1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 58 Investigation Report
At the meeting of the executive committee of the No. [-] base that night, Yan Chujie, as the leader of the action team, made a report on the process and results of this Yazhou inspection operation.

"First of all, let me talk about the results of the military investigation. The garrison in Yazhou is divided into two armies, land and water. We generally know the situation of the water village. Although we failed to enter the water village this time, according to our observations, the general situation should be As Luo Shengdong explained before, the garrison in Yazhou is mainly composed of garrison troops, with about 700 people stationed at the west gate of Yazhou. We managed to get close to the barracks and found that most of the barracks were empty. If this is not a coincidence, we believe that the actual number of troops stationed in Yazhou City is about 1000 to [-]. In addition, the proportion of old and weak soldiers in these Ming soldiers is very high, which is consistent with what we have learned about the large number of deserted troops in the late Ming Dynasty. The facts are consistent."

"In terms of city defense, the Yazhou city wall is six to seven meters high and more than three meters thick. The four walls are 700 to [-] meters long. The defense facilities on the city walls are relatively intact, but there are no large-caliber artillery or forts. Later, Luo Shengdong It also confirms this point. According to what we have learned, the proportion of Yazhou Ming army equipped with firecrackers is about one-third, but there is very little experience in live ammunition shooting, and there is no long-range firepower in the army, only a small amount of Buddha Lang machine gun, and it was equipped during the Jiajing period, whether it can be fired now is a problem."

"The garrison outside the city is mainly based on the water and land gates of the Yazhou Water Village and the Nanshan Inspection Department. It is hard to say how the water combat capabilities of the Yazhou Water Village are. The Nanshan Inspection Department has only more than 40 people, and it will not be too big. Threat. In addition, there are no Yazhou official agencies stationed in Tianya Town and Fenghuang Town between Yazhou and Shengli Port. I think the executive committee can consider sending teams to these places as soon as possible.”

"Finally, according to the assessment of our military team, it is not recommended to attack Yazhou by force until we have built enough heavy weapons. Even if we do not consider the consumption of materials and force Yazhou City to take down, I am afraid that it will inevitably be in the process of entering the city. If there is resistance and casualties in China, it might turn into a bloody street fight, which is very unfavorable for our governance of Yazhou in the future.”

Yan Chujie closed his notebook and said, "That's all about the military situation. Regarding the trade situation, please let Schneider report to everyone."

Schneider got up and walked to the front desk, and began his report: "According to what I have learned, there are about 2 households living in and outside the city of Yazhou. Including the garrison and various prisoners, the total population is about 800. Up and down. Although this consumer market is not too big, its actual consumption capacity is not bad. From what I have observed in two commercial firms in Yazhou, there are some relatively high-priced non-necessities among the goods they sell, such as high-end stationery. , porcelain, jewelry, etc. The turnover of these two firms is about [-] to [-] taels per month. Considering the population base of Yazhou and the existence of other small shops and private traders, this turnover is from a commercial point of view. It is very good, and it also shows from the side that Yazhou’s private purchasing power is higher than we imagined.”

"In addition, we need to note that Yazhou also has jurisdiction over five counties of Ningyuan, Thanksgiving, Changhua, Lingshui, and Wanxian. The actual population and areas under control are far beyond the scope of what we know now. In the future, Yazhou will be one of our main business targets, and these areas will also become our business radiation areas."

"At present, most of the food sold in Yazhou City is locally produced, and a considerable part of daily necessities are shipped from Qiongzhou and Guangzhou. Not to mention the high prices, the supply is also very limited. In addition, the Executive Committee is concerned about At present, the salt in the Yazhou market is basically shipped from the Yangpu Salt Field in Danzhou, and the sales price is [-] to [-] yuan. I think our products can be very competitive in terms of price and quality. And we have also persuaded Luo Shengdong to let him use Yazhou Shuizhai boats to help us smuggle smuggled salt. Of course, the top priority in this matter is to start construction of our salt field as soon as possible. You must know that there is only one place in Hainan Island. The annual salt market of about [-] tons is waiting for us to occupy!"

"Our export products should be mainly glass products with higher added value in the initial stage. It is said that the glass products shipped by the Spaniards are very scarce in Guangzhou. It is suggested that the Executive Committee consider setting up an office in Guangzhou as soon as possible to ship our products directly. In the past, breaking into the Guangzhou market to grab the jobs of the Spaniards..."

"We don't have so much available ocean shipping capacity to run the Guangzhou route at this stage." Sun Changmi, the Ministry of Shipping, interrupted Schneider's impassioned speech mercilessly: "Now there is only one Guangzhou ship and one Haicang on hand. The ship, the Haicang ship is still the structure of a warship, and it can't hold any cargo at all. How useful can two ships go to Guangzhou and bring back twenty or thirty tons of cargo at most?"

Schneider said with a smile: "I have already considered the issues you mentioned. We can use not only our own capacity, but also our trade partners can work for us. For example, the 'Furuifeng' who reached a deal with us this time. It is a Guangzhou-based firm. They promised to ship the materials we need from Guangzhou in the future, as long as the freight is converted. When we set up a Guangzhou office and have more products, there will definitely be more firms pulling Goods come to Victory Port to trade with us... By the way, speaking of this, I have to remind the Executive Committee that our temporary wharf is limited in tonnage, and it is time to build a larger permanent wharf."

"No one is available!" Ning Qi immediately complained: "The salt field and farm are about to start to form communes, which means that about [-] laborers have to be taken away. The land passage from Base No. [-] to Victory Port has already been opened. However, we will have to organize manpower to renovate the ground before the bullock carts can pass. The construction site of the hydropower station will take at least a month to complete, the Tiandu iron ore will be officially mined, the charcoal kiln will be expanded, the cement kiln and the iron-making workshop will be expanded. And the glass kiln will also be put into operation immediately, tell me, where will you organize a large number of laborers to repair the wharf at Shengli Port?"

Before Schneider could answer, Tao Donglai said, "By the way, do you have any new ideas on the issue of population introduction when you go out to investigate this time?"

"It's good to say that in these nearby villages and towns, most of the people are extremely poor. If you can find a place with stable food and income, I believe that many people are willing to come. However, it is more troublesome in places farther away. If you are in Yazhou Recruiting workers on a large scale, I don’t know if it will attract official attention.” Schneider was also very helpless, the Executive Committee has money and food, but it wants to make the residents near Yazhou abandon their existing lives and run to them In the eyes of the wilderness, life is not an easy task.

"Didn't Luo Shengdong say that prisoners can be dispatched to Victory Harbor?" Gu Kai interrupted and asked.

"That's what he said, but he is still President of Hundred Years, and his power is too small to reach the place. He will have to wait for a promotion order from Qiongzhou Fucheng before he can find a way to dispatch the labor force to us." Schneider on this matter Luo Shengdong had already been asked in detail at the wine table, so he knew more clearly.

"I don't think that many ships will come to Victory Port in the short term, so the construction of the wharf will be slowed down in advance, and the construction will be arranged when Luo Shengdong has specific news." Tao Donglai finally took the board: "Glass The kiln and salt field must be put into operation as soon as possible, and manpower can be solved first. As for the establishment of the Guangzhou office, I suggest that we wait until the hydropower station project is completed. After all, this is a major event that requires coordination among multiple departments. So much effort was put into preparing for this.”

Next, various departments reported on the procurement of materials. Except for the tung oil, cloth and shipbuilding tools that the shipping department purchased satisfactorily, most of the other procurement projects were not completed. Sulfur, saltpeter, cassiterite and cinnabar were purchased separately. The cost of coke and coal, which have a huge demand gap, only bought [-] jin and [-] jin respectively, which is a drop in the bucket for the industrial project that the Executive Committee is about to launch. .Fortunately, both firms in Yazhou have indicated that they will organize the supply of goods as soon as possible and transport them to Shengli Port for trading.

After the report on the field trip in Yazhou, the next topic is some relatively trivial matters.The leaders of each project put forward various problems encountered in actual operation, and discussed solutions together.This kind of discussion will be held every night, and the Executive Committee will make adjustments to the next development plan based on the difficulties encountered by each project.

Although many of the people in the past were specialized technical talents in the past, but in the era of large-scale industry where the social division of labor was extremely meticulous in the past, the vast majority of people did not have much practical experience in the project construction process. As a result, most projects are crossing the river by feeling the stones, and problems emerge one after another.

For example, Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi, who learned shipbuilding, although they are from a professional background and are familiar with various hull structures, it is not too difficult to design a sea boat, but they need to pick up an axe and saw to build a sea boat from wood. Coming out, it is not as easy as talking about it, and the hands-on ability is far inferior to Cai Hongzhan, who was a carpenter.The same situation is reflected to varying degrees in almost every project, which gradually exposes the weakness of Transcendence in the crowd structure - there are enough people with theoretical knowledge, but too few people with practical experience.

Faced with such a situation, the Executive Committee has no better solution. It can only encourage everyone to try boldly under the premise of paying attention to safety. Even if they fail, they will only pay the tuition fee.The only thing that makes people feel good is that the foundation of the agricultural population is very solid, and there has never been any problem in Chuanxi so far. All the agricultural plans formulated in advance are being completed step by step, so that at least Chuanzhong does not have to worry about because no one can farm the land. starved to death in this era.

(End of this chapter)