1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3640

Dong Shangyi was not idle during the two days he was waiting for the meeting in Manila. He went to inspect the local shipbuilding industry on his own and gained a general understanding of the situation here. Therefore, he was quite confident about the assistance that Fujian could provide to Luzon in the field of shipbuilding.

In his opinion, leaving aside some highly confidential military technologies, the shipbuilding capacity in Luzon is probably less than one-tenth of that in Fujian. As long as Fujian's shipyards operate at full capacity, they can fully meet Luzon's needs and more than double the speed of launching new ships.

As for the technical support, we will open two or three joint shipyards in Luzon and send some experienced shipbuilders to serve as technical consultants, which will be an explanation to Qiu Yuan.

Of course, it will take at least two or three years to fully implement all these measures, and this period of time is enough for the two places to establish the cooperative relationship that Xu Yuzhuo wants to achieve.

What Qiu Yuan wanted to get from the cooperation was actually far more than the conditions that Fujian was willing to offer.

After defeating the Spaniards in the south, the most direct gain was that the area under the jurisdiction of Luzon more than doubled. The span from south to north has reached 7,000 miles, which even exceeds the distance from Sanya in the South China Sea to Shenyang in Liaodong.

From the south of the Celebes Sea to the northern shore of the New World in the south, this vast area recently incorporated into the territory of the Luzon Region has too many undeveloped islands and sea areas. One of the prerequisites for developing these areas is to have a sufficient number of immigrants, but this is precisely one of the shortcomings of the Luzon Region.

If Luzon wants to increase its population rapidly in a short period of time, the solution is to introduce Han immigrants from the mainland. This has also been Luzon’s most important population growth policy for a long time.

Fujian is certainly not the only source of immigrants for Luzon, but after the two sides deepen their cooperation, Luzon's efficiency in obtaining immigrants from Fujian will definitely improve, and more people will be able to move to the new territories in the south.

At that time, officials recommended by Fujian will be sent to these places to specifically manage these immigrants from Fujian and organize the development of new colonies, which will save the Manila authorities a lot of trouble.

As for whether officials with Fujian backgrounds, together with immigrants from Fujian, will weaken the influence of Luzon officials in these undeveloped areas, that is not a problem that Qiu Yuan should worry about at the moment.

If these areas are allowed to remain in a vacuum without any Han Chinese immigrant settlements, it will not be long before they are invaded by the omnipresent Western colonizers, which would be a real problem for the Manila authorities.

After all, governing the Han people is much simpler than fighting against Western colonial forces. Qiu Yuan has a clear understanding of the priorities.

In the next few days, at Dong Shangyi's request, Qiu Yuan arranged inspection and visits for him to various places in Manila.

Manila's social system is in line with Hai Han's. However, due to the special social environment formed by the long-term coexistence of multiple ethnic groups here, there are still many things that surprise Dong Shangyi.

Wherever he went, whether it was a military base or various functional offices, he could see civil and military officials of various ethnicities.

In addition to the Han Chinese, who make up the largest proportion, there are also southern Europeans with deep eyes and high noses, dark-skinned natives of Luzon, and ethnic groups from Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, Annan, and many other mixed-race people. "I knew that Luzon was a multi-ethnic mixed-race place, but I didn't expect it to be so complicated."

Hearing Dong Shangyi's repeated sighs, Yu Zhen, the Luzon Police Chief who accompanied him on the tour, just smiled and said, "Mr. Dong, our Luzon is indeed a little different from Fujian. Maybe the officials recommended to Fujian in the future will also be of other ethnic groups. At that time, Fujian will have to take care of them."

Dong Shangyi heard this and asked a question that interested him: "Can the language and writing of these non-Han officials be completely consistent with ours?"

Yu Zhen explained: "Master Dong, the official language and writing used in the Luzon Region are all Chinese characters, so you can rest assured that the officials who can be appointed, regardless of their ethnicity, can at least communicate fluently in language, but literacy and writing are still difficult for some of the older ones."

“But please rest assured that the candidates we recommend in the future are all young people, so there will definitely not be any problems in this regard. Young officials under the age of 30, whether they are Han Chinese or not, as long as they grew up in Manila, have received our Hai Han education, and are no different from the Han Chinese.”

One of the things Dong Shangyi was taught since childhood was that "those who are not of my race must have different hearts." The Dutch and Spanish who occupied Taiwan in the early years and dealt with Xu Xinsu's group are the best examples.

However, this view is obviously not feasible in Luzon. Not only are there a large number of Hispanics working in government offices at all levels, there is even an office specially established for this purpose - the Hispanic Personnel Administration.

Dong Shangyi was a little dumbfounded when he saw the sign hanging in this yamen, because this was the only yamen with a plaque written in both Chinese and Spanish.

Francis, director of the Western Management Bureau, greeted Dong Shangyi in the official language with a strong Hai Han accent.

Yu Zhen introduced Francis' background to Dong Shangyi: "During the Spanish rule, Francis served as the city defense commander of Manila. After Manila changed its master, Francis abandoned his dark ways and joined us. In the past 20 years, he has been working hard to help us manage the local Hispanics in Luzon."

Francis bowed slightly, but replied with a proud look on his face: "It is the honor of my life to serve the wise Executive Committee!"

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

When the Western Administration was established in 1637, the Executive Committee only wanted to use Francis's local reputation to temporarily serve as a puppet on the stage and then find another suitable candidate to replace him after the situation stabilized.

Unexpectedly, Francis gradually gained the recognition and trust of senior management with his outstanding performance at work, and he has remained firmly in the position of director of the Western Management Bureau.

During these twenty years, Francis was not only responsible for the management of thousands of Hispanic civilians in Luzon, but in fact he had also been providing support to Luzon's military intelligence department.

Whether it was interrogating prisoners of war or training intelligence personnel, as long as it was related to Spain, the Spanish Administration was actually involved. Francis also received many commendations, but because of his sensitive identity, it was not convenient to make it public for various reasons.

Today, Francis no longer considers himself an outsider. His children have all chosen to marry Han people, and his family bloodline is gradually turning towards Hai Han. His experience amazed the audience, Dong Shangyi.