1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 546 Deterrence
Qiongzhou Island has become the current situation in just a few months. The main reason is that a wave of pirates invaded a few months ago. Although Fucheng did not fall, it was surrounded by pirates for several days. These big households here are also worried.You must know that if the city was broken that day and the gang of vicious pirates invaded the Fucheng, the richest people in the city would probably be the first to suffer.

Although these people are not convinced by Haihan's measures to take over Fucheng, and even have some resentment towards Haihan because of the conflict of interests, but in comparison, the vast majority of people must still think that the pirates who invaded Qiongzhou Island are more dangerous and terrifying .As for the local spies who colluded with pirates, the disgust and resentment are naturally needless to say.

What Qiu Yuan said and the evidence he listed have basically confirmed Zhang Fucheng's crimes. Those who followed him and clamored for Haihan to revoke the unfair regulations are now all silent, and there is no sound at all—— Not to mention the right and wrong of opposing Haihan's regulations, no one would dare to take the initiative to take the charge of colluding with "pirate spies" alone.

Of course, Zhang Fucheng himself felt the change in the atmosphere in the venue. A moment ago, he was the leader of public opinion supported by local businessmen, but in just a short while, the hot atmosphere just now turned into ice.Zhang Fucheng didn't even have to turn his head, he could feel the eyes of everyone on his back like sharp knives.Now, of course, he understands that he has been calculated by the Haihan people, but with all the witnesses and material evidence, it is almost impossible for him to clear up his grievances.

In a daze, Zhang Fucheng only heard Qiu Yuan's voice continuing: "...Everyone, the case of Zhang Fucheng colluding with pirates and reselling arms is of a very bad nature. After the militia reported it to the Haihan Executive Committee, Tao Donglai The chairman personally ordered the supervision. It took nearly three months. The relevant departments dispatched hundreds of people, visited many states and counties to investigate, and obtained a large number of detailed witnesses and material evidence. The evidence I just listed is just ten of them. It’s just two or three. I only have four words to comment on this case—evidence! evidence! true! chisel! If you have any questions, you can go to the Haihan Justice Department in Sanya to inquire about the details of the case.”

If there are really some people who don't open their eyes and go to Sanya to ask the Ministry of Justice to inquire about this case, it is basically tantamount to throwing themselves into the trap. The relevant departments have at least a hundred ways to get rid of a person in Sanya.Therefore, whether this case has the ironclad evidence that Qiu Yuan touts is actually not that important.

"Come here!" Qiu Yuan raised his voice and greeted, "Detain this unscrupulous businessman who colluded with pirates and conspired against the law! After the successor official appointed by the Guangdong government arrives, he will be handed over to the parent officer for interrogation."

Immediately, four ferocious militiamen rushed forward, took out the ropes they had prepared and put them on Zhang Fucheng.At this moment, Zhang Fucheng was so frightened that his whole body went limp, and he didn't even have the strength to resist, but he kept shouting for grievances.The militiaman who did the work had already been ordered, and he was not allowed to continue to yell at all. Holding his collar, he slapped him with two big mouths, then squeezed his chin, stuffed a ball of rags into his mouth, and squeaked No sound.After tying him up, two militiamen held his underarms with their hands and dragged him out of the venue like dragging a dead man.

Looking at the panic-stricken appearance of everyone in the venue, Qiu Yuan felt indescribably relieved, and began to conclude the play with a smile: "Everyone, don't be nervous. In order to protect the safety of Qiongzhou Island, we have always spared no effort. Here I can make a promise to everyone, as long as we are here, there will never be a day when pirates attack Qiongzhou Island again!"

However, this passionate speech did not bring about the cheers that Qiu Yuan expected, perhaps because they were still in shock, most people still looked dull and did not keep up with the rhythm he brought.Qiu Yuan had no choice but to continue to say: "As for the investigation and handling of the criminal businessman Zhang Fucheng, please rest assured that our Haihan judicial department will not wrongly wrong a good person, but we will never let a bad person go. The reason why this case is delayed It took so long to be exposed on this occasion, because according to our investigation, in fact, a lot of local people were involved in the previous pirate invasion, and the merchants who have private connections with the pirate gang are far more than the Fucheng Shipping Company..."

Qiu Yuan's eyes slowly swept across everyone's faces: "...As far as we know, the pirates not only bought arms before the war, but also purchased a large amount of medicines, ships, food and other items in advance, and provided these to the pirates. There are many people who have colluded with them and are suspected of betraying the imperial court!"

Those who were caught by his eyes were shocked.Most of these people's positions are similar to Zhang Fucheng's. They believe that Haihan's arrival has greatly affected their original business development model, and they have always been against the coast either openly or secretly.And Qiu Yuan's words were undoubtedly a warning to them.

"... For some merchants who don't know the truth and have gone astray, we still follow the principle of curing the disease and saving the life. As long as we find out that their motive is not to assist pirates, then we can forget the past." Qiu Yuan's voice continued to echo in the conference room: "But... For those criminals who are obsessed with obstinacy, stubborn, and still trying to fight against the forces of justice, we will definitely strike and punish them resolutely! All illegal income will be confiscated on behalf of the government, and those who commit illegal acts will be punished. People will be arrested and imprisoned!"

"Good! Director Qiu's words are really good!" Right next to the chair that Zhang Fucheng vacated, a dark-skinned middle-aged man immediately responded: "Guarded by the soldiers of the Haihan Militia, I will wait for you again." There is no need to worry about pirates invading Qiongzhou! Shameless people like Zhang Fucheng who colluded with pirates and murdered the people should be severely punished!"

The guy who jumped out and hugged his thigh was also one of the people who yelled most vigorously with Zhang Fucheng just now, but obviously his brain is much easier to use than Zhang Fucheng. Han waved his flag and shouted.Of course, Qiu Yuan was amazed at the thickness of his skin so quickly to sort out the clues and make up his mind to change roles.

"What Boss Zeng said is very true. If everyone present at the meeting has Boss Zeng's awareness and integrity, our temporary management committee won't have to worry so much!" Qiu Yuan saw that this guy's attitude was more correct, so he gave it to him a chance.

These people here are not fools, Qiu Yuan said so clearly, but dare to shut up and not express his position, it is almost equivalent to taking a position with Zhang Fu who was just taken away.At that moment, everyone opened their mouths to express their support for Hai Han, and mercilessly drew a line with Zhang Fucheng and his ilk.Suddenly, the situation changed suddenly, and the cold situation at the beginning of the meeting disappeared, and everyone rushed to speak, lest they express their opinions too slowly and be misunderstood by Qiu Yuan.

After finally waiting for everyone to express their attitudes one by one, Qiu Yuan returned to the speaking position, cleared his throat and said: "Actually, what happened just now was just a small episode. Next, let's hurry up and talk about serious matters. About Do you have any comments on the reconstruction and expansion project of Haikou Port that I mentioned earlier?"

Now that things have come to this, what else can I say?The person who just jumped out to say that he had an opinion has now been imprisoned on the charge of "collaborating with pirates", and he might lose his head after a while.Who else would dare to offer a second opinion at this juncture other than agreeing?
After coming to Fucheng for so many meetings, Qiu Yuan felt that today was the only meeting that made him feel refreshed.Of course, he also understands that although this method is very effective, it is still a solution to the symptoms rather than the root cause. Those who are unwilling to accept Haihan's rule will only hide their rebellious emotions deeper and use more subtle methods.In the future, it will be more troublesome to deal with those who make trouble secretly than it is now.The top priority is to try our best to promote the gradual implementation of the Haihan social system in the local area. As long as a Haihan-style ruling system is established locally, it will not be so easy for the remnants of feudalism to make a comeback.

The naturalized civilian cadres currently assigned to the Qiongbei area are far from enough to support the administrative system with the village as the unit, at most they go to the county.As for the local rule of these temporary management agencies, they still have to rely more on the scattered militia troops stationed in various places, relying on the deterrence of force to achieve management, which is far below the level of Qiongnan area in comparison.

But after the businessmen in Fucheng were settled, Qiu Yuan was finally able to free up his hands and feet, and began to carry out the reconstruction and expansion project of Haikou Port north of Fucheng.The design work of this project has been completed ahead of schedule by the Ministry of Construction in the first two months, and all that needs to be done now is to invest a lot of labor and start the real project.

The biggest problem in Haikou Port at present is the sediment accumulation at the mouth of the Nandu River. Under the scouring of the river for many years, a large amount of sand is deposited on the channel of the mouth, making the effective navigation of the river narrower and narrower, and the water depth of the channel is getting deeper and deeper. shallower.In the waters that ships of [-] materials can reach in the past, even half of the ships are now in danger of running aground.

Haihan also doesn't have enough energy to build a new port here. The military port area selected by the military is 20 miles away, and the construction has just begun.With the existing engineering strength of the Ministry of Construction, it is obvious that there is no way to build two new ports in this area at the same time.Therefore, as the name suggests, the reconstruction and expansion project at Haikou Port is mainly aimed at improving the channel conditions, expanding the wharf on the basis of the existing port, and improving the cargo handling function.

In this era, the dredging of the waterway is undoubtedly a hard job. Basically, the silt at the bottom of the river can only be dug up to the boat bit by bit by manpower, and then transported to the shore for disposal after simple drainage.Although the industrial sector has long been able to manufacture steam engines, the existing production capacity is not enough to build professional equipment such as dredging ships. The original method was carried out bit by bit by manpower.

With such a construction method, the progress of the project will undoubtedly be very slow.The Ministry of Construction expects the construction period to be as long as half a year. During this period, Haikou Port will implement sailboat entry and exit control, and only some docks will be opened in turn for ships to dock.What Qiu Yuan said in the previous meeting about the "certification of port entry and exit qualifications" is not entirely groundless, it is indeed a part of the supporting project of the port renovation project.Of course, it was an unexpected gain for Zhang Fucheng to be able to jump out so consciously to die.

January 1631, 1, the 17th day of the twelfth lunar month in the fourth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Guangzhou.

More than a dozen candidates for Qiongzhou officials who were finally selected from the Guangdong officialdom came to the Pearl River Wharf with their families.They will sail south from here to Qiongzhou Island to perform their duties.Although Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, did not come from Zhaoqing Mansion to see them off in person, he still sent his most capable general, Liu Qian, to Guangzhou to practice for these officials who went to Qiongzhou to take office.

Liu Qian has gained a lot of weight compared to when he first dealt with Haihan two years ago, which may have a lot to do with his gains in the past two years.Just the various benefits obtained from Haihan's work are already worth tens of thousands of taels of silver.Moreover, Haihan specially left him a way out, as long as he said something, someone would pick him up from Zhaoqing at any time, and go to Qiongzhou Island or any place he designated to settle down.It is precisely because of this guarantee that Liu Qian has become more and more unscrupulous in making money.

This time Qiongzhou Island was attacked by pirates, Liu Qian took a lot of benefits from Haihan in order to persuade Wang Zunde to allow Haihan to send troops and temporarily take charge of the government affairs in northern Qiongzhou.After that, there were a lot of vacancies in the official positions on Qiongzhou Island, and there was also an undercurrent in the official circles in Guangdong because of this. Many people planned to take advantage of this opportunity to move up.Although the appointment of these positions was decided by the imperial court and the Ministry of Officials, it was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi who recommended candidates to the imperial court. Therefore, many people tried to take this route to achieve their goals.

And the person who guards this door is Liu Qian. In the past two or three months, the threshold of his house has been several inches lower, and visitors who come to visit the door almost every night.Of course, these people would not come to him empty-handed when they came to him for a relationship, and Liu Qian also reaped a lot of money because of this. The income in the past two or three months suddenly surpassed the sum of his previous years.

While Liu Qian made a fortune, he didn't forget who was his real God of Wealth. If the Haihan people hadn't made such a big effort in Qiongzhou Island, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to sit at home and collect money from others.Therefore, during this period, Hai Han gave him all kinds of instructions, and he followed them one by one, becoming Hai Han's non-staff employee.

(End of this chapter)