1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 528 Post-War Pressure
Compared with an infantry regiment scattered in the Qiongbei area, although the naval mixed fleet currently performing blockade tasks in the Qiongzhou Strait is not as powerful as the army, its daily military expenditure is much higher than that of the army.The daily consumption of the two flagships alone is equivalent to more than two-thirds of the army. For Yan Chujie, who is in charge of the city and directs the overall situation, it is definitely not just a matter of signing.

"Come here!" Yan Chujie opened his mouth and ordered: "Go and find Xu Yiren from the logistics department."

The orderly took the order and went back to Yan Chujie's office with a man after a while.This man was wearing a camouflage uniform instead of the gray cloth military uniform of the current militia army. Only the older militiamen knew that this kind of gaudy Haihan-style military uniform was the equipment that the first batch of enlisted militiamen were lucky to have. And among this group of people who are still serving in the militia, almost all of them have been promoted to the first rank of company and platoon officers.

Xu Yiren is one of this group of "veterans"—even though his military service is only three years old, he is already the oldest naturalized soldier in the Haihan Militia.He was also one of the few top students who could read and count among the first batch of people who joined the army. After joining the army, he was directly recruited by the company to do clerical work.During the Battle of Hue last year, Xu Yiren also went to Annan with the large army, and successfully completed the task of organizing logistics and transportation.After the battle, Xu Yiren was transferred to the logistics department because of his performance. He is currently the director of storage affairs in the logistics department of a regiment.This time the militia army occupied Qiongbei, and set up military material distribution centers in Qiongzhou Fucheng and Danzhou respectively, and Xu Yiren was assigned to serve in Fucheng.

"Xu Yiren, how many reserves of Annan clean coal are there now?" Yan Chujie asked straight to the point.

Xu Yiren quickly responded: "The last batch of clean coal shipped from Annan was half a month ago, with a total of 14 catties. After arriving in the local area, the navy directly packed half of it, but counting the days, it will be finished within three to five days I’m back to replenish the coal. There is less than [-] catties of coal in the warehouse. Yesterday, the regiment headquarters sent a notice that Annan’s coal ship needs to be repaired and maintained, and it will take about ten days before it can transport coal again.”

The clean coal transported from Annan was mainly supplied to the steam boilers on the two hybrid battleships, and secondly, it was also used as the main fuel for the sea-going fleet to cook and boil water at sea.Recently, the number of naval fleets sailing in the Qiongzhou Strait is very frequent, and Wang Tom consciously wants to train the sailors on the capital ship to be familiar with the steam power propulsion method. Naturally, the coal consumption is not a small number.The army's logistics department also uses coal as fuel, which is much more convenient than burning wood for the cooking team.Therefore, the 10,000+ jin of coal may seem like a lot, but it is used very quickly. It cannot be used for a long time when transporting a hundred tons of coal from Annan at a time.

Of course, this problem is not impossible to solve. The easiest way is to transport more.However, Annan's sea-going ships have been busy sending thousands of "pirate troops" back to their station recently, and there is also great pressure on the ship schedule.

Yan Chujie nodded slightly and said: "Then the existing coal reserves, if the current consumption rate is used, will it not be able to support the next Annan transport of coal?"

"There will be a gap of at least eight to one hundred thousand catties." Xu Yiren immediately responded.

"There is a risk of shortage in material supply. Why didn't the logistics department report it?" Yan Chujie's tone suddenly became solemn: "Coal is a strategic material. If the supply is interrupted, it will affect the troops' operations. Who will bear the responsibility?"

Xu Yiren shuddered, and quickly explained: "I know my mistake! It's just that I have communicated with the army three days ago, and asked it to temporarily stop using coal and switch to dry firewood before the next coal shipment. Purchase lignite to ensure the supply of coal for the navy's military use."

After hearing this explanation, Yan Chujie's face softened a little: "All the coal in stock will be temporarily sealed up and given priority to the navy. I will ask someone to remind Annan to bring the coal over as soon as possible. That's fine. , you go back to work first."

After Xu Yiren was dismissed, Yan Chujie looked at Tom Wang's application report on the table again, and a wry smile appeared on his face.Wang Tom asked for a thousand tons of coal as soon as he opened his mouth, but now there are dozens of tons of coal in the warehouse, which cannot meet the needs of the navy at all.Yan Chujie picked up a pen and crossed out the line about coal burning in the report, and wrote "Insufficient supply, deal with it as appropriate" on the back.

Then Yan Chujie drafted another telegram, asking the communication department to contact the base camp and arrange for a cargo ship to deliver a batch of coal from Shengli Port.Although there are some small coal mines in the Qiongbei region, the locally produced lignite is easy to weather, has a low ignition point, has a low calorific value, and is not easy to store and transport over long distances. Therefore, the navy does not like to use this low-grade coal.On Hainan Island, only the naval material warehouse in Shengli Port has a large amount of Annan clean coal reserves. Compared with the black soil port that can only be shipped after ten days, it is faster to ship it from Shengli Port in the south. Anyway, the military reserves there The coal is not useful for the time being, so it is better to transport it to Qiongbei for emergency.

As for Tom Wang's second application to send an engineering team to the selected military port area, Yan Chujie could only express his helplessness.

Although the military has begun to set up its own dedicated engineering construction department, due to the lack of overall technical personnel, most of the professionals in this area are concentrated in the Ministry of Construction. When the military wants to carry out large-scale infrastructure projects, it still can only Ask the Ministry of Construction for help.The main technical force of the Ministry of Construction is now almost concentrated in Qiongxi, participating in the construction of the Shilu project in Changhua.

Although the construction of the traffic line is about to be completed, the amount of work at both ends of the traffic line is also considerable. In order to allow the mining base in Jonesy to start production as soon as possible, the executive committee even delayed the development of several key locations in the Indochina Peninsula. .It is hard to say which is more important than the Haikou military port project and these projects under construction. All the military can do is to continue to make a statement to the Executive Committee and apply for the deployment of personnel from the Ministry of Construction to implement the military port project.As for whether it can be done, it is not something that Yan Chujie can decide unilaterally.

For Haihan, although the strategic significance of occupying the Qiongbei area is great, the price to be paid after that is also quite considerable.Although Haihan has gained a large area of ​​rule and a population of 10,000+ from it, these resources cannot be converted into income immediately, and it will take at least a year and a half to gradually return.However, during this period, the expenditure and consumption of materials will not stop for a day. The thousands of people stationed in Haihan to the newly occupied area need to spend money every day for basic necessities, food, housing and transportation, not to mention road construction and port construction. A large number of infrastructure projects such as building bridges and bridge repairs will be implemented in Qiongbei.A considerable part of the wealth that Haihan accumulated through various business activities in the past three years had to be invested in Qiongbei in the recent period.

Moreover, the scope of influence of this investment is not limited to Hainan Island, Annan and Guangdong are also affected by this.A large number of personnel and materials have to be transferred back and forth during this period, and such a practice of occupying sea transportation capacity will inevitably affect normal commercial activities.For example, in order to realize the transshipment of thousands of people between Annan and Hainan Island, Annan had to suspend all commercial shipping and devote all its capacity to the transportation of personnel and materials.The coal supply cutoff in Qiongbei is just one example. The industrial area in Qiongnan has also been affected to a considerable extent. The charcoal workshops that have been reducing production year by year have resumed full capacity to offset part of the damage caused by insufficient coal supply. negative impact.

Faced with such a huge investment, the Executive Committee is of course also considering other solutions—such as the fund-raising development model that has been used many times and has fully proved its usability.

On November 11, "Jiong Lianfa" held the "Chongzhen Three-Year General Meeting of Shareholders" in Haihan Xingang, the southern tip of Hong Kong Island. All shareholders, large and small, sent representatives to participate even if they could not be present in person.

The reason why this meeting was held on Hong Kong Island instead of in Sanya as in previous years is that recently, the Sanya area, or to be precise, the entire port of Qiongzhou Island, has been temporarily closed to mainland ships. Ships belonging to the Navy and the Navy are only allowed to enter but not to exit, so as to prevent the real situation of Hainan Island from being leaked out prematurely.Considering that most of the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" are settled in the mainland, the Ministry of Commerce of Haihan held this shareholder meeting in Xingang at the mouth of the Pearl River.

It has been exactly one year since the launch of the Hong Kong project in October last year.The small island on the southwestern side of the harbor that was originally named Ap Lei Chau in time and space has now been named "Zhennan Island" by the Xingang Port Management Committee, and this port is logically called "Zhennan Port".A conspicuous gray concrete fort has been built on the island. Fifteen long-barreled large-caliber coastal defense guns on the north and south sides are aimed at the channel entrance and exit of the harbor, guarding this emerging seaport town.

Due to the needs of the war on Hainan Island, most of the Guangdong fleet originally stationed here have gone south, leaving only two "Explorer-class" warships stationed here, but the navy from the north will no longer come here for cruises, so There is no external threat at all.There is also a company of artillery and infantry stationed at Zhennan Port, and there is also a 50-member public security police team. For such a small port with a permanent population of less than [-], the defense force is already very impressive.

The vicinity of Zhennan Port is surrounded by mountains, and the flat land area is relatively limited, and it is basically divided up by the various companies recruited by Haihan during the development period.Therefore, the harbor town is almost all one after another, with a series of warehouses, and a small number of local residents either moved to the sailor's residential area on Zhennan Island, or they moved to the nearby hillside. The residential area built under the unified command of the Haihan people.

Compared with the narrow Wanshan Port, Zhennan Port, which can accommodate more ships, is obviously more valued by the majority of maritime merchants.In particular, maritime merchants traveling between Guangdong and Fujian provinces are very happy to use this place as a supply point and cargo transfer point on the route.

Maritime merchants from Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Huizhou in the Pearl River Basin are now used to coming to Wanshan Port to purchase goods shipped from Fujian.And Fujian maritime merchants are also very happy to transport goods here to trade, and they can also be exempted from taxes that will be levied by the court.Therefore, although the construction time here is not long, the prosperity is no less than that of some famous ports in the southeast coastal area.

Moreover, the merchants who come and go here are very clear that although this island belongs to the territory of Daming in name, the town of Nangang is the Haihan people who have the final say.Doing business on the territory of the Haihan people, firstly, you don’t have to worry about being bullied by strong buying and selling, secondly, you don’t have to worry about all kinds of fraud, and thirdly, if there is a situation of poor turnover, the Haihan people are very happy to borrow Money came out to help.Based on such reasons, the maritime merchants who come here no longer care whether the actual ownership of this port is Haihan or Daming. The money in the pocket has actually increased.

In the two or three days before the meeting, shareholders and business representatives from all over Guangdong arrived in Zhennan Port one after another.Although Haihan people's temporary rescheduling notice is a bit hasty, shareholders who have in-depth cooperation with Haihan know very well that in addition to reporting the operation status of the project, each shareholders' meeting also has a very important content: dividends.It has been a year since the construction of the Zhennan Port project started, and it has been almost half a year since the official operation. Haihan people chose this time to hold a shareholders' meeting. It is very likely that this place has already achieved stable income.

Of course, according to the Haihan people's style of handling affairs, there is another possibility besides dividends, which is the "surprise announcement" they usually make at the shareholders' meeting.

The so-called surprise announcement means that Haihan people announce some new business projects at the annual general meeting of shareholders, and these projects are often beyond the imagination of shareholders and have excellent investment prospects.According to Schneider, Minister of Commerce of Haihan, this is a surprise and welfare prepared by Haihan for its partners. As long as you become a business partner of Haihan, you don’t need to worry about the prospect of your business.And this has also become a widely spread topic in the sea business circle. Every year before the shareholder meeting is held, the big businessmen in Fuzhou and Guangzhou will secretly guess what new projects Haihan people will come up with. To attract investment.There will even be good people who offer a lottery, attracting people to bet on the outcome.

After the shareholders arrived at Zhennan Port, acquaintances would naturally visit each other, and they would also talk about the "surprise announcement" that is likely to occur at this shareholders' meeting, and various speculations will emerge in endlessly.

(End of this chapter)