Chapter 2430

Tao Donglai wanted to make the children of salt merchants recognize and get close to Haihan, and even work for Haihan. Although the idea was good, it was not easy to implement. People like Dai Chengrong came from a superior family background and had been doing business for generations, so they were trained since childhood.

Having become a human being, he was repeatedly warned by his family elders before coming to Zhoushan, so how could he change his position easily? In the eyes of Yangzhou salt merchants, cooperation with Haihan is not a one-sided surrender. Even if he is seeking help from Haihan at this stage, in the end

It's just a business where both parties get what they need.

However, Tao Donglai had never dealt with the Yangzhou salt merchants before, so Shi Diwen had to spend more time explaining to him the whole story. The transaction between the Zhoushan authorities and the Yangzhou salt merchants was Haihan

Provide personnel training and weapons and equipment, and assist Huizhou salt merchants in forming militia groups. In addition to paying corresponding fees, Huizhou salt merchants must underwrite the salt provided by Haihan, and hand over the command of the militia groups to Haihan when necessary.

superior.

"This is roughly the condition... The salt merchants think that they have paid corresponding money in exchange for our support, so they only think that this is a business." After Shi Diwen finished explaining, he paused and continued: " The children of salt merchants are different from the military talents we recruited in the past. For them, choosing to cooperate with my country is actually not a step of necessity. They have a choice, so they will naturally be more flexible and not so easy to conquer. "

Among the military talents Haihan recruited in the past, many were captured and joined Haihan. These people themselves had relatively strong abilities. After changing camps and joining Haihan, they became more at home and naturally became easier to establish.

Military merit. For example, Takahashi Nan, who was born as a samurai, and South Vietnam's surrendered general Wu Sen, all fall into this category. The other type is immigrants who choose to join the army in order to naturalize as soon as possible, and then slowly work their way out in the army, Haihan

A considerable number of active-duty officers in the military have such backgrounds.

Both groups of people were forced to survive, and joining the Haihan Army was their best and only choice at the time. The children of the salt merchants obviously did not have similar pressure to survive. The reasons and purposes for them to come to Zhoushan to study were the same.

For the sake of his own family, he would naturally not regard loyalty to Haihan as a necessary option.

Tao Donglai's face brightened after listening to Shi Diwen's explanation, and he nodded and said: "It seems that I don't know enough about the situation here... Then since the salt merchants regard this cooperation as a transaction, you must

I won’t show mercy to them anymore.”

Shi Diwen responded with a smug look: "Of course, since they are willing to spend money, there is no reason for me to stop them, right?"

Shi Diwen's quotation for providing weapons and training services to the Yangzhou salt merchants is definitely the highest among Haihan's foreign military aid. However, the salt merchants have deep pockets. As long as they believe that what Haihan offers is worth the price, they will

He paid with his own money without hesitation, which is quite similar to that of a big tycoon in the Middle East in later generations. However, the Executive Committee has restrictions on the military assistance provided to salt merchants, otherwise Shi Diwen would also be very interested in playing a guest role as an arms tycoon, and obtain the benefits from the salt merchants.

Scrape off some oil and water.

Tao Donglai asked casually: "What is the price of the rifle sold to them?"

Shi Diwen said: "The Type 28 flintlock gun, a model that has been phased out in the military, can be sold to them for forty taels of silver. Paper-wrapped lead-tipped bullets cost one tael of silver for three rounds. What do you think?

Where else can I find good deals?”

Even though Tao Donglai was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but be secretly surprised when he heard the price. In the early years, this type of rifle was exported to Annan Guo and Xu Xinsu, and the price of a single rifle was only about twenty taels of silver. Shi Diwen

How can the price be raised so high?

But after Tao Donglai thought about it, this was just a small business after all. After all, the salt merchant organized a militia instead of an army. Even if he had one Haihan-made gun, he could only have a few hundred guns. Probably

In other words, it was an extra ten thousand taels of silver, which was not too heavy a burden for the extremely wealthy salt merchant.

Tao Donglai nodded and responded: "The price is good, but the quantity is a bit small..."

"The quantity is not small." Shi Diwen shook his head and denied Tao Donglai's statement: "As long as we are willing to sell, they will charge as much as we have. It's just that the executive committee has restrictions on this, so the sale has been stopped."

"Huh?" Tao Donglai was surprised at first when he heard this answer, and soon understood the secret: "We sell it so expensively, and these salt merchants still want to purchase it in large quantities. I'm afraid they are not buying it for their own use, right?"

"Definitely not." Shi Diwen knew the situation in this area better and immediately told the truth: "They only need to transfer the purchased weapons to the government. This is a great achievement!"

Tao Donglai said suddenly: "Everything is said, it's all a deception!"

Haihan's current biggest potential buyer is neither the old allies like Annan and Xu Jiajun, nor the extremely poor North Korea, but the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty also had the ability to manufacture its own muskets and artillery, there was a clear gap in its power compared to the weapons made by Haihan. Haihan's record against the Qing army in Jinzhou, Liaodong and North Korea over the years also fully proved this point.

.If the Ming Dynasty wanted to change its decline in the face of the Qing army, then it might be a better solution to replace it with more lethal weapons.

As a nominal ally, Ming can of course purchase weapons from Haihan. However, the types and quantities of weapons that Ming can purchase through official channels have always been strictly supervised by Haihan, and are far from meeting the Ming army's operational needs.

This kind of control is of course easy to understand. Although Haihan's weapons are powerful, his military strength is much worse than that of Ming. Once the level of weapons and equipment is closer, Haihan will not have much possibility to continue to suppress Ming. If Ming uses Haihan to

With one or two hundred thousand musketeers armed with weapons, Haihan's interests along the coast of the Ming Dynasty are likely to be damaged.

It is based on such worries that Haihan implemented controls on the weapons and equipment sold to Ming Dynasty. Even if he comes with money, he can't even think about buying more weapons. If you can't buy them through open channels, it will naturally breed some gray.

Zone, similar to the practice of Yangzhou salt merchants purchasing at high prices, is actually planning to use their own pockets to subsidize part of the state.

The benefit to the salt merchants from doing this is just to spend money to buy peace. Maybe the big shots in the court will be happy and get promotions. If you spend one hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver, you can make the emperor write

If you live alone, these salt merchants are still happy to try it.

Of course, all the weapons and ammunition sold by Haihan are sent from the arsenal in Sanya. They have been counted before leaving the factory, and then the arsenal will record the original data of the batch and quantity of these weapons and ammunition. Zhejiang

There are records of how much has been sold here. You can tell from just one inventory, and even Shi Diwen can't hide it. So even if he knew that he sold the arms to the salt merchant, a middleman, and made a huge profit, Shi Diwen still knew it.

Devin still didn’t make his own decisions to make this money.

As for whether this weird status quo will be improved in the future, it depends on whether the relationship between the two countries can be further strengthened. Tao Donglai's mission to the north is also partly related to this, but it has not been started yet, so it is inconvenient

Talked too much about Shi Diwen.

Tao Donglai took the initiative to change the topic and said: "When conducting arms trade with the Ming Dynasty, you really need to proceed with caution... Moreover, the arms production capacity of Tiandu Arsenal is limited. The top priority is to focus on our own military construction. You will take me to the fourth floor of the base.

Come and take a look, so that I can pass on your construction experience to other places."

Shi Diwen would not refuse such a request, and immediately took Tao Donglai to visit some important facilities in the base. Zhoushan's financial situation is good, the budget is sufficient, and the construction standards of the hardware facilities in the military base are also quite high.

, basically in line with Sanya’s standards.

"Part of these barracks were completed last year, and the stone and wood used are all produced on the island, so the cost is actually not bad. As long as daily maintenance is maintained, these barracks should be able to be used until the next century." Shi Di

Wen introduced to Tao Donglai as he walked.

These barracks are all built with stone walls, log beams, roofs covered with gray tiles, and drainage ditches dug under the eaves. They do look very solid. Most of the more than 2,000 naval and Han troops stationed in Zhoushan all year round live in the barracks.

here.

Tao Donglai thought of another thing when he saw these barracks, and asked Shi Diwen: "You must have received a lot of refugees from Shandong recently, right? Have they all been settled?"

Shi Diwen said: "To be honest, Zhoushan has limited arable land. It mainly relies on maritime transportation, fishery and service industries to provide employment opportunities, and its ability to accept refugees is relatively limited. Therefore, I have to screen the people I accept here first to make a living.

Talented people with ability will stay and be resettled. The number is actually not too many. I will only keep one or two thousand people here, right? Most of them are sent to Taiwan Island. The place there is spacious, and people who don’t know anything can go there.

If you can cultivate wasteland and grow food, you don’t have to worry about losing your livelihood.”

Tao Donglai smiled and said: "It's so complicated. I mean you go through the candidates here first, keep the ones that are useful, and send the ones that are no longer needed to Taiwan Island."

Shi Diwen also smiled and did not make much excuse. His approach was not unusual. As the only major port between Shandong and Taiwan Island, most immigrant ships going south would choose to supply supplies here, and the Zhoushan authorities used

It is a common practice to screen immigrants at such an opportunity. Although Tao Donglai lives in Sanya, he is actually very aware of the tricks in the immigration process and has no intention of blaming Shi Diwen for this.

And having said that, Zhoushan is not the first screening point. In fact, immigrants going south have already been screened by the locals before boarding the ship in Shandong. Some occupations that are in short supply in the northern colonies, such as construction craftsmen and doctors

, teachers, etc., will be intercepted by Chen Yixin and resettled nearby. The ones screened here in Zhoushan are mainly fishermen and sailors. These immigrants can just meet the special labor needs of Zhoushan.

Of course, the more the population, the better. Shi Diwen doesn’t really think that the local population has reached a level that requires active control. It’s just that regarding the southward migration of Shandong refugees, the Executive Committee has given clear instructions to use Taiwan Island as the basis.

The main resettlement area. Moreover, after Haihan raided the Hirado clan last year, Zhoushan absorbed nearly half of the captive population. Shi Diwen could not ask for more refugees to be allocated to Zhoushan this time.

Even so, he still left one or two thousand people behind. About half of them were sailing personnel in urgent need in the local area, and three or five divided by two were divided up by various agencies. The remaining refugees were assigned to the island.

In each village and town, the local social system has initially taken shape. It is not difficult for each village and town to absorb a small number of refugees. In fact, the population composition of many villages and towns on the island is that most of the people are immigrants, so there is not much rejection of the foreign population.

.

Shi Diwen said: "The population structure here in Zhoushan is relatively complex. Among the thousands of residents on the island, only about one-tenth are the people who lived here when we occupied Zhoushan, and then there are those from Liaodong, Shandong,

Koreans, Japanese, locals from Jiangsu and Zhejiang... and some people from South Asia and Western countries have also settled here. I sometimes feel that this place is very similar to Sanya, an international trading port."

"The trade environment here is actually better than that in Sanya." Tao Donglai said with emotion: "You see, here is across the sea from Ningbo, and a few hundred miles away is the richest area in Ming Dynasty. The transportation cost in the trade process is higher than

Sanya is much lower. If it weren’t for the lack of natural resources in this place, I might have chosen to travel here.”

"Choosing this place must be a difficult start!" Shi Diwen shook his head repeatedly: "Mr. Tao, have you forgotten what it was like when we occupied this place? This place is a pirate den! Before we settle down, we must first

Suppressing bandits requires at least two or three months of hard work before you can settle down. Who can stand it?"

Tao Donglai smiled and said: "What you said makes sense. But now that we have occupied this place, we must make full use of this place. Whether it is a trading port or a military port, in short, we must make Ming Dynasty realize that

, whether it is fighting wars, doing business or running the country, our level must be far better than that of the Ming Dynasty. Only in this way can the Ming Dynasty, from officials to the people, spontaneously have a sense of awe for our country."

The two of them chatted and watched, and unknowingly spent half a day wandering around the base. When Shi Diwen saw the meal, he invited Tao Donglai to dine in the officer canteen in the base. Although Shi Diwen did not announce Tao Donglai to the public.

Tao Donglai's identity, but actually several officers who had participated in the Sanya military parade recognized Tao Donglai's identity. They were immediately excited. They put down their bowls and chopsticks and stood up to salute. Seeing this, Tao Donglai had to stop and return the salute.

Shi Diwen asked his adjutant to tell these people not to discuss the news of Tao Donglai's appearance in Zhoushan outside, otherwise they would be punished by military law.

Although it is inevitable that the secrets will be sparse, Tao Donglai is not disgusted with such exposure. This at least shows that although he rarely appears overseas, his reputation is still very high. The officers regard him as a member of the Executive Committee.

and a symbol of national power, which made him quite gratified.
Chapter completed!