Chapter 1547 Semi-colony
In fact, on the route between Fujian and Zhejiang, Haihan can deploy a lot of maritime transport capacity. Not counting the self-employed individuals like the "Diego", the transport capacity of several officially designated carriers alone is It is enough to support the long-distance freight demand in this sea area. Haihan Shipping Department's own maritime transportation capacity has been allocated more to the northern route to complete more important and even arduous transportation tasks.
However, preparing for a rainy day has always been one of the guiding principles of the Ministry of Shipping. This department will never wait until there is a serious shortage of shipping capacity before starting to think of solutions. Instead, it will leave sufficient margin in advance to prevent unexpected needs. Although the cargo terminal belonging to the salt farm in Xiangshan is not large in scale and its transportation capacity requirements will be relatively stable after it is put into operation, the shipping department will still prepare some additional transportation capacity, such as cargo ships like the "Diego" whose shipping schedules are not fixed. Although the "Diego" can only be included in the supernumerary list due to nationality issues, due to its large cargo capacity and relatively fast speed, the Ministry of Shipping will still assign some transportation tasks to the Portuguese as appropriate.
However, after leaving Xiangshan this time, the "Diego" will go all the way north to Zhifu Port, Shandong. It may receive new tasks there and go all the way north to Liaodong. It will be at least a month or two before we pass by Xiangshan after returning from the south. Therefore, if Yang Yun agrees to his request now, it will not be fulfilled immediately. It is just a verbal agreement between the two parties.
"So all the cement shipped from Kaohsiung Port will be used to build saltworks?" Ribas still refused to let go of the use of cement, and he must break the casserole and ask the question.
Yang Yun hesitated for a moment, but decided to answer his question frankly: "Most of the cement will be used to build saltworks facilities, and some cement may also be used on the dock. You ask this because you want to buy it from us. Walk some?”
When Ribas affirmed this, Yang Yun unceremoniously rejected his request: "As you know, this batch of cement was urgently allocated from Kaohsiung, and the quantity is far from enough to meet the local projects. Demand, there is no way to sell it to you. Besides, you are at sea all year round, why buy cement?”
Only then did Ribas clarify his intentions to Yang Yun. It turned out that he had already planned to prepare a residence for himself in the Zhoushan Islands and was planning to build a house by himself. Although there are many inns and hotels in Zhoushan, and there are also good-quality places, the golden nest and silver nest are not as good as one's own doghouse after all. Foreign businessmen like Ribas, who travel to the waters of Jiangsu and Zhejiang all year round, are naturally more willing to spend some money for themselves. Arrange a place to stay here.
Ribas has been affiliated with Haihan in the past few years and has made a lot of money in the shipping business. He is also very familiar with Haihan officials in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, so settling in Zhoushan will not be a big obstacle. He also wants to be able to use some building materials produced by Haihan, and it is even better to hire Haihan to design and construct it on his behalf. He was also very interested in the villa built by the Haihan people, but the cost of building it was extremely high. After hearing the quotation, he could only think about it. But if we can organize our own construction team to break ground, then Haihan will not be too restrictive. At worst, we can just apply for commercial land.
However, Yang Yun had seen many businessmen with a mentality similar to Ribas' before. Any businessman who has had long-term cooperation with Haihan will, at a certain period of time, begin to have the idea of imitating the lifestyle of Haihan’s upper class. Building a villa according to Haihan’s living model is the most convenient way to achieve this. . Of course, the cost of this kind of imitation is not low at all. If you want to use things produced by Shanghai Han in all aspects of your life and enjoy the same level of treatment as those who travel through time, the cost is beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The technology for making cement is not too complicated, but at least this technology has not been leaked yet, so this thing is still a rare commodity. Ribas also knew that the houses built by Haihan officials would use cement as building materials. This time he shipped so much cement on his ship that he naturally wanted to deduct part of it by ordering it and then use it for himself when building a house in Zhoushan. However, the Xiangshan Salt Farm is a key project that must be implemented as soon as possible for Haihan. Naturally, important building materials such as cement will not be distributed to others at this juncture.
Naturally, Ribas couldn't come up with any conditions to bargain with Yang Yun. After being rejected, he could only accept the result. However, he couldn't unload the cement on his ship before dark, so he had to stay here for one night. Of course, this was not a difficult task for Ribas, who was out all year round. He asked the crew to take the tent from the ship, set up a small camp on the dock, and then make a fire to cook. Although the craftsmanship is average, the ingredients fished out of the sea are really fresh and basically don't require much seasoning. The crew members also enjoy eating them.
There was nothing to say that night. The next morning, the "Diego" completed its unloading task at Xiangshan Port, picked up several passengers heading for Zhoushan, and then set off for Dinghai Port. The original route was to sail directly to Shandong, but Ribas didn't want to miss the supply station at Dinghai Port. What's more, the passengers from the Xiangshan Merchant Ship were also employees of various government departments in Haihan. Ribas happened to take advantage of it. For this reason, go to Dinghaiport to check the situation, maybe you will get some unexpected gains.
But Captain Ribas didn't get any adventures in Dinghai Port, and he didn't even see Shi Diwen. This was not because Shi Diwen was a big name and didn't want to meet with little people, but because he went to Hangzhou to personally support the three new weaving workshops on the banks of the Qiantang River.
It is a very worrying thing for many people that a high-ranking Haihan official like Shi Diwen left his station in Zhoushan for Hangzhou. If Shi Diwen has any safety problems in Ming Dynasty, it will definitely be Ming Dynasty's responsibility. Therefore, in order to ensure nothing goes wrong, the Hangzhou government specially allocated 200 sergeants and 20 policemen to protect Shi Diwen around the clock.
After arriving in Hangzhou, Shi Diwen did not rush into the city. Instead, he first went to see the progress of several weaving workshops under construction. After eliminating the resistance from local officials, the three construction sites have been basically completed, and it is estimated that the preliminary construction work will be completed in more than a month.
Shi Diwen's arrival was not silent, and naturally some people in Hangzhou's official circles were alerted to the news. Wang Yuan, the general judge, rushed to the construction site outside the city as quickly as possible to meet Shi Diwen. However, in order to keep a low profile, Wang Yuan did not use his own ceremonial guard and did not even wear official uniforms. People who did not know him would not be able to tell that this middle-aged man coming out of the sedan was a senior official in charge of local criminal proceedings. .
Wang Yuan is the nominal founder of these three workshops. It is a rare opportunity to establish his presence in front of Shi Diwen, so he will not let it go. Although he went out of the city in low-key disguise, he was no longer so low-key after meeting Shi Diwen. Wang Yuan unceremoniously attributed the smooth progress of the construction to his good command and proper scheduling. He is not worried that his attitude will make Shi Diwen feel uncomfortable, because the division of labor between the two parties in this cooperation project is very clear. Haihan will provide these workshops with more advanced looms and textile technology, and the workshop’s The construction process and daily operations in the future are all matters that Wang Yuanlai will be responsible for. Wang Yuan was not touting himself to take credit, but just to let Shi Diwen understand that he was more committed to this project than anyone else.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Wang. There hasn't been any noise from the prefect recently, right?" Shi Diwen asked.
"Prefect He has been a lot quieter recently. It seems that he is still worried about what happened last time." Wang Yuan responded proudly. He immediately realized that this was Shi Diwen's deliberate reminder to him that part of the reason why he could stabilize this project and prevent He Guanzhi, the prefect of Hangzhou, from messing around was partly due to Haihan's prestige. Otherwise, even if the group of retired water bandits sent by He Guanzhi could not destroy these workshops, they would still be enough to cause a big trouble for Wang Yuan.
"This is also thanks to the support given by your country, otherwise Governor He probably wouldn't have stopped so easily." Wang Yuan quickly added, responding to Shi Diwen's question. Shi Diwen said: "It's not necessarily that he has stopped, he's just afraid. But I've already said hello to him, so there shouldn't be any more problems. But those people from the Third Division, will they come to trouble you?" ”
The three departments that Shi Diwen mentioned are the Zhejiang Chengxuan Administration Department, the Punishment and Prosecution Department, and the Capital Command Department. These yamen are all located in Hangzhou City. If you knew that Wang Yuan had such a name, A piece of fat may be swarmed by everyone. Therefore, Shi Diwen must find out as soon as possible whether there is anyone else in the city who is having trouble with Wang Yuan.
"Not really at the moment. General Lao Shi came to help last time. People from all the yamen must have received the news. As long as they weigh their own weight, they will know that they can't afford to offend." Wang Yuan quickly responded respectfully, saying that before The excitement gradually subsided.
Shi Diwen sneered secretly when he saw this. He understood that Wang Yuan's previous attitude was just to make him trust him, but Shi Diwen still felt that to deal with Ming officials, he had to firmly suppress the opponent. After repeatedly irritating Wang Yuan, the other party's tone became much more restrained.
Shi Diwen continued: "I came to Hangzhou this time to inspect the weaving workshop, and there is another important thing. I hope Mr. Wang can arrange it as soon as possible for me to meet with the Chief Envoy of Zhejiang."
Wang Yuan and Zhejiang Chief Minister Wang Ji have some relationship within the clan, but this relationship is not big enough for Wang Ji to sell favors. Even if it is such a trivial matter as arranging a meeting, Wang Yuan may not do it. It can be done.
"I would like to ask, what is the reason why General Shi requested to meet with the Chief Envoy?" Wang Yuan was still more cautious, worried that Shi Diwen had violated the rules.
Shi Diwen smiled and said: "The reason? Of course it's business. Mr. Wang must also know that the two countries are about to establish diplomatic relations. Wouldn't it be troublesome to distinguish between the Ming people and the Han people?"
Wang Yuan gritted his teeth and said: "I can only try my best to see if I can get the Chief Envoy to agree to meet. There is no guarantee of success."
Shi Diwen warned: "Just say that this meeting is closely related to the future development of Zhejiang and should not be missed. If the chief minister is still hesitant, you can hint to him that there will be practical benefits."
Wang Yuan knew very well what the actual benefits meant. He had bowed his head under this kind of offensive. As for whether this method will work well for Wang Ji, Wang Yuan feels relatively optimistic. After all, Wang Ji had also obtained some benefits from the trade between the two countries through explicit or covert means in the past year or so, but it was not Haihan's deliberate arrangement. If Haihan offered money directly and could afford it, he thought Wang Ji would not refuse.
Shi Diwen wanted to meet Wang Ji because he had something to discuss with him. The Haihan Executive Committee is no longer satisfied with the country's role as just a maritime trade merchant in a prosperous place like Jiangsu and Zhejiang. On the one hand, it asked Shi Diwen to seize the opportunity to settle real industries in the local area. On the other hand, it is also trying to see whether there is any way to integrate Jiangsu and Zhejiang's coastal areas. These areas were transformed into more manageable semi-colonies.
The so-called semi-colony means that this place is still under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, but economically and even politically, it is dependent on Haihan. This is about the time when Hainan Island was just taken over by Haihan as a whole. What Haihan wanted to achieve was to make full use of the abundant human, material and financial resources in the eastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty to organize quasi-industrial production institutions and expand the country's strength in this way.
At present, Haihan's influence in this region has basically reached a level that everyone knows, and he has the ability to influence the market in terms of economics, but his political influence is far from meeting the requirements of a semi-colony. Therefore, the Executive Committee hopes that Jiangsu and Zhejiang can try to recruit more senior officials. If it can be done to the extent of Fuzhou and Guangzhou, then many things will become easier to operate.
Shi Diwen would not help but feel a headache when he received such an order. His specialty was commanding wars rather than acting as a politician, but who made him Haihan's top leader in Jiangsu and Zhejiang? At this time, we can only bite the bullet. Shi Diwen reviewed the connections he currently had. If he wanted to deal with Zhejiang's Third Si Yamen, it seemed that only Si Yamen, the chief envoy in charge of Wang Ji, could find a way to get in touch. Although all old tricks were used, Shi Diwen could not think of any more effective method. Flies don't bite, as long as Wang Ji dares to reach out for the money, things will be easy to handle later.
Wang Yuan returned to the city with Shi Diwen's instructions, but in the end Shi Diwen still did not tell him what he was going to discuss with Wang Ji. Although he also felt that this matter was a bit mysterious, he thought that Shi Diwen would not persuade the governor of a province to commit treason, and would probably discuss how to cooperate and make money in the future.
(End of chapter)