1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 769 Communication and Cooperation
"You really know how to think..." After spending an hour listening to Li Nai's narration, Schneider was a little dumbfounded on the one hand, and on the other hand really admired his brain: "Fortunately, you are just a businessman. If you go to Gan Jinyiwei, probably already promoted to commander!"

Li Nai responded with a smile: "Since Mr. Shi praises me so much, it means that my guess is right?"

"Although it's not perfect, it's not far away." Schneider rarely used two sentences in classical Chinese to evaluate Li Nai's performance: "There are still some deviations in the details, but the general direction is indeed correct."

Hearing this comment, Li Nai felt greatly encouraged, and quickly asked, "Where is the deviation in the details?"

What kind of person is Schneider, how can he be so easy to be stereotyped by him, and changed the subject with a slight smile: "Your inference, did you tell anyone other than your father before you came here?"

Li Nai shook his head repeatedly and said: "My father didn't know about this matter, if he told him that he would have to think about it for ten days and a half months before making a decision with his temper, maybe he would have missed the opportunity long ago."

"You are really decisive!" Schneider could only admire Li Nai's action.It is not easy for this guy to come to the conclusion that Haihan is going to take action against Taiwan Island by relying on brain supplementation, but he did not communicate with his own leaders, so he ran to Sanya from Guangzhou on his own initiative to represent Fu Ruifeng to discuss the matter with Haihan Such a major event is indeed a very unique approach.

However, if the mature and prudent Li Jifeng knew the news, he might really, as Li Nai predicted, wait and see the situation for a while before making a decision.After all, the amount of investment that may be involved in this matter is not at the level of 8000 taels of silver, and its nature is different from that of general commercial cooperation. Li Jifeng will definitely be extra cautious.

In the past similar to this kind of commercial cooperation projects invested in the Haihan colony, even if Fu Ruifeng heard the news beforehand, they would wait for Haihan to take the lead before intervening. It is also the first time in the cooperation between the two parties.Even the well-informed Schneider rarely felt a little uncomfortable at this moment.

The Ministry of Commerce has indeed started preparing for the future investment plan for the Taiwan colony after receiving the information from Fujian. However, due to the rapid changes in the situation in Taiwan, other departments except the military have not been able to keep up. With Qian Tiandun's pace, the matter of investment promotion has not even been written off. Next, we need to discuss specific arrangements and plans with the civil affairs, shipping and other departments.Li Nai wanted to seize this opportunity to discuss cooperation with Haihan, but Schneider couldn't come up with too many dry goods to bargain with the other party.

"Third Young Master, you are not an outsider, so let me just say it straight. Regarding the matter of Dayuan Island, it is not yet time to discuss cooperation." Schneider pointed to the documents in front of him and explained: "This stack of documents is all It’s about Dayuan Island. I’ll spend at least three more days reading these materials, and then discuss with other departments how to organize immigration, what development projects need to be prepared, and then make investment plans. You came too early I guess I will have to wait until the second half of the month at the earliest before there will be a corresponding investment brochure."

"It's okay, I can wait in Sanya." Li Nai's attitude was very firm, and it could be seen that his dedication to this matter was not just a joke.

"When we discussed business with us in the past, I didn't see you being so serious." Schneider joked: "Your father will be very pleased to see you now."

"It's not the same." Li Nai waved his hand and said, "In the past, my father and elder brother took care of the business, and I just showed up. This time I want to operate it on my own, to prove that I am not just idle A dude waiting to die, a rich young master."

"Ambition!" Schneider nodded to confirm Li Nai's determination: "Since you want to insist, then I will not object. When I have news from my side, I will send someone to notify you immediately. But this matter must not Then spread it to others, this is not only a commercial secret, but also a military secret, understand?"

"Understood, I understand. Thank you, Mr. Shi, for taking care of me. Then I will temporarily stay in Sanya for these few days, waiting for good news from Mr. Shi!" Li Nai got up and said goodbye without delaying Schneider's time after finishing his business talk.

As soon as Li Nai left, Schneider picked up the phone and called Yan Chujie: "Lao Yan, Taiwan's affairs must be accelerated. Just now Li Nai came to me and asked me if I was going to do something in Taiwan recently and wanted to participate subsequent development."

Yan Chujie didn't realize what went wrong at the first time after hearing this: "That's a good thing, anyway, Fu Ruifeng is involved in most of our overseas industries, so just follow the previous operation mode!"

"We didn't tell him about Taiwan, but he speculated based on the information he had." Schneider had to add another sentence.

Only then did Yan Chujie come to his senses: "Did Li Nai publicize this?"

"Not yet, but he can think of it, and others may think of it, so we can't delay this matter any longer. We have to come up with a plan as soon as possible, and first establish the rules so that there will be no chaos. Otherwise, the threshold of my place will have to be lowered in a few days. You can't be trampled." Although Schneider was joking, his attitude was very serious.

Yan Chujie naturally knew the seriousness of this matter, so he immediately expressed his opinion: "Okay, Yue Zhiyun is also holding a coordination meeting with me, and I will go to Ning Qi with him later, let's unify the general caliber first. , and the details will be adjusted slowly.”

In the development of Taiwan Island, the main departments involved are the military, shipping, civil affairs and business, and at most the Ministry of Construction.However, during the construction of the Haihan Colony, the Ministry of Construction often only issued planning drawings and a few foremen, and the construction personnel all took the nearest solution.These few yamen will determine more than [-]% of the affairs in the process of Taiwan's immigration development, and will also decide whether the Haihan colony on Taiwan Island will invite foreign investment, when to start investment, and details such as the terms and conditions of the investment.

According to the general procedure, the signing of the agreement between the Penghu base and the Dutch means that the main obstacle to Haihan's landing on Taiwan Island has been basically cleared away, and then the various departments will start on the follow-up steps for the construction of the colony. Communicate and specify the corresponding plan.However, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. To reach the step of attracting investment, one month is considered very fast.If it involves the development of some agricultural projects, it is very likely that the Ministry of Agriculture will have to send them to conduct field inspections before formulating corresponding plans and then attracting foreign investment.

However, Li Nai's sudden arrival really disrupted this step-by-step work arrangement, because Haihan originally planned to adopt some new methods in the process of developing Taiwan Island.

In the operation process of investment promotion projects in the past, the tendency of localism is still obvious. Most projects will give priority or consciously take care of local investors. For example, in the plantation project developed locally in Hainan Island, the investors are mainly from Hainan and Guangdong. Most of them were born, and the seaport built in Annan is to first take into account the investment needs of Annan officials and dignitaries, and secondly to allocate the share to Ming merchants.Big regional agents like Fu Ruifeng and Xu Xinsu are more vigilant about the involvement of foreign merchants in local projects, and generally require Haihan's investment promotion measures to impose various restrictions on foreign competitors to protect the interests of local businessmen.

Of course, this situation is not the ideal business form in Schneider's mind. Although the business promoted by Haihan is based on regional agents, the purpose is to be able to concentrate the power of resource allocation and utilization in more places in his own hands. More cross-regional commercial circulation activities are needed.To achieve this goal, more neutral free trade ports need to be built, but existing ports are often subject to obvious interference from localism and cannot achieve Schneider's vision.

Regardless of whether Haihan sets up its port in Hong Kong or Penghu, such interference and influence are unavoidable, but the operation process of Anbuna Island has brought new enlightenment to the Ministry of Commerce, similar to the Territory, or unclaimed land, there will not be so much external interference during the development process. Whether it is Annan, Daming or investors from other places, they will better follow the rules of the game stipulated by Haihan, so as to Participate in development and competition in a fairer way.

But Anbuna Island has an insurmountable shortcoming, that is, the local area does not have good port conditions, and it is impossible to become a large trading port in the South China Sea. Tiebaotian is also a sea transfer station and a large plantation rich in tropical crops.In contrast, the conditions of Taiwan Island are much better. Although there are aborigines and foreign colonists, in the eyes of today's Haihan, this is a land without owners with great development potential.

Neither the wealthy Guangdong business community nor the Xu family interest group in Fujian has any direct influence on Taiwan Island.This means that the ports and other industries established by Haihan on Taiwan Island do not need to take care of anyone’s emotions, and can be completely in accordance with the planning of the Haihan Executive Committee, or more precisely, the Haihan Ministry of Commerce led by Schneider. Let’s realize it a little bit—the premise is that Haihan can do all the preparations that need to be done before making the relevant information public.

But if someone, like Li Nai, notices some subtle movements and detects Haihan's local plans in advance, then the direction of the matter is likely to change.When Qian Tiandun led his troops to inspect the Zhuoshui River Basin for the first time, it was already carried out as a secret mission, in order to prevent the Fujian military from discovering Haihan's intentions prematurely.Then, when he went to the west coast of Taiwan for the second time, Qian Tiandun also took the fleet to sea in the name of sea training, and he didn't even bring a trainer belonging to Daming.As for the previous and subsequent contacts with Philip, the Dutch representative, and the treaty signed with Hans, the chief executive of the East India Company, outside Dayuan Harbor, all of them were classified as top secret, and all military personnel who knew the inside information were ordered to be released. password.

The reason why the military is so cautious is mainly because they are worried that Xu Xinsu will get the news in advance, and with his style, it is likely that he will propose to Haihan to directly participate in the development process—just like the previous intervention in the development and construction of Penghu.

After the Battle of Penghu in May, Xu Xinsu took the initiative to express to Haihan that a large number of laborers could be sent to Penghu to help Haihan build ports and other infrastructure facilities, and the materials needed locally could also be transported from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.As for the lack of transportation capacity that Haihan lacked, Xu Xinsu also said that he could solve it all by himself.Of course, this kind of assistance was not provided unconditionally. After all, Haihan sent troops to expel Shibazhi in exchange for the right to govern Penghu, and Fujian officials were not obligated to undertake the subsequent matters.

The condition Xu Xinsu offered Haihan was the exclusive business clause in Penghu, that is, businesses outside of Fujian would set up exclusive docks, commercial warehouses and other facilities in the local area. In addition to obtaining Haihan’s consent, they also needed to Obtained permission from the Fujian government.This also means that although non-local maritime merchants like Fu Ruifeng can park in Penghu for supplies or even conduct transactions, they cannot have long-term business organizations in the local area. They can only act as passersby and cannot become merchants. Greatly weakened the competitiveness of foreign businessmen.

At that time, the Haihan Executive Committee agreed to the exchange terms offered by Xu Xinsu in order to quickly stabilize the Penghu outpost and save the time and cost of initial construction.Therefore, although the Fujian government no longer has any direct influence in Penghu, these conditions are written in black and white in the cooperation agreement between the two parties, at least there will be no changes in the short term.

But Taiwan Island is a place outside the law. If there are no protective measures, businessmen from Guangdong, Annan and other places will definitely enter Haihan’s port on Taiwan Island in the future, and this will undoubtedly affect Xu’s interest group in Fujian. interests of the sea.If Xu Xinsu knew about Haihan's plan in Taiwan, he would definitely not sit back and watch Haihan slowly revise the development plan and then openly invite investment.

Changes in Taiwan's situation can be hidden for a while but not forever. Even if all the people under Qian Tiandun can keep their mouths shut, the Dutch will certainly not be able to cover it up for a long time.But Haihan and his group did not expect that there would be a commercial spy like Li Nai who ignored his own knowledge and could piece together Haihan's strategic intentions in Penghu and Taiwan based on some fragmented information.If Li Nai hadn't had such a close relationship with the Haihan executives, then Schneider probably didn't call Yan Chujie, but directly informed Hao Wanqing of the security department.

What Haihan has to do now is to start the immigration and construction of Taiwan Island as soon as possible before external forces exert influence, and then come up with a more appropriate solution to attract investment.

(End of this chapter)