1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2222
The answer given by Chen Xiaoyu will undoubtedly make most Ming people feel uncomfortable. After all, Daming has always regarded itself as a kingdom of heaven and regarded neighboring countries as weak chickens.It is very difficult for the people to accept the sudden emergence of an emerging country with a military force higher than that of Ming Dynasty, which would make Ming Dynasty lack the courage to adopt a military confrontation attitude.

The barbarians outside the pass in the north are enough to cause headaches, but the Haihan emerging from the sea in the south seems to be even better. Most of its territory is occupied by the Ming Dynasty, including the Zhoushan Islands. .

How did this place fall into the hands of the Haihan people? Dai Chengrong has heard some rumors before. The fleet wiped out the pirates here, and then took the place as its own.

As for why Daming would acquiesce to what Haihan did in Zhoushan, the outside world has not received an official statement on this, but it is generally believed that this is a compromise made by Haihan when he had the upper hand and Daming had no choice.

However, because of his family relationship, Dai Chengrong was able to get access to some undisclosed official information, and knew that the reason for this situation was not as simple as the difference in force.Daming refused to break his face, more because he was concerned that his own situation was relatively difficult. Under internal and external troubles, he could only avoid opening up a new battlefield on the southeast coast as much as possible. The barbarian is much more powerful.

In addition, Haihan's occupation of the Zhoushan Islands was not aimed at invading Ming Dynasty. Although they often showed off their force, they did not fight against the coastal state capitals. Instead, they opened a port in Zhoushan and started transnational trade.If Da Ming takes military measures under such circumstances, it will rekindle the flames of war that have already subsided, and objectively speaking, Da Ming has no certainty of victory.Starting a war for such a tasteless place as the Zhoushan Islands, from the perspective of Daming, it is obviously not worthwhile to take such a risk.

Of course, under the control of a force like Haihan who is good at managing maritime trade, Zhoushan is not a tasteless one, but a trading port that can radiate the affluent areas of Hangzhou Bay and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is very important, and it has already been included in the long-term planning of the Executive Committee.

Although Chen Xiaoyu's reason sounds a bit biased, after Dai Chengrong heard it, he couldn't come up with any evidence to refute his point of view.After all, based on his personal knowledge, he had never seen such a large warship.But Dai Chengrong was both unwilling and envious when he thought that Haihan, a foreign country, had even stronger military force than Daming.

Chen Xiaoyu continued: "Our country still has a lot of warships of this level, and new ships enter the navy every year. And I heard from General Shi that we will build even bigger sailing warships in the future!"

Although Dai Chengrong didn't know Haihan's shipbuilding ability, but after seeing this majestic warship with his own eyes, he had no doubts about Chen Xiaoyu's bragging.But thinking of such a powerful foreign armed fleet stationed on the coastline of Daming, I still feel a little uncomfortable.

"Let's go, find a place to eat, wait for another day when I have a chance, and then I'll take you to see these two ships go out to sea!" Chen Xiaoyu saw from Dai Chengrong's expression that he was interested in these two warships, so he deliberately wanted to whet his appetite .

Sure enough, Dai Chengrong responded immediately: "Instructor, then you must remember to do what you say!"

Chen Xiaoyu was going to find a familiar small restaurant for dinner near the military port, but Dai Chengrong took the initiative to say: "It's rare to come out, so it's better to find a better place, and I will bear all the expenses!"

After finishing speaking, he patted his waist in a showy manner, and said to Chen Xiaoyu: "As for the money, the instructor will leave it to me!"

Chen Xiaoyu laughed and said, "So you just said you wanted to go back to the dormitory to get some things, so you just took the money!"

Dai Chengrong said: "The barracks are strictly controlled. Gambling is not allowed, and there is nothing to buy. You don't accept it for showing respect to the instructors. The money you bring can't be spent at all. It's rare to come out today. Of course, you need to find someone Great place to spend your money!"

When these salt merchants came to Zhoushan, they all brought a lot of luggage. Although they were forced to give up some unimportant personal belongings when they entered the barracks, almost everyone had some money in their luggage.But this is not their personal behavior, but a measure arranged by each of the seven surnames.

The reason why the salt merchants made this arrangement is also very simple. It is to consider that these children will definitely encounter many inconveniences when they go out, but as long as they have enough money at hand, I believe it will be enough to solve most of the difficulties.Of course, if you can buy a few Haihan officers during the training period and invite them to come to Yangzhou to serve for you after retiring, that would be the best.

However, this is not the first time that Haihan has organized this kind of military training. Naturally, it has been guarded against it for a long time. All soldiers participating in the training are strictly prohibited from accepting property from the children of salt merchants, so as to avoid some uncontrollable situations.

Of course, this kind of regulation is only for the environment inside the barracks. Outside the barracks, many things may not be strictly implemented according to the rules.For example, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the training of these salt merchants' children, Ma Zhengping gave Duan Tiancheng various benefits these days, and Duan Tiancheng basically accepted them all, and did not deliberately refuse them.

Dai Chengrong also knew that it was inconvenient to take the initiative to give benefits to these instructors in the army, but it was rare to have the opportunity to leave the barracks today, so of course he had to try to make the instructors happy.As for how much money will be spent, Dai Chengrong will not feel bad at all. If he behaves boldly and makes the instructor look at him differently, then he will not mind spending as much money as possible in Zhoushan, and he knows that his old father in Yangzhou will definitely support him. He does.

So under Dai Chengrong's strong request, the two called a rickshaw nearby and went to the port area west of Xiaozhushan.

Dinghai Port is bounded by Xiaozhu Mountain, which extends from the inland to the coastline in the middle of the harbor, and is divided into east and west port areas, each of which undertakes military and civilian functions.The port area to the west of Xiaozhushan is the station of the East China Sea Fleet, while the port area to the east is a bustling commercial area.

Dai Chengrong arrived at Dinghai Port by boat that day, and had no chance to take a look at the commercial area. After disembarking, he was sent to the military camp. It was not until today that he was fortunate enough to experience the prosperity of Dinghai Port.

Compared with the cities that Dai Chengrong has been to before, Dinghai Port is characterized by wide and straight streets, which shows that a lot of effort has been put into the planning and construction period.Moreover, there are many buildings on both sides of the street that can be seen to be newly built for a few years. It can be seen that Haihan should have done a lot of work on infrastructure after taking over this place.

And these houses on both sides of the street are actually all kinds of shops, and the flow of people on the street is also very considerable, it really is a quite prosperous scene.Even compared with Yangzhou, a city known for its prosperity, it seems that it will not fall behind.

Seeing that the street here was obviously congested, Chen Xiaoyu suggested to get out of the car and walk. Dai Chengrong had this intention and asked the driver to pull over immediately.

"You probably can't imagine what it looked like when Zhoushan Island was captured from the pirates." Chen Xiaoyu proudly raised his finger to the shops on both sides of the street and said, "I heard from the officer that At that time, this place was a fishing port town, and this street could not even be called a street. It was just a three-foot-wide loess road. There were several taverns, pawnshops, and brothels on the side of the road, all of which were run by pirates on the island. It's smoky. Although there are many businessmen coming and going here every year, no one has ever planned to build a city here until we come!"

Dai Chengrong said: "With such a large project, and the island has not many people, the soldiers who came to the island must have been used as migrant workers to participate in the project."

"When I went to the island, the army no longer participated in these infrastructure projects." Chen Xiaoyu shook his head and said, "These projects were successively undertaken by businessmen from various countries."

When Chen Xiaoyu went to Zhoushan Island to enlist in the army, the Haihan army had already established a firm foothold here, and it was the period when Dinghai Port was being built with great fanfare.But he was lucky, and it happened that Shi Diwen was implementing a series of policies in Zhoushan that were conducive to businessmen's participation in local development and construction, so he was not used as a migrant worker.

Dai Chengrong said: "These infrastructure projects cost a lot of money, and a lot of labor has to be imported to the island. Why are businessmen willing to undertake them?"

"It's all for profit!" Chen Xiaoyu said clearly: "Building roads and ports can get the development rights of adjacent areas, and discerning businessmen are rushing to do it."

Dai Chengrong said with a smile: "The ones who are ahead must be mostly businessmen from Haihan Kingdom."

Chen Xiaoyu nodded and said: "The businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have no experience in cooperation, and most of them hold a wait-and-see attitude, but businessmen from my country know that this kind of development project is rich in oil and water, and it will be finished in a few clicks. When the local businessmen come back to their senses , and can only pick up some subcontracted second-hand projects.”

At that time, after Haihan occupied Zhoushan Island, the first people who invested money in it to participate in infrastructure development were business groups from Fujian and Guangdong.These local business groups have cooperated with Haihan for a long time, and they are more aware of Haihan's development routines for overseas colonies. At the same time, they have strong financial resources. After taking over these projects, they hired migrant workers from nearby state capitals to start work on the island.Although the initial investment is huge, the many benefits obtained from it must not be achieved by doing sea trade business alone.

Although Chen Xiaoyu was not directly involved in the construction process of these projects at that time, many officers in his army worked as supervisors on these construction sites to ensure that the quality of these projects contracted by businessmen would not be perfunctory.So Chen Xiaoyu later heard these officers reveal a lot of anecdotes about the development of the port area. Although the level of information he had access to was not high, it was more than enough to show off his knowledge to Dai Chengrong.

Dai Chengrong listened earnestly, and said in his heart that this should be written down, and when he finds an opportunity to meet Ma Lao some other day, he will talk about this cooperation method, and see if the seven surnames can also get a share in Zhoushan Island.

But in fact, needless to say, Ma Zhengping has already been exposed to information in this field. Xuan Xiangming and Duan Tian are trying to persuade him to consider accepting some larger infrastructure projects in Zhoushan for operation.However, the cooperation conditions that the Zhoushan authorities can provide to foreign businessmen during this period are definitely not comparable to the policies when they first arrived in Zhoushan.

Moreover, the prime location near Dinghai Port has long been divided up. If Ma Zhengping wants to take over this kind of project, he can only implement it in the peripheral area designated by the Zhoushan authorities, which is roughly on the coast east of the existing port area. Even if the construction starts immediately, In the short term, it will definitely not be able to compare with the mature port area that has been operating for a few years.

"After so many days of big pot meals in the army, why don't you go eat some Yangzhou cuisine and feel the taste of your hometown?" Chen Xiaoyu offered to propose.

"There are Yangzhou dishes here? That's great, there will be a labor instructor to lead the way!" Although Dai Chengrong said that he was originally from Huizhou, but he was born in Yangzhou and grew up in Yangzhou. His eating habits are actually the same as those of authentic Yangzhou people.The food after coming to Zhoushan is not bad, but Dai Chengrong naturally does not want to miss the opportunity to eat hometown food in a foreign country.

After walking on the street for a while, Chen Xiaoyu asked, "How about the one in front?"

Dai Chengrong saw that there was a conspicuous plaque on the outside of this restaurant on the street, called "Second Fen Building", and Dang even smiled and praised: "The instructor is an expert, and this Er Fen Building is also a well-known restaurant in Yangzhou City. The first banquet is particularly outstanding, unexpectedly, it has also opened a semicolon in Zhoushan without making any noise!"

When Chen Xiaoyu heard that Dai Chengrong praised him as an expert, he couldn't help but feel hot. This restaurant is regarded as a high-end place in Yangzhou, and a table of dishes costs a lot of money. How can he afford it? The second sub-floor has delivered seafood a few times.

Knowing that this place is expensive, Chen Xiaoyu didn't go in directly out of caution, so he asked Dai Chengrong for his opinion first.However, Dai Chengrong didn't think about the price at all. Since the instructor chose this place, he just went in and ate, and immediately called Chen Xiaoyu to go in.

Xiao Er, who was standing at the door, saw the two men in military uniforms, and hurried over to say hello, "Are the two military masters here for dinner or looking for someone?"

"Dinner, is there a private room upstairs? Let's lead the way!" Dai Chengrong was used to the world and knew that all the private rooms in the second floor were upstairs, so he asked the little girl to lead the way.

The little second said with a look of embarrassment: "Master Jun, the private room is gone today..."

"Then find a place upstairs facing the street!" Dai Chengrong didn't care.

Xiao Er took the two of them to the third floor, found a table by the window, looked out the window, and could see the Dinghai Port Wharf, and the densely packed boats docked on the shore had already lit up a little bit of light.

"What would you two military masters like to eat? Can you recommend the signature dishes of our restaurant?"

"You don't need to recommend it. Your restaurant's best three-head banquet is the best... It's a pity that it's a bit far away from Yangzhou, otherwise it would be great to have the three delicacies from the Yangtze River!" Let's order food.

(End of this chapter)