1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 343

Although the influence of the Yacheng government in most parts of Yazhou has gradually declined, the executive committee does not intend to completely take over the functions of the government in the near future. Certain positive effects, not only to maintain its existence for a period of time in the future, but also try to use the Yacheng government to increase the influence of the crossing group on Qiongzhou Island.

Of course, this strategy of the executive committee is also experimental. After all, there is no relevant experience to learn from how to coexist with the Ming government on Qiongzhou Island. Everyone is crossing the river by feeling the stones.Judging from the current development situation, it seems that the method of gradually lifting the local government is relatively feasible. This basically ensures the stability of the surrounding environment to the maximum extent and allows the Traveling Group to quickly enrich its own strength.And this overhead is also very important. If it is too much, it will inevitably arouse the hatred and resistance of Ming officials, and unnecessary conflicts will occur. If it is too small, the policies of the Executive Committee will not be implemented in the region and will affect the development plan. .

Schneider stayed in Yazhou for two days and basically finalized most of the land ownership issues.Although Zhang Qing and other Yazhou officials may not be convinced by the aggressiveness of the Executive Committee, in the current environment, their best choice is to cooperate.

Now everyone in Yazhou knows that the Haihan people live in a peaceful area with high income and are not oppressed by the government. The people who moved to the Shengli Port area are no longer the same as they were at the beginning, only some bankrupt and helpless people Well, since the anniversary celebration in Shengli Port, some Yacheng residents who have land and property have tried to buy properties near Shengli Port.

If you really want to talk about the initiator of this trend, you have to remember Luo Shengdong.The first batch of Yacheng dignitaries who bought properties in Shengli Port were basically recruited by Luo Shengdong.When these people have been to Shengli Port and seen the local living environment on the spot, they quickly dispelled their doubts - Shengli Port has far surpassed Yacheng in terms of living environment, social security, and material supply.

Of course, there are not a few people who choose to continue to live in Yacheng. After all, the materials produced in Shengli Port have never stopped being transported to Yacheng. The prices of rice and some necessities of life have dropped significantly compared to the past.But while they enjoy this convenient life, they also have to face various inconveniences brought about by the dwindling local employable labor force.

With the development of Sanya's new urban area, the demand for labor from the Crossing Group has risen to a new level. The labor required for various infrastructure projects alone is as many as thousands of people.Due to the high remuneration given by the Haihan people, who can manage food and housing during their working days, more and more Ming people came to work in the Xincheng Development Zone. To join the naturalization of citizenship, in order to get better working conditions.

Of course, the civil affairs department did not separate the native place of the naturalized people from the identity of the citizens of the Ming Dynasty. The propaganda caliber for the ordinary people is still that they will continue to maintain the identity of the citizens of the Ming Dynasty - but the department that manages them is no longer the place of the Ming Dynasty. It is not the government, but the Supreme Executive Committee composed of Haihan people.

Ordinary people are not particularly concerned about who has the final say in Yazhou. What they care about is basically inseparable from the necessities of life such as food, clothing, housing and transportation. As long as the Haihan Executive Committee can provide them with better In fact, most of them don't care whether their household registration is in Yacheng or Shengli Port in the future.

In the direction of the mainland, he successfully repelled the siege of many gangsters, and killed the bandit leader Liao Dabi who was wanted by the government for many years in the battle. Such a record made Lijiazhuang a hot topic among the people of Guangdong in a short time.Many wealthy families asked the Li family through various connections to find out what kind of power could enable them to repel the siege of thousands of rogues. Made an excellent publicity campaign.

The only regret is that after the corpse of the bandit leader Liao Dabi was sent to the Guangzhou government, although the recognition of the corpse and the reward went smoothly, he failed to get the award from the top figures.But it's reasonable to think about it, after all, the Li family had a falling out with Li Fengjie, the top official in Guangdong, before, and it's thankful that they didn't take the initiative to trouble "Fu Ruifeng".

But after the incident in Lijiazhuang, the trend of self-organized militias in various parts of the province broke out all at once.Whenever clans like Lijiazhuang live together in villages, they have started to organize local armed forces to protect the village and the village. These spontaneous organizations without exception set the target of imitation as the Lijiazhuang militia with outstanding achievements, and sent people to visit Lijiazhuang. Hope to get some technical guidance.

Naturally, the Li family did not dare to take this matter into consideration, but took the initiative to discuss it with the military representatives stationed in Guangzhou.After the approval of the Executive Committee, the Guangzhou Office decided to use Lijiazhuang as a model to help establish a group of militia organizations using the Haihan military system in the surrounding areas of Guangzhou City.

In order to facilitate operation and avoid risks, the backstage bosses in these places who are fortunate to be supported by the Haihan military must also have certain business records with Haihan. Some bosses who have the status of "Qiong Lianfa" shareholders can directly Trainees are selected to receive military training ranging from three months to half a year in Victory Port.

Although the personnel selected for training are either family members or loyal servants, and it is more difficult to brainwash them into Haihan, the military still decided to accept these trainees.The military does not expect these trainees to turn all the local militias into Haihan associations after they go back, but at least they can establish the concept of "Haihan is invincible" during the training period. In the mainland, these civilian armed forces will not jump out and become a stumbling block for the Haihan army.

Of course, the export of weapons is also part of the military's large-scale training program, especially products such as matchlock guns and small-caliber cast iron artillery, which are very suitable for civilian armed use, and the buyer's dependence on ammunition will also allow the military to Better control these folk armed forces in Ming Dynasty.

On June 500, the first ship of the "Explorer Class" warship with a displacement of 50 tons, "Explorer", was launched at the wharf of the Shengli Port Shipyard, and began to enter the final stage of outfitting.The hull of this three-masted sailing ship can basically be regarded as an enlarged model of the "Exploration Class" warship, and at the same time it continues to use the "Haihan-style sail" that combines Chinese and Western styles.This 12-meter-long warship will be equipped with a total of fourteen 18-pound naval guns, as well as an 160-pound long-barreled gun at the front and rear.The rated crew is 120 and eight people, including 48 combat personnel and [-] crew members, sailors and other on-board staff.After the outfitting is completed and formally commissioned, the warship "Explorer" will serve as the flagship of the Haihan Militia naval force for at least one year until the next new warship with larger displacement and more complete combat functions until the water.

However, at least within the year, neither the Navy nor the shipyard has plans to continue building larger combat ships.On the one hand, this is because the cost of warships is too high. The "expedition-class" warships are almost the limit that the current navy budget can afford, and there is no more development and construction costs to complete the next improvement.On the other hand, it is also because the maintenance cost of the navy itself is quite high. According to the navy's plan, at least two "expedition-class" and eight "exploration-class" warships will be completed within the year to form the first real combat team. Fleet, which means that the navy must have at least a thousand people, and it is quite difficult to support such a large fleet with financial allocations alone.

In the final analysis, there is actually no money. Compared with the army, the navy does not have much foreign oil and water to subsidize military expenses.In the current operations, the main role of the navy is still to undertake the transport of army troops, which has resulted in a very limited share of the navy's share in the settlement of military expenditures afterwards.

Of course, if the navy is really going to be pulled out to fight people at sea, that's really not practical.So far, the battles on the surface of the water can almost crush the opponent in terms of strength, and it is not too difficult, but if it is really necessary to face the "Eighteen Zhi", Xu Xinsu or the armed fleets of Western countries' colonial companies, then the navy This level of strength is indeed far from enough, and the Military Commission will definitely not send the navy out to face the enemy head-on at the risk of being overwhelmed by others.

However, if the military expenditure was spent to support this army in vain, the Military Commission would be unwilling. Therefore, after returning from Guangdong, Wang Tom and several senior military officials began to plan to find a new opponent for the navy to train troops.

The "Eighteen Zhi" in the north will definitely not be able to do it, and the Military Commission first ruled out this goal.And there are very few alternative targets left in the surrounding area-either cross the entire South China Sea to the Philippine Islands to the east to find trouble with the Spaniards, or go south to find the old rival Annan Nguyen Chao to continue their tricks.

Among such candidate answers, the choice of the Military Commission should not be difficult.South Vietnam's water strength has been proved to be vulnerable in January, and attacking the coastal areas of South Vietnam should be a relatively low-risk combat plan.However, the military excitedly sent this plan to the Tushan Peninsula by telegram to coordinate with the North Vietnamese court, hoping that they would send troops to cooperate in the battle, but the other party rejected the plan outright.

North Vietnam's reason is quite realistic, just two words - no money.After the great war in January, the North Vietnamese court, which owed Haihan a huge amount of military expenses and could not repay it, could only choose to pay in installments, and the repayment method was converted into the cost of the immigrant population.Although North Vietnam has basically paid off the arrears of the last battle as of June, its domestic economy will inevitably be affected to a considerable extent.For a period of time, the commercial firm under Zheng's name even had to use rice as a means of exchange instead of gold and silver to buy refined salt, weapons and other goods from Haihan.

The North Vietnamese court was not run by idiots. They knew very well that if Haihan people were required to send troops to help each battle, the biggest beneficiaries of the continuation of the civil war were not North Vietnam, but these Haihan people who were willing to serve as mercenaries.If it is now necessary to spend more than ten or two million taels of silver to hire Haihan people to conquer the South Vietnamese rebels, then the dignitaries of Thang Long Mansion will not have to live in the second half of the year.

The most feasible way is for North Vietnam to buy Haihan weapons, receive Haihan-style military training, and get a troop under the Thang Long Mansion, and then let this troop conquer the Nguyen rebels in the south and unify the country.However, there are two major drawbacks of this plan that cannot be ignored by the high-level officials of Beiyue. One is the high cost of forming an army, and the other is the long time for forming an army.

The wars in North Vietnam were extremely simple in the past. A small number of professional troops were accompanied by temporarily recruited farmers and soldiers. They did not need to go through too much complicated training. They were directly pulled into the battlefield after issuing weapons. If you lose, everyone will consider themselves unlucky, and there will be no such things as post-war pensions.But since cooperating with Haihan, this combat concept has gradually changed. Officers believe that farmers and soldiers who have not received formal military training are completely useless, and soldiers in regular troops also think that they should be like Haihan people. Or in the case of death in battle, a generous pension can be issued to effectively guarantee the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Of course, this is all due to the Haihan-style education in the Baitushan training camp. According to the standards of the Haihan people, every musketeer trained in North Vietnam needs an initial fee of about 20 taels of silver, which includes the purchase of a complete set of individual soldiers. Twelve taels of silver for weapons and equipment, three taels of silver for military pay during training, and five taels of training fees paid to Tushan training camp—although the Haihan people are playing under the guise of free military training, but the free ones are only tuition fees, and they have to use the training camp There is still a certain fee for the various equipment and materials consumed during the training period.

To train a reinforced battalion equipped with an artillery company, the North Vietnamese court had to spend at least 3 taels of silver, which was a sky-high price compared to Annan's previous military expenditure standards.And after carefully calculating the military expenses, it can be found that almost 3 taels of the 5000 taels of silver ended up in the pockets of the Haihan people under various names.According to the North Vietnamese military's own calculations, if they want to gain a one-sided advantage on the battlefield and successfully complete the crusade against the South Vietnamese rebels, at least ten reinforced battalions and a new army of about [-] people are needed.And now even if the Shenglong Mansion sells the pot again, it will not be easy to collect the money in a short period of time.

Therefore, there are also two completely opposite views in Thang Long Mansion. One is that we should rely on our own military power to complete the great cause of reunification. Even if the cost is more, it will take longer. own wealth.Another view is that instead of handing over so much money to the Haihan people in disguise, it is better to pay them directly to destroy the South Vietnamese army, at least it will save a lot of time.At that time, the south and the north will be unified, and the taxation of the people will be doubled, and the pressure on military expenditures for building the army will be much smaller.

When the Haihan people's invitation to fight on their own initiative was submitted to Shenglong Mansion, it aroused fierce debate between the two sides. Some people thought that they should take advantage of this opportunity to summon the combat troops on the front line of Hengshan to fight for the river and go south to wipe out the rebels in one go. With his combat experience first, the Haihan militia's combat effectiveness is unquestionable, and it will definitely be able to push it all the way.But more people think that the Haihan people may not have such good intentions. I am afraid that their invitation to war is not to help North Vietnam complete the reunification, but has some other purpose. Those who hold this view even include the top commander of the North Vietnamese defense line. Zheng Bai and the young prince Zheng Zuo who had many contacts with the Haihan people were included.

This school of opinion believes that the Haihan people are very likely to export weapons to North Vietnam for a long time, and will not sincerely help North Vietnam complete the reunification of the North and the South in a short period of time. The reason why they took the initiative to attack South Vietnam in advance this time may be just for military training. while taking some extra money from the North Vietnamese - that's almost hit the nail on the head.

In the case of the majority of opposition voices, in the end the North Vietnamese side chose to reject Hai Han's proposal.Of course, North Vietnam didn't say too much - it's okay to fight, but the military expenditure needs to be discussed between the two sides. In short, it can't follow the previous standard.

Victory Port did not expect such a result at all. The executive committee even passed the decision to send troops ahead of time, because everyone believed that such an operation could not only train troops but also make money, and the risk was relatively small. There was really no objection reason.But everyone stared wide-eyed after receiving the reply from the Tushan training camp. They were a little surprised by Beiyue's unexpected reaction.It took a long time before Yan Chujie said: "I really can't treat these monkeys as fools, but they can see through our purpose!"

"It's useless to see through it. They still have to rely on us in the end. It's just a matter of time." Tao Donglai seemed a little calmer about the North Vietnamese side's reaction: "I think there is one thing they may not realize, or I don’t know enough about it.”

"What's the matter?" Yan Chujie asked casually.

"The North Vietnamese rejected our proposal because they felt that the cost we wanted was too high, and planned to slowly train their troops to complete the crusade against the South. But they probably forgot that in order to train a usable new army, It's not enough to rely on them alone." Tao Donglai paused, then turned his eyes to Bai Kesi and said, "I think if necessary, you can pinch their necks and let them figure out who said this. Calculate."

Bai Kesi understood comprehendingly, "It's just that during this period of time, we are rushing to manufacture new guns for Qian Tiandun's army. I think the production line of matchlock guns can be stopped for a while."

(End of this chapter)