1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 711 The Future of Penghu

Objectively speaking, as long as you are honest and don't mess around, being appointed as an official in Haihan's jurisdiction is actually a very good job. Not only is it leisurely, but the income is not bad.After accepting the reality, Wei Ping of the Yulin Inspection Department lived a very comfortable life in Sanya. Now he has not only bought real estate in the local area and settled down, but also served as a part-time member of the "Sanya Public Security Brigade" under the name of the Haihan Ministry of Justice. The position of deputy captain, in charge of security affairs for new immigrants from arrival to naturalization, it can be said that the future has been tightly tied to Haihan.

Of course, Wei Ping's situation is relatively special, because his brother-in-law is a Tongzhi in Yazhou, and he can be regarded as a powerful figure in the local area. Haihan was willing to cooperate with Wei Ping and Luo Shengdong out of the need of the united front. The Ming military officers tried their best to fight for it, and gave them relatively lenient treatment.

The situation in other places on Hainan Island is roughly the same. As long as they are willing to cooperate with Haihan and give up the power in their hands, their official positions in the Ming system will also be recognized by the Haihan Executive Committee, and they will get corresponding economic benefits. compensation.Those who are willing to do business to make money can follow Luo Shengdong's example and make a fortune by selling products for Haihan.Those who want to continue to be officials can also stay in the bureaucratic system of Ming Dynasty. After Xiao Yin, the general manager of Changhua, took refuge in Haihan, he was quickly promoted to the thousand households of Danzhou Wei. After changing his attitude, he also kept his official position below his buttocks.There are also quite a few Ming officials like Li Jin, a general in Danzhou, and Li Qingyang, a hundred householder of Jinyiwei, who simply changed their family and joined Haihan's sect.

Although these officials from the Ming Dynasty who were converted to Haihan generally had low positions, there were many capable people like Li Qingyang among them, which also alleviated the shortage of professional cadres in Haihan to a certain extent.Although the loyalty of some personnel is not particularly reliable, the executive committee is quite supportive of the practice of recruiting defected officials from Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Haihan still has a relatively relaxed attitude towards retaining Daming's local government agencies. As long as he doesn't oppose Haihan, everything is easy to talk about.If the officials sent by Daming can be used by Hai Han, it will save a lot of trouble.

Setting up an inspection department in a place like Penghu actually has certain benefits for Haihan.The plan of the executive committee is to build this place into a free trade base along the coast of Fujian and a bridgehead to continue to expand the sphere of influence northward. Keeping the local institutions of Ming Dynasty here can make the businessmen of Ming Dynasty who come here to trade feel more at ease.Especially for businessmen from the north of Fujian who have not dealt with Haihan much, the existence of the inspection department will make them feel more at ease about the trading environment in Penghu.Even if the Penghu Inspection Department is just a facade, it can be regarded as a reliable endorsement for the Ming merchants. After all, this place has been the most famous pirate den in the southeast coast for the past few years. Not everyone dares to rest assured. Boldly come here with your goods to trade.

Xu Xinsu also had no objection to Yan Chujie's answer. His focus was not on the actual control of Penghu, because this place has not been under the control of the Fujian government for the past few years. Let go of the hostile forces of Shibazhi.Recapturing a Penghu island that has no output has no practical significance for the Fujian government and Ming.The establishment of an inspection department here is more just to make the memorials written to the court appear fuller-the pirates and pirates in Fujian have been making trouble for so many years, and successive officials have not solved this problem well, and finally drove the pirates back Penghu also reset the inspection department on the island, and it was the current Fujian General Soldier Xu Xinsuxu who made this great contribution.

Of course, besides Fujian General Soldier, Xu Xinsu has another identity.Haihan people want to build a commercial port here in Penghu and develop trade. Xu Xinsu, as the spokesperson of Fujian Maritime, will naturally not let go of such an opportunity.Xu Xinsu hurriedly transferred hundreds of craftsmen from Fujian to Penghu, not only to serve the Haihan people, some of them came here to build warehouses and other facilities for the business under Xu's name.After the scale of trade here gradually develops, the Xu family can also smoothly hitch a ride and become a truly famous family in Fujian.

The inspiration for Xu Xinsu's approach came from the Li family in Guangzhou. Since Li Jifeng reached a cooperative relationship with Haihan, in just four or five years, Li's influence in Guangdong has become very amazing. Panyu County, Guangzhou Prefecture has almost It has become the private domain of the Li family.Compared with the Li family in Guangzhou, the Xu family in Fujian, represented by Xu Xinsu, now has a lot of officials and stronger political capital. As long as he uses the power of the Haihan people in the right way, Xu Xinsu believes that his family will rise. The speed will be much faster than that of Guangzhou Li's.

When the Haihan delegation visited Fujian last year, Xu Xinsu and Haihan representative Ning Qi discussed the future development of Penghu. Ning Qi said at the time that Haihan would invest a lot of resources in the Penghu area and imitate the operation model of Shengli Port , to build it into a large trade port on the southeast coast.

Xu Xinsu has personally visited Sanya, and knows how the Haihan people operate the port with the concept of free trade. This kind of approach is definitely not feasible in Ming Dynasty, but Xu Xinsu is very optimistic about the Haihan people operating another one in Penghu. Victory Harbor" prospect.The reason is simple. If the maritime merchants from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, North Korea, and Japan want to go south for trade, especially to buy various commodities produced by Haihan, then the Magong Port in Penghu will be their first choice in the future.And the many novel ways of Haihan people in terms of trade will also attract those maritime merchants who originally took Zhangquan and Quanzhou as their destinations to change their original intentions.

Yan Chujie went on to say: "Although the future of Penghu is to build a commercial port, but for security reasons, we will still station a certain size of militia troops here. Master Xu will not have any objections to this?"

In fact, the two sides had already communicated about this issue, and Yan Chujie brought it up again at this time, just to confirm the attitude of the Fujian government again.Xu Xinsu nodded and said: "With the Haihan militia stationed here to guard, the maritime merchants who come and go here in the future will also be able to avoid worries about safety. General Yan can rest assured that the memorial to the court has clearly written, After the pirates are expelled from Penghu, the inspection department will organize a militia here to guard the frontiers, and maybe the adults in the imperial court will be happy to see it, and then they will reward the militia with an official position."

Of course, it is impossible for the Penghu Inspection Department to organize another militia. In the future, there will be and only the Haihan militia here. The method Xu Xinsu said is actually to give the Haihan militia stationed in Penghu an official recognition. Argument - this is not a private armed force, but a local armed force organized by the Fujian government.He has dealt with the Haihan people for several years, and he also knows that the other party will not pay special attention to this kind of formality, as long as they can achieve the effect they want.

Sure enough, Yan Chujie immediately agreed with this solution: "Master Xu can say anything to the court. Our purpose is to protect the peace and tranquility here, as long as we don't misunderstand us."

Of course, this is just an official statement. The Haihan military not only regards this as a port that needs armed protection, but also as a springboard and an important strategic node for Haihan to expand its sphere of influence northward in the future.

Geographically, the distance between Sanya and Hong Kong Island and between Hong Kong Island and Penghu is more than 300 nautical miles.Regardless of whether it is military support or logistical supplies, this distance can make more efficient use of sea transportation capacity and reduce the risks that may arise during sea voyages.Moreover, Penghu just guards the entrance and exit of the southern waterway of the Taiwan Strait, and its role in wartime is no less than that of Hong Kong Island at the mouth of the Pearl River.

The military's plan to expand its scope of strength to the north is to go all the way north along the coastline, and choose places with comparable voyages to establish strongholds as much as possible.There is no dispute that the next target chosen by the military along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang is to control the Zhoushan Islands at the mouth of the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay at the same time.The voyage from Zhoushan Islands to Hong Kong Island is more than 700 nautical miles. If Hong Kong Island is used as a strategic springboard, it is a bit far away, but the voyage to Penghu is about 400 nautical miles. This distance is very suitable for Haihan military’s consistent leapfrog development strategy. .

The port conditions of Penghu itself are also very suitable for the construction of a military port. In addition to Magong Port, Penghu Bay, which is composed of Penghu Island and its surrounding islands, is actually a natural seaport with excellent conditions.The three Haihan fleets that attacked Penghu this time are currently stationed in this huge bay south of Magong Port.

However, there is still a lot of work to be done to build a military port in Penghu that meets the requirements of the Haihan Navy.Due to the special structure and manufacturing process of Haihan warships, it is relatively difficult to maintain and repair them in overseas ports.In addition to being able to dock the fleet and replenish supplies, a comprehensive military port also needs a special dock, hoisting tools, and a ship technical team.The construction speed of such professional facilities is much slower than that of civilian facilities such as commercial warehouses, and it is difficult to complete within a year or two.It has been more than two years since Haihan established the Cam Ranh Bay military port along the coast of the Indochina Peninsula, and it has only completed the first phase of the project so far. It can repair and maintain "expedition-class" warships. As for the larger " Majestic-class battleships, currently only the Victory Port Shipyard can carry out follow-up repairs and maintenance.

Therefore, although the military has made a relatively clear plan for the military use of Penghu, its implementation will still be restricted by many objective conditions.But the good news is that after deliberating the immigration plan proposed by Ning Qi and others at the beginning of the year, the Executive Committee has decided to use Penghu as a key overseas construction port in 1632.

Historically, in 1632, extremely serious civil strife broke out in Shandong and Shanxi provinces, and there would be a large number of war refugees in the Ming Dynasty. Ning Qi once proposed trying to introduce refugees from the northern region to enrich the labor force needed for the development of Hainan Island.Although Haihan itself does not have the ability to go directly to the north to absorb refugees, the Executive Committee believes that this plan is still feasible, and Schneider also proposed an operation plan of exchanging industrial products for population.

However, if this plan is to be implemented, Penghu will definitely become a sea transit point for refugees going south for a period of time in the future.This function is equivalent to the establishment of an immigration transfer station in Lijiazhuang, Guangzhou. A large number of refugees are assembled and screened here. After completing the preliminary screening, they are organized to immigrate to settle in various areas under the Haihan rule, and start their lives again.If the northern refugees can rest here in Penghu, it will play a certain role in adapting to the southern climate and ensuring the survival rate of the immigrants.

To complete such a transshipment task, both the sea transport capacity and the local port acceptance capacity will be greatly tested.As a commercial port, Magong Port is not a big problem, but to absorb immigrants and station the navy, it is necessary to build another port in the local area.

On May 5, seeing that the general situation had been settled, the Haihan militia began to gradually withdraw from Penghu.Shi Diwen's fleet set off first, escorting a battalion of the army on the voyage back to Sanya.A day later, Roger's fleet also left the port, accompanied by artillery battalions specially gathered from various parts of Hainan Island this time.However, the Artillery Battalion did not make much profit in the Penghu Battle this time. After going to the island, there was no large-scale exchange of fire at all. The combat exploits are far inferior to those of the navy.

On May 5, Yan Chujie and Wang Tom also led their troops to leave Penghu and return to Sanya.Along with them, besides the militia army, there is also a new batch of grassroots officers sent by the Fujian military to Sanya for a three-month military training. This is also the sixth batch of overseas military officers sent by Xu Xinsu since he cooperated with Haihan.

Almost all of these officers are from the Fujian Navy. During their stay in Sanya, in addition to learning various tactics of the Haihan Navy, they also had a very important task to receive the newly launched two "Explorer-class" warships. The last two of the first eight warships Haihan ordered for the Fujian military.However, Shengli Port Shipyard did not have to worry about running out of orders, because after the Penghu Battle, Xu Xinsu placed an order for eight more warships from Haihan.Xu Xinsu's pride is mainly due to the fact that the rapid end of the Penghu Battle saved him a large amount of budget, and this money can just be used to expand the Fujian Navy and gradually phase out those outdated old ships.

And Qian Tiandun will be stationed at the new stronghold. For a period of time to come, he will control the military and political power in Penghu alone.At least until the Penghu Commercial Port took shape, the base camp would send people over to take over civil affairs.

(End of this chapter)