1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3634

The Xu family wanted to expand overseas, relying on the maritime trade and shipping business that had been passed down for hundreds of years in Fujian, as well as the relatively developed shipbuilding industry. The two complement each other and are indispensable.

However, during the era of Hai Han's rise, Fujian's traditional shipbuilding industry also suffered a considerable impact and has become somewhat unable to keep up with the pace of development.

The most widely used old-style sailing ships in the shipping industry, such as the Fuzhou and Guangchuan ships, are increasingly being replaced by new-style sailing ships launched by Hai Han. These new-style sailing ships, which are faster and have larger cargo capacity, can bring more lucrative profits to shipowners, but the shipbuilding technology required for their design and construction is also more difficult and complex, and is often only mastered by a few government-run shipyards.

If the transportation costs cannot beat those of the emerging shipping companies that are equipped with a large number of new sailing ships, the shipping industry in Fujian will also be affected and will inevitably lose a lot of business to its counterparts in the East China Sea region and Guangdong and Guangxi regions.

As for military combat ships, they represent the top technology of Hai Han's shipbuilding industry. In the past, private shipyards could only undertake some raw material processing tasks and were basically not qualified to participate in the construction work.

However, restrictions in this regard have been gradually relaxed in recent years. In particular, during this year's Zhoushan Forum, Fujian's private shipyards participated in the exhibition in groups to solicit business and took over orders for warships from Japan, officially breaking the monopoly of state-owned shipyards on the construction of combat ships.

The most important thing, of course, is that civilian shipyards have worked hard to upgrade their technology and meet the technological requirements for building warships, but it is also inseparable from the secret push from high-level figures like Bai Kesi, who facilitated the transfer and decentralization of some military shipbuilding technologies.

The prices of these export warships are often several times higher than those of ordinary civilian ships of the same tonnage, but the difference in actual cost and construction period is not that large. Such orders can bring considerable profits to shipyards and are much more cost-effective than building civilian ships.

In the eyes of wealthy children like Bai Letong, these businesses are just some dispensable "soups and water", but for the shipyards, they are the sweet cakes that they have worked hard to get. Even if part of the profits have to be used to pay tribute to the gods who facilitated this, it will still make private shipyards flock to it.

Of course, these private shipyards are not purely run by ordinary people. At least behind these shipyards in Fujian, the Xu family is more or less involved. Otherwise, they would not have such a big face to accept such a deal. So the person who came to negotiate with Bai Kesi was not someone from the shipyard, but Liang Zhong who came on behalf of the Xu family.

It is precisely because of the Xu family's special background that the shipyard operators are very aware of the importance of relationships with the upper echelons. It is a good deal to have someone in the court who is easy to talk to, and to get a 10% or 20% stake in exchange for special care from the executive committee.

On the other hand, Liang Zhong, who successfully won this favor, left Bai's house and got on the carriage parked outside the gate and went straight to a high-end restaurant in Hangzhou.

After getting off the car in front of the restaurant, a servant who had been waiting there led him to a private room on the third floor.

A banquet had been set up in the room, but there were only seven or eight untouched cold dishes on the table, and no hot dishes were served. When the people at the table saw Liang Zhong enter the room, they all stood up, clasped their fists and bowed to him, saying "thank you for your hard work".

Liang Zhong behaved very respectfully and humble in front of Bai Kesi, but when he got here, he was a big shot in the eyes of others.

He simply bowed slightly to everyone and then sat down at the top seat without any hesitation. Everyone waited for him to sit down before taking their own seats.

The guest sitting at the bottom went to the door of the private room and told the waiter to start serving the hot dishes. It turned out that this table of people gathered here and prepared a banquet in advance, just waiting for Liang Zhong's arrival.

Everyone was not in a hurry to talk about business, so they chatted with Liang Zhong about some small matters. After a few dishes were served, Liang Zhong nodded, and the guest sitting at the head went to the door to greet them, asked someone to watch outside, and then closed the door.

Liang Zhong then spoke of the important task he had to do today: "Everyone, I, Old Liang, have already paid a visit to that gentleman today. I won't go into detail about the process, but first tell you the result. Fortunately, this trip has not failed in his mission. That gentleman has already completed the task we entrusted him with! From now on, my Fujian Shipyard will also be able to get a share of the warship construction business!"

Even in a private gathering behind closed doors, Liang Zhong was still very cautious to avoid mentioning Bai Kesi's name, in order to prevent anyone from eavesdropping.

When everyone present heard the news, they could not hide their excitement. They raised their glasses to congratulate and praised Liang Zhong for his great ability.

"If it weren't for Shopkeeper Liang coming forward in person, I don't know how long it would take to accomplish this!"

"I've said it before, when it comes to handling big things, Shopkeeper Liang is the most reliable!"

"Brother Liang should be credited for the successful completion of this matter!"

Liang Zhong enjoyed the flattery from the crowd with a smile. He had been running around for this matter for several months and had visited many government offices, big and small, before finally getting Bai Kesi to help. He really deserved such praise.

The people present here are the operators of several private shipyards in Fujian. Although they have received some warship orders at the Zhoushan Forum before, it was ultimately just a trial of the waters, and their shipbuilding qualifications have not been certified by the authority.

Liang Zhong's job was to ensure that these shipyards received official recognition and that they could subsequently obtain relevant technology transfers. They would no longer be assisting the state-owned shipyards, but could independently build small and medium-sized warships for export.

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In addition to making money from exports, can these civilian shipyards that have obtained technological upgrades contribute to the Xu family's armed fleet? The answer is of course yes.

The Xu family's way out is overseas, and only with a large armed fleet can they achieve external expansion. Although they probably cannot compete with overseas regions of the same level as Xingdao and Luzon in the short term, with a large armed fleet that can perform military missions overseas, many jobs that they were not qualified to undertake in the past will gradually come to them automatically.

The naval battle between the Luzon region and the Spaniards this year is the best example. The reason why the Manila authorities approached the Xu family and asked them to send troops to help was, of course, because the Fujian fleet had the strength to fight in the ocean.

Since Xu Kaiyuan led his troops south in July, he has cooperated with the Luzon Army to achieve many victories in the waters around Sulawesi Island in the South Pacific, and has been commended by the Manila authorities.

In addition to winning a large amount of military funds for Fujian, this kind of war support also made Luzon agree to open several ports in Southeast Asia for the Xu family to station armed fleets, and allow trading companies under the Xu family to enter these areas to engage in trade activities.

(End of this chapter)