Chapter 1747 Huge Profits
How important is the role of the navy? Haihan has used his own history of prosperity to set the best example for the countries in the Far East. From an unknown country to a powerful one, almost every overseas expansion of Haihan was indispensable without the participation of the navy. The role of the navy is best reflected in the many overseas colonies that now govern from the Yellow Sea in the north to Malacca in the south.
The countries in the South China Sea that have experienced this process personally are naturally interested in following this development path that has proven to be extremely efficient. But this road is not that easy. To achieve this goal, we must first establish a powerful navy, which is enough to deter many relatively weak countries.
However, Haihan has provided these countries and local forces with another more convenient solution. Even if they cannot build warships with excellent performance and cannot form a maritime combat force, it does not matter. As long as they are willing to pay, the navy can Han can even provide a full range of services from customized warships to personnel training. And the Annan Kingdom and the Fujian Ming Army, which are at the forefront on this road, have indeed begun to form a formed navy.
Of course, only the parties involved know how much money they spent and the compromises on diplomatic conditions in order to build their own country's naval force. Buying the warships built by Haihan in batches does not mean that you will have a powerful navy. On the contrary, this is just the beginning.
For example, the East India Company, which spent huge sums of money to buy a batch of Haihan warships last year, began to have headaches about how to use these warships to form combat effectiveness in the future. Heihan only provided them with basic crew driving training, but the corresponding tactical system was not included in the money to buy the ship. Even if the Dutch were willing to spend extra money to buy it, Heihan did not intend to teach them exploration. Relevant tactics for class warships.
Therefore, for the ships purchased by the Dutch, they not only had to find ways to equip them with naval guns and other weapons and equipment, but also had to explore their own tactics and tactics to convert the warships they finally bought into combat effectiveness. Compared with the full set of services that buyers like Annan can enjoy, this is naturally much less efficient.
In short, if you want to quickly form combat effectiveness, you must come up with conditions that satisfy Heihan. And the Netherlands is regarded by Heihan as its main competitor on a global scale in the next few years. This is a congenital flaw that the Netherlands cannot make up for. . Even if you are willing to pay, it is difficult to get some important skills from Haihan. So Su Keyi knew that he had nothing to achieve at this stage, so he left angrily. Of course, if the Haihan people are willing to relax conditions for the Netherlands and give them the same treatment as Annan, then they probably won't be able to drive them away.
And Fei Cexian could only look at the Fujian people with envy. Although Haihan sold a batch of weapons and equipment to Ming Dynasty in accordance with the agreement after the establishment of diplomatic relations last year, this did not include maritime warships. In fact, Haihan did not even sell a sampan to Ming Dynasty. This had nothing to do with the price. It was simply that Haihan did not want Ming Dynasty to have a maritime armed force with relatively strong combat effectiveness.
Among them, Fujian is the only exception. Not only can the Fujian navy purchase warships in batches from Haihan, it can even let Haihan train officers and sailors on its behalf. Of course, this kind of treatment is limited to the troops under Xu Xinsu's command. If the troops stationed in other parts of the Ming Dynasty want to come and follow Zhanguang, or let Fujian resell the Haihan warships, these are operations that are not allowed by Haihan.
The Ming court was well aware of the intrigues involved, but Fei Cexian also knew that if he asked Haihan not to export weapons and provide military aid to Fujian, or to switch targets to the Ming court, he would most likely have no choice but to do so himself. Take the humiliation. The Haihan people had an ulterior motive in supporting the Fujian garrison, and their attitude towards the Ming court seemed to be intended to win over, but in fact they were extremely wary and would definitely not agree to such a request.
Fei Cexian didn't know about these secrets in the arms trade when he was working in the capital. It was only after he came to Haihan that he gradually came into contact with the inside story. As for whether the big shots in the court, or even the emperor in the Forbidden City, realized that Haihan was constantly suppressing the Ming Dynasty from all aspects, Fei Cexian was not optimistic.
After all, in the eyes of many people, Haihan does not seem to have the intention to invade the Ming Dynasty on a large scale, and since last year, there has been a favorable argument for Haihan in the capital, believing that Haihan's various actions on the Ming coastline are actually for the sake of A sea passage from Sanya to the Liaodong Peninsula can be opened, so that troops can be mobilized to the northeast to defend the Ming Dynasty from the Hou Jin offensive, and military exploits can be used to offset the crime of cutting off Qiongzhou Island from the Ming Dynasty.
This kind of statement, which a discerning person would find ridiculous at first glance, is actually very popular among the government and the public. Many people are confused by it and think that Haihan is not actually hostile to Ming Dynasty. Although Fei Cexian did not believe that the Haihan people were so kind, he also believed that Haihan might have sent troops to Liaodong in order to allow the Ming Dynasty to completely relax trade restrictions. But when he came to Sanya and came into contact with more information in the library and various occasions, he slowly realized that Haihan's purpose was not as simple as the outside world thought. At least when the Haihan people were promoting their own arms, This is often used as a propaganda tool.
Not counting Hainan Island, there are already seven or eight colonial ports operated by Haihan near the Ming Dynasty coastline. More than half of them function as military strongholds, with certain naval and land forces stationed all year round. From north to south, the entire coastline of the Ming Dynasty was actually under the control of Haihan, and being able to control these thousands of miles of sea territory was one of the evidences used by Haihan to promote its naval power to the outside world.
Even the Ming Empire, which had the largest territory and the most powerful national power, had its maritime territories under the control of the Haihan Navy. Could there be any more convincing advertising than this? Annan State, which has been the most active in this regard, has been sending fleets to the Beibu Gulf under the guise of joint cruises or military exercises in recent years, as if it has treated the waters that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty as its own backyard. The reason why Annan was so arrogant was that they established their own navy with the help of warships and training methods provided by Haihan. Although the scale is small, it is enough to suppress the Guangxi Ming Army, which has basically been abandoned by the navy.
The Fujian Navy is even more aggressive in its actions. In the past two years, the Haihan Navy has frequently operated in the Liaodong waters. It is said that ships and personnel from Fujian have always been involved in the fleet. The last time Haihan sent troops to attack Manila, Fujian seemed to have also sent troops to participate in the war. These actions of not saying hello to the capital, on the one hand, are a sign of Fujian Xu's disobedience to the imperial court, and on the other hand, they show the combat effectiveness of the Fujian navy with the help of Haihan - it is now able to send troops to Liaodong and This is the only one of the Ming Dynasty Navy that performs military missions in Manila.
Although Fei Cexian didn't like Haihan's deliberate support of Fujian and artificial separation between the imperial court and local governments, he had to admit that Haihan's strength in maritime armed forces was indeed far superior to that of the Ming Dynasty. And if Ming wants to narrow this strength gap through its own efforts, I am afraid that the longer it takes, the smaller the possibility of success will be. Because according to the information Fei Cexian found in the library, Haihan will form a new fleet every two years or so on average, and the navy's strength is expanding at an alarming rate. The situation in the Ming Dynasty was exactly the opposite. In order to have enough military expenditures to support the suppression of bandits in the Central Plains and the defense of enemies in the north, the imperial court had to reduce the expenditure of naval forces in various places, and even canceled the naval establishments that existed in name only in some places, so as not to let some undesirable troops As a general, he continued to maintain his staff and eat empty pay. Nowadays, there are only a few naval forces on the Ming coastline that can still patrol the sea with a fully-manned fleet.
Amid this ebb and flow, the gap in strength between the two sides at sea is increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and Fei Cexian cannot think of any solution to this situation. There is definitely no way to fight. The Haihan Fleet not only has strong ships and powerful guns, but has also been constantly fighting with various people in recent years. This is not an opponent that the Ming Dynasty Navy, which has been idle for many years, can match. Apart from fruitless protests, Ming Dynasty had almost no other means of counterattack that could affect Haihan.
Fei Cexian sat in the audience, numbly listening to Bai Kesi's report about Fujian's order for warships, and became increasingly less optimistic about Ming's prospects. Although he was not a military strategist, he had access to a lot of information in Sanya, and his vision had already surpassed that of the civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty. It was not difficult to judge the difference in military emphasis between the two countries and the changing trends in the future. The Ming army will continue to work hard to quell internal and external troubles. Expensive war expenditures will make it difficult for the Ming Dynasty to spare resources to form a maritime armed force to restore the disadvantage in the future. Haihan will continue to expand its current advantages and further control the Ming Dynasty for a long time. Along the coastline, there will only be more and more cases in the coastal areas of the country that are secretly communicating with Haihan or openly defecting to Hainan like Fujian.
After Fei Cexian came to Sanya, he learned a truth: some problems cannot be solved with money, and some problems cannot be solved at all without money. Today's Ming Dynasty is really unlucky, but it has encountered both of these problems. Of course, Fei Cexian knew that the root cause was not Ming's luck or his solution to the problem, but Haihan's attitude.
Although Zhang Tiangui has told buyers that there may be delays in delivery, representatives from various countries present have shown as always a high enthusiasm for buying, as if high prices and long delivery times are not problems. Annan and Fujian alone have finalized orders for a total of eighteen exploration-class ships and six expedition-class ships. According to the current cost, the total price of these warships and the weapons and equipment on board has exceeded one million. This is still It does not include the costs of hull customization and modification, weapon upgrades, crew training, price increases, etc. that will be included in the future.
"Why are Annan people so rich!" Fei Cexian couldn't help but be a little jealous of the generosity shown by Annan's young prince Zheng Zhao. In the past, Annan had always been a remote country in the eyes of Ming Dynasty. Except for the unique geographical environment that allowed the country's grain production to be high, it seemed to have nothing else. Moreover, before Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, this neighboring country had been in the middle of a civil war. In just a few years, it showed signs of becoming stronger. This was by no means good news for the Ming Dynasty.
"There are mines in Annan!" The Champa envoy sitting next to Fei Cexian heard his complaint and revealed the secret: "Iron, coal, and an aluminum ore that the Haihan people are quietly mining are enough. Let the Annan people become nouveau riche! ”
The envoys who occupied the city knew so much about the situation in Annan that they naturally put in a lot of effort. Near the Vung Tau Port in southern Annam and bordering Champa, there is an iron mine that has only been officially mined and operated by Annam in the past two years. Although its production capacity is far less than that of Shilu Iron Mine, which has begun to operate mechanized mining, it is Annan Kingdom is already considered to be at the top level. Of course, being able to find this mineral deposit is naturally indispensable for Haihan's guidance, so Haihan also has shares in it, which can be regarded as a joint operation between the two countries.
Although the bauxite mine located in the inland north of Annan is not mined on a large scale, the aluminum extracted is basically supplied to Haihan, and it also gains a lot of benefits from Haihan.
Compared with Haihan selling weapons and equipment with high technical content, Annan's economic income, which depends on the weather, is much easier to come by, and the profits are also quite generous. Moreover, these minerals also absorbed tens of thousands of prisoners of war and prisoners after the Annan Civil War. Massive use of these cheap labor forces allowed the cost of mining mineral deposits to be kept at a very low level. In just a few years, they accumulated enough money for the Annan treasury. A large amount of wealth allowed Annan to spend every year to purchase arms from Haihan to arm himself, while maintaining frequent small-scale wars with Siam on the Western Front.
"It turns out that there is a mine at home!" Fei Cexian got this information accidentally, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart that God is really blind, why should Annan country have such a cornucopia of money that was obtained without any effort.
Fei Cexian also thought that Haihan seemed to have mined a copper mine on his own in Shandong. It was said that the output was quite rich, but this was obviously a mine belonging to the Ming Dynasty, so how come the Haihan people had monopolized it. The imperial court should have issued an order to let the Shandong officials intervene in this matter. Even if they could not get it back, they should at least set a share ratio with the Haihan people and not let them take advantage of it in vain.
Of course, Fei Cexian didn't know that it was not that the Shandong government had not taken any action, but that as soon as it took action, Haihan sent troops to fight back, and as a result he lost a number of soldiers and horses in Fushan County. But how could anyone dare to report the result of such a rubbish war to the court, which was destined to be blamed? Seeing that the Haihan people had no intention of starting a war later, the Shandong officials decisively concealed the embarrassing incident.
As for Haihan's mining in the local area, Dengzhou pretended to be deaf and dumb and stopped meddling in its own business after suffering a lot. Instead of sending troops to Fushan County to ask for trouble, it is better to send some people who know business to do business with the Haihan people. You can easily make thousands of taels of silver in one trip, compared to a war that is expensive and kills people. , wouldn’t it be wonderful to make a fortune?
(End of chapter)