1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2397
The purpose of the measures Chen Yixin mentioned is of course to prevent a large number of standard weapons from flowing into uncontrollable areas.There have been cases in the south where some people pretended to form militias in order to buy Haihan weapons and equipment in batches. They only waited for the items to be sold at a higher price and resold them, and they could make huge profits. Become a hidden danger that threatens Haihan's safety.After Haihan noticed this situation, he tightened up the arms sales, and the review of the purchase of weapons by civilians in Ming Dynasty became extremely strict, and it was stipulated that the number of personnel who actually passed the military training assessment of Haihan must be used as weapons. Sold with restricted standards.

It is not an easy task for the trainees to pass the examination in the military training hosted by Haihan. There are strict requirements for the length of training and the mastery of military skills. These are all real money and time The conditions can only be met, and the cost of training is even higher than the cost of purchasing weapons and equipment, which has already dissuaded a considerable number of people with ulterior motives.

A person like Zhen Lang who has just started contacting, naturally cannot gain Hai Han's trust quickly. Chen Yixin explained the threshold to him, and also wanted Zhen Lang to understand that if he came with other intentions, then when he came This is where you should get out of the way.

Zhen Lang couldn't help frowning when he heard the words, he thought that this kind of thing could be solved by spending more money, it was just that the price of buying weapons was higher, but as long as they can be used to protect his family's foundation in Qingzhou , he wouldn't feel bad about spending a little more money in this area, and at the same time, he was already mentally prepared to be ripped off by Hai Han.But judging from Chen Yixin's reply, it was not as easy as he expected.

But Zhen Lang still held a sliver of hope and asked: "General Chen, is there no other way to accommodate this matter?"

Chen Yixin said: "The state owns the state laws, and the family has family rules. Not to mention the military orders are like mountains, how can they be flexible? However, if Boss Zhen has good candidates under his command, I suggest that they can be sent to the army for training first. It’s not just about using muskets, even if you can only use traditional weapons like knives and bows in the future, its strength will definitely not disappoint.”

Zhen Lang replied: "Although this is the case, everyone knows that the firearms of the Haihan Army are unparalleled in the world. If they cannot be equipped with Haihan muskets, wouldn't the training effect be greatly reduced?"

Chen Yixin shook his head slightly and said: "Boss Zhen, you have to eat every bite. In your situation, I can only provide you with such conditions at the moment. Besides, even if you are allowed to buy muskets in bulk, it may not be good for you and your family." It's a good thing, when the time comes, you will be targeted by many forces including the government because of your guns, and you will have countless troubles, even if someone has a gun, they may not be able to protect themselves."

Zhen Lang said: "Then I would like to ask General Chen, how did your country's partners in the south solve these problems?"

Chen Yixin replied: "It's very simple. As long as the strength is strong enough, naturally no one will dare to provoke you. For example, if Boss Zhen has the ability to maintain a musketeer team with a size of a thousand people, then there will definitely be no one in the local area who will come to challenge you." It's no fun."

Thousands of people?Zhen Lang couldn't help but feel a little headache when he heard this. Daming already had strict control over civilian armed forces, and he had never heard of any local militia in Shandong that could have a size of a thousand people, let alone be equipped with muskets.If he really caused such a big battle in Qingzhou Mansion, he would probably be directly accused of rebellion, not to mention alarming the local government, I am afraid that even the imperial court will send troops to kill him.

But the tone of Chen Yixin's words did not seem to be joking with himself. Could it be that the situation in the south is different from that in Shandong, and the rich and powerful can openly own private soldiers?

Seeing Zhen Lang's expression, Chen Yixin roughly guessed what he was thinking, and explained to him: "This kind of thing is not complicated to operate, it is nothing more than donating money to officials, changing the identity of private armed forces to become a legal existence Well, whether it’s a private soldier or an officer, sometimes it’s just a different name. When you have enough armed forces in your hands, you don’t need to look at other people’s faces anymore. The current Fujian General Soldier, Mr. Xu, has come up step by step like this. "

The most convincing example in this regard is undoubtedly the history of Xu Xinsu's family fortune. He was originally a maritime merchant, and he spent money to donate a navy general in order to fight against Zheng Zhilong. The next thing was out of control, and he even took charge of the military power in Fujian.Xu Xinsu currently has tens of thousands of troops under his command, and he is already the local emperor in Fujian. Even the imperial court has nothing to do with him, and he has to exercise restraint in his actions. But it just made things worse.

Of course, Xu Xinsu is only a special case created by the current situation, and it is difficult to replicate his situation in other places. Even if many people later followed his successful way, they hoped to achieve personal success through military cooperation with Haihan. ambition, but there is no second Xu Xinsu.

It's a pity that Zhen Lang is located in the inland of Shandong, and he had never heard of Xu Xinsu's deeds before, so he didn't have much feeling for the example Chen Yixin gave.However, the path Chen Yixin mentioned was actually the same as his original plan, but he never thought of getting into an official career by donating officials.After all, Zhen Lang is just a businessman who wants to do big business, and he still lacks understanding of the role of force, otherwise he should be able to sense that Chen Yixin's words are already testing his attitude.

Chen Yixin has seen countless people, and he also felt from Zhen Lang's hesitation that the other party's attitude towards the development of force is not firm, so there is no need to use military resources to support him vigorously.Otherwise, even if Hai Hanhan trains a considerable musketeer for Zhen Lang, it will be difficult for him to control such an armed force, and sooner or later it will be easier for others.

Even if Chen Yixin changed the subject, he said, "With Boss Zhen's situation, I don't think there is any need to rush to train a private army. The traditional militia may be more suitable for your needs. The cost is low, the training difficulty is low, and it will not Let the government keep thinking about you, and I can guarantee that the fighting power after formation will definitely be better than other local militia groups in Qingzhou, and even stronger than the local guard army, Boss Zhen may wish to think about it again."

It is much easier to form and train armed organizations at the level of traditional militias than to train musketeers. This can be said to be the product of two different eras.For a situation like Zhen Lang who yearns for private arms but lacks decisiveness, forming a militia is obviously a better choice.

In the end, Zhen Lang still didn't make a decision right away. During the conversation, he also realized that he didn't know enough about this matter. Under such circumstances, the choice he made might indeed deviate from his original intention. He still had to plan carefully and take a long-term view. Row.

Chen Yixin is not disappointed about this. After all, partners like the Xu family in Fujian and the Li family in Guangdong are rare, and he can't expect every partner he meets to have the same courage.Moreover, objectively speaking, Li Jifeng and Xu Xinsu were both engaged in maritime trade activities in the early years, and their vision and insight are not comparable to their counterparts in the inland areas, and they have a more thorough vision of the prospects for cooperation with Haihan. Ron was so hesitant.

But in any case, with the framework of the Shanhaihui, Haihan has some ways to slowly win over people's hearts, and use real benefits to pull these rich people from Shandong into their business system.Once they become the vested interests of cooperation with Haihan, the local forces represented by these people will naturally gradually become the spokesperson of Haihan, playing a role in promoting economy, trade, culture, education, finance and military affairs for Haihan in Daming.

Haihan already has a relatively mature plan for handling these things, and there is no need for Chen Yixin to be in charge of Shandong in the follow-up. Someone from various relevant departments will follow up and discuss the next step with these members of the Shanhaihui, and agree on specific future trade. Cooperation methods and projects ensure that the cooperation agreements reached in Zhifu Island today can be transformed into actual results.

Due to the long journey, the fleets from several other colonies in the south arrived at Zhifu Port about a week later than the fleet from Zhoushan.But it is precisely because of this that the fleet they organize is much larger than the Zhoushan fleet, so that they can bring more people back in one trip.If the number of refugees collected in Shandong is limited, it must be first come, first served, then the southern fleet may have made two trips to Shandong, and the Zhoushan fleet may have traveled three times. Return with a full load, so that more people can be transported back to their own places.

In this era, population is equivalent to wealth to Haihan's overseas colonies, especially in areas like Taiwan Island that are seriously lacking in Han immigrants. It is hard to have this opportunity to introduce a large number of people, and the locals will naturally not let it go easily. Pass.Although the cost of organizing a large fleet to go north is expensive, compared to the value that these populations can create in the future, these costs are obviously worthwhile.

"General, the fleet from Kaohsiung Port has arrived. They also brought a letter written by Mr. Li. Please read it." Zeng Xiaowen came to Chen Yixin's office and reported the latest progress to him.

"Oh?" Chen Yixin immediately put down the work at hand and took the letter from Zeng Xiaowen.

Chen Yixin and Li Dou participated in the time-traveling operation back then. The two were close friends before the time-traveling. After coming to this time and space, they ate and lived together for a long time. They were even stationed on Dawanshan Island at the mouth of the Pearl River. , the partner of Yiwen Yiwu won the approval of the executive committee with excellent performance.

After finishing the garrison on Dawanshan Island, the two were transferred to Penghu to garrison together in 1632.However, this deployment did not allow them to work together for a long time. At the end of that year, Haihan began to build Kaohsiung Port in southern Taiwan. In the following year, Li Dou was transferred to Kaohsiung Port as the chief officer, while Chen Yixin followed the army northward to Zhejiang to attack Zhoushan. up.

In 1634, Chen Yixin led an army to wipe out the local aborigines in Miaoli, Taiwan, and cleared the obstacles for the oil exploration plan. During this period, he had a brief meeting with Lidou.But in the summer of that year, Chen Yixin went north to Shandong with the army again, and since then he seldom returned to the south.After that, when Chen Yixin got married in Fushan County, Li Dou made a special trip to come all the way, and after that, only letters and telegrams were left to communicate.

Although the opportunities to meet each other are getting rarer, the friendship between the two has been maintained well. In addition to maintaining correspondence, the two will send some local specialties to each other from time to time.During the chaos in Shandong, Chen Yixin returned to Dengzhou to take charge of the overall situation. After confirming that the southern colonies needed to share the pressure of refugee resettlement, he immediately notified Lidou and asked Lidou to organize as many large ships as possible to pull people in Shandong.

Although at present, as long as it is the Southern Fleet, it is always welcome, but Chen Yixin is still willing to use the power in his hand to provide some special treatment to his friends, such as increasing the proportion of young and middle-aged refugees among the refugees provided to Kaohsiung Port Some.

Chen Yixin opened the letter and read it carefully. In fact, the content of the letter was not very special. As always, it was just Lidou sharing some trivial things about work and life, such as the second phase of the Kaohsiung Port project has come to an end, or Lidou's youngest daughter recently just got married. full moon.Although these things have little to do with the current situation in Shandong, Chen Yixin still read them with great interest, and seemed to be able to feel the emotions of his friends from the words.

Of course, Li Dou also mentioned in the letter the production status of the plantations invested and established by the Ma family in the Kaohsiung area.After Chen Yixin married the Ma family, he persuaded Ma Dongqiang to use part of his assets to invest in plantations in the colonies ruled by Haihan. These plantations have been in operation for two or three years, and some cash crops are about to start generating profits.After the plantation has income, the Ma family's doubts about these investments should be completely dispelled.

In fact, it’s not just the Ma family that invests in Kaohsiung. Chen Yixin also puts out part of his personal assets to invest in Kaohsiung. On the one hand, he wants to obtain stable long-term income, and on the other hand, he also supports his friend’s investment promotion work.However, the projects he invests in are not just plantations. Local ports, warehouses and other infrastructure facilities also have his shares. The better the Kaohsiung Port develops in the future, the more dividends he can get.Therefore, even though they are thousands of miles away, Chen Yixin will also care about the local development both in public and in private.

After reading Li Dou's letter, Chen Yixin put aside other things and spent more than an hour writing a reply, then called Zeng Xiaowen in and gave him two orders.One is to provide supplies to the fleet from Kaohsiung as soon as possible, and give priority to organizing young and strong refugees to board the ship.The second is to go to his house to find Ma Yuling, and ask her to take out the gold bracelet and longevity lock prepared at home, and Zeng Xiaowen will pass it along with the reply letter to the person in charge of the fleet, and ask him to take it back to Kaohsiung and hand it over to Li Dou as Li Dou. A gift for my little daughter's full moon.

(End of this chapter)