1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 547 Alternate Officials
The Haihan Executive Committee does not intend to completely seal off Hainan Island. That way, while ensuring the right to rule, it will also lose the huge consumer market of the mainland. Moreover, this behavior of magpie's nest and dove's occupation will definitely make Daming unable to step down. Even if the strength of the Ming army in Guangdong and Guangxi is not enough to cross the sea to defeat the Haihan militia, it is still a bad idea to enter a state of hostility with Ming for this reason.That's why it took a lot of trouble to arrange an army disguised as pirates from Annan to invade, take the opportunity to clean up the local opposition forces, and then the Haihan militia took over the Qiongbei area as a matter of course.

The situation that the Executive Committee hopes to achieve at this stage is the de facto occupation of the entire territory of Hainan Island. As for the nominal ownership, the Executive Committee does not mind letting the Ming Dynasty retain its face for a while.The local government agencies of the Ming Dynasty can continue to exist on Hainan Island, but from now on it will only exist in form. The executive committee does not intend to return the power of local governance and jurisdiction.

The policy that accompanies this line of thinking is to allow Daming to continue stationing officials on Qiongzhou Island, and then take evasive measures locally.If you are willing to cooperate, you will definitely have a better life during your tenure, and you will probably get a lot of money when you leave.But if you want to come to Hainan Island to make trouble, the result will probably be the same as the dozens of officials, big and small, who disappeared mysteriously in this pirate attack.

If you don’t want to screw up this game, you need to control the details. Similar to the officials sent by Daming to Hainan Island again, you need to take care of it, and try to control those who have extreme and hostile views on Haihan. Candidates who are more emotional are excluded from the list, so as to avoid the negative impact that these people may have after they take office.As for this gatekeeping work, Haihan did not have the right to directly participate in it, and mainly exerted indirect influence through Liu Qian.

Although there were crowds of officials on the Pearl River Wharf today, Liu Qian's attention was obviously not on them, but he kept looking eastward.A certain alternate official who was thanking him couldn't help asking: "Master Liu, is there any other adult coming today?"

Liu Qian responded, "My lord? Hehe, the one who is coming is not a lord, but his influence in Qiongzhou, Guangzhou is no less than that of the adults in the yamen."

"Such a powerful person, could it be that he is a member of Jinyiwei?" The official asked slightly surprised.

Liu Qian glared at him, thinking that such a guy who has never seen the world would dare to go to Qiongzhou Island. If he hadn't seen his money so readily, he would have been too lazy to talk to him, so he snorted and said: "Master Yan, Although you used to be an official in Luoding Prefecture, you don’t know anything about Guangzhou and Qiongzhou, do you? If you go to Qiongzhou in such a deaf and blind manner, I’m afraid this person will not be able to sit still!”

In terms of his status as an aide, Liu Qian's words were extremely serious, but after all, he was a popular person around the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Although the official surnamed Yan was reprimanded by him, there was no angry expression on his face. He said with a smile: "I have been staying in Luoding Prefecture for a long time, and indeed the information is a little bit closed. I would like to ask Mr. Liu to give me some advice!"

Seeing that his attitude was quite correct, Liu Qian responded: "In the past two or three years, the people who have been the most popular in Guangzhou and Qiongzhou are Haihan people. If you haven't heard of it, I really advise you to get in touch early. Go back home, don't go to Qiongzhou Island."

"I've heard of it. Of course I've heard of the names of the Haihan people, but I never expected their influence to be so great. Master Liu, please continue." The official surnamed Yan answered quickly.

Liu Qian's expression improved a little: "The Annan pirates swept across the Qiongzhou Strait a few days ago, and all the naval forces stationed on Qiongzhou Island were wiped out except for a partial division on the Yazhou side, and they were powerless to guard the sea. Even the sea route from the Pearl River Estuary to Qiongzhou in the south has not been very peaceful in recent months. Now it is all thanks to the Haihan militia to dispatch their own armed boats to escort the ships on this waterway. Today, my lords take The ship went south to take office, and I also specially invited the Haihan people to dispatch armed ships to escort the fleet."

When Liu Qian said these words, his tone was quite complacent.Although there are quite a few officials in Guangdong official circles who have sat at the same table with Haihan people, ate and drank wine, and received Haihan’s banknotes to give Haihan various conveniences, but the depth of the relationship is really to be said. In the officialdom, there is indeed nothing that can compare with Liu Qian in the officialdom. For the past year, Haihan gave gifts to the people in the officialdom in Guangdong. How much to send, whether to send money or luxury goods, and through what channels to send them, if Liu Qian did not contribute to these door-to-door matters, the Haihan people would indeed have to take a lot of detours.

Precisely because of Liu Qian's performance, when people in the official circles in Guangdong want something from Haihan and the conditions are not right, they often use Liu Qian's special channel to send a message to the Haihan people.For example, during the time when the Daming Navy on Hong Kong Island was in the most panic, in addition to finding a timber merchant to act as a messenger to express goodwill to the Haihan people in the south of Hong Kong Island, they also found Liu Qian through various channels and asked him to I came forward to discuss the conditions with the Guangzhou Office, hoping to maintain the peaceful coexistence between the two parties as much as possible.

Although Liu Qian was a little surprised that the navy actually bowed to the Haihan militia, he still went to the Guangzhou Office.Of course, Maiko, an old fritter, would naturally not make any practical promises to him, but only ensured that the militia would not take the initiative to attack the warships or personnel of the Daming Navy——when it really needed to fight, they would use a "passive defense" to kill them. In fact, it is not difficult to defeat that small navy.

The current matter of Haihan armed ships escorting civilian fleets actually started after the Qiongbei incident.Haihan's publicity was to prevent pirates from attacking civilian ships in this sea area, so the militia dispatched armed ships to escort them.But the actual purpose is to control the ships entering and leaving Qiongzhou Island. Every sailing boat that joins the fleet will be inspected in advance by the militia in the name of safety, and boarding personnel must also be registered by head, basically preventing spies from passing through this channel. The way to get into Qiongzhou Island.

However, this approach has been well received by the people, because many merchant ships and civilian ships have been ransacked by pirates in the waters near Qiongzhou before, and some of them have never even appeared with people and ships.At that time, due to complaints from the people, Qiongzhou Fucheng had to send a local navy to suppress the bandits, but they never returned.Now if Haihan hadn't dispatched armed ships to escort them, many maritime merchants in the Pearl River Basin would not even dare to send ships to Qiongzhou.

Haihan, as always, kept a low profile on this matter, claiming that the reason for dispatching the armed boat escort was "from the request of the Governor's Office of Guangdong and Guangxi", and gave Liu Qian the benefit.Therefore, many people in the market believe that the reason why Haihan is willing to spend a lot of time to do this is because of Liu Qian's face to a certain extent. Needless to say, Liu Qian asked for help, and the benefits it brought him naturally needless to say.Of course, this also affected Liu Qian's style evaluation from the side. Now the outside world generally believes that he is a representative of the pro-Haihan faction.

Sure enough, Mr. Yan was also on the road, and immediately praised Liu Qian following the words.Liu Qian was in a state of complacency when he caught sight of a black carriage approaching on the official road in the distance, with cavalry guards at the front and rear. He immediately put the teacup on the table, stood up and said, "Here we come, my lord coming."

The batch of alternate officials who were waiting under the tea shed also got up one after another when they saw the situation. Some of them were as unclear as Yan, so they kept asking who it was.Immediately, someone explained: "This carriage with black background and blue border is only available in Guangzhou Haihan Office. Those who can travel in this carriage are either Director Ma or Director He."

Someone next to him responded, "This must be Director Ma. When Director He traveled in a carriage, he didn't have so many horse guards. They all walked alone."

The cart and horses soon arrived at the pier, and the group of people waiting here suddenly found that these knights were carrying a three-foot-long thick-barreled firecracker on their backs. The leading knight reined in and jumped. When he got off his horse, he saw not only a firecracker on his back, but also a short firecracker in a leather case on the left and right sides of his waist and hips. His gaze swept across the faces of these people present like a falcon, and even Liu Qian felt it. A chill passed over him.

After confirming the situation on the scene, this person went to the side of the carriage and reported in a low voice. Immediately, the door opened from the inside, and a middle-aged man wearing a Haihan-style short shirt, trousers and leather shoes got out of the car. He was Haihan who was stationed in Guangzhou. Director of the Maritime Division.And the head of the bodyguard with three long and short guns on his back was Gong Shiqi, He Xi's capable general.It happened that there was no other task today, so He Xi sent him and the field team to play the guest bodyguard.

Of course, the measures taken by the bodyguards are a bit of a demonstration. The wharf where the fleet of official ships docks is only a little more than one mile away from the courtyard of the Guangzhou Office. It can be said that this is still a force of the Guangzhou Office. Within the range, almost all the laborers on this pier work for Haihan, and no one dares to make trouble here.Gong Shiqi led the field team and rode out on horseback with a short-barreled rifle on their backs. It was more about showing off their strength than performing bodyguard duties.

"Director Ma, let me wait for you!" Liu Qian already greeted him with a smile on his face. Although his tone was slightly complaining, his expression was as if he saw a relative.

"My lords, Mr. Liu, I'm sorry for the long wait!" Maliko bowed again and again, "I'm really sorry, I was unable to get away from talking with the distinguished guest from Fujian just now, and I wasted everyone's time!"

Some of the alternate officials snorted coldly and said, "I don't know what kind of honorable guest is it, who made me wait for more than ten court officials to blow the wind on this pier for more than half an hour?"

Maliko glanced at this man, and secretly took note of his appearance, with the same expression on his face, he said: "Master Xu Xinsuxu, General Soldier of Fujian Province, came to my place to discuss the purchase of new artillery and warships. Does this lord have anything to say about this?" What objection?"

The man was dumbfounded immediately, although it meant that civil servants of the court were naturally higher than military officials, but Fujian General Soldier was not a petty official of sesame mung bean, and not everyone could utter insults.Xu Xinsu has made a name for himself in Fujian in recent years. Not only has his family's maritime trade business expanded, but he has also led troops to defeat the "Eighteen Zhis" that occupy Dayuan Island.It only took Xu Xinsu two or three years to accumulate military exploits. He was promoted from a naval officer with [-] troops to the general of a province. His reputation is well-known in Guangdong.

Moreover, according to folk rumors, the relationship between Xu Zongbing and Haihan is very deep, and a large number of merchant ships travel between Fujian and Qiongzhou Sanya every year.In recent years, the Fujian Navy's combat power has soared, and almost all of them have been equipped with light and heavy firearms produced by Haihan. Behind this must be the strong support from the Haihan people.It is said that the imperial court was also very dissatisfied after knowing the corruption of Guangdong's coastal defense. It has already deliberately transferred Xu Xinsu, who has achieved outstanding achievements in recent years, to Guangdong to work in Guangdong to rebuild the coastal defense. big shot.

Seeing that the man shut up obediently, Maliko had no intention of continuing to pursue him, and immediately said loudly: "My lords will go to Qiongzhou Island this time, and the journey will inevitably be tiring and hard. Our Haihan office has specially prepared some Soothing fatigue and refreshing medicine, please adults must accept it."

As soon as Maliko finished speaking, someone took out several wooden boxes from the back of the carriage, each of which was half a foot long and three inches wide, and only about half an inch thick.Immediately someone was in charge of distributing it to each family, and every official got one.

Liu Qian heard someone muttering in the crowd behind: "The people of Haihan are so poor, they thought that the director would be more generous when he came here, but he sent out some useless medicine... Hey, it's not medicine... "

Liu Qian just snorted softly in his nose, and secretly scolded the country bumpkin in his heart.As soon as he saw the box, he knew that the gift was not simple, because every time the people stationed in Guangzhou sent him bank notes, they were always packed in this kind of wooden box carved from rosewood, but he didn't know that this time What is the number of shots.

But soon, people began to thank Maliko one after another, and it seems that the amount should not be too small.Liu Qian would not be jealous of Maliko for giving money to these alternate officials who went to Qiongzhou Island to take office. He has worked with the Haihan people for a long time, and he knows the Haihan people's work habits. If the work is done well, the Haihan people will naturally present the banknotes with the fragrance of ink on time and in quantity.

After Mariko promised a few words, he said loudly: "Masters must know that the wind and waves on the sea are not so calm recently, and there have been pirates in the Qiongzhou Strait. For the sake of the safety of the adults, Mr. Liu specially moved forward half a day. He came to negotiate with me for more than a month, asking us to deploy armed ships to escort the fleet of adults."

(End of this chapter)