Chapter 2796
However, Bai Letong and Ning Zijing recognized the muscular young man standing behind Chen Yixin.
Chen Pingliao, the eldest son of Chen Yixin, was born in 1636. It is said that the name originated from the time when he was born, when the Haihan Army achieved a great victory in the spring offensive in Jinzhou, Liaodong. To commemorate this battle, Chen Yixin named his son Pingliao.
Chen Pingliao was sent back to Sanya by Chen Yixin when he was a boy, and received the special education that only descendants of time travellers are entitled to. He stayed there until he reached adulthood before returning to the north. But he is a few years younger than Bai Letong, Ning Zijing and others, so he entered school a few years later, so he is considered a junior.
Although they entered school at different times, there are always many social activities among the children of time travelers in Sanya, and Chen Pingliao has also stayed in Sanya for many years, so Bai Letong and Ning Zijing got to know him very early. Although the relationship is just a casual acquaintance, they can be considered old acquaintances.
"Pingliao, come and meet your Uncle Bai and your two brothers!" Chen Yixin motioned Chen Pingliao to come forward and greet Bai Letong and his party.
Chen Pingliao, like Chen Yixin, was also in military uniform. Hearing this, he stepped forward and stood at attention and gave a military salute.
"Ping Liao has already joined the army? It's really a father and son soldier, a tiger father has no dog son, good!" When Bai Kesi saw this, he naturally praised him a few times.
Chen Yixin said: "When he came back from Sanya, I arranged for him to join the army. Young people should go to the army to exercise."
Bai Kesi nodded and said to Chen Pingliao: "When your father joined the army and left Sanya, he was less than twenty years old, which is about the same age as you are now. If you join the army at a young age, you will have a lot of potential in the future!"
Among the children of high-ranking figures in Haihan, it is very common for sons to inherit their father's legacy, especially military generals, who almost always arrange for their descendants to continue to serve in the army and lead troops. As the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Northern Region, Chen Yixin will naturally not let the command go to others when choosing his successor.
The descendants of generals such as Chen Pingliao, Shi Chengwu, and Ha Jianyi have a much higher starting point than ordinary people. They can receive systematic military education and skills training when they are young. Soon after joining the army, they have the opportunity to lead troops to participate in various military affairs. The speed of action and promotion is like riding on a rocket. Often, he is already a major and battalion commander in his early twenties.
Next, Chen Yixin introduced to Bai Kesi the local officials and local gentry representatives who were present. After a brief exchange of greetings, Bai Kesi and his party took a carriage and headed for Majiazhuang, not far away.
Today's Fushan County has undergone great changes from when Bai Kesi came, and the core area of the county has long been replaced by Majiazhuang. The place name Majiazhuang is no longer worthy of its name. It is no longer the rural village and town it was twenty years ago, but has become a decent coastal city.
Originally, the location of Lao Majiazhuang was still several miles away from Zhifu Port. However, with the substantial growth of population and trade, the urban area also responded to objective needs and gradually expanded towards the port. Now people can already see it in the port area. The buildings in the outskirts of Majiazhuang.
The main road leading from the port area to the city has been hardened throughout. Chen Yixin said that a limestone mine was discovered during the mining of the Fushan copper mine, so a cement factory was built locally. This thing cannot be said to have high commercial value, and the cost of transporting it abroad is also high, so it is mainly used in local infrastructure projects.
After entering the city, everyone noticed that there were many familiar southern shops on the streets here, which were the same as what they had seen in Qingdao Port before. However, you would not see so many northern merchants in the southern port. This shows that the operational capabilities of southern commercial institutions, especially the utilization efficiency of the shipping system, are indeed higher than those of northern merchants. Ning Zijing was in business, so he was naturally very concerned about this situation, so he asked Chen Yixin about it in the car.
Chen Yixin said: "Businesses in the north are indeed far behind their southern counterparts in their understanding of shipping. Before the completion of Zhifu Port, there were few local merchants in Dengzhou engaged in specialized shipping trade. After the port was put into operation, the inbound and outbound trade here also mainly It is operated by southern merchants. It was not until my country’s control area in Dengzhou stabilized that local merchants began to gradually join the maritime trade system. ”
"The northern region seriously lacks professional talents in this area, and it is not easy to catch up with the gap. We are currently operating in the form of the Denglai Chamber of Commerce, so that small and medium-sized businesses with weaker economic strength and no way to independently engage in the shipping industry can Join the maritime trade system through the Chamber of Commerce.”
For Chen Yixin, developing the maritime industry in the northern region may be a more difficult task than fighting a war. Although the coastline in the northern region is long, there are not many natural harbors, and the area covered by sea access is also small. Therefore, for a long time, the utilization efficiency of maritime transportation has been much lower than that in the southern region.
Closing this gap will require significant investment in maritime infrastructure. The construction of ports and shipyards, the training of sailors and crews, and the establishment of trade channels all depend on the accumulation of money and time.
The current financial situation of the Northern Region is pretty good, so the continued investment in this area is also very considerable, but it still requires patience and time to complete the process from quantitative change to qualitative change. And even if there is improvement, it will be very difficult to shake the competitive advantage of southern merchants.
The motorcade passed through the city but did not stop. Their destination was Lao Majiazhuang on the west side of the city, where Chen Yixin's official residence is also located.
Chen Yixin said that he currently spends half a year in Shandong and Liaodong. He usually stays in Liaodong in summer and autumn, and returns to Shandong in winter and spring. But as the territory of the northern region continues to expand, Chen Yixin actually lives in Majiazhuang less and less.
Ma Dongqiang and Jiang Sheng did not go to the port area to greet them, but greeted the arrival of Bai Kesi and his party at Chen Yixin's official residence. Both of them are over sixty years old, and their physical condition is not very good. They have to walk with a crutch.
When Bai Kesi came to Fushan County twenty years ago, he had also been to Majiazhuang and met Ma Dongqiang and Jiang Sheng. They were old acquaintances. These two people were Chen Yixin's elders by marriage. Bai Kesi gave them enough face and did not treat them as ordinary squires. He just let these two landlords sit at the head of the reception banquet.
Such a large banquet is crowded with people and requires entertainment from all parties, and it is inconvenient to discuss confidential government affairs. Local officials and gentry from Shandong took turns to come forward to toast. Although Bai Kesi and his party only raised their glasses and touched their lips, they were too tired to cope and did not even take a few bites of the hot dishes.
Ning Zijing and Bai Letong had long heard that Shandong people drank heavily, but now that they saw it with their own eyes, they knew the rumors were true. If he really let himself go and drank, he might not be able to survive a round and would have to sneak under the table.
It was not until the banquet was over that Chen Yixin invited Bai Kesi to his study, asked him to make sobering hot tea, and began a closed-door discussion.
(End of chapter)