1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 504 Qiongzhou Palace City
Jokes are jokes, but the work that needs to be done still has to be done.As a representative sent by the military, Wang Tom is not only responsible for inspecting the sea conditions, waterways, ports, etc. along the way, but also makes a professional military assessment of the target area and provides action suggestions on possible military means.In other words, even if the army was the army that was finally responsible for conquering Danzhou by force, Wang Tom still had to lead the completion of the investigation and preparation work.

Even though there is internal competition between the navy and the army, and the opponents are as weak as chickens, but the military orders are like mountains, Wang Tom will not treat reconnaissance missions as a joke, and will still operate in accordance with strict operational procedures.A group of people entered Danzhou City. After a simple meal in the Dan Office, Wang Tom took a few people with him, and asked Zhang Xin to send two reliable naturalized people to lead the way, and went out to check the situation of the city defense.And He Xi, together with Zhang Xin, went to visit some prominent figures in the local officialdom and cultural circles.

That night, the two groups of people returned to the Dan Office to summarize the information collected during the day.

"The situation of the city defense is basically consistent with our prediction and the information reported by the station office. The garrison here can only be said to be slightly stronger than Yacheng, but it will not cause major troubles to the militia." Wang Tom said at the table. Spread out the hand-drawn map on the board, and explained to the two: "The Danzhou garrison has set up four lookout posts along the coast of Danzhou Bay. This is the only official early warning method outside the city. This is easy for us to solve. However, if we want to advance into the city after capturing the city gate, there will be a little trouble."

"Is it because of the buildings in the city?" He Xi looked at the hand-painted map and found that in addition to the two main roads from east to west and north to south, there are many winding alleys in this small city.

"It's not just about the building." Tom Wang shook his head and said, "I walked around the city a few times today and noticed that there are too many academies in the city, at least a dozen of them! If the defenders resist, If we are forced to attack with heavy firepower, there will definitely be academies that will be affected."

"The overall situation is the most important thing in wartime. Back in the city of Hue, I heard that you forced a way out by relying on artillery fire." He Xi joked.

"The situation in Hue was different at the time! All the people in the city could be regarded as enemies, and they were not Han Chinese, so we don't need to feel sorry for how many people died. After the Danzhou city was defeated, they would all be ours, not to mention the scholars in this place. If it affects the reputation of our Haihan, the pot will be big." Tom Wang explained.He is not a mother-in-law, but when he went out today and saw the entire street of academies and many scholars, he still had doubts about the previous idea of ​​force-level push.

"In war, people always die..." He Xi said something that felt wrong: "Which one of us is from the military? I came here to investigate the possibility of peacefully conquering Danzhou. Why do I feel like I am now The main combat faction?"

"Then let's talk about your harvest first." Tom Wang also stopped talking in a timely manner.

"In a word, they are all guys who are open to money!" He Xi's expression was a little disdainful: "I met the deans of several academies, and I heard that I am a cadre from Sanya, and most of them are busy. Ask me if there are any new sponsorship projects for the cultural circle in Danzhou this year."

"Oh? Then how did you answer?" Tom Wang asked with great interest.

"I'm not Ning Qi, how can I set up flags outside for him." He Xi shook his head and said, "It's not good for me to intervene in the affairs of their culture and education system."

At that time, He Xi really wanted to say that if there is an "I Love Haihan" essay contest or something like this year, at worst, I will personally use money to distribute the prizes, but think about it, if this stuff stimulates the self-esteem and patriotism of local literati Enthusiasm, the effect was counterproductive, and finally gave up this unrealistic idea.

"What's the attitude of the people in the government?" Tom Wang thought that what He Xi said made sense, so he turned to ask about the official situation.

"They didn't show up directly, they were all the aides and masters of the faction." Speaking of this topic, the expression on He Xi's face became a little gloomy: "It seems that the past two years have really made these local officials' appetites worse. Hey, the older you get, the more you don’t say anything, and you’ll get money every time you open your mouth! Don’t be afraid of taking money and spending it!”

Zhang Xin replied at this time: "Mr. He, the funds spent on buying local officials every year have been approved by the Executive Committee."

He Xi waved his hand and said, "I'm not saying that to blame Zhudan Office for not doing things well. The Ministry of Security also has an account book for the money spent in Danzhou official circles. Don't worry about it. Those who help to be officials are more arrogant than the officials in Guangzhou. When we take Danzhou, I really want to see what kind of face these people will have!"

"If you want money or your life, then you have to talk!" Tom Wang is not as resentful as He Xi: "Since you want money, you can negotiate the price for anything, and let them open the city and surrender at that time. Maybe we can talk about it."

He Xi relaxed a little when he heard this: "It may be difficult to directly open the city and surrender. After all, these officials still want to be famous. But if possible, let them give up resistance, or put on a show before the time comes." Surrender, that is possible."

He Xi and Wang Tom only stayed in Danzhou for two days, and then returned to the seaside by the same route, boarded a boat and left the port to continue northward, bypassing the northwest corner of Hainan Island, turning east, and sailing directly to Qiongzhou Fucheng.Although there are Lingao and Chengmai counties along the coast, according to the situation, the city defenses of these two counties can only be described as rudimentary, and they are not enough to hinder Haihan's plan. Therefore, He Xi and Tom Wang decided to get straight to the point, and went directly to Qiongzhou Fucheng.

Qiongzhou Fucheng was built in the fifth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty. It has a history of more than 600 years. It was at that time that the government of Qiongzhou Island changed from Yazhou to this new city.However, it was not until the second year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty that Sun An, the minister of the Ministry of War, led his troops to Qiongzhou Island, that Qiongzhou was upgraded to a mansion, and this mansion city ruled the whole island.

In order to meet the status of a prefecture, the city underwent another expansion project, and the construction period was as long as nine years.After the completion, Qiongzhou Fucheng has a circumference of 1253 feet, a height of 1843 feet, and a thickness of 17 feet. There are 380 battlements built on the city wall, and there are three gates in the southeast, west, and east, namely Chaoyang Gate, Jingnan Gate and Hue Gate. , although there is no city gate in the north, there is a Wanghai Tower on the city wall to assist defense.In the [-]th year of Hongwu, Sang Zhao, commander of the Hainan Guard, led another expansion project and built an earthen city with a circumference of [-] feet outside the west gate as a sub-city.There is a moat outside the city, and foreign ships can sail to the bottom of the city from the waterway across the Nandu River.

Qiongzhou Fucheng is the largest city on Qiongzhou Island. Judging from the city defense facilities alone, Qiongzhou Fucheng is much stronger than the Danzhou they visited before. After all, this place is the political and military center of the entire Qiongzhou Island, and the strength of defense It must be much stricter than other border towns.

When they arrived in the capital of Qiongzhou, the two of them no longer behaved as swaggeringly as in Danzhou. After listening to the briefing of the staff in the Fucheng Office, the two each spent a few days in the city for field investigation.

The situation in Qiongzhou Fucheng is much more complicated than that of the cities that Haihan infiltrated before, mainly because the population here is much larger than other places on the island.The population of the city plus the surrounding area is almost the sum of the population of other cities on the island.He Xi had been here two years ago, but this time when he revisited the old place, he could still feel that the city had undergone some significant changes.

You can see a lot of daily necessities made by Haihan on the market, from high-end glass mirrors to cheap soap and matches, as long as they are sold in Sanya, you can basically find everything here—of course, the price is at least one or two times higher than in Sanya. Just double it.When the public saw him in Hai Han's attire, they no longer watched him curiously like they did two years ago.Occasionally, one or two children came over to follow, and were quickly dragged away by their parents while scolding: "What are you looking at, haven't you seen Master Haihan?"

Encountering such a situation, He Xi was a little dumbfounded. There were actually only two or three traversers in the Haihan Office in Fucheng, but there were more than 30 people under the office, and these people were basically naturalized citizens. Among them, many people who were determined to follow Haihan chose to shave their heads and disguise themselves to show their loyalty.As long as you have entered the Haihan system for a little longer, your temperament and mental outlook will naturally be different from the ordinary people of Ming Dynasty, and these people can't tell which are the real Haihan people and which are just naturalized people, but for them In other words, Haihan people are no longer a rare occurrence. You can see a few of them on the street almost every day, so there is no need to watch them.

Haihan did not open retail shops in Fucheng, which is also a very significant feature of Haihan's commercial system at this stage. Most of the products are sold through dealers and agents. businessmen can get a share of Haihan's industrialized production methods.The existence of these Daming agents has also cleared the last obstacle for Haihan products to enter the Daming market, and can even become a usable force in the hands of the Executive Committee under certain conditions.

For example, although the official staffing of the office in Fucheng is less than 40, the entire Qiongzhou Fucheng accepts Haihan's employment, runs errands for Haihan, and has as many as 3000 people as direct stakeholders.These people seem to be a small proportion of the tens of thousands of Fucheng's population, but what cannot be ignored are the hidden indirect related people behind them.

For example, the distribution right of Haihan private salt in the local area is in the hands of the brother-in-law of the commander of the Hainan Guard. This business can bring at least 5000 taels of silver to his family every year; and Haihan glass stationery is sold locally. The channel is the magistrate's nephew. This business can really be said to make money while lying at home.There are at least a dozen other related households like this, almost taking over the distribution rights of all Haihan products in Fucheng. These vested interests do not dislike the local operation of Haihan's business system, but look forward to Sanya. There can regularly launch new products so that their shops can have new hype points.

There are not many shops operated by Haihan itself, the core of which is Haihan Bank.As the main sales market on Qiongzhou Island, the Ministry of Finance also opened a sub-branch in Qiongzhou Fucheng. At the beginning, it was mainly to settle the payment between Sanya and Qiongzhou Fucheng, so as to facilitate those maritime merchants who specialize in going back and forth between the two places.However, with the gradual expansion of the scope of banking business, the current business of the bank is not limited to settling payments for merchants. Bank notes printed with a fixed face value have gradually begun to circulate in the market.

Now Haihan Bank's fixed-amount bank notes issued in Qiongzhou Fucheng are the same as those issued by Guangzhou Branch in the local area. They are divided into three denominations: ten, fifty, and one hundred. They are anonymous and cannot be reported. They can be exchanged at Haihan Bank at any time. Equivalent cash.This kind of small-amount bank note has been widely praised by the business community after it was launched. Even those who were suspicious at the beginning were invited to the bank's underground vault to see the 10 taels stored here after their identities were verified. After Ku Yin, most of the original doubts were dispelled.According to the data provided by Haihan Bank, nearly [-]% of Qiongzhou business transactions use Haihan banknotes as a means of payment.

However, the government has no sense of vigilance against Haihan Bank's practice of quietly controlling the lifeline of the local economy. It is much better to have a silver vault guarded by Haihan militiamen with live ammunition than to dig a big hole in the back garden and bury it in the ground, and then worry about it every night.Anyway, when you need money, send a message directly to the Haihan people and hand them the bank notes, and the bank's silver truck will transport the full amount of cash to the designated place for delivery within half an hour.

After more than two years of operation, the relevant departments have been able to skillfully use commercial channels to pave the way for other infiltration work.Combining the promotion of politics, culture, economy and trade, etc., the effect of this whole operation system is far stronger than that of pure trade relations.Haihan's way of life, values, cultural concepts, etc. have been infiltrated into the lives of every resident in Fucheng through this system.

The only problem is probably that it is a little far away from Sanya. It is unlikely that it will be assimilated by Haihan in just two or three years like Yacheng, and then the local government will be lifted up to realize the de facto annexation.In fact, the entire expansion trend of Haihan on Hainan Island also shows differences in the degree of progress with changes in geographical distance. The closer the distance, the higher the degree of Haihan's control, and the farther the distance, the greater the influence of Haihan in the local area. The power is more limited.

(End of this chapter)