1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 833 Candidates

"Sure enough, there is a hidden trick!" Shi Diwen sighed secretly in his heart.Although both the military and the Ministry of Security believed that Xu Xinsu, an old fox, might have planted nails in Zhejiang long ago, there was no real evidence.It wasn't until Xu Xinsu took the initiative to speak out at this time that Hai Han's previous guess was confirmed.Now that Xu Xinsu had shown his cards, Shi Diwen didn't have to bother with clichés anymore, which saved a lot of trouble.

Then I heard Xu Xinsu continue to say: "The year I ascended the throne, I have already decided to abandon business and enter politics, hoping to use my official position to protect my Xu family. But because the starting point was too low at that time, it was already too late to get a general position. It was not easy, and there was no hope of promotion in the future. The old man had nothing to rely on at the time, only gold and silver could be used. After much deliberation, he finally selected a few young children from the clan, changed their names and surnames, and went to Zhejiang Doing business, studying, becoming an official, and joining the army over there. Seven or eight years have passed, and some of them have already begun to emerge, and may be useful in your plan."

Shi Diwen thought to himself that the younger brother of the big smuggler went ashore to lurk in vain, and even entered the army and the government. It sounds a bit like the plot of Infernal Affairs.However, Xu Xinsu's calculation was really good. Given that he was in a precarious situation facing Zheng Zhilong's pursuit at the time, it was really difficult to rely on such a low-level military position as the general manager to keep the entire family and related industries. At that time, Haihan had no Showing the strength to turn the world around is not a real boost to him.Although Xu Xinsu's method cannot completely solve the immediate crisis, it can spread the risks and greatly reduce the possibility of the family being caught by Shibazhi.Once the limelight passes, those who are placed in Zhejiang may still have a chance to stand out and spread their wings for the Xu family again.

Of course, at that time Xu Xinsu was extremely pessimistic about the future situation, so he came up with such a way to try to preserve the blood of the Xu family.But what he didn't expect was that the situation in Fujian changed very quickly, and mysterious forces from overseas actually approached him for military assistance.In the beginning, they sent hundreds of matchlock guns and a few small cannons, but later on, they supplied a lot of "advanced weapons" to Xu Xinsu, and guided the navy led by Xu Xinsu to win several battles like a prophet. , The accumulated military merits made him upgrade one after another like a rocket, relying on the record of the victorious general from the general to the provincial general.

On the other hand, under the leadership of Haihan, the maritime trade that Xu Xinsu was originally good at also flourished.The large amount of industrial products imported from Haihan allowed the business organization under Xu's name to quickly occupy the Fujian market with the exclusive agency, and even had spare capacity to export some products to neighboring provinces.It is difficult for Xu Xinsu to count the exact amount of money he has earned by using this method of operation in the past few years, but one thing is certain, the profits he earned from working with the Haihan people are much higher than he used to be in Hongmao In the period of smuggling businessmen among many parties, such as people, Francophones, Japan, Ryukyu, etc., and they were much more at ease than their past partners. Haihan's strength was unfathomable. Even now, Xu Xinsu still can't understand How many good things have not yet been revealed by this group of overseas visitors.

The Haihan people are not satisfied with living in a corner, and the pace of expansion has accelerated in the past two or three years, and Xu Xinsu is also seeing it.Fortunately, Haihan doesn't seem to have much interest in invading Daming, but instead focuses on controlling the coastline of Daming, implanting such influence into trade and immigration, and continuously obtaining wealth from Daming and population.Xu Xinsu understood that Hai Han's method was actually sucking blood from Daming, but as an official who started as a businessman, he did not dislike Hai Han's approach.After all, when he was still in the smuggling business, what he did was of the same nature.

Now that Haihan is going to enter Zhejiang, Xu Xinsu feels that this is another opportunity to take off. If it is used well, the cooperation form from Fujian can also be copied to Zhejiang in the future. The business organization under his name is responsible for the underwriting of Haihan products in Zhejiang, and assisting Haihan in obtaining various resources they want in the state capitals of Zhejiang.Of course, to join this game, one must first show one's bargaining chip in exchange for the trust of the Haihan people, and Xu Xinsu's bargaining chip is the contacts he planted in Zhejiang back then, which is also his greatest sincerity.

"Ningbo Mansion, Hangzhou Mansion, Shaoxing Mansion, and Jiaxing Mansion. There are old men in these places, but how to cooperate with your actions has to be explained by General Lao Shi." It was a scene, but did not elaborate on the identities of these people.The meaning is also very clear, my cards have been revealed, it is time to reveal the cards in your hand.

Before Shi Diwen set off, the staff department had indeed formulated several sets of action plans, and how to implement them depended on the local situation in Zhejiang.But when the staff made the plan, they didn't take into account the people Xu Xinsu arranged to lurk in Zhejiang. Shi Diwen came here to negotiate, in fact, there was more or less improvisation in it.The conditions that Xu Xinsu can provide are a huge change for Haihan's original plan, and such a situation has not even been considered in the emergency plan. Now he wants Shi Diwen to explain that Haihan's action plan is indeed out of order. There is a big problem.

Shi Diwen thought for a while before responding: "Our original plan was to talk to the local government first. We would send troops to help the local bandits, and the local market would open up to us and provide necessary supplies. Of course, it would be best if this deal could be negotiated." Well, if we can’t talk about it, we can only do it hard. According to our previous understanding, the combat effectiveness of the local navy is very low, so we don’t intend to consider their feelings. It’s time to directly eliminate the pirates off the coast of Hangzhou Bay. Of course, we will not invade the mainland. At most, we will find an island with suitable conditions to settle in the Zhoushan Islands and sell various products produced by Haihan to the local market. However, after we understand the local situation, we find that we must It will be very difficult to reach this level, and the local government may not want us to settle there."

"There is indeed such a problem in Zhejiang. Your appearance will affect the interests of many people. Not everyone will welcome your arrival." Xu Xinsu nodded in agreement with Shi Diwen's point of view.

"So I was thinking, since no one in the local area is willing to welcome our presence, then we should find a way to cultivate some fans, whether they are in the officialdom or in business, we can provide a lot of resources , help them get promoted and get rich, and increase their influence in the local area.” Shi Diwen spoke slowly, thinking about his own words as he spoke: “But if it is someone who has no foundation, the process may take longer , and there will be many variables in the middle, so we hope to get some recommended candidates, so that we can formulate specific plans in a more targeted manner, so that the objects we support can be promoted as soon as possible."

"In this way, the old man suddenly felt that the pressure on his body was a lot heavier!" Xu Xinsu replied quite complacently.Shi Diwen's words have basically expressed his attitude that Haihan will support Xu Xinsu's people. As for how much he will support, it depends on how capable Xu Xinsu's people are.

"We can trust the candidates personally recommended by Mr. Xu. We also hope that Mr. Xu can trust us. If your identity is exposed because of this, we will do our best to ensure his personal safety. If this affects his official career or causes If there is any economic loss, we will also compensate accordingly." Shi Diwen continued: "If necessary, I can sign a written commitment on behalf of the executive committee."

"General Shi's words are too outlandish! You and my family have always trusted each other, and the cooperation is very pleasant. There is no need to sign a written promise for some trivial matters!" Xu Xinsu also knows the principle of accepting as soon as it is good, All he wanted was for Shi Diwen to express his attitude on behalf of Haihan. As for the promise on paper, it was actually unnecessary for both parties.Xu Xinsu still remembered that when he met Ning Qi two years ago, he heard him say a very philosophical sentence - the agreement written on paper was eventually to be torn up.

The purpose of the Xu family's children scattered all over Zhejiang is to help the Xu family in times of crisis. Therefore, when Xu Xinsu asked them to serve, these people should not resist the order from the Patriarch.What's more, Haihan's strong support was used as a guarantee for this operation, which was enough to help the Xu family's children gain a lot of confidence.

The two sides quickly agreed on a general framework and reached an agreement on the direction of action.The next thing is to finalize the specific candidates one by one.But this matter is difficult to do. First of all, the situation of the parties is only from Xu Xinsu's oral introduction. Shi Diwen is definitely not in person now, and Xu Xinsu's subjective views may affect Hai Han's judgment on the parties involved, the resulting impression bias is almost inevitable.Secondly, all the parties involved are in Zhejiang, and now there is no way to understand their thoughts and attitudes on this matter.Although these people are all from the Xu family, it is really difficult to determine whether the changes in the living environment have affected their mentality after all these years have passed.

Xu Xinsu didn't tell all the cards in his hand at once. When Shi Diwen asked about a certain field, he would say whether any of the personnel he arranged had been involved in this field.This conversation lasted until late at night, and Xu Xinsu introduced the situation of the three people in total.

These three people have all entered the officialdom, one civil and two military, the civil one is the magistrate of a certain county in Ningbo, and among the two military ones, one is the head of the police in Hangzhou Mansion, and the other is a navy officer in Ningbo Mansion Being appointed as the general manager is at the same level as Xu Xinsu's official career starting point.

Shi Diwen was always a little interested in this navy commander, because in Xu Yuzhuo's description, the navy commander of Ningbo Mansion was completely incompetent in the entire Ming Dynasty.Of course, this kind of incompetence is not only due to its low combat effectiveness. A large part of the reason is that the Ningbo Navy and the pirate gangs in the Zhoushan Islands have many gray interest chains, so that instead of becoming a fist against pirates, it has played the role of a pirate umbrella. Role.This kind of performance is naturally extremely incompetent in the eyes of the Fujian navy who has successfully expelled Shibazhi.

Shi Diwen didn't expect this Xu family's child to be very capable. He just wanted to use this person to understand the conflict of interests between the Ningbo Navy and the pirates, so as to find a way to break up this chain of interests.Of course, if this person is strong enough and courageous enough, then Haihan can also find a way to support him to the top, and even send him a fortune and wealth.

But when it came to the later part, Shi Diwen realized that Xu Xinsu's spirit was clearly exhausted, and his concentration began to slacken, presumably due to his age and fatigue from a day of running around.So Shi Diwen took the initiative to terminate the conversation, and made an appointment with Xu Xinsu to continue the conversation the next day.

During the meeting the next morning, Xu Yuzhuo did not show up again. Shi Diwen thought that he should have gone to prepare for the next action.Xu Xinsu followed last night's topic and continued to introduce her people lurking in Zhejiang.Shi Diwen turned his inquiry to the business world today, and Xu Xinsu offered him two candidates.

One of them is to do silk business in Hangzhou, and there is a silk and satin shop in Fucheng.Almost all the Hangzhou silk that Haihan bought from the mainland came from the silk and satin shop run by this man.The other person is engaged in aquatic products trading in Ningbo Prefecture. He has more than ten fishing boats and more than a hundred sailors under his name. The catches he goes to sea are mainly sold to local restaurants in Ningbo, and his business is not bad.

Shi Diwen secretly marked this seafood seller in his heart. Since he has a boat under his name and often needs to go to sea to work, he must have a better understanding of the situation of pirates in the Zhoushan Islands. Get in touch and collect some useful information from him.

Speaking of this, even though the identities of these people have been explained, Xu Xinsu still did not mention the real names of these people.Shi Diwen thinks that Xu Xinsu will not hand over all the information until Haihan comes up with a specific action plan, so that Haihan can directly contact the person involved.Although Shi Diwen was a little dissatisfied with Xu Xinsu's cautiousness, but considering that these people were once the hope of the Xu family, Xu Xinsu's cautiousness seemed to be justified.

The two sides had a secret discussion for two consecutive days, and then jointly agreed on a few candidates. Shi Diwen took the roster back to Penghu and continued to discuss the action plan with Qian Tiandun, while Xu Xinsu sent a messenger to Zhejiang secretly, with the selected candidates. several people to contact.

(End of this chapter)