1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 405 New Life ([-])

When Ruan Jinggui came to Sanya last year, he had seen this kind of monster blowing white smoke and advancing on the iron track from a distance, but he didn't understand the working principle of this thing at the time, presumably it should be another magical spell mastered by the Haihan people .And this time when I came to the campsite where I lived in Sanya, I could hear the whistle of the train when it entered and exited the station every day. Now that I saw the locomotive parked next to the platform nearby, Ruan Jinggui really realized how big this thing is. huge.However, it was not yet the departure time, so they could only watch this big guy lying motionless on the rails on the platform.

"It's really big!" Ruan Jinggui couldn't help sighing softly.

Ruan Jingwen also sighed at the side: "The iron material used for this black iron lump must weigh tens of thousands of catties, and railroad tracks must be laid everywhere it passes, and I don't know how much iron material will be used. The Haihan people have so much iron material." It can be used in this kind of place, no wonder the army is stronger than Annan."

Although Ruan Jingwen is a military officer of noble origin, he is not a playboy who doesn't know anything. He knows what iron materials mean to a regime.If the Hue court could produce iron materials of the same level as Haihan, it would have already started to smelt iron and cast cannons. If the Haihan militia wanted to take Hue City, they would have to face at least several times the number of defenders. Without the cannons in the city, the defenders would not be completely defeated in just one month of fighting.

When facing the offensive of the Haihan army, all the South Vietnamese officers had to lament the opponent's powerful equipment, almost all musketeers, supplemented by a large number of artillery, which made most of the South Vietnamese army still at the level of cold weapons. There is no way to resist.And such a large amount of iron materials required for making weapons is also beyond the reach of South Vietnam.While the South Vietnamese army was still worrying about the source of iron materials, the Haihan people had used iron materials extravagantly for paving roads. This huge gap in strength was simply desperate.

"If I had personally come here to see the strength of the Haihan people in person, how could I choose to settle the dispute with war?" Ruan Jinggui shook his head lightly and sighed: "The princes of the court are not reluctant to part with the land and ask for peace, what the north can give Conditions, we can also give it, but you are still unwilling to believe in the strength of the Haihan people, and wishful thinking that they will only help the north to fight the war if they receive money from the north. As long as the north can't pay, the Haihan people will automatically withdraw The battlefield... Confused! They don’t know that the purpose of the Haihan people’s war is for land and population. Collecting money from the north is just a convenient move. Now the country is ruined and the family is ruined!"

"However, the condition of the peace talks proposed by the Haihan people was for the court to give up the state system. How can this be done!" Ruan Jingwen said disapprovingly, "How can we talk about other conditions if we give up the state system?"

"Brother Wei also thought the same as you at the time, thinking that the national system is the foundation of our Hue court, and we must not give up." Ruan Jinggui sighed and said: "In retrospect, what the Haihan people want is Annan unification, and what is it? It is to let Annan have a court that obeys their will to rule."

"Where do you start with this?" Ruan Jingwen couldn't help asking, because it was the first time he heard his brother say such a point of view.

"Do you know why the Champa Kingdom in the south suddenly raised troops to demand territory from my dynasty?" Ruan Jinggui changed the subject and asked a seemingly irrelevant question.

Ruan Jingwen is not stupid, and he thought of the key point when he rolled his eyes: "You mean that the Haihan people want to support Zhancheng, but it's not just to fight against us?"

Before Haihan launched an attack on South Vietnam, the Champa Kingdom in the south had taken the lead in propagating to South Vietnam, and defeated the South Vietnamese army in several successive battles, and the weapons they used were the arquebus produced by Haihan.In Ruan Jinggui's view, it was because of Haihan's intervention that Zhancheng had the courage to jump out and turn against Nanyue, and the purpose of Haihan's support for Champa was probably not just to cause trouble for the Nanyue court—to Annan Creating an opponent so that the rulers can continue to rely on Haihan is the most fundamental purpose.

Although it is already a hindsight, it is not easy for Ruan Jinggui to figure out the intertwined interests.After Ruan Jingwen was instructed by his brother, he suddenly realized: "So what they want is not the unification of the north and the south, but the obedience of the court?"

"Maybe you don't even need to obey. The Haihan people don't like to kill them all. As long as you are willing to cooperate with them, there is room for negotiation on many things." Ruan Jinggui sighed: "When they attacked Hoi An last year, they really fought with the Portuguese. I’ve done it before, and when I turned around, the two families sat down together to discuss business. When my brother came here for peace talks last year, the representatives of the Portuguese even helped them persuade me. The Haihan people are a group of businessmen who value profits over righteousness. , As long as the interests are relevant, there is nothing they cannot discuss."

Ruan Jingwen was stunned for a while before he said: "If I knew this was the case, why bother to fight this battle? Seeing the Haihan soldiers approaching the city, the senior officials of the court should judge the situation and talk to the Haihan people for peace!"

"It's too late by then!" Ruan Jinggui shook his head and said, "If Haihan hadn't sent troops yet, there might still be room for negotiation on this matter. But they mobilized thousands of people across the sea, how much would it cost? Haihan people When the regiment attacked the city of Hue, there was no possibility of reaching an alliance under the city. If they don't break Hue, how can they be willing to withdraw their troops!"

The two brothers sighed for a while on the platform, knowing that this is an unchangeable reality. No matter whether the South Vietnamese court chooses to resist or obey, it will inevitably end up being manipulated by Haihan in the end. The final battle will only increase the number of people on both sides. consumption.The South Vietnamese court chose a more heroic way to withdraw from the stage of history, but for the losers, their behavior will only be regarded as a wrong lesson by future generations.

"Back, back!" A policeman in black came over and waved his baton to signal the people waiting on the platform to retreat to a certain safe distance.

The steam locomotive on the platform has completed the preheating of coal, and the curling steam is continuously discharged from the exhaust pipe, forming a fog barrier near the platform.The train driver in blue overalls walked quickly with his head held high, and climbed into the cab of the locomotive under the gaze of everyone.

At the beginning of the opening of the train line, the work of driving the train was still done by a few passers-by from the Ministry of Communications. However, the driving of this steam engine is very simple. After half a year of training, the first batch of ten naturalized drivers came to work. Got this working.Now the operation and maintenance of the entire railway system, all front-line personnel have been replaced by naturalized people.

The cadres of the Civil Affairs Bureau who led the group of new immigrants showed the receipts to the platform staff, and then called the Ruan brothers and others to get on the train.This train has only one passenger carriage, and the other three wagons are pulling various production raw materials unloaded from the port to be transported to Tiandu Industrial Zone.Probably because of the lessons learned in the early stage of operation, the carriages carrying people are now hung on the last section of the whole train to prevent passengers from being covered in soot and steam all the way.

Everyone entered the carriage full of novelty, but the furnishings inside were indeed somewhat disappointing. There was nothing in the empty carriage except long benches, and there was a thick layer of soot on the floor. It is even far less clean than the dormitories in the immigration isolation camps.

Ruan Jinggui brushed the dust off the bench with his sleeve in disgust, before he sat down reluctantly.If he didn't know that the Victory Fort he was going to was ten miles away from here, Ruan Jinggui would really not be willing to take this kind of dirty transportation.

Ruan Jingwen was not as particular as his elder brother, looking left and right, he couldn't stop at all.There are no special windows in this carriage, just a bamboo-wood structure roof on the wagon of the open-top truck. You can poke your head out and look around in all directions, which is very suitable for curious people like Ruan Jingwen.

Except for the group of new immigrants in this carriage, the other passengers are almost all naturalized people in blue blouse overalls.These people are obviously used to these newcomers who came out of the immigration isolation camp getting on the bus here, so they don't care much about their existence, and they chatted on their own.

After waiting for a while, the train still showed no signs of starting. A black-faced man sitting next to Ruan Jinggui became agitated. He poked his head out of the carriage and asked the staff on the platform, "Why isn't the train starting yet? This makes people late." But wages will be deducted!"

The staff member waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, there is a chief who wants to take a car, and he is shuffling the wagon."

After hearing this, the black-faced man didn't ask any more questions, and shrank back resentfully and sat back in his seat.Ruan Jinggui asked: "Brother, why does the chief need to transfer another car to take the car? There are still many vacancies here!"

The man smiled and said, "A new immigrant?"

Ruan Jinggui didn't know why, so he nodded without denying it.

"The wagon the chief sits on is much better than the one we ride in. It's dirty here, how do the chiefs sit?" The black-faced man explained the reason to him.

Ruan Jinggui asked again: "If it delays your time to go to work, what compensation will you have?"

"It's not busy at work for a while, no matter how busy you are, can the chiefs be busy?" The black-faced man has no complaints about this.

After waiting for a while, a very short carriage was added behind this carriage, Ruan Jinggui estimated that it was only about two feet long.However, this short carriage is obviously different from the civilian version of the truck he was riding on. The carriage and the roof are obviously a whole structure, and the windows of the carriage are all made of glass. Keep soot and moisture out.

Then Ruan Jinggui saw several Haihan people enter the rear carriage, and several gray-clothed militiamen with short guns followed them into the carriage.Ruan Jinggui knew without asking, that these militiamen must be the personal soldiers protecting the Haihan people in the carriage.

After these people got on the train, the train finally blew the exit signal whistle. Unprepared, a few immigrants were so frightened that they rolled over on the floor, causing a burst of excitement among the naturalized laborers. Laughter.

After the train leaves the station, the first place it passes by is the shipyard area between Luhuitou Peninsula and Yulin Peninsula.It can be clearly seen from the train that there are several slipways standing on the coast, and each slipway has a sea-going ship with different manufacturing progress under construction.Based on Ruan Jinggui's many years of experience in maritime trade, the smallest ship he has seen has exceeded the level of [-] materials.So many large sea-going ships are being built here day and night, which seems to explain from the side why the Haihan people were able to dominate the sea area between Annan and Daming Qiongzhou Island.

After passing the shipyard, he entered the port area of ​​Yulin Port. Looking into the harbor, the shore is densely packed with various warehouses, commercial warehouses and goods piled up like hills, while the wharf is docked with big ships. Sea boats big and small.Last year, the number of ships entering and leaving Yulin Port every day was only five or six, but now this number has doubled. The number of foreign merchant ships arriving at the port every month has exceeded [-], and it has won the first place in Qiongzhou Island without knowing it. The location of the port.Compared with the prosperous scene here, Ruan Jinggui also has to admit that Hoi An City, which used to be the pride of the Hue court, is just a rural wharf.

After passing through the five-mile-long port area, the train began to slow down and pull into the station.This stop is Victory Fort Station, and it is also the final stop of Ruan Jinggui and other new immigrants' trip.The civil affairs cadres greeted everyone to get off the bus and gathered the whole team on the platform.Ruan Jinggui noticed that there were more naturalized laborers getting on the train here, and they filled the empty carriages to the brim, and some people who couldn't get in behind had to climb onto the wagon.These workers will take the train here to go to the inland Tiandu Industrial Zone, and there is still a full [-] miles left on this line. Taking the train is also the fastest way for them to commute to get off work every day. .

Except for Ruan Jinggui, this group of new immigrants came to Shengli Fort, the political center of Sanya for the first time. After seeing the mighty appearance of Shengli Fort, almost everyone felt the visual impact.Although the height of the city wall of Victory Fort is not as high as that of Hue City, the densely packed fort openings on the city wall and the strange fortress-like towers are enough to shock these people.

"Now you follow me to the Immigration Bureau to go through the registration procedures." The civil affairs officer led the way and brought them to a masonry building next to Fort Victory.

In fact, when they arrived in Shengli Port to stay in the isolation camp, they had already registered their identities once, but now they just checked their identities again and asked them to take back their luggage and other personal items.

The Ruan brothers didn't have too much luggage, and before they entered the isolation camp, Ruan Jinggui made the decision to hand over all the gold and silver to the civil affairs cadres to exchange for circulation certificates.But when they signed and received a stack of banknote circulation notes, they still felt uneasy.Ruan Jingwen couldn't help muttering in a low voice: "It's really worth using these few pieces of paper in exchange for real money?"

Ruan Jinggui comforted: "Don't worry, the areas under the Haihan people's rule use this kind of circulation coupons. You can even buy a house, so there is nothing to worry about. Besides, this paper is easy to carry, and it is not as easy to lose as gold and silver. .”

Having said that, he still carefully wrapped the stack of circulation coupons with a piece of cloth and put them in his arms, leaving only two yuan change outside for emergencies.

"Ruan Jinggui, Ruan Jingwen, have you finished counting your personal belongings? Is there anything missing?" the civil affairs officer asked.

"No, no, the number is correct." Ruan Jinggui responded quickly.

"If you don't miss anything, just sign here." The civil affairs cadre pushed the pen and paper over, and Ruan Jinggui picked it up and wrote the names of his two brothers on the "signee".

"This is your temporary identity card. You need to carry it with you when you go out. If you don't carry it with you and you happen to be caught by the police, you will be locked up in a dark room. Do you understand?" Handed them two signs.

Although Ruan Jinggui didn't quite understand what a small black house was, it certainly wouldn't be a good thing to hear it.Immediately, he quickly took the small sign, it was cold and hard, it turned out to be made of high-quality fine steel, with a row of runes on it, but Ruan Jinggui didn't recognize any of them.

This kind of temporary ID card is designed to imitate a dog tag. The runes on it are actually a row of Arabic numerals. Each number corresponds to a new immigrant who has not yet obtained naturalization. The first three codes represent the place of residence, and the last three The number represents the work unit to which the identity card belongs, and the police who check the ID card can know the residence area and work unit of the immigrant as long as they check the number.When the immigrant obtains naturalization after passing the inspection period, this temporary identity number plate will be recycled and issued to the next batch of new immigrants, and the naturalized person will obtain a more sophisticated permanent identity plate.

The role of this ID card system in maintaining social order is self-evident. Immigrant population without ID cards will be subject to access restrictions in many places, and some units that implement military control but have naturalized employees can also use This identity card is used for authority identification.This kind of identity card is all made of steel, and then the number is punched out by a hydraulic punching machine, so it is difficult for the outside world to imitate.

"Have you all received your ID cards? They are hung around your necks, you can only take them off when you sleep, and put them on immediately when you wake up, remember?" After the civil affairs cadre ordered everyone to carry their luggage, Go to the next office and wait in line.

What is handled here is the allocation of work units and accommodation for new immigrants.These people were assigned to different units, and they were not only stationed in the Sanya area. The furthest one was even assigned to Panyu County in Guangdong—this is a doctor, and it is said that he is very good at treating various fevers , So they were selected in advance by the medical department, and will be sent to work in the Lijiazhuang immigration base in Panyu.

(End of this chapter)