1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 946 Strong
Most of the people here are unfamiliar with the place name "Xingdao". Yan Chujie ordered someone to hang up a map of the South China Sea, pointing out to everyone the island located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and just named by Haihan.

Except for Champa, Annan, and the "victim" Johor who went south with the Haihan fleet, the other parties basically didn't know that Haihan had stationed an army in the Strait of Malacca until this time.Countries far away, such as Daming and Annan, did not have any special feelings, but the expressions of the representatives of Aceh, Johor and Portugal in the surrounding area changed respectively.

In order to compete for the control of the Strait of Malacca, these countries have almost never stopped fighting. Now, another family has entered this already very complicated chessboard, and the strength of this family is far beyond the existing ones on the chessboard. Players, the future situation in this area may be more troublesome for them.

The representative of Portugal, Ricardo, coughed dryly and said, "Our country supports the necessary military guarantee for the South China Sea Trade Alliance, but sending a fleet to this... Xingdao, isn't it a bit inappropriate? According to the current actual situation As far as the country is concerned, this place should belong to the sphere of influence of the country, and even if armed personnel are required to be stationed, it should be organized and implemented by the country.”

Before Yan Chujie responded, Ajisa, the representative of Johor, had already refuted: "This island is owned by our country and has nothing to do with you Portuguese. Please don't talk to yourself."

Immediately the representative of Aceh also joined the debate: "Don't argue. This island was captured by our own army five years ago. This place should belong to Aceh."

For the countries around Xingdao, this is indeed a strategic location worth fighting for, but in terms of the strength of these parties, it is difficult to establish a long-term stronghold on the island. Don't even think about the strategy of sitting down, attacking and harassing other forces trying to establish a stronghold on the island, so that they cannot settle here safely.

Of course, this trick has worked in the past because the countries competing for this place have limited strength and cannot completely suppress their competitors in terms of force.But now that the powerful Haihan is intervening in this area, this trick may not be effective.There are quite a few people who have fought against Haihan, but none of them have tasted the sweetness—the South Vietnamese regime was completely destroyed, the Portuguese subdued and became Haihan's followers, although the Dutch were tougher, but this time they ran away Coming to Abunana Island to participate in the talks actually shows the change of attitude.

Among these three parties, only Aceh has not faced Haihan head-to-head, but the various "bad names" about Haihan's army have already spread overseas, and the South Asian countries are no strangers to Haihan's past achievements.The three parties argued over the ownership of Xingdao, but none of them wanted to drag Haihan into the water. It seemed that by doing so, Haihan could be excluded.

"Everyone, I don't think you need to continue arguing." In the end, Yan Chujie spoke up and ended the three-party dispute: "The future ownership of Xingdao is not in the discussion of this meeting. I am just telling you on Haihan's behalf. This situation is not for you to discuss which side this island belongs to."

"Please return your attention to the things we really need to pay attention to now." Schneider also said again: "The purpose of our sending troops to Xingdao is to ensure that peace can be restored in this area, and the sea that connects the East and the West can be restored." The route can be guaranteed safety. If anyone tries to disrupt this situation, it may not only offend countries in this region, but will become a common enemy of the South China Sea Trade Alliance in the future! We will take all necessary means to deal with Punishment and sanctions for those who violate the peace!"

Schneider and Yan Chujie didn't mention the ownership of the sovereignty of Xingdao. They put up the banners of "maintaining peace" and "protecting trade". Against.No one is willing to bear this charge. Although they are dissatisfied, the representatives of these parties can only calm down and wait for another opportunity to argue.

After all, military means serve political purposes, and Haihan is no exception. The main purpose of sending a fleet to Xingdao is to deter neighboring countries and armed forces, rather than really intending to occupy the entire Malacca Strait area.What Haihan needs is the market in this area, the supply of raw materials and labor, and the safety of navigation at sea, rather than simply occupying the land here.Of course, if there are militants like Johor who are not safe enough and try to challenge Haihan, Haihan will naturally use his good military methods to respond to a certain extent.

Schneider said in a deep voice: "I hope that everyone will not treat the trade alliance as a monster. The purpose of establishing this alliance is not to invade the territory of any country, nor to plunder the wealth of any country, but to provide all members with An open trading platform allows everyone to earn benefits from international trade. Win-win cooperation is our goal. I hope everyone here can understand and cooperate after joining the alliance.”

"Then if you don't want to join this alliance, what will be the consequences?" The person who spoke was Ricardo, the representative of Portugal. Of course, his question does not really represent the opinion of the Portuguese camp. If someone who is hostile to Han asks first, the situation may not be easy to control.

Schneider grinned, showing two rows of white teeth: "It's nothing to worry about, but in the future, doing business with countries in this alliance will be subject to relatively high tariffs, and you will not be able to enjoy various benefits that only members of the alliance can have. and special treatment."

"Oh? Then, Mr. Schneider, please tell us about the preferential treatment and special treatment!" Ricardo immediately got off the donkey and helped Schneider set the pace.

Schneider patted his hands lightly, and the person next to him immediately replaced the map of the South China Sea hanging on the wall with a new one.

"This is the operation draft of the South China Sea Trade Alliance we formulated. Next, I will explain the specific content to you..." Schneider said while the staff beside him distributed more detailed explanatory materials to the people present. hands.What surprised the participants was that the explanatory materials they received had different text labels to ensure that they could understand the above content.

The trade alliance established by Schneider has a lot of references to the model of later generations of international trade organizations in its operation plan. It is not just a matter of representatives from various countries sitting down and negotiating conditions and signing a written agreement. There is still a lot of specific work that needs to be done one by one. implement.

For example, the service functions provided by the South China Sea Trade Alliance to member countries in the future include more than ten major items such as commerce, communication, transportation, sales, education and training, finance, tourism, etc., and each major item includes several small items .For example, commercial services are subdivided into legal, accounting, taxation, construction, engineering, research and development, real estate, leasing, advertising, printing, consulting and many other professional projects. In detail, it is not possible to say in a short while It's over.

Although the representatives sent by various countries are basically responsible persons who are relatively professional, have a good understanding of business and trade, and even have many years of practical operation experience, but they have never seen a business operation that is theoretically refined to such an extent. precedent.Even some people who previously had doubts about Haihan's plan could feel that Haihan's seriousness in this plan was extraordinary during the process of listening to Schneider's explanation.The originally seemingly mysterious concept, after being disassembled into specific tasks, it seems that the feasibility has also improved a lot.

This plan is not what the participants expected before. Everyone sits down and talks about reducing and exempting import and export trade tariffs. Among the explanatory materials drafted by the Ministry of Commerce.

It took two full days for the explanation of the operating rules of the trade union to come to an end. For all the participants, these two days seemed to be receiving an extremely substantial advanced training course, but they were forcibly taught in a short period of time. There are so many concepts and theories in my mind that it is difficult to digest them thoroughly for a while.

But Schneider is actually not particularly satisfied with this, because in his opinion, such an explanation is still too superficial, and it is difficult to fully convey the subtleties of this plan to the participants.It's just that the objective conditions don't allow him to spend ten days and half a month teaching these participants, and it's pretty good to be able to do it to the current level.

Although not everyone can fully understand and absorb the contents of Schneider's lectures, the effect is still there. After two days of lectures, most of the participants were amazed at the trade alliance plan conceived by Haihan, and at the same time deeply understood I understand why the Haihan people are so good at doing business, because the depth of their understanding of the field of business is simply beyond the reach of ordinary people.Schneider was like a general who commanded thousands of troops. He had already arranged everything properly before the march and battle started. The chances of such a troop achieving results on the battlefield were naturally much higher than those of stragglers organized temporarily.

Of course, after admiring the profoundness of the trade alliance plan, the participants finally focused on the country or faction they represented, what kind of real benefits they could get from joining this trade alliance, and what would they face if they refused to join? such a difficult situation.

Regarding the pros and cons of alliances, after Schneider’s two days of cramming teaching explanations, most people actually have a clearer understanding. This is not just a problem that is easy to notice on the surface, such as trade barriers and tariff standards. , but also involves many long-term effects.In the long run, the member states will definitely be able to obtain benefits from various tangible and intangible assets from the alliance system, and gain more foreign trade opportunities, but the price they need to pay for this is that they must introduce various operations advocated by Haihan Mechanisms and technical standards.As representatives of the ruling class, these participants will not only focus on the so-called economic interests, but will also notice some negative effects after the introduction of the Haihan mechanism.

Among other things, the Chinese characters must be learned first, otherwise how would we deal with the Haihan people?The Haihan people have unceremoniously set the official language of this trade alliance as Chinese. In the future, various official agreements, even private trade agreements, may have to use Chinese to have legal effect.

A country like Annan, which is adjacent to Ming Dynasty, is not bad. After all, it is in the same line with the culture of the Central Plains. The official language used in the country is originally Chinese characters, and there is no big cultural barrier to overcome.However, it is relatively difficult to implement it in other countries. Fortunately, the distribution of Han people in Southeast Asia is also very wide, so there is no need to worry about finding people who understand Chinese in the local area.

However, after the introduction of a series of things such as characters, units of measurement, and systems and mechanisms, whether the local political and cultural trends will be affected by Haihan is an almost certain result.Not every country is willing to open its doors and hug Haihan tightly like Annan. After all, Annan relied on Haihan to build a country, but other countries have not had such an experience, and they are more or less vigilant.

For the sake of the independence of the country and the nation, these people may not be able to give up joining the trade alliance led by Haihan directly. After all, after Schneider's detailed explanation, the huge economy that will be brought by the trade alliance in the future The benefits cannot be ignored, not to mention the technology export that Haihan promised to everyone, which is something that all countries dream of.

The technology that Haihan plans to export to the members of the trade alliance is not only the business model, but also a large number of practical technologies, such as deep processing technology of various agricultural and forestry raw materials, professional knowledge in infrastructure, shipbuilding, mining, smelting and other fields, and even There will also be content on weapon manufacturing, and choosing one of them will be a hot topic for all parties to fight for their heads.These good things that cannot be bought with money in the market, if you can’t get them yourself and let the neighboring countries get them, it may widen the gap in national strength between the two countries within a few years. At that time, this mistake will not be so easy to make up for. up.

Schneider is not in a hurry to urge the representatives of various countries to express their views immediately, and will start intensive talks with representatives of various countries in the next few days to discuss specific conditions for joining.At the same time, representatives of various countries began to exchange visits frequently, while inquiring about other people's attitudes, while figuring out which choice they should make would be the most beneficial.Of course, there are also some smart people among them who have begun to form cliques among various countries and gather strength in order to obtain better preferential terms when negotiating with Haihan.

(End of this chapter)