Chapter 1625 Tiandu Industrial Zone
Fei Cexian vaguely felt something from Bai Kesi's words, but he couldn't figure it out for a while. He just subconsciously felt that Bai Kesi said that the two countries each wanted to achieve different goals. This sentence should be very important to Ming Dynasty. What was the goal of governing the country in the Ming Dynasty? The country is rich and the people are strong, the world is at peace, and all the nations come to court? In Fei Cexian's understanding, this is roughly the case. All countries other than the Ming Dynasty are low-level countries. This has become the consensus of the Ming people. However, the appearance of Haihan seems to indicate that there is really a country more powerful than the Ming Dynasty in the world. , but there are still too many ordinary people with limited information and limited knowledge who cannot realize this at all.
What about Haihan? If the goal that Bai Kesi refers to is more than this, then what is the goal of governing the country of Haihan? Fei Cexian suddenly wondered what kind of development goals this country would set for itself, as well as this group of mysterious rulers whose identities were unknown. Curiosity. If there is really no fundamental conflict between the long-term goals of Haihan State and Ming Dynasty, then having such a neighboring country who is willing to take action to deal with foreign enemies for Ming Dynasty when necessary does not seem to be a bad thing.
As for the outflow of raw materials, population, and capital, as well as the influx of Haihan commodities, trading methods, and many new ideas, this is not a big deal in Fei Cexian's opinion. As long as Haihan is not an enemy of the Ming Dynasty, these details will not matter. There is no need to calculate things too clearly. There should be no war between the two countries. This is Fei Cexian's personal goal at the top of his list, and it is also the wish of most senior officials in the court. For national relations, this is the real big deal. One of Fei Cexian's tasks when he came to Haihan was to confirm that Haihan really had no intention of going to war with the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, with Haihan as a powerful neighbor, the imperial court would never be able to concentrate its troops on the Central Plains and the North with peace of mind. Xinjiang to solve the thorny problems at hand.
Regarding the "industry" advocated and admired by Haihan people, in fact, after Fei Cexian arrived in Sanya, he was exposed to industrial products every moment, but it was indeed the car he was currently riding that made him realize the power of industry. A new form of transportation that looks clumsy but is actually fast. Since "industry" is a unique industry of Haihan, so many unique things that only Haihan can be produced here, and Daming, which has no "industry" at all, wants to imitate some of these industrial products. It will inevitably be difficult.
Judging from Bai Kesi's tone, Haihan's strength is closely related to "industry", but it has always been difficult for Ming Dynasty to imitate it. Fei Cexian couldn't help but ask: "Master Bai, why does this industry only exist in Haihan? Logically speaking, for such a powerful industry, Ming merchants should have imitated it and introduced it to Ming Dynasty."
Bai Kesi responded: "Actually, your country already has the prototype of industry. We call it handicraft industry. Although it can be regarded as a small-scale industry, handicraft industry still belongs to manual labor, such as smelting, textiles, printing, and various types of industries that are separated from agriculture. The craftsmen who produce, and the various production sites that your country calls workshops can actually be counted in this industry. It’s just that your country’s industry has just started, and the conditions and objective environment in all aspects cannot be compared with our country’s standards. Industrial system, even if there are businessmen who want to introduce this system into the Ming Dynasty, it will be difficult to survive independently. ”
Fei Cexian noticed two important points from Bai Kesi's words. One is that Ming Dynasty already has the prototype of industry, and the other is that if you want to introduce the industrial system into Ming Dynasty, you must cooperate with Haihan instead of simply imitating it.
Fei Cexian was just about to continue the conversation, but Bai Kesi had already taken the initiative to change the topic: "Master Fei, you have been in Sanya for a while. Can you tell us what you think of our place?"
Fei Cexian thought for a while and said: "If you want to say the strongest feeling, it is of course the prosperity. To be honest, the market in Beijing may not be as good as the downtown area of Shengli Port, and almost everything can be bought and sold in Sanya. It is worthy of being The first port city in the South China Sea. As long as you have enough money, this place will be a paradise on earth.”
"If you are rich, you will be in heaven on earth!" Bai Kesi nodded and said, "Continue talking."
Fei Cexian continued: "If we talk about the local affluence, I think it is comparable to the big cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the culture and education are prosperous, but there is less of a copper smell than the big cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This is probably also related to the government's promotion of learning. I heard that expensive Our country does not use the imperial examination system to select talents, but also has a vocational training system. Perhaps this is the reason why most officials in your country despise academics and emphasize practical work.”
"Does Mr. Fei think our country's culture, education and talent selection system is better or worse than Ming's?" Bai Kesi asked.
Of course, Fei Cexian didn't want to offend the other party by saying uninteresting words, but he also didn't want to belittle the Ming Dynasty just to flatter him. After some consideration, he responded: "The Ming Dynasty's imperial examinations followed the previous dynasty and selected countless talents for the court for more than two hundred years. It is very effective in governing the world. It is naturally a good system. I am not familiar with this system when I first came here, but it is very suitable for your country's national conditions. It also shows that your country's court governs the country well and I am also very good at it. Admired.”
Fei Cexian's words were pure Tai Chi. Although Bai Kesi was a technocrat, he had been on the executive committee for so many years. Naturally, he could immediately tell that the other party's words were insincere. However, he didn't want to argue with Fei Cexian about which system was better. In fact, Fei Cexian was right about one thing. Haihan's use of the vocational education system to select talent training officials was indeed very different from the current situation of the country. Relationship, after all, the population base of Haihan Kingdom was small in its initial stage, and there were relatively few educated scholars. If Haihan wanted to select and train qualified civil and military officials from civilians, it was obviously too late to take the imperial examination, and it could only use special methods first. Regular education and training means to obtain suitable personnel.
This shortcut method can indeed solve temporary needs, but in the long run, to cultivate competent bureaucrats, it is still necessary to carry out follow-up cultural and administrative training for these technical personnel in a step-by-step manner.
However, from another perspective, the founding of Haihan is still short, and the upper echelons of power have not yet formed too obvious cliques. There are still many channels for ordinary people to rise. Even students who have only received short-term vocational training are not in line with traditional Scholars also have the opportunity to compete for positions in various yamen. Therefore, during the period when Haihan promoted the vocational training system, the response from the public was very enthusiastic, which greatly reduced the difficulty of Haihan's efforts to popularize cultural literacy among the people.
The two chatted all the way, while Zhang Qianzhi consciously sat far away from each other. Although his mission is to monitor Fei Cexian's words and deeds, when the target is discussing issues with his own senior officials, it would be a bit disrespectful for him to get close and listen.
There was a small episode on the way. There used to be a section of this railway that was double-tracked, so that trains could miss the train midway. At the earliest, the train arriving at this location needs to stop and wait, and then start when the train coming from the opposite direction also enters the double-track section, and then complete the wrong train through the switch. However, now that the double-track railway track has been fully connected, the two oncoming trains no longer need to stop and wait. So Fei Cexian was lucky enough to witness the scene of two trains running towards each other and on the wrong train. He thought that the Haihan people were really wealthy. The two trains departing at the same time and going in opposite directions meant that the steam locomotives invested in a railway were more than the cost he had previously calculated. , but will double again. The actual journey time from Fort Victory Station to Tiandu Station was less than half an hour, and for Fei Cexian, who had been racking his brains to complete the conversation with Bai Kesi, the journey passed in a blink of an eye. .
After arriving at the station, the group of people filed out of the car. Fei Cexian noticed that the freight platform here was much larger than that of Fort Victory Station. Boxes of packed items were being carried into the truck compartment by porters. It goes without saying that these loaded goods are probably shipped to Victory Port or Sanya Port. Some of them will be loaded directly from the port onto ships from various countries, and then shipped to unknown locations overseas for sale. It is in this way that Haihan sells the industrial products produced by Tian Du to all over the world.
Fei Cexian also noticed that there was the "small freight train" mentioned by Bai Kesi before. The tracks laid on the ground were obviously much thinner than the tracks on the railway when he came just now, and the gauge was also nearly narrower. Half, the locomotive is indeed much more delicate than the big iron guy parked on the platform. However, with this track, goods can be transported back and forth between the station and distant production sites, and the efficiency will indeed be improved a lot.
"Generally, people who come to Tiandu are most interested in the guns produced here. I think Mr. Fei will be no exception, right?" Bai Kesi took the initiative to ask Fei Cexian.
Fei Cexian was also happy and decisively admitted Bai Kesi's guess: "That's it. Haihan weapons are famous. Anyone who comes here will probably want to see how these weapons are made. If Lord Bai can It’s best to arrange a visit.”
Bai Kesi smiled and said: "Then let's go see the place where the guns are made first."
As the Haihan Army's biggest reliance in defeating the world's invincible enemies, Haihan Ordnance's weapons manufacturing production line can be said to be one of the key projects in Tiandu Industrial Zone. As the official in charge of Haihan Ordnance Industry, it was a perfect arrangement for him to lead Fei Cexian on a tour.
The first thing Fei Cexian visited was the artillery casting workshop closest to the train station. In fact, Haihan's latest artillery no longer uses the traditional casting process, because the barrel of the new artillery has been upgraded from bronze and cast iron to steel, and the traditional casting process is not so suitable. However, the production plant Fei Cexian visited still uses traditional craftsmanship, and its finished products are mainly old-fashioned artillery that is exported to other countries.
Of course, this old-fashioned is only a relative term. In Fei Cexian's eyes, this is still a very advanced technology. As far as the size of these semi-finished artillery pieces he sees now, they cannot be made by the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty.
"Master Fei, the two artillery pieces that are being cast, as well as the cannons stacked next to them, are all orders from Annan. These artillery will be sent to Annan early next year and deployed to the border between Annan and Siam. "Enter." Bai Kesi did not introduce the art of casting cannons to Fei Cexian, because he knew that it would be in vain. The civil servant would definitely not understand those processes and special vocabulary, and he would have to spend more time explaining them. .
In fact, Fei Cexian had already noticed the semi-products stacked against the wall, and even counted them. There were thirteen products in total. Judging from their appearance and size, they were probably between two thousand and two thousand. A heavy artillery weighing 1,500 kilograms. This kind of smoothbore cannon was called the "Hongyi Cannon" in the Ming Dynasty. In the early years, many of them were deployed on the Northeastern defense line, and they also made many military exploits.
However, most of the heavy artillery used by the Ming Dynasty at that time was purchased from the Portuguese, especially the heavy artillery produced by the Macau Bugalao Cannon Foundry, which was the Ming Dynasty's favorite purchase object. Xu Guangqi, the former Minister of Rites, Bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion, and Second Assistant to the Cabinet, purchased more than 80 cannons from the Bugalao Cannon Foundry through various channels and names, and Emperor Chongzhen returned them to the cannons. The Macau-made cannon on the gate of the capital was named "Shenwei General".
Of course, the reality of this time and space has deviated from the original historical trajectory due to the emergence of the Haihan people. Since 1629, the Bugalao Cannon Foundry has ceased production due to the safety requirements raised by Haihan. Instead, Portugal purchased artillery from Haihan to meet the local defense needs of Macau. As for the artillery that the Ming Dynasty later purchased from the Macau authorities through missionaries, most of them were also castrated versions of Haihan's performance. It was just that Haihan was still in its infancy at that time. In order to conceal its strength, it pretended to be Portugal to do arms business with the Ming Dynasty. . The Portuguese can earn a commission just by making a move, so naturally they will not take the initiative to announce it.
Even so, the number of artillery exported to the Ming Dynasty by Portugal was also strictly controlled. At that time, the Haihan Executive Committee was still a little worried that it would shoot itself in the foot in the future, so it made very strict controls on the whereabouts of weapons exports. control. However, with the rapid expansion of Haihan, weapons were upgraded faster and faster, and some restrictions were slightly relaxed. However, the Liaodong battlefield during this period had already been defeated, and the artillery sold to the Ming Dynasty could not be saved. Passive battlefield situation.
It was not until the Han army landed in Liaodong in the winter of 1635 and held back the main force of Hou Jin who was originally going to conquer North Korea that the situation in the Northeast was slightly relieved. Otherwise, according to the original history, after the Jin Dynasty conquered North Korea, he would immediately turn around to deal with the Ming Dynasty, and then the situation would be even more difficult to save.
Fei Cexian, an official of the Ministry of Rites, naturally did not know these inside information. He just looked at the pile of artillery placed against the wall with envy and wondered why even Annan could purchase weapons in large quantities from Haihan, but Ming Dynasty has always Can't do it.
(End of chapter)