1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 786

Dong Yanyun focused on the details, while Xu Xinsu focused more on analyzing the strategic intentions of the Haihan people based on their performance.Haihan people consciously concealed the situation from Fujian during the preparatory stage of the development of Kaohsiung Port, and let competitors from Guangdong join in before themselves. Xu Xinsu believed that this was because Haihan was worried that Kaohsiung Port would become Fujian merchants due to its geographical location. It was only because of the dominance of one family that it took corresponding measures to limit the time for Fujian business circles to enter Kaohsiung Port.

However, Xu Xinsu believes that this artificially created gap in the early stage is not enough to suppress Fujian businessmen. The voyage from the middle left of Zhangzhou to Kaohsiung Port is only half of the distance from the Pearl River Estuary to Kaohsiung Port. Assuming that the sea transportation capacity of both parties is equal Under such circumstances, Fujian's transportation efficiency must greatly exceed that of its competitors.And this gap in efficiency is especially important in the early stage of development when a large number of personnel are required to deliver materials. As long as Xu Xinsu is willing, he can use the official name to organize a thousand people to go to Kaohsiung Port for port construction at any time.If Guangdong's opponents want to use the same method, they will probably need to pay more.

According to what Dong Yanyun saw at the Kaohsiung Port wharf site, Furuifeng currently has a construction team of less than [-] people working there.The number one merchant in Guangdong only has such an investment, and it is conceivable that other merchants will probably not be so strong.Since his family has a geographical advantage, Xu Xinsu naturally wants to make full use of it.As for the fact that the Haihan people deliberately favored their counterparts in Guangdong in this matter, Xu Xinsu didn't have much grudges.He has been dealing with the Haihan people for several years, and he knows that these overseas visitors like to play with gangs rather than alone in business management. In the port operated by Haihan, there is no one who can make them Implement an exclusive trade policy.

Dong Yanyun reminded: "My lord, since a large number of people are going to be mobilized, do you think you should inform Lord Wang?"

The Lord Wang mentioned by Dong Yanyun refers to Wang Yun, the current magistrate of Zhangzhou.This prefect Wang and Xu Xinsu are also related by marriage, so they are not outsiders, but because Xu Xinsu has money and soldiers, the three-acre land in Zhangzhou is not like other places under the Ming Dynasty where civil officials have the final say. The role of the local area is more like a political symbol, symbolizing Ming Dynasty's right to rule here.Of course, in terms of the management of local civil affairs, the prefect Wang is still in charge of a wider scope, such as the recruitment of civilians and supplies, the military seldom directly intervenes.

Xu Xinsu nodded and said: "You are right, wait for me to edit a book, and you take it to visit Mr. Wang."

At that moment, Xu Xinsu picked up a pen and laid paper, wrote a private letter to Wang Yun explaining the general situation, put it in an envelope, stamped it with a wax seal, and handed it to Dong Yanyun: "If Mr. Wang wants to participate, you know what to do, right? "

Dong Yanyun took the envelope with a bow and said, "Don't worry, my lord. If Mr. Wang asks, I will operate according to the previous model."

Among Xu Xinsu's industries in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, there are quite a few businesses in which local officials have invested in shares. For example, Zhangzhou's Wang Zhifu has a certain percentage of shares in Xu Xinsu's shipping company and spice business. The side was divided into several thousand taels of silver.Therefore, when it is inconvenient for Xu Xinsu to preside over some matters, he will entrust this old man to handle them for him.

Dong Yanyun took the secret letter and left Xu's mansion, then took a sedan chair to Zhangzhou mansion without stopping.But it happened that Wang Yun was having a meeting with other officials. Dong Yanyun waited in the concierge for more than an hour before finally seeing Wang Yun.

Wang Yun quickly read Xu Xinsu's letter, and after pondering for a while, he asked: "Master Xu needs to conscript so many civilian husbands for labor, and the location is located in a remote place overseas. This is a safety issue..."

"Don't worry, Mr. Wang. Mr. Xu will send troops to escort him. The destination is on the land of the Haihan people, and there are also Haihan militia stationed there." Dong Yanyun hurriedly answered and explained without waiting for Wang Yun to finish speaking.

"Since we are out of Fujian, I'm afraid it won't be justified if we don't pay the peasants some wages." Wang Yun heard that Haihan people were involved, so he didn't hold on to this issue anymore, and talked about the compensation instead. question.

"The wages will naturally be paid. Mr. Xu said that the wages will be converted according to the market price." Dong Yanyun paused and said: "The related expenses will be paid in advance to the government office in advance, and there will be Mr. Lao Wang's subordinates." The next generation will be issued."

The purpose of prepaying the expenses to the government office is to make it easier for Wang Yun to allocate the money in advance.How much to distribute and how much to deduct is up to Wang Yun.Based on the scale of thousands of people that Xu Xinsu requested and the construction period of three months, the salary alone is not a small amount. Wang Yun can deduct a little from it, and it can be used as his official salary for more than half a year.

Hearing this, Wang Yun immediately looked better again: "My lord Xu and I are a family, some trivial matters are nothing to worry about."

Dong Yanyun took the opportunity to tout a few more words, which made Wang Yunxi smile, and immediately issued a warrant for recruiting civilian husbands.It wasn't until he was about to leave that Wang Yun asked again: "This time Master Xu transferred civilian husbands to build the port, but the Fujian Chamber of Commerce came forward?"

Dong Yanyun's heart was shaken, and then he remembered that he had almost forgotten something important, and immediately expressed his opinion: "If Mr. Wang's relatives and friends are interested in this, I will say hello to the chamber of commerce, and it will be counted as a share."

Wang Yun pretended to decline and said, "Isn't that good?"

"What's wrong with operating legally? Besides, the fat and water don't flow to outsiders' fields. Mr. Wang is one of his own, so he should, he should!" Dong Yanyun hurriedly made up for his negligence just now.

Before coming here, Xu Xinsu specially mentioned him, but unexpectedly, he forgot about it during the interview with Wang Yun.With such a big deal, how could someone with connections like Wang Yun miss the opportunity to participate in it.On the contrary, Dong Yanyun should have brought up this matter on his own initiative, but in the end it was Wang Yun who said it first, which can be regarded as Dong Yanyun's work mistake.

After the prefect of Zhangzhou is settled, the rest of the work is relatively simple, mainly the deployment and arrangement of materials, tools and ships.There is no need for Dong Yanyun to ask about these trivial matters one by one, as long as the orders go on, the stewards and shopkeepers of various agencies are responsible for the organization, which is much easier than dealing with people in the officialdom.

Seven days later, the first batch of engineering personnel organized by Zhangzhou, a total of 480 people, went to Kaohsiung Port in Tainan by boat.This group of personnel includes craftsmen in many industries such as blacksmiths, carpenters, stonemasons, and plasterers, accounting for about one-third of the proportion.The number of craftsmen alone has exceeded the total number of engineering personnel of the first batch of Guangdong counterparts to Kaohsiung Port.At the same time that this group of personnel set off, the second batch of 500 people was already being organized and mobilized, and they could leave Zhangzhou in seven to ten days at the latest. Considering the level of this era, the organizational efficiency of the relevant departments is still quite high. not bad.

At the same time as this group of engineers, there was also a naval force led by Xu Xinsu's fourth son Xu Yuzhuo, with a total of four ships and more than 170 people.Of course, the main task of this small armed fleet is to maintain the internal law and order of the civilian population. As for the external defense, Xu Yuzhuo, who once fought side by side with the Haihan people, will not sensibly compete with the Haihan people.

During the period of organizing personnel in Fujian, Haihan also seized the time to continue transporting personnel and materials to Kaohsiung Port. By the end of November, Haihan had resettled more than [-] people in Kaohsiung Port. This is almost Haihan’s opening up overseas. The fastest population release in the history of the colony.Every day, three or four ships arrive at Kaohsiung Port with supplies, most of which are various construction materials transshipped from Hong Kong.Some of the northern immigrants accepted by the Penghu base will also be intercepted and shipped directly to Kaohsiung Port after a quarantine period of observation. Of course, this measure was approved by the Executive Committee, and it was not a reckless move by the Penghu side.

Entering December, maritime merchants in Fuzhou and Guangxi provinces probably felt the pressure of competition, and they all began to increase investment in Kaohsiung Port, striving to build their own wharves and commercial warehouses before their competitors, so as to maximize their business. Let's talk about it.Although so far, the Kaohsiung Port Management Committee has not formally invited investment for operating projects outside the port, it has actually begun to organize people to reclaim wasteland and farm in the wilderness near the port. There will definitely be large-scale plantation projects in the future It will be included in the investment promotion project.

Due to the food pressure brought about by the rapid population growth in recent years, the basic output of the grain planting projects developed by the Haihan Ministry of Agriculture is for domestic supply, and grain is not included in the list of export goods.Every time a new colony arrives, there are generally two agricultural projects that start to operate first, one is food, the other is livestock breeding, and then the planting of cash crops will start one after another.

And Anxi is indeed very busy recently, so that he can only hand over the investment promotion plan to the Ministry of Commerce in Sanya, which makes the investment promotion time this time much later than the previous progress of the new trade port.

The thing holding Anxi back is mainly to build a local administrative organization. According to the normal colonial development process, this kind of thing should have been prepared in the planning and preparation period. The corresponding personnel and distribution destinations, but the situation in Kaohsiung Port is an exception exception in .The executive committee was not completely sure that it would use this place as the next colony for development. The selection of this place came more from the military's maverick. From planning, field surveys to selecting targets, almost all It is independently operated by the military, and the role of the executive committee in this process is mainly to vote after receiving the report from the military, and the options are only "yes" and "no".

Since the executive committee did not make corresponding preparations in advance, the entire development plan seemed to be very hasty everywhere. There were no corresponding development projects, no complete development plan, and even the personnel who set up the administrative organization needed to be temporarily deployed—for example, Anxi himself was the executive committee member. After the committee voted to develop Kaohsiung, it was determined that he would be the head of the management committee here.In addition to the ready-made personnel of the military who have been prepared for this, they can be immediately transferred to Kaohsiung Port for garrison, and all other units and institutions have to temporarily transfer personnel. Relying on Anxi and Chen Yixin to issue verbal orders according to the changing situation to maintain normal operation, and more than half of the corresponding administrative agencies are stuck on paper and cannot be put in place in time.

To manage thousands of people is not a job that can be done by a traveler with a few entourages.Taking the Kaohsiung Port Management Committee as an example, there are quite a few subordinate agencies. In terms of system, there are two parallel management systems of administration and finance, and there is also an independent system of the military.In terms of organization, the management committee includes management agencies in various fields such as judicial security, internal affairs and logistics, technical research, agricultural production, fiscal and taxation affairs, civil affairs and health, port affairs and shipping, and commercial trade.

Specific to a field such as agricultural production, it is divided into multiple projects such as technical support, production organization, personnel management, and material allocation.When it comes to the commune or plantation as the unit, there must be a corresponding management team.After the labor force reaches the scale of a thousand people, it is difficult for one or two professionals to take care of all these things, and full-time personnel must be assigned.However, the executive committee’s preparation time for the Kaohsiung Port development project was too short, and the staffing was completely unable to meet the needs. It could only gradually deploy relevant personnel from other regions to work in Kaohsiung Port. This process undoubtedly slowed down the progress of the entire development plan. .

In fact, Chen Yixin is not bad, he is in charge of a relatively small area of ​​affairs, as long as he manages public security and military defense well, he is qualified.But Anxi is responsible for too many things, such as administration, finance, civil affairs, production, trade, transportation... He has to personally take care of almost all aspects involved in the operation of Kaohsiung Port.Although it looks very beautiful, but it is really tiring to work so hard.Anxi had not been working in Kaohsiung Port for a full month, but she had already started to cry out that she was cheated, saying that she was tricked by the executive committee to become the head of the migrant workers here.

Complaints are nothing but complaints. In addition to urging the base camp to send more naturalized cadres to assist in management, Anxi can only continue to stick to his own job.While managing Haihan's internal affairs, he also had to deal with all kinds of questions from the businessmen of Ming Dynasty about local investment projects every day.In particular, Fujian Maritime Merchants, who had lost the opportunity at the beginning, went to work every day. When Anxi arrived at the office, Dong Yanyun also brought a group of people there.

After a few more days, these businessmen stopped talking and just stayed at Anxi's office every day drinking tea and chatting, hoping to get news about investment projects as soon as possible.If people who don't understand the situation see this situation, they will probably think that this is to block the door to collect debts. How can they think that the group of businessmen blocking the business is not the peers who owed debts due to business failure, but the local parents and officials.

(End of this chapter)