1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 455 Investigating Hong Kong Island

Although Haihan's current immigration policy is mainly to absorb the people at the bottom of the society, the agents Haihan supported in Daming are basically wealthy businessmen and famous scholars in the upper class of society.Haihan used the social influence of these upper-class people to gradually shape a prosperous, stable, safe and fair Haihan social system in the minds of the people of Ming Dynasty.Such a social system is obviously more attractive than the precarious Ming Dynasty, and the immigrants it can attract are not only disaster victims who can't find a way out, but also a large number of skilled craftsmen. He will also choose to accept Haihan's employment because of the generous treatment.

Haihan's strength has been strengthened by the constant addition of immigrants, which will in turn affect those Ming dignitaries who have wavering attitudes, and will further pull them into Haihan's camp.After visiting Lijiazhuang, Wanshan Port and even Sanya, many wealthy businessmen saw Haihan's true strength, changed their previous wait-and-see attitude, and began to actively participate in the trading system created by Haihan.

This time, the business delegation organized by the Guangdong Office came in the name of investing in the development of Hong Kong Island.In this team, there are more than 30 large and small merchants in Guangdong and Guangxi, which is unprecedented in Haihan's short economic and trade history.

Of course, these merchants also include more than a dozen major shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa". After all, they joined the Haihan camp much earlier, and belong to a group of people who have already tasted the sweetness. Compared with other latecomers, they understand this The huge payoffs that such a large-scale development project can bring.As soon as these people heard that the Guangzhou Office was going to organize a new development project, they enthusiastically signed up to participate, fearing that they would be squeezed out of the qualifications to participate because of quota restrictions and other things.And some other merchants saw that these big households were so active, and they didn't want to know that this matter must be beneficial and harmless, so they rushed to jump on the big ship of Haihan.

For ordinary businessmen, although they can maintain a certain degree of trade with Haihan, most of the time they watch the rich eat meat, and they can only eat soup. After all, most of the most profitable Haihan products are sold A few large households have monopolized the agency rights, and the things that ordinary merchants can buy from Haihan people are almost all high-end products, and the profits are relatively not so impressive.But the problem is that if you want to win the commodity agency right, you have to have a relatively deep cooperation with Haihan, such as investing in projects in Sanya, buying real estate, sending the nephews and nephews of the family to study in the local area, and even forming local The militia armed forces under the unified command of Haihan and so on.

But for a considerable number of businessmen, they either lack sufficient financial resources, or have scruples and dare not blindly follow Haihan's arrangement. Not everyone can try it.The new development project organized by the Guangzhou Office this time has undoubtedly greatly lowered the threshold for entering the Haihan trade system - this place is in Xin'an County, only one day's flight away from Guangzhou, which is much more convenient than the distant Sanya up.

Moreover, compared with "Qiong Lianfa", which needs to pay a high deposit to become a shareholder, the project deposit threshold this time has also been lowered to 1000 taels, which is enough to attract a large number of medium-strength merchants.Therefore, the number of merchants participating in this inspection team has doubled compared with when the "Qiong Lianfa" inspection team went to Sanya more than a year ago. It is not difficult to gather three to four million taels of development funds within a day.When Haihan developed Heitu Port two years ago, the total funds invested in the first phase of the project were only 40 taels. Now that there is such sufficient funding, it can be said that the opening of Hong Kong Island no longer needs to consider the funding gap. problem.

As for the official interests represented behind this local tyrant investigation team, it far exceeds the backing of the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa".Compared with the situation where most of the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" are concentrated in the surrounding area of ​​Guangzhou, the rich members of the inspection team come from a wider distribution of regions, and almost all ten prefectures under the jurisdiction of Guangdong are involved.Although some of the merchants are only represented by office staff stationed in Guangzhou, this will not affect the investment enthusiasm of the merchants in the slightest. All the businesses led by Haihan in the past one or two years have never heard of any loss of money. , as long as you board this ship, it is almost equivalent to making a lot of money.

This inspection team was led by Maliko, the top leader of the Guangzhou Office, which also shows how much the Guangzhou Office attaches importance to this matter.Representatives of [-] or [-] merchants boarded four large ships, and then followed several participants who dispatched sea ships on their own. A fleet of more than ten ships sailed into Aberdeen Harbour.However, due to the very limited size of the wharf here, there is no room for so many ships to dock at the same time. The fleet had to spend a long time coordinating to let the big ship dock, the small boat to go to the big ship, and use a springboard to build a link to the shore. channel.

As an old friend of Haihan and a firm partner, the Li family would naturally not miss such an event, and it was Li Nai, the third young master who liked to join in the fun, on behalf of the Li family to participate in this investigation.

In fact, Li Nai had just returned to Guangzhou from Sanya when he learned about it. Hearing that the Guangzhou Office was planning to organize a business group to develop the island, he immediately took the job.For him, guarding the business of "Golden Shield Protection" in Guangzhou is far less interesting than going out to travel and gain knowledge, not to mention that this activity is still dominated by Haihan people.

As for whether this project really has excellent development prospects as claimed by the Haihan people, Li Nai has no doubts about it.Since Li Nai met this group of people two years ago, he has never seen them make any misjudgments in the general direction of development, especially in terms of project investment. Almost every project has become a cornucopia.For example, the sugar cane industry, port construction, and spice base projects that the Li family has participated in in Qiongzhou Island have gradually achieved better output this year.

Li Nai is no stranger to Hong Kong Island. He has been here since he was a teenager, but when he revisited the old place ten years later, it seems that the place has not changed at all.There are still a few dilapidated trestle-style piers on the shore, the road on the shore is muddy due to the heavy rain in the past two days, and the smell of excrement can still be faintly smelled in the air.The situation here is not much different from most of the small fishing villages near the sea in this era, but Li Nai has become accustomed to the clean and tidy appearance of the port area under Haihan's rule, and he couldn't help frowning before he got off the boat.

"Third young master, don't look at the desolation of this place. After a year or two, this place will become a prosperous port again." Seeing Li Nai's displeasure, Maiko came over to talk to him: "We don't care about this place. The place has already made a comprehensive plan. In the next few years, it will build the largest commercial port and cargo distribution center in the southern coast of Daming. The construction and business model here will apply our successful experience in Sanya, and you will come again next year Here, you will definitely see a completely different scene.”

"Of course I believe what Director Ma said." Li Nai responded with a smile: "My father sent me as a representative to participate in your development plan as soon as possible. As long as it is your opinion, Li Nai Everyone obeys."

"The third young master's words are too outlandish!" Maliko responded enthusiastically: "We have cooperated for such a long time, and we trust each other very much. If there are good things, we must share them together."

After the two landed, they soon met the team representing the Executive Committee who came from Sanya to conduct field inspections.Perhaps in order to quell the opposition's doubts about the Hong Kong Island project, the leader of the expedition team sent by the Executive Committee this time was actually Gu Kai, but he probably did not expect that the Guangzhou Office would act so quickly. Within a few days of writing the written report, a huge business delegation has been organized here to conduct field research.

After Gu Kai came here, he first affirmed one thing - there is no doubt that there are obvious loopholes in the military's description of the situation on Hong Kong Island. The resident population here is obviously not unmanned as the military previously claimed. There are still hundreds of people in this area.

Whether this loophole was intentionally operated by the military or left unintentionally, the way in between should have been one of the missions of the expedition team.But after coming here, Gu Kai quickly gave up this unrealistic idea.Although there are some residents here, after hearing that they will have the opportunity to enter the Haihan social system without leaving their homes, the vast majority of them chose to obey the arrangement—as for the very few who refused to cooperate to make room Naturally, someone will be responsible for solving it with some unconventional means.

When Gu Kai met Maliko and others on the shore, Gu Kai suddenly felt that his trip seemed a bit redundant.The active participation of dozens of merchants has already shown how much preliminary work the Guangzhou Office has done on this matter, and so many people from the upper class are willing to take the initiative to participate in Haihan's trading system, which is definitely welcomed by the Executive Committee things.

This time, the Guangzhou Office wisely chose to attract investment in advance. So many businessmen came to inspect the environment, which already indicates that the future development situation here is very good.Even if Gu Kai was able to pick out some faults from the actual situation here and write them into the report to question whether the timing of the port opening of Hong Kong Island was reasonable, it could not prevent the impact of this large-scale investment promotion on the Executive Committee.At that time, the executive committee will naturally ignore the fact that the military's description does not match the facts, and focus on the actual benefits that can be brought to Haihan after successful investment.

Undoubtedly, the executive committee that takes the lead in Lizi will definitely stand on the side of the military, because this project has avoided the possibility of failure from the very beginning-so many Ming merchants have participated, not to mention the civilians, Even the officials of the Ming Dynasty will find it difficult to voice open opposition.When the situation was so good, Gu Kai didn't want to play a reckless man who didn't understand the style. Not only would it not leave a good impression on the other executive committee members, but it might cause resentment because of this slow-moving behavior.

Therefore, when Gu Kai met with the business delegation from Guangzhou, his role became a propaganda machine for the Haihan policy.When those merchant representatives who participated for the first time learned that this Haihan person was one of the nine principals in the famous Haihan Executive Committee, they immediately gathered around and started asking endless questions.For them, there are many details in the Haihan policy that need to be explained by an authoritative person to help them understand the meaning.As for some content involving money transactions, they hope to get the endorsement and promise of Haihan's top figures.

Due to too many people asking questions, Gu Kai had to suspend his original task and play the role of a business representative instead.Maliko commanded his subordinates to build a large awning in the open space on the shore, and then held a temporary policy conference, with Gu Kai coming to answer the concerns of various business representatives.

Most of the problems are still focused on the local investment projects and the future development direction of this area. Although Gu Kai has not done any relevant preparations before this, but relying on his penetrating tongue, he must temporarily It's not too difficult to bluff the scene.

To be honest, the executive committee has not even made a final decision on whether to develop this area immediately, and there is no development project or specific development plan at all.However, referring to the experience of developing ports in other places in the past, Gu Kai can talk about a lot of content casually.

Gu Kai spent more than two hours answering all kinds of questions raised by people from all walks of life, and did not stop until lunch time.At this time, Gu Kai felt his voice dry and hoarse for a long time, and only then realized that he hadn't said so many words at once for a long time.

Taking advantage of the meal time, Gu Kai and Maliko had another discussion to communicate their specific views on the Hong Kong Island project.Compared with Gu Kai's fake big space when answering the question, Maliko's views on the Hong Kong Island project are much more realistic: "After this place is taken down, on the one hand, it can expand the existing trade volume and allow more Ming merchants to participate. .On the other hand, the military also needs a large-scale military port in the waters near the Pearl River Estuary as a springboard for future attacks on the mainland. We can give certain preferential treatment to merchants who are willing to invest in port infrastructure, such as future Arriving at the port, renting warehouses, and the priority of loading and unloading goods. By analogy, whatever they are willing to invest their money in, they will be given a certain amount of return from the corresponding aspect. These people don’t care how much money they have to spend. What will we use it for, they just care about returns, so just tell them what percentage of economic returns they can get after investing in us.”

(End of this chapter)