1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 692 Results of the Autumn Fair

Van Longen hadn't quite understood why Van der Wegen, who led six armed sailboats into battle, was beaten to the ground by the Haihan people, but when he saw the Haihan fleet docked at the Victory Port military dock, he could more or less feel it. Van der Wegen was helpless at the beginning.Yes, the armed force of the Haihan people is not a merchant ship equipped with a few cannons, but a real combat fleet. Compared with the armed merchant ships of the East India Company, there is a clear gap in strength.

As for how much it costs to maintain such a huge fleet, Van Longen, as the commander of a merchant fleet, still has some ideas in mind.The most terrifying thing is that the Haihan people obviously have more than one fleet. They also deployed a large number of combat ships in Fujian and Annan, which means that there are at least two other fleets.Van Longen believes that at least multiplying the warships seen here by three, or even a larger multiple, is the true state of Haihan's maritime combat power.

The only good thing is that the company's board of directors did not rashly make the decision to attack Sanya or start a full-scale war with Haihan. Otherwise, judging from the current situation, once the war starts, the East India Company may suffer a big loss.

As a military officer, Van der Wegen's eyes had been straightened for a long time. After staying in Sanya for more than a month, he finally saw the goal of his trip.But the Haihan people didn't give him more time to observe, so they could only take a glimpse from afar.The intelligence information that can be collected in this way may be difficult to explain to the big bosses of the board of directors after returning home.

In order to prevent the Dutch from making any more irrational actions, the Haihan Navy specially dispatched two "Exploration Class" sailboats to "escort" the Dutch fleet all the way south, and did not turn back until the next day.

After sending off the Dutch fleet, the Sanya Autumn Fair has finally reached its climax.Merchants from all over the world gathered in Sanya to sign various cooperation agreements.Among them, the relatively large projects are mainly concentrated in the Qiongbei area. There are seven collective farm projects with more than [-] mu this time.In addition, there are also agents from all over the world who have signed contracts. In addition to Fuzhou and Guangxi, there are also many merchants who have traveled thousands of miles from Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places in order to obtain some Haihan products in Daming. "Provincial Sales Agency Qualification" within the territory.

With the gradual rollout of the sales channel network led by the Ministry of Commerce of Haihan in the two provinces of Fuzhou and Guangxi in the past two years, the sales area of ​​Haihan products has gradually extended to the inland provinces and the central and northern regions of Ming Dynasty.Some merchants with good vision and connections are ready to follow the example of their counterparts in Fuzhou and Guangxi provinces, and take the initiative to establish commercial cooperation with Haihan, and underwrite Haihan products in areas that Haihan's own business channels cannot reach.

Almost no one would have any doubts about Haihan's strength after inspecting the actual situation of Hainan Island. Wherever they went, including the local government, they obeyed the Haihan people. It seems that there is already a country within a country.However, businessmen don't care so much about whether what the Haihan people do here is against the law of the country. They just need to know how much profit they can earn from cooperation with the Haihan people, and that the Haihan people have enough ability to ensure the stability of this cooperative relationship And security, that's enough.As for whether the Haihan people are loyal to the court and the emperor, can these be converted into white money and put into their pockets?

The Autumn Fair was successfully concluded at the end of October. During this period, in addition to receiving a large number of commodity orders, two provincial-level commercial guilds, Guanghai Commercial League and Fuhai Commercial League, were newly established.This kind of guild is different from the "Qiong Lianfa" established by the Haihan organization. It is not a profit-making organization based on the joint-stock system, but a relatively loose business alliance spontaneously organized by businessmen in the Ming Dynasty.

As the name suggests, the members of this kind of business alliance are merchants who have trade relations with Haihan. It can be said that they are all stakeholders of Haihan, and the influence of these people is also very considerable after they form a group at the local level.Haihan wants to promote the values, culture, finance, lifestyle, etc., if it only relies on its own strength to operate, the efficiency will definitely not be too high, but with the participation of these regional business alliances in the promotion, the effect It will be very different.

Taking Guangdong and Guangxi as an example, the members of the Guanghai Chamber of Commerce basically include Chaozhou, Huizhou, Nanxiong, Shaozhou, Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Luodingzhou, Gaozhou, Lianzhou, Leizhou and other state capitals under the rule of Guangdong. Establish a unified message channel.Once there are any new products or foreign policies in Haihan, they can be promoted to the entire province in a very short period of time, instead of relying on word of mouth to slowly expand the scope of influence as in the past .

The benefits of the merchants of Ming Dynasty participating in this business alliance are also obvious. In addition to being able to obtain the underwriting qualification of Haihan products in the first time, get the latest market quotations, etc., the most important thing is that so many powerful merchants gather together, it is easy It can intervene in the market to obtain more benefits.Moreover, Haihan Bank will also provide more special services for the business alliance to facilitate the payment settlement of the members of the business alliance during the transaction process and improve the efficiency of their capital operation.

For Haihan, besides the various benefits that can be seen on the surface, this form also has a purpose of suppressing those localities who are unwilling to cooperate with Haihan, or even take a hostile attitude towards Haihan. merchant.Moreover, with Haihan's strength, he can provide all kinds of help to his family's support targets, especially the military support that local wealthy gentry are very interested in.

The Li family supported by Haihan in Guangzhou has almost become a model for all foreign cooperation.A few years ago, Lijiazhuang was besieged by bandits and nearly wiped out, but now it is known as the number one village in Guangdong and Guangxi.At present, the Golden Shield Escort, which exists in various parts of Guangdong and Guangxi in the form of a bodyguard company, is a bodyguard company on the surface, but anyone who knows the inside story knows that this bodyguard company is no different from a private army. All the weapons and equipment are specially supplied by Haihan people, and all the personnel are also trained by Haihan people—many of them have even served in the Haihan militia.

Governments all over the country turned a blind eye to the existence of Jindun. Firstly, the Li family and Haihan people behind Jindun were indeed powerful enough. Generally, grassroots officials of the sixth and seventh ranks could not control them at all; There will also be places to turn to Jindun for help, such as escorting Kuyin, severely punishing criminals, arresting wanted criminals, catching robbers and bandits, etc. Jindun is much better at doing these tasks than local government officials, and the beginning and end are all It is handled very cleanly and will not cause too much trouble to the government.

In the eyes of the big local households, armed organizations like Golden Shield can do more private work.It can be used to guard the home and nurse the home, or to brush up the ostentation.The dignitaries of the Li family travel now, they are all accompanied by guards carrying Haihan muskets on their backs, the ostentation is even bigger than some officials, who doesn't envy them?
And at this autumn trade fair, Haihan conveniently announced that in future foreign cooperation, all business alliance members can apply for Haihan's military support, including personnel training, weapon purchase, emergency rescue, etc. Those big local households who have always been jealous of the Li family in Guangzhou and the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" have an excellent opportunity, and they finally have the opportunity to play happily together with these pioneers on an equal footing.

The special treatment given to business alliance members like this involves almost every aspect imaginable.Haihan Bank will set up special counters for the merchant alliance, and there will be exclusive warehouses for the merchant alliance at various docks. Any places that can reflect the differences in the status of the members of the merchant alliance will be included in the relevant instructions of the merchant alliance in detail.Although the merchants don't understand what VIP treatment is, nor what differentiated services are, but just the treatment temporarily listed on paper can already make them feel the difference of being a member of the business alliance.

Of course, there are also entry barriers to enjoy these benefits. In addition to certain requirements on the size of the members' assets, members of the business alliance have to pay a certain amount of public fees every year.In the words of Schneider at the promotion meeting of the business alliance, this measure is to raise the barriers to entry and prevent the business alliance from becoming a low-level guild where cats and dogs can get in.Not only do the tycoons not feel disgusted by this, but they take it seriously. They enter this circle to make business partners with comparable strength. Who would be willing to cooperate with people whose levels and concepts are too different.

Although Haihan will not directly lead or interfere with the daily operations of the business alliance, he also has a lot of influence in it.The first chairman of the Guanghai Business League was held by Li Jifeng, the treasurer of "Furuifeng", and the position of the Fuhai Business League was held by Xu Xinsu's second brother Xu Xinzhe. Even if someone wanted to make trouble in the business alliance, it would be difficult. Grab the real right to speak.

After finishing the work of the Autumn Fair, the executive committee non-stop began to implement the next plan, which is to eliminate Shibazhi and clean up the waterways along the coast of Fujian and the Taiwan Strait.Although the scale of the operation is not as large as the Annan Civil War, and the combat distance is not as good as that of the Abuna Islands, this combat goal can still be regarded as a new challenge for Haihan.

The defensive strength of the Abunar Islands was very limited, and Haihan almost took it down without too much effort, and then took advantage of the geographical advantage to defend against the counterattack of the Dutch.But Shibazhi has occupied Penghu for several years, and there are still nearly [-] young and strong people under him. The strength at sea should not be underestimated. It is impossible to fight as easily as Ambuna Island.When fighting in Annan back then, the supply line was far from being as far away as Fujian. In addition, the maneuverability at sea was obviously superior, and the pressure of combat was much less.If you go to fight in Fujian, food and grass can be raised locally in Fujian, but military supplies basically still have to be transported from Hainan Island. Once the battle goes bad, such a long supply distance will become the biggest obstacle to combat.

In order to solve this trouble, the relevant departments have also prepared a solution. On the one hand, through negotiations, the Dutch retreated and no longer provided assistance to Shibazhi. Transport to Fujian.But this kind of transportation cannot be made public, it must be carried out in secret, so as not to overwhelm the enemy.Therefore, almost all the ships to carry out this mission were from the Daming Maritime Merchant, and the Ministry of Shipping did not use its own ships.

On November 11th, a fleet of blessing boats sailed slowly into Iron Furnace Port through the narrow channel outside Iron Furnace Port.Located on the west side of Sanya and in the southeast corner of Hainan Island, Tielugang is currently the second largest salt farm in Haihan's control, second only to Yinggehai in production capacity, and higher than the Shengli Port Salt Farm and the Danzhou Bay Salt Farm that has just been put into production. out a section.At the same time, this is also the main selling point for Haihan to sell private salt to the outside world. Big salt dealers like Luo Shengdong now buy goods from Tielu Port for shipment.

However, the fleet that arrived today was a little different. After arriving at the pier, they did not start loading immediately like other salt ships, but quietly docked on the shore without moving.When other salt ships come, they are eager to load them up and set off quickly, so that they can make one or two more trips a month to earn more money, so there is no reason to stop here to waste time——Iron Furnace Port Because the waterway is narrow, the number of ships that can enter the harbor is limited, so there is a metered fee for parking here, even Luo Shengdong will not let his ship dock here for more than half a day.

However, the fleet that did not fly the flag has remained silent, apparently planning to spend the night here, and the other ships carrying smuggled salt hurriedly left before sunset, leaving only this fleet Leaning alone on the pier on the west bank of the harbour.

After dusk fell, the pier suddenly became lively, porters appeared pushing a team of carts, and torches and lanterns were lit up on the side of the ship one after another.The sailors quickly set up the gangway, and the porters began loading boxes of goods onto the ship.

These goods are all military supplies produced in Tiandu's workshop, secretly transported through the valley between Tiandu and Tielugang, and then shipped here in the name of illicit salt.In order to keep the secret as much as possible, this kind of shipment is often arranged at night, and the sailors on the ship don't know what the contents of these goods are - they only know that the things shipped this time are worth more than private salt more, and the wages they can get will also increase a lot.

The shipment of goods lasted until midnight. When the sky was just getting bright, the fleet left Iron Furnace Harbor without a sound and headed northeast.Their destination is Hong Kong Island at the mouth of the Pearl River, where the goods need to be loaded and unloaded once more, and then the merchant ships from Fujian will complete the next step of transshipment and transport them to Jinmen Island, Fujian, which is where the Haihan Military Advisory Group is stationed. place.

(End of this chapter)