1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 312
In fact, Zhan Gui's request is not too much. He just wants to buy a homestead in Shengli Port to build a house, and then move his favorite concubine and children here to settle here. In addition, he hopes that the child can enter Shengli Port Elementary school - he has personally visited it, and is very satisfied with the school's environment and teaching methods.Of course, there is another reason, that is, the concubine's child is a daughter rather than a son, and there is no need to study the Four Books and Five Classics to test the imperial court's fame, as long as she can read and write.Moreover, there are quite a few girls in the Haihan people's school. When Zhan Gui visited last time, he even saw two Western dolls going to school here—the two daughters of the bearded Johnson, Jessica and Emily.

Even those barbaric Westerners sent their children here to study. Zhan Gui felt that this had fully proved the educational ability of the Haihan people, so when he made a request to Ren Liang, he specifically asked the children to go to school.As for the difference between land ownership and use rights that most people value, Zhan Gui doesn't pay much attention to it—it's just a matter of a few hundred negotiable notes, which can be solved by transporting a boatload of salt to the south.Besides, with the reputation of the Haihan people, Zhan Gui is not worried that the land will be taken back by the Haihan people after the house is built.

And Ren Liang's reply to Zhan Gui has already resolved the matter satisfactorily - the executive committee will specially approve Zhan Gui's two-acre homestead, the cost of which is slightly lower than the commercial land in the port business district, and the daughter can buy it at any time Entered Victory Harbor Primary School.However, because he is not a native of naturalized people, he must pay full tuition and miscellaneous fees. Of course, this small amount of money is just a drizzle for the rich and powerful Zhan Gui.

As for whether there is any meaning behind Zhan Gui's move of his family to Shengli Port, and whether he intends to show his goodwill towards Haihan, the executive committee does not intend to make it clear.With the gradual prosperity of the Sanya area, it is only a matter of time before the middle and upper classes of the society move in, and eventually Zhan Gui's case will gradually develop into a common phenomenon.The urban area of ​​Sanya in the long-term plan of the Executive Committee is actually a living area prepared for the upper-middle class. In the future, the proportion of the upper-middle class population living in Sanya will obviously be very high.But by that time, there should be further changes to the household registration system for the settled population.

Whether it is the first time to set foot in Shengli Port or an old customer like Zhan Gui, almost everyone in the inspection team has some special requirements. Those who have not set up an agency in Shengli Port are eager to figure out how to go through various procedures. The one who takes root locally hopes to start discussing the specific projects of "Qiong Lianfa" as soon as possible-won't talk about money after coming so far?Are you kidding, everyone is so busy.

In the end, it was Schneider who came forward to appease the enthusiastic businessmen of Ming Dynasty: "Everyone must have worked hard after floating on the sea for so many days. Let's settle down today and have a good rest. There will be a reception dinner for you in the evening. Everyone, take care of yourself first." Let’s talk about the spirit. As for the questions you raised just now, don’t worry, we will arrange personnel to come to your resting place to solve them one by one.”

A large group of people from this inspection group came forward and back, and there were as many as 80 to [-] people. Although several inns and hotels in the business district had been notified by the management committee and tried their best to free up some rooms, they still could not accommodate the group. people.As a result, a small number of merchants who were considered more reliable were fortunate enough to settle in the shed guest house in the No. [-] base.

It is worth mentioning that at the plenary meeting two days ago, one of the final resolutions left by the previous executive committee was to rename the No. [-] and No. [-] bases to "Victory Fort" and "Tiandu Fort".When the delegation arrived today, it happened to meet the listing ceremony of "Fort Victory".Of course, as guests of the ceremony, the wealthy businessmen of the delegation also had to congratulate with some congratulatory money.But the happy money is not in vain, each family will get a souvenir - a glass paperweight engraved with the words "Fort Victory [-]st Anniversary", and this thing is definitely a limited edition that will not be sold on the market. The value cannot be measured by a little silver.

In the afternoon of the same day, the "Lightning" sent to Yacheng to pick up people also turned around smoothly. Wei Ping's brother-in-law Wang Tongzhi and Luo Shengdong's father-in-law Zhang Tongjuan arrived on the same boat.Although the two of them had been dealing with the Time Traveling Group for a long time, it was the first time for them to come to Victory Port in person.Although I have heard Luo Shengdong and Wei Ping's various descriptions of the Shengli Port area many times beforehand, but when I really came here, I saw that the former barren mountains and wild mountains and uninhabited bays have become today's bustling ports. The visual shock is indeed indescribable.

As the official representatives of the Ming Dynasty, these two and their entourage received the best reception, and a two-story simple shed was specially set up for them in Victory Fort as a place to stay.And at the reception banquet in the evening, these two people will also distance themselves from the other inspection groups to show their official majesty.Of course, it is not for nothing to spend money to invite these two to come forward. At tomorrow's celebration ceremony, the two magistrates will make a public appearance, so that local people and foreign businessmen can confirm the influence of the Transmigration Group in the Yazhou area .

In addition to superficial articles, the more important thing is the next trend of the Yazhou political situation.The term of office of the prefect who is currently in office has expired, and it is almost time to hang up and resign after he recovers from this illness.Under the desperate activities of the Crossing Group, the successors have basically finalized Luo Shengdong's father-in-law Zhang Tongjuan. Taking advantage of the office in Ya, they jointly wrote a letter of recommendation to Qiongzhou Fucheng.Under the joint recommendation of local military and political officials, the success of the project can basically be inseparable.After all, Yazhou is a remote place, and it is not a good job to be an official in this place-of course, that was before the appearance of Haihan people, and the future situation needs to be another matter.

These local high-ranking officials who have all reached the threshold of retirement this year have received a lot of benefits from the Crossing Group before retiring. Compared with those colleagues who are officials in the north, at least this year's harvest is quite good.If they had to say something dissatisfied, they would probably think that the Haihan people appeared too late—if they had come here ten or eight years earlier, how much money could they have earned by now?
A lot of money has been spent, and the executive committee also wants to let them make use of as much waste heat as possible before they leave office, such as the ownership of land along the Linchun River and the Sanya River, or the special management of the executive committee in the Sanya area. Enforcement issues.

According to the development plan of "Qiong Lianfa", the entire southern part of Qiongzhou Island, especially the coastal plain area between Shengli Port and Yacheng, will become the implementation area for various construction projects.There are both urban construction planning and large-scale agricultural development, but no matter what kind of project, it will eventually involve the issue of land ownership.

Most of the area in this area is unclaimed land, but there are also some fields that have been reclaimed. Some self-cultivating farmers or small landowners are still registered in Yacheng with legal land procedures.If the Traveling Group wants to requisition these lands, it will inevitably conflict with certain stakeholders.If the purchased land can be directly redeemed with money, it would be best to resolve it peacefully. Anyway, "Qiong Lianfa" has a large group of shareholders holding money behind it, so there is no need to worry about lack of funds.I'm afraid that some die-hard elements will not accept the soft and hard, and it will be more troublesome to deal with it at that time.It's not that the executive committee can't bear to carry out forced demolition, but it just doesn't want to affect its reputation. If Yacheng can provide some "convenience", that would be the best.

The main negotiating partner in this matter is, of course, Zhang Tongsan, who is about to take office.After setting up the team of the two officials, Tao Donglai asked Luo Shengdong to come forward to find an excuse, and invited Zhang Tongsan to the meeting room of the Executive Committee for discussion alone.

Along with Tao Donglai, Schneider and Ning Qi also met with Zhang Tongpan and Luo Shengdong.After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two sides quickly got to the point.Ning Qi got up and hung a map on the whiteboard in the conference room. Zhang Tongpan could see the map of Yazhou at a glance, but the mountains, rivers, and coasts on this map were very clear. The coarse-drawn maps of are obviously of much better quality.

"Master Zhang, please look, this is Yacheng, and this is Victory Port." Ning Qi marked two locations on the map while explaining: "The distance between the two places is only a hundred miles, and the current population of Yazhou is more than 230%. Living in these two places, but the area in the middle is quite poorly developed. According to our statistics, between Fenghuang Town and Nanshan Town, there are only [-] seven households, less than [-] people. The total number of people in Yacheng and Victory Port has exceeded [-]."

"It's a pity that this area is so deserted, so we are going to develop it." Ning Qi drew a big circle in the Mesopotamia with his hand: "Here we will build a house that can accommodate [-] residents. New towns and river ports."

Then he drew a circle north of Fenghuang Town: "This area is flat and has plenty of water. It is perfect for agricultural development. We plan to build several large farms here. In addition to planting crops, we are also preparing to develop Livestock farming."

"Between Nanshan Town and Tianya Town..." Ning Qi moved his hand quickly to delineate this area: "...we are going to plant cash crops, that is, crops such as sugar cane and spices. The cultivation time of such crops It is relatively short, and the results will be achieved within one or two years after planting. If it can be developed on a large scale, then the annual income will be a very considerable number-of course, the taxes that Yazhou officials can receive will also Many times more than it is now."

Before coming here, Luo Shengdong had given his father-in-law various vaccinations, and Zhang Tongpan also knew that Haihan people were always bold in doing things, but he never expected that the other party would have such a big plan. All the coastal areas of the city are enclosed.And the manner is so natural, it seems that these places have long been in their pocket.

Zhang Tongpan coughed dryly and said, "Mr. Ning, do you know how big this area is?"

"Bigness is not a problem. We have plenty of manpower available. At present, the number of laborers imported into Shengli Port every month will not be less than [-]. Now the population is basically the same as that of Yacheng, and it will exceed at least double that of Yacheng within a year. There are so many available. Mr. Zhang doesn’t need to worry about a shortage of manpower.” Ning Qi replied immediately.

Zhang Tongpan didn't expect Ning Qi's answer to be so fluent, and he seemed to have a plan in mind, and immediately added: "What I'm talking about is not the land area, but the development of such a large area. The cost should not be too high." A small amount, right?"

"Ah, it turns out that Mr. Zhang is worried about our financial problems!" Ning Qi nodded as if he had suddenly realized: "Since it is a financial problem, let Mr. Shi explain it."

Schneider responded with a smile: "Then I will briefly explain the funding issue to Mr. Zhang. In order to develop this area, we have established a new firm called 'Qiongzhou United Development Company' together with twelve commercial firms in the mainland. The required construction funds will be shared by thirteen shareholders. In terms of the strength of funds, there is no second company in South China that can match us. So far, the development funds we have put in place are nearly 15 taels of silver , if the project is confirmed, it won’t be a big problem to raise another one to two times the funds. If a few 10 taels of silver are spent, this place will change after all, right?”

What is rich and powerful?Compared with Mr. Shi, who was said to be the property director of Haihan, Zhang Tongpan felt that those so-called wealthy gentry in Yacheng were simply weak.While the small businessman was still racking his brains for the business of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, the big local tyrant had already planned a business of several hundred thousand taels of silver.Of course, Zhang Tongjuan had done some homework to find out whether the Haihan people really had such economic strength.Regarding this aspect, his good son-in-law Luo Shengdong gave him a lot of valuable information.

During this year, the Haihan people have purchased nearly [-] sea-going ships with [-] materials, and they are still building and buying them at the same time. It seems that they have no intention of stopping at all.And as far as the current level is concerned, they have more large sea-going ships than all the ports on the island.

The illicit salt sold by the Haihan people was more than [-] jin by Luo Shengdong alone.And as far as Luo Shengdong knew, Haihan's private salt shipments to Daming and Annan far exceeded his share by several times.As for the most profitable Haihan industrial products, only a few people in charge of the accounts know how much money they have sold in this year, but Luo Shengdong knows very well that the figure will scare many people out of their mouths.

The most formidable one is the bank called "Haihan Bank". Nowadays, merchants from the mainland almost don't bring any cash. They only need a few light silver bills to settle their accounts. Exchange cash at the local "Haihan Bank".Luo Shengdong estimated that for this business alone, Haihan Bank needs to prepare at least 10,000+ taels of cash in Guangzhou.As for the cooperative businesses selected by the Haihan people's financial resources and foresight, I am afraid that if one is randomly selected, their family background will not be much worse than that of the Haihan people - at least half of the twelve shareholders are Luo Shengdong. I have dealt with it more or less, and I know a thing or two about its economic strength.

Even if Schneider said just now that he could make up 100 million taels, Luo Shengdong would not be surprised at all.In fact, when he heard the numbers reported by Schneider, he subconsciously thought that Schneider had reservations and did not show his real cards.But this is actually scary enough. For Yazhou, whose annual fiscal revenue is less than 10 taels, and local fiscal expenditures still need to be subsidized by appropriations from superiors, a few 100 taels is actually about the same as a million taels, and the same cannot be touched. numbers only.

When Zhang Tongpan saw the calm expression on his son-in-law's face, he knew that the leader of Haihan surnamed Shi was not bragging, but that he really had such strong strength.A few 10 taels of silver were thrown down, and Zhang Tongpan could not imagine what would happen, but at least one thing he was certain of—the Haihan people should have been determined to take over these areas, and whoever gets in the way , who is struggling with these 10 taels of silver.

Zhang Tongping didn't know whether others would have trouble with so much money, but he knew that he would definitely not do such an unwise thing.Now in Yacheng, anyone who can connect with the Haihan people, from literati and scholars to traffickers and pawns, is trying to find a way to move to Shengli Port to settle down.Why?In the final analysis, it is not for the money of the Haihan people.

The old horseman of the state government used to live in peace and stability with an annual salary of more than 20 taels. Last year, he heard that Shengli Port raised horses for the Haihan people, and he could get a monthly salary equivalent to ten taels of silver. He immediately resigned and ran away. It's gone, and now the state government has no horses to use.Even those handymen in the yamen who can only carry water, chop firewood and clean up have quit their jobs one by one and gone to Shengli Port. It's twice as high here.

Those poor scholars in Yacheng Academy, because they had no means of earning a living, used to rely on their fame and fame to live on state relief. "History of the Ming Dynasty Shihuo Zhi" records that the treatment of a scholar is "one liter of granary rice per day, and the officials of fish, meat, salt and soy sauce will give it to officials." Although they don't need to work, they can barely live on granary food. There is still a living allowance of one tael of silver per month to receive.But after the Haihan people came, they paid a high price of 20 to [-] taels and full board and lodging, and searched all those poor talents who didn't want to make progress to work in Shengli Port.

And this kind of economic infiltration of the Haihan people is not only aimed at ordinary civilians, in fact, it started with the government from the beginning.Zhang Tongpan knew very well why a few colleagues who usually seem to be in harmony with each other would write a recommendation letter for him when they left office, and he also knew why his son-in-law was able to make frequent military exploits and earn a lot of extra money during the year.The Haihan people's infiltration of Yacheng's officialdom has been so thorough that he is not allowed to say "no".

　It's the end of the month again, let's see if there are any monthly tickets that you forgot to cast, don't waste them.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)