1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 502 Danzhou Investigation
On April 1630, 4, the fourth day of March in the third year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty, off the coast of Danzhou in the northwest corner of Hainan Island.

The three big ships sailed briskly across the sea to Danzhou Bay.The appearance of these ships is obviously different from that of traditional Chinese sailboats. Not only are the hulls narrower and longer, but also the masts are taller. The sails are also made of soft canvas. small window.However, the fishermen on the nearby fishing boats just looked up and continued to do the work at hand. They recognized that these were the boats of the Haihan people in the south. They have often entered Danzhou Port in the past two years, and they have long been accustomed to this. up.

However, the passengers carried by this fleet are not purely for business as usual. He Xi, the director of the Haihan Security Department, and Wang Tom, the commander-in-chief of the Haihan Militia Navy, are both on board. There was a whole reinforced platoon of militiamen, disguised as crewmen, servants, etc., as their guard.

The purpose of their trip is to investigate the situation of Danzhou Bay and Danzhou City on the spot, and prepare for an armed conflict that may break out in the capture of Danzhou within this year.Of course, if everyone thinks of a way together, it is not completely impossible to seize the city peacefully.

"The first time I came to Danzhou was when I crossed the river. I followed Li's merchant ship to go to Qiongzhou Fucheng immediately, and then I thought to myself that since I have already arrived here, I should just finish the place I should go, so I followed Li. The family caravan traveled all the way from Chengmai and Lingao to Danzhou." Thinking of the situation at that time, He Xi couldn't help but sigh a little: "At that time, I ran so far alone, but now that I think about it, I feel that I was very brave. of!"

"You are not very courageous, how dare the executive committee entrust you with such a heavy burden?" Tom Wang replied with a smile.After he has been in the system for a few years, he is no longer as straightforward as he was when he first came, and now he knows how to flatter others at the right time.

"At that time, there was no way!" Tom Wang shook his head and sighed: "There is no one available under his command, and a group of people in your military can't get away, so you can only do it yourself... In front of you is the White Horse Well. After passing through this gorge, there is Danzhou Bay."

Danzhou Bay is located to the west of Danzhou. The strait at the entrance is only about 700 meters wide. The area of ​​the bay is larger than the two major ports in Sanya.When Tao Donglai and others planned the crossing operation, Danzhou was actually one of the alternative destinations. There is a natural harbor here, and the population density nearby is also higher than that of Yazhou. In the initial development, the crossing group can save a lot of money. strength.However, considering that the terrain here does not have a commanding height to defend the bay, and there are no mineral or timber resources for continuous mining, the most important thing is that it is only a few miles away from Danzhou City, and there are many settled people along the bay. It is not something that can be accomplished in a short period of time to enclose land here. After careful consideration, the organizing committee decided to give up here and choose Sanya, which has a vast land and few people.

Although Danzhou is one of the main commercial ports in the northern part of Qiongzhou Island, the development status and prosperity here are not to mention compared with Shengli Port and Sanya Port, even compared with Wanshan Port outside the Pearl River Estuary.When Haihan's boats approached the pier, they could see that there were only six or seven boats docked on the shore, almost all of which were Cantonese-style sailboats with a displacement of sixty to seventy tons.

"I heard from Anxi before that there is a salt field in this bay?" Tom Wang asked suddenly, looking at the pier which was already very close.

"There is a salt field, just to the north of the bay, which used to be the largest official salt field on Qiongzhou Island. The method they use is actually very similar to our salt field, which also uses seawater to dry salt, but the scale of production is far smaller. It’s not as good as ours. When they were still using stone troughs to dry salt, we directly used cement salt drying ponds, and there are various seawater lifting and irrigation devices, and the production capacity is much stronger than theirs. If I didn’t If I remember correctly, the salt farm here has been bankrupt for almost two years!" He Xi proudly introduced what he knew to Tom Wang.

"The official salt farm of Ming Dynasty is also said to be bankrupt?" Tom Wang obviously didn't have a special understanding of the current salt market situation.

"Bankruptcy is not very accurate." He Xi nodded and admitted that he used the wrong word: "It should be more appropriate to call a shutdown. Because our salt price is almost lower than their production cost, salt merchants are turning to us to buy The low price of salt means that the salt households here can no longer make a living by selling salt. In the end, many people simply fled to our side. Among the naturalized people in Yinggehai Salt Field, more than 80 households came from Danzhou Salt Field. Moved directly there."

"Speaking of this, I also remembered one thing. Didn't there be coal mines in Danzhou before? Later, it was said that the low-priced anthracite coal shipped from Heitu Port was forced to stop work. I remember the conscription of the militia during that time. But they have taken in a lot of miners from Danzhou!" Tom Wang recalled with emotion the impact of Haihan's rise on Danzhou.

He Xi added: "More than that, I read the report of the Ministry of Security yesterday. From the second half of 1627, people from Danzhou began to migrate to Sanya in a steady stream. In the early days, most of them were recruited by Yaxing on our behalf. Voluntary immigrants, more and more people moved to Sanya on their own, not just Yanhu and miners, about two-thirds of the scholars we have recruited are from Danzhou!"

Wang Tom said in amazement: "So many? I still remember recruiting scholars in Yacheng two years ago, and the effect was not very good. How could Danzhou be so smooth?"

He Xi smiled and said: "Actually, the reason is not surprising at all. Although Danzhou is not the capital of Qiongzhou Island, it is a real cultural center on the island. The number of scholars here in Danzhou is higher than that of other counties on the island. The numbers add up to a lot. The same things are worthless if there are too many of them. There are always some scholars who are not doing well and have to find another way to support themselves. Even if the proportion of scholars who are willing to join us is very low, there are still too many people! "

"That's it!" Tom Wang suddenly realized: "When we occupy this place, this scholar can be regarded as a big gain!"

The educational and cultural traditions of Danzhou can be said to have a long history. Since the fourth year of Qingli in the Northern Song Dynasty, about 600 years ago, the earliest school in Qiongzhou Island was established in Danzhou City.Half a century later, the great writer Su Dongpo lived in Danzhou for three years. During this period, he set up education and recruited disciples. Since then, Danzhou's cultural atmosphere has flourished.Later, dozens of academies such as Lingchun Academy, Zhende Academy, Tunan Academy, and Yizhai Academy were built in the local area. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, there have been as many as dozens of people who have passed the imperial examinations. The area is nothing short of a miracle.

But just as He Xi said, there are a large number of scholars inside and outside Danzhou City, and among them, only a very few lucky ones can get fame in the imperial examination and embark on official careers from then on.There are a large number of weak scholars who cannot carry their hands or shoulders and need to find a job that can support themselves and their families after they grow up. These scholars who have not obtained fame can only do cheap jobs such as copying. It's just enough to make ends meet.

The emergence of Haihan people undoubtedly gave them another choice. As long as they can read the Four Books and Five Classics thoroughly, they will start with a monthly salary of five taels of silver.For those with fame or other special abilities, the salary can be further increased on this basis.At first, the scholars were a little distrustful of the employment of these foreign maritime merchants. Later, a teacher from a certain academy was hired by the Haihan people at a "sky-high price" of 30 taels of silver a month. Everyone knew that these maritime merchants were not talking about it. Just for fun.Of course, no one knew that this Mr. Xi, who was hired at a high price, was actually the cousin of a certain master in Yacheng.

But this kind of trick with a simple plot has achieved very good results. Many poor and hard-working scholars have chosen to accept the employment of Haihan people and go to Sanya to do some clerical and educational work within their ability.At that time, when Ning Qi recruited these people, he also made the conditions very attractive-in addition to the salary they received from their work, Haihan would give paid leave to all those who wanted to take the imperial examination, and they would go to the provincial capital Guangzhou Haihan will send boat escorts to the scholars who take the local examination, and even arrange the accommodation during the examination.If someone wins the Juren and needs to go to the capital to participate in the test, Haihan will also be fully responsible for all expenses on the way back and forth.

This is great news for those scholars who come from poor backgrounds.If they only rely on the income they get from doing part-time jobs, the vast majority of them can save enough for a trip to Guangzhou to take the exam for three years at most.But now the Haihan people take the initiative to promise to bear this part of the expenses for them. This kind of welfare is hard to find even with a lantern.As for the more advanced exams, although it sounds very tempting, it is only a game that very few people are qualified to participate in. It is more practical for ordinary scholars to ponder how to pass the exam.

And the Haihan civil affairs department that issued these conditions was not taken advantage of, Ning Qi had already settled the account very clearly.The imperial examinations that these scholars need to take are actually not particularly expensive. The children's examinations are taken locally in Danzhou. At most, these scholars are sent back to Danzhou to take the examinations by boat during the examination period, which delays seven to ten days.As for the rural examination in Guangzhou, the cost of shipping, board and lodging that needs to be borne is the cheapest cost price for Haihan, who is engaged in the shipping industry, and the more people go, the lower the unit cost will be.Moreover, this kind of examination is only once every three years, and the time required can be deducted from their rest days. I believe these scholars will not raise any objections to this approach.

But after these people become naturalized citizens of Haihan, will they really repeat the task of rushing for the exam every three years as they did before?Ning Qi thinks that this situation will not last for a long time. After these scholars enter Haihan's social system, they will soon realize that the benefits they can get here are far better than their previous poor window Study hard.Perhaps there will still be a small number of people sticking to their dreams, hoping to be able to obtain the honor of Juren and serve the court, but there will definitely be more people who realize the benefits they can get under the rule of Haihan and give up the imperial examination This single-plank bridge road with a very low return rate.

Ning Qi's deduction was quickly proved in the following period of time.Less than 3% of the first batch of Danzhou scholars who joined the Haihan cultural and educational system chose to retreat because they could not adapt to the local way of life, and the rest basically stayed.Before the township examination held last fall, the relevant departments received less than [-] applications for the imperial examination. This shows that the vast majority of scholars have changed their values ​​and given up The imperial examination fame that he had worked so hard for before.

After these scholars got a stable and comfortable life in Sanya, their stories spread automatically in the cultural circle of Danzhou and even Qiongzhou Island. More and more scholars who were not satisfied with the imperial examination began to consider Haihan as a way out. .Today, scholars from Danzhou have indeed become a force that cannot be ignored in the Guihuamin system.In the entire cultural and educational system of Haihan, especially the most basic literacy and school-age children's education, most of the teachers are from various academies in Danzhou.

As a result, Haihan also obtained another additional effect, that is, his reputation in Danzhou is quite good.Emphasizing culture and education and setting up schools are actions that will be appreciated by the cultural circles in any dynasty, and the Haihan people spend so much on culture and education that anyone who is not blind can see it.Even those Danzhou students who were not employed by Haihan know that there are a large number of free schools in Sanya. School-age children under Haihan's rule can go to school for free, and adults also have special literacy classes for training.Although there are still very few people who think it is a bad practice to go to school with mud legs, most people will still give a very positive evaluation of these measures of the Haihan people.

In addition, under the auspices of Ning Qi, Haihan also directly moved some methods implemented in Guangzhou to Danzhou.For example, they funded activities such as poetry competitions, cultural forums, art exhibitions, etc., and provided a large number of Haihan glass stationery that was extremely low-cost but highly sought after by scholars as prizes to attract literati to participate.When the third Danzhou Cultural Festival was held at the beginning of this year, in addition to local scholars in Danzhou, some people even made a special trip across the sea from Leizhou Peninsula to participate, which can be called a grand event in the local cultural circle.

At that time, Ning Qi also came to the scene in person, and talked about the past and the present with the deans of various academies in Danzhou, and had a good time as a scholar.In Ning Qi's words, just seeing the handwriting of Su Dongpo and other famous people in those academies, this trip is worth thousands of dollars.

(End of this chapter)