Chapter 1887 Kaohsiung Experience
When traveling abroad, he was able to take the initiative to curb his desire for fun, which added a lot to Yu Yao's impression of Li Bo. Before Li Pu set off on the road, Yu Yao also gave him some local specialties, including a three-foot-tall peach-colored coral. Although this thing does not cost much to pick from the sea, it is expensive on the market. A priceless rarity. Li Bo could not come up with a gift of comparable value for a while. Yu Yao saw his embarrassment and laughed and said that if he had the opportunity to visit North Korea in the future, it would not be too late for Li Bo to entertain him again.
The voyage from Magong Port to Kaohsiung Port in the southern part of Taiwan Island is closer than that from Zhangzhou to Magong Port. Yu Yao specially made a little fuss on the route and arranged for the fleet to take a slight detour southward along the west coast of Taiwan Island, so that it can logically Passing by the Dutch port of Damien, Li Mu saw the gap between the ports operated by Western colonists and Haihan.
"Your Majesty, the coast ahead is Taiyuan Port." Yu Yao lost no time in reminding Li Bo and asked him to use the telescope in his hand to observe Taiyuan Port. Of course the fleet will not dock at Tai Muang Port, so we can only take a look at it from a distance while "passing by".
Fortunately, the weather today is quite good. There is almost no fog on the sea surface and the visibility is extremely high. With a telescope, you can even see the ships parked at the port dock several miles away.
Li Bo was actually quite curious about the conditions of the port run by the Dutch, but what he saw through the telescope was a bit disappointing. There were only two Western-style sailing ships with slightly larger hulls docked at the pier, and the others were all small sampans. , even compared with Magong Port, which has a small trade volume, there is a clear gap.
"It seems that this is not a lively port." Li Bo quickly came to his conclusion, but he did not put down the telescope in his hand - this thing is indeed interesting, and after using it, he couldn't put it down. One of the gifts he received was far more useful than the corals that could only be used as decorations.
"The Dutch once tried to control the Fujian Strait, but because of our appearance, they failed in the end." Yu Yao introduced proudly: "In order to retain this colony, the Dutch finally chose to sign a peace agreement with our country. And gave up stationing troops in Taiyuan Port.”
This choice of the Dutch is also a last resort. They are inferior to Haihan in terms of force. If they want to regain control of the Fujian Strait, they have to organize a fleet expedition from Batavia. However, considering several other opponents, The Dutch did not dare to use their hometown as an empty city strategy. Otherwise, if any one of Spain, Portugal, and Malta took advantage of the situation, Batavia would become very dangerous. In desperation, they could only choose to compromise and recognize Haihan's dominance in the Fujian Strait.
However, Li Bo had never dealt with the Dutch, and he basically knew nothing about the strength of the East India Company. He didn't even know much about the grudges between Haihan and the Dutch, so Yu Yao made this arrangement. The touch on him was very limited, and I didn't realize the other party's full purpose. In Li Bo's view, the Haihan army might want to use the surrender of the Dutch to prove to themselves that they were powerful, but in fact this move was a bit redundant, because on the Korean battlefield, the Haihan army had already proven itself with actual actions. With such strength, even the Qing cavalry was defeated by the Haihan army without any suspense. Li Bo did not think that the Dutch were stronger than the Qing army.
Of course, Li Bo still praised Haihan's achievements very much. After all, this advantage was obtained by Haihan's practical force, and there was no water mixed in it.
The current situation of Damuan Port is just as Li Bo sees it. Due to Haihan's threat of force, it has changed from the bridgehead where the Dutch East India Company occupied the Fujian Strait a few years ago to a mediocre colony. However, Damuan Port is too far away from Batavia. The one-month voyage makes many European immigrants doubtful about this destination that is isolated overseas and has no development prospects. Therefore, the population size of Taiyuan Port has been stagnant in the past two years, and the level of infrastructure and agricultural development have naturally stagnated due to this impact.
The top leaders of the East India Company also clearly realized that Haihan's control over the Fujian Strait would not allow them to develop colonies on a large scale on Taiwan Island. As for military use, it was even more delusional. Therefore, investment in Damuan Port gradually slowed down. After all, if you have this spare money, you might as well open a few more plantations in the South China Sea, where you are at least sure to get economic returns.
If the functions of Penghu Magong Port tend to be military, then Kaohsiung Port is more inclined to the economic and trade field. Since the construction of Kaohsiung Port in 1632, Fort Victory's plan here has been to build a regional trade center while carrying out large-scale agricultural development based on local agricultural products and deep processing industries.
Since Kaohsiung Port attracted a large number of investors from Fujian and Guangzhou through investment promotion methods at the beginning of its construction, the development funds and manpower were relatively sufficient in the early stage, and it did not encounter problems that are prone to common colonial areas. Moreover, the location of Kaohsiung Port is built based on the natural terrain of a natural haven, and the initial engineering investment required is much smaller than that of a general trading port.
The benefits brought by these advantages to Kaohsiung Port are obvious. Among the ports built by Haihan in the Daming coastal area, the construction progress of Kaohsiung Port should be one of the fastest. Moreover, due to the large area of its natural harbor, there is still room for future development. It is quite large. It will not be like Victory Port. Due to the innate conditions, the space in the harbor is almost completely developed in just a few years.
And the chief officer appointed by Haihan here also has great room for growth, just like Kaohsiung Port. Li Dou was one of the youngest among Haihan's senior officials. When he and Chen Yixin were stationed at Dawanshan Island at the Pearl River Estuary, they were both in their twenties. Later, the two were transferred to Penghu together to serve in Penghu in 1632, and then parted ways in Penghu the following year. Chen Yixin first went to Zhoushan, and then went all the way north to Liaodong, while Li Dou came to Kaohsiung as the chief administrative officer.
In the blink of an eye, Li Dou has been in charge of Kaohsiung Port for four years. The high school graduate who participated in time travel is now a mature man who is about to enter his thirties. During his tenure in Kaohsiung, Li Dou married a Fujian woman. Now he has a son and a daughter, which can be regarded as a flourishing life in this time and space.
Li Dou had a clearer view than Yu Yao of the itinerary arranged by Victory Castle for the Joseon prince Li Bo. He knew that Li Bo’s purpose of going south this time was to study in Sanya, and Victory Castle hoped to increase Li Bo’s life on the way. He learned about it to strengthen his understanding of Haihan's national power. This trip south to visit various colonial ports under Haihan's rule was to allow Li Bo to witness with his own eyes how Haihan ran a country with such scattered ruling areas, so that he could understand Haihan's national political system and governing philosophy. Have a personal experience of the advanced nature.
Kaohsiung Port is different from Penghu. There are relatively richer economic development projects here, and there is much more to show Li Bo than in Penghu.
Before the ship even docked, Li Bo had already noticed that the port facilities here were different from those at Magong Port. There were many more large cranes and iron frame cranes used to lift bulk cargo than at Magong Port, and there were also paving on the pier. The track used to transport goods indirectly proves that the cargo throughput scale here should be higher than that of Magong Port. Of course, the more intuitive evidence is the number and tonnage of ships docked at the pier, which completely overwhelmed the Damuan Port that Li Bo had only seen not long ago. The process of their fleet sailing into the port caused almost no commotion. The staff and laborers on the dock still performed their duties and did not treat this fleet as a rare thing.
At the two stations of Zhoushan and Penghu, Haihan was always greeted by military attachés, and here he finally met the first senior civil servant of Haihan on this trip. However, in Li Bo's view, apart from not wearing a military uniform, Mr. Li's appearance seems to be no different from the Haihan military attache he had seen before. They are both short-haired, dark-skinned, muscular men with a certain look in every gesture. Share confidence.
“Welcome His Majesty to the Port of Kaohsiung!”
Similar to the arrangement at Magong Port, Li Dou did not prepare a complicated welcome ceremony. He also just brought a few subordinates to the dock to welcome Li Bo's arrival. Facing Yu Yao, who was escorting Li Bo and his party to Kaohsiung Port, Li Dou followed Haihan's social behavior and stretched out his hand to hold it tightly. He and Yu Yao have been working together for several years, and they know each other relatively well, so they don't need to talk in front of outsiders.
Like other trading ports belonging to Haihan, the urban area of Kaohsiung Port is built close to the port area. Outside the urban area are various economic crop planting areas that stretch for dozens of miles inland. Thanks to Haihan's efforts, the population now settled here has exceeded 5,000, about two-thirds of whom are engaged in agricultural work on plantations.
"Our place is much richer in products than Penghu. I believe the prince can also feel this feature from the dinner table."
At the reception banquet, Li Dou joked easily with Li Bo. However, his statement is not false. Kaohsiung has an extremely rich variety of local agricultural products. In the past two years, the construction of livestock breeding has begun. Coupled with the fishery industry that has unique natural conditions, it can be said that Kaohsiung’s agricultural development has covered Various categories. Almost all of the various ingredients, drinks, seasonings, and spices used in this feast are produced locally, which is extremely rare among Haihan's many overseas colonies.
There were indeed many tropical fruits and vegetables on the dinner table that Li Bo had never seen or tasted before. Although eating and drinking was a matter of appetite, it could also be regarded as a special way to increase his knowledge - at least that's what Li Bo thought.
Taking advantage of the relaxed topic of eating and drinking, Li Dou introduced the local agricultural development situation to Li Bo.
The agricultural development plan of Kaohsiung Port is hosted and directed by the Haihan Ministry of Agriculture, which is divided into four major projects: agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. The major category of agriculture alone includes multiple categories such as cereals, beans, potatoes, oil crops, vegetables, fruits, edible fungi, nuts, spice crops, etc. Each category includes several categories.
Under the planning of the Ministry of Agriculture, varieties suitable for Kaohsiung's geographical and climatic environment were selected from a wide variety of crop types, and large-scale planting was realized locally through collective farms or private plantations. This agricultural development model is far superior to the traditional small-scale farmer economic model in terms of output efficiency, and it took less than two years to achieve local food self-sufficiency.
The large-scale planting of cash crops has also brought development space for the deep processing of local agricultural products. After the deep processing of sugar, hemp, tobacco, oil crops, and spice crops in local workshops, their economic value will also be doubled. The yield rate far exceeds that of traditional food crops. Therefore, although the Kaohsiung area appears to be a colonial area with agriculture as its main industry, the commodities exported from here to the outside world are not cheap crops such as rice. Most of the businessmen who invested in and built plantations in Kaohsiung have now entered the harvest period. The good return on investment and the safety conditions under Haihan's rule have also attracted more businessmen to come here with money and labor to get a share of the pie.
It is not just the planting industry that is driven by primary industries. For example, the livestock industry has driven the local leather processing industry, and the prosperity of the fishery has made several local small private shipyards prosperous. The other supporting industries and service industries driven by this have enabled Kaohsiung's local economy to develop soundly, and the average income level of residents has even exceeded that of some places on Hainan Island.
Although agriculture-related development plans are formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, as the local administrative officer, Li Dou has played an indispensable role in them in recent years. During this year's National Day, the Executive Committee has already commended his performance and approved the Ministry of Agriculture's proposal to use the Kaohsiung area as a national agricultural development demonstration zone.
Li Bo actually couldn't fully understand the agricultural development-related information introduced by Li Dou, but he still tried hard to listen to every word Li Dou said, hoping to absorb more useful things from it. As Li Dou said, the Kaohsiung area is dominated by agriculture, so North Korea, which is also an agricultural country, should be able to learn some useful experiences from Kaohsiung. However, due to the limited agricultural knowledge he had, he had never even heard of many of the crops Li Dou mentioned, let alone understood their value.
This also made Li Pu feel a little helpless. His current situation can be well described by the saying that when the book is used, he will hate it less. Nowadays, Haihan people are willing to teach some experience in agricultural development, but he, a student, cannot understand the course because of his poor foundation, so he is very unwilling to waste this rare opportunity.
(End of chapter)