Chapter 1586 Great changes in Changhua
"The changes in Changhua County are really big!" As a native, the coachman Lao Gao naturally has the most personal experience of the changes in his hometown: "Since the second year of Chongzhen... Bah, it's the third year of Haihan. That’s right, since the leaders came to Changhua in the third year of Haihan, this place has changed!”
Although the Haihan official has always used the Western calendar of the original time and space, and has not announced 1627, the first year of arrival in this time and space, as the first year of the Haihan calendar, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the people spontaneously recorded the date when the travelers arrived in Sanya. One year marks the beginning of the Haihan calendar, and the Changhua-Shilu construction project, which started in June 1629, is naturally remembered by the locals as the three years of Haihan. Xun Pengcheng knew about this kind of folk chronology, but it was the first time for him to hear Changhua locals talk about the changes here.
Haihan was eager to develop the small fishing port of Changhua before Hainan Island was unified. The main purpose was to seize time to exploit the Shilu iron ore in the inland area of Changhua. Haihan invested a lot of manpower and funds in the early construction of the Changhua freight terminal and the railway transportation line from Changhua to Shilu, which greatly promoted local infrastructure and economic development, turning it from an unpopular fishing port to a In a short period of time, it became one of the centers of industrialization promoted by the Executive Committee. Even the county town, which was only a few miles away from Changhua Fishing Port, quickly fell peacefully under this tide and became a material transfer station on this large construction site.
With the continuous investment of a large amount of resources, Haihan opened the land passage from Changhua to Shilu in just one and a half years, and Changhua County became the biggest beneficiary of this process. Tens of thousands of new immigrants continued to move in, completely changing the face of Changhua County. Originally, the livelihood of the people here was mainly based on fishing and planting. After Haihan intervened, a large number of smelting furnaces and metal processing workshops were built. The main working population has rapidly shifted from agriculture to industry, and the entire social structure has undergone earth-shaking changes.
Under Haihan's rule, Changhua was the only place other than Sanya that had long-distance steam freight railways. The new social structure and transportation that transcended the times quickly changed the worldview and values of the people here. For ordinary people, the arrival of the Haihan people has given them a more stable life, higher income, richer material supplies, and most importantly, a foreseeable better future. What Ming Dynasty can give, Haihan will only give more and better, and there are too many conditions that Ming Dynasty cannot give.
Changhua is not like large places like Qiongzhou Fucheng and Danzhou. There are a large number of landlords who will resist foreign powers like Haihan because of their own interests. The vast tracts of ownerless land here are simply a waste for Haihan. It is an excellent environment for building an industrial base. There were few land ownership disputes encountered during the development of Changhua, and it was far from forming a situation that could compete with Haihan.
The coachman Lao Gao's family used to make a living from farming. It happened that a smelting workshop that Haihan was going to build would occupy more than ten acres of his family's land. After receiving a compensation and resettlement payment from Haihan, Lao Gao transferred his family's land to The land was given to Haihan. Of course, if he doesn't know how to promote himself as a key household, then not only will his land be expropriated, but he won't even get any compensation. At that time, he saw with his own eyes a few scoundrels in the village who were stubborn and stubborn. As a result, they were arrested by Haihan and sent to Shilu to mine. He never saw a living person again. It is said that they all died in the mine during the riot in the Shilu labor camp. superior.
People like Lao Gao who hand over land and get money are not a few in the local area. After having this money in hand, many people gave up their past farm livelihood and began to engage in the service industry under Haihan's guidance. Most of the local operators in the catering, accommodation, transportation and other industries in Changhua are from the local area. The horse and carriage shop where Lao Gao works was jointly run by seven families in the village who are related by marriage. It seems that he is also one of the shareholders. .
As for the income, Lao Gao did not disclose detailed figures to Xun Pengcheng. He only said that about half of the horse-drawn carriages currently running on the road from Changhua to Danzhou are operated by the carriage and horse racing company where he works.
When Xun Pengcheng heard this, he couldn't help but asked curiously: "If that's the case, then why don't you be a good boss and still drive the car?"
Lao Gao raised his arm, the tip of his whip fell gently on the horse's buttocks, and said in his mouth: "I can't help but go to Danzhou to see my daughter and son-in-law."
"Is your son-in-law a local in Danzhou?" Xun Pengcheng might have to settle down there when he goes to Danzhou, so he pays great attention to all kinds of information. If Lao Gao's son-in-law is a native of Danzhou, then maybe he can make friends with him in the future.
But Lao Gao shook his head and said: "My hometown is from Yacheng in the south. I followed the chief to Danzhou. Now I can be considered a minor official, but he has no real power."
Xun Pengcheng's eyes lit up, and he thought that a junior official would be more suitable to get acquainted with. With his own conditions, it was impossible to get to know the local senior officials as soon as he arrived in Danzhou. If he could build a bridge through this coachman, he could get in touch with the grassroots officials first. Maybe it will also be beneficial to living in Danzhou in the future.
So Xun Pengcheng took the initiative and asked: "I wonder which yamen your son-in-law is employed in? When I was in Sanya, I knew a lot of officials in the yamen. Maybe we have friends in common."
Xun Pengcheng deliberately said that he had official connections. This was also to arouse Lao Gao's interest. After all, Xun Pengcheng came from the "capital" and claimed to have official connections, which might have some influence on his son-in-law's future career. Help. Xun Pengcheng estimated that if he said this, Lao Gao would cooperate and introduce his son-in-law's situation.
But he never thought that Lao Gao did not follow his wishes, but waved his hand decisively and said: "Sir, please don't ask about this!"
Xun Pengcheng was stunned and said: "Is it because Weng and son-in-law are at odds?"
"That's not true. My son-in-law is still a very filial man. He even bought me a house in Danzhou City... It's just that I'm used to living in the countryside of Changhua and don't want to move into the city." Lao Gao Buwu He proudly showed off: "My son-in-law is still trying every possible means to beg me to go!"
Xun Pengcheng didn't quite understand now. Since this was not a matter of the relationship between Weng and his son-in-law, why didn't Lao Gao want outsiders to know about his son-in-law? He still refused to give up after thinking about it, coughed dryly and said: "Actually, if your son-in-law is capable, he may have the opportunity to be transferred to Sanya to work in the future. Only when he gets there can he really enter the officialdom."
When Lao Gao heard this, he sighed and said: "His errand is not so easy to change... Forget it, my son-in-law asked me not to mention his errand in front of outsiders. I'd better not talk about it, guest sir."
Xun Pengcheng smiled and said: "Since your son-in-law, Lao Gao, is an official in a government office, what else can he do to be shady? As far as I know, among the many yamen in our country of Haihan, there is only one who is shady. The Security Department..." Xun Pengcheng's voice suddenly trailed off when he said this, because he saw Lao Gao's hand holding the riding crop visibly shaking. It was obvious that he also knew what the Security Department was. If Lao Gao, the coachman, didn't have some mistakes under the Ministry of Security, then it was probably related to the topic being discussed at the moment.
This old Gao used to be just a farmer, but now he is just a rickshaw puller. He does unskilled menial work, and he doesn't look like he can be related to the security department, which is hidden in the dark. The reason that Xun Pengcheng could think of was that the yamen where Lao Gao's precious son-in-law was located was probably a prophecy made by him.
They were the only two people sitting in this carriage, one behind the other. After falling into silence, the atmosphere suddenly felt awkward. Xun Pengcheng coughed dryly and said: "Old Gao, don't worry about it. I'm just asking casually. Since it's inconvenient, I won't say anything." .”
Lao Gao suddenly turned around and asked: "Your Majesty, even the security department knows about it. Could it be that he has a relationship with a big shot in this yamen?"
"No friendship, no friendship! How can I, a civilian, climb up to the top of the Security Department?" Xun Pengcheng quickly waved his hand to express that he had no intention of continuing the conversation on this topic. He is such a shrewd person. As soon as the other party asked him, he had already guessed the general situation, so he didn't dare to cause trouble.
The most important reason why Xun Pengcheng left Sanya was to avoid the Ministry of Security as much as possible. Even if his affairs were cleared and he even received the endorsement of the Ministry of Security, he did not intend to continue to stay under the nose of the Ministry of Security. On fire. Of course, the Ministry of Security did not want to let him stay in Sanya to cause trouble anymore, and wished to move him as far away as possible. When Xun Pengcheng left Sanya by boat, the Ministry of Security specially sent someone to the dock to "see off" him.
After leaving Sanya, Xun Pengcheng thought that it was unlikely that he would have to deal with the Ministry of Security again, so he felt very relaxed along the way. However, he never thought that the driver he hired in Changhua might be the father-in-law of an uncle from the Ministry of Security. . Xun Pengcheng felt like he was about to cry but felt that his experience was a bit like coming out of a tiger's den and into a wolf's den.
Naturally, he did not dare to discuss this topic in depth with Lao Gao. Otherwise, if Lao Gao really begged him to help pave the way for his son-in-law to find a solution, would he be able to turn around and go back to Sanya to find Xu Qiqi? Even if there wasn't that much going on, Xun Pengcheng really didn't want to have any more contact with people from the Security Department. As for Lao Gao, the son-in-law, Xun Pengcheng just wanted to get over this topic quickly and completely erase it from his and Lao Gao's minds.
When Lao Gao wanted to continue talking, Xun Pengcheng had already taken the initiative to change the topic: "Lao Gao, I heard that there are collective farms and plantations along the way to Danzhou. Can you tell me about the situation here? ? If there is any familiar place, it would be best if you could take me to see it.”
The purpose of Xun Pengcheng's trip was to inspect the situation of the plantation, and he had already stated his intention when he hired Lao Gao in Changhua, so it was not unexpected to make a request at this time.
Lao Gao never expected that Xun Pengcheng had so many twists and turns in his heart, but he knew very well that the special yamen where his son-in-law worked was like a devil in the hearts of ordinary people. Seeing that Xun Pengcheng did not want to talk anymore, he could not force him . The errand I took this time included the cost of acting as a tour guide along the way, so Lao Gao couldn't refuse Xun Pengcheng's request.
"Then let me tell you about the situation here." Lao Gao raised his arm and pointed forward with his riding crop, and began to introduce Xun Pengcheng to the situation along the way.
Coming out of Changhua County, after passing through several mountains, we entered the coastal plain area on the west coast of Hainan Island. In the past, there were not many people living in this area. There were only six or seven villages between Changhua and Danzhou. However, since Haihan introduced the plantation model here, plantations began to appear dotted here and there. In the area near the official road. The area ranges from a hundred acres to thousands of acres. There are a wide variety of tropical cash crops grown in the park. The largest planting areas are oil, sugar, spices, hemp, grain, fruits, etc.
The downstream deep processing industries generated by these plantations have also sprung up in Changhua and Danzhou. Especially in the Changhua area, which is relatively more industrialized, many workshops engaged in deep processing of cash crops have begun to use more professional machinery and equipment to improve production efficiency, and their production capacity far exceeds the level of other countries at the same time. With Lao Gao's knowledge and vision, of course he still cannot understand these era-changing advantages, but he can also realize how amazingly the production technology brought by Haihan has improved productivity.
"Have you ever seen sugar cane pressed? The larger sugar factories in Changhua have already used steam engines. That guy is really powerful. He drives it almost all day long. If he had to switch to mules and horses, he would be tired. Dead. And the stainless steel roller is much easier to use than the previous stone roller. It only needs one squeeze to squeeze out the juice... If there is anything wrong with it, it is too expensive. I heard that this machine It costs several thousand, and you have to keep burning coal, which is also a big expense..."
"This steam engine can not only press sugar cane, but also press oil. My brother's oil mill has already used it. The oil produced in one day lasted seven or eight days. He ordered another oil press last month, but it is said that Because there are too many people buying, we have to wait three months to get the goods..."
Lao Gao was very talkative and talked endlessly about the plantation-related industries. Xun Pengcheng listened with great interest. In fact, he had seen more uses of steam engines than Lao Gao. Sugar extraction and oil extraction were just applications of deep agricultural processing. But since so many people here have begun to try to invest in steam engines to improve productivity and have tasted the benefits, it shows that the "technology" advocated by Haihan has also had a very significant impact on ordinary people.
Xun Pengcheng also knows that the income from deep processing of agricultural products is actually higher than that from plantations, but the problem is that the upstream and downstream industries involved in deep processing have many links that need to be connected, and there are more things to worry about. He wants to outsource everything like plantations. Getting out was almost impossible. Between making more money and enjoying life, Xun Pengcheng decided to choose the latter.
(End of chapter)