1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1920
Although Zhang Qianzhi works in the Ministry of Security, his work is mainly in the fields of intelligence analysis and case investigation. In the past two years, he has not performed many field missions, and he doesn't know much about tracking and anti-tracking at sea.Moreover, this accompanying mission itself is very easy, even a bit of a playful nature. Zhang Qianzhi has always been optimistic that there will be no safety risks, and he never thought that there would be people in the waters near Sanya. Dare to follow the official fleet.

However, since the suspicious ship has disappeared from the field of vision, Zhang Qianzhi believes that there is a high possibility of misunderstanding in this situation.Gai Liangcai thought it was an additional security measure deployed by the Ministry of Security. Now that Zhang Qianzhi had clarified that there was no such thing, he was relieved and treated it as a coincidence.

After explaining the situation with Gai Liangcai, Zhang Qianzhi went back to the cabin to rest for a while, but somehow he was still thinking about what Gai Liangcai said.Usually in this situation, he would choose to trust his instincts, then got up and left the cabin, and went to the deck to find the captain.

The captain of this high-class passenger ship is named Ding Xu, and he has served Haihan officials for several years.In the early years, it was mainly responsible for running the northern route, transporting refugees from Shandong, Liaodong and other places from north to south.In the past two years, Ding Xu's physical condition has declined, and it is difficult to insist on running long-distance routes. However, he did not want to divert to go ashore, so he returned to Sanya to run some relatively easy short-distance routes.The superiors believed that Ding Xu was a meritorious official who used to run long-distance routes to transport people to Haihan, he was also reliable, and he was indeed rich in sailing experience, so he was appointed as the captain of this new ship.

This time, it is the fifth time that the ship has been on a mission after it has been put into use. It is conceivable that Ding Xu's current job is much easier than the northern route before.Moreover, this ship is generally responsible for pick-up and drop-off by leading figures, so the route will be planned in advance by the shipping department, and Ding Xu does not need to worry about it. If the weather conditions are not ideal, the arrangement for going to sea will be canceled directly. Basically, there will be no big problems. risk.

The job is easy, the income is high, and the risk is low. With Ding Xu's ability, it is difficult to find a better job than this, so he is quite satisfied with the current position, and he is also very interested in the few tasks.Although the transfer order was received temporarily this time, he also made all the preparations within the stipulated time limit.

If he had to say something that he was not satisfied with, it would be that several crew members were out of town and couldn't come back in time to carry out this mission, so he had to ask the higher-ups to send another person to come over for emergency.Of course, this is not a big problem. The crew and sailors on a large ship are always coming and going, and there are often personnel changes, and the emergency personnel are transferred from other ships belonging to the Shipping Department. What problems will exist.

After Zhang Qianzhi found Ding Xu, he mentioned to him what Gai Liangcai said earlier: "Did Captain Ding find a ship coming out of Shengli Harbor and trailing behind us?"

Ding Xu nodded and said: "Yes, I told Captain Gai at the time, but he said to observe for a while to confirm the other party's purpose, and after passing Yacheng, he didn't see the ship again. thing."

Zhang Qianzhi said: "Based on your experience, captain, did the ship behind disappear voluntarily or passively?"

Ding Xu was stunned for a moment before he understood, scratched his head and said, "It's really hard to say... If that ship followed us with peace of mind, it probably disappeared passively. After all, as long as our two ships start speeding up, Ordinary sea-going ships can’t keep up. I remember the southwest wind blowing when I arrived near Yacheng today, and I took advantage of this wind to gain speed during the voyage.”

Both the passenger ship and the escorting warship can reach the upper limit speed of about ten knots when the sea conditions are suitable, while ordinary Fuchuan can run six to seven knots is the limit. The following boat opened up the gap, causing the boat behind to disappear from view, which is what Zhang Qianzhi referred to as "passive disappearance".

Of course, even if it disappeared passively, it still cannot prove that the lucky boat that followed in the morning was tracking this fleet, and it may still be a coincidence caused by the same route.So even though Ding Xu responded, Zhang Qianzhi's doubts were still not completely resolved.

Seeing Zhang Qianzhi's solemn expression, Ding Xu persuaded with a smile: "There is no need to be nervous about this matter. This is the coastal waters of our country. If there is anything wrong, a fleet will arrive within half a day, not to mention that it is only a civilian ship. Just us For the warship next to it, it’s not a problem to do ten lucky boats, what are you afraid of him doing!”

Zhang Qianzhi made sense after thinking about it. It is basically impossible for a foreign armed fleet to sneak into this kind of place, and the scale of the escort force is enough to deal with ordinary young people.The most important thing is that with the speed that Haihan sailboats can reach, ordinary civilian ships can't catch up even if they want to do something.Even though he is in the mainland of Haihan, there is no need to have so many worries.

Zhang Qianzhi nodded and said: "The captain is right, it seems that I am overthinking...By the way, how far are we from our destination?"

"Hurry up, we have passed the corner of the nose, the mouth of the river ahead is the Wanglou River, and it is about forty miles away from Yinggehai!" Know where you are.

Zhang Qianzhi counted the time silently, then looked up at the sky, reckoned that he should arrive at Yinggehai earlier than the expected time, so he said his hard work to Ding Xu, and went back to the cabin to rest.

About an hour later, the two boats sailed into the bay of Yinggehai one after the other.Luo Shengdong, who was notified by the Sanya telegram in advance, has already brought a group of subordinates and more than a hundred people organized in advance to wait on the pier to welcome the arrival of Li Lu and his party.

Although this scene is not as grand as when Li Luo arrived in Sanya, considering that this is only a large salt field in Haihan, it is not bad to be able to achieve this level.

After getting off the boat, Li Wei had already noticed Luo Shengdong's existence without any introduction from others.This Haihan magistrate, who is said to be a former military officer of the Ming Dynasty, has a strong build and dark complexion. His hair has been cut very short like that of the Haihan people. He is also wearing a Haihan-style double-breasted blouse. On his feet are a pair of Sanya-made cowhide sandals. , Judging from the appearance, it is very similar to the high-ranking officials of Haihan that Li Wei met earlier.

Luo Shengdong took the initiative to meet Li Mo and introduced himself. Li Mo could still hear the obvious local accent in the Haihan Mandarin spoken by the other party, and it was probably difficult to correct.

"Your Majesty is welcome to come to Yinggehai as a guest, but our place is small and the conditions are not as good as Sanya, so please don't dislike me." Luo Shengdong worked as a private salt dealer for several years, and later became an official again, receiving official training, The level of conversation has far surpassed that of the navy commander back then. Even if he is facing foreign dignitaries, he can still handle it freely.Facing the North Koreans he was dealing with for the first time, Luo Shengdong was still relatively low-key. He first took the initiative to explain the local shortcomings, and then looked at the other party's response before making further plans.

Li Min responded: "Lord Luo, you are welcome. I heard about it before I came down. This place is the largest salt field in Haihan Kingdom and the largest salt field in the entire South China Sea. How can such a big name be called a small one?" Where is the place? I came here specially to open my eyes, Lord Luo, please don’t hide your secrets!”

As soon as Luo Shengdong heard it, he knew that the other party should have done some homework before coming, and it wasn't that he didn't know anything about Yinggehai.Since its development, the Yinggehai Salt Farm has continued to expand its production scale every year. Today, the amount of sea salt produced accounts for more than half of Haihan's national salt production.If Haihan hadn’t built a batch of salt farms in Shipu and Xiangshan, Zhejiang in the past two years, and expanded and upgraded some of the original salt farms, this ratio might even have reached two-thirds.

But even so, the status of Yinggehai Salt Field is still unbreakable, and its production capacity is estimated not to be surpassed by other salt fields in the next few years.Therefore, the title of "No. [-]" can indeed hang on the gate of Yinggehai Salt Field for many years.

After Li Lu arrived here, he quickly discovered that there is no need to make a special trip to visit the salt field. From the pier where he docked to the coastline in the bay, it is basically a piece of white flowers, and it is impossible to see clearly. How many salt pans are there.This made him even think of his hometown for a moment. Whenever it was the middle of winter, after a heavy snowfall, the wilderness was probably like this white scene.

Of course, the white in my hometown is the snow that will eventually melt, but the white here can be equated with wealth, which is completely different.However, Li Luo also had a question in his heart that had troubled him for a long time. On the carriage to Yinggehai Town, he raised it to Luo Shengdong.

"Your country produces so much salt every year, it should have already far exceeded the needs of the people. Is the excess part sold abroad?"

"Does your country also want to buy cheap salt from our country? It's convenient, and it should be shipped quickly from Zhejiang." Luo Shengdong is not so easy to be tricked, and he didn't answer Li Min's question honestly, but It was a rhetorical question.

In fact, Li Wei didn't know the state of salt production and supply in his country. He really couldn't answer Luo Shengdong's question, so he could only smile and say: "It seems that Master Luo is inconvenient to answer my question."

Luo Shengdong said: "Your Majesty is just joking. In fact, the table salt exported from Yinggehai Salt Field is mainly sold to Daming territory through Guangdong, and the quantity is probably not as much as I thought."

Li Min was half-believing and dubious, and always felt that Luo Shengdong's statement seemed to be reserved, but he couldn't question it. After all, the information he knew about the Yinggehai Salt Field was only the number one name. The output actually has no concept.

Luo Shengdong did have reservations, but it wasn't the part he said.In recent years, the amount of table salt sold abroad by Yinggehai Salt Fields has indeed not increased significantly. Although dumping at low prices is a good way to seize the market, if the cost of transportation and storage manpower is added, there will be little profit to speak of.Therefore, Haihan's current approach is to establish a joint operation of salt farms with other countries, produce and sell locally, so as to reduce channel costs.Although doing so will give a share to the partner, it can turn private salt into official salt in a grandiose way, and then sell it in the market with great fanfare.

Haihan's saltworks in Zhejiang and other places have adopted this method, which reduces operating risks and channel costs, and at the same time obtains a stable market.Although the amount of salt exported from Yinggehai Salt Field has not increased, from the perspective of the entire industry, the amount of salt produced and exported by Haihan is actually still increasing year by year.However, this change is only clear to people in the industry, and it is difficult for the outside world to collect relevant specific information.

In addition, there is another use that even Luo Shengdong is not clear about, and that is industrial salt.Industrial salt is one of the basic raw materials in the chemical industry, and many chemical products need to use salt as a raw material for production.Sea salt has a higher industrial value than lake salt and well salt because of the incorporation of various elements in seawater.Yinggehai Salt Field is one of the main sea salt production areas in Haihan, and a considerable part of its output is sent to Tiandu Industrial Zone, where the chemical plant is processed and turned into various industrial raw materials and industrial products.

Although Luo Shengdong knew where the salt went, he didn't understand how to deal with it.However, he has received secrecy training and knows what to say and what not to say in front of outsiders, so his answer to Li Lu's question does not mention this special purpose.

In the eyes of a layman like Li Lu, salt is still only used as food seasoning, and it is impossible to imagine how many things Haihan can use salt to create beyond the times.If it's just for food, then there is absolutely no need for Haihan to build so many salt farms. As long as the production technology is upgraded on the basis of Daming's original salt farms, the people's demand for salt can be met.Haihan invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the development and construction of salt farms and the establishment of the salt industry. At the beginning, it may have been for the purpose of using private salt sales to make money, but the long-term goal is to meet the production and development needs of industries, especially the chemical industry.

It is not far from the wharf to the populated area of ​​Yinggehai County. Sure enough, as Li Wei heard before, although Yinggehai is not a big place, its wealth is no less than that of a big city like Sanya.The buildings here are obviously newly built in recent years, but there are almost no ordinary houses with yellow mud walls and thatched roofs. Most of the houses in the city are brick houses with a uniform standard, and there are also single-door courtyards among them, which occupy a large area. No matter how you look at it, the big family's house is not as prosperous as a small county town should be.

(End of this chapter)