1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 263 Price Subsidy
Before Gu Kai could recover from the shock, Schneider stared at the wine glass in his hand, and continued on his own: "Of course, this part of the cost is just the labor cost for us to send troops to fight locally. As for the consumption of ammunition and supplies, The round-trip sea freight must be calculated separately. If there are casualties, the cost of treatment and pensions must also be borne by the North Vietnamese side."

Profiteer!What a profiteer!Gu Kai could only lament in his heart that he was still thinking too conservatively. How could a famous profiteer like Schneider just rip off the money and get the job done?This is simply preparing to cause North Vietnam to bleed a lot!
Based on the strengthened battalion structure Tao Donglai mentioned at the discussion meeting, once they are stationed in the war zone, even if there is no war, the "labor fee" that the North Vietnamese side has to pay every day for this is by no means a small amount.As for the cost after the start of the fight, Gu Kai can probably estimate Schneider's thoughts - the price of these ammunition supplies must be calculated according to the price sold to North Vietnam, the more you use, the more you earn!

Schneider didn't care about Gu Kai's stiff expression, and continued: "When the time comes when the military and police department transports troops to the south, you can also take a look at any other suitable places on the coastline over there, and come here together. You just now One thing is right, since South Vietnam already has a firearms force, the only thing North Vietnam can do is to expand the size of its own firearms force. I think how slow the speed of the explosion is with the training camp on the Tu Son Peninsula alone. It is absolutely possible to set up more military academies there. The faster the explosion of soldiers over there, the more weapons we can sell."

Gu Kai waved his hand and said: "This will not work for the time being, we don't have that many people who can be sent overseas as military advisers. Besides, we don't even have a regular military academy, and the military and police department has been reporting for half a year. The committee has always held back with the excuse that the time is not ripe, even if a military academy is to be built, it must be built in the base camp first."

"It doesn't matter, if it's built in the base camp, let the military officers from North Vietnam come to study abroad, and the training of senior military officers will be more effective." Schneider obviously understands the military exchange system of later generations, so he responded casually.

"Then do you roughly calculate the total military expenditure we are going to demand from North Vietnam?" Seeing that he was going to digress while talking, Gu Kai quickly changed the topic back to the business.

"This depends on the length of the combat period arranged by the military and police department. Anyway, if you don't go to the frontal battlefield, it will be calculated according to the number of days you are stationed. If you participate in the war, you will add the consumption and the expenses I just mentioned. Have a good income. Isn’t the Military and Police Department always clamoring that the military budget is not enough? This time, give them a chance to make money, perform well, and it shouldn’t be difficult to add another battalion next year.” Schneider said of the His vision appears to be very confident.

"Let's just say that, tonight we'll draft opinions separately, and we'll discuss the agenda at the meeting tomorrow. If there are no major problems, I'll take a boat back to Heitu Port the day after tomorrow." Gu Kai stood up and said goodbye to Schneider. : "Thank you for your rice wine. If you have the opportunity to go to Heitu Port, I invite you to try the fruit wine produced there."

"There is a military parade on New Year's Day, don't you plan to go back after watching it?" Schneider also got up to see him off.

Gu Kai shook his head and said: "I'm afraid that there will be too little time. If we really want to send troops next, it will probably be in the next few days. There are still many things that need to be re-coordinated at Heitu Port. I have to go back and keep an eye on it." .”

Perhaps because Annan's domestic situation and the decision to intervene by force attracted too much attention, the work summary meeting in the next two days seemed calm, and there were no major problems in the summary reports of various departments.Since the executive committee has already put part of its energy on the upcoming cross-sea combat plan, the work arrangements for the new year proposed by various departments have also been passed smoothly.However, some institutional adjustments will be postponed to the first anniversary meeting at the end of March for further discussion and implementation.

January 1628, 1, the twenty-fifth day of the winter month in the seventh year of Mingqi.Although Emperor Chongzhen has been enthroned in Beijing for a while, according to the royal calendar, the year name of the former emperor Tianqi will still be used for this year, and the name will not be changed to "Chongzhen" until the next year.

For the time travelers, this is the first new year after time travel, and it is a day worth celebrating.However, the naturalized people don't quite understand why the Haihan chiefs regard this very ordinary day as a festival of celebration-the "New Year's Day" in this period is the first day of the first lunar month. In the original time and space, after 1949, It was only then that the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was changed to the Spring Festival, and the first day of the first month of the Gregorian calendar was set as New Year's Day.

There have been various opinions within the Traveling Group on the method of using the calendar, which is mainly divided into two types: the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar.In fact, both methods of chronology have their own advantages and disadvantages. If only one method of chronology is used, it will inevitably cause confusion in some work.For example, most of the historical events in the database are recorded in the Gregorian calendar, and it would be very troublesome to convert them all into the lunar calendar.The biggest thing that the Traveling Group relies on is the lunar calendar used by the Ming Dynasty. If the Gregorian calendar is simply used, there will be a lot of inconvenience in the business and cultural contacts with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, after the time travel, two sets of calendar methods have been used in parallel. Method.

In order to commemorate the arrival of this day, the executive committee also spared no expense to create an atmosphere of joy with the people.All the naturalized citizens were given a one-day holiday in turn and special meals on holidays. Naturalized citizens who had been naturalized for more than one month each received a one-yuan circulation coupon as a "special bonus."Although this move added a lot of money to the account books of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Executive Committee believes that the money is well spent. It not only buys the hearts of the people, but also stimulates local consumption to a certain extent, creating a Out of the "festival consumption" atmosphere.

Of course, the most important thing is that after the residents get the money, they have no other place to use it. Basically, they can only go to the business district of Shengli Port for consumption, and they can only buy those that have received special subsidies from the Executive Committee, and the prices are astonishingly low. Therefore, after the money has flowed around outside, it will soon return to the executive committee again.But despite this, the naturalized people are also very grateful for the "good deeds" of Haihan's chiefs-this kind of behavior of distributing money to ordinary people door-to-door for no reason is something that they have never even heard of in the past.

Humming a ditty, Yu Dashan walked into the "Victory Department Store" located in the port business district.This store is a business unit under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, specializing in the sale of various daily necessities and commodities for naturalized residents.Due to its low price and high quality, it quickly became the most popular shop in the entire business district after its opening.

As soon as Yu Dashan stepped into the store, a clerk greeted him: "Manager Yu is here! Please come inside!"

"Go and do your work, I'll greet you!" A thin middle-aged man waved his hand to signal the guy to back off.

"Tailor Wang, I haven't had time to congratulate you on your promotion!" Yu Dashan cupped his hands at the other party.

"Boss Yu, I'm not a tailor now!" The other party was obviously not satisfied with Dashan's attitude, and pointed to the sign sewn on his chest proudly - two inches wide and half a cent high. The words "Store Manager" are sewn with black silk thread.

"Okay, okay, Wangdian, I made a slip of the tongue, I made a slip of the tongue!" Yu Dashan apologized to the other party with a smile.

"Is Wang's shop plausible? Please call me Manager Wang!" Wang Cai expressed his dissatisfaction angrily.

This person called "Wang Tailor" by Yu Dashan was named Wang Cai. He was originally a small tailor in Yazhou. Later, he became a refugee because of bankruptcy, and was recruited by the dental bank to settle in Shengli Port.In the first few months, he has been working as a tailor in his old business. The clothes that Yu Dashan and Yu Xiaobao made for him before he went to Guangzhou were made by Wang Cai.Later, when the shipyard tried to make sails, all the local tailors were recruited temporarily. Wang Cai seized this rare opportunity and came up with a lot of ideas for the manufacturing process of the sails. .

After that, Wang Cai also used his expertise to do some things. For example, Schneider ordered various fabrics from "Yongfeng Cloth" in Guangzhou, and the reference materials were collected and sorted out by Wang Cai.Afterwards, he was in charge of organizing a group of tailors to complete the production of new military uniforms. The construction period and product quality were well received by the Military and Police Department.After several consecutive outstanding performances, the Ministry of Civil Affairs transferred him to the newly opened "Victory Department Store" as a store manager.

This position does not seem to have any direct relationship with his own job, but Wang Cai is also a smart person, knowing that his real opportunity will only begin to come - the Haihan chiefs have created such a big situation, sooner or later these industries will have to Those who are left to the local naturalized people to take care of, and those who can walk ahead now will undoubtedly occupy a great advantage in the future.Don't think it's just a grocery store now, with the abilities of Haihan's officers, maybe it will become a big business in a few years, and when the tide rises, at least I can be a shopkeeper.

There are usually eight employees in this department store, including him as the supervisor, a total of nine people are responsible for store operations. As for the account and the import and export of goods, it is the cross-members of the Ministry of Civil Affairs who are in charge.Usually, the waiters are responsible for greeting guests. Wang Cai is generally only responsible for providing services to those Haihan officers who wear red badges. However, for old acquaintances like Yu Dashan, Wang Cai is still very happy to put down his airs and greet him. .

"Boss Yu, have you given out the bonus? What are you going to buy today?" Wang Cai introduced to him enthusiastically: "I just shipped a batch of fabrics from Guangzhou yesterday. Would you like to take a look? This is a good thing, Ya There may not be goods for sale in the state. You are also a senior manager now, so don’t hang around in dirty work clothes all the time after work.”

Yu Dashan shook his head and said, "My son is in Guangzhou. If he wants to buy fabrics, let him buy them in Guangzhou."

Before Wang Cai could reply, a person behind him said, "Your Excellency, I don't know. The price of the fabrics sold here is cheaper than in Guangzhou!"

Yu Dashan saw that he knew the person speaking, so he quickly bowed and said, "Mr. Li!"

The person who interrupted was Li Nai who had lived in Shengli Harbor for more than two months.Originally, after the commercial warehouse was completed, Li Nai's mission was considered complete, and he could go back to Guangzhou for business.However, he seemed to be interested in living in Shengli Port, and he was not in a hurry to leave here. Instead, he let the merchant ships going south brought a lot of living supplies, and even repaired books and went home to let his wife go south to Qiongzhou Island.In Li Nai's view, there are so many things to learn and explore in this ever-changing place. Although Shengli Port is far less prosperous than Guangzhou, living here has always had a pleasant sense of freshness and stability.

Li Nai recognized Yu Dashan at the first sight. In fact, after living in Shengli Port for two months, he already recognized more than half of the senior naturalized people who worked for the Haihan people.Li Nai also knew that Yu Dashan was the first group of local residents to ask the Haihan people to do things, and both father and son were highly regarded by the Haihan people.Before Li Nai went south, he had a lot of dealings with the Guangzhou Office. That Mr. Schneidersch came and went in and out of Guangzhou, and the little follower he had with him was Yu Dashan's only son Yu Xiaobao.Although Li Nai didn't know what a "vested interest person" was, he also understood that people like Yu Dashan must have been loyal subordinates of the Haihan people, and it was almost impossible to treat him as an ordinary Ming citizen.

Li Nai slightly cupped his hands, and then explained to Yu Dashan: "Guan Yu doesn't know anything, the things sold in this store, whether it's fabrics or other goods, as long as they are shipped from outside, the price is almost lower than the place of origin. cut."

A puzzled expression appeared on Yu Dashan's face: "Why is this? The goods from Guangzhou are shipped across the sea, plus the freight, shouldn't the price be higher?"

Li Nai nodded and said, "That should be the case. However, the executive committee usually purchases in bulk, so the purchase price will naturally be lower than the retail price, and when selling to the local people, the price will be further lowered on purpose. According to the market I know, the price of cloth here is probably [-] to [-]% lower than in Guangzhou."

"Mr. Li means that the executive committee transported these goods back from Guangzhou, and then sold them to us ordinary people at a loss?" Yu Dashan couldn't believe it.

Li Nai nodded slightly and said: "That's roughly the case. As for those locally produced goods, let alone, if it weren't for the strict control of the Executive Committee, merchants from other places would have flocked to this department store to have a look. And empty."

What Li Nai said is exactly one of the local civil policy strategies implemented by the Traveling Group.Due to the adoption of the collective ownership of production in the local area, all the proceeds of production activities are concentrated in the hands of the crossing group for unified arrangement, and the only currency that can be normally circulated in the local area is issued by the crossing group itself, so all social wealth Almost all of them are concentrated in the hands of the executive committee. At this time, some of the advantages of Haihan's implementation of this system can be fully reflected-ultra-low living costs and price levels.

Except for the living materials provided free of charge to the naturalized people, almost all other daily necessities are purchased uniformly by the foreign trade department, and then the price subsidies are given to them, and they can even be purchased at Victory Port at a price lower than the price of the place of origin. Sell ​​to the public.In this way, the executive committee is the only big buyer in the local area. If anyone can't see the direction of the wind and wants to open a store in Shengli Harbor to retail daily necessities, they will probably lose everything.From the very beginning, Li Nai has seen through the executive committee's trading method of buying high and selling low, so the store opened by "Furuifeng" in Shengli Port didn't even consider selling goods at all, and only focused on pure service business. main body.

The local people also benefited a lot from this - although their income is still very low, which is not much different from that of the people under the Ming Dynasty, the low prices that the Executive Committee has kept in the local area have made the quality of life very different Don't, this has a brutal effect on winning people's hearts.As long as the foreign people have seen the living standards of the local naturalized people, almost [-]% of them will choose to join the Haihan Executive Committee, and very few people want to return to the areas under the Ming Dynasty to live.

Of course, this policy also has obvious disadvantages. Since naturalized people can enjoy supplies at extremely low prices, it is inevitable that some people with small thoughts want to use their status as naturalized people to speculate. Sell ​​these materials outside.However, the relevant departments have also investigated this very strictly. The few naturalized people caught so far who participated in speculation have all been sentenced to five years of hard labor—in terms of the labor intensity of the Tiandu Iron Mine, this is basically a death sentence. .

Yu Dashan doesn't know what "price subsidy" is, but it is obvious that this is another great charity bestowed by the chiefs of Haihan to the local people, which makes him feel very ashamed while being moved - not because he can't understand it The principle of economic operation, but the good deeds done by the heads of Haihan have not been discovered by the public.

"I, Yu Dashan, will complete this task of publicity!" Yu Dashan thought silently in his heart, and then ordered the fabric with the pattern of the real flower pattern from Wang Cai, preparing to make a decent set of clothes—of course not It will no longer be the traditional cardigan style, but a "Hai Han style" short shirt similar to work clothes.

In fact, the Executive Committee does not intend to publicize this price subsidy policy at all, because it is not a long-term solution. The plan is only a means of regulation, and relying on the market is the fast track for development. This is the consensus that everyone has based on the experience of later generations.Although price subsidies are effective, they are not the fundamental solution to the problem—increasing productivity, increasing product categories, and reducing the cost of goods through self-production as much as possible are effective solutions.Of course, for a period of time, the Executive Committee can only continue to implement the price subsidy policy for commodities such as cloth and silk that cannot be mass-produced locally.

When Wang Cai was measuring the cloth for Yu Dashan, he heard a noise in the street outside, someone shouting "Come here, come here".When Yu Dashan heard it, he couldn't care less about Wang Caiquan's cloth, and hurriedly urged: "Leave the cloth, measure it later, go out and watch the fun first!"

Wang Cai asked back in astonishment, "What are you watching?"

"You'll know when you come along!" Yu Dashan grabbed Wang Cai's wrist and pulled him out of the shop.

(End of this chapter)