1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 720 The Mutation of the South China Sea
However, Roger's plan may not be realized in the near future. Compared with the current shortage of military officers in the Haihan militia, the gap between the supply and demand of agricultural technicians in various overseas territories is even more obvious.

The core members of the Haihan Agriculture Department are agricultural experts Yuan Ruoxiu and his family. The old couple have grown older and their physical condition has been aging in recent years. They seldom leave Sanya. He showed his face at important meetings and helped the younger generations formulate and review plans for some large-scale land reclamation projects.At present, Yuan Ruoxiu's only son, Yuan Qiuye, and his apprentice Gao Huan are in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture. Yuan Ruoxiu's specialty is cash crops, but it is not Yuan Qiuye, who specializes in poultry and livestock, who inherits his father's business, but his apprentice Gao Huan.

During the five years after time travel, Gao Huan naturally took in a lot of naturalized apprentices and passed on the knowledge of economic crops he had mastered.But just a few dozen apprentices are not enough to cover the agricultural development needs of Hainan Island.The land area of ​​Hainan Island is more than 3 square kilometers. Roughly calculated, each senior agricultural technician under him is responsible for an area of ​​several hundred square kilometers.

Of course, this calculation method is not accurate. There are not so many areas on Hainan Island that can be developed as agricultural land, and more than half of the agricultural land is grain arable land. The land area used to grow cash crops is actually relatively limited.Haihan started his career in Sanya after crossing, and the economic crops he developed were basically concentrated in the southern coastal areas and the mountainous areas in the central and southern regions. Gao Huan and his apprentice technicians were more diligent, but they could barely Cash crop plantations covering parts of Qiongnan and Qiongzhong.

However, with the continuous expansion of Haihan's sphere of influence, especially overseas territories, cash crop plantations have gradually become an important income-generating project for overseas territories.Even areas like Hong Kong Island, where entrepot trade is the main business project, are trying to start building mountain plantations on the island's Victoria Peak, Cameron Hill, Pony Hill, and Jardine's Hill.

At present, the planned plantations on a small island in Hong Kong already include more than [-] varieties of commercial crops.Among them, oil crops include oil palm, cashew nuts, etc.; spice crops include citronella, pepper, basil, vetiver, etc.; fiber crops include abaca, hemp, ramie, Java kapok, etc.; beverage crops include coffee, cocoa, tea tree; medicinal materials include Amomum, Morinda officinalis, betel nut, panax notoginseng, etc.; there are the most varieties of fruits, including bananas, lychees, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, longan, pumpkins, guavas, etc.

Of course, not all of these crops are suitable for planting in the natural environment of Hong Kong Island. The first batch of economic crops planted are still experimental. If the planting effect is not satisfactory, other crops will probably be replaced after a few years.The Haihan Territory, which is based on several coastal ports in the south of Annan, did roughly the same thing, except that rubber trees, coconut trees, and some crop varieties unique to tropical regions were added to the list.

Compared with the Abuna Islands in the isolated sea, whether it is Hong Kong or Annan, the labor demand generated by the large-scale development of plantations is easier to rely on the mainland to meet, while the Abuna Islands have to buy a large number of slaves. To alleviate the local labor shortage.In the short term, the cost of plantation development in the Abona Islands will undoubtedly be higher than that in the mainland.If Roger wanted the Ministry of Agriculture to take special care of the plantations in the Abona Islands, he would probably have to pay a higher salary to hire agricultural technicians to go south.

However, this application process is not a simple point-to-point operation from Abunana Island to the Ministry of Agriculture. In fact, due to the scarcity of agricultural technicians and the knowledge of agricultural techniques they have mastered is still only accessible to very few people in this era. The black technology has been obtained, so related applications and transfers must be approved by the Ministry of Security before they can be reported to the Executive Committee for approval.

Fortunately, although the Ambuna Islands are small and remote, there is Li Dagui, a former field officer of the Ministry of Security, who is working as a cadre on the island, so there is a line between the Management Committee of the Ambuna Port and the Haihan Security Department. Unofficial Communication Channels.With Li Dagui's mediation, the Ministry of Security silently released the application for the Abunana Islands.

There are garrisons, industries, and ever-increasing population in the Annabuna Islands. If there is anything that worries Roger, it is probably the Dutch in the south.Although the two sides reached an armistice agreement at the end of last year, it was only a truce. Since the Netherlands suffered more than one sullen loss on the battlefield last year, the relationship between the two sides is far from being harmonious.The main target of Haihan's troops stationed on Ambuna Island is still the Dutch in Batavia.

Although Batavia is more than 600 nautical miles away from the Ambuna Islands, in fact, the nearest maritime stronghold of the Dutch, Temeran Islands, is less than 200 nautical miles south of the Abina Islands. voyage only.

This place was still occupied by the natives of the island when the Indian fleet in the Middle East attacked the port of Ambuna last year, but after the Dutch suffered a defeat in the battle of the port of Abuna, they quickly realized the importance of losing the Abuna Islands. seriousness.During the negotiation of the armistice agreement between the Dutch and Haihan last year, the East India Company once again sent an armed fleet to attack and seize control of the Temeran Islands.The purpose of the Dutch is to set up a forward base closer to the Abunna Islands, on the one hand to monitor the movement of the Abuna Port, and on the other hand to prepare for the next counterattack.

However, this action of the Dutch did not have much practical effect, because they soon learned that the control of the Abunna Islands had changed hands. Compared with the bottomless pirates, the Haihan militia, which had a remarkable record in the South China Sea in recent years, were obviously more difficult to deal with.Given the situation of the East India Company at the time, it would definitely be an extremely unwise choice to start a full-scale war with Haihan. In the end, the Dutch could only be dumb and eat coptis, acquiescing to Haihan's control of the Abunna Islands.

The change of sovereignty of the Tamilan Islands has not been hidden from Haihan's eyes. At the end of last year, a Ming maritime merchant had taken the initiative to inform Haihan of this change.However, compared to the nervousness of the Dutch, Roger, who took over the Abona Islands in the second half of last year, did not care so much about the Dutch on the Tamilan Islands.This is because compared with the Ambuna Islands in the north and Bangka Island and Belitung Island in the south, the conditions in the Tamilan Islands are not really suitable for development and construction.

Although the Tamilan Islands are composed of [-] islands, among them, only the natural harbor on the main island, Tamilan Island, barely meets the standards for building a port.However, there are a large number of shallow coral reefs distributed in this harbor, which is not suitable for construction as a large-scale commercial port or military port, and it is barely at the level of a fishing port.Secondly, the area of ​​the island is too small, there are no valuable products on the island, and there is no natural environment suitable for development as food farmland. There are no Dutch immigrants who voluntarily settle in such places, let alone the conditions for garrisoning troops.Therefore, although he knew that the Dutch had taken control of the Temeran Islands, Roger was not particularly worried about this place.If the situation requires, he can take the troops stationed on the island south at any time, and wipe out the small number of Dutch stationed there.

What Roger was really worried about was that after the Dutch had slowed down in Southeast Asia, they would reorganize their maritime armed forces to snatch the Abona Islands.Although Roger is not afraid of fighting, it does not mean that he will be willing to fight against the enemy on his own territory-even if he wants to fight in the future, he hopes that this battlefield will be on the Dutch territory in the south, not in Ambuna The archipelago is a place where he has put a lot of effort into it.

Since Roger took over the Port of Ambuna in August last year, he has been busy with various local construction and development affairs almost every day except for the time when he went to Fujian to participate in the war.Moreover, the Abunana Islands are subject to many restrictions in terms of development due to their special geographical location and natural environment. For example, the application for senior agricultural technicians to reside on the island must be approved by the Ministry of Security, which forced Roger to come up with more Energy to coordinate all aspects of the relationship.If the future sea-holand confrontation takes the Ambuna Islands as the battlefield, it is definitely unacceptable from Roger's point of view.

Haihan's current policy is to introduce a large number of immigrants from the outside world, the main source of which must be the war-torn Ming Dynasty.Haihan sent troops to attack Penghu in advance, part of the purpose was to open up the waterway from the South China Sea to the north as soon as possible, and absorb refugees from the war-torn areas in the north of Ming Dynasty.In the foreseeable next two or three years, Haihan's main expansion direction will probably be on the northern mainland, and will no longer actively provoke disputes and start wars in the South China Sea area. At most, the military will gradually increase security. The number of troops stationed on Buna Island will allow more troops to adapt to the combat environment in tropical ocean areas.

The Dutch's stronghold on Taiwan Island can monitor Haihan's movements nearby. If the Dutch realize that Haihan's strategic center of gravity is shifting to Ming Dynasty, and there are signs of intervening in the Ming Dynasty's civil war, maybe they will move again to regain peace. The mind of the Nasir Islands.Once the war breaks out again, all of Roger's governance measures in Port of Ambuna will be turned into bubbles. Even if the Dutch can be defeated here, the island's industries will be greatly affected. This is exactly what Roger doesn't want. The sight to see.

However, this worry completely disappeared on the morning of July 7th—a merchant ship returning to Daming from Batavia brought a piece of news that left Roger stunned for half a minute.

Peterson Cohen, the current governor of the Dutch East India Company and the master of Batavia City, died of illness half a month ago.Of course, due to the butterfly effect caused by the people who traveled through this time and space, the time of his death has been delayed by two years and nine months from the original September 1629, 9 in history, which is considered quite lucky.

However, Cohen's death is not the main reason for Roger's surprise. After all, this incident has long been expected by Haihan, but he doesn't know when it will happen.The crux of the matter is that the sudden death of Governor Cohen caused some problems in the East India Company's selection of successors.

Although the headquarters of the East India Company is located in Batavia, almost all the shareholders of its management are in the Netherlands. Batavia would be somewhat in a power vacuum.

Although Batavia City also has a council composed of representatives of various shareholders, the council does not have the power to directly appoint or dismiss officials at the level of the governor, and the seat left by Cohen after his death, as long as it can be obtained Man, who wouldn't be tempted at all?

Before Cohen passed away, of course, there were several more desirable successor candidates, such as Jacques Spikes and Hendrik Brower, who were once his capable men.However, these two guys unfortunately fell into the sand in the battle of Abunna Island last year. Although Spikes escaped with his life, it is obvious that the defeated general is no longer suitable to be the governor of the East India Company—if he After winning that battle, there may still be this possibility.The unlucky Browar was killed by the Haihan militia in the chaos, and he was out of the game immediately.These two military attaches who served successively as the Governor of Batavia in the original history, inexplicably lost the opportunity to climb to the top of their lives because of the appearance of Hai Han.

In addition to these two people, there is another candidate who was entrusted by Cohen with the important task of conducting sea expeditions in the Far East for many years.Van Diemen's contribution in the Maluku Islands allowed him to obtain the letter of appointment as an admiral from the Dutch Republic Parliament. In terms of status, strength, and achievements, Van Diemen is indeed considered the most suitable candidate to take over the post of governor.Of course, in the original history, he was indeed the ninth governor of the East India Company.

However, due to various reasons in this time and space, the timing of his succession has been very different from the original historical trajectory. At this juncture, there are many people who intend to compete with him for the throne of governor.There are at least four people in Batavia's council, all of whom have announced that they will compete for the position of governor. Although Van Diemen has military power in his hands, he dare not easily use this power to suppress other competitors. Because these people represent the major shareholders of the company, and these big figures are not something he, a commoner from the countryside of Kullenberg, can provoke.

But Van Diemen will not give up this opportunity easily, because in his opinion, the other competitors are just literati officials who can only talk and talk in the castle. These people do not know how to deal with the natives of Southeast Asia. I also don't understand what attitude the Ming Empire in the north has towards the East India Company.If the company is handed over to such a person, it will really end sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)