Chapter 1895 Strength speaks
Haihan's huge investment in the navy is obvious to all countries. When Li Bo returned to Seoul from the Datong River base, he was fortunate enough to ride on Haihan's Majesty-class battleship. At that time, he curiously asked Haihan Navy Commander Wang Tom about this kind of warship. The cost of building a battleship. However, Wang Tom did not disclose the detailed figures to him. He only mentioned lightly that the artillery equipped on the ship was worth more than two thousand taels of silver each, and Li Bo consciously did not ask any further.
The Majesty-class ship has more than fifty artillery pieces. According to Wang Tom, the naval guns alone will cost at least 100,000 taels of silver, and the entire fleet of North Korea's existing navy may not be worth so much. Moreover, the Majestic-class battleship is also equipped with a mysterious mechanical device that can provide propulsion. Presumably its value will not be lower than the ship-borne weapons. With this rough calculation, a Majesty-class battleship cannot be obtained without hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Yes, Li Bo could only dispel some unrealistic fantasies at that time.
But considering that Haihan's first Majesty-class battleship was put into service eight years ago, Li Bo truly felt the gap in strength between the two countries' maritime armed forces. There were actually only two majestic-class warships sent by Haihan to Korea to participate in the war. However, after cooperating with other warships in the fleet to blockade the Yalu River and the Liaodong coast, it was enough to suppress all the warships of the Qing army and were unable to go to sea throughout the war. , greatly increasing the opponent's logistical pressure.
Li Pu recalled the several ports under the Haihan rule that he visited on his way south. Only the ports of Magong Port in Penghu and Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan did not see the majesty-class warships. However, according to what Shi Diwen said when he visited Zhoushan, the majesty-class warships originally stationed in the Fujian Strait went to North Korea to participate in the war and have not returned to their base yet. In the future, after the military port facilities at the Datong River base are completed, a majesty-class warship is likely to be permanently stationed there as a powerful tool for port control, but the specific time will depend on the progress of the construction and commissioning of its follow-up ships.
For North Korea, combat equipment such as Majesty-class battleships, which are very expensive in terms of construction and daily expenses, are out of reach. Poor players cannot make money and can only look up to the big guys. But for Haihan, the only problem that needs to worry is that the speed of building this class of warships cannot even keep up with the speed of territory expansion, and it is not yet possible to equip naval forces stationed overseas on demand.
Since the majesty-class battleships built later were equipped with a steam power system, their construction and maintenance costs were indeed far higher than those of traditional sail battleships, and the construction period was more than a year. Even the navy, which has always had an abundant military budget, could only maintain it during these years. Following the commissioning progress of two ships per year. However, although this progress is not enough to meet the requirements of the Navy, it is actually basically enough for the current external environment that Haihan needs to face.
Each overseas naval base only needs to station one majestic-class warship, supplemented by several exploration-class and expedition-class warships to form a basic fleet. Unless it is a large-scale battle such as attacking the Golden State Isthmus or Manila Bay, fleets need to be mobilized from other places. The small fleets stationed at various military ports are enough to carry out combat missions in most cases. This year, the Allied fleet went to Korea to fight, and its lineup was actually overwhelming. Even if the Haihan fleet did not take action, it was more than enough to rely on the other three Allied fleets to deal with the surface armed forces of the Qing army.
Of course, even with this basic configuration to guard the place, its strength is enough to make Li Shu envious. In the past, he thought that his country's turtle ships and wooden house ships were very powerful maritime warships, but the emergence of the Haihan Fleet changed his perception. The country's navy could only serve as a transport team on the battlefield. and sentry.
But thinking in a positive direction, maybe in a few years the North Korean Navy will change its appearance because of the shipbuilding technology of Haihan. Although it may not be able to have large warships like the Majesty class by then, at least it will be able to have medium-sized warships like the Exploration class. Small warships can be built in North Korea's shipyards - of course, provided there is a sufficient military budget.
Where does the money come from? Li Pu thought about the prospect of going abroad. Fu Gongli had begun to control daily expenses. The group of overseas students, including himself, could hardly raise the basic expenses. The cost of an exploration-class warship plus the weapons, equipment and personnel on the ship The training cost must be at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. If the North Korean navy wants to change its appearance, it seems not that easy if you think about it carefully.
But why does Haihan have so much money to spend? Li Shu tapped his fingers lightly on the page, thinking about this question that confused him. He wanted to find the answer from the book. Maybe developing trade is a good direction, but the description of international trade in the book is relatively simple. It usually only mentions that trade cooperation was reached after talks with a certain party on a certain day of a certain year, month and certain day. As for the agreement, the process and content are simply skipped. Li Pu only knew that Haihan sold a large amount of weapons and equipment to foreign countries, but he knew very little about other trade contents.
The prosperity of trading ports like Zhoushan and Hong Kong can already reflect Haihan's operating conditions in the field of international trade. Li Bo believes that there is no doubt that Haihan has made a lot of profits from it, but he is a complete layman in commercial operations. , even if I visited on the spot, I still don’t understand how Haihan turned these originally remote islands into a bustling trading port.
Unable to come up with an answer, Li Bo could only secretly decide that during the limited time he would stay in Hong Kong, he would have to learn more about business and trade information, and collect some information in advance for North Korea's future international trade.
But when he put down his book and was about to take a rest, he found that the outside window was already turning white. Li Pu walked to the balcony and could see that the fishing port in the distance was already becoming lively. Fishermen go out to sea much earlier than merchant ships. In the early morning, diligent fishermen have returned from offshore fishing. Before dawn, a batch of fresh catches will be sold at the market near the fishing port. If nothing else happens, Li Bo's breakfast will include seafood that was caught just this morning.
"I read a book all night long. I have never studied so hard before..." Li Bo was also a little surprised at how quickly time passed, and he spent the whole night reading without knowing it. This may also be related to the education he received since childhood. He has always read books such as classics and history. He has never been exposed to a slightly deductive biographical literature such as "The Rise of the South China Sea", and the protagonist of this book happens to be another It was the one he was currently in contact with, so he watched it all night out of interest.
But Li Pu knew that there were probably foreign affairs activities arranged by Haihan during the day, and he had to recuperate his energy if he could sleep for a while.
Sure enough, it seemed that not long after Li Pu fell asleep, he was awakened by his servants and asked him to get up, wash and have a meal. Later, You Yihan would send a car to pick him up and take him to the business district to continue his tour.
"Your Majesty looks so haggard. Didn't you get a good rest last night? Is there something that makes you uncomfortable? I'll have someone deal with it immediately."
As soon as You Yihan and Li Pufu met, he noticed the conspicuous dark circles on Li Pu's face and quickly asked with concern. Li Bo couldn't tell the truth, so he just said that he was inexplicably upset last night, perhaps because he was away from his hometown for the first time and felt homesick.
It is human nature to feel homesick. After listening to You Yihan's suspicion, he introduced the area he was going to visit today to Li Ming: "Didn't the prince ask yesterday why so many merchants from the Ming Dynasty were willing to come to Hong Kong to do business? We are going here today." Every place is full of shops run by Ming merchants. If the prince is interested, you can communicate with them face to face, and you may be able to find the answer to your question. "Most of the merchants and commercial institutions from the Ming Dynasty in the early days lived in groups, or for the sake of business. Closer to the Pearl River Estuary, they basically chose to settle on the west side of the port. Several local guild halls built by Ming merchants were also located in this area. Ming merchants who later came to Hong Kong to do business took this as the center and gradually built shops, warehouses and other buildings in a radial pattern on the periphery, gradually turning this place into the most prosperous neighborhood on Hong Kong Island.
Or because the layout of the buildings and streets in this area presents a ring structure that is rarely seen in ordinary cities, and it is located in the middle of the business district on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, it was logically named Central by the Hong Kong Management Committee.
The reason for this naming is of course only an official statement to the outside world. In fact, it is just a joke by the people on the executive committee to miss the past. However, people in this time and space did not object to the more vivid name of Central. After listening to You Yihan's introduction, Li Bo didn't think there was anything wrong. He just thought that so many Ming businessmen poured into the area under Haihan's rule. Which country's laws should govern management?
He remembered that when he visited Zhoushan earlier, there were actually many shops opened by Ming merchants there, but the business scale seemed to be a little behind compared to Hong Kong. According to Shi Diwen, the local situation is generally based on the laws of Haihan.
"We here are the same as Zhoushan. We basically follow the rules of our country." After listening to Li Bo's question, You Yihan explained to him: "If it is just a business dispute, then we will mediate and resolve it. If it cannot be resolved, we will The same goes for major criminal cases, which are handled by specialized courts. However, we also have judicial cooperation with nearby state governments, and we often handle cases jointly. In this case, the case will generally be based on the nationality and nationality of the offender. Factors such as the location of the crime and the place of arrest were resolved through negotiation.”
Li Pu nodded to express his understanding, and continued to ask: "Businessmen here are all here to seek wealth, so most of the troubles must be business disputes, right?"
"That's not necessarily true." You Yihan smiled and shook his head: "Your Majesty, you don't know how sinister people are. The more prosperous this place is, the more people will take risks for the sake of money. Every year, there are three to five hundred people arrested by us for committing crimes here. Yes. But there are endless bad guys in the world. We just need to try our best to create a relatively stable trading environment for businessmen.”
As You Yihan said, although Hong Kong looks prosperous, it is not a peaceful place. Precisely because it gathers wealth from all over the world, it seems to be a lawless place for the Ming Dynasty, so there will be many people who are against the law. People from all walks of life who lack understanding and want to make money come to Hong Kong, and there are also some ruthless desperadoes among them.
Of the various cases that occur here every year, 80% are caused by money. In order to maintain local security, the Management Committee maintains a judicial establishment of nearly a thousand people all year round, which even includes a company of armed police to deal with certain emergencies that are inconvenient for the military to handle directly. . But even so, the incidence rate of public security cases here has not dropped significantly. The number of prisoners taken to the Stanley Prison in the south of the island every year has never dropped into three digits.
You Yihan is not afraid of exposing his shortcomings in front of Li Bo. Although there have always been security problems in this place, it has not hindered the increase in trade scale every year. To put it bluntly, ordinary public security cases will not affect the local governance of the management committee. If an incident that may have a greater impact does occur, not to mention Haihan's efforts to deal with it, many vested interests in the local government of Ming Dynasty will be dealt with. Stakeholders will also help cover the lid to eliminate the impact.
These things will not have much impact on the Ming Dynasty businessmen who come to Hong Kong to do business. They are very aware of Haihan's strength and know that the security they can get here is actually better than that at home. As long as you abide by the rules set by the Haihan people and manage your business well, getting rich is the goal that is just around the corner.
While they were talking, the carriage the two of them were riding in had already arrived in Central. Just like the day before, they got off the carriage at a random street corner and then walked to visit the nearby shops.
Because the streets in Central were built by the Ming Dynasty merchants themselves, there was no unified planning when the construction started. They are not as horizontal and vertical as the urban areas planned by Haihan on the east side of the harbor. The pavements along the streets are also large and small, and they do not look good. Very neat. However, in Li Bo's opinion, this seems to be well-organized and more like a city life.
Most of the shops opened by merchants in the Ming Dynasty sold handicrafts and rough-processed local specialties. However, these products were not necessarily produced in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. Li Meng visited a few shops at random, and they also sold goods from inland Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and Jiangxi. Products from other places, including Shaanxi, Shanxi and other northern regions, it seems that the Pearl River Estuary is indeed known as the southern sea trade channel of the Ming Dynasty.
Compared with the high value-added industrial products produced by Haihan, the unit prices of these Daming products are generally relatively low, but judging from the flow of people in these shops, the business should still be very good. Moreover, many Westerners with deep eyes and high noses can be seen walking through the streets here, and those who want to participate in local trade are far more than just the Hai, Han and Ming Dynasties.
"The port leased by the Portuguese from the Ming Dynasty is more than a hundred miles west of Hong Kong Island, just west of the Pearl River estuary, so you will see many Portuguese businessmen here." You Yihan was very interested in Li Bo at the right time. An explanation was given.
(End of chapter)