Chapter 1705 Differences of Opinion
Regarding the positioning and future development direction of Xingdao, there have always been differences of opinion among Haihan senior officials, including in Xingdao itself, where the two civil and military officials in charge of the military and political power also have different opinions on this. Roger wanted to make Xingdao a bridgehead for Haihan's military expansion into the Indian Ocean, while Tan Juren believed that Xingdao's geographical advantages should be fully utilized to build it into a commercial hub port connecting the two oceans.
The problem with Xingdao is that this place is too far away from the mainland of Haihan. The cost of obtaining resources from the country is very high. Whether it is materials or manpower, the expensive freight alone is prohibitive, let alone the resettlement of immigrants. cost. Although the Executive Committee's support for Sing Tao has always been pretty good, and it attaches great importance to the troops formed by Roger. The Ministry of National Defense also specially transferred him across the sea to the front line of Manila to participate in the war. However, due to the limitations of the objective environment, Sing Tao's ability to The resources that can be obtained from the country and surrounding areas are indeed far less than those of other Haihan colonies.
Except for Star Island, most of the other colonies are located on the coastlines or adjacent waters of Annan and Ming Dynasty. They can rely on the resources and markets of these two big countries for construction and development, and it will be easier to recruit immigrants nearby in terms of manpower. Star Island is located on a maritime transportation hub and is surrounded by almost all hostile countries and competitors. It has to develop while guarding against foreign enemies. This will naturally be much less efficient than other colonies.
Therefore, Roger believes that since the development of Star Island is difficult, he should not consider the development direction of civilian or commercial applications for the time being, but simply build it into a military base, and then use war to support war and use war to exploit resources in surrounding areas. The speed of plundering, accumulating wealth and population will be much faster than slowly developing on your own, and it can open up territory for the country, which is also in line with Haihan's development momentum of outward expansion.
Of course, there is also Roger's own selfishness in this. As a senior general guarding the border, he naturally wants to use his military exploits to gain greater power and reputation for himself. I remember that he was willing to give up his original life to participate in the extremely risky time-travel operation. One of his purposes was to make achievements in this time and space and become a founding general who will go down in history. Although Xingdao is a smaller place and the conditions are worse, it leaves him a lot of room for free expression, allowing him to complete many ideas here that he could not implement in previous years.
However, in the view of Tan Juren, who is in charge of civil affairs, commerce, agriculture, infrastructure and other affairs, Roger's idea is actually a bit biased. Considering the geographical location and merchant navigation status of the Malacca Strait, not using it for commercial development is simply a waste of resources. Moreover, according to Haihan's development theory, the purpose of military expansion is to serve commerce. Haihan wants to extend the maritime trade routes westward to the Indian Ocean. The Star Island will inevitably serve as a bridge between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean for a long time. The role of a trade hub port.
This God-given opportunity was not to be used to develop commerce, but to be turned into a large military base. Tan Juren naturally refused to agree with Roger's idea and clearly opposed the excessive militarization of Star Island. However, the problem he faces is similar to Roger, that is, the resources and labor required to build a large-scale trade port. Without sufficient capital and manpower injection, it is simply impossible to turn this poor and deserted island into a trade port like Sanya. .
Tan Juren also tried to introduce investors from Haihan, Daming, Annan and other countries, but the results were not satisfactory. Even if he could take the initiative and come up with some preferential tax and policy measures, he was willing to take great risks in this country. There are still very few businessmen investing in the local area, and only a few businessmen engaged in the shipping industry are willing to open offices here in Xingdao. As for traditional investment projects like plantations, the investment results in Xingdao are not ideal. The lack of stable surrounding environment and sufficient human resources makes most businessmen stay away from Xingdao.
Under this situation, if you want to change the appearance of Star Island, you can no longer rely on the assistance of external forces. Tan Juren hopes to shift local limited resources more towards civil and commercial infrastructure construction, but this is definitely not the same as Roger There is a conflict in the plan. Especially for a limited resource like labor force, both of them want to invest it first in the fields they are responsible for, so competition will inevitably occur.
On this day, the two people inevitably had disagreements during the meeting over the allocation of human resources, but neither could convince the other to accept their opinions. Fortunately, they have been working together for nearly two years. Regarding this kind of disagreement that has never been resolved, both of them know that quarreling will not be of any use, so even if they cannot reach an agreement, they will not break out into a quarrel. . Since they knew that there would be no results, the two of them dropped the topic in a tacit understanding and began to discuss the next project.
"The prisoners of war and exiled prisoners brought from Manila have been placed in the first and second hard labor camps. However, there are many Spaniards and local indigenous people in this group, and we do not understand the language. The management and arrangement work is more troublesome. , We need to find a way to solve this problem as soon as possible." Tan Juren paused and added: "There are probably more than 400 prisoners with this problem now."
Roger responded: "This is not difficult to solve. When we fought in Manila before, we hired a lot of Portuguese people to be translators. Maybe we should send people to Malacca City to hire a few Portuguese people."
Tan Juren shook his head and said: "It's not impossible, but there are certain intelligence risks in doing so. I think it's best not to try it."
Roger immediately realized that the distance between Star Island and Malacca City controlled by the Portuguese was only 400 miles, and both sides had the same purpose of building colonial strongholds here, which was to control the important sea channel of the Strait of Malacca. To put it bluntly, both sides also had the same purpose. competitors. Although Portugal and Haihan have signed a strategic alliance for several years, no one really regards that agreement as an unbreakable bond. The military alliance between the two parties is only to deal with the Netherlands, Spain, Britain, France and the like. It will only take effect when the Western maritime powers are strong, and when there is a conflict of interest between the two sides, the Portuguese will definitely have their own little calculations.
Although Star Island allows Portuguese merchant ships to dock here, the Portuguese have not been allowed to stay here for a long time in the past, let alone enter sensitive places such as labor camps. This precaution is also due to safety considerations. . Roger was reminded by Tan Juren and immediately realized that his method was inappropriate. He quickly changed his words and said: "This method is a bit inappropriate. Let me think about it... there should be many prisoners sent from Manila who can speak Spanish and Let’s pick some smart people among the local Chinese speakers to do the translation job.”
The method proposed by Roger is undoubtedly the most time-saving and worry-free one. Since hiring Portuguese would involve intelligence risks, and the period of applying for translators from China is too long, then we should look for them from the existing personnel on the island. It's simplest and most efficient to have the right person do the job, and there's almost no extra cost. The only problem is that it takes a little time to choose the right person.
Tan Juren agreed with Roger's opinion this time: "My thoughts are the same as yours. These Han prisoners who have been exiled to Xingdao can be fully utilized. I have asked people to roughly circle a list based on their personal information. , do you want to take a look?”
Roger waved his hand and said: "You can just decide on this matter. There is no need to spend time discussing it. I just emphasize that serious criminals cannot take on such tasks. This is the long-standing rule of the hard labor camp."
Tan Juren said: "Of course, don't worry, this list is full of people with three years or less, with relatively minor crimes. Later I will gather these people and take a look for myself." Roger said about the hard labor camp He didn't have much interest in the specific affairs management. Anyway, the labor arrangement of these hard labor prisoners was mainly based on military engineering. Tan Juren wanted to implement his new management plan in the hard labor camp. As long as there was no trouble, Roger would let him go and be happy. Leisure.
At this time, Qin Huacheng encountered his first trouble after arriving on Star Island in the barracks of the hard labor camp.
To be precise, this trouble was not directly related to Qin Huacheng. Several Spanish prisoners in the same cell number as him were very dissatisfied with the food arrangements here. After dinner, they gathered together and cursed non-stop. Although cell leader Lin Xingsui could not understand what these foreign Japanese were talking about, he could guess from their expressions that it was not a good thing, so he immediately warned them and told them to shut up and be quiet.
The Spaniards didn't know whether they didn't understand Lin Xingsui's identity or background, or they had the intention of replacing him, so they immediately started a conflict with Lin Xingsui. Lin Xingsui was from southern Fujian, and he spoke in a hurry all the obscure southern Fujian dialects, and the Spaniards here were chattering, and the two sides suddenly became a chicken-talking situation.
Seeing that the two sides were getting more and more angry and started to push each other, Qin Huacheng finally lost his temper and stood up to try to dissuade him. Although he could not understand the southern Fujian dialect that Lin Xingsui spoke in a hurry, the words of the Spaniards could not trouble him. He had to persuade the Spaniards first to stop talking to Lin Xingsui. Keep the argument going so you don't get yourself into trouble later.
Qin Huacheng worked as a security policeman in Manila for a period of time, and he was very skilled in coaxing and intimidating. With a few words, the Spaniards actually shut up one after another, gave up the idea of taking action, and returned to his bunk angrily. superior. After hearing the news, the guard who came to ask what had happened did not bother the Spaniards anymore. When he left, he patted Qin Huacheng on the shoulder to indicate that he had done a good job.
"Not bad, I never thought you could communicate with these ghost guys." Lin Xingsui calmed down and finally resumed his Hai-Han Mandarin with a distinct Minnan accent: "You understand what these ghost guys say, then maybe There will be an errand for you soon.”
"Do you have an errand for me to do?" Qin Huacheng didn't understand what Lin Xingsui meant by "errand".
Lin Xingsui raised his hand and pointed at the Spaniards who had just clashed with him and said: "There are hundreds of ghosts like them in this hard labor camp. Because of the language barrier, the superiors have always treated these ghosts very badly. A headache. If you can communicate with them, you will definitely get ahead.”
Qin Huacheng suddenly realized it, and thought to himself, God is really helping me. I originally thought that since I had no talents, it would be difficult for me to become famous here, but I forgot that knowing Spanish was also a specialty. If the prison authorities want to better manage these Spanish prisoners, they obviously need to have translators who understand Spanish to provide assistance.
Qin Huacheng quickly asked Lin Xingsui for advice: "I heard that many prisoners from Manila had been sent to Xingdao to serve their sentences before this. There must be many of them like me who can speak Chinese and understand Spanish. , Didn’t the government select some people to do the job of translation? Is there anything special to pay attention to when doing this job? ”
Lin Xingsui waved his hand and said: "I found a few people from the prisoners before, but they all seemed to have problems, and they were given up after working for only a few days. They were all decided by the superiors. The reasons are not clear, so I dare not discuss them casually. . In short, if I ask you to do this job, just remember to be careful in your words and actions.”
The four words "Be careful in your words and deeds" are unforgettable to Qin Huacheng. The root cause of his accident in Manila can be said to be that he failed to be careful in his words and deeds. As a result, he left a lot of clues and was easily investigated by the Military Intelligence Department. I checked everything and found out that I wasted a great future. So after arriving at Xingdao, he also changed his past behavior style and became cautious in everything so as not to make the same mistakes again. If he could get another chance to turn around, even without Lin Xingsui's reminder, he would definitely tell himself to be careful.
The next day, Qin Huacheng, who was in pain from the previous day's work, did not get a chance to breathe. The leader he was working on had to continue working after breakfast, and today's schedule was not a half day, but a full day. The only good thing is that their destination is still the base construction site yesterday, and they don't have to go to the dam and the wharf where the construction conditions are more difficult.
Because Qin Huacheng performed poorly at the shoveling job yesterday, the guards assigned him to push trucks loading building materials today. But to be honest, this job is no easier than shoveling. The small car looks small in volume, but it is quite heavy after being filled with concrete. Moreover, the construction site is a sloping land. Loads can be loaded uphill and emptyed downhill. For Qin Huacheng's explosive power It is not easy for people with very limited physical strength. After two rounds, my arms are weak and my feet are weak.
As a result, Qin Huacheng inevitably became the target of loud reprimands from the guards, but his actions became slower and slower. In the end, Qin Huacheng managed to persist until the lunch break.
(End of chapter)