1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3833

Qin Jian's words were actually quite clear: merchants and ships from the Ming Dynasty, without a certain background or powerful backer, would have no choice but to obediently queue up for berths at Yanziji Wharf in the future.

If you want to save time during berthing and loading/unloading, you have to reveal your hand and let Qin Jian determine whether you are worthy of the special treatment offered by the dock.

This was, of course, only Qin Jian's side of the story; the local government currently had no such plan. However, since he said it, those present had no choice but to believe him.

Even if the government doesn't currently have such plans, if Qin Jian were to submit a memorial suggesting that the government establish such a management system, given his qualifications and influence, he might actually be able to persuade the government to turn the plan into reality.

As for the businessmen's trump cards, they're hardly secrets. Without the support of powerful backers, they probably wouldn't even be qualified to sit here.

Genuine private merchants were eliminated long ago by the years of war. Those who can still sail and do business on the Yangtze River today almost all have officials, big or small, providing support behind them.

However, they still had some psychological barriers to fully disclosing this information to Qin Jian—if they told him everything, wouldn't that be tantamount to confirming the crime of their backers colluding with the enemy?

This is essentially handing Hai Han leverage over his own power, so that if anything happens in the future, Hai Han can use this leverage to control the person behind him.

Although the special treatment proposed in the Qin bamboo slips could allow them to earn greater profits from their trade, whether their patrons were willing to take such a huge political risk was a matter of differing opinions. Whether this was ultimately good or bad for the officials in the Ming Dynasty was difficult to say at the moment.

Their reactions were exactly what Qin Jian had expected. These people were all opportunists; to get them to submit, he would have to use even more force.

"Gentlemen, you don't think that Yanziji Wharf will continue to operate as a trading port indefinitely, do you? The agreement signed between Haihan and the Ming Dynasty is only a ceasefire agreement, not a peace treaty. Who knows when war will break out again? When Yanziji Wharf is requisitioned by the military, do you think the ships from the Ming Dynasty will be detained? Will all the goods and money on board be confiscated?"

"When that time comes, don't come running to me saying which ship belongs to which official of the Ming Dynasty and begging me to help salvage it. I can only answer with four words: it's too late!"

The implication is that everyone should register beforehand, otherwise, if something goes wrong, any attempts to curry favor will be rejected.

Among the group present, there were naturally many shills that Qin Jian had arranged in advance. At this moment, they spoke up at the opportune moment: "Since it is what Master Qin said, I would rather believe it. I wonder if there are any additional benefits to registering in advance?"

Qin Jian laughed and said, "If you register first, you'll naturally enjoy the benefits first. Anyway, there are only so many berths at Yanziji Wharf, and it's hard to say how many slots the government will allocate. I can only say that there won't be an unlimited number of slots, otherwise there would be no special treatment!"

Even those who were initially planning to wait and see found it hard to remain calm after hearing these words.

Qin Jian is right. If everyone can enjoy the same treatment, then it can't be called special treatment. The business of sailing on the Yangtze River has already gone through several rounds of elimination. If this continues, another batch of people will definitely be eliminated.

As for whether the shipping capacity freed up after these eliminations would be filled by Ming Dynasty ship merchants or divided up by their Haihan counterparts, that didn't matter. The most important thing right now was to ensure they weren't among those eliminated. Now that someone had taken the lead, others, fearing they would fall behind, all expressed their willingness to cooperate with the government to Qin Jian.

Qin Jian said, "Everyone, there's no need to rush. Let me explain again. Considering that this involves the trade secrets of each company, and my superiors also need to review it, please refrain from making verbal reports. We will rely on written materials. You can start preparing after you go back, and submit them to me in person starting tomorrow. You all know where to find me, right?"

It was common knowledge that Qin Jian would go to the nearby teahouse for breakfast after inspecting the docks every day, and also handle some official dock business. Those present, who frequented the Yanziji docks, were naturally aware of this and didn't need to inquire further.

Qin Jian used a few tricks and quickly brought the Ming Dynasty ship merchants under control. However, Qu Deren on the other side did not have it so easy.

When Shi Chengwu gave him the order, he had already stated that the matter was confidential and should not be publicized. Therefore, it was difficult for him to find out the inside story of the matter from a third party. He could only try to find out what Shi Chengwu wanted to say.

However, Shi Chengwu's position at the police station was only temporary; he spent most of his time at the garrison headquarters in the south of the city, so Qu Deren couldn't always meet with his superior.

If he went to the garrison headquarters specifically to request a meeting, Shi Chengwu would certainly receive him. However, if there was no important matter to report, doing so would seem too deliberate and could easily arouse Shi Chengwu's suspicion.

When Qu Deren agreed to Qin Jian's request, he hadn't thought about all this, but after returning to his office at the police station and pondering it carefully, he realized that taking charge of this part was not easy at all. Just figuring out a reasonable way to meet Shi Chengwu had already stumped him.

After much deliberation, Qu Deren could only patiently wait for Qin Jian to make progress so that he could meet with Shi Chengwu under the pretext of reporting on his work, and also test his superior's opinion.

Fortunately, Qu Deren did not have to wait long. The following afternoon, he received a message from Qin Jian, asking him to meet at Yanziji Wharf.

Qu Deren immediately put down what he was doing and took a car out of the city to Yanziji.

Qin Jian proudly showed him several documents, all of which were rushed over by the people who attended the banquet last night, each one afraid of falling behind.

"Take a look, is this what General Shi needs?"

Qu Deren quickly took the book and flipped through it. After a moment, he looked up at Qin Jian and gave him a thumbs up: "Impressive! You've found out the background of so many families in just one day?"

Qin Jian said, "With just a little trick, these people chose to cooperate obediently, which was much easier than I expected! All of this information was provided by them themselves."

Qu Deren said, "However, the authenticity of the information they provided still needs to be verified, right?"

Qin Jian nodded and said, "That's true, but if anyone cheats on this, they won't need to do business in Yanziji anymore."