1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 403
The benefits of the rulers concentrating the wealth of the people are obvious, but the idea seems simple, but it is not easy to realize it.Regardless of whether others could do it or not, Ruan Jinggui knew very well that South Vietnam before its collapse would definitely not be able to do it. The imperial court lacked professionals in the financial field to preside over the operation, and it did not have a sound financial system to implement this idea.Of course, the most important point is that the privileged class, including himself, will certainly not unreservedly hand over their property to others to control.

Regardless of the mature financial system, Ruan Jinggui still doesn't quite understand how the Haihan people can make everyone obey this system.In his view, the social system of Haihan is not fundamentally different from that of South Vietnam. It is also a pyramid structure composed of the lower-level people, the middle-level naturalized cadres, and the upper-level Haihan chiefs.These Haihan people with short hair and short shirts and weird accents are the nobles in this social system, who hold the power of life and death in the areas under their rule, but they don't seem to care much about their private property. Even the noble members of the executive committee seem to have They also did not purchase their own land and servants, which is fundamentally different from the practice of the South Vietnamese nobles.

But if you want to say that these Haihan people are "selfless", Ruan Jinggui feels that it is wrong. As far as he knows, what the Haihan people are most interested in is not real money, but land and population.It is said that the North Vietnamese court was able to obtain the military support of the Haihan people in exchange for seven or eight seaside ports and tens of thousands of immigrant populations.If you want to describe the behavior of the Haihan people more accurately, Ruan Jinggui believes that what they strive for through trade, war and other means is for the Haihan as a group, not for the individual. As for why these Haihan people’s thoughts can be so unified, they Ruan Jinggui felt that he might have to wait until he truly became a member of this social system in the future to understand what the real goal was.

After dinner, the range of activities of the immigrants was limited to the camp where they lived.There is a strict curfew system in the isolation camp. From [-] o'clock in the evening, everyone has to go back to their dormitory, and they are not allowed to go out or drop in at will.According to the immigration cadres, the period after dinner is called "cleaning up the house". The content is to clean the room, pack up personal belongings, and then the head of the dormitory organizes a discussion to review the lessons learned during the day.

However, there seemed to be some small changes in today's arrangement. As soon as Ruan Jinggui returned to his room after washing the dishes, the squadron leader who managed their area came with a few security guards.

Every ten dormitories in the immigration isolation camp are divided into a squadron, and a squadron leader is assigned to manage daily affairs. However, the candidate for the squadron leader is not a new immigrant, but a naturalized cadre sent by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.The person in charge of the squadron where Ruan Jinggui is located is Zheng Yi, who is said to be an immigrant from North Vietnam, but his surname is not directly related to the Zheng family who is currently in charge of the Annan government.Zheng Yi is considered to be an Annan immigrant who took refuge in Haihan earlier. He had already naturalized in Heitugang the year before last, and he only immigrated to Sanya at the beginning of this year. He is considered a veteran among the Annan naturalized people, so he was assigned to the Manage the immigration isolation camps.

Generally speaking, before the curfew is enforced every evening, the immigration cadres at the squadron leader level will conduct a patrol in the camp area. Occasionally, the team leader or even higher-ranking Haihan civil affairs officials will come to visit, so Ruan Jinggui didn't care at first. , but according to the usual practice, he stood up and shouted: "Stand up!"

No matter what they were doing, everyone in the room immediately stood up reflexively.In the first two days after moving in, some people didn't get used to the rules and refused to stand up and wait for orders. As a result, they were pulled out and punished. They ran around the camp ten times and almost died of exhaustion.Since then, no one has disputed this rule, even if they don't think so.

Zheng Yi glanced around the situation in the room, and then said: "Ruan Jinggui, Ruan Jingwen come out!"

The Ruan brothers glanced at each other, and walked to the door as promised.They believed that they hadn't committed any crime in the past few days, and Zheng Yi should have no excuse to make trouble for him.

"You two come out with me, and the others continue to clean up the housework!" After Zheng Yi finished speaking, he walked out with his hands behind his back.

"There will be an immigrant boat coming back from Hue, you two go to the scene to help maintain order." After leaving the room, Zheng Yi explained the reason to them very succinctly.

For such a task assignment, the Ruan brothers had no reason to refuse.The moment they chose to come to Sanya, they had already decided that they would definitely work for the Haihan people in the future.It is also reasonable to let them, the old aristocrats who are familiar with the people of South Vietnam, go to appease the new immigrants from South Vietnam.

The two followed Zheng Yi to the gate of the camp. There were already several other people waiting here, and Ruan Jinggui recognized one or two of them, both of whom were immigrants from Annan Kingdom.Several security guards asked them to line up, and then led the team to walk to the Sanya Inland River Port not far from here.

At this time, the sky was not yet completely dark, but street lamps had already begun to be lit up on the side of the road.Ruan Jinggui had seen this kind of iron street lamp when he came to Shengli Port last year. When he saw it for the first time, he was really shocked, because the lampshade was made of glass on all four sides of the top of the street lamp. Estimated value, the value of the lampshade alone is at least 30 taels of silver, and this kind of street lamp is actually arranged from the Shengli Port Wharf to the gate of Shengli Fort, at least there are nearly a hundred of them, which can be called a luxury. At that time, Ruan Jinggui deeply felt the wealth of Haihan people.

In addition, Ruan Jinggui also knew that this kind of street lamp neither burns oil nor firewood, and it is not coal produced in Heitu Port, but an invisible gas called "early gas" by Haihan people.Ruan Jinggui didn't understand where this gas came from and why it could be ignited. He could only understand it as another unexplainable "magic" in the hands of the Haihan people.However, when I came last time, this kind of high-end street lights could only be seen on the landscape avenue near Shengli Harbor, but now this kind of street lights have appeared in the surrounding areas of Sanya Inland River Port.

It was the first time that Ruan Jingwen was allowed to play at night after coming to Sanya, and it was also the first time he saw this kind of magical street lamp. The expression on his face was like seeing a ghost: "Brother, this Haihan people are so extravagant To light so many oil lamps on the street at night, how much oil would have to be burned over the years!"

"Second brother, this kind of lamp does not burn oil, but a kind of gas. It is said that you can have as much gas as you want, without too much expense." Ruan Jinggui immediately gave his brother a "science popularization" The combustion principle of street lamps.

"Hey, you do have some knowledge!" A security guard next to him turned his head and glanced at Ruan Jinggui, "I must have heard it from some chief?"

Ruan Jinggui said proudly: "I came to Shengli Harbor as a guest last year as an envoy. At that time, I was a guest of the executive committee members!"

"Brother, it's different now. Your country is gone, so don't show off!" The security guard obviously knew the identities of these new immigrants, and he kindly persuaded him: "In the future, do things for the chiefs, so that you can get rid of it!" It's the right way!"

Soon after arriving at the pier, Ruan Jinggui noticed that besides their group, there were more than 100 militiamen and the same number of black-clothed policemen who had already been arranged on the pier, and there were even a dozen or so of them among them. A person wearing a Ming military uniform.Ruan Jinggui met Luo Shengdong and Wei Ping when he came to Shengli Port last time, and he also knew that those people were members of the Yacheng Navy and the Yulin Inspection Department. Let the new immigrants mistakenly think that this is the ruling area of ​​Ming Dynasty.

The scene in front of him made Ruan Jinggui recall that when they arrived here by boat a few days ago, when they got off the boat, they saw basically the same scene on the pier—the militia, the police, the Ming officials, the Haihan Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the old immigrants. Representatives are all there.

Soon, a naturalized cadre from the Ministry of Civil Affairs came over and gave a brief lecture to Ruan Jinggui and others. The general idea was to tell them how to help appease the immigrants later, and organize the immigrants to organize the queue on the dock and wait for arrangements.These things have been experienced by them personally, and it would be very interesting to stand in different camps and replicate them again.

Just as the sky finally darkened, a little light was finally seen on the water surface of the estuary, which was a lantern hanging on the mast of a seagoing ship.Soon a leading boat sailed into the pier, followed by two Chinese-style lucky boats of [-] materials. However, the sails of these two lucky boats have been modified by the Shengli Harbor Shipyard, using new Haihan Soft sails instead of traditional Chinese hard sails.

At present, there are more than 30 Chinese-style sailing ships under the name of the Ministry of Shipping. Although orders for 300-ton cargo ships have already been placed with the shipyard, due to the backlog of orders from the Navy, the shipyard simply cannot spare large berths to complete the shipping. Therefore, the current shipping tasks between Sanya and the Indochina Peninsula are still completed by the Chinese sailboats collected through various channels in the first two years.

Traditional Chinese sailboats have slow speed and low cargo capacity, and have gradually begun to be unsuitable for the increasing cargo volume between the two sides of the strait.Now the ships going back and forth between the two sides of the strait not only have to transport coal and immigrants, but also have to ship all kinds of Haihan export commodities and other materials. Before the war started this time, the Military Commission recruited cargo ships to transport materials, which caused the shipping industry to the Annan area to almost completely stop. .However, this embarrassing situation should be effectively improved within this year. The executive committee has approved the second phase expansion plan of Shengli Port Shipyard. In addition to several small berths below 300 tons, two more A 500-ton dry dock and two 1500-ton large docks.

After launching ten large 500-ton ships back and forth, the Ministry of Shipping is no longer willing to continue to toss about this tonnage.Sailing ships with larger tonnage, more loading space and stronger endurance have already had relatively mature design solutions.And on a new ship of this tonnage, the power steam engine upgraded by the industrial sector will be installed on a trial basis. If all goes well, the first thousand-ton motor sailboat may be launched within a year. New powered ships are expected to appear in this time and space a century earlier.

Of course, to promote the implementation of such a large project, it is not enough to rely solely on the influence of the young Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi. In this process, the "Haihan Military Industry" and the Military Commission have played a significant role.The Military Commission expressed its willingness to take out 5 yuan from the seizure in Hue this time, which will be specially provided to Shengli Port Shipyard for the research and development and design of the next generation of naval warships.And "Haihan Military Industry" also generously donated 2 yuan to fund this project, and said that it will cooperate with the technical departments of the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Energy and other related units to carry out joint technical research on some key technical links of future motor sailboats.

However, even if this kind of motor sailboat can be successfully developed in the future, the Military Commission, which seems to be rich and powerful, may not be able to place a large order.Just take the current "expedition-class" warships as an example. After the third batch of warships launched has undergone many technical improvements in details, there is probably no opponent with the same displacement in the Far East. The cost has also been rising steadily, breaking through the [-] mark.If the daily maintenance costs after being commissioned by the Navy are added, the cost of such a ship plus the military expenditure for the first year of commissioning is already a considerable amount-in fact, the Navy has terminated the order for continued orders in the second half of last year. The "Exploration Class", which is one size smaller in tonnage, uses the limited military budget as much as possible to supply the "Exploration Class" warships with stronger sea endurance.

Judging from the cost of using "expedition-class" warships, the cost of a thousand-ton steam engine sailing ship in the future will definitely not be less than 5 yuan, and the maintenance cost after entering the list will greatly exceed the current pure sailing warships .Even if the Military Commission made a lot of money in the battle of Hue, when it is really facing a large-scale military expansion, it will soon be discovered that this gain is actually not enough in the face of the huge military budget figures.

According to the plan of the Military Commission, in the foreseeable few years, the navy must maintain at least two large fleets, one is responsible for the safety of the waterways in the east of Hainan Island and the southeast coastal area of ​​the mainland, and the other is to be deployed in the Indochina Peninsula. In the southeast, maintain the security of this sea area including the base camp and Beibu Gulf.And the cost of supporting such two fleets will definitely far exceed the military expenditure level of supporting two army divisions. At that time, the competition between the army and the navy for internal resources may also be unavoidable.

Of course, Ruan Jinggui, who is still in the period of immigration investigation, does not know about these things. In his opinion, the existing shipping power of the Haihan people is already amazing. Like the two Chinese sailboats that are docking at the dock, they are placed in the coastal area of ​​Annan Definitely a first class ship.But as far as he knew, there were many warships that were much larger than this ship docked at the Haihan people's Victory Port military pier.Even the Portuguese who provided military assistance to the Hue court at the beginning seemed to have fewer ships than the Hai Han people.

In order to obtain enough lighting, in addition to street lamps, several large fires were lit with dry firewood on the shore.Although Ruan Jinggui was still relatively far away from the fire, his face was still hot from the scorching air.

The sailor on the bow threw a cable as thick as a forearm to the shore, and the handyman on the pier caught the cable and fixed the cable to the pig iron cable pile buried on the shore.Several laborers pushed a special cargo ship gangway. There are wooden wheels that can be fixed under this kind of gangway. The ladder surface is three meters wide and has a gentle slope shape. It is very suitable for docking of ships with relatively tall hulls.This kind of gangway has a certain load-bearing capacity, and it is faster and more convenient than the traditional method of building a springboard, regardless of unloading cargo or people.

Several crew members stood on the side of the ship with torches to illuminate the gangway, and then the passengers began to land from the ship one after another.Most of the migrants who arrived in Hong Kong were people who voluntarily followed the Haihan immigration ship to settle in Sanya. The two ships loaded a total of more than 500 people, and the ship was packed to the brim.

Under the instruction of the immigration cadre, the Ruan brothers each held a tin horn and loudly directed the immigrants who came to the shore in South Vietnamese dialect to go to the designated area to gather and wait for orders.Of course, there will always be some self-assertive people at such times, but under the double siege of the Haihan police and the militia, the only thing this kind of people can get is a stick.

Ruan Jinggui didn't react to this kind of scene, he didn't care that these compatriots were beaten by the naturalized people, in his opinion, for some untouchables who didn't obey the command, the stick was the most effective way to teach them to obey the rules—— Although he has only been brainwashed here for a few days, Ruan Jinggui has gradually begun to be unable to tolerate that kind of undisciplined behavior.

However, Ruan Jingwen's reaction was more direct than his. Perhaps because he had been in the military camp, Ruan Jingwen often used fists and kicks when he saw those guys who disobeyed orders and started to move around freely after getting off the boat. The extra method made the police next to him have to stop his atrocities first.However, those who were beaten did not dare to resist in such an unfamiliar environment. After being beaten, they returned to the queue obediently, and lined up to the designated assembly area according to the command of the old drivers.

It took about ten minutes, and the civilians on the ship finally landed. Just as Ruan Jinggui breathed a sigh of relief, a new figure appeared on the movable gangway.And this time the people who appeared were all wearing shackles and handcuffs, and they made a rattling sound when they took a step. It was obvious that these must be the captured South Vietnamese soldiers in the Battle of Hue.

In this Hue campaign, the militia captured thousands of people, a considerable part of which were the Leading Party who surrendered early. These people were released after the war through an agreement reached with North Vietnam.The other part of the soldiers captured during the siege battle was shipped back to Sanya as part of the debt repayment agreement for the prisoners of war.

(End of this chapter)