1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 457
Gu Kai heard a noise in a daze, he opened his eyes, and through the small window on the side of the ship, he could see that the sky had already brightened.Gu Kai raised his hand to check the time. It was just after 7 o'clock in the morning, which happened to be the time when he usually woke up to wash up and eat breakfast while listening to the "Soviet March" played on the tweeter.

But now he is on a business trip in Hong Kong Island, so he doesn’t need to abide by Sanya’s work and rest rules. Gu Kai closed his eyes and planned to sleep for a while, but the noise outside didn’t seem to stop. On the contrary, it became louder and louder. There was also the sound of arguing.

Although there were militia members on duty on the shore, and it was impossible for idlers to get close to the pier where the "Lightning" was docked, Gu Kai turned over and sat up, intending to go out to see what happened outside.

When Gu Kai came to the deck, he saw a group of Daming civilians on the shore, about six to seventy people, who were stopped outside the pier by the militiamen on duty.Although the number of militiamen was small, the appearance of being armed with live ammunition was still very deterrent. The people did not dare to get too close, but it seemed that they had no intention of retreating.

"What's going on here?" Gu Kai asked the sailor on the pier who was fixing the cables.

The sailor quickly put down his work and responded: "Report to the chief, I heard that these people asked to meet the chief, and the militia members were afraid that the situation would be out of control, so they blocked them out."

There is nothing wrong with the actions of the militia. Their duty here is to protect the safety of the crossing people, so naturally they will not let these people pass by at will.And the time-traveling crowd will not deliberately create an image of being close to the people, but consciously keeping a distance can create a sense of authority.

Gu Kai thought for a while, and told the sailor: "Go and talk to the people in the militia, let those people choose a representative first, and then bring them here to meet me."

The sailor responded and trotted past.After receiving the order, the militia platoon leader asked the people to elect a representative according to Gu Kai's wishes.After a while, the group of people recommended an elder to come out, and the militiamen searched him briefly before bringing him in front of Gu Kai.

"Xiaomin Huang Sanyuan, I have met Master Haihan!" The elder bowed to Gu Kai when he came to Gu Kai.

Gu Kai saw that his hair was gray, and he was estimated to be five or sixty years old, so he quickly reached out to support him: "There is no need to perform such a big ceremony!"

The militia platoon leader next to him introduced: "This is President Gu of our Haihan Executive Committee!"

"Old man, what's the matter with you making trouble at the door so early in the morning?" Gu Kai didn't intend to greet him slowly, and got straight to the point.

"Master Gu, the little old man is a villager in a nearby fishing village. I heard that the masters of Haihan are going to start construction and repair the port locally. Is it true?" Huang Sanyuan asked cautiously.

Due to the large number of people involved in Haihan's plan to develop this area, he didn't expect to keep it a secret.However, the two investigation teams have only been here for a day, and the news has already spread among the local people. It seems that the speed of gossip news in this era is not at all behind that of the time and space before Gu Kai traveled.

Gu Kai didn't deny it, nodded and said: "We do have this plan. If everything goes well, we will probably start work soon."

"Mr. Rong, I would like to ask one more question. Most of the land around here is owned by the local people. May I ask how the masters of Haihan plan to deal with it?" Huang Sanyuan asked worriedly.

The land issue is undoubtedly the most basic social conflict in this era. Between farmers and landlords, and between landlords and the government, it can be said that most of the folk conflicts are rooted in the land.The public ownership of land implemented by Haihan in the areas under its rule is completely different from the land system of Ming Dynasty, and this system is very likely to become one of the most prone to social conflicts when the Haihan system expands outward.

The executive committee has always attached great importance to this hidden danger that may become a hindrance to the expansion of Haihan. For this reason, it has held training classes since the first half of last year to train naturalized cadres from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Help them correct their thinking and improve their theoretical level.However, this kind of matter involves specific parties, and often there will be a lot of trouble. For example, when the Sanya New Port was opened, the rioters dispatched by the militia to secretly suppress the rioters were not one or two. Now the young military officer in charge of Wanshan Port Chen Yixin, at that time, gained his position through his excellent performance in suppressing rioters.

Of course, the situation in Hong Kong Island is definitely different from that in Sanya. When the executive committee annexed the Sanya area, it had already reached a secret agreement with the Yazhou government. Everything is in place, and there will be no official pressure.However, the limited resistance of the people can't make waves in the face of powerful armed forces, and it can't stop the executive committee from promoting the new land system in Sanya.

However, the location of Hong Kong Island is quite a distance from Haihan's actual control area, and Haihan's influence is not enough to directly control this area under the jurisdiction of Xin'an County, Guangzhou Prefecture of Ming Dynasty.Although there may be only a few hundred local residents, if there are disputes or even conflicts over the land during the development process, it will inevitably attract the attention of the government if the matter becomes serious, and this is the last thing the executive committee wants to see.

As the saying goes, people don’t raise officials and don’t investigate. As long as there is no trouble, Haihan University can close its doors and slowly build a social system with Haihan’s characteristics in this place, just like what it did in Heitu Port, Changhua Port and other places before.But the problem is that Haihan’s previous influence did not cover this place. The local residents have at most heard of the Haihan people’s reputation, but they don’t know the rules of their conduct. Residents resisted.In order to properly solve this problem, the Executive Committee has already prepared a corresponding plan in advance.

Gu Kai said in a deep voice: "As for the land under the name of the local people, as long as we can show the real estate title deed, we can buy it at an additional [-]% on the basis of the market price, and we can choose to go to Yazhou to live a better life, and we will be responsible for the transportation. , and arrange life and work. If you don’t want to sell, we won’t force you, but if you live here in the future, you still have to abide by the rules we set up!”

The method Gu Kai mentioned seems reasonable and fair, but when you think about it carefully, it is actually a semi-forced transaction.Adding [-]% ​​to the market price, even if the limited arable land in the southwestern seaside area of ​​Hong Kong Island is bought in one go, it is not a big expense for Haihan, not to mention that there are a large group of wealthy Guangdong lords waiting to pay for it. Money is not an issue at all in this process.Moreover, most of the people living on the island are fishermen, and the cultivated land is really limited. At most, they can only grow some fruit and vegetable crops, and the food is basically purchased from the mainland.

Of course, that being said, the money may not be really paid out at that time.There is another very important content in the conditions that Gu Kai said, that is, the house deed and land deed must be presented.Hong Kong Island is far away from Xin'an County, and the government agencies on the island are all in the north, while the seaside area in the south is completely autonomous. Most people don't go to the government to apply for special property deeds in order to save some tax expenses. And the tax collectors of the Xin'an County Government were unwilling to come to this stinky fishing village just for a little money.The arable land cultivated by the people here is not much. If they were asked to show the legal evidence of land ownership, there might not even be ten households.

If you can't produce a land deed approved and issued by the government, then it is a land without an owner.On the other hand, Haihan has already received the official document issued by the Guangzhou government. As long as he walks around the land and pays a sum of money later, all the land here will be named "Haihan".Therefore, what Gu Kai said about spending money to buy land actually just sounds good. In fact, there are probably not one in ten local people who can get money from this kind of transaction.

However, most of the local people are fishermen and do not completely rely on the land to live. Even if there is no land, they can still rely on the sea to eat the sea.That's why Gu Kai added the following content to the conditions mentioned - people who stay here in the future must abide by Haihan's rules and regulations, if not, then they will bear the consequences.

These seemingly mild conditions actually did not leave much choice for the local people. After hearing this, Huang Sanyuan was stunned for a while before saying: "Master Gu, if the local people can't get the house deed stamped by the government, what should they do?" ?”

Gu Kai replied calmly: "It doesn't matter if you can't get it out, and we won't avoid the folks from a dead end. But the government has allocated this land to us. If you continue to occupy our land here, you will be fine." Is it unreasonable? How about this, anyone who is willing to work for us in Haihan can continue to live here. As for the land, you don’t need to worry about it. Worry about things, we can provide these things, and we will pay commissions to all employees on a regular basis, provided that you obey the arrangement."

"This..." Huang Sanyuan showed obvious embarrassment on his face.In front of a good free man, who wants to suddenly become someone else's slave?Being a fisherman here is poor, but at least he lives freely. Huang Sanyuan thinks that Gu Kai's suggestion is not very attractive.But he didn't dare to refute the other party. Haihan's reputation had already spread last year. Liu Xiang and his group who had controlled the local area for many years were beaten up and returned to Fujian by this group of people. How could ordinary people afford to provoke them?At least the conditions can be negotiated now. If these people are angered, who knows if they will be directly driven out of this area by their soldiers?

"Master Gu, can this matter be allowed to call the villagers to discuss this matter after returning?" Huang Sanyuan didn't dare to reject Gu Kai's proposal face to face, so he could only resort to delaying tactics.

Of course, Gu Kai could easily guess what Huang Sanyuan was thinking, and said with a smile: "Of course it is possible, but there is one thing I forgot to mention just now, and I will add it now. Those who are willing to work as hired workers for us will have full board and lodging. The monthly salary starts from two taels of silver."

"Two taels of silver? Room and board are also included?" Huang Sanyuan's eyes widened.

The living conditions of the fishermen on the island are not comparable to the farmers living on the mainland. The main output here is seafood. However, due to the limited level of freshness preservation and transportation, they do not have the ability to send large quantities of fresh seafood to Guangzhou. The main source of income It is to sell seafood to merchant ships passing here, but this pure buyer's market can't sell at any ideal price at all, so the lives of these fishermen on the island have always been barely able to maintain food and clothing.With the little income from selling seafood, I can’t save a few taels of silver in a year. If there is a typhoon that knocks the roof off, or someone in the family gets sick, I often have to borrow money to survive.

What is the level of two taels of silver?For these fishermen on the island, if they can bring back a boat full of seafood every day, two taels of silver is basically the income of a month of hard work.Of course, this situation is not realistic. Even if you exclude the days when you cannot go to sea due to the weather every month, fishermen still have to spend time maintaining fishing boats and repairing fishing nets. The so-called fishing for three days and drying the nets for two days is exactly the reason. .If you count the expenses needed for survival, the salary offered by Haihan is really not low. Judging from Huang Sanyuan's values, most local people may find it difficult to resist this temptation.

As for freedom?What's the point of that ridiculous freedom in the face of interests?One must know that going to Guangzhou to work as a domestic servant for those masters is only a few pennies a month, and the Haihan people pay as little as two taels of silver!
Seeing Huang Sanyuan's surprised expression, Gu Kai knew that his little trick worked.Gu Kai snapped his fingers, and a sailor who was arranging the cables at the front of the deck immediately looked back—he was used to Gu Kai's summoning method during the two days on the road.

"Sailor, report your personal situation and current income." Gu Kai decided to show Huang Sanyuan a real example.

The sailor immediately got up and stood at attention and replied: "The chief of the report, the villain Han Song, is nineteen years old. He joined the Shipping Department as an errand in September last year. Now he is the exclusive sailor of the Lightning. The voucher is five yuan, and the travel allowance will be calculated separately."

"Very good, tell this old man how to exchange currency notes and silver in the area under our Haihan jurisdiction." Gu Kai continued to order.

"A negotiable coupon can be exchanged for one tael of thousand fine silver, and the monthly salary of a villain is equivalent to five taels of silver." The sailor was also knowledgeable, and understood what Gu Kai meant when he asked him to tell these things, so he immediately I said it very consciously.

"Five...five taels of silver!" Huang Sanyuan became short of breath after hearing this number.It is well known that the Haihan people are rich, but working under the hands of the Haihan people, the income can be so considerable, this is something he had never thought about before.These people in the fishing village don't have any other skills, but they grew up by the sea, and the ability to drive a boat was almost brought out of their mother's womb, but Huang Sanyuan never thought that this skill would be so valuable.

(End of this chapter)