1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 168 Civil Administration of the Haihan People
Wei Ping didn't care whether Li Nai and He Qiang came to Shengli Port to buy salt or glass products, but there was one thing Wei Ping was sure of. These merchants came from afar and would never let go of any profitable business.

"Two, the line in front is so long, why don't we go to the side and find a place to sit and wait. I'll ask my subordinates to bring the breakfast for both of you." Wei Ping took the initiative to show his kindness to them.

Li Nai quickly clasped his fists together and said, "Don't dare to bother inspector Wei."

"Small things, small things." Wei Ping immediately ordered his subordinates, and then took the lead to walk under a big tree next to him.Wei Ping also wanted to find a more secluded place to talk, but his range of activities was limited, so he didn't dare to go too far to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.

There are many strips of bluestone piled up next to the big tree, which were transported by laborers from the quarry at the foot of the nearby mountain, and then transferred to the port for the construction of the wharf.The three of them each found a clean place to sit down, but the minds of the two were different, and no one was in a hurry to speak first.

After a while, Wei Ping finally couldn't bear it anymore. After breakfast time, the nearby laborers would start working one after another, and there was no quiet place to be found here. He didn't want to wait until tomorrow morning.

"When you two came to the inspection department yesterday, I saw that you two seemed hesitant to talk, but what doubts do you have?" Wei Ping can be regarded as a person who has been in the society for several years. Try to match the other person's words.

Li Nai replied: "I was going to ask the inspector Wei about the local situation, but Mr. Shi from Haihan was with me all the time yesterday, so it was inconvenient to talk, and the inspector Wei was worried."

Wei Ping smiled and said, "I don't know what aspect of the situation Mr. Li wants to know? I have lived here for more than a month, so I still know something about the local people."

Wei Ping's words are a bit bragging. It is true that he lived in Shengli Port for more than a month, but during this time, more than half of them were imprisoned in the courtyard of the Inspection Department and were not allowed to go out. The scope of his involvement was extremely Limited, most of the "people's sentiments" that can be experienced are just the result of his observation from the yard.

However, Li Nai didn't know whether Wei Ping was really under house arrest. He just had a guess. Since Wei Ping showed such an attitude of willingness to communicate, he certainly would not reject the other party's kindness, and quickly asked: "Then may I ask Wei Ping?" During the inspection, what do the local people think of the Haihan people? According to Wei’s inspection, are the people in this place stable?”

Wei Ping pondered: "The people of Haihan are indeed unique in their administration of civil affairs. The local people always obey their arrangements, and they rarely hear complaints and dissatisfaction. But this is also a reasonable thing, after all, they eat and wear. Residential use depends on the Haihan people..."

Speaking of this, Wei Ping couldn't help thinking that his situation was exactly like this, so he quickly changed the subject and said, "As for whether the people are stable or not, I think the two of you must have seen a lot of militia soldiers when you visited the neighborhood yesterday. ?”

Li Nai and He Qiang recalled the situation of visiting the new barracks yesterday, even those half-grown children were trained to be like soldiers, they nodded with lingering fear.

"The rule of law in Shengli Port is extremely strict. If the people make a slight mistake, they will be thrown into what is called a 'labour camp' to do hard labor. Besides the militia, there is another organization used to maintain law and order. , the Haihan people call it 'security guards', just look at those people in black jackets and short sticks around their waists. They usually patrol around the port and people's residences, and take care of some trivial matters. If There are new immigrants arriving at the port, and they will also go to the pier to help the militia maintain order." Wei Ping explained to the two in detail.

Li Nai and He Qiang looked around, and sure enough, they saw a few black-clothed security guards Wei Ping mentioned standing in the distance.Li Nai thought to himself, the position of 'security guard' is probably similar to the function of my inspection department in Daming.It's just that in front of Wei Ping, this guess cannot be said casually.

"But why are these people willing to join the militia or work as security guards for those Haihan people when they first arrived in Victory Port? Could it be that the Haihan people pay extremely high rewards?" He Qiang asked puzzled.

Wei Ping explained: "I was puzzled by this before, but I gradually learned that the Haihan people used the 'commune' as a unit to recruit local civilians, and all civilians who entered the commune were called 'commune members'. The treatment is much better than that of ordinary people, so the people who come here to work aim to enter the commune. As long as one member of the family joins the militia or works as a security guard, the family can move into the commune. Enjoy various benefits of membership."

"I see……"

Li Nai and He Qiang both thought of the farm commune they visited yesterday. The various institutional arrangements there left a deep impression on them, but they never thought that there was such a connection between the commune and the local militia.

"Not only that, it is said that the Haihan people built a large workshop inland more than ten miles away, and it is said that they also opened an iron mine. The income of working in the workshop is higher than that of working in the port and opening up wasteland. It is not so easy to enter the workshop to do things, you must first have the qualification of 'community member' to accept further selection by Haihan people." Wei Ping continued to explain.

After Wei Ping's explanation, Li Nai and He Qiang roughly understood what kind of social structure this place is.After these new immigrants came to Shengli Port, they were screened and firstly distributed to work on various construction sites. Some of them who performed better would be selected into the "communes", and those who performed better in the communes would be selected Work in higher-level workshops.As for what kind of settings are there on the workshop, Li Nai can think of it without asking.

It is said that there are only a few hundred Haihan people here. To manage the increasing number of people well, it is definitely necessary to promote some local people to do grassroots management work.From new immigrants, ordinary workers, commune workers, workshop workers, to higher employment levels, the Haihan people have designed a set of ascending channel systems for ordinary people. No matter what level these people have struggled to, there will definitely be new bait placed on them In front of them, induce them to work hard for it.

This social structure is actually nothing new. There is also such an upward channel in Ming society. For example, He Qiang, the senior manager of "Furuifeng", came up step by step from the servant who served tea and ran errands.If there is any difference, Li Nai thinks that the Haihan people's local management methods are more like a combination of civil politics and business to make money.

If it is the local government of Ming Dynasty, it will generally only manage the civil affairs. As for how the people work and make a living, the government does not have the leisure to manage it.Unless it is a project that requires a lot of labor, such as road construction and water control, the government will never organize the people to start the work. After all, organizing a large-scale project is a very labor-intensive task, and few local officials are willing to do so unless it is a last resort. Take the initiative to do this kind of thing.

And commercial firms that are good at making money generally do not organize people to produce. This not only encounters many difficulties in management, but it is also easy to be labeled as "gathering the people, gathering people's hearts, and having unruly intentions."Even a firm with deep roots in Guangzhou like "Furuifeng" can at most organize a caravan and set up a militia in his hometown. Come together to build villages and build villages to form a self-contained system.If this kind of thing happened in Guangzhou, Li Nai can guarantee that all the Haihan people would have been arrested and sent to prison for trial.

However, the Haihan people have integrated civil administration and business operations, and the local people have been organized for large-scale production. Li Nai realized this from the farm commune he visited yesterday.The farmland here is all cultivated and harvested in a unified way, and all the harvested grains are put into the public granary, which is arranged by the Haihan Executive Committee.

The Haihan people's arrangement of agricultural production has reached an astonishing degree. Li Nai even found that they have made very detailed plans for the frequency, amount and type of fertilization, which he has never seen in any rural area before. Phenomenon.If he hadn't seen the operation of the farm with his own eyes, Li Nai would have thought that Gao Huan's claim that the rice production capacity per mu could reach [-] jin a year was just bragging.

With the Haihan people's way of doing things, it is not difficult for Li Nai to imagine that they must have adopted a management method similar to farm communes in the production of refined salt and glass to organize production.In fact, at the welcome banquet the day before, Schneider had already revealed to him that they would arrange for them to visit the local salt farm commune the next day to strengthen their confidence in the long-term cooperation in private salt trading.

Li Nai learned from yesterday's visit to the farm commune that there is only a small-scale "commune management committee" as the farm management organization, but this management committee only plays the role of overall planning and coordination, and the specific affairs are handled by the commune members. Various organizations with detailed functions formed by them are responsible for the implementation, such as agricultural technology associations, health associations, red and white councils, and a lot of them.At the time of the introduction, Li Nai's head felt dizzy, but now that he thinks about it, he realizes the deep meaning of what the Haihan people did.

Judging from the local development speed of the Haihan people, whether it is a farm commune or other production sites, it is only a matter of time before the scale continues to expand, and the following grassroots management organizations are also expanding accordingly. The Haihan people have begun to appoint some local people as administrators of civil affairs.This is fundamentally different from the folk Baojia system in the Ming Dynasty. The commune here is not a private joint guarantee and self-government, but organized and managed by the Haihan Executive Committee. From Nai's point of view, they are similar to the small officials who work for the yamen—that is to say, the Haihan Executive Committee has completely replaced the functions of the local government in the local civil affairs management.

From the perspective of a bystander, Li Nai had to admit that the Haihan people had done an excellent job in civil administration, and their effectiveness far exceeded that of the local government.And the people's ample food and clothing in turn ensured the stability of the people here and the good social order, and this was the quality that businessmen like Li Nai valued.

(End of this chapter)