1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 473
While Li Qingyang's matter was being discussed in the executive committee, the security department had already come to talk to He Qiang, expressing their hope that a position could be arranged for someone with a "sensitive identity" in "Fuji Pharmacy".He Qiang wisely did not inquire about the specific identity of this person, nor did he refuse the request of the Ministry of Security. After all, the fate of the Li family is now firmly tied to the Haihan people, and Haihan has never done anything. Do anything harmful to the interests of the Li family.Of course, the most important thing is that He Qiang is also considered a senior member of the Li family, and he also knows what kind of organization the Haihan Security Department is, and this organization cannot afford to offend the Li family.

As the cooperation between the two parties has entered the third year, the cooperation between the Li family and Haihan has long been not limited to the business field, such as cultural promotion, finance, immigration, military and even intelligence collection, etc. Participate gradually and become an important support for Haihan in the mainland.The industries under the Li family's name are distributed in various parts of Guangdong, and almost all of them are charged with collecting local military and political information to varying degrees, and regularly summarizing them to Guangzhou.

Of course, the extent to which the employees under the Li family's name can do is to record the well-known government movements, not the kind of targeted intelligence collection work done by professional intelligence personnel.After the information was collected in Guangzhou, the staff of the Security Department of the Guangzhou Office sorted out the valuable information, sorted it out, and sent it back to Sanya for the reference of the Executive Committee when making decisions.Only a very small number of institutions in major state cities have the intelligence personnel stationed by Haihan on a permanent basis.As a high-level member of the Li family in the business field, He Qiang is naturally aware of this cooperation.

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, what the Li family is doing now can actually meet the standard of ransacking the family and exterminating the family. But with the strong backing of Haihan, the Li family is not too worried that this kind of behavior will lead to investigation by the government.Now Haihan's business scale is getting bigger and bigger, and the local agents and distributors are often involved with the interests of the government. As long as the Haihan people do not do anything blatantly overstepping the rules, the local government will not intervene. Even an intelligence agency like Jinyiwei is not immune, and has become a puppet in the face of huge commercial interests.This is also one of the reasons why the Nanjing Zhenfu Division insisted on sending people from its direct subordinates to investigate Haihan south, but did not give instructions to the Guangdong branch.

Lin Nan immediately introduced He Qiang and Li Qingyang. After the two met, He Qiang asked the clerk to take Li Qingyang to see his residence first.After Li Qingyang thanked him, he followed the shop assistant through the shop to the staff living area behind the shop.

It is said to be a residential area, but it is actually a small courtyard. On the south side is the shop, and the other three sides are two-story buildings. The east side is used as a medicinal material warehouse, and the rooms on the other two sides are used for the shop. The shop assistants live.He Qiang himself doesn't live here. The Li family has purchased several properties in Sanya, which are used to provide resident managers like He Qiang.

According to the requirements of the Ministry of Security, "Fuji Pharmacy" arranged a small single room for Li Qingyang on the second floor. It was fully furnished and equipped with daily necessities. Even a few sets of clothes were prepared and placed on the bed. This made Li Qingyang feel uncomfortable. After watching it, I can't fault it at all.There was a small window at the head of the bed, Li Qingyang walked in and found that the window was not without paper, but was made of precious Haihan glass, from a distance, only the empty window frame could be seen.From this, Li Qingyang also had a new estimate of the financial resources of this shop. A general medicine shop probably wouldn't have the spare money to spend on installing glass windows in the rooms where the employees lived.

After Li Qingyang looked at the room, the clerk took him downstairs and told him the location of the toilet and shower room.All the people living in this courtyard are men, so the toilets and shower rooms are shared.Of course, the bathroom equipment used in the shop under the Li family's name is also a full set of Haihan products. After seeing it, Li Qingyang suddenly felt that he was like a country bumpkin who had never seen the market.These ceramic sanitary ware looked very high-end, and they were very clean and hygienic. Even the toilet paper used was white. This was enough to make Li Qingyang from Nanjing feel ashamed of his previous living standards.

When Li Qingyang was visiting the residence in the backyard, Lin Nan took the time to explain the precautions to He Qiang: "...this person came from a public family. Although he has joined our side, his thinking is still a little vacillating. Think of ways to let him feel the strength of my Haihan, and slowly wear away those bad thoughts in his mind."

He Qiang replied: "Master Lin, don't worry, this old man will do it with his heart. Seeing that he has just arrived in Sanya, he doesn't need to do anything special. As long as he lives here for two or three months, he will naturally be able to do so." You will feel the strength of Haihan. I think that all the wealthy landowners from Guangdong looked down on Haihan at the beginning, thinking that there is nothing good in this poor and remote place. Now they are not vying to sell houses and buy properties here, and bring their children here Going to school to study. I think this little brother surnamed Li is also a smart person, and he will probably be able to appreciate the benefits of this place in a few days."

Lin Nan nodded and said: "Boss He is right, but we have limited his activity area to the business district, so we should try not to let him go out alone in the near future. In addition, the people he can come into contact with must also be respected. Take control and try not to let him come into contact with people who have just arrived from the mainland, especially those unknown strangers."

The reason why Lin Nan wanted to emphasize this point was to put Li Qingyang's mentality back and forth again.Of course, the Ministry of Security would not be so stupid as to let Li Qingyang sign a few papers and completely trust him, and the necessary monitoring methods would continue.In addition to this kind of control inside the pharmacy, Lin Nan also made other arrangements to prevent Li Qingyang from taking some irrational actions.

When Li Qingyang returned to the store after visiting, He Qiang asked him: "Is Mr. Li satisfied with the environment in our store?"

Li Qingyang responded quickly: "I'm satisfied, I'm very satisfied."

"If you need something, just say it, the boss is very generous." Lin Nan said with a smile.

"It's also thanks to the heads of Haihan who take care of the business, otherwise it would be so generous!" He Qiang responded with knowledge and wit.

Li Qingyang thought to himself that this pharmacy has such a close relationship with the Hai Han people, it seems that they are also in the same boat.In the future, if I settle down in this pharmacy, I have to be careful not to reveal any clues, or I will be reported at any time.

Then he heard He Qiang continue to say: "Mr. Li works in our shop, the salary is tentatively set at ten yuan per month, food and lodging are not included, is that good?"

Li Qingyang didn't realize it for the first time, and then he remembered that this is the territory of Haihan. The currency in this place is not silver taels or copper coins, but banknotes issued by Haihan people, with yuan as the unit.This month's ten yuan includes food and lodging, and the treatment is quite good. You must know that as a military officer of the sixth rank, his legal annual income is only more than 100 and less than 200 taels of silver, which is no worse than the income of being an accountant here. high.And he hasn't forgotten that he can also get another income at the same time - the Ministry of Security also pays him a salary, the sum of these two incomes is almost double the income of being a Jinyiwei , Thinking about it also made Li Qingyang dumbfounded.

After Li Qingyang came back to his senses, he quickly thanked He Qiang.He also knew that this income was purely for the sake of the Ministry of Security. Although it was not enough to bribe Li Qingyang, it was still a sum of money that could not be ignored no matter how you thought about it.Since Lin Nan didn't speak out against it, the income can be collected reasonably and legally.

After meeting He Qiang, Lin Nan took Li Qingyang out of "Fuji Pharmacy" and continued to visit the business district.Li Qingyang walked and watched, and found that this place is called the first port of Qiongzhou for some reason. The goods sold here are not only produced in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, but even the products north of the Yellow River are sold. One can imagine that this port How much business operation scale has been driven.But on the street, there were no performers and beggars that were commonly seen in the bustling areas, let alone a few idle people with nothing to do. This made Li Qingyang rather puzzled, so he took the initiative to ask Lin Nan about it.

Lin Nan explained: "In the area under the Haihan Executive Committee, there will always be only a shortage of labor force. There will be no people who can't find a living and need to beg for hygiene. Even those who are physically disabled and unable to engage in physical labor , We will also arrange for such people to do what we can, and we will not let them have nothing to do."

Li Qingyang felt a little unbelievable when he heard this, so he asked: "Brother Lin, what is there to do if you are blind and blind?"

Lin Nan smiled and said: "Don't look down on blind people. You can learn some skills to make a living even if you can't see. For example, playing musical instruments, massage, etc. I once heard the chiefs say that blind people have no sense of taste, touch, and smell because they have no vision. , hearing are more developed than ordinary people. There are no people who are born useless in this world, just to see if they are on the right path!"

Li Qingyang felt that there seemed to be other meanings in Lin Nan's words, but it didn't seem to be aimed at himself.

Lin Nan continued: "Under Haihan's rule, everyone must participate in labor. We don't support any idlers here. The chiefs have said that Haihan's wealth is created by everyone, so Haihan's prosperity belongs to everyone. Those who have contributed to this, and everyone involved in this process, will be rewarded for their efforts."

Although Li Qingyang also felt that Lin Nan's approach was good, as the Daming Jinyiwei, he felt that it was a bit unreasonable for him not to refute something, so he responded immediately: "You have taken in so many people from Daming, but these people From now on, you will not pay taxes to the Ming government, Brother Lin, do you think this is consistent with the executive committee's claim that you are not hostile to Daming?"

Lin Nan shook his head and said, "Most of these people are victims of disasters. If they don't take refuge in us, then we have to rely on Daming to help them with money and food. Where can we collect taxes? We will contribute money and efforts to help the Ming court. Isn't it enough to show goodwill to save the expenses of helping the victims?"

"This..." Li Qingyang always felt that there was something wrong with this statement, but for a while he couldn't think of how to refute it.

Lin Nan didn't give Li Qingyang time to think slowly, pointing to the flow of people on the street, he said: "Brother Li, please open your eyes and look at this place, look at the expressions on the faces of the people, please tell me, what can you tell from their faces? See humbleness, despair, numbness, and misery? I think you probably won’t find them here, because the people living here don’t need to worry about food and clothing. They know how much they can get in return for their hard work. God, there is no need to worry about the tax collectors sent by the government. They know that there is an omnipotent Executive Committee, and all problems will be solved, and they just need to follow the orders issued by the Executive Committee."

Li Qingyang said: "Everything here is up to the executive committee to decide what kind of situation the Ming court will be in!"

Lin Nan smiled and said: "If the executive committee does not manage well, the people can choose to leave here on their own and go back to where they used to live. You can just ask someone on the street to see if Sanya is better or not. Daming is better elsewhere.”

Li Qingyang thought to himself that in this place even the tents of pharmacies can get a monthly salary of ten taels of silver, presumably the income of ordinary laborers is far higher than that of Daming. In terms of wealth alone, the level here must be far higher than that of Daming. How do ignorant people know how powerful it is? Naturally, they will say that this place is good because of the high income here.

Seeing that Li Qingyang didn't continue to argue, Lin Nan didn't take the initiative to pursue him any further. He pointed forward and said, "Ahead is the first port, Shengli Port, which the leaders came here to open up. Let's go and have a look."

Since the opening of Shengli Port, it has undergone several reconstruction and expansion projects in less than three years, and today's Shengli Port is no longer what it was at the beginning.The port wharf made of bluestone extends westward for several miles along the bay, and there are wide trestles extending into the sea every tens of meters. There are as many as two to three hundred ships moored in the harbor.Many trestle bridges are full of people, and the workers are constantly loading and unloading goods, a busy scene.

Li Qingyang had also seen the busy commercial port in Jiangsu and Zhejiang before. Compared with this Shengli Port Wharf, the degree of prosperity is similar, but the order on the wharf is far less than here.Li Qingyang looked at it for a while, and found that each of the wharves here had a special line for loading and unloading goods, so as to ensure that the stevedores working on the wharf would not cause confusion and congestion.And a large number of hoisting machines on the wharf and trestle also effectively save manpower and improve efficiency.

Lin Nan introduced next to him: "White vests are ordinary stevedores, those who wear yellow vests are foremen, those who wear blue vests are responsible for inventorying goods, and those who wear red vests are inspecting labor discipline."

(End of this chapter)