1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3941

"Too slow! This pace won't do!"

Yan Chujie slowly shook his head, dissatisfied with the progress made by the Northern Region in expanding its territory.

According to the Executive Committee's development strategy, the borders of the Northern Region should be extended northward year by year. Before the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it should extend to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula north of Sakhalin Island. Before the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the northern shipping route from the Bering Strait to the North American continent should be opened up, and even the exploration of the Arctic Ocean should begin.

However, judging from the current situation, although there are no strong enemies in the north, and the northern barbarians, including the Manchus, have almost all submitted to Haihan, Haihan's actual control area is still limited to the Songhua River basin, and even the territory of the Doyan Three Guards in the early Ming Dynasty has not been fully restored.

The reason is actually quite simple: the northern region lacked the motivation and capacity to continue expanding northward, which was one of the main reasons why Qian Tiandun decided to lead his troops southward to develop.

Compared to the desolate and frigid lands, the leaders of the Northern Region preferred to expand westward first, occupying as many densely populated areas as possible in Hebei, Shanxi, and Henan. Only after securing a sufficient population and resources would they consider expanding into the far north.

Such thinking is understandable. After all, the cost of building reclamation farms and small cities in the north is several times that of the Bohai Bay area. The construction funds that the Executive Committee and the national treasury can provide are actually very limited. More than half of the funds have to be paid out of the northern region's own pocket. This is obviously not a worthwhile deal.

Apart from the northern barbarians who were born and raised in the area, most ordinary Han Chinese were unwilling to move to the north of the Songhua River. Even with the government offering extremely favorable immigration conditions, it was difficult to change this situation in a short period of time.

The Bohai Bay region under the jurisdiction of the Northern Region is now a vast and fertile land with countless farmlands and numerous industrial units that provide tens of thousands of jobs. Ordinary people can easily find ways to make a living and live a stable life with good living conditions, so why would they bother to go to the far north to reclaim wasteland?

These circumstances, reflected in the report submitted by the Northern Region, naturally made it difficult for the Executive Committee to be satisfied.

Chen Pingliao remained calm and did not rush to explain. Before leaving Jinzhou, Chen Yixin had anticipated this and instructed him not to complain or play the victim in front of the executive committee officials. If questioned, he should simply tell the truth.

Yan Chujie put down the documents in his hand, looked up at Chen Pingliao and said, "Expanding the colonies to the north is one of the established national policies, but judging from the current progress, it can only be said that the northern region is not implementing it effectively. Do you have any explanation for this?"

Chen Pingliao replied, “The expansion northward has cost a lot but yielded little result. At present, it can only maintain a small number of military settlements. The money and materials spent on this every year are more than the resources invested in the Northern Fleet. Therefore, my father and the management committee believe that we should focus on the development of the Bohai region first, and there is no need to be too hasty in expanding northward.”

Chen Pingliao stated directly that this was a decision made by Chen Yixin and the Northern Region Management Committee, and Yan Chujie couldn't immediately refute him. After all, Chen Yixin was now a member of the Executive Committee, and the two were on equal footing, so Yan Chujie had to give him some face.

Yan Chujie said, "Even so, we must find a way to mobilize public opinion and encourage immigration; we cannot just do it perfunctorily!"

Chen Pingliao explained, "The last resolution of the Northern Regional Council recommended that the Management Committee suspend the northward expansion, because most people hoped to invest resources in the Bohai Bay region, where they could reap good returns in a short period." The main members of the local council were the local gentry, the group with the most influence among the people. These people naturally understood that developing the vast, sparsely populated far north was not a worthwhile investment; they valued the predictable return on investment more than the situation decades or centuries from now.

Upon hearing this, Yan Chujie couldn't help but sigh again. He understood that with the current level of productivity, expanding into the north would be fraught with difficulties and slow to yield results. But if these things weren't promoted and implemented while the older generation was in power, he feared that no one would be willing to do it afterward.

Chen Pingliao continued, "My father once said that as long as our country is strong enough, it doesn't really matter whether we take over the northern territory immediately or after fifty or a hundred years. Because those harsh and cold lands, even if they fall into the hands of others temporarily, are not capable of large-scale development and construction. What our country cannot do now, no other country in the world can do either, so there is no need to rush to seize those unclaimed lands."

“Currently, cultivating the land in the far north is time-consuming and labor-intensive, with very low returns, and will only delay the normal development of the northern region. It would be better to wait until we have the ability to exploit and utilize local resources before undertaking construction, which would be much more efficient.”

"The best option we have now is to send out exploration teams to survey the terrain, draw maps, and lay boundary markers, incorporating all unclaimed lands into our territory. As for potential territorial disputes with other countries in the future, we can rely on documents and force. Even if no Han Chinese settle in the area, we can still maintain our sovereignty."

Yan Chujie listened quietly to Chen Pingliao's words without immediately expressing his opinion.

The older generation of time travelers, including Yan Chujie himself, clearly had a strong attachment to the northern territory and did not want to hand over the northern region to the Russians who had come all the way from Europe to the Far East.

The timeframe was already quite tight. More than a decade ago, armed expeditionary forces from Tsarist Russia had already appeared in the Heilongjiang River basin, but their strength was limited, and their area of ​​operation was far from the territory controlled by Haihan, so the two sides did not have much contact.

In the original timeline, more than twenty years later, the Qing Dynasty would have fought the Battle of Yaksa with Tsarist Russia, followed by the signing of the Treaty of Nerchinsk, which demarcated the border between the two countries, using the Outer Khingan Mountains as the boundary.

This is clearly not the situation that the Haihan Executive Committee wants to see, which is why expanding northward has become one of the tasks that the Northern Region must complete.

However, Chen Yixin's ideas clearly differed from the consensus of the Executive Committee. He was not in a hurry to expand northward, nor did he regard Tsarist Russia as a threat. Instead, he planned to focus on developing the Bohai Bay region first, establishing a solid industrial and agricultural foundation, and then seize the vast territory of the Far East.

It's difficult to make an accurate judgment at present as to which strategy is more correct and more in line with the country's long-term interests.

Chen Pingliao's words represented Chen Yixin's viewpoint. They might not be approved by the Executive Committee, but the Chen father and son clearly intended to follow their own opinions rather than necessarily seeking the Executive Committee's approval.

Of course, the Executive Committee could also force the Northern Region to continue implementing the colonization plan, or even select someone else to replace Chen Yixin as governor, but that would certainly not be the best solution. Yan Chujie immediately rejected these approaches in his mind.

After a long silence, Yan Chujie finally spoke, "I will submit your opinions to the Executive Committee for discussion. Let's stop here for today!"