1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3655

After reaching a basic agreement on the mode of cooperation in the shipbuilding industry, the two sides immediately moved on to the next topic, which was recruiting and organizing immigrants from Fujian for the special operations division.

It is worth mentioning that since the time of Xu Xinsu, Fujian has been keen on increasing Fujian's influence in Hai Han through the special method of exporting immigrants. Not only overseas regions such as Luzon, Xingdao, and North America have benefited from this, but even on the neighboring island of Taiwan, a considerable number of people have their ancestral home in Fujian.

But precisely because Fujian exports so many immigrants, the number of immigrants that can be provided to the special operations division is not too large, which is similar to the allocation of shipbuilding capacity.

Dong Shangyi admitted that Fujian can currently provide the special operations division with a maximum of 5,000 immigrants per year, and the areas under the jurisdiction of the special operations division must have basic resettlement conditions, be able to provide immigrants with arable land, homesteads, resettlement fees, daily necessities, tax exemptions for a certain period of time, and a good and stable security environment, etc.

This whole set of resettlement conditions, plus the costs of recruiting and organizing transportation on the Fujian side, requires a considerable amount of money and materials to be invested. However, if the Special Operations Division wants Han immigrants from the country, it has to grit its teeth and bear the high cost.

What surprised Dong Shangyi a little was that Qian Tiandun did not ask him to lower the relevant costs as he had done when discussing shipping freight and shipbuilding quotations before, but instead focused on the number of immigrants supplied by Fujian.

As for the resettlement conditions requested by Dong Shangyi, Qian Tiandun agreed without hesitation.

Dong Shangyi thus realized that the special warfare division's demand for immigrant population clearly had a higher priority than sea transportation and shipbuilding.

The other party was so active that Dong Shangyi was a little hesitant. If a larger number of immigrants were exported to the special operations division, it would be hard to say whether it would affect Fujian's plan to provide immigrants to other regions.

It is certainly important to win over Qian Tiandun, but if this offends other senior officials who have cooperative relations with Fujian, it seems that the loss outweighs the gain.

Qian Tiandun seemed to see through his thoughts and added, "We will also recruit the best young talents who immigrated from Fujian and recruit them to serve in the special operations division."

Dong Shangyi's eyes lit up when he heard this. If he could take this opportunity to arrange for the Xu family's children to join the special operations division, it would be of extraordinary significance.

But out of caution, he did not dare to say it all, and only said that after returning to Fujian, he would try his best to persuade Xu Yuzhuo to organize more immigrants for the special operations division.

Qian Tiandun seemed very confident about this. After listening to Dong Shangyi's statement, he did not make any further persuasion and decisively ended the topic.

Dong Shangyi then also put forward some requests on behalf of Fujian, such as striving for better conditions for Fujian Commercial Bank to enter the jurisdiction of the Special Operations Division, hoping that the two places could strengthen military exchanges, etc.

Qian Tiandun agreed to all these basic requirements.

At the current stage of development of the Special Operations Division, there is a huge demand for population and materials imported from outside. It is far from enough to rely solely on the supply from Sing Tao and Fu Ruifeng. Fujian took the initiative to approach Qian Tiandun to seek cooperation, which was like a blessing in disguise for Qian Tiandun.

He was not completely satisfied with the conditions that Dong Shangyi could offer, but it was better to have something than nothing, and having more options would be beneficial to the Special Warfare Division. As for Dong Shangyi's hope that the Special Warfare Division could provide more goods and trade projects, Qian Tiandun responded with a smile: "Mr. Dong should have looked around the island in the past few days. There are no other specialties here except fruits, but most of these Southeast Asian fruits are also produced in Annan. It is more cost-effective to buy them directly from Annan than to transport them back to China over a long distance."

Dong Shangyi nodded slightly, thinking that this was indeed the case. He saw that there were no particularly valuable products on Phuket Island, and that ships coming here for sea trade would probably have to sail empty on the return trip. However, Fu Ruifeng's business scale here did not seem to be unprofitable, and there must be some factors unknown to outsiders.

Qian Tiandun also did not directly tell him the truth, but just pointed him in the right direction: "In a few days, a batch of goods will be shipped to Ceylon. I plan to escort it myself and take a look at the construction progress over there. I wonder if Mr. Dong is interested in going with me?"

Dong Shangyi was stunned by this sudden invitation for a moment, and when he came to his senses, he nodded repeatedly and said, "I am so honored to be able to travel with the general!"

Dong Shangyi had originally planned to visit Ceylon. However, that place was already at the edge of Hai Han's territory, and it was said that the Hai Han army had an armed conflict with the Dutch at the beginning of the year. It was not a peaceful place, so if he wanted to go there, he had to get the approval of the Special Warfare Division first.

Dong Shangyi had not yet thought of a reason to apply for the trip, but he did not expect to receive Qian Tiandun's invitation. He did not think about the deep meaning of the other party's move and agreed immediately.

However, the distance between Phuket and Ceylon is quite far, about twice the distance from Xingdao to Phuket, nearly 4,000 miles. The reason why we need to apply for the consent of the Special Warfare Division before we can go is that if we don't have a navigator assigned by the Special Warfare Division to accompany us, we can't even find the destination.

Of course, there would be no such problem if he went with Qian Tiandun. Dong Shangyi also wanted to see what was so special about the local area that could attract the special operations division to cross half of the Indian Ocean to establish a base there.

In the next few days, Dong Shangyi stayed on Phuket Island, waiting for Qian Tiandun's cargo fleet to make preparations before departure.

He noticed that at least half of the cargo ships in this fleet were from Fu Ruifeng, and the trading company flags hanging on the masts were the best proof of this.

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In addition to food and daily necessities, the cargo also included a large amount of building materials, which shows that the local area is still building infrastructure on a large scale.

However, what puzzled Dong Shangyi was that there were also many warships at the dock making preparations for sailing. If these warships were to escort cargo ships heading to Ceylon, the scene would be a bit too grand.

The first thing Dong Shangyi thought of was that this route might not be so peaceful, so there must be enough armed ships accompanying it to fully ensure the safety of the cargo fleet.

But Qian Shaobao explained to him that these warships were indeed going to follow the fleet to the Hambantota Port, but the escort was just a convenience, and the sea exercises were the main purpose.

Of course, there is another benefit that cannot be ignored, that is, when the armed fleet arrives at the local area, it will demonstrate its military force, which will be helpful in establishing Hai Han’s prestige in Ceylon.

When setting off from Phuket, Dong Shangyi did not use his own boat, but left it at the port. He was invited to take Qian Tiandun's boat, which had much better conditions than his own boat.