1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 225 Trip to Vietnam ([-])

Zheng Zuo responded somewhat unclearly: "Training camp? I think the transportation here is inconvenient, and there are no towns around to provide daily necessities. Why not set it up in Shenglong Mansion?"

"It is not a problem for us to set up the training camp in Shenglong Mansion. The reason why I suggest setting up the training camp in this place is also for your consideration." Tao Donglai persuaded with a sincere look : "Mr. Zheng, the existence of troops using firearms is absolutely unprecedented in Annan's country. Is this correct?"

Zheng Zuo didn't understand, so he nodded, but still didn't understand what Tao Donglai meant.

"You spent a lot of money to build such a high-level army with strong combat capabilities, in order to be able to kill the rebels in the south with one blow on the future battlefield. But if you put the training camp in Shenglong Mansion, How long does Mr. Zheng think it will take for this news to spread to the south? I think whether it is ten days or half a month, the southern rebels will get the news before this army is formed. At that time, you will send this army again. I am afraid that the combat effect will become very limited." Tao Donglai pointed to the outside of the tent and continued: "But this place is very good, sparsely populated, don't worry about the spies of the southern rebels, and we will ship some of them regularly by ship Supplies, especially ammunition, are far more convenient than transporting them from the sea to Thang Long Mansion, right?"

Zheng Zuo opened his mouth to refute, but felt that Tao Dong said everything was reasonable, and he couldn't refute it, but he always felt that there seemed to be something wrong.

Tao Donglai's idea to Zheng Zuo was not a flash of inspiration, but a draft plan that had been prepared long ago. During the meeting the night before, he had discussed the details with Qian Tiandun and others in detail, in order to A one-hit effect.

The entire arms sales plan to Vietnam, from negotiations, demonstrations, sales, to after-sales ammunition supply, skill training, weapon maintenance, etc., has undergone detailed planning and pre-deduction. In addition to pursuing economic profit maximization, each link In addition, it also took into account the long-term goal of the Executive Committee to gradually control the political situation in Vietnam.We will not let go of every detail that can benefit the time travel group, and strive to achieve perfection.

After the sale of these weapons, it is definitely a matter of providing military advisors to train the North Vietnamese Zheng's firearms troops. However, due to the comprehensive consideration of safety and supplies, the Executive Committee does not want to send its soldiers to places where the situation is unknown. The Hanoi area, and the setting of the training location, of course, is more suitable for the coastal area.Prior to this, Zheng Zuo had already agreed to the crossing group's request to be stationed in the Tushan Peninsula on behalf of North Vietnam, so Tao Donglai naturally designated the Tushan Peninsula as a training base for North Vietnam to train firearms troops in the future.

For this reason, the negotiating team also specially prepared two sets of plans. If Zheng Zuo's party did not agree to the request of the Crossing Group to station in the Tushan Peninsula, then Tao Donglai would also use this opportunity to propose to him to set up a training camp here, and Use this to gain control of the Tushan Peninsula.In fact, as long as it talks about the follow-up training of soldiers, it shows that the crossing group has taken the initiative. Regardless of Zheng Zuole's willingness, the control of the Tushan Peninsula will be lost.

There is another not-obvious advantage of setting up a training camp here, that is, the troops sent by North Vietnam to participate in the training will actually undertake the defense work of this stronghold to a certain extent.The military strength that the Crossing Group can deploy here is at most a company of military advisors. The defense force is actually relatively limited, but the trained troops sent by the North Vietnamese side have solved this problem.According to the plan of the Ministry of Military and Police, the size of this training camp will be maintained at about 500 to [-] people. During the entire training period, these Vietnamese soldiers will not only be students, but also serve as bodyguards for the stronghold on the peninsula.

Of course, Tao Dong's reasons for convincing Zheng Zuo are also very good, and it seems that he is completely considering Zheng's position.The training of the firearms troops is very noisy. If it is located near the Thang Long Mansion, it will not be able to hide the attention of those who are interested. This will definitely greatly reduce the suddenness of Zheng's deployment of the firearms troops on the battlefield. What Zheng, who spent a lot of money, didn't want to see.

Zheng Zuo pondered for a while, and had to admit that Tao Donglai's suggestion was indeed reasonable, but it was the first time he had heard the word "military adviser", so he asked Tao Donglai for its specific meaning.

Tao Donglai explained with a smile: "The military consultants we provide are mainly for the organization and training of your personnel, so that they can learn the basic skills of firearm warfare and be able to conduct military operations against troops using cold weapons on the battlefield. Suppressing strikes. Of course, in addition to this, they must also learn the basic maintenance, maintenance, and repair skills of weapons, otherwise these weapons will have to be transported back to this place for repairs if they have a small fault on the battlefield."

Zheng Zuo turned his eyes and asked, "Maintenance is fine, but if we order a large amount of guns and artillery in the future, and your supply is insufficient, what should we do?"

Tao Donglai guessed what Zheng Zuo was thinking, and he didn't say anything, but asked instead: "Then what is Mr. Zheng's plan?"

Zheng Zuo said: "You need to cross the sea by boat to sell these guns and cannons. It takes a lot of time and money. Why not build a military workshop on our land in Annan to make these weapons? The labor required , materials and daily expenses can all be borne by us, and you only need to send craftsmen to supervise and guide you. In this way, you can increase the output of weapons, and we can also enjoy lower prices. Both parties get what they want Wouldn’t it be great if you needed it?”

Tao Donglai smiled, and said to himself that your brain is turning very fast, you have not even finished negotiating the sale of this weapon, and you have thought of introducing production technology, and you are indeed worthy of being the overlord in the future.

In the long-term plan formulated by the Executive Committee, the control of areas such as Vietnam should start with trade, gradually control its military and economic lifelines, and then exert greater influence on the local regime through these important industries, so as to achieve indirect purpose of domination.In addition to the early arms trade and personnel training for military intervention, the promotion of the military system and military industry is also one of the goals.

For the Time Travel Group, after the military industrial system is on the development track, a large number of outdated technologies and equipment must find ways to bring more benefits to the group, such as exporting to those areas that have been deeply affected, assisting The local government builds a basic military-industrial system.In addition to enabling the Transit Group to further control the local military development, it is more important to lay the foundation for the monopoly capital of the Traversing regime to occupy the local market and plunder strategic raw materials in the future.

This all-round control strategy is not an invention of the Executive Committee. In fact, there are many examples in later generations that have been used as reference materials for the Executive Committee to formulate development strategies.For example, Germany’s military assistance to China in the first half of the [-]th century was similar. It first sent military advisers, then sold arms to the then National Government, and later participated in the preparation of China’s modern military industry.And because there is a huge technological gap between the two sides of the trade, the Germans can easily obtain huge profits from the trade by using scissors.Almost all military developed countries sell military aid to backward countries in a similar way, with the purpose of occupying the market and grabbing strategic materials. These successful experiences have naturally become the objects that the Traversing Group emulates now.

Of course, the arms sales to Vietnam are far from reaching the point of helping Vietnam establish a military industry system. Tao Donglai has long been prepared for this: "Mr. Zheng, as you said, our production capacity is indeed limited. Yes, if your order is too large, we may not be able to supply it in a short period of time, but this problem cannot be solved by building more workshops here. The equipment for manufacturing these weapons is very large and requires a lot of Complicated maintenance work, currently there is no way to move from our place to settle here."

Zheng Zuo curled his lips, apparently not very convinced by Tao Donglai's reason.

Tao Donglai continued: "Furthermore, our cooperation has just started and everything is still in its infancy. I think we should continue to deepen mutual understanding through arms trade and military training. After reaching a certain level, we can Find a weapon manufacturing method suitable for Annan's actual situation, and help you gradually realize it locally. Before that, I think we can refer to the method you proposed to reduce the production cost of these weapons..."

"Oh?" Zheng Zuo cheered up again when he heard this. Does this mean that the other party will take the initiative to lower the price?

"It is impossible to move the workshops that produce these weapons to Annan, but we can completely change our mind and transport the cheap labor provided by you to us, which can also reduce costs and increase the output of weapons. Isn't it great?" Tao Donglai said with a smile.

Zheng Zuo frowned, feeling that something was wrong.

"I think if you can provide enough labor, then the price of these weapons can be reduced by at least [-] to [-] percent." Tao Donglai's voice entered Zheng Zuo's ears like a devil's whisper: "And these labor forces Food, clothing, housing and transportation, all the expenses can be borne by us, you just need to help us organize the manpower and send it to the place where we are meeting now."

Zheng Zuo took a deep breath and said, "You mean... let us organize the people to transport them overseas, and then the people in Annan will manufacture these weapons and sell them back to us?"

"Totally correct." Tao Donglai nodded and said, "And we don't demand too much from these workers, even if they are prisoners of war, prisoners, or homeless wanderers, as long as they are healthy and have the basic ability to work, we will accept them. Acceptable. Of course, we can discuss the specific settlement method slowly, you can calculate the money by head, or by the amount of weapons traded.

Now Zheng Zuo is really a little hesitant, and organizes the people to move overseas to work. If Zheng's political opponents find out about this, it will definitely be a big black pot.But according to Tao Donglai, doing so can reduce the cost of purchasing Haihan weapons. The benefits are considerable.

Seeing Zheng Zuo's hesitant appearance, Tao Donglai calmly calculated the financial accounts for him: "Just take the content of the transaction we are going to discuss next as an example, we brought a total of A Twenty Type B guns and ten Type B guns. Of course, ten Type A guns will be handed over to you as the rent of Heitu Port for the next year, and the remaining twenty guns, according to our previous quotation, are... ..."

"Thirty-seven thousand taels." Tom Wang answered next to him.He had already calculated the price of weapons in his mind several times while sitting there, and when he heard Tao Donglai's voice paused, he quickly helped to make up for it.

Tao Donglai nodded to Wang Tom to express his gratitude, and then continued: "And if you can promise to provide us with enough labor in the next three months, I think the price can be lowered." Adjust a section, for example..."

When Tao Dong came to see Zheng Zuo looking at him expectantly, he unhurriedly quoted a new price: "...3 taels."

Zheng Zuo was overwhelmed by Tao Donglai's offer again.Just now I wasted so much energy, I even talked about it a few times, but the other party just went around and refused to lower the price, and even expressed the intention to terminate the transaction between words. I don't have too much hope, I'm just wondering if I can increase the ammunition attached to the opponent as a bonus.But he never wanted to talk about the topic of labor, and the other party was willing to automatically reduce the price by nearly [-]% for this unsolved matter.

7000 taels of silver is not much to Zheng, but less is still a lot. According to the other party's new quotation, the saved money can buy six or seven artillery pieces or more than 200 firearms.And all of this can be achieved only by exporting a certain amount of labor to the Haihan people.

"I don't know how much labor you need to lower the price?" Zheng Zuo gritted his teeth and finally made up his mind.

"How about 2 people in three months? During this period, the arms you purchased from us will be calculated at [-]% of the original quotation." Tao Donglai directly offered a high price.

Sure enough, Zheng Zuo was also frightened. He shook his head again and again and said, "I am determined not to meet these conditions. You should know that Shenglong Mansion only has a population of 10. If one of the five people is removed, what kind of momentum will this create among the people?"

Tao Donglai thought about it, and it was the same reason. Vietnam is not a populous country at this time, and it is really unrealistic to want to become fat in one go here, so he came up with another idea: "How about 2000 people per month? If it is expensive If Fang can maintain such a labor export quantity for a long time, then we will give you a [-]% trade discount for a long time according to what we said earlier."

Zheng Zuo thought for a while, and thought that the pressure of this amount was not too great. The key was that the other party did not have high requirements for labor, as long as they had hands and feet to work, it didn't matter whether they were prisoners of war or prisoners.In the current battle with the southern rebels, thousands of captives were taken back to Thang Long Mansion every month, and most of them were executed after being paraded in the streets.Naturally, there are many ordinary people who were wrongly arrested in the war zone, but this is no different to Zheng Zuo. Now these people can get more practical benefits from the Haihan people, which is good for North Vietnam and for It was obviously a good thing for Mr. Zheng.

So the two sides reached another verbal agreement on this, and North Vietnam provided labor in exchange for Haihan's long-term trade discount.If one day North Vietnam stops labor export, then the trade discount will automatically expire, and vice versa.

Wang Tom, Qian Tiandun, Xie Chun and others were all admiring when they heard it. So many people were thinking about foreign arms sales, expanding the military establishment, solving overseas military budgets, hidden dangers in the defense and security of black soil ports, and establishing Strategic support points, establishment of high-level diplomatic relations with North Vietnam, infiltration of North Vietnam's military system, increase in the number and speed of immigration from North Vietnam... these series of issues were actually resolved in half a day of negotiations, and every transaction The favorable parties tend to cross the group, which has to be said to be a pioneering work and a huge victory in foreign work.

Tao Donglai, who led the trade negotiations, undoubtedly contributed the most. It was his series of plans and strategies that made the trade negotiations go so smoothly, and basically achieved all the goals of the arms sales plan. .

The next step is to negotiate the specific quantity of arms transactions. Because the price and other details have been determined in the previous negotiation process, this originally most important link seems to be calm.

In the end, the two parties reached a transaction of [-] Type [-] matchlock guns, ten Type-A guns and [-] Type-B guns, [-] rounds of matchlock bullets, and [-] shells for each of the two types of artillery. send.After the discount, the total is more than [-] taels, which is the largest foreign trade order signed by the Time Travel Group after coming to this time and space.

However, because the ready-made weapons that the Transcending Group can currently provide are far from this number, the transaction will be divided into two.This time, Zheng will be provided with [-] matchlock guns, [-] type A guns, [-] type B guns, and some ammunition.The remaining part will be delivered before the end of the year, when Zheng will pay the remaining payment.

However, before the second transaction, Zheng needs to provide a labor force of no less than 5000 to the Transit Group within two months before the end of the year.Zheng Zuo expressed opposition to this request, claiming that it would take more time to suddenly gather such a large population.In this regard, Tao Donglai further relaxed the conditions-no matter men, women or children under the age of 45, as long as they have healthy limbs and no diseases, they can be counted in the head.That is to say, even a toddler who has just started to walk can make up the number, so Zheng Zuo nodded and agreed to the request.

(End of this chapter)