Chapter 2430
Tao Donglai wanted the salt merchants' children to recognize and get close to Haihan, and even work for Haihan. Although the idea was good, it was not easy to implement. People like Dai Chengrong come from a privileged family and have been doing business for generations. They have been trained to be human beings since childhood. Before coming to Zhoushan, they were repeatedly warned by their elders, so they would not change their stance easily. In the eyes of Yangzhou salt merchants, the cooperation with Haihan is not a one-sided surrender. Even if they are seeking help from Haihan at this stage, in the end it is just a business where both parties get what they need.
However, Tao Donglai had never dealt with Yangzhou salt merchants before, so Shi Diwen had to spend more time explaining to him the whole story. The transaction between the Zhoushan authorities and the Yangzhou salt merchants is that Haihan provides personnel training and weapons and equipment, and assists the Huizhou salt merchants in forming militia groups. In addition to paying the corresponding fees, the Huizhou salt merchants also underwrite the products provided by Haihan. salt, and, if necessary, placing command of the militia in the hands of Hayhan.
"This is roughly the condition... The salt merchants think that they have paid corresponding money in exchange for our support, so they only think that this is a business." After Shi Diwen finished explaining, he paused and continued: " The children of salt merchants are different from the military talents we recruited in the past. For them, choosing to cooperate with my country is not actually a step of necessity. They have a choice, so they will naturally be more flexible and not so easy to conquer. ”
Among the military talents Haihan recruited in the past, many were captured and joined Haihan. These people themselves had relatively strong abilities. After changing camps and joining Haihan, they became more at home and naturally became easier to establish. Military exploits. For example, Takahashi Nan, who was born as a samurai, and Wu Sen, a surrendered general of South Vietnam, all fall into this category. The other type is immigrants who choose to join the army in order to naturalize as soon as possible, and then slowly work their way out in the army. A considerable number of active officers in the Haihan Army have this background.
Both groups of people were forced to survive, and joining the Haihan Army was their best and only choice at the time. The children of salt merchants obviously do not have similar pressure to survive. The reason and purpose for them to come to Zhoushan to study is for their own families, so naturally they will not consider loyalty to Haihan as a necessary option.
Tao Donglai's face brightened after listening to Shi Diwen's explanation, and he nodded and said: "It seems that I don't know enough about the situation here... Then since the salt merchants regard this cooperation as a transaction, you must I won’t show mercy to them.”
Shi Diwen responded with a smug look: "Of course, since they are willing to spend money, there is no reason for me to stop them, right?"
Shi Diwen's quotation for providing weapons and training services to the Yangzhou salt merchants was definitely the highest among Haihan's foreign military aid. However, the salt merchants were very wealthy. As long as they believed that the things Haihan brought out were worth the price, they would pay with their own money without hesitation, which was quite a bit like the big dogs in the Middle East in later generations. It's just that the Executive Committee has restrictions on the military assistance provided to salt merchants, otherwise Shi Diwen would also be very interested in playing a guest role as an arms tycoon and scraping some oil and water from the salt merchants.
Tao Donglai asked casually: "What is the price of the rifle sold to them?"
Shi Diwen said: "The Type 28 flintlock gun, a model that has been phased out in the military, can be sold to them for forty taels of silver. Paper-wrapped lead bullets cost one tael of silver for three rounds. You said this? Where else can I find good deals? ”
Even if Tao Donglai was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but be secretly surprised when he heard the offer. In the early years, this type of rifle was exported to Annan Guo and Xu Xinsu, and the price of a single rifle was only about twenty taels of silver. Shi Diwen was able to raise the price to such a high price.
However, Tao Donglai thought about it and realized that this was just a small business after all. After all, the salt merchant organized a militia instead of an army. Even if he had one Haihan-made gun per man, he would only have a few hundred guns to break the sky. Probably That's an extra ten thousand taels of silver, which is not too heavy a burden for the extremely wealthy salt merchant.
Tao Donglai nodded and responded: "The price is good, but the quantity is a little small..."
"The quantity is not small." Shi Diwen shook his head and denied Tao Donglai's statement: "As long as we are willing to sell, they will charge as much as we have. It's just that the executive committee has restrictions on this, so the sale has been stopped."
"Huh?" Tao Donglai was surprised at first when he heard this answer, and soon understood the secret: "We sell it so expensively, and these salt merchants still want to purchase it in large quantities. I'm afraid they are not buying it for their own use, right?"
"Definitely not." Shi Diwen knew the situation in this area better, and immediately told the truth: "They only need to transfer the purchased weapons to the government. This is a great achievement!"
Tao Donglai suddenly said: "Everything is said, it's all a deception!"
Haihan's current biggest potential buyer is neither the old allies like Annan and Xu Jiajun, nor the extremely poor North Korea, but the Ming Dynasty.
Although the Ming Dynasty also had the ability to manufacture its own muskets and artillery, there was a clear gap in its power compared to the weapons made by Haihan. Haihan's record against the Qing army in Jinzhou, Liaodong and North Korea over the years also fully proves this point. If the Ming Dynasty wanted to change its decline in the face of the Qing army, then switching to more lethal weapons might be a better solution.
As a nominal ally, Ming can of course purchase weapons from Haihan. However, the types and quantities of weapons that Ming can purchase through official channels have always been strictly supervised by Haihan, and are far from meeting the Ming army's operational needs.
This kind of control is of course easy to understand. Although Haihan's weapons are powerful, his military strength is much worse than that of Ming. Once the level of weapons and equipment is closer, Haihan will not have much possibility to continue to suppress Ming. If the Ming Dynasty used Haihan weapons to arm one or two hundred thousand musketeers, Haihan's interests along the coast of the Ming Dynasty would probably be damaged.
It was precisely based on such worries that Haihan implemented controls on the weapons and equipment sold to Daming. Even if he came with money, he would not be able to buy more weapons. If you can't buy it through public channels, it will naturally breed some gray areas. Similar to the practice of Yangzhou salt merchants buying it at high prices, they actually plan to use their own pockets to subsidize part of it for the state.
The benefit to the salt merchants from doing this is nothing more than spending money to buy peace. Maybe the big shots in the court would be happy to see it, and they would be promoted to a higher position. If spending one hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver could make the emperor remember him, then these salt merchants would still be happy to give it a try. Of course, all the weapons and ammunition sold by Haihan are shipped from the arsenal in Sanya. They have been counted before leaving the factory, and the arsenal will then record the original data of the batch and quantity of these weapons and ammunition. How much has been sold in Zhejiang is all accounted for. You can tell it from just one inventory, and even Shi Diwen can't hide it. Therefore, even though he knew that selling arms to the salt merchant, a middleman, was very profitable, Shi Diwen still did not make the money on his own initiative.
As for whether this weird status quo will improve in the future, it depends on whether the relationship between the two countries can be further strengthened. Tao Donglai's mission to the north is partly related to this, but it has not been started yet, so it is inconvenient to talk too much about Shi Diwen.
Tao Donglai took the initiative to change the subject and said: "When conducting arms trade with the Ming Dynasty, you really need to act cautiously... Moreover, the arms production capacity of Tiandu Arsenal is limited. The top priority is to focus on our own military construction. You will take me to the fourth floor of the base. Come and take a look, so that I can pass on your construction experience to other places.”
Shi Diwen would not refuse such a request, so he immediately led Tao Donglai to visit some important facilities in the base. Zhoushan's financial situation is good, its budget is sufficient, and the construction standards of the hardware facilities in the military base are also very high, basically in line with Sanya's standards.
"Part of these barracks were completed last year. The stone and wood used are all produced on the island, so the cost is actually not bad. As long as daily maintenance is maintained, these barracks should be able to be used until the next century." Shi Di Wen introduced to Tao Donglai as he walked.
These barracks all have stone walls, log beams, roofs covered with gray tiles, and drainage ditches dug under the eaves. They do look very solid. Most of the more than two thousand Haihan troops stationed in Zhoushan all year round live here.
Tao Donglai thought of another thing when he saw these barracks, and asked Shi Diwen: "You must have received a lot of refugees from Shandong recently, right? Have they all been settled?"
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Shi Diwen said: "To be honest, Zhoushan has limited arable land. It mainly relies on shipping, fishery and service industries to provide employment opportunities, and its ability to accept refugees is relatively limited. Therefore, I have to screen the people I accept here first to make a living. Talented people with ability will stay and be resettled. The number is actually not too many. I will only keep one or two thousand people here, right? Most of them will be sent to Taiwan Island. The place there is spacious, and people who don’t know anything can go there. If you can cultivate wasteland and grow food, you don’t have to worry about losing your livelihood.”
Tao Donglai said with a smile: "It's so complicated to say, doesn't it mean that you go through the candidates here first, keep the ones that are useful, and send the ones that are no longer needed to Taiwan Island."
Shi Diwen also smiled and didn't make much excuse. His approach is not unusual. As the only large port between Shandong and Taiwan Island, most immigrant ships heading south will choose to resupply here. It is also an established habit for the Zhoushan authorities to use this opportunity to screen immigrants. . Although Tao Donglai lives in Sanya, he is actually very clear about these methods in the immigration process, and has no intention of blaming Shi Diwen for this.
And having said that, Zhoushan is not the first screening point. In fact, immigrants going south have already been screened by the locals before boarding the ship in Shandong. Some occupations that are in short supply in the northern colonies, such as builders, doctors, teachers, etc., will be cut off by Chen Yixin and relocated nearby. The people selected here in Zhoushan are mainly fishermen and sailors. These immigrants can just meet the special labor needs of Zhoushan.
Of course, the more the population, the better. Shi Diwen doesn’t really think that the local population has reached a level that requires active control. It’s just that regarding the southward migration of Shandong refugees, the Executive Committee has given clear instructions to use Taiwan Island as the basis. Main resettlement area. Moreover, after Haihan raided the Hirado clan last year, nearly half of the captive population was absorbed by Zhoushan. Shi Diwen could not ask for more refugees to be allocated to Zhoushan this time.
But even so, he still left one or two thousand people behind. About half of them are navigation personnel that are urgently needed in the local area, and three or five divided by two are divided up by various agencies. The remaining refugees are distributed to various villages and towns on the island. The local social system has initially taken shape, and it is not difficult for each village and town to absorb a small number of refugees. In fact, the population composition of many villages and towns on the island is that most of the people are immigrants, so there is not much rejection of immigrants.
Shi Diwen said: "The population structure here in Zhoushan is relatively complex. Among the thousands of residents on the island, only about one-tenth are the people who lived here when we occupied Zhoushan, and then there are people from Liaodong, Shandong, People from North Korea, Japan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang... and some people from South Asia and Western countries have also settled here. I sometimes feel that this place is very similar to Sanya, an international trading port. "< br>
"The trade environment here is actually better than that in Sanya." Tao Donglai said with emotion: "You see, here is across the sea from Ningbo, and a few hundred miles away is the richest area in Ming Dynasty. The transportation cost in the trade process is higher than Sanya is much lower. If it weren’t for the lack of natural resources, I might have chosen to travel here.”
"Choosing this place must be a difficult start!" Shi Diwen shook his head repeatedly: "Mr. Tao, have you forgotten what it was like when we occupied this place? This place is a pirate den! Before we settle down, we must first Suppressing bandits will take at least two or three months before you can settle down. Who can stand it? ”
Tao Donglai smiled and said: "What you said makes sense. But now that we have occupied this place, we must make full use of it. Whether it is a trading port or a military port, in short, we must make Ming Dynasty realize that , whether it is fighting, doing business or running the country, our level must be far better than that of the Ming Dynasty. Only in this way can the Ming Dynasty, from officials to the people, spontaneously feel a sense of awe for our country.”
The two of them chatted and watched, and before they knew it, they spent half a day wandering around the base. When Shi Diwen saw the meal, he invited Tao Donglai to have a meal in the officers' mess in the base. Although Shi Diwen did not announce Tao Donglai's identity to the public, several officers who had participated in the Sanya military parade recognized Tao Donglai's identity and were immediately excited. They put down their bowls and chopsticks and stood up to salute. Upon seeing this, Tao Donglai had to stop and return the courtesy. Shi Diwen asked his adjutant to tell these people not to discuss the news of Tao Donglai's appearance in Zhoushan outside, otherwise they would be punished by military law.
Although it is inevitable for Baimi to be sparse, Tao Donglai is not disgusted with such exposure. This at least shows that although he rarely appears overseas, his reputation is still very high. The officers regard him as a member of the Executive Committee. and a symbol of national power, which pleased him quite a bit.
(End of chapter)