1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 524 Ways to Increase the Scale of Immigration

Two of Li Maozai's hard laborers did die last night, but one of the two was bitten by a poisonous snake on the construction site, and then he burped before the medical staff arrived.Another died of pneumonia, a terminal disease that is basically incurable in this era.There are still some antibiotics that can treat pneumonia in the drug warehouse of the Ministry of Health in Sanya, but this kind of precious thing is obviously impossible to use on these hard laborers.

Although it is not Li Maozai's responsibility to say such things, according to the management regulations of the hard labor camp, the death of hard labor must be registered, and the rate of loss of personnel under each foreman is also limited by quota, so as to prevent the foreman from squeezing the hard labor. And the punishment is too cruel.And Li Maozai's limit has already been reached, and if he dies, he will only be punished.

The naturalized cadre waved his hand and said: "The system only stipulates the number of deaths in hard labor and the corresponding punishments. It does not stipulate whose fault it is... No, it stipulates that as long as the number of deaths exceeds the standard, the fault is the foreman's fault! Li Maozi, stop making excuses, follow the rules and register yourself!"

Li Maozai had the cheek to beg for a long time, but it didn't work, and finally he had to hang his head and go to the camp to register.According to the system of the hard labor camp, after the death quota is exceeded, the foreman who is directly responsible will also be punished accordingly - every additional person will increase the sentence by half a month.

When Li Maozai was arrested, he was sentenced to three years of hard labor. Because of his good performance, he was promoted and reduced his sentence continuously by relying on labor points. Up to now, he has only half a year in prison. It may take four or five months to regain freedom.However, as soon as these two unlucky ghosts died yesterday, Li Maozai's sentence would immediately have to be extended by another month, which was really unacceptable to him.But he also knew that he was powerless to change anything. After all, the rules of this hard labor camp were clear and well-organized, and there were no loopholes to exploit. If he wanted to complain, he could only blame the poor health of these monkey slaves, who couldn't stand the torture at all.

Of course, Li Maozai was not the only one who complained. In fact, many grassroots foremen in the hard labor camp had received similar punishments recently, and there were many people who received longer sentences than Li Maozai.And this situation has naturally reflected on Qiao Zhiya, but what he is worried about is not because the death rate of hard labor is too high to explain to the executive committee, but that this situation will affect the overall progress of the project.After all, after each batch of hard labor is delivered, they are not immediately able to go to the construction site. They have to go through a simple quarantine, assign jobs according to the situation, and then send them to the inland Shilu first-line construction site. This process itself takes several days. Time, if it is too frequent, it will easily cause a disconnection of labor demand.

On November 11, the Portuguese transported two ships of slaves to Changhua Port, but there were more than 7 slaves on board these two ships, and there were less than 500 black slaves, and more than 20% of them were captured in large numbers from South Asian islands. The natives, and the rest are from the Indochina Peninsula and the Indian Peninsula.

Qiao Zhiya refused to sign for it on the spot, because according to the original agreement between the two parties, at least [-]% of the slaves brought in by the Portuguese must be non-South Asian island natives.

"Don't you understand? These natives can do nothing but waste our precious food! You send these garbage, and you have the face to ask us to collect money?" Qiao Zhiya raised his middle finger at the Portuguese captain: "Take these things back and use them yourself!"

Of course, the Portuguese would not take these slaves away foolishly, so they euphemistically stated that the price of these slaves could be lowered appropriately.

Finally, after some negotiation between the two parties, Haihan finally accepted the native slaves at half the price, and agreed that the proportion of South Asian natives in the next shipment of slaves should not exceed [-]%, Qiao Zhiya finally put out his anger angrily.

"We still have to think of other ways!" Seeing the situation report sent back from the Changhua area, Tao Donglai couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "It's really a drop in the bucket to rely on them to transport these slaves!"

Next to Ning Qi, he said: "The Ministry of Civil Affairs is already thinking of a way. At present, there are two main ways. The first is to absorb the Li Miao mountain people from the Qiongxi and Qiongbei mountainous areas, and let them leave the village and work for us. The other way is to emigrate from the Qiongbei area we are occupying to the west, and send those people without land to Qiongxi to be trained as industrial workers."

"The second method should not be realized so soon?" Tao Donglai asked.

"It does take time." Ning Qi nodded and admitted Tao Donglai's point of view: "In fact, most of the people in Qiongbei who are willing to move to live in our ruled area have moved away in the past two years, and most of the rest They all have land and real estate in the local area, and it is not so easy to leave. Even after we complete the land clearing work, the population size that will move to Jonesy is still not optimistic.”

Tao Donglai said meaningfully: "Hainan Island has only about [-] people. If you move around, you still have to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall. If you want to solve the root cause, you still have to find a solution from the mainland. "

According to the plan of the executive committee, after the completion of Jonesy’s industrial zone, at least tens of thousands of industrial workers are needed to ensure that the local production capacity of steel and other metals can reach the expected level.The actual number of people living there may be three or four times the number of workers, but the current population living in Shilu, Changhua, even with the addition of several thousand slaves, is still less than [-] people. expectations are still far behind.Now that the land passage from Changhua to Shilu is about to be completed, the countdown to the development of the Shilu iron mine can already be started. However, the shortage of manpower is still the shortcoming of this super-large project, and it is likely to affect the implementation of the project. schedule.

Although Qiongbei is a relatively densely populated area on Hainan Island, as Ning Qi said, there is still a certain degree of operational difficulty in relocating the existing population of Qiongbei to Qiongxi for settlement.Moreover, it is inappropriate to adopt public coercive measures in this process, otherwise it is very likely to intensify the conflict between Haihan and the local people because of the land ownership relationship.

Immigrants from outside the island have no such worries at all. Most of these immigrants come here to make a living. When they arrive in Hainan Island, they have almost no family property to speak of. Where will they be placed and what kind of jobs will they get? , are all arranged by Haihan in a unified way, and these immigrants can only rely on and obey Haihan, otherwise it will be difficult for them to live on this island.Therefore, for the Executive Committee, although the process of immigrating from outside the island is more troublesome and the initial cost is relatively high, in terms of long-term costs and effects, it actually has certain advantages over immigrants from the island—at least The proportion of them converted into industrial workers is much higher than that of immigrants from the island.

Of course, this task was logically handed over to the Guangzhou Office, or to be precise, the new organization now called the Guangdong Regional Management Committee.

"Old Ma, what's the rush to call me back so quickly?" He Xi stepped into the study and asked Maliko who was frowning.

"What else can it be, a reminder!" Maliko handed over the telegram in his hand: "The telegram just sent from the base camp asks us to try to expand the scale of immigration."

He Xi took it and spread it out to look at it for a while, then frowned and said, "The headquarters is very busy this time!"

"The Shilu project is about to go into production, and there is a shortage of labor!" Maliko said clearly: "With so much human, financial and material resources spent on this project, of course the Executive Committee hopes to be able to give full play to 100% from the very beginning. capacity."

"But where are we going to get so many people in a while?" He Xi put down the telegram and sat on the chair opposite Maiko: "Now the immigration camp in Panyu looks like 2000 to 2000 people every month. The executive committee requires We will double the number of immigrants as soon as possible, where will we find the extra [-] people?"

"There is definitely nothing to do around Guangzhou. Now the refugees who come from other places don't need us to publicize. Once they enter the territory of Guangzhou Prefecture, someone will show them the way to Panyu." Maliko shook his head and sighed: "It is convenient, but There have been no natural and man-made disasters in Guangdong this year, and there are not many refugees at all."

"Then how about...we artificially create an accident?" He Xi asked following Maiko's words.

Maliko glanced at He Xi and said, "How to make it?"

"Do you really want to know or are you curious?" He Xi asked him instead of rushing to answer.

"Yo, it seems that you really have a plan, so I really need to hear it." Maiko thought that He Xi was just joking, so he straightened up after hearing this: "Tell me and listen." , if it is really feasible, we will make a good plan."

He Xi didn't rush to answer, but got up and walked to the door of the study to look outside, and then said to the sentinel at the door: "I have a meeting with Director Ma, no one is allowed to enter without permission. "

"Yes!" The sentinel stood at attention, saluted He Xi, and closed the door behind him.

He Xi was so serious, Maliko could see that he was not joking, so he pulled himself together and wanted to hear what he had in mind.

He Xi sat back in his seat and explained: "After the battle in Lijiazhuang the year before last, our Ministry of Security has already started contacting civilian armed forces in various places in Guangdong to screen out some forces that can be used. Give them a certain amount of help and support in secret."

Maiko said in astonishment: "Does the executive committee know that your security department does this kind of thing?"

"Of course I know, otherwise where does the cost come from?" He Xi nodded and said: "The Executive Committee has known about this practice of the Ministry of Security from the very beginning, and there is also relevant content in the annual work report to the Executive Committee .You don’t have to worry about the legality of this matter.”

Maliko smiled and said, "Okay, then you can continue."

He Xi continued: "The reason why we have such an arrangement is to increase our sources of intelligence and prevent our strongholds and personnel from being attacked by militias. It was only at that time that we heard the news. Second, we will strive to incorporate some civilian armed forces for our use, and when it is not convenient for us to use force by ourselves, we can have another solution.”

Maliko understood most of it when he heard this, nodded and said: "So your routine is actually a bit similar to the idea that the Lighthouse State supports the rebels around the world?"

"It's not a routine, it's a way of thinking!" He Xi corrected Maiko's statement righteously: "Although your understanding is not very accurate, it is closer to the truth. Although we have a deep relationship with Daming trade cooperation, and at the current stage must support Daming’s dominance in the mainland to resist the invasion of northern wild boarskin, but in the long run, the purpose of our coming to this time and space is to replace Daming’s position in the Far East, So there is still a fundamental conflict of interest after all..."

"Okay, old He, when did you start to change careers to become a political teacher? Save your saliva if you want to give lectures. Just use these theories to brainwash Zhang Qianzhi and Gong Shiqi." Maliko interrupted with a smile He Xi's long speech said: "Hurry up and get down to business."

He Xi was not angry after being interrupted, and said with a smile: "If I really give them a lecture like this, they may not be able to understand it...Okay, let's get back to the topic. Now we keep in touch, and there are folks who communicate regularly. There are about [-] or [-] armed forces in various parts of Guangdong. Whether they are bandits or water bandits, they can accept our arrangements to a certain extent and perform some simple tasks for us, doing things that are inconvenient for us. Dirty work."

Maliko nodded slightly as he listened. The situation He Xi said was not a big deal. Although Haihan maintained a certain scale of armed forces in Guangdong, except for the escort team escorted by the Golden Shield, almost everyone The scope of activities is limited.Many things that require the use of force are not suitable for people who directly dispatch the militia, and He Xi's field operation team has too few people, so he has to come up with such a way to solve the problem.

As for maintaining relations with these civilian armed forces, how much money would be spent every year, Maliko would not bother to ask about it.The expenses of the Ministry of Security are directly approved by the Executive Committee. Although he, the person in charge of the Guangdong region, has a high level of authority, he still has no right to intervene in the inside story of the Ministry of Security, a unit under the supervision of the Executive Committee.Of course, with He Xi's shrewdness, Maliko believed that the security department would never waste money on this aspect.

What He Xi said next got to the point: "...if necessary, we can mobilize these armed men to artificially create some tension in the province, and then take in refugees and organize immigration."

(End of this chapter)