1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 453 The Argument About Hong Kong Island
Even if he lacked military sensitivity, Mariko knew the important role that Hong Kong Island could play in the Haihan mainland strategy.The manors outside Guangzhou, the immigrant base of Lijiazhuang in Panyu, and the Wanshan Port outside the Pearl River Estuary under the jurisdiction of the Guangxi Office all have the problem of being unable to let go of their hands and feet to expand their territory due to objective circumstances. Two years after its establishment, it is still only a unit at the level of an overseas office, far inferior to the impressive Annan branch.

If Haihan wanted to expand his influence in the mainland, he still had to have a territory under his control as a springboard.If Hong Kong Island can be taken down, the Guangdong Office will immediately be upgraded to a truly large branch.It’s not that no one has thought about this matter, but everyone believes that the move to occupy and develop Hong Kong Island may bring a lot of political problems, and the current Haihan does not have much capital to bargain with the behemoth Daming Therefore, instead of trying this uncertain plan first, it is better to get the base of Hainan Island well.This delay has been delayed until recently, when the Executive Committee began to study the establishment of an arms trade relationship with Ming Dynasty, no one thought of trying to use Hong Kong Island as one of the trading conditions.

If it hadn't been for Yu Yao's insistence on asking Maliko and He Xi to add the condition of opening a port on Hong Kong Island in the contact with the Ming Dynasty officials, it is very likely that this matter will be delayed until next year without anyone mentioning it.But since He Xi's tentative action has made very smooth progress, the Guangzhou Office will naturally not let go of such a great opportunity to make meritorious service.

The executive committee received a telegram from Guangzhou on the second day of the meeting between He Xi and Liu Qian. This telegram forced Tao Donglai to organize an impromptu discussion meeting in a short period of time.

"We originally only planned to talk about arms trade and military cooperation with Daming, but we didn't expect that the Guangzhou Office would be able to hunt down rabbits, and incidentally, we would also take care of the port opening of Hong Kong Island. And look at what they said in the telegram It means that the matter of Hong Kong Island can be handled separately from the matter of arms trade, and there is no need to add this matter to the exchange conditions for arms exports." Tao Donglai looked around the audience and said: "Everyone, tell me, yes What are your thoughts and suggestions on this matter?"

"As the saying goes, blessings are unparalleled, and we have had a lot of good things during this period of time! First, Annan came to the door and begged us to start work quickly, and now Guangdong has easily won the right to open Hong Kong Island. Unexpectedly, we The high-speed development period is coming so fast!" Sun Changmi, who attended the meeting on behalf of the Ministry of Shipping, was the first to express his opinion.Originally, it was Yue Zhiyun, the executive committee member, who attended the meeting of the executive committee, but he was still on his way back to Sanya from Changhua, so Sun Changmi could only temporarily take over this errand.

"Don't think about it too easily." Gu Kai shook his head and said: "The level that He Xi directly comes into contact with now is only the master of the government office. Can his attitude fully represent the government, and will he have other things in the future? It’s too late to draw conclusions.”

"Gu Kai is right. We can be optimistic about this matter, but we must proceed with caution." Ning Qi took over the conversation and said, "The investigation by the Guangzhou Office may not be particularly sufficient. According to historical records, the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter That place is not a no-man's land in this period."

"Oh? Then tell everyone." Tao Donglai thought of something very keenly, but he still decided to listen to Ning Qi's statement on this matter first.

"Hong Kong Island is under the jurisdiction of Xin'an County, Guangzhou Prefecture. It is true that most of the inhabited areas on the island are concentrated on the north shore, including the garrison of the Daming Navy. This is consistent with historical records." Ning Qi paused and continued: "However, in the Aberdeen area on the south side of the island, many sea ships sailed to various parts of Southeast Asia through it at this time in the late Ming Dynasty. If the historical records are correct, this place should also be a place similar to A cargo transshipment point in the nature of Wanshan Port, the population and port size may be limited, but it will certainly not be a no-man’s land.”

"So this matter..." Gu Kai only spoke halfway, and he didn't continue, because he noticed that Yan Chujie, who was sitting across from him, was staring at him coldly.Although Gu Kai was not afraid of the other party, he did immediately realize that some words were not suitable for speaking in such a public place, so he stopped talking immediately.

It is said that the master of the Guangzhou government office is a foreigner, and he has not been in Guangzhou for too long, and he has never been to Hong Kong Island. It is not surprising that he does not know the specific situation of Hong Kong Island.However, the military team of the Guangzhou Office has been to Hong Kong Island for field inspections, and it stands to reason that there should be no such unreasonable omissions.

If there were indeed omissions in their previous research work, and they did not find out the actual situation on the ground at all, then this situation can be attributed to dereliction of duty.But if they know the local situation, but report to their superiors that the place is no man's land, and forcefully promote the plan, then this matter will be a bit complicated.

Of course, this may just be the audacity of the military team stationed in Guangzhou, but no one can rule out whether this is the meaning of the high-level military—in order to expand the territory as soon as possible and occupy key areas, the military did not hesitate to use some slightly cross-line means , which makes sense logically.

But this is just a guess after all, Gu Kai knew that if he revealed this possibility in public, the military would not look good.Although Gu Kai has not dealt with the military very well, he does not want to offend the military too much. After all, although everyone has different political concepts, the goal of struggle is still the same, so there is no need to make things too ugly.

"...What do you military think?" Gu Kai thought for a while, and then gave the ball to Yan Chujie.After all, the person directly responsible for this matter is the military, so Gu Kai decided to check the military's attitude before making any plans.

Yan Chujie said in a deep voice: "The main point of this matter, I think everyone needs to be clearer. What is the reason why we have not developed Hong Kong Island? It was because of lack of ability in the early stage, because we lacked a springboard to reach Hong Kong Island. But Later, we had Wanshan Port, but we still didn’t attack Hong Kong Island. Why? It was because we were worried that this would trigger a diplomatic conflict with Ming Dynasty, which would affect the stability of the mainland market. Then why might it cause What about diplomatic conflicts or political disputes? In the final analysis, we lack a reason to be recognized by the Ming government to develop and operate Hong Kong Island."

Yan Chujie paused for a moment, seeing no one refute himself, then continued: "Then the point is, what is the biggest problem in our development of Hong Kong Island at this stage? Is it the construction technology? No! Is there anyone on the island?" Do you live? No! The biggest problem is whether we have a development license that complies with the rules of the Ming Dynasty game, and whether we can get the local government of Daming to recognize our actions! As long as we can solve this problem, will there be people in that area, and how many people will there be? , do you think it is still important? We are building roads and ports in Changhua for development, and there are thousands of officials and civilians from Daming in Changhua County. Has it caused any hindrance to us?"

"However, the situation in Changhua is somewhat different from Hong Kong Island. After all, Changhua is a place with a large area and few people..." Gu Kai felt that Yan Chujie had misdirected the topic when he heard this, so he tried to refute a few words.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Yan Chujie: "Changhua is a vast land with few people. Are there many people in Hong Kong Island? The Hong Kong of today is not the Hong Kong of 400 years later. There are 700 million people living in that small place." Even counting the entire Xin'an County, there are not 7 people. Now the population of Hong Kong Island is not as large as that of Heitu Port, and most of them live in the north. Even if there is one in the south, the population is very limited. And the local area is far from Xin'an The county is separated by mountains and seas, and the local government can't control it at all, and the official pressure it will face is much smaller than that in Changhua."

Gu Kai was still about to argue, but Tao Donglai stepped up to smooth things over at the right time: "You don't have to argue about this issue anymore, I think everyone's opinions have some truth. From a general perspective, Hong Kong Island is It is a goal we are sure to achieve, but it is only a matter of time. In terms of details, we must conduct more detailed research on the situation in the Aberdeen area. I suggest that some personnel should be selected from the Victory Port to form an investigation The team will go directly to the local area to investigate the specific environmental conditions, and then submit a report to the executive committee.”

"What about the Guangzhou Office?" Yan Chujie asked.

Tao Donglai responded: "The Guangxi Office can continue. Since there is this opportunity, why not try it? You just said that it is the last word to win that place reasonably and legally. Other issues can be resolved." Let’s solve it slowly. Didn’t we eat the place where there are tens of thousands of people in Yazhou, and now even half of Hainan Island has been gnawed off, Hong Kong Island is only so big, can’t we still gnaw it off with our teeth bone?"

"Old Tao is still right!" Yan Chujie gave a thumbs up without hesitation to express his appreciation, but he glanced at Gu Kai from the corner of his eyes, which was a bit of a demonstration.

In the end, Tao Donglai's proposal, which was slightly biased towards the military, was approved by the vote. The executive committee will authorize relevant units to organize a small investigation team to go to Hong Kong Island within two days to investigate the local natural environment and people's conditions. , and then provide a comprehensive evaluation report to the Executive Committee for reference.

As for how to arrange the project construction plan if this project is really approved by the Ming Dynasty, there was no relevant discussion at this meeting, because the Ministry of Construction is already overloaded, and there is no way Then go to open an overseas construction site.

After the meeting, Tao Donglai came to Yan Chujie's office.It was inconvenient to say some things at the meeting just now, but now we still have to communicate in private.

"Did you report this matter to the Military Commission about the matter that the military team of the Guangzhou Office did?" After Tao Donglai sat down, he cut to the point in a concise manner.He also noticed the problems that Gu Kai noticed during the meeting just now.However, he himself is also a member of the Military Commission, so naturally he will not dismantle his own platform outside, so most of the meeting just now defended the Military Commission.

"Wait a minute." Yan Chujie got up and dug out a file from the filing cabinet against the wall, and handed it to Tao Donglai: "This is the various reports submitted by the military team stationed in Guangzhou Office in the past six months. You You can take a look."

Although Tao Donglai holds the position of second in command in the Military Commission, because he holds several positions at the same time, he usually doesn't have much time to inquire about the internal affairs of the army one by one.Written reports submitted regularly by military agencies stationed abroad are basically processed by Yan Chujie and the staff of the Military Commission. Tao Donglai will be specifically notified only for more important matters, so he did not have this document before. Looked through.

Tao Donglai turned to the first page, which was the work report in January this year, and he quickly found the content he cared about.

"On January [-]th, Xiao Liang escorted the supplies to Wanshan Port. On the next day, he and Chen Yixin took a cargo ship of Daming Marine to Hong Kong Island for investigation. The focus of the investigation was the southwest corner of Hong Kong Island and the coastal areas of the Aberdeen Channel. The companions There is also Mr. Huang, a local maritime merchant who often passes by. According to Mr. Huang, the Aberdeen area is a transit stop for Dongguan and Guanxiang in the Mainland to sell to Nanyang, and about [-] ships stop there every month for transshipment.”

"When I arrived at the port of Aberdeen that day, the local wharf was small in scale and could only accommodate no more than five seagoing vessels of 500 materials entering the port at the same time. However, the hydrological conditions were superior, and the measured water depth could dock large vessels with a displacement of more than [-] tons. The local area There are about [-] to [-] permanent residents, about half of whom are fishermen. According to actual knowledge, there are no official institutions of the Ming Dynasty in the area, and there are no armed personnel stationed there. This place conducts an inspection, during which a certain amount of management fees will be charged to the owner of the ship that has been docked here for a long time.”

"Xiao Liang and Chen Yixin conducted a two-day investigation in the local area. They believed that the development level of this area is still relatively primitive, and it has not been directly brought under the government's control. It can be considered to occupy the local area in the form of building a port. "

Tao Donglai then looked through the work report for next month, and there was another paragraph in which Hong Kong Island was mentioned, but this time it was not an on-site inspection, but the naval forces stationed at Wanshan Port had been in the waters near Hong Kong Island during their sea training. Stayed for many days, and made a certain description of the local sea conditions.

Tao Donglai continued to read the following content, and found that Hong Kong Island had been mentioned in almost every monthly work report for the past six months, and the three senior military officers stationed in Guangdong, Xiao Liang, Yu Yao, and Chen Yixin, had mentioned it more than once. The experience of setting foot on Hong Kong Island seems to have put a lot of effort into this area.

(End of this chapter)