1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 253
Only now did Zhan Gui understand why the Haihan people held such a grand celebration ceremony for the launch of the new ship. It was really not for fun.This strange looking sailboat not only has extremely fast speed and flexible steering on the sea, but also is equipped with powerful firepower output!Zhan Gui claimed to have traveled all over the world for many years, and had seen many naval warships of the Ming army, but he had never seen a gunboat with such powerful firepower. The Haihan people are going against the sky!
Of course, it is not difficult to see from Zhan Gui's professional vision that it is not difficult to transform this thorny gunboat into a merchant ship, and it will have a greater cost advantage than warships in terms of cost and construction speed.And the Haihan people attach so much importance to shipping, of course they can't fail to realize this reason. Perhaps by this time next year, there will be such a fleet of ships in the South China Sea criss-crossing the various commercial ports.

At this time, Luo Shengdong was as calm as water. After witnessing the firepower display of the "Explorer" with his own eyes, he had already confirmed the strength gap between the navy of the Ming army and the Haihan people.This gap is so large that it can no longer be made up simply by relying on quantitative advantages-at least relying on the dilapidated warships in Yazhou that have been in service for more than 15 years, there is no hope.From then on, on the sea south of Qiongzhou, the Daming Navy probably no longer has the final say.

As a professional soldier, Luo Shengdong is of course well aware of the threat that the gunboats of the Haihan people will pose to the Daming sea. The only way to stop this threat is to immediately inform the superiors and mobilize the navy from Guangdong to encircle Shengli Port. Take advantage of the fledgling Haihan people to completely extinguish this momentum.But Luo Shengdong also knows that this kind of thinking is very unrealistic. Let alone how long it will take for the Guangdong navy to prepare for the expedition, and whether it can beat the fierce Haihan armed forces after arriving in Shengli Port, it is just a matter of time. I am afraid that the item of reporting and recruiting soldiers will no longer be realized.

Now the entire officialdom in Yazhou has almost been covered by Haihan's interest chain, whether it is low-level officials like Luo Shengdong and Wei Ping, or local officials at the level of generals and Zhizhou. Taking advantage of the Haihan people, several senior officials who are about to retire even directly hit the Haihan people with the idea of ​​pensions.For these people, without the Haihan people, they would lose thousands of taels of personal income every year—Luo Shengdong estimated that his personal income next year would even be as high as 5000 taels.

Such a big benefit is not something that can be lost. In Yazhou City, there are at least several hundred people living off Haihan people, and a considerable number of them are people "inside the system". Even Jin Yiwei and Dong There are eyeliners bought by Haihan people in the factory.Luo Shengdong can fully imagine that if someone really intends to go the formal way to report the call for troops, the Shengli Port will already know the news before it leaves Yazhou.It is not very likely to rely on force to solve this problem, unless the Haihan people take the initiative to provoke or even rebel and attack the state city—this is even less likely than the Yazhou navy to single-handedly kill the Haihan people.

Having been in contact for a long time, Luo Shengdong is also very clear that the Haihan people will not easily adopt a hostile attitude towards Daming. These people attach great importance to actual interests. Incorporated under the rule of Yazhou-of course, the benefits they handed over to Yazhou did not even enter the national treasury.

Luo Shengdong thought that the gentlemen in Yazhou were happy to receive red envelopes, but obviously they didn't know what kind of people lived in Shengli Port, which was a hundred miles away from Yazhou.The Haihan people are not obedient lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Under the seemingly docile appearance, they are actually a group of hungry wolves with green eyes that are constantly devouring all resources.When Luo Shengdong met the Haihan people for the first time a few months ago, they were just a group of sea merchants who had just landed in Victory Harbor. Three to five hundred people lived in tents, and they looked no different from pirates who came ashore to plunder, but Now the population they control is ten times that of the original, and they have established a huge situation in Shengli Port. Even the rebellious Li Miao mountain people nearby are working for them. This is not something that maritime merchants can do.But the masters of Yazhou don't know about such a threat, and they won't be interested. As long as the Haihan people regularly offer benefits, not to mention a victory port, they even wish that the Haihan people would also join the nearby towns. Take it.

Under such an environment, Luo Shengdong put away those restless thoughts early on, and started his own smuggling business with peace of mind.What's more, now the Haihan people have offered to help his father-in-law get the position, and strive to take over the post of prefect of Yazhou next year.At this time, if I come up with some tricks, I don't need the Haihan people to do it, and my old father-in-law will probably not let me go.

However, Li Nai did not think about things so complicatedly like Luo Shengdong. He was listening to Tao Donglai's explanation attentively. Regarding this new ship, he only understood his visit to the shipyard a few days ago after seeing the actual operation. I just scratched the surface, and there are still too many things I haven't understood.And Tao Donglai's explanation can just solve some doubts in his mind at this time.

Tao Donglai talked eloquently: "...we will build a large number of this kind of sailboat in the next two or three years, mainly to undertake the task of sea transportation. As for the artillery equipped on the ship, you don't have to worry, we don't plan to build There are too many gunboats, because we don't plan to go to war, and after installing so many cannons on the ship, we can't load any more cargo. We are not interested in spending manpower and material resources to send a large number of armed gunboats to patrol the sea. This kind of drudgery It should be the work that Luo Bazong and his sailors should complete... By the way, I think we will need to change our habits soon, and we should be called 'Luo Qianzong'."

Luo Shengdong came back from his contemplation all at once, clasped his fists and said he didn't dare.After other people heard about it, they also congratulated Luo Shengdong one after another.

It was only half a year since Luo Shengdong was promoted from a small Baizong to the seventh-rank military officer. It is reasonable to say that it is unlikely to get a second chance to be promoted in such a short period of time.However, since the executive committee intends to cultivate its own spokesperson in the officialdom of Daming, it can naturally find a reasonable way to push him.

The opportunity to find this opportunity still comes from the Indochina Peninsula across the sea.A considerable part of the first batch of immigrant population organized by North Vietnam were prisoners of war from South Vietnam and severe prisoners in North Vietnam. After simple screening, these people were put into the extremely labor-intensive Tiandu iron mine as miners. .Since the Executive Committee received this group of people, it had no intention of making these people naturalized in the future, so it was relatively thorough in using them—only within one month after arriving in Hong Kong, among the more than 500 people One tenth died from overwork and various work accidents.

After these people died, the corpses were not wasted, and were immediately sent to the medical department for autopsy.The medical department is currently conducting training for naturalized medical staff, and the corpses of these prisoners can just come in handy in the course.And the executive committee also took advantage of the opportunity to think of Luo Shengdong - the reason why Luo Shengdong was promoted at the beginning was because he brought a group of pirate leaders back to Yazhou to repay their merits.

So Luo Shengdong once again got the assistance of the Executive Committee, with the record of "killing more than [-] pirates, sinking two pirate ships, and seizing several knives and guns", his immediate superior, General He Wenhui, personally wrote a report and sent it to him. Go to Qiongzhou Fucheng to report meritorious service, and ask for the appropriate promotion of Luo Shengdong, who is "loyal, brave, and repeatedly victorious".Of course, things like swords, guns and flags were also props prepared for him by Victory Port.

Suppressing the incoming pirate gangs twice within a year is unique in the entire Guangdong Province.Compared with the situation where the Fujian government army has been beaten by the "Eighteen Zhi" and can't get out of the port at all, Yazhou's "bandit suppression" record is dazzling.Moreover, the heads sent to the Qiongzhou government for meritorious service all had obvious characteristics of the natives of the South China Sea, and they were not acts of killing good men and pretending to be meritorious deeds.He Wenhui believes that Luo Shengdong is very hopeful to get a second job promotion within a year, from being promoted to chief executive.Although Yazhou Shuizhai does not currently have the position of General Manager Qian, this is not a problem—the position of military attache in this place has not followed the usual path from the beginning, and the establishment of 500 people has set up a general, so It seems that it is not unreasonable to add Mr. Qian under the general.

If it weren't for the consideration of the rules that promotions need to be promoted step by step, the general manager of the seventh rank can only be promoted to the chief executive of the sixth rank at most. He Shenjiang even deliberately recommended Luo Shengdong directly for the position of defense or even guerrilla - anyway, the Haihan people The word came over that Luo Shengdong would immediately give 2000 taels of silver as soon as he was promoted to one level, and 5000 taels if he was promoted to two levels. This pays a five-figure reward.

This money does not include the expenses of going up the joints. For He Wenhui, it is net income.But He Wenhui can only lament that his influence is limited, and he cannot meet the expectations of the Haihan people—the appointment of a general is not something that a military officer of Luo Shengdong's level can get involved in. This matter can't even be decided by the Ministry of War in Nanjing. You have to report to the Ministry of War in Beijing.However, he couldn't get too much money, He Wenhui thought that it would be no problem for him to at least let Luo Shengdong go up to another level before retiring.

Luo Shengdong also holds the same view on this, his promotion is only a matter of time, and it doesn't even have much to do with He Wenhui.The reason why Luo Shengdong was so confident was because of the support of Haihan people behind him.Tao Donglai even told him in private that if the credit this time is not enough for him to be promoted, then next time he will send one hundred heads to Qiongzhou Fucheng to repay his credit, or two hundred or three hundred if it is not enough. It has been accumulated until he is promoted - anyway, Vietnam is constantly fighting, and it is not difficult to ask Zheng for some enemy heads.Luo Shengdong is not very clear about where the Haihan people got so many heads of the natives of the South China Sea, but there is no doubt about the credibility of what Tao Donglai said. up.

But the excitement brought to Luo Shengdong by this promotion was not even as good as the return to Yazhou when he narrowly escaped death.At that time, Luo Shengdong thought that he had reached the pinnacle of his life when he was promoted, but later he discovered that the height he could reach was directly linked to the strength of support from the Haihan people.Not to mention the current President Qian, even the future generals and even the chief soldier, Luo Shengdong now feels that it is not hopeless to take up the post.But no matter how high the position is promoted, I still can't escape Haihan's control. If I have a second heart one day, the Haihan people will unscrupulously launch a "pirate attack" and let myself, a naval officer, directly Died somewhere.Luo Shengdong was even thinking that today the Haihan people specially invited him to go out to watch this performance, probably because of the deterrence and warning to him.

After watching the test of the "Discovery", the "Lightning" they were on board sailed back, leaving another catamaran "Speed" to continue to follow the "Discovery" as an escort.There will be a lot of tests on the ultimate performance of the ship in the future. The Executive Committee does not want everything about the "Discovery" to be exposed to the outside world prematurely. A moderate show of force is enough.

After returning to the port, Tao Donglai and others met with Zhan Gui alone, and listened to the process of his trip to Champa for this transaction.

Just as the executive committee had expected, the five thousand catties of salt that Zhan Gui brought this time was sold to the locals smoothly.Due to the Civil War, production in the important salt-producing areas of the Indochina Peninsula was completely shut down. Although there were some small salt fields in Champa, the output was not enough to supply the people. The shortage of salt was even worse than that in North Vietnam.According to what Zhan Gui learned from local businessmen, in the next year, there will be at least hundreds of thousands of catties of salt in Champa.

Besides, Zhan Gui also heard some news about another matter that the executive committee was concerned about.The area around Cam Ranh Bay is indeed under the name of the Champa Kingdom, and due to the geographical environment of the natural harbor, there are still many fishermen living there.However, due to the decline of the Champa royal family in recent years, it has lost its actual jurisdiction in many places. It is said that the same is true in Cam Ranh Bay. There is no official management agency for Champa, just like Victory Port before the crossing group landed.

Because of this reason, Zhan Gui did not get in touch with the official organization that manages Cam Ranh Bay, but he believes that there is no need to contact the government at all to set up a local store—the Champa officials don’t even care about their own people, so how can they control outsiders? personnel.

In addition, there is another matter in the situation reported by Zhan Gui that has attracted the attention of the Executive Committee.A considerable number of Portuguese and French missionaries have appeared in the Champa area, and a certain number of matchlock guns have been imported to the local area.Moreover, it is said that some missionaries have gone to the north of Champa a few months ago, which belongs to the jurisdiction of the Nguyen clan in South Vietnam. It is believed that they should have made contact with the Nguyen regime at this time.

The infiltration activities of Western forces in the Indochina Peninsula had been specifically raised when the black soil port colonization operation was planned, and it also attracted enough attention from the Executive Committee.The coastal area in the southern part of the Indochina Peninsula is exactly the throat of the waterway between Victory Port and the Strait of Malacca. From the perspective of development, the Crossing Group must first control this sea route in order to ensure the future of entering Malacca and even the Indian Ocean. Safety.The presence of Western forces in the local area is undoubtedly a hidden threat to the transmigration group-these white-skinned colonists will never coexist peacefully with other races on the earth. The experience of African blacks and American Indians has fully proved this. a little.

The Executive Committee doesn't expect them to adopt different approaches after they come to Asia. After all, dogs can't change the world. Hundreds of years later, Western countries' methods of doing things will not change much from the colonial period. It is just decorated with "democracy" and "freedom".For these competitors who will pose a threat to the Time Traveling regime in the future, the Executive Committee will not have the slightest sympathy at all - the best security guarantee for the Time Traveling Group is to wipe out the Western forces on the Indochina Peninsula as soon as possible.

Of course, to take such an action, it is necessary to first establish a certain influence in the local area, or to reach a certain degree of cooperation with the local officials.And such cooperation, I am afraid that relying solely on smuggling salt will not work.

In order to repay the information provided by Zhan Gui, the Executive Committee specially approved 5 tons of salt and a small amount of glassware to Zhan Gui, who can sell them wherever he wants, as long as they don't sell them locally in Qiongzhou Island.The ebony, ivory, rhino horn and other valuable commodities that Zhan Gui transported back from Champa this time were directly placed in Victory Port, and he did not plan to transport them back to the mainland.

Although the Haihan people didn't show any intention of buying these things, Zhan Gui thought that even if he didn't sell them to the Haihan people, he could make a lot of money by selling these things to mainland businessmen in Victory Port.The reason is simple. The Haihan people only charge one-thousandth of the transaction amount as a handling fee for the mutual transactions of foreign merchants in Shengli Port. The zero-tariff setting will soon attract more mainland merchants to come here with their goods. Trade here, because it is the only place in East Asia and South Asia that implements a zero-tariff policy for foreign goods—whether it is Yuegang, Guangzhou, Macau, Zeelandia, Manila or Batavia, as long as it enters the port Customs duties will be charged if the goods are loaded on the cargo ship.

The zero-tariff policy currently implemented in Victory Port is irresistible to merchants, because there is no tariff cost, and the transaction price of goods sold and purchased here will be lower than other commercial ports. The more cost-effective.Zhan Gui has even started planning to move his original base near Guangzhou to Shengli Port in Yazhou, and he will use this as the center for activities in the future. He can save a considerable amount of money in various taxes every year.

And there are indeed quite a few maritime merchants with the same thoughts. After the last batch of merchants who visited Shengli Port returned to Guangzhou with various goods and novelty, Shengli Port, a small South China Sea port that was originally unknown, immediately attracted the attention of maritime merchants. attention.

　The end of the month is coming soon, please check if there are any monthly tickets that have not been voted in, don't waste them, you know.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)