1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 678 Investment Environment
"The people from the Ministry of Security are ineffective!" After hearing Qiao Zhiya's gossip, Gu Kai couldn't help but complain: "It's been half a year since March, why haven't they caught the fugitives in that case yet? Is it they? Don't you pay enough attention to the affairs of Danzhou?"

Qiao Zhiya replied: "The Ministry of Security cannot be entirely blamed for this matter. They have deployed a lot of troops in Danzhou. Danzhou was originally in charge of a person named Wang Baisuo. Later, Hao Wanqing took both Lin Nan and Li Qingyang for this case. Transferred to Danzhou, do you recognize these two people?"

Gu Kai nodded. He recognized these two people who used to go in and out of Victory Fort.Lin Nan was Hao Wanqing's capable general, and Li Qingyang, a former Jinyiwei officer, had applied for Haihan naturalization last year. Both of them were relatively well-known figures in the Ministry of Security.

Qiao Zhiya continued: "In addition to them, Minister He's apprentice Zhang Qianzhi is also in Danzhou. Zhang Qianzhi is said to have made great contributions to solving the case in March!"

Qiao Zhiya said that these people can be regarded as elite soldiers of the Ministry of Security, even if Gu Kai didn't have much dealings with the Ministry of Security, he knew of the existence of these people.But this made him even more puzzled: "Since Hao Wanqing has transferred so many experts, why hasn't the matter been dealt with cleanly?"

"The main reason is that the main culprit was not caught at the time, and it is said that he fled into the mountains later. Qiongbei is no better than Qiongnan. Many Li and Miao villages have little contact with the outside world. There are also many practical difficulties for the security department to go into the mountains to search for them." Qiao Zhiya sighed: "With the small amount of manpower in the Ministry of Security, we can only deploy and control in the city. It is impossible to search the mountains without the cooperation of the military."

Gu Kai did not say "then make a report and ask the military to cooperate". To conduct a large-scale mountain search in Qiongbei, it would require at least thousands of troops. It is estimated that the entire Qiongbei stationed Only the militias can invest in it. The military will definitely not agree to such a rash method.As for the field staff of the Ministry of Security, there are often only a dozen or 20 people in a state. This kind of configuration in Danzhou is already beyond the standard, but it is useless to spread such a small number of people into the mountains, and it will increase their own dangers. In Qiongbei, there are not as many Li Miao cottages in Haihan as in Qiongnan, and the attitude of the mountain people to the Han people may not be friendly.

Gu Kai could only shake his head helplessly and said: "I hope this matter can be resolved quickly, but many projects in the Autumn Fair are in Danzhou... I don't know if these foreign businessmen who visited Danzhou a few days ago will affected."

The visiting group organized by the Ministry of Commerce is divided into two groups, one group settled in Sanya, mainly to inspect some new industrial products launched by the Ministry of Commerce, and to discuss cooperation intentions in trade, finance and infrastructure.Another batch of visiting groups to Qiongzhou Fucheng and Danzhou took the large-scale collective farm project planned locally as the object of investigation, and took a look at the area to be developed designated by the Haihan Management Committee.

Qiao Zhiya said with a smile: "You can rest assured about this matter. The group of visitors from Danzhou arrived yesterday. I chatted with these people at the welcome banquet. They are very interested! Who wouldn't want a profitable business?" Rushing to do it?"

After the cleansing of the Qiongbei area by "Operation Liaoyuan" and the special treatment for more than half a year, many landlords and gentry who did not want to cooperate with Haihan were swept away from the place in various ways, and a large area was cleaned up. to realize Haihan's collective farm development model.In addition to planting food crops in the future, these lands will also have quite large-scale cash crop plantations, and this is exactly what foreign investors are looking for.

Spice crops, oil crops, hemp crops, rubber trees that can produce rubber, and mulberry trees that are necessary for the development of the sericulture industry in Qiongzhou Island are all economic crops that will be planted on a large scale in Qiongbei and Qiongzhong.The market conditions of these types of economic crops have always been good, and the investment prospects are also very good. The plantation parks invested by "Qiong Lianfa" in the Qiongnan area in the early stage have basically entered the profit-making stage, which has also built up more confidence for subsequent investors.

For Haihan, who has already controlled the power of Qiongzhou Island, what he can provide in this transaction is venue and technology. Strictly speaking, funds are not too short. The reason why we still want to introduce outside investors is mainly to consider to labor shortages and future distribution channels.

In addition to capital investment, businessmen from Daming and other places often send a large amount of labor to these places. On the one hand, they can speed up the development progress, and on the other hand, they can also learn some planting techniques and management experience of the Haihan people—of course Whether these people would like to move back to where they came from after living in the local area for a few years is not certain.

After a period of time, these places start to produce output, and then the merchants who participated in the initial investment and construction can get the corresponding priority sales rights, and can transport these in-demand commodities to Daming, Annan and other domestic inland areas for sale, and obtain high returns.And there is no need for Haihan to expend energy to set up these channels one by one. Investors will naturally try to improve this link that is closely related to their interests.

Haihan people have advanced technology, land with clear ownership, stable external environment and reliable business reputation. Whether investors are looking for high returns or long-term stable returns, almost all of them can be controlled by Haihan. Find suitable business projects in the area.Although the merchants who went to the Danzhou tour group had also heard about the assassination of Lord Zhizhou by an assassin, after they went to the local area to see it, they naturally knew that it was not the Ming government that was in charge of the local area, but the subordinates of the Haihan Executive Committee Danzhou Management Committee.

Merchants don't care too much about the righteousness of the country and the like, not to mention that Haihan has not openly raised the flag of rebellion at this time.Moreover, the word of mouth of the Haihan people has long been spread through business activities in the past few years, and they have never had any bad records in transactions or cooperative operations. In terms of reliability, they are much better than the government.Therefore, although the situation in Danzhou seems to be not very peaceful recently, it still has not affected the investment enthusiasm of merchants.

The same is true for the merchants who came from Sanya. Although they had traveled nearly three days by sea, these people showed no signs of fatigue at all. freight track".

Gu Kai had no choice but to come out to smooth things over: "Everyone, everyone has been exhausted all the way, and today we are temporarily resting here in Changhua County. Tomorrow, we will organize everyone to take the train to Changhua County with another visiting group that arrived earlier. Forty miles to the east, we will visit the Shilu mining area. Director Qiao of the Changhua Management Committee has prepared a sumptuous welcome banquet for everyone, please follow the instructions of the staff and take the carriage to the county seat one by one."

That night, Qiao Zhiya held a banquet in Changhua County to entertain the visiting group, and the local magistrates, general officials and other local officials also came forward to accompany them.Seeing that Haihan has managed the situation here so well, the businessmen are naturally relieved about the investment prospects here.

The next morning, after the visiting group had breakfast in the county seat, they arrived at the train station outside the county seat one after another under the leadership of the staff.After the merger of the two tour groups, there were still more than forty people excluding the attendants and servants, so Qiao Zhiya arranged in advance a passenger carriage specially used to carry distinguished guests.

Many of these businessmen are riding this legendary "Haihan Train" that emits white smoke for the first time.But now the passenger carriages are no longer the same as when they were opened to traffic from Shengli Port to Tiandugang. They have decent roof windows, and the windows are still inlaid with palm-sized flat glass, which makes businessmen call them extravagant. ——Just the glass windows installed in this carriage can be sold for at least one or two thousand taels of silver in Daming territory.The seats in the carriage are all fixed on the floor, made of hardwood, and the outer layer is leather-wrapped palm cushions, which is relatively comfortable to sit on.Buckets of ice cubes made from saltpeter were also placed in the compartment to cool the interior.

Of course, the conditions of the other wagons pulled by the same locomotive as the visiting group were far from being so good. Only the roof covered with bamboo mats is good enough to keep out the wind and rain, and the servants and the like can only make do with this kind of wagon temporarily.In addition to the labor tools and living materials transported to the mining area, these wagons also have hundreds of miners who are going to work in Shilu.However, these miners are different from the coolies who dig rocks in the mine. They are basically the foremen of various mining sites and technicians in charge of mining technology, so they can take the train between Changhua and Shilu.The real coolie miners basically live in Shilu for a long time, and it is difficult for them to get out of the mining area.

With the sound of two whistles, the steam locomotive began to accelerate slowly, pulling a train of skins out of the platform, and headed inland to the east.Someone in the visiting group soon noticed a large building in the south of the track: "Mr. Gu, why are there so many chimneys here?"

Gu Kai explained: "This is the iron and steel production base we built. It will be officially put into operation in two days. At that time, we will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony and invite all the bosses here to watch the ceremony. I also hope that everyone You can all enjoy the face!"

Those who are interested have already noticed the key words. This salt and iron has always been a state-owned project. It is no secret that the Haihan people opened a salt field in Qiongnan to make private salt. Some people have heard that there is a Tiandu in the inland of Sanya. The iron mine is in operation, but the Haihan people have made such a big presence in Changhua, and they dare to disclose it to so many outsiders, it seems that they don't take Daming seriously.

A wise man has already asked: "The mine in Shilu should be mining iron ore?"

Gu Kai did not hide this, nodded and replied: "Not only iron ore, but also copper mine. Those coal ships that you saw at Changhua Port yesterday all came from Annan Black Earth Port. The coal they transported It will be made into coke in Changhua, and then used to make iron and steel. I can tell you a big word here, after the factory in Changhua is put into operation, the output of steel will soon surpass that of the entire Guangdong and Guangxi regions!"

What do Haihan people do to refine so much steel?Of course, businessmen don't naturally think that they are only used to make farm tools, kitchen knives, iron pots and other things. These steels are bound to be used to build this kind of high-speed road paved with rails. Ships, and countless armors, and the famous Haihan rifles and artillery.Everyone can think of this truth, but no one will say it on this occasion.

"This train is as fast as a galloping horse, but far more stable than riding a horse. It's really good, but the track has to be laid for such a long time, so it must be expensive?" It was the first time for Zhong Zhong to take a train, and while he was excited, he also tried to find out the value of this thing.

"I can invite Director Qiao to answer this question. When the railway was built, Director Qiao was the person in charge." Gu Kai handed this question to Qiao Zhiya with great interest.

Qiao Zhiya nodded and said: "The cost is indeed not low. You can imagine that there is no road in the place where this track passes. First, we need to open a road in the wilderness, lay gravel, sleepers on it, It is necessary to erect the iron track, which is much more difficult than ordinary road construction. In addition, the track is very heavy, weighing about [-] to [-] kilograms per foot, and a section of track is tens of feet long. The manpower required is huge. If you have experience in engineering construction, you can definitely roughly calculate the consumption."

The person who asked the question couldn't help sighing: "It takes tens of thousands of catties of land for a mile just to build the railroad tracks. It's really scary... Only the financial resources of your country can afford such A colossal project."

Qiao Zhiya smiled and didn't accept his flattery.In fact, when Haihan built this railway, it also faced many difficulties. In addition to the loss of a large amount of labor force, the pig iron used for these dozens of kilometers of tracks was indeed a large amount.For this reason, the executive committee had to coordinate in the middle, delaying a large number of arms orders, and freeing up the pig iron production capacity to supply the needs for manufacturing rails.In the first two years of the arms sales of Haihan Military Industry, there were a large number of banned weapons. In fact, part of the reason was that the weapons production capacity was indirectly affected by this project.Of course, with the opening of this railway and the commissioning of the Shilu Iron Mine, this situation has completely gone forever. Now if the same project needs to be carried out, the pig iron production capacity in Shilu alone can Meet the needs.

As the train moved forward, the visitors kept asking questions one after another. Qiao Zhiya and Gu Kai almost didn't even bother to take a sip of water, and were busy answering these questions all the time.

(End of this chapter)