1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 376 Annoying Negotiations

Liu Xiang and his gang have been reluctant to tear themselves apart with Hai Han, of course not only because they are afraid of the two platoons of armed militia stationed in Guangzhou.More importantly, the Haihan people now have considerable influence in the Guangdong area, not just anyone dares to reach out to them, even lawless pirates have to be scruples.

First of all, there is no doubt about the financial strength of the Haihan people. Haihan’s goods sell well in Guangdong and Guangxi, and they are making money every day. The "Haihan Bank" under its name is currently the most famous bank in Guangzhou, and its cash circulation is also one of the highest. Almost all For trade related to Haihan, the delivery of money and money is carried out through "Haihan Bank".And after this kind of economic strength is projected to all levels of society, the influence it creates is also quite huge. Whether it is high-ranking officials or peddlers, it is now commonplace to talk about topics related to Haihan.

Secondly, the Haihan people now also have a certain influence in the official circles of Guangzhou. They vigorously promoted cultural undertakings in Guangzhou, quelled the rogues in the First World War in Panyu, recruited a large number of victims of the disaster with work relief, and showed goodwill towards the new governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. All kinds of measures made people in the official circles in Guangzhou give him three points of comity.Moreover, because the government issued a special official notice on Haihan's recruitment of disaster victims, Haihan has a certain degree of credibility among the people, and some people even regard some of the rules formulated by Haihan as the government's intention. understand.

The last thing is the current armed force of the Haihan people. In addition to the Haihan militia stationed in the Guangzhou Office, there are nearly 300 armed personnel under the name of "Golden Shield Security" outside Guangzhou.Although these people are private armed forces under the name of the Li family, they are also available for deployment by the Guangzhou Office.Forty miles outside the city of Guangzhou, the large immigrant camp built by the Haihan people in Lijiazhuang, Panyu County still has [-] militiamen stationed there, as well as more than [-] Lijiazhuang guards.

Just near Guangzhou, Haihan can mobilize more than 500 troops at any time.This manpower seems to be small, but in the battle of Panyu a few months ago, the Haihan people used five or six hundred soldiers to severely damage the thousands of bandits who besieged Lijiazhuang. Liu Xiangke would not be arrogant to think that his men had landed How much stronger can the fighting power of the latter be than the bandits on land.What's more, in addition to these manpower, Haihan also occupied a small island in the mouth of the Pearl River. Not only was there a fort built on the island, there were militia soldiers stationed there, and even several warships equipped with artillery patrolled the surrounding waters every day. It is a sea fortress.

The Haihan people are rich and powerful, and they also have powerful private armaments. Liu Xiang doesn't want to gnaw on such tough bones unless it is absolutely necessary.As an envoy, Liu Xin naturally adhered to this philosophy. Although Maliko of the Guangzhou Office has been going around in circles and did not give him a positive response to the arms trade issue, Liu Xin still swallowed his anger and chose to continue the negotiation instead of "ten The threat of force used by "Ba Zhi" - of course he is also very clear that the trick of using force to threaten the Haihan people may not be effective, and it may anger these guys and further intensify the conflict between the two sides.

However, continuing to procrastinate like this is not the solution to the problem. Liu Xin got half a month of activity time before departure, and now more than half has passed, and the negotiations between the two parties have not made substantial progress.If we continue to talk in this mode, I am afraid that there will be no decent results at the end of the year. How does this make Liu Xin go back to work and return to work?

After waiting another day in restless mood, the heavy rain that lasted for many days finally stopped.Liu Xin quickly asked the innkeeper to contact a carriage and rushed to the Guangzhou Office outside the city of Guangzhou.The negotiation was stopped for two days due to the weather, which already made Liu Xin as anxious as ants on a hot pot. If the Haihan people continue to evade and say that they haven't considered it well, Liu Xin will really be angry.

The heavy rain turned the roads of the entire city of Guangzhou into mud, and some low-lying areas in the city even had knee-deep swamps due to poor drainage.Sitting in the carriage, Liu Xin saw a lot of people sitting under the eaves on both sides of the road, carrying parcels and pots and pans. They seemed to be victims of the heavy rain.

Liu Xin's carriage managed to get out of the city in the chaotic traffic, but when he arrived at the Guangzhou Office, he found that the traffic conditions here were far worse than those inside the city.When there was still one mile away from the Guangzhou Office, the road was already blocked by the flood victims.Looking around, there are at least two to three thousand people gathered in the area outside the Guangzhou Office. Now there is no need for official propaganda. People around Guangzhou know that the Haihan people have been helping the victims. So they flocked to the Guangzhou Office for help.

Seeing that the carriage could not pass, Liu Xin had no choice but to get out of the carriage and walk, struggling to squeeze through the crowd. From time to time, he would be ridiculed by the people around him: "What's the crowd? Haihan people have to queue up to deliver food, do you understand?" rule!"

Liu Xin could only turn a deaf ear to it, and finally squeezed to the door. Before he could say anything, two militiamen in gray uniforms pushed him aside: "Line in line! Go to the back and line up!"

Liu Xin quickly revealed his identity: "My servant, Liu Xin, is not a disaster victim. He is here to handle errands in Guangzhou. Please pass it on to the two of you."

"Oh? What are you doing?" one of the militiamen asked.Today, a large number of disaster victims flocked outside the Guangzhou Office, and the higher authorities have ordered that irrelevant personnel are strictly prohibited from entering and leaving the Guangzhou Office at will, so the interrogation is much stricter than usual.

It was naturally inconvenient for Liu Xin to tell these grassroots personnel that he was here to negotiate, so he could only find an excuse: "Brother Yu brought me in the last time I came here, the two of you just need to let Brother Yu come out for a while."

The "Brother Yu" Liu Xin mentioned was Yu Xiaobao who was assigned to work in the Guangzhou Office last year, and now he is the director of the foreign reception affairs of the Guangzhou Office.Although the two militiamen were somewhat skeptical, they still reported the information.

After a while, Yu Xiaobao came out from the courtyard: "It's Mr. Liu! Rare customers, please come inside!"

Liu Xinxin thought that I didn't come here except for these two days, and I came here almost every day a few days ago, what kind of rare visitor is this.However, there were too many people at the moment, so he didn't argue with Yu Xiaobao, raised his arms and fisted, and followed Yu Xiaobao into the yard.

"I don't know which head Mr. Liu is going to meet with today? Do you have an appointment?" Yu Xiaobao took Liu Xin to the living room where he first entered the yard, and asked someone to make tea and serve some snacks before asking. Liu Xin's purpose.

"When I came to visit last time, I made an appointment with Boss Ma the day before yesterday, but I couldn't go out because of the heavy rain two days ago, so I delayed my visit until today. I wonder if Boss Ma is here now?" Liu Xin asked.

"That's it..." Yu Xiaobao nodded slowly: "Chief Ma is busy with business, if the agreed meeting time has passed, you need to make another appointment."

"But this is an urgent matter, I can't wait!" Liu Xin couldn't sit still immediately.

"It's useless to be anxious. Chief Ma has other arrangements today, and he is not in Guangzhou now." Yu Xiaobao said helplessly: "Because a large number of victims came to seek help early this morning, Chief Ma Fearing that the Guangzhou Office does not have enough food, I have already taken people to Panyu to carry the food. It is estimated that I will not be able to make it back today, so Mr. Liu can make an appointment for tomorrow."

Liu Xinxin cursed secretly, and asked persistently, "Then there is another boss named He?"

"Director He is here, but he is busy dealing with the victims outside, and I'm afraid he won't have time to see you for a while..."

"I'm willing to wait!" Liu Xin rushed to say without waiting for him to finish speaking: "Please pass it on to Tong." After speaking, he took out a silver coin from his body and stuffed it towards Yu Xiaobao.

Yu Xiaobao skillfully pushed away Liu Xin's bribe, smiled and said: "There's no need for this, we Haihan don't like this. Then please sit here for a while, Mr. Liu, and I'll go and communicate for you." pass."

So Liu Xin could only sit down and wait obediently. Fortunately, although the office in Guangxi was slow to do things, it was unambiguous in dealing with people. There were four-color pastries and snacks on the table, as well as roasted seeds and peanuts, tea It is also a good Tieguanyin, but it gave Liu Xin, who went out on an empty stomach, time to replenish his energy.

But this waiting still made Liu Xin terribly waited, and it was noon in a blink of an eye. He urged him several times, but Yu Xiaobao always said that He Xi was still busy with the relief work for the victims outside.There were already seven or eight people waiting in the living room one after another, and it seemed that this was not a fake, so Liu Xin could only continue to wait obediently.

After eating a lunch provided by the Guangzhou Office at noon, Liu Xin couldn't help feeling sleepy.He had been anxious for the past two days, and couldn't fall asleep at all at night. Now that his tense nerves were relaxed, he dozed off while sitting on the wicker chair.

When Liu Xin woke up, he found that it was already dark, and those people who were waiting with him in the living room were all gone.Liu Xin got up quickly, found Yu Xiaobao outside the house, and asked if He Xi had returned.

Yu Xiaobao nodded and said: "Mr. He came back in the afternoon, but seeing that Mr. Liu was sleeping soundly, he specifically told no one to wake you up."

Liu Xin couldn't care less about getting angry at this time, and hurriedly asked: "Then where is Boss He now? Take me to see him quickly."

"Director He is not in the Guangzhou Office now..." Yu Xiaobao said slowly.

Liu Xinren was going crazy: "Don't use excuses to prevaricate me, I know that your two bosses are deliberately avoiding me! Take me to see them!"

"If you're not here, why would I lie to you?" Yu Xiaobao explained with an innocent face: "In the afternoon, the Governor's Mansion sent someone over, saying that the Governor has something to announce about disaster relief, and that Chief He has gone into the city. This At that time, he should be attending a banquet at the Governor's Mansion."

Naturally, Liu Xin had no way to go to Wang Zunde's house to check if He Xi was there, so he could only give up his plan to wait any longer and go back to the city first.Seeing that the deadline for negotiations set by Liu Xiang was one day closer, and this day was wasted by sitting in the Guangzhou Office, Liu Xin felt that his spirit was about to collapse.

However, there was one thing Liu Xin didn't know. When he accidentally fell into a coma in the Guangzhou Office, the Haihan Executive Committee, thousands of miles away, had already decided to take a tough attitude to deal with Liu Xiang's request.

Maliko and He Xi naturally didn't go out at all, and the excuse they made was just to delay the negotiation process. When Liu Xin left the Guangzhou Office full of aggrievedness, they were checking the latest news sent by the headquarters together in the telegraph room. instruct.

"To deploy troops to the Pearl River Estuary to strengthen the defense of the waterways of the Pearl River Estuary, the Executive Committee intends to face it head-on." Holding the telegram, He Xi said with emotion: "It seems that the Executive Committee is not planning to Continue to take the low-key route."

"That's hard to say!" Maliko had a different view on this: "You read that the telegram also said that active defense is allowed, but active attack is not allowed. It took half a year for the navy to reach its current size. He and the Military Commission are not willing to use these treasures to take risks."

He Xi frowned and said, "Then we will have a showdown with Liu Xiang's people?"

"What's the rush? I think this matter can be stabilized for a few more days." Maliko analyzed: "The military will dispatch most of the navy this time, and it will definitely take a few days to prepare. Counting their departure from Sanya to the Pearl River I think it will take at least three to five or seven days for the time required for the mouth."

"You can't put medicine in the food every day to make him faint, can you?" He Xi said with a smile: "I think it will be used once at most, and he will definitely not even take a sip of water when he comes to the door in the future."

Maiko also smiled and said: "This kind of thing can't happen again, once is enough. But it's not difficult to hold him back. Negotiating and negotiating means that you are negotiating while stumbling your opponent, trying to slow down the pace of the negotiation. , In fact, it's very easy, you just have to dig out every word the other party said. I can't do intelligence, you can't play black belly, just leave this matter to me."

"Okay, okay, you have the final say, you have the final say, I won't fight with you." After He Xi finished laughing, he returned the topic to the current matter: "After this heavy rain, it is estimated that there will be three or four thousand more victims near Guangzhou. With a good operation, another 2000 people can be brought back to the island.”

"Maybe it's more than that." Maliko is obviously more optimistic about this matter: "Today, there should be more than [-] disaster victims who came to the Guangdong Office for help, but the news from Panyu said that the disaster victims in the south The situation seems to be a little more serious, so many victims have gone to Panyu, which is closer, instead of Guangzhou City."

"You have to take advantage of the time to rob!" He Xi was also moved by Maliko's emotions, and said with a sigh: "This year and next two years are the critical period for population explosion. If the population of our ruling area exceeds 10, the southeast region will basically No one can touch us anymore."

Maliko replied: "Let's take the Pearl River Estuary first. As long as the waterway here is controlled, the population and wealth will be continuously transported to Sanya. No matter how powerful the 'Eighteen Zhi' is in Fujian, they will Coming here is also an away game, so there is not much advantage to speak of, compared to at least we still have Wanshan Port, a sea stronghold, that we can use.”

Liu Xin didn't know about the black-bellied plan behind the Haihan people, but he could also faintly feel that the Haihan people were consciously delaying time.But even though he was aware of this, he was still powerless to change the rhythm of the negotiations, and the next few days of negotiations still gave him a splitting headache.

"Mr. Liu, you asked us to ban the sale of weapons and equipment. Does this only refer to the direction of Fujian or the entire Fuguang?" Maliko asked.

"Naturally, it refers to the direction of Fujian."

"So, it's okay for us to sell the weapons to the merchants in Guangdong?" Mariko asked mockingly.

"This... your next family is not allowed to resell weapons to Fujian!" For some reason, Liu Xin faintly felt something was wrong.

"How do we deal with the purchase of weapons for the next family? How can we manage it? Do we have to control how each household cooks the salt after they buy it back?"

"This... you are using strong words to make sense!" Liu Xin felt that he was a little short of words.

"I'm clearly presenting the facts to you to make sense, so why are you making unreasonable words? If you think I'm wrong, you can point it out and let's discuss it."

Liu Xinping calmed down, and then argued: "If you can't restrain the behavior of the next family, then please stop selling weapons in the Fuguang area."

Maliko spread his hands and said, "It means that we are not allowed to engage in arms trade in the Fuguang area?"

"That's right, that's what it means!" Liu Xin said fiercely.He felt that he should have been as tough as he is now a few days ago, and he might have already made the other party succumb.

"Then our sale of weapons on Qiongzhou Island will not affect your safety?" Maiko said with a sneer, "Or do you think that Qiongzhou Island also belongs to your sphere of influence?"

Liu Xin was dumbfounded for a moment, not knowing how to counter Maiko.Although the "Eighteen Zhi" is unparalleled in the southeast coast, it is mainly concentrated in the Fuguang area, but it does not extend its tentacles as far as Qiongzhou Island-in other words, if it is true that even Yazhou can be controlled, How could it be possible to sit back and watch the Haihan people take root, blossom and grow in the local area?

Moreover, Liu Xin also knew that the Haihan people had great influence in Yazhou, and even the government was clearly on their side.The sea area near Yazhou is also completely controlled by the Haihan people.No matter what, Liu Xin would not dare to talk nonsense about including Qiongzhou Island into his own sphere of influence, otherwise it would only add to the laughing stock.

But if he admitted that he could not influence Qiongzhou Island, wouldn't that be acknowledging the Haihan people's right to sell their own weapons in Qiongzhou?Xu Xinsu couldn't buy it in Guangzhou, so wouldn't he send his own boat to buy it on the territory of the Haihan people, so what's the use of selling it in the mainland?
"No, no, that's not the case." Liu Xin quickly straightened out his confused thoughts, and waved his hands to explain: "You are doing business on Qiongzhou Island, and we can't control it. Our request is that you can't Selling weapons to Fujian Daming officers and soldiers in any form anywhere."

"Oh...so that's the case." Maiko said with a look of sudden realization: "It's fine if we don't sell it to them?"

"Yes..." As soon as Liu Xin said something, he suddenly felt something was wrong, but before he could react, he heard Maiko continue to say: "Then others sell it to them, and we have nothing to do with it!"

The bastard went back to talking again!At this moment, Liu Xin just wanted to beat up the hateful Haihan man in front of him.

(End of this chapter)