1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3799

Considering the population size of the Sharjah tribe, it was considered quite an effort for Abdullah to put so much thought into this. Before the establishment of the Xihu nation, as the candidate chief of the Xihu tribe, he might not even be willing to marry into a small tribe like the Sharjah.

However, the new conscription order now urgently needs to be promoted in the Shihu-ruled areas. Little Abdullah can only deal with relatively easier tribes like Sharja first, and then use the results to ask those slightly larger tribes to do the same.

If handled properly, this would be an opportunity for young Abdullah to win over the hearts of the people and establish his authority before he ascended the throne, but if handled improperly, it might also cause some internal unrest.

Although the Hai Han people were backing him up, little Abdullah still hoped to complete the task in his own way. He knew very well that Qian Tiandun had not given him this task for no reason. This was a new test, and whether he did it well or not would likely affect Qian Tiandun's impression of him and even his level of trust in him.

From then until the end of the year, little Abdullah traveled to various tribes that had surrendered to the Xihu Kingdom, promoting the new conscription order, supervising military service registration, and also taking the opportunity to understand the current thoughts of each tribe.

The process of Xihu annexing these surrounding tribes was smooth sailing, but it was not easy to truly integrate each tribe into the newly established Xihu Kingdom.

After all, the concept of a nation has basically been lost in the heritage of various tribes, including the Shi'ihu. Their previous dependence on the Ottoman Empire was merely a formality, and few Arabs would proudly declare themselves to be Ottomans.

The attitudes of various tribes towards joining Xihu varied. Some were simply afraid of the powerlessness of Xihu and Hai Han and were forced to do so; others were optimistic about Xihu's development momentum and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to create a chance for their own tribe to develop.

There are also some ambitious guys among them who have actively expressed their willingness to cooperate with the new conscription order, but the prerequisite is that their tribal armed forces retain a separate organization.

Of course, Little Abdullah would not agree to such a request. The reason why Xihu annexed these tribes was not to allow them to preserve their power and continue to be local emperors. All tribal armed forces must obey the orders of King Xihu in the future. Of course, to be precise, they are loyal to Xihu, but they still need to obey the orders of the coalition headquarters in Fubo Port.

One of the reasons why young Abdullah actively married into various tribes was to allow the blood between tribes to gradually merge, eliminate barriers, and create a greater sense of identity with the country of Xihu.

But if someone wants to continue to retain the tribal armed forces, that would be going against his plan. He has no intention of tolerating those who have such ideas, and the Xihu Kingdom does not need the existence of such people.

While little Abdullah was cleaning up the household, Shi Diwen hurried and finally returned to Hangzhou before the New Year.

The reason for rushing to this time point is not that Shi Diwen is in a hurry to go home for the New Year, but that many plans for the next year of Hai Han must be arranged by the Executive Committee at the end of the year. When Shi Diwen returned from this western inspection, he had already considered that some projects that must be adjusted as soon as possible in the next year must be submitted to the Executive Committee for discussion as soon as possible.

When Shi Chengwu learned that Shi Diwen had returned to China, he rushed back to Hangzhou from Nanjing two days in advance. After meeting with his brother Shi Chengxin and other family members, as well as some local officials, they went to the Qiantang River in the south of the city to welcome him.

Although this overseas inspection trip lasted only half a year, the destination was unprecedentedly far away, and it was said that it was all undeveloped barren land. Moreover, the return was several months later than the scheduled time when he went out, and his family was also a little worried about Shi Diwen's physical condition. Fortunately, what Shi Diwen saw and heard during this inspection trip were basically some exciting good news. Therefore, although it was very hard to travel across the ocean, his mental state was maintained quite well. Although he was exhausted when he arrived in Hangzhou, he was not seriously ill.

Shi Diwen returned home and talked about his farewell with his family that night. But early the next morning, he resumed his official duties.

Although Shi Chengxin and others handled official business for him, after being away from Hangzhou for more than half a year, there were still many important matters piling up that needed to be handled personally by Shi Diwen, including a lot of government affairs, legal affairs, and military affairs.

These important matters often involve multiple departments and require higher-level figures to speak out and coordinate, or even need to be submitted to the Executive Committee for discussion.

Shi Diwen flipped through a few documents and felt a headache. During the half year he was on a business trip, he didn't have much paperwork to deal with. He spent most of his time traveling around and meeting people from all walks of life. Now, seeing the piles of documents, he was a little uncomfortable.

Shi Diwen simply called the brothers Shi Chengwu and Shi Chengxin to his study. Most of these documents had been read by them, and many of them were even submitted by the two brothers. It would be simpler to let them dictate.

"First, tell me about the matter you submitted. What is it, what problem you encountered, and what kind of help you need from me. Chengwu, you go first."

After Shi Diwen finished speaking, he leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes slightly, and waited for Shi Chengwu's report.

Shi Chengwu did not refuse and took out a book from the desk. He said in a deep voice, "Most of the reports I submitted were about local affairs in Nanjing Prefecture. Some of them involved my long-term plans for the local area. Perhaps because the budget required was too high, they were not approved after being submitted to the Executive Committee and were thus shelved."

Shi Diwen asked softly, "These matters that were suppressed by the Executive Committee, could it be that you submitted them alone without co-signing with Tao Hongfang?"

Shi Chengwu did not dare to defend himself and replied honestly: "It was indeed submitted by me alone, because on some matters, my opinions were not consistent with Tao Hongfang's."

Shi Diwen opened his eyes and looked at him and said, "How foolish! The Executive Committee arranged for the two of you to manage Nanjing, one in charge of politics and one in charge of the army. They want you to complement each other and work together. If you have different opinions, how can you possibly get the support of the Executive Committee?"

Shi Chengwu said: "Tao Hongfang hopes to focus resources on the civil affairs and infrastructure of Nanjing Prefecture, but I think that the army should be strengthened and the control area should be expanded to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River as soon as possible. Tao Hongfang naturally refused to sign and support the application to expand the size of the garrison and increase the military budget, so I can only submit a separate proposal."

Shi Diwen said: "No matter what your respective starting points are, you should put the overall situation first. Otherwise, if one of you goes east and the other goes west, how can you achieve coordinated progress?"

Seeing that Shi Chengwu did not make any more excuses, Shi Diwen softened his tone and said, "Tell me, what specific matters did you submit?"