1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1705 Diverging Opinions
Regarding the positioning and future development direction of Xingdao, there have always been differences of opinion among Haihan's senior management, including in Xingdao's local area, the two civil and military officials in charge of military and political power also have different opinions on this.Roger wholeheartedly wants to build Xingdao into a bridgehead for Haihan's military expansion in the direction of the Indian Ocean, while Tan Juren believes that Xingdao's geographical advantages should be fully utilized to build it into a commercial hub port connecting the two oceans.

The problem with Xingdao is that this place is too far away from the mainland of Haihan, and the cost of obtaining resources from the country is very high. Whether it is materials or manpower, the expensive freight alone is prohibitive, let alone resettling immigrants. cost.Although the Executive Committee's support for Sing Tao has always been pretty good, and they have attached great importance to the troops formed by Roger. The resources that can be obtained from the domestic and surrounding areas are indeed far inferior to other Haihan colonies.

Except for Xingdao, most of the other colonies are located on the coastlines or adjacent waters of Annan and Ming Dynasty. They can rely on the resources and markets of these two big countries for construction and development, and it will be easier to recruit immigrants nearby in terms of manpower.However, Xingdao is located in a major sea traffic route, surrounded by hostile countries and competitors. It is naturally much less efficient than other colonies to develop while guarding against foreign enemies.

Therefore, Roger believes that since the development of Xingdao is more difficult, don't consider the direction of civilian or commercial development for the time being, but simply build it into a military base, and then use war to support war, and use war to control resources in surrounding areas. The speed of plundering and accumulating wealth and population will be much faster than slowly developing by oneself, and it can expand the territory for the country, which is also in line with the development momentum of Haihan's outward expansion.

Of course, there is no lack of Roger's own selfishness in this. As a senior general guarding the frontier, he naturally wants to gain more power and fame for himself with his military exploits.Back then, he was willing to give up his original life to participate in the extremely risky time travel operation. One of his purposes was to make contributions in this time and space and become the founding general of the country that will go down in history.Although Xingdao is a small place with poor conditions, it leaves a lot of room for him to develop freely, allowing him to realize many ideas that could not be put into practice a few years ago.

However, according to Tan Juren, who is in charge of civil affairs, commerce, agriculture, infrastructure and other affairs, Roger's thinking is a bit biased. In terms of the geographical location of the Strait of Malacca and the status of merchant shipping, it is a waste of money not to be used for commercial development.Moreover, according to Haihan's development theory, the purpose of military expansion is to serve commerce and trade. If Haihan wants to extend the sea trade route westward to the Indian Ocean region, then Xingdao will inevitably serve as the link between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean for a long time. The role of trade hub ports.

This kind of heaven-sent opportunity is not used to develop business, but to turn this place into a large-scale military base. Tan Juren naturally refused to agree with Roger's idea, and clearly opposed the excessive militarization of Xingdao.However, the problem he faced was also similar to that of Roger, that is, the resources and labor needed to build a large-scale commercial port. Without sufficient capital and manpower injection, it was impossible to turn this poor and empty desert island into a trading port like Sanya. .

Tan Juren also tried to bring in investors from Haihan, Daming, Annan and other countries, but the effect was not very satisfactory. Even if he could decide to come up with some tax and policy preferential measures, he was willing to take great risks in this country. There are still very few businessmen investing locally, and only a few businessmen engaged in the shipping industry are willing to open offices here in Xingdao.However, traditional investment projects like plantations have not achieved satisfactory investment results in Xingdao, lacking a stable surrounding environment and sufficient human resources, so most businessmen can only stay away from Xingdao.

Under such circumstances, if you want to change the appearance of Xingdao, you can no longer rely on the assistance of external forces. Tan Juren hopes to focus more on the construction of civil and commercial infrastructure with limited local resources, but this is definitely not the case with Roger. plans are in conflict.Especially for a limited resource like labor, if both of them want to put it into the field they are responsible for first, there will inevitably be competition.

On this day, because of the issue of human resource allocation, the two inevitably had disagreements during the meeting, but neither of them could persuade the other to accept their opinions.Fortunately, they have been cooperating for nearly two years. For this kind of disagreement that has never been resolved, both of them know that arguing is of no use, so even if they cannot reach an agreement, they will not quarrel. .Knowing that there would be no result, the two of them put down the topic tacitly and started discussing the next project.

"The prisoners of war and exiled prisoners transported from Manila have now been placed in the first and second battalions of hard labor. However, there are many Spaniards and local indigenous people in this group, who do not speak our language, and management and arrangement work are more troublesome. We must find a way to solve this problem as soon as possible." Tan Juren paused, and added: "There are about 400 prisoners who have this problem."

Roger replied: "This is not difficult to solve. When we were fighting in Manila, we hired a lot of Portuguese to serve as translators. Maybe we should send someone to Malacca to hire some Portuguese back."

Tan Juren shook his head and said: "It's not impossible, but there are certain intelligence risks in doing so, I think it's better not to try."

Roger immediately came to his senses. The distance between Xingdao and the city of Malacca controlled by the Portuguese was only [-] miles, and both sides had the same purpose of building a colonial stronghold here. It was to control the important sea lane of the Strait of Malacca. competitors.Although Portugal and Haihan have signed a strategic alliance for several years, no one will really regard that paper of alliance as an unbreakable bond. The military alliance between the two parties is only to deal with the Netherlands, Spain, Britain, France, etc. It will only take effect when the Western maritime power is strong, and when there is a conflict of interest between the two parties, the Portuguese will definitely have their own small calculations.

Although Xingdao allows Portuguese merchant ships to dock here, it has never allowed Portuguese to stay here for a long time, let alone enter sensitive places such as hard labor camps. Such precautions are also out of safety considerations. .After being reminded by Tan Juren, Luo Jie immediately realized that his method was inappropriate, and immediately changed his words: "This method is a bit inappropriate, let me think about it...Many of the prisoners sent from Manila should also be able to speak Spanish and For the Chinese descendants of the local vernacular, pick some smart people from among them to do the job of translation."

This method proposed by Roger is undoubtedly the most time-saving and worry-free solution. Since hiring Portuguese will have intelligence risks, and the cycle of applying for translators from China is too long, then we can find them from the existing personnel on the island. It's easiest and most efficient when the right people do the job, and there's almost no extra cost.The only problem is that it takes a little time to pick the right people.

Tan Juren agreed with Roger's opinion this time: "My thoughts are the same as yours. These Han prisoners exiled to Xingdao can be fully utilized. I have asked people to roughly circle a list based on their personal information. , would you like to take a look?"

Roger waved his hand and said, "You can decide this kind of thing, and you don't need to spend any more time discussing it. I just want to emphasize that felons cannot take on this kind of task. This has always been the rule of the hard labor camp."

Tan Juren said: "Of course, don't worry, this list is all three years or less and people with relatively minor crimes. I will gather these people together later and take a look for myself."

Roger is not very interested in the specific affairs management of the hard labor camp. Anyway, the labor arrangements for these hard labor prisoners are mainly military projects. Tan Juren wants to implement his new management plan in the hard labor camp. Let him go, happy to be free.

At this time, Qin Huacheng encountered his first trouble after arriving in Xingdao in the barracks of the hard labor camp.

To be precise, this trouble had nothing to do with Qin Huacheng directly. Several Spanish prisoners on the same number as him were very dissatisfied with the food arrangement here, and they gathered together after dinner to swear non-stop.Although the prison boss Lin Xingsui couldn't understand what these foreign devils were talking about, judging from their expressions, he could roughly guess that it was not a good thing, so he immediately warned them a few words, telling them to shut up and be quiet.

And these Spaniards didn't know whether they didn't understand Lin Xingsui's identity background, or they wanted to replace him, so they immediately clashed with Lin Xingsui.That Lin Xingsui is from southern Hokkien, and all he uttered in a hurry was the obscure southern Hokkien dialect, while the Spaniards here were yelling, and the two sides immediately became a chicken talking to a duck.

Seeing that the anger on both sides was getting stronger and they had already started to push and shove, Qin Huacheng couldn't bear his temper after all, and stood up to dissuade them.Although he couldn't understand the Hokkien dialect spoken by Lin Xingsui in a hurry, what those Spaniards said couldn't help him, so he should try to persuade those Spaniards not to talk to Lin Xingsui again. Go ahead and argue so you don't have to deal with it later.

Qin Huacheng worked as a security policeman in Manila for a period of time, and he was proficient at coaxing and intimidating. A few words actually made those Spaniards shut up one after another, gave up the idea of ​​doing anything, and returned to his berth resentfully. superior.After hearing the news, the guards came and asked about the passing, but they didn't make things difficult for the Spaniards any more. When they left, they patted Qin Huacheng on the shoulder to signal that he was doing well.

"Not bad, I never thought you could still communicate with these ghosts." Lin Xingsui, who had calmed down, finally recovered his Haihan Mandarin with a distinct southern Hokkien accent: "If you understand these ghosts, then probably There will be an errand for you soon."

"An errand for me?" Qin Huacheng didn't understand what Lin Xingsui meant by "errand".

Lin Xingsui pointed to the Spaniards who had just clashed with him and said, "There are hundreds of ghosts like them in this hard labor camp. Because of the language barrier, the higher-ups always take these ghosts very seriously. Headache. If you can communicate with them, you will definitely be able to succeed with this ability."

It was only then that Qin Huacheng suddenly realized, and thought to himself, God helped me. I thought that I had no skills at all, and it would be difficult to make a name for myself here, but I forgot that knowing Spanish is also a specialty.If the prison authorities want to better manage these Spanish prisoners, it is obvious that there must be a translator who understands Spanish to provide assistance.

Qin Huacheng quickly asked Lin Xingsui for advice: "I heard that before this, many prisoners from Manila have been sent to Xingdao to serve their sentences. Among them, there must be some people like me who can speak Chinese and understand Spanish. , Didn’t the government select some of them to do the job of translation? Is there anything special to pay attention to when doing this job?”

Lin Xingsui waved his hand and said: "I have recruited a few prisoners before, but they all seemed to have problems, and they were given up after working for a few days. It was all decided by the superiors. The reason is not clear, so I dare not discuss it casually. ...In short, if you are asked to do this errand, just remember to be cautious in your words and deeds."

The words "be cautious in words and deeds" are unforgettable to Qin Huacheng. The root cause of his accident in Manila can be said to be that he did not exercise caution in his words and deeds. As a result, he left a lot of clues, which were easily caught by the military intelligence department. After a thorough investigation, I lost my great future in vain.So after arriving in Xingdao, he also changed his past style of dealing with the world, being cautious in everything, in order not to repeat the same mistakes.If he could get another chance to stand up, even without Lin Xingsui's reminder, he would definitely warn himself to be careful.

The next day, Qin Huacheng, who was in pain from the previous day's work, did not get a chance to breathe. The number he was in had to continue working after breakfast, and today's schedule was not half a day, but a full day.The only good thing is that their destination is still yesterday's stronghold construction site, and they don't have to go to the dam and wharf where the construction conditions are more difficult.

Since Qin Huacheng performed poorly in the job of shoveling soil yesterday, today the guards arranged for him to push a cart for building materials.But to be honest, this job is not as easy as shoveling. The small car looks small, but it is really heavy after being filled with concrete. Moreover, the construction site is a slope, and the load is uphill and downhill. For Qin Huacheng's explosive power It is not easy for people with very limited physical strength. After two back and forth, the arms are weak and the feet are weak.

So Qin Huacheng inevitably became the target of loud reprimand from the guards again, but his movements were slow, and in the end Qin Huacheng reluctantly persisted until the lunch break.

(End of this chapter)