Chapter 2222
The answer given by Chen Xiaoyu will undoubtedly make the vast majority of Ming Dynasties feel uncomfortable. After all, Ming Dynasty has always regarded itself as the supreme kingdom of heaven and regarded surrounding countries as weak chickens. It is difficult for the people to accept that a new country with a military power superior to that of the Ming Dynasty suddenly appeared next to it, which actually made the Ming Dynasty lack the courage to adopt a military confrontation attitude.
The barbarians outside the pass in the north are enough to cause a headache, but the Haihan emerging from the sea in the south seem to be even better. Most of their territories are actually occupied by the Ming Dynasty, including the Zhoushan Islands. .
How did this place fall into the hands of the Haihan people? Dai Chengrong had heard some rumors before, to the effect that armed pirates entrenched in the Zhoushan Islands robbed Haihan's merchant ships. As a result, the angered Haihan launched a massive attack and sent out armed pirates. The fleet wiped out the pirates here, and then took advantage of the situation to take over the place as their own.
As for why the Ming Dynasty acquiesced to what Haihan did in Zhoushan, the outside world has not received an official statement on this, but it is generally believed that this was a compromise made by the Ming Dynasty as a last resort due to Haihan's military superiority.
However, because of his family connections, Dai Chengrong had access to some undisclosed official information and knew that the cause of this situation was not just as simple as the difference in force. The Ming Dynasty refused to show its face, and was more worried about its own difficult situation. Under internal and external troubles, it could only avoid opening a new battlefield on the southeast coast as much as possible, not to mention that this opponent was compared with the peasant army in the Central Plains and the northern army. Barbarian is much more powerful.
In addition, Haihan's occupation of the Zhoushan Islands was not for the purpose of invading the Ming Dynasty. Although he often showed off his force, he did not attack the coastal state capitals. Instead, he opened a port in Zhoushan to start transnational trade. If Ming Dynasty takes military measures in this situation, it will rekindle the war that has subsided, and objectively speaking, Ming Dynasty has no certainty of victory. Starting a war over a useless place like the Zhoushan Islands, from Ming's perspective, it was obviously not cost-effective to take such a risk.
Of course, under the control of a force like Haihan who is good at operating maritime trade, Zhoushan is no longer useless, but a trading port that can radiate to the prosperous areas of Hangzhou Bay and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, both in terms of development prospects and strategic position. It is very important and has already been included in the long-term planning of the Executive Committee.
Although Chen Xiaoyu's reasons sounded a bit biased, after hearing this, Dai Chengrong couldn't produce any evidence to refute his point of view. After all, based on his personal experience, he had never seen such a large warship. But when he thought that Haihan, a foreign country, actually had more powerful force than Ming Dynasty, Dai Chengrong felt unwilling and envious.
Chen Xiaoyu continued: "There are many warships of this level in our country, and new ships are added to the navy every year. And I heard from General Shi that even larger sail warships than this will be built in the future!"
Although Dai Chengrong didn't understand Haihan's shipbuilding capabilities, after seeing the majesty-class battleship with his own eyes, he had no doubts about Chen Xiaoyu's boast. But thinking about such a powerful foreign armed fleet stationed on the Ming coastline, I still feel a little knotty in my heart.
"Let's go, find a place to eat, and I'll take you to see these two ships go to sea another day when I have the opportunity!" Chen Xiaoyu could tell from Dai Chengrong's expression that he was interested in these two battleships, so he deliberately wanted to whet his appetite. .
Sure enough, Dai Chengrong responded immediately: "Instructor, you must remember to do what you say!"
Chen Xiaoyu was going to find a familiar small restaurant near the military port to eat, but Dai Chengrong took the initiative and said: "It is rare to come out, why not find a better place, and I will bear all the expenses!"
After saying that, he patted his waist coquettishly and said to Chen Xiaoyu: "Just leave the money to me, the instructor!"
Chen Xiaoyu smiled and said: "So just now you said you were going back to the dormitory to get something, so you just went to get the money!"
Dai Chengrong said: "The military camp is strictly controlled. Gambling is not allowed, and there is nothing to buy. I respect the instructors but you don't accept them. The money I bring cannot be spent at all. It's rare to go out today, so of course I have to find someone." Great place to spend money!”
When these salt merchants' children came to Zhoushan, they all brought a lot of luggage. Although they were forced to give up some unimportant personal belongings when they entered the military camp, almost everyone had some money in their luggage. However, this is not their personal behavior, but the measures arranged by each of the seven major surnames.
The purpose of this arrangement by various salt merchants is also very simple, that is, they consider that these children will definitely encounter many inconveniences when they go out, but as long as they have enough money on hand, I believe it will be enough to solve most of the difficulties. Of course, it would be best if you could bribe a few Haihan officers during their training and invite them to come to Yangzhou to serve for you after they retire.
However, this was not the first time that Haihan had organized this kind of military training. Naturally, they had taken precautions against this. All soldiers participating in the training were strictly prohibited from accepting property gifts from the children of salt merchants to avoid uncontrollable situations.
Of course, this kind of regulation only applies to the environment in the military camp. Outside the camp, many things may not be strictly implemented in accordance with the rules. For example, in order to ensure that the training of these salt merchants' children can go smoothly, Ma Zhengping has been sending various benefits to Duan Tiancheng these days, and Duan Tiancheng basically accepted them all without deliberately refusing.
Dai Chengrong also knew that it was inconvenient to offer benefits to these instructors in the military, but today he had a rare opportunity to leave the military camp, so of course he had to try to make the instructors happy. As for how much money it will cost, Dai Chengrong won't feel bad at all. If his boldness can make the instructor look at him differently, then he won't mind spending as much money as possible in Zhoushan, and he knows that his old father who is far away in Yangzhou will definitely support it. He does.
So at Dai Chengrong's strong request, the two called a rickshaw nearby and went to the port area west of Xiaozhushan.
Dinghai Port is bounded by Xiaozhu Mountain in the middle of the harbor, which extends from the inland to the coastline. It is divided into two port areas, the east and west, each responsible for military and civilian functions. The port area to the west of Xiaozhushan is where the East China Sea Fleet is stationed, while the port area to the east is a bustling commercial area.
Dai Chengrong arrived at Dinghai Port by boat that day. He had no chance to take a look at the business district. After getting off the ship, he was sent to the military camp. It was not until today that he was finally lucky enough to experience the prosperity of Dinghai Port.
Compared with the cities that Dai Chengrong has visited before, a major feature of Dinghaiport is that the streets are wide and straight. It can be seen that a lot of effort was put into the planning and construction period. Moreover, there are many buildings on both sides of the street that can be seen to be newly built a few years ago. It can be seen that Haihan must have done a lot in infrastructure construction after taking over this place.
The houses on both sides of the street are actually all kinds of shops, and the flow of people on the street is also very considerable. It is really a prosperous scene. Even compared with a city known for its prosperity like Yangzhou, it seems that it will not fall behind.
Seeing that the streets here were obviously becoming congested, Chen Xiaoyu suggested getting out of the car and walking. Dai Chengrong had this intention and immediately asked the driver to pull over.
"You probably can't imagine what Zhoushan Island looked like when we captured it from the pirates." Chen Xiaoyu proudly raised his hand and pointed to the shops on both sides of the street and said, "I heard the commander say, that At that time, this place was a fishing port town. This street could not even be called a street. It was just a three-foot-wide loess road. There were several taverns, pawnshops, and brothels on the roadside, all run by pirates on the island. It's a mess. Although there are many businessmen coming and going here every year, no one has ever planned to build a city here until we came!" Dai Chengrong said: "For such a big project, there is not much population on this island. It must be that the soldiers who came to the island could only be used as migrant workers to participate in the project.”
"When I went to the island, the troops were no longer involved in these infrastructure projects." Chen Xiaoyu shook his head and said: "Later on, these projects were successively undertaken by businessmen from various countries."
When Chen Xiaoyu fled to Zhoushan Island to enlist in the army, the Haihan Army had already established a foothold here, and it was the period when Dinghaiport was being built with great fanfare. However, he was lucky. It happened that Shi Diwen was implementing a series of policies in Zhoushan that would help businessmen participate in local development and construction, so he was not used as a migrant worker.
Dai Chengrong said: "These infrastructure projects are very expensive and require a large amount of labor to be brought to the island. Why would any businessman be willing to undertake them?"
"It's all for profit!" Chen Xiaoyu revealed the secret: "By building roads and ports, you can get development rights in nearby areas, and discerning businessmen are rushing to do it."
Dai Chengrong smiled and said: "The ones who are rushing ahead must be the merchants of Haihan Kingdom."
Chen Xiaoyu nodded and said: "Businessmen here in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have no cooperation experience, and most of them have a wait-and-see attitude. But businessmen from our country know that this kind of development project is rich in oil and water, and they can be divided in a few times. Wait for the local businessmen to come to their senses." , we can only accept some second-hand projects that are subcontracted.”
After Haihan occupied Zhoushan Island, the first people to invest money in infrastructure development were business groups from Fujian and Guangdong. These local business groups have been cooperating with Haihan for a long time, and they are relatively familiar with Haihan's development methods for overseas colonies. At the same time, they have strong financial resources. After taking over these projects, they hired migrant workers from nearby state capitals to start work on the island. Although the initial investment is huge, the many benefits gained from it are definitely not achieved by doing sea trade business alone.
Although Chen Xiaoyu did not directly participate in the construction process of these projects at that time, many officers in his army served as supervisors on these construction sites to ensure that the quality of these projects contracted by businessmen would not be perfunctory. Therefore, Chen Xiaoyu later heard these officers reveal many anecdotes about the development process of the port area. Although the level of information he had access to was not high, it was more than enough to show off his knowledge to Dai Chengrong.
Dai Chengrong listened carefully and thought that he should take note of this. When he finds an opportunity to meet with Mr. Ma another day, he will talk about this cooperation method and see if the Seven Big Surnames can also get a share of the Zhoushan Island.
But in fact, he didn't need to say it. Ma Zhengping had already been exposed to information in this field. Both Xuan Xiangming and Duan Tiancheng were persuading him to consider taking on some larger infrastructure projects in Zhoushan. However, the cooperation conditions that the Zhoushan authorities could provide to foreign businessmen during this period were definitely not as good as the policies when they first arrived in Zhoushan.
Moreover, the prime land near Dinghai Port has long been divided up. If Ma Zhengping wants to take on this kind of project, it can only be implemented in the peripheral area designated by the Zhoushan authorities, which is roughly the coast east of the existing port area. Even if the construction starts immediately, In the short term, it will definitely not be able to compare with the port area that has matured over the past few years.
"After eating in the army for so many days, why don't you go eat some Yangzhou food and feel the taste of your hometown?" Chen Xiaoyu suggested.
"Is there Yangzhou food here? That's great, let's have a labor reeducation officer lead the way!" Although Dai Chengrong is said to be from Huizhou, he was born in Yangzhou, and his eating habits are actually the same as those of authentic Yangzhou people. The food after coming to Zhoushan was not bad, but Dai Chengrong naturally did not want to miss the opportunity to eat hometown food in a foreign country.
After walking on the street for a while, Chen Xiaoyu asked: "How is the store in front of me?"
Dai Chengrong took a look and saw a conspicuous plaque hanging outside the restaurant on the street, called "Second Branch Building". He immediately smiled and praised: "The instructor is an expert. This Second Branch Building is also a well-known restaurant in Yangzhou City. It does three things." The first banquet was particularly outstanding. Unexpectedly, it was also opened in Zhoushan without any fanfare. ”
When Chen Xiaoyu heard Dai Chengrong praise him for his expertise, he couldn't help but feel hot on his face. This restaurant is considered a high-end place in Yangzhou. Just a table of dishes costs a lot of money. He can't afford it, but he used to pay for it with his father. The second floor has delivered river fresh food a few times.
Chen Xiaoyu knew that this place was expensive, so he didn't go in directly out of caution. He asked Dai Chengrong for his opinion first. However, Dai Chengrong didn't consider the price issue at all. Since the instructor chose this place, he just went in to eat, and immediately called Chen Xiaoyu in.
The waiter standing at the door saw the two men in military uniforms and quickly came over to greet them: "Are the two military masters here to eat or looking for someone?"
"For dinner, is there a private room upstairs? Lead the way!" Dai Chengrong was used to the world and knew that the private rooms on the second floor were all upstairs, so he asked the waiter to lead the way.
The waiter looked embarrassed and said: "Master Jun, the private room is gone today..."
"Then just find a seat facing the street upstairs!" Dai Chengrong didn't care.
The waiter took the two of them to the third floor and found a table by the window. Looking out the window, you could see the Dinghai Port Pier, and the ships docked densely on the shore were already lit up with lights.
"What do you two military masters want to eat? Can you please recommend our signature dishes?"
"No need to recommend. Let's try your restaurant's best three-head banquet first... It's a pity that this place is far away from Yangzhou, otherwise it would be good to have three delicacies from the Yangtze River!" Dai Chengrong didn't need the waiter's recommendation. After sitting down, he was familiar with the road. Place the dishes.
(End of chapter)