1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3721

Such immigration outflow seems to be extremely disadvantageous to the shogunate, and long-term operation will inevitably lead to a large population loss. However, as long as the moral standards are lowered, the shogunate believes that this may be a way to resolve potential social contradictions.

The dead in the shogunate's army could no longer provide income for their families, and the issuance of pensions was also a considerable expense for the shogunate, which was now financially tight. There was no other way but to default on the payments, which inevitably led to a series of social problems and even affected military morale.

Therefore, Hai Han’s population-for-loan plan became an emergency measure for the shogunate to solve internal problems.

In the name of compensation, the shogunate persuaded the families of the fallen soldiers to accept the arrangement of emigrating overseas. In this way, the family members could not only receive a generous resettlement allowance immediately, but also get land and real estate in the local area, or get a stable job, so that they would no longer have to worry about their livelihood in the future.

In addition to persuading families, the shogunate also began to implement this plan among the military, inducing shogunate military personnel to voluntarily sign this resettlement agreement in place of the original pension payments after death in battle.

This was indeed an extremely tempting solution for ordinary peasant soldiers and lower-class samurai who came from poor backgrounds.

If one were unfortunately killed on the battlefield, this plan would allow his family to receive more generous pension income and solve long-term livelihood problems, which was much better than the small amount of money originally distributed by the shogunate.

Secondly, the executor of this immigration plan is Hai Han rather than the shogunate. In terms of credit, Hai Han is relatively reliable.

There have long been various rumors in Japan about the strength of the Hai Han Kingdom. Some even said that without the support of Hai Han, the shogunate would have been unable to continue the war long ago.

Since Hai Han sent troops to destroy the Hirado Domain and established a military base in Sasebo Bay, Kyushu, many people in Japan have become Hai Han citizens. These naturalized Japanese who became Hai Han citizens early on have now become propaganda samples, using their own experiences to illustrate the many benefits of becoming Hai Han citizens.

The shogunate got the opportunity to reduce its burden, while Hai Han was able to obtain a considerable number of immigrants in this way. Both sides got what they needed, and it can be said that they hit it off.

As long as the shogunate is willing to actively cooperate, this kind of propaganda will achieve twice the result with half the effort.

From the beginning of the civil war to the end of last year, the shogunate alone exported more than 4,000 immigrants to Hai Han in the name of pensions.

Although these immigrants are mainly women and children, and not the optimal young and strong labor force, for Hai Han, which is eager to export immigrants to overseas colonies, this is also a supplementary measure to adjust the population structure of overseas colonies.

Most overseas colonies have more men than women, and the gender ratio is extremely unbalanced. However, these special immigrants provided by Japan have more women than men, which is just right for them to reorganize families and reproduce offspring. This will undoubtedly play an excellent role in maintaining local social stability.

However, before that, most of these immigrants were sent to North America and Southeast Asia. Because Qian Tiandun had more requirements for the immigrants' background, not many Japanese immigrants were sent to the Indian Ocean colonies.

But now that the special operations division is aggressively expanding its control area in the Indian Ocean, it urgently needs a large number of immigrants to fill the vacancies in the new colonies. Qian Tiandun can no longer be as picky as before. He should be thankful that the country can allocate immigrants in full as planned. Of course, he will accept as many as possible.

The shogunate is not the only one exporting immigrants to Hai Han in this way. Kyushu also has a large number of people in similar situations. Moreover, the economic conditions of the various feudal domains in Kyushu are much worse than those of the shogunate, and it is even more difficult to provide compensation for the dead and wounded. Naturally, they will rely more on this "special help" provided by Hai Han. Currently, there are more than 3,000 Japanese immigrants in Kyushu who are temporarily living in the Sasebo base waiting for the next step. In addition, the feudal domains are still organizing transportation capacity to continuously transport the families of some fallen soldiers to the Sasebo base to relieve their own pressure.

As long as the Japanese civil war continues, this type of special immigrants will continue to emerge, which will be a stable and high-quality source of population for Hai Han.

However, for the East China Sea Region, which is responsible for operating this matter, this kind of organized immigration activity is purely high investment and low return. Not only does it occupy various resources of the East China Sea Region in Japan, but the income obtained from it is far less than that of normal trade projects.

Although the East China Sea Region will charge a certain fee to the recipients during the process of recruiting and transferring immigrants, due to Hai Han’s current immigration policy, the fee standard cannot be set too high and must be approved by the Executive Committee. There is not much profit margin for the East China Sea Region.

According to the East China Sea Region’s own statistics, the average income from transporting a thousand immigrants to other regions is not even as much as transporting a shipload of cargo between Japan and Hai Han, but the required transportation capacity is five or six times more, which is really not cost-effective.

Therefore, in order to compete for the resources of Japanese immigrants, various overseas regions often privately provide some additional exchange conditions to the East China Sea region. In this way, even if the number of immigrants obtained will not increase significantly, at least the quality can be guaranteed.

However, Qian Tiandun's special warfare division could not offer much in exchange to the East China Sea Region. The two places were too far apart and the exchanges were not particularly close. Shi Diwen and Qian Tiandun did have some personal connections, but most of them were from their joint operations in Jiangsu and Zhejiang 20 years ago.

But now the Special Operations Division had to ask for help from the East China Sea Region. Even someone as arrogant as Qian Tiandun had no choice but to write a letter, hoping that Shi Diwen would help with the immigration issue because of their past friendship.

The exchange condition that Qian Tiandun could offer was to promise Shi Diwen that the two newly opened ports of Fubo and Zhenhai in the Middle East would accept various commercial institutions stationed by the East China Sea Region.

This actually meant that Shi Diwen was told that future development projects in the Middle East could involve the East China Sea region.

As for the business prospects of these projects, Qian Tiandun believed that there was no need to explain in detail, as Shi Diwen, who was also a time traveler, would naturally understand.

"This old Qian is making a big promise for me!"

After Shi Diwen read the telegram that was forwarded several times from the distant Indian Ocean before reaching him, he couldn't help but sigh at Qian Tiandun's plan.

Shi Chengxin, who was standing beside him, responded, "Father, the 'business prospects' that General Qian mentioned in the telegram, aren't they referring to the legendary endless oil deposits in the area?"

Shi Diwen nodded and said, "This is the main reason why Qian Tiandun is determined to set up a colony and build a port in the local area at all costs. As long as we gain a foothold there, we can enjoy prosperity and wealth for hundreds of years to come."

Shi Chengxin said, "If that's the case, I can eat this big cake that's right in front of me."

Shi Diwen said, "It's easy for you to say that. To turn this piece of cake on paper into a cake that can be eaten is not as easy as just talking!"