1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 408 Deep Cooperation
In fact, it is not just a bystander like Li Nai who has this question. There have always been different voices within the Time Travel Group on how to deal with the relationship with the Annan court.At the beginning of time travel, there was an internal debate about whether Annan should be developed into a slave country or directly annexed, and this debate has not been completely subsided until now.

Some people think that Annan should be annexed as quickly as possible by using all kinds of black technology golden fingers in his hands, because compared with the powerful Ming Dynasty with a vast territory, Annan is obviously the closest "soft persimmon" to the crossing group's foothold Well, this country doesn't even have an independent language, and the people's sense of belonging to the national identity is relatively weak. The difficulty of ruling is definitely much easier than annexing the areas under the Ming Dynasty.After swallowing this country, you can quickly gain population, land, various production resources, and strategic depth, allowing the crossing regime to gain a wave of explosive strength growth.

However, the attitude of the executive committee is still biased towards a prudent approach, believing that with the current strength, it is a bit unrealistic to achieve the annexation and rule of Kofi Annan in the short term.The distance between the north and south ends of Annan Kingdom is more than 1000 kilometers. Whether it is civil administration or military defense, it is impossible for Haihan to achieve complete rule over such a large area given the current situation.Moreover, the country of Annan is a typical country that prefers softness to toughness. It has fought against the two powerful empires of Yuan and Ming with real swords and guns. If Haihan wants to annex it by force, it will inevitably arouse strong resistance.

Although the Executive Committee believes that the combat power of the militia will not lose to the monkey soldiers on the Indochina Peninsula, but after all, there are only a few thousand people under their command, and it is inevitable that they will not be able to take care of both ends when they are concentrated in one place. At that time, it is very likely to repeat the tragedy of a certain lighthouse country in another time and space falling into the quagmire of security wars in the Middle East.No matter how people who don't know the truth clamor about the law, the executive committee still has a relatively clear understanding of its own strength. Every time it takes a large-scale military operation against Annan, it takes several months or even half a year to prepare before the battle and complete the set goals. After that, they immediately withdrew, and this was only a local war. If they really wanted to fight a protracted war to destroy the country, the Haihan militia did not have such a strong strength for the time being.

Taking Hue as an example, although it took only one month for the militia to destroy this large city known as the most powerful city in Annan and destroy the foundation of the Nguyen Dynasty in South Vietnam, it basically used up the first few days. Combat supplies that have been prepared for months.The militia army has made a lot of money in the city of Hue, but if they want to continue fighting this war, it still takes time to convert the captured real money into food, weapons and ammunition.

Victory on the battlefield does not mean complete conquest. Siege and rule are two completely different things. With the scale of Hue City, if you want to rule according to the model of Victory Port, then in addition to stationing at least 2000 people here The left and right militia troops are used to maintain daily law and order and external defense, and a team of at least two to 300 naturalized civilian cadres must be mobilized to manage tens of thousands of people in Hue and the surrounding areas.Obviously, the human resources department does not have so many personnel reserves available, and using unidentified leading parties or surrenders on a large scale in the local area is also not safe enough in the opinion of the executive committee.

Although he holds Zenith Star technology that surpasses the times, whether in terms of material supply capabilities or management personnel reserves, the current strength of Haihan is far from enough to annex a country like Annan, and even within the foreseeable period, directly The possibility of annexing Annan is not great - one day Haihan has the strength to establish a real ruling area outside Hainan Island, and the first choice must still be the mainland of the same root and the same species, not Annan.

Regarding Annan, the attitude of the Executive Committee is still to stick to the current approach, infiltrate him through various channels from political, economic, military, cultural and other aspects, and gradually establish influence, so that the ruling class maintains enough awe of Haihan and dependence, and gradually shaped the tall image of Haihan as a "kingdom of heaven" in the minds of its people.Of course, there are quite a lot of measures to be used in the middle, and the complexity is even far more than preparing for a war, and the implementation is a long-term task that will take years and months, and there is no way to accomplish it overnight.

Schneider didn't talk about the strategy of the executive committee in detail, but casually mentioned a few key points. Li Nai and Ruan Jinggui are both shrewd people.Although Ruan Jinggui's expression didn't change much, his heart was already churning—although Haihan didn't intend to annex Annan, what they wanted was far more than Annan!

"Since the executive committee doesn't have any more thoughts on Annan, the more this weapon is sold, the more Annan will rely on Haihan!" Li Nai quickly figured out why Haihan was still increasing his support for him. The strength of Annan's arms exports.

Schneider nodded and said: "An Nanguo imitated my Haihan's military system to establish a new army, equipped with my Haihan's weapons, and all officers of the new army must receive training at the military academy run by me. At the same time, they are also accepting the various awareness we instilled in them. Annan does not have the ability to produce weapons by himself. As long as we cut off the supply of weapons, the combat effectiveness of Annan's new army will be greatly reduced. They want to spend huge sums of money If we purchase our arms, we will rely more on us in terms of economy and trade, and we can also use this as an exchange to make more demands on them, such as opening up treaty ports, granting extraterritorial rights to Haihan people, etc. In short, as long as we open a hole, we have many ways to make Annan slowly become an obedient assistant."

After all, Ruan Jinggui was born in Annan. After listening to Schneider’s statement, he was still a little dissatisfied, so he couldn’t help but retort: ​​“Annan Kingdom fought against Yuan and Ming in its heyday. Although its strength was at a disadvantage, it finally won Opponents. It’s true that Haihan’s weapons are powerful, but the Annan army that was not equipped with these weapons back then won a lot of victories? If the executive committee thinks that this can control Annan’s army, it’s a little too big, right?”

Schneider smiled and said, "There are still quite a few people in Annan who hold the idea of ​​yours, but it doesn't matter. Time will prove who is right and who is wrong. There is another thing that you probably overlooked. For a country with a long coastline and major cities located near the sea, if you don’t have a strong navy, then you should never even think about establishing yourself!”

Schneider's reminder made Ruan Jinggui suddenly enlightened, and he immediately figured out the real plan of the Haihan people.The strongholds established by the Haihan people in Annan, including the four southern ports that have not yet begun to be implemented, are all on the coastline, and the weakest strength of Annan's military is the surface forces.The navy in the South Vietnam area was almost completely wiped out by the Haihan warships, and the prisoners of the navy, especially the commanders among them, were all transported to Sanya as debt repayments.The North Vietnamese area is a little bit better, at least there are still some troop carriers and cargo ships available, but compared to the professional heavy artillery warships of the Haihan people, the so-called naval warships of North Vietnam are actually not different from ordinary civilian ships. In front of the artillery of the Han people, there are piles of rotten wood floating on the water.

Among the military assistance and cooperation projects with Annan, most of them are aimed at the army, and there is only one project related to its navy, which is the sale of "expedition-class" warships. If you don't spend such a large sum of money to buy a warship from the Haihan people, even if you bite your teeth and buy it, you still can't afford such an expensive surface force-only the warship needs to be repaired and maintained at the Shengli Port Shipyard every year The time and cost are enough to make the senior officials of Shenglong Mansion give up the idea of ​​purchasing.

In the foreseeable period of time, Annan probably has no hope of establishing a truly powerful navy of his own, and under the deliberate operation of the Haihan Executive Committee, Annan's future military development is likely to have a This is a strange lame phenomenon, that is, there is only an army, no navy, and the entire Annan coastline must be handed over to Haihan, an ally, for protection and defense.In this way, even if Annan's army can be strong against the sky in the future, it will not be able to pose a substantial threat to the flexible Haihan Navy. On the contrary, the large number of Annan coastal towns will always be under the attack of the Haihan Navy. within range.

Due to the huge gap between the two sides in many aspects such as shipbuilding, weapon manufacturing, and maritime warfare, coupled with the targeted arrangements of the Shanghai-Han Executive Committee, Annan has almost no possibility of turning around in this field. In the future, it is necessary to ensure the safety of the sea area The only option is to enter Haihan's camp.And this camp is not limited to the scope of military cooperation, it must be in step with Haihan in all aspects such as politics, economy, and culture, and then establish a community of interests with strong relationships led by Haihan—— This level has probably completely exceeded Li Nai and Ruan Jinggui's cognition of the alliance relationship. After all, their vision is limited by this era, and they have no specific concept of what integration is.

Not being able to fully understand it will not hinder the two people's admiration for the executive committee's foresight. Ruan Jinggui couldn't help sighing: "I have heard that if the husband has not fought and the temple is considered the winner, it must be counted as more; Those who are invincible must be counted as few. Now I finally understand why Haihan can control the territory of Annan thousands of miles with a small number of elite soldiers. The calculation skills of the executive committee are truly unmatched!"

Li Nai also praised: "Based on the strategy of the executive committee, even if those people in the Annan court want to crack their heads, I'm afraid it will be difficult to solve it! Smart, indeed smart!"

After discussing this topic, Schneider took the briefcase, opened it, took out a stack of paperwork, and handed it to Li Nai, "These are the training agreements for the personnel arriving in Hong Kong this month, you can sign after checking if there is no problem. "

Li Nai casually flipped through two pages, raised his head and asked, "Are they all from my Li Family Village?"

"That's no nonsense, can someone from another family let you sign it?" Schneider scolded with a smile.

"Then I don't have to read them one by one slowly." Li Nai took out a signature pen from his pocket, leaned over and began to sign his name on the signature of each page of this stack of documents.This signature pen was a small gift given to him by Tao Donglai after he signed the cooperation agreement with the Executive Committee. In order to use this delicate signature pen in the correct posture, Li Nai also asked Ning Qi for advice on how to hold it. Pen technique.Of course, he was also told that the number of words that this pen could write was limited, so apart from signing some documents, Li Nai basically would not use this rare thing in his daily life.

After nearly two years of cooperation, Haihan and the Li family's cooperation projects have long gone beyond trade and military at the initial stage.In addition to setting up permanent institutions on each other's territory, the two parties have also carried out deeper cooperation. For example, since last year, the Li family has sent people to Sanya on a regular basis to learn certain training courses offered by Haihan. course.

These training courses are not cultural literacy classes for school-age children, nor are they military content for training armed personnel. The bank notes issued by Haihan Bank are often used in many places, but the accountant often does not know how to distinguish and use Haihan bank notes. In order to solve this problem, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce jointly held a class, not only for The "Furuifeng" family recruits students, and other merchants who are willing to participate can send their own people to sign up.

Similar courses include medical, agronomy, logistics, sales and other majors, all of which are voluntary. Although the training fee is expensive, the enrollment situation is very good.In the first training class in the first half of last year, there were only a few foreign students enrolled in each major. Now it is only the students of the Li family who signed up for the next training class, as many as 200 people. It is estimated that there will be more than [-] trainees in the end, and even the Portuguese have applied for two places in the financial and accounting class, because the two parties have agreed to set up a branch of Haihan Bank in Macau in the near future.

At first, the outside world did not pay much attention to these training courses. The bosses focused on the production skills that had been trained for several years, but soon they discovered the benefits and necessity of these short-term courses—wanted to learn from the sea In order for the Han people to expand their business scale, they must have someone who understands the rules of the game formulated by the Haihan people.

For example, organizing immigrants for the Haihan people used to get rebates based on their head. However, with the expansion of the immigration scale, the requirements for the physical condition of the immigrants have gradually become stricter. There are physical disabilities that affect the ability to work, and various infectious diseases. , People who are seriously ill will be rejected by Haihan's side.In order to be able to adapt to the new rules, several large-scale operators simply hired doctors themselves and sent them to Sanya for short-term training. In the future, they will first eliminate inappropriate personnel when organizing immigration.

There are also some merchants who export agricultural products to Haihan, and now they are gradually accepting the new rules formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture of Haihan. All agricultural products must be priced in different levels, and live poultry and livestock must also undergo quarantine.The big bosses naturally disdain these things and don't have the time to learn them. It's easier to spend some money and send them to Sanya for training.

As for the training courses in logistics, sales, finance, etc., there is no need to elaborate. If foreign merchants want to seamlessly connect with the Haihan trade model, these projects must follow the rules formulated by the Haihan people.There is no mandatory registration for these courses, but all cooperative merchants understand that if they do not participate, sooner or later they will be excluded from the trading circle with Haihan as the leading force, and this is absolutely every The boss who has tasted the sweetness in Han's trade doesn't want to see it.

As the veteran partner with Haihan for the longest time, the deepest degree of cooperation, and the largest scope of cooperation, the personnel selected by the Li family to participate in the training courses in Sanya this time have almost filled up all the majors recruited by foreign students, even the "geological exploration" field. The Li family didn’t care about signing up for a new course for unknown reasons—a major that seems useless now may be of great use in the future.

Although sending this group of students to Sanya for further study costs a lot, and the tuition fees alone cost two to three thousand taels of silver, the Li family didn't feel distressed at all. It's just a drizzle.In the face of the business miracle and strong armed protection created by the Haihan people, the whole Li family has been thoroughly brainwashed, and they are determined to follow the executive committee.To put it more seriously, if Schneider said that Haihan was going to start selling cow dung, Li Nai would probably not hesitate to pay for a few boats first.

While Li Nai was signing the agreement one by one, Schneider chose to give Ruan Jinggui a brief explanation of the professional training.Ruan Jinggui couldn't help but asked after listening, "Then An Nanguo has students coming here for training?"

"Of course." Schneider didn't hide anything about this: "We established the Haihan Bank's office in Tushan Port, not far from Thang Long Mansion, last year, and we have already started to operate in the ruled area of ​​Thang Long Mansion. Promote bank note transactions to facilitate trade settlement between the two parties. For this reason, we have been training professionals in finance, logistics, commerce and other fields for Thang Long Mansion, and there should be 30 students here now."

The Thang Long Mansion in the north is ahead of the Hue Mansion in everything. It is no wonder that the northern court has the last laugh in the North-South dispute. After confirming this fact, Ruan Jinggui has a deeper understanding of the failure of the Hue Mansion. .When the city was broken, Ruan Jinggui still had the same idea as most people in the city, thinking that the failure of Hue Prefecture was only because the armed forces were not as good as the Haihan militia. It is indeed a bit one-sided.

(End of this chapter)