1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 445 Exchange Conditions
Zheng Lin was not angry when he encountered such a soft nail in front of Schneider. His real mission of visiting Sanya this time was not to ask the teacher to incriminate him, but in essence to beg Haihan to start construction earlier and start the port. construction project.Now the commercial and trade system in the entire south of Annan has come to a standstill due to the destruction of several major seaports. The imperial court now urgently needs to restore the situation in the south to the pre-war level in order to be able to benefit from foreign trade. In order to achieve this goal, The Haihan people had to be involved as soon as possible.

Zheng Lin has dealt with Haihan people much longer than ordinary Annan officials, and his long stay in Heitu Port has also given him a deeper understanding of Haihan's strength. There is a gap between Haihan. If Haihan does not lead the development of the four southern ports, Annan alone may need to spend several times the time to build a new commercial port.The subject of this negotiation is not the ownership of the four southern ports, but when the development plan promised by Haihan before the war can be implemented.

"Boss Shi is right. I made a slip of the tongue just now." Zheng Lin didn't argue with the other party on this issue, and quickly brought the topic back to the real thing: "Now that the situation in the south has been settled, your side is concerned about the construction of the commercial port. Is there a final decision? If there is something that needs our country's cooperation, you might as well bring it up and discuss it together."

Tom Wang and Schneider looked at each other with a hint of surprise in their hearts.From the perspective of the executive committee, the Annan court should be mostly dissatisfied with the existence of the concession. At the end of last year, in order to invite the Haihan militia to send troops to help, the Annan court had to reluctantly agree to the Haihan Executive Committee's Lion Da Open your mouth, in addition to the astronomical military compensation, you have to take out four of the best natural ports on the southern coastline and hand them over to Haihan as a long-term concession. It's almost like a free gift.

Although the Annan court finally agreed to all the requests made by Haihanfang, if it was said that they agreed out of willingness, I am afraid that no fool would believe it.Moreover, after the Battle of Hue, the Haihan militia sheltered a group of survivors of the Nguyen family and officials of the former South Vietnamese small court to leave Hue. This measure also dissatisfied the Annan court who was trying to eradicate the grass.After the Hue Battle in March, the relationship between the two sides has actually entered a relatively cold period. During this period, the two sides only maintained normal business and trade exchanges, while political and military exchanges were at a standstill. It can be felt that the Annan court should express dissatisfaction to itself in this way.

During the delicate period of the relationship between the two parties, and just as the Shilu development project required a large amount of engineering construction resources, the executive committee naturally chose to suspend the plan for the southern port and put the main energy into the project from Changhua to Shilu. Under construction of basic engineering.The executive committee even imagined that after a year or so, when Haihan restarted the four southern ports project, whether the Annan court would deliberately make him not cooperate, and even deny Haihan's concession rights in these places.

If an unplanned situation like this occurs at that time, the two sides may still have to negotiate. Most of the executive committees regard the handling of bilateral relations as one of the necessary external conditions for the smooth progress of the four southern ports project.But even people with big brains did not expect that the Annan court would change its attitude so quickly, and actually sent someone to the door to actively urge this matter.

Wang Tom replied: "Special Envoy Zheng, the development of the Southern Commercial Port involves many aspects, and the preparation work that needs to be done is also very complicated. We will not start the development and construction until everything is ready. plan."

Zheng Lindao: "You two, to be honest, the intention of the imperial court is to hope that you can start construction earlier. If you need the help of our country, you can raise it, and I will report it as appropriate and cooperate as much as possible."

Schneider is such a shrewd person, seeing Zheng Lin's posture so low, he already guessed the truth of the matter, smiled and asked tentatively: "The economic situation of your country in recent months is not very ideal, right?"

Without waiting for Zheng Lin to answer, Schneider took the initiative to say: "More than [-]% of the Ming merchants who were engaged in maritime trade business in South Vietnam had already evacuated from the area. It is a decent seaport, and there is no large-scale sea trade business to do. The land that North Vietnam has worked so hard to regain for so long has not received the expected benefits. I am afraid that the officials in the court will feel very dissatisfied. Satisfied?"

Zheng Lin arched his hands and said: "Mr. Shi is really powerful. Although he didn't win all the hits, he is not far away! At the beginning, the princes of the court supported the king of Qingdu, even if the whole country was in debt, they wanted to attack the small court of South Vietnam. Including the income from sea trade, as long as the previous scale of sea trade is maintained, the military expenditure gap of the Southern Expedition can be filled in only one or two years. It is worth taking this risk. However, after the war, the southern commercial ports were completely destroyed and the sea trade declined. , It was far from what was expected at the beginning, and the princes of the court put all the responsibility for this matter on the head of the king of Qingdu who was fighting the battle."

"There is no money in the national treasury, and of course the king of Qingdu can't build a new port, so this matter can only be pushed on us." Schneider did not wait for Zheng Lin to finish, and then took the conversation: "So the general situation of the matter That's it?"

Although Schneider's words are aggressive, Zheng Lin is indeed a person who has lived in Heitu Port for a year. He has long learned how to go around in circles with Haihan people, so he avoided answering this: "If you lead the port construction, the funds Both technology and technology can be guaranteed, and our country can provide a certain number of laborers to assist your construction."

Schneider pressed, "What is the certain amount?"

"No less than 3000 people, it can be determined according to the needs of the project." Zheng Lin immediately responded.

Schneider nodded and said, "How about the wages, board and lodging of these workers?"

Zheng Lindao: "We are only responsible for sending people out, and the labor costs will naturally be borne by you. After the project is completed, these workers can join Haihan as they wish."

"It sounds like the conditions are good!" Tom Wang touched his chin and sighed.

When most people thought that the development of the four southern ports had to be postponed until next year, the new conditions offered by the Annan people gave Haihan a new opportunity, and judging from Zheng Lin's description, this time The conditions offered are considered to be sincere, and they are indeed worthy of serious consideration.

Of course, Schneider was not naive enough to think that the other party would only give and not ask for anything in return, so he took the initiative to ask: "Then what is the exchange you want?"

"We need more shipyards and sea-going ships." Zheng Lin did not hide his intentions, and directly stated his own conditions: "Your side will build no less than three shipyards for our country within the next year. The four hundred sea-going ships delivered to us must not be less than twenty."

Twenty sea-going ships of [-] materials is not a big deal. If it is really needed, the Ministry of Shipping can now pull out a cargo fleet of this size-of course, there will be no new ships among them.If Annan can afford the price and can pay in cash, it would not be a big deal to sell [-] sea-going ships one after another next year. Anyway, the "exploration-class" civilian merchant ships at the Shengli Port Shipyard have already begun to launch. Both are much better than the Fuchuan Guangzhou Ship used in the past.The Ministry of Shipping's ship replacement this year and next is a sure thing. The old ships that have been eliminated just need to find a less picky buyer to deal with, and Annan is undoubtedly an excellent candidate.

However, the condition for the construction of three new shipyards requested by Zheng Lin is not something that Schneider and Tom Wang can directly make a decision on, but must be discussed at a meeting.At present, Annan and Haihan have a cooperative shipyard located in Heitu Port, but its shipbuilding capacity is still relatively limited. At present, it can only build sea-going ships with a size of [-] materials. For larger ships, it can at most do maintenance work. Currently not capable of construction.Moreover, the ships built by this shipyard not only have to be supplied to the Annan court, but also meet the needs of the Black Earth Port and the other two concession ports. Therefore, it is normal for the Annan court to be dissatisfied with its supply capacity, and will ask to build more ships. The shipyard is also a reasonable thing.

In the past two years, Haihan helped Shenglong Mansion fight a few battles. Annan's military should also be more aware of its own shortcomings. In addition to ordnance and weapons, mobility is also a huge shortcoming.If it weren't for the Haihan fleet to undertake the cargo mission from the Red River Delta to the front line of the war, the North Vietnamese army, which was at a passive disadvantage at that time, would probably be dragged down by its backward logistics supply system without fighting.The Haihan militia used warships to go deep into the enemy's rear for several successful battles, which made the North Vietnamese military realize the importance of surface combat power.

The gap in maritime transport capacity for civilian use is even greater. After the Haihan militia conquered Hoi An and Hue, they took away all captured ships, regardless of size, when they evacuated. This caused the southern coastal areas to fall into almost no ships. situation.If you count on the Black Earth Port Shipyard, you don't know how long it will take to restore the prosperity of the southern sea trade.

"The matter of the ship can be negotiated, but the construction of a new shipyard may not be easy..." Schneider shook his head and began to speak in an official tone: "Special envoy Zheng, this shipyard can't be built just because it is built. I, Haihan, have been here for three years, and there is only one shipyard on Qiongzhou Island, and your country will build three new shipyards as soon as you open your mouth, which is a bit embarrassing."

Zheng Lin came to Sanya for the first time, and he had never visited the Shengli Port Shipyard. Hearing this, he was taken aback and said, "So many cargo ships and warships on your side are all built by one shipyard? Dare I ask?" How many berths does your shipyard have? How many large ships can be built every year?"

Schneider couldn't help secretly regretting that he slipped and said the wrong thing, which shouldn't be used as a reason to shirk.The Shengli Port Shipyard now has two large berths of more than 500 tons, and more than a dozen of 300-ton, [-]-ton and smaller berths. A shipyard of this size is not to mention Qiongzhou Island. East Asia during this period, I am afraid it can be regarded as one of the best large shipyards.Of course, the resources consumed by a shipyard of this scale are quite astonishing. There are more than ten supporting units for the wood workshop for processing raw materials, the drying room for drying wood, and the workshop for manufacturing metal parts. There are thousands of employees.

There are hundreds of professional shipbuilders in the shipyard, and most of them are professional shipwrights who have been hired from all over the coast with high salaries through various means in the past year.And the various tools used here, ranging from various chisel hammers and saws made of fine steel to large hoisting frames required for installing keels and masts, are almost all unique to Haihan, and the outside world cannot imitate them at all. come out.As for the blueprints of the various ships built by Haihan, they are even more top-secret information, and those who can get access to these blueprints are naturalized people with high loyalty.

It is impossible for Schneider to explain these technical advantages to Zheng Lin. For example, the number of slipways and the specific number of ships built each year are also items that must be kept secret. Schneider can only answer vaguely: "There is nothing wrong with this matter." Please forgive me, Special Envoy Zheng!"

Zheng Lin shook his head and said: "Even if Mr. Shi doesn't say anything, I can guess a little bit. Presumably the scale of the shipyard in Sanya is far from being comparable to that of Heitugang Shipyard. A shipyard, you probably think it’s unfair, right?”

Seeing that Schneider was a little embarrassed, Wang Tom interrupted with a dry cough: "Then I don't know what kind of scale the shipyard proposed by your country should be?"

"It's very simple. Each shipyard only needs to have the ability to build seagoing ships with [-] materials alone." Zheng Lin added: "Even if there is only one slipway."

Tom Wang thought to himself that you are a layman. There is no big difference between one slipway or two slipways. As long as you master the corresponding shipbuilding technology, it is only a matter of how much money you need to expand to ten slipways.

At that moment, Wang Tom replied calmly: "We can't immediately answer whether you are okay or not. According to our procedures, the final decision must be made after collective discussion by the Executive Committee. If Special Envoy Zheng does not If you are in a hurry to return to your mission, you might as well stay in Sanya for a few more days."

Zheng Lin cupped his hands and replied: "I am also planning to bother you for a few days, so it is better to be respectful than obedient. I wonder if I can walk around during my stay here?"

"Don't worry, the special envoy, we will arrange a special visit itinerary for you, and we will also have special reception staff to accompany you throughout the journey, while ensuring your personal safety." Tom Wang responded immediately.

If Zheng Lin understands these words, he should understand what Wang Tom is implying - we will arrange for you to go where you should go, and don't worry about the places you shouldn't go, we will always arrange People monitor you, so you better not play any tricks, and remember that your life is always under our control.

(End of this chapter)