Chapter 2509
This was not the first time for Ning Zijing to come to Hong Kong, and he also worked in Qiong Lianfa, so no one would doubt his judgment.
Ha Jianyi smiled and asked: "Then do you think we should accept it or politely decline it?"
"You decide for yourself, don't have any worries." Ning Zijing obviously didn't want to bother with this kind of thing, so he dismissed it with just one sentence.
"In my opinion, if you give me souvenirs or something like that, it doesn't matter if you accept it. As for the other things, forget it, so as not to cause trouble. We must remember that our trip this time is not a sightseeing trip, but a mission. We must put official duties first." Tao Hongfang was prudent in his conduct and immediately reminded everyone that he had a mission during this trip.
When he said this, it was hard for the other three to refute. It was the first time for them to be sent by their parents to a place far away from Hainan Island. Naturally, they wanted to complete the task beautifully. If anything went wrong along the way, it would only make their parents feel disappointed.
Although this place is far away from Sanya, they don't think that their whereabouts outside can be hidden from their omniscient fathers. No one knows whether there are eyes and ears working for Victory Fort in Qiong Lianfa. They are not afraid of ten thousand, just afraid of the worst. , it is better to be more cautious in your words and deeds.
Bai Letong immediately expressed his agreement: "Hongfang's words are reasonable. I think it's better to rest early tonight to recuperate and set off early tomorrow morning."
No one had any objections, and they didn't even dare to drink more wine at the moment. After eating, they sat for a while and then went back to their rooms to rest. Ning Zijing also specially called the steward over and asked him not to make other arrangements so as not to disturb everyone's rest. The steward knew what was going on and immediately took the order and left, asking his men to quickly prepare hot water baths for these people.
A night of silence. Early the next morning, everyone had breakfast at the inn and immediately drove to the dock. Although the official ship had no scheduled departure time and would definitely wait until they boarded the ship, they had no intention of staying in Hong Kong anymore.
And just as Ning Zijing expected, Qiong Lianfa's steward actually sent a gift before they set off, and it was delivered directly to the ship. And these gifts are not expensive, they are basically some fresh fruits and seafood produced in nearby areas.
However, it is obviously easier to pass the test if you give this kind of gift. If you give real money, I am afraid that these second-generation wearers who are not short of money will directly block it.
The next stop for official ships is Kaohsiung Port in the southern part of Taiwan Island. According to the captain, the ship will dock briefly at Kaohsiung Port to unload a batch of official letters and supplies sent from Sanya to the local area.
The construction of Kaohsiung Port began at the end of 1632, and it has been more than 20 years. However, what is different from other colonial areas under Haihan's rule is that the development and construction of the local area was not completed by Haihan alone. Instead, the Xu family of Fujian and many private capitals in Guangdong and Guangxi participated from the beginning.
This situation also made the construction speed of Kaohsiung Port much faster than some overseas colonial areas developed before Haihan. In just a few years, a port city with thousands of people and various basic industries was formed.
The alluvial plain near Kaohsiung Port has fertile soil and superior water conservancy conditions, making it suitable for large-scale agricultural development. Therefore, agriculture has been the main construction direction from the beginning. Food crops and cash crops have gradually become the leading industries in Kaohsiung over the past few years, and have formed a large-scale development effect. It is currently the agricultural demonstration area with the largest planting area on the island of Taiwan.
The Kaohsiung government has also promptly promoted the construction of supporting agricultural product deep processing industries to produce rice, noodles, oil, sugar, wine, canned products and other products. The profits that these commodities can earn after being sold on the market far exceed those of raw materials. Therefore, they soon attracted the favor of various capitals and invested in the construction of food processing plants in Kaohsiung. The stable development of the industry and the increase in the income of employees have attracted more immigrants to Kaohsiung, driving the development of supporting industries such as the service industry, transportation industry, and construction industry, thus bringing the local economic and social development into a new stage. A state of virtuous cycle.
“Kaohsiung has much more room for development than an island trading port like Hong Kong. According to the executive committee’s estimates, if the Kaohsiung Port and Pingtung Plain area south of Damuan Port are fully developed, agriculture alone will be enough. It can support 300,000 to 400,000 people, but the current local population is only around 100,000, and there is still a large labor gap.”
Tao Hongfang had access to a lot of information about Kaohsiung in his daily work at the Ministry of Commerce, and he briefly introduced the local situation to several other people on the way.
Ning Zijing said: "According to the information I know, many dignitaries from the Ming Dynasty chose to invest in Kaohsiung to buy land and run plantations in the past few years."
Tao Hongfang nodded and said: "There are indeed many cases like what you mentioned, especially those upper-class people who are married to our officials. Almost all of them have purchased real estate in Kaohsiung."
Tao Hongfang did not specify the identities of these people, but these people here have access to internal information, so they naturally know who he is referring to.
The Ma family in Shandong, the Qu family in Zhejiang, the Xu family in Fujian, and the Li family in Guangdong... The first people to spend heavily on real estate and land in Kaohsiung were basically related households who could get inside information.
These families all had deep interests with Haihan. They were the first group of upper-class social forces in the Ming Dynasty to seek refuge with Haihan. They also received a large amount of dividends during Haihan's rapid expansion.
Especially in new colonial areas like Kaohsiung, these private capitals seized the initial blank period, spent heavily to participate in development, and obtained the management rights of large tracts of land at extremely low costs. This was almost impossible in areas ruled by the Ming Dynasty. It's impossible.
Bai Letong added: "I have also seen some promotional materials from that year. In order to stimulate investment and immigration, the local government in Kaohsiung really made a lot of efforts and provided many preferential policies, such as plantation tax exemptions and immigration settlement. Dividing fields and the like. At that time, there were constant disasters and man-made disasters, so many people were transported overseas by our country in various ways, and Kaohsiung was one of the main destinations.”
Tao Hongfang said: "The entire island of Taiwan received at least 200,000 immigrants during that period. Even Miaoli, which had only a permanent population of more than 1,000 at the beginning, was later upgraded to a county due to population growth."
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Among these people, only Ha Jianyi was born in an overseas colonial area. When he was a teenager, his family sent him from Manila to Sanya to study and live. Therefore, he knows less about this period of history on the island of Taiwan, and he is still listening to it with great interest.
(End of chapter)