to the existence here. Maybe it is the same as in Zhejiang, with many senior officials mobilizing their personal relationships and through This semi-open smuggling trade with Haihan to make a lot of money.
This kind of operation is almost the norm in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty where Haihan has penetrated. Any officials with some real power in their hands are happy to use their power to exchange some practical benefits from the Haihan people. Moreover, Haihan people will arrange the most reasonable channels for conveying benefits, so that the process will not be too superficial and straightforward for people to easily catch. After years of repeated practice in many places, this set of operation methods has been extremely perfected in detail. There will not be too many obstacles when used in Shandong. At most, it will take a longer time to open the joints.
Ma Dongqiang, the owner of Majiazhuang, personally greeted these guests. Just like the reception method of Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan, Majiazhuang has welcomed more than this group of visitors. Ma Dongqiang has also already had a set of words to let these southern businessmen fully feel the influence of Haihan in the local area. It didn't take He Li and others a moment to understand that Ma Dongqiang's identity was the spokesperson for the local interests supported by Haihan. It is said that Haihan called this kind of people the "comprador class", but few people understood the meaning of this term.
Ma Dongqiang took them to visit some shops in this town to let them understand the local business conditions of merchants. At the same time, he said that if they were interested, they could also invest in opening local shops to sell goods from the north and south. At that moment, several people were moved, but He Li kept his composure, thinking that even if he wanted to invest in the north, he would have to go to Liaodong to see the local conditions before making a decision. This Majiazhuang looks pretty good, but its location is already outside the Haihan Military Defense Zone. What if one day the imperial court changes to a fool and comes to Shandong as a high official, and directly raises troops to overthrow the stalls here.
Ma Dongqiang did not have any intention of attracting a few businessmen to settle down locally. He just showed these businessmen the local construction results and informed them of some of the trade policies Haihan implemented locally. As for whether he wants to spend money on business in Fushan County, Ma Dongqiang will not be too fussy.
Everyone wandered around the town until nightfall, and then Ma Dongqiang hosted the visiting group at the largest restaurant in town.
(End of chapter)