Chapter 1690 Interest Alliance
Francis had been a senior military attache in Manila for several years and had a lot of experience in officialdom. He knew very well that with his Spanish identity and past experience, he wanted to win the trust of the Haihan people and make a career single-handedly under their rule. It's not easy anymore. Even if he is given the position of director of the Western Management Bureau now, it will only be a false position with no real power. But if there is an interest alliance behind you that gathers all forces, the process of achieving your goals will be much easier, and by the way, you can pave the way for future generations.
Francis was previously willing to give up resistance and obey Haihan's arrangements. A large part of the reason was out of reluctance to let go of his son. He himself had long since accepted his defeat. Regardless of whether Haihan was beaten or killed, he had nothing to say. But if his son Francis Jr. was involved in his life because of this, he would find it too difficult to accept. Since he can no longer return to Spain, he has to create a solid future for his son while he can still be motivated.
Little Francis is relatively simple by nature, and his brain cannot be said to be flexible. Whether it is business or officialdom, they are not his areas of expertise. If he were not protected by such a powerful father, he would probably be a small farm at best. It’s the Lord’s destiny. But of course Francis is not willing to let his son live his life in such a plain way. If possible, he still hopes to pave a career path for his son in the officialdom, so that the Francis family can spread out in the Far East and become a noble.
During the Western Unification period, Francis had already made this attempt, but at that time Aragones was not willing to let Francis arrange for his family to enter the officialdom and gain real power. In the end, Francis had no choice but to compromise and let his son change his career after marrying the Ding family. Became a businessman. Anyway, the Ding family planned and took care of all the specific affairs, so there was no need for little Francis to use his brain. He didn't do much, but he made a lot of money.
But now that the ruler has become a Haihan, the Manila area is in dire straits, and there are still many vacant official positions, Francis wants to try again to see if he can create opportunities for his son. Of course, it is definitely not enough to rely on his own efforts, so Francis wants to form an alliance of interests as soon as possible to seize the current favorable opportunity. In addition to the Ding family as the financial backers, Francis believes that recruiting Qin Huacheng to join the gang is also a good choice. As the maintainers of social order in Manila, the public security police can do too many things locally.
So under Ding Feng's arrangement, Francis and Qin Huacheng held a secret meeting to discuss alliance and cooperation between the two parties.
"To make a long story short, as long as there are enough benefits, I can join you." Although Qin Huacheng didn't understand the real purpose of these two families inviting him to meet, it was obvious that they were not seeking benefits from themselves. But before that, he did get a lot of money from the Ding family, so he judged that the other party most likely wanted to spend money to do things for him when they met with him.
Francis said: "I like people like you who speak straightforwardly! Then I will simply say that the three of us need to form an alliance of interests and advance and retreat together, so that we can make money as quickly as possible and get the opportunity for promotion."
< br>
Qin Huacheng said: "I won't mention money in advance, but what promotion opportunities are you talking about?"
Francis said: "Since you are working in the Public Security Police Force, you should know that this department is a temporary establishment, which means that at some point in the future, you may be suddenly disbanded and go home to find your own mother. But if you If I can be transferred to a more critical department in the future, I might not be fired.”
"Your words... seem to have something to say..." Qin Huacheng tasted Francis's words carefully and seemed to figure out a different meaning from them. Many of the same people who were selected by the Public Security Police Force have resigned actively or passively, and have been replaced by more and more Hispanic officers who do not hold any official positions.
Ding Feng intervened and said: "Brother, you don't know much about Haihan's methods. Although the security police are temporary establishments, they will definitely establish a formal police department in the future. Most experienced subordinates like you will be Will be transferred to a formal department.”
"Seriously?" Qin Huacheng really didn't know much about this. He only knew that Haihan had set extremely low recruitment standards for security police. As for whether the temporary establishment would be transferred to a more formal police agency in the future, Qin Huacheng had never heard of it before. Get the exact news.
"The Haihan people have always done this in their overseas colonies, but not everyone can become a regular employee." Francis continued: "If you are willing to cooperate with us for a long time, then we will also try to help you get the opportunity to become a regular employee. ”
Qin Huacheng is not a simple character who believes everything. Hearing this, he asked: "How are you going to help me fight for it?"
"The Ding family can spend money, and I can provide you with information." Francis gave his conditions very straightforwardly. Of course, in fact, he couldn't brag. After all, they currently had no official connections, and the conditions they could offer were limited to this.
"The conditions are not bad." Qin Huacheng still did not agree with Francis's conditions, and smiled and said: "Spending money and providing information are too risky. In fact, to put it bluntly, it depends on luck, right?"
Francis responded: "Of course you need luck, otherwise how could I be sitting here talking to you. But luck doesn't come for no reason. If I had never been a city defense commander before, how could the Haihan people give me a new life? Opportunity. In the same way, if you lack our help, you may lose the opportunity to become a formal police force in the future.”
Qin Huacheng always felt that the "reason" Francis said was a bit crooked, and even a bit arrogant, but he did agree with Francis on one point, and that was that luck did not come for no reason. If good luck comes, it must be due to a certain correct choice before. For example, he served for the local Spanish armed forces before the war, but his father asked him to return home early to avoid the Manila War, so that he could fight in the war. Later, he was appointed as a medium-sized official by Haihan.
If we want to strive for an opportunity to transfer to a formal establishment in the future, then perhaps the decision made now will have an impact on the outcome. For Qin Huacheng, it was not difficult to agree or reject Francis' request, but he did not see clearly what the consequences of these two choices would be. "It seems that we should talk to Mr. Qin directly about this matter." Seeing Qin Huacheng's hesitation, Ding Feng was about to lose his patience in negotiating with him slowly.
"Okay, maybe you are right. Uniting and uniting is the wisest choice at the moment." Qin Huacheng did not want his family to interfere in his choice, so when he heard Ding Feng's urging words, he could no longer I continued to hesitate.
Qin Huacheng's relenting means that he has agreed with the other two families' ideas and decided to become their ally and advance and retreat together with them. But Qin Huacheng also said cautiously that if this interest alliance wants to go against the Haihan government in the future, then he will not accompany him.
In fact, at this time, Qin Hua Chengdu didn't quite understand how much benefit this interest alliance could bring to him, but he knew that the foundations of these two families were stronger than his own, and he should not suffer any disadvantages by forming an alliance with them.
Ding Feng originally wanted to get a written agreement signed by all three parties, but Francis rejected this suggestion. He believed the nature of the matter was too sensitive to leave any physical evidence. Qin Huacheng also deeply agrees with this. During his time as a security policeman, he has led teams to search many homes. Whenever a property list or account book was found at home, almost all of them were searched and wiped out. net. If an official's private clique-building activities were discovered by the eagle claws of the Ministry of Security, wouldn't he be immediately dismissed from his post and thrown into jail?
Seeing that both of them strongly opposed it, Ding Feng didn't insist on his opinion anymore, so he said that we have a gentleman's agreement. The effectiveness of a verbal agreement depends on each person's self-control.
The first thing after forming this alliance of interests is to serve the work that Francis is currently receiving. The Interim Management Committee has given Francis full authority to handle the security issues involving Hispanic personnel, and this requires Francis to maintain close contact with the security police. Although Qin Huacheng is only a detachment leader and has a limited area under his jurisdiction, he is in the public security police agency and can naturally get relevant information faster than Francis. And with his guidance, Francis can also deal with the public security police. Save yourself a lot of trouble.
The Ding family can't play a direct role in this aspect, but they can still make an effort if they want to help Francis. For example, for those Hispanics who are arrested by security police due to public security incidents, as long as the nature of the matter is not serious, they will be fined. Misdemeanors will be fined lightly, and serious crimes will be fined heavily. When some Hispanic people were impoverished due to the war and were unable to pay the fines, Francis would notify the Ding family to come forward and advance the fines for these Hispanic people in the form of loans. Of course, the money came from the Ding family, but the favor was received by Francis.
So within a few days, Francis's reputation among the local Hispanic people also increased. Everyone knew that as long as they could ask Francis to come forward to negotiate with the security police after the incident, they would most likely be able to escape safely. The security police no longer have to work hard to collect fines as before. The efficiency and economic benefits of handling security incidents have been significantly improved. Francis's evaluation is mostly positive. Especially in Qin Huacheng's jurisdiction, the efficiency in handling crimes committed by Hispanics is probably the best in the city.
Spending money to gain reputation is naturally more efficient than doing things honestly. However, this method is not a secret. If it is used too much, it will naturally spread slowly. Therefore, when Francis’ performance was submitted to the Interim Management Committee through the Western Management Bureau, Qiu Yuan actually knew that Francis was doing something specific on specific matters. All these little tricks.
Although Francis was indeed opportunistic, Qiu Yuan could not say how disgusted he was with this. He has too many affairs on his hands, so he doesn't have much energy to pay attention to the livelihood issues of the Hispanic people. He assigned Francis to be responsible for this aspect in the hope that Francis can handle these security risks. Now in terms of results alone, Francis' handling method has achieved quite good results. Whether it is the Hispanic people, the Western Management Bureau, or the security police, they all praise him, and what Qiu Yuan values is the results.
Of course, Qiu Yuan did not immediately delegate power to Francis because of this. He could feel the Spanish official's ambition to make a comeback. If he did not suppress him, he would be worthy of Francis. The operation of the Western Management Bureau is quickly getting back on track. Francis's positive role is not small, but it is not yet indispensable. Qiu Yuan planned to observe for a while to see if the Spaniard could keep his composure. If Francis acts too impetuous during this period, it might be better to treat him as a mere puppet.
Time has entered mid-March, and the shipping market in the Port of Manila has finally begun to gradually return to normal. The business scale of Ding's Shipping Company has shrunk a lot compared to before the war. In addition, after the war, several large Haihan shipping companies intervened in the local market and began to control their daily operations. The business has had a considerable impact. If it weren't for Ding Feng's extensive contacts in Manila and the help of his connections to bring in some business, it would be really difficult for the Ding family to compete head-on with foreign predators.
The more this happens, the more Ding Feng wants to complete the business transformation as soon as possible, slowly shift the business project from shipping to the local Hispanic community, and make money from these Hispanics, and this depends on Francis's local influence Stronger.
Ding Feng's business direction for the Hispanic-inhabited areas is very clear, which is to provide Hispanic people with basic living supplies starting from the basic necessities for survival. Before the war, these high-minded Hispanics would never pay attention to Chinese businessmen like Ding Feng. They would only do business with Hispanic businessmen like Little Francis. However, now and then, although many Hispanic people survived after the war, their property was more or less looted by Haihan, and the channels for obtaining daily necessities became even more blocked. Even if many people had money, It may not be possible to buy daily necessities such as medicine, cloth, and food on the market.
But now the Ding family, who is willing to provide them with these necessities, has become a life-saving straw. No one cares about the Ding family's Han identity. The most important thing is to be able to buy these scarce items home and store them. Although the price of these daily necessities sold by the Ding family is not cheap, and the medicines are several times more expensive than before the war, people can only pay to buy them after complaining, because apart from the Ding family, there seems to be no other merchants I'm willing to sell these things to them.
This is of course just an illusion of the public. In fact, the current situation of this monopoly is just a situation created by the joint efforts of several parties with an interest alliance.
(End of chapter)