1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3925

Although the salt merchants of Yangzhou were all quite old, they were not conservative or stagnant. They paid close attention to current events and enjoyed spending time studying the various public news published in the newspapers.

Since Dai Chengrong was referring to the latest issue of the Haihan Times, which everyone had only recently read, they quickly recalled the content of the article with just a little prompting.

Fubo Port and Zhenhai Port, located at the western end of the Indian Ocean, are places that are out of reach for people in China. Most people have only seen these place names in newspapers and at most know that these places are the result of special operations divisions' overseas campaigns.

However, the old salt merchants naturally had more information than ordinary people and roughly understood the significance of these ports far overseas to the country. But when it came to direct overseas investment, the salt merchant groups had historically concentrated more on regions in the southeast, such as Japan, Ryukyu, and Luzon, with the southern New World being their limit.

As for the area controlled by Haihan west of the Strait of Malacca, although there was trade, the scale was relatively limited.

It wasn't that they had no ideas, but rather that the trade markets in those regions were largely monopolized by merchants from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan in the south, making it difficult for the salt merchant group to achieve much even if they went there.

Dai Chengrong was certainly aware of these circumstances, but his bringing them up again at the gathering today must have been for other reasons.

Dai Chengrong did not intend to keep these seniors in suspense and quickly explained: "As far as I know, the Special Operations Division is planning a large-scale military operation, which will be launched at Fubo Port and Zhenhai Port. The outcome of this operation may change the sea routes to the Western world."

"If successful, the special operations division will control a maritime pass similar to the Strait of Malacca, and the sea area on the other side of the pass connects to European countries such as Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. In the future, the sea route for exporting goods to the Western world will be completely in our hands. You should be able to imagine what this means."

The eyes of the old salt merchants grew brighter and brighter as Dai Chengrong recounted his story. Having been in the business world for many years, they naturally understood the enormous profits that would come from controlling the shipping routes.

The Sing Tao region, located far away in the South China Sea, became the most important regional trade center in the area precisely because it controlled the crucial shipping route of the Strait of Malacca. The service fees it earns annually just from welcoming and sending off travelers are an astronomical figure that is unimaginable to ordinary people.

However, when Roger led his troops to Xingdao in 1633, the Jiangzhe region was still under the control of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, the Yangzhou salt merchants could not connect with Haihan, so they missed the development of Xingdao.

By 1638, when the seven major families of Anhui salt merchants decided to cooperate with Haihan, the market share in the Xingdao District had already been allocated, and the merchants who had participated in various ways in the early stages had received substantial returns.

Even though the salt merchants later expanded their business empire to Sing Tao, they were ultimately latecomers and had no chance to compete for limited business resources. At best, they could only scrape by locally, and could not expect to make a fortune. They could only envy the southern merchants who were far less powerful than themselves and were fortunate enough to take advantage of the favorable timing.

If given the chance to choose again, salt merchants would certainly not miss such an excellent investment opportunity. A one-time investment would bring lifelong benefits and could even benefit their descendants. Why not take advantage of it?

Dai Yingda asked, "Cheng Rong, is the information you're giving reliable?"

Dai Chengrong nodded and said, "I have friends from my military academy days in the Special Forces Division. In recent years, we have been exchanging information through telegrams, so their information is highly reliable!"

Whether for commercial or military use, telegrams certainly couldn't directly transmit such classified information. The channels Dai Chengrong mentioned likely involved using pre-arranged codes to send the telegrams. As for the conditions under which the information was exchanged, Dai Chengrong didn't elaborate, clearly involving some secrets that shouldn't be made public.

The old salt merchants were also quite tactful and did not press Dai Chengrong about the extent of his personal relationship with that special forces officer, because such an intelligence exchange, seemingly based on the personal relationship between the two, was actually orchestrated by someone at a higher level.

Special operations divisions are stationed overseas year-round, so they naturally need to maintain some secret relationships and channels within the country, especially within major government agencies in Beijing. Otherwise, why would the *Haihan Times*, which acts as the official mouthpiece, publish an article at this time that steals the spotlight from the Jiangxi battlefield?

After a moment's thought, Dai Yingda pressed on, "How can you be sure that the special operations division is willing to cooperate with us? Does your friend have the relevant authority?"

Dai Chengrong said, "He doesn't have that kind of authority, but from the information he provided, we can roughly determine that the special operations division is not fully prepared. To launch this military operation, the special operations division will need support from the country, and the Ministry of National Defense may not be able to meet the special operations division's requirements at this time."

This was not Dai Chengrong's personal judgment, but rather information that the other party had clearly conveyed to him in the encrypted telegram.

Dai Chengrong has reason to believe that this represents the will of a high-ranking figure in the special operations division, who hopes to find assistance outside the Ministry of National Defense in China so that the special operations division can carry out large-scale military operations, which are still in the planning stage, as soon as possible.

The other party passed this message to Dai Chengrong not because they hoped he would lead the 2nd Regiment of the 7th Division to the Indian Ocean to provide reinforcements, but because they had their eyes on his powerful backer, the wealthy Yangzhou salt merchant group.

In terms of the abundance of resources, the Salt Merchants Group should be considered a top-tier business tycoon in China, possessing not only substantial financial resources but also commercial resources across multiple sectors.

Besides salt, which was their original business, the salt merchant group also owned hundreds of farms and plantations, a trade network involving thousands of commodities, a huge shipping fleet of more than 400 cargo ships, and its own chain of money shops, restaurants, hotels, carriage shops, and so on.

In recent years, the salt merchants group has actively invested in emerging industrial fields such as mining, shipbuilding, infrastructure, and textiles, and has begun to go beyond the business scope of traditional businesses.

The salt merchant group was even involved in civilian armed forces that were quasi-military organizations.

The militia system in Yangzhou today was originally formed from the local militias of the Anhui salt merchants, and many of the officers were sons of Anhui salt merchant families.

The semi-official Golden Shield Escort Agency also had a very close relationship with the salt merchant group. Yuan Tao, the person in charge of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region, became sworn brothers with Dai Yingda when he was just the manager of the Zhoushan Golden Shield branch in his early years. They had a personal relationship of more than 20 years.

Therefore, the Yangzhou militia could basically possess all the equipment that the Golden Shield had, and their fighting strength was even comparable to that of some vassal states' auxiliary troops.

Such a powerful business group is certainly qualified to cooperate with special operations divisions.