1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3638

As a high-ranking official of Hai Han, Qiu Yuan naturally knew about the Xu family’s long-standing situation in Fujian and its developments in the past two years.

He knew that Xu Yuzhuo, the current head of the Xu family, was not willing to be confined to Fujian as a warlord like his father Xu Xinsu. Xu Yuzhuo not only actively participated in overseas military operations, but also tried to make a difference in politics, hoping to push the Xu family to a new height.

An example of this was last year when Xu Yuzhuo ran as a candidate for the executive committee election.

Although everyone thought that Xu Yuzhuo's candidacy was just a runner-up, and the final result was the same, Qiu Yuan keenly noticed that Xu Yuzhuo was the first non-time travel candidate to participate in the Executive Committee election in the past thirty years.

Xu Yuzhuo's defeat was not surprising, but considering that his competitors were all the best among the time travelers, competing on the same stage with these people actually greatly enhanced the political influence of the Xu family in Fujian.

Through this election, Xu Yuzhuo probably realized that he did not have enough allies in the political arena, so he began to look for people to cooperate with.

The Executive Committee's restrictive measures on Fujian have always been implemented by relying on the three neighboring regions of Donghai, Guangdong and Guangxi, and Taiwan. In a sense, these three regions can actually be regarded as Fujian's competitors.

Apart from these three, Luzon is the region closest to Fujian. A considerable number of Han immigrants in the region come from Fujian, and trade between the two places has never been interrupted. Therefore, Xu Yuzhuo's hope to reach political cooperation with Luzon at this time is also a very reasonable choice.

Qiu Yuan pondered and said, "Regarding the cooperation in trade and military, I think it is indeed beneficial to the long-term development of Luzon and Fujian. It is necessary to continue to increase the efforts. When General Xiao returns from the war zone, I will discuss with him in detail to see how to promote the implementation."

Dong Shangyi nodded and looked at Qiu Yuan eagerly, waiting for him to express his attitude and views on the third point he mentioned, which is political cooperation.

Qiu Yuan seemed to be deliberately skipping this section and spoke in an official tone: "As for cooperation in other areas, I think we can also discuss them. We can seek common ground while reserving differences and develop together!"

Dong Shangyi was also a seasoned official, so how could he not understand Qiu Yuan's hidden meaning? The meaning of "discussion" was actually that one did not completely agree with the other party, and that there was a need to seek consensus through discussion when there were differences in opinions.

In other words, Qiu Yuan might not agree with Xu Yuzhuo's proposal on whether the two places should form a political alliance, and it could even be regarded as a polite refusal.

However, this was also within Dong Shangyi's expectations. If he could easily persuade a big shot like Qiu Yuan, Fujian would not have been restricted for so many years.

Xu Yuzhuo dared to send Dong Shangyi to actively seek cooperation at the political level, of course, not without support. At least at the level of the Executive Committee, Fujian has won the important help of Bai Kesi.

"Master Qiu, actually my master had this idea because Master Bai of the Executive Committee proposed that Fujian should strengthen its connection with the outside world. There is another piece of news that Master Qiu may not know yet. Fujian has been authorized by the Executive Committee. From now on, the private shipyards in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Fuzhou can take over the manufacturing orders of warships for export."

Dong Shangyi clearly pointed out the supporters behind Fujian, which made Qiu Yuan's eyes light up.

Qiu Yuan asked, "You mean, it was Bai Kesi who pushed for Fujian to get the qualification to build warships?" Dong Shangyi said, "Fujian has been taken care of by Lord Bai. We can only do our best and live up to your trust."

The implication was that he acknowledged Qiu Yuan's guess.

Qiu Yuan couldn't help but narrow his eyes and began to calculate in his mind.

He has no way of judging whether Bai Kesi's support for Fujian is a personal act or represents the attitude of some senior Hai Han officials, but the fact that Fujian has obtained the qualification to build warships does have certain value to Luzon.

Although the Luzon Region is an archipelago, due to the limited quality of the population, there are not many professional craftsmen engaged in the shipbuilding industry. It is far from developed, and there are only a few small-scale shipyards.

Most of the technical forces are concentrated in Manila. Almost all new ships with a displacement of more than 100 tons in Luzon are built by Manila shipyards.

Although the Manila Shipyard is also qualified to build warships, and even has a higher level of technical authorization than Fujian, and can build various types of ships including the Majestic-class battleships on its own, its production capacity is far less than that of the shipyards in Fujian, not to mention compared with the shipbuilding-developed regions such as Donghai and Guangdong and Guangxi.

At present, if the Luzon Fleet wants to carry out normal expansion and replacement of old ships, it still cannot rely entirely on its own shipbuilding capabilities to achieve the goal. Some orders still need to be handed over to shipyards in other regions to assist in completion.

This not only makes the construction cost of combat ships remain high, but also affects many plans of Luzon to enhance its military strength.

If the Luzon region had more combat ships, it would have had much more room to deploy troops in the war with the Spaniards in the south, and it might not even have needed to ask Taiwan and Fujian for help.

Although, as Dong Shangyi said, the Fujian Shipyard can only build warships for export, this is not a big problem for Luzon.

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What Qiu Yuan was really interested in was not the models that could be built in Fujian, but the authorization from the Executive Committee, which meant that Fujian’s long-restricted shipbuilding capacity finally had room to develop.

If the shipbuilding capacity of Fujian can be fully utilized, then the shipyards there can be allowed to build auxiliary ships for the Luzon Navy, such as reconnaissance ships, troop transport ships, supply ships, etc. The export models of these auxiliary ships and the models used by the Navy are not as different as the models of combat ships for export and self-use.

The Manila Shipyard can free up valuable production capacity to build various types of warships for the Luzon Army's own use, thereby increasing the speed at which new ships are put into service.

Of course, from a long-term development perspective, it would be the safest approach to introduce Fujian's shipbuilding industry and build more shipyards in Luzon. However, to achieve this level of in-depth cooperation, there must be deep mutual trust, and a more solid relationship must be established first.

Economic interests alone are obviously not enough to bind the two places together. At least Fujian hopes to elevate the cooperative relationship to the political level.

After thinking for a long time, Qiu Yuan finally said, "Tell me in detail what specific measures Lord Xu has proposed for speaking out together on political affairs."