Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 272 Restarting Immigration
Li Guozhu felt a little tired, and inexplicably felt like he was on a pirate ship: "Brother, what other tasks did you arrange for me? Tell me all at once."

Hearing this, Lin Hai smiled and said, "These are the main things that need to be done by Big Brother. As for the department you are in charge of, another important task is to recruit immigrants from Ming Dynasty. I plan to let Brother Yilong be in charge of this work. He will be the person in charge of the company's Ming Dynasty affairs, so Big Brother doesn't need to worry too much."

Since the kidnapping of Suhang Weaving Factory, Huiyou Company's immigration recruitment work has been suspended for more than half a year. Now that Lin Hai has returned to the system and become a Penghu guerrilla, this fundamental plan that concerns the long-term development of the company must naturally be restarted as soon as possible.

Huiyou Company or Jinhe Kingdom, after all, is a leech sucking blood from the body of the huge organism Ming Dynasty. Whether it is population or goods, it is highly dependent on the supply of Ming Empire.

This is why Lin Hai must get into the Ming Dynasty officialdom. Without the huge population and handicraft industry of the Ming Empire, what could he achieve by just farming overseas?

After completing the inauguration ceremony, Lin Hai counted the actual number of troops stationed in Penghu, and then returned to Xiamen. This was not desertion, after all, he still had to go to Fuzhou to report the battle situation to Fujian Governor Zhu Yifeng.

At the same time, he did not discuss the follow-up matters of the amnesty with Zhu Futai in detail before sending troops. For example, there were already garrisons in Penghu, so how to place Lin's private soldiers? How much money should the court pay? Should the leaders under him also be granted military positions by the court?

Generally speaking, these conditions must be negotiated before the surrender, but at that time, the war was urgent and Lin Hai did not have time to discuss it in detail. It was not so easy to decide on this matter. Take the military pay for example. The finances of the Ming Dynasty were based on spending within their income and were very rigid. Although Zhu Yifeng was the governor of Fujian, it took a lot of trouble to add this title.

It was the north wind season, and Lin Hai planned to go to Fuzhou by land via Xiamen. After returning to Xiamen, he first summoned Xu Yilong and talked about the recruitment of immigrants.

Xu Yilong suggested to Lin Hai: "If you want to recruit immigrants on a large scale in Fujian, the easiest way is to get the approval of the governor. But Master Zhu is an upright person, so this path may not be easy to take. A more feasible way is to go through the channels of officials at the prefecture and county levels. However, if Master Zhu knew about this, it would inevitably arouse suspicion."

"Brother Yilong's words make sense, but there is no need to shrink back because of this. Just go for it boldly." Lin Hai said, "If my guess is correct, Zhu Yifeng will not be able to sit in the position of Fujian Governor for long."

"Why do you say that, CEO?" Xu Yilong was stunned. He hadn't officially joined the club yet, but he had already learned to call Lin Hai the CEO like everyone else in the company.

"Although Eunuch Wei has fallen, most of the important officials in the court are still members of Wei's party. For example, Yu Zigao's relative Wu Chunfu is still the Minister of Works. I heard that Zhu Yifeng is desperately trying to impeach Yu Zigao, so will Wu Chunfu let him go?"

Lin Hai said, "Although Zhu Futai is at odds with the Wei Party, he is not a Donglin member and has no strong support in the court. An honest official like him must have offended many people, so I don't think he will end up well."

These words were certainly not spoken casually, because Lin Hai clearly remembered that the Fujian governor who appeased Zheng Zhilong in the first year of Chongzhen was Xiong Wencan, and now it was late November of the seventh year of Tianqi.

Xiong Wencan is much more famous in history than Zhu Yifeng. During the Chongzhen period, he presided over the appeasement of Zheng Zhilong and Zhang Xianzhong, and was once the prime minister of military affairs in six provinces, including Nanzhi, Huguang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, and Sichuan.

Later, when Zhang Xianzhong raised the banner of rebellion again in Gucheng, he listed the names of officials who had accepted bribes on the wall of the government office, recording in detail the dates and amounts of bribes they received. Among them, Xiong Wencan had the biggest appetite.

For Lin Hai, it would definitely be a good thing for Fujian to have a corrupt official take charge. After all, when he recruited immigrants on a large scale in Zhejiang, he relied on the governor of Zhejiang, Pan Ruzhen, who openly asked for bribes from him. "Since the general manager said so, I will do it without hesitation. I will start with Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, which are far away from Fuzhou, so as not to attract the attention of Governor Zhu." Xu Yilong said, "I am also most familiar with the southern part of Fujian. I know the personalities of the local officials very well."

"Very good. You can take advantage of the New Year to get more exercise and come to Tamsui after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. By then, my third brother Ou Zuoji will be arriving from Japan. It will be a good time for us to hold a board meeting and discuss the matter of your companies being incorporated into the company."

After talking with Xu Yilong, Lin Hai set off to Fuzhou to meet Zhu Yifeng. He went with his army, passing through states and counties without causing any harm.

This time, he met Zhu Yifeng not in Chi Xianfang's private residence, but in the governor's office. He had to go through the procedures of handing over the documents and attending court. However, Zhu Yifeng did not let Lin Hai wait too long. He immediately put down his work and met him. After all, he came with soldiers.

After meeting Zhu Yifeng, Lin Hai first reported the course and results of the Battle of Xiamen. In fact, he and Cao Lutai had already written a report on this, and this time he just reported it verbally again.

After hearing this, Zhu Yifeng naturally praised him repeatedly, and then asked, "Why did Lin Yourong bring his troops here?"

"Nothing special, just on the way." Lin Hai said, "All the soldiers under my command were recruited from the overseas Jinhe Kingdom. Now I plan to bring them back to Jinhe Kingdom for relocation and resettlement, so I came here to ask for permission from my grandfather."

Zhu Yifeng was a little surprised when he heard this. He thought Lin Hai was here to force him to abdicate and asked him to solve the problems of the organization and pay of his troops. He didn't expect that he wanted to relocate them overseas. He didn't know what to say for a moment.

Lin Hai continued, "The Penghu guerrillas only had 2,000 soldiers. After hearing about the incident with the traitor Wang Mengxiong, the imperial court was planning to reduce the number. Now I have 3,000 private soldiers under my command. I'm sure my grandfather is having a hard time with this matter."

Zhu Yifeng was silent again. He highly suspected that Lin Hai's so-called dismissal was just a cover, and he actually wanted to keep this private army in his own hands.

But unfortunately, Zhu Futai really had no money. Fujian had been in chaos due to Zheng Zhilong in the past two years, and even rats could be seen running out of the provincial treasury.

Zhu Yifeng repeatedly petitioned the court to withhold taxes, but the response he received was always no. He was really powerless to solve the organization and salary issues of Lin Hai's troops.

"Penghu is isolated overseas, and I don't think it needs 2,000 soldiers. After the Battle of Xiamen, I went to Penghu to count the troops, and found that there were only 400 to 500 soldiers in Penghu. Wang Mengxiong was too cruel to eat up the salary without paying. Even with these 400 to 500 people, few can go to the battlefield..."

"At present, Yang Lu and Yang Ce's troops in Xiamen have no official battalion and have always been under the name of the guerrilla general Xu Xinsu. Now that Captain Xu has died for his country, I suggest that Yang Lu and Yang Ce's troops be transferred to Penghu, and the original Penghu garrison be cut by half to make up a total of 1,000. What do you think, my dear grandfather?"

(End of this chapter)