Chapter 445 Exchange Conditions

Zheng Lin was not angry because he encountered such a soft nail in front of Schneider. His real mission of visiting Sanya this time was not to prosecute the enemy, but in essence to plead with Haihan to start construction of the port earlier.

Construction project. Now the entire commercial and trade system in southern Annam has come to a standstill due to the destruction of several major seaports. The imperial court is now in urgent need of restoring the situation in the south to pre-war levels so that it can gain profits from foreign trade. In order to achieve

This goal requires the Haihan people to participate as soon as possible.

Zheng Lin has been dealing with the Haihan people for much longer than ordinary Annan officials. His long stay at Black Earth Port also gave him a deeper understanding of Haihan's strength, and he is very clear about the level of engineering construction in his country and the

The gap that exists between Haihan and Haihan is that if the development of the four southern ports was not led by Haihan, it would take several times the time to build a new commercial port by Annan alone. The subject of this negotiation is not

The ownership of the four southern ports depends on when the development plan promised by Haihan before the war can be implemented.

"Mr. Shi is right, I just made a mistake." Zheng Lin did not argue with the other party on this issue, and quickly brought the topic back to business: "Now that the situation in the south has been determined, you have no plans for the construction of the commercial port.

Is there a final decision? If there is any need for our country’s cooperation, you might as well bring it up and let’s discuss the details together.”

Wang Tom and Schneider looked at each other with a hint of surprise in their hearts. In the opinion of the executive committee, the Annan court should be mostly dissatisfied with the existence of the concession. At the end of last year, the Annan court invited the Haihan militia to send troops to help.

, had no choice but to reluctantly agree to the lion's mouth of Haihan's executive committee. In addition to the astronomical military compensation, they also had to take out the four best natural ports on the southern coastline and hand them over to Haihan as a long-term concession -

—If you ignore the small rent, these places are almost like giving away for free.

Although the Annan court finally agreed to all the requests made by Hai Han Fang, if they say that they agreed willingly, I am afraid even a fool would not believe it. Moreover, after the Battle of Hue, the Hai Han Militia protected a group of Nguyen family survivors and former

Officials from the small court of South Vietnam left Hue. This measure also made the Annan court a little dissatisfied. After the Battle of Hue in March, the relationship between the two sides actually entered a relatively cold period, during which the two sides only maintained

Normal commercial and trade exchanges have been interrupted, while political and military exchanges have been at a standstill. The Executive Committee can also feel that the Annan court should be expressing dissatisfaction to itself in this way.

During this delicate period of the relationship between the two parties, it also happened that the Shilu development project required a large amount of engineering construction resources. The executive committee naturally chose to suspend the southern port plan and devote its main energy to the Changhua to Shilu project.

During the construction of infrastructure projects, the executive committee even imagined that when Haihan restarted the four southern port projects in a year and a half, the Annan court would deliberately make Tiezi uncooperative, and even deny Haihan's ownership in these places.

concession rights.

If an unplanned situation like this occurs by then, the two sides may still have to negotiate. Most of the executive committee will regard the handling of bilateral relations as one of the necessary external conditions for the smooth progress of the four southern ports project. But even if it is just an idea

The older people did not expect that the Annan court would change its attitude so quickly and actually send someone to the door to actively urge this matter.

Wang Tom responded: "Special Envoy Zheng, the development of the Southern Commercial Port involves many aspects, and the preparation work that needs to be done is also very complicated. We will not start the development and construction until everything is ready.

plan."

Zheng Lindao: "You two, to be honest, the imperial court hopes that you can start construction as soon as possible. If you need our country's help and cooperation, you can just raise it and we will report it as appropriate and try our best to cooperate."

Schneider is such a shrewd person. Seeing that Zheng Lin's attitude was so low, he had already guessed the truth of the matter. He smiled and asked tentatively: "The economic situation of your country in recent months has not been ideal, right?"

Without waiting for Zheng Lin to answer, Schneider took the initiative and said: "More than 90% of the Ming Dynasty merchants who were doing maritime trade in South Vietnam have already evacuated the area. In order not to offend us, the Portuguese also took the initiative to withdraw from the South Vietnam area. Now there is no one in South Vietnam.

There is no decent seaport, and there is no large-scale maritime trade business. The land that North Vietnam worked so hard to recover for so long has not received the expected benefits. I am afraid that the officials in the court will be very dissatisfied with this.

Are you satisfied?"

Zheng Lingong cupped his hands and said: "Mr. Shi is really powerful. Although he didn't win all the prizes, he's not far behind! Back then, all the princes in the court supported the King of the Qing Dynasty. Even if the whole country was in debt, they still wanted to attack the small court of South Vietnam. In fact, the south was also the one they were interested in.

Including the income from sea trade, as long as the previous scale of sea trade is maintained, the military expenditure gap of the Southern Expedition can be filled in only one or two years. The risk is still worth taking. However, after the war, the southern commercial ports were destroyed and sea trade declined.

, which was far from what was originally expected, and all the princes in the court put all the responsibility for this matter on the head of the Qingdu King who was leading the battle."

"The treasury has no money, and of course the King of Qingdu cannot build a new port, so this matter can only be blamed on us." Schneider took over the conversation before Zheng Lin finished: "So the general situation of the matter

That’s it, right?”

Although Schneider's words were aggressive, Zheng Lin was indeed a person who had lived in Heitu Port for a year. He had long learned the tricks of going around in circles with the Haihan people. He avoided answering and said: "If you take the lead in the construction of the port, the funds

and technology can be guaranteed, and our country can provide a certain number of laborers to assist you in the construction."

Schneider asked: "What is a certain number?"

"No less than 3,000 people, depending on the needs of the project." Zheng Lin responded immediately.

Schneider nodded and said: "Then how will the wages, food and accommodation of these workers be solved?"

Zheng Lindao: "We are only responsible for hiring people, and the labor costs will naturally be borne by you. After the project is completed, these workers can join Haihan citizenship according to their own wishes."

"The conditions sound good!" Wang Tom touched his chin and sighed.

When most people thought that the development of the four southern ports would have to be postponed until next year, the new conditions imposed by the Annan people gave Haihan a new opportunity. And judging from Zheng Lin's description, this time

The conditions offered are considered sincere and indeed worthy of serious consideration.

Of course, Schneider was not naive enough to think that the other party would only give without asking for anything in return, so he proactively asked: "Then what is the exchange condition you want?"

"We need more shipyards and seagoing ships." Zheng Lin did not hide his intentions and directly stated his conditions: "You will build no less than three shipyards for our country within next year. By the end of next year,

The four hundred ships delivered to us cannot be less than twenty."

Twenty ships worth 400 materials are not a big deal. If it is really needed, the Ministry of Shipping can now pull out a cargo fleet of this size - of course, there will be no new ships among them.

If Annan could afford the price and pay cash, it would not be a big deal to sell 20 sea-going ships one after another next year. Anyway, the "Exploration-class" civilian merchant ships at the Victory Port Shipyard have already begun to be launched, with great navigation performance and cargo loading capacity.

They are all much better than the Fuchuan Guangzhou ships used in the past. It is certain that the Ministry of Shipping will have a major ship replacement this year and next. The old ships that have been eliminated just need to find a less picky next home to deal with them, and Annan is undoubtedly an excellent one.

object.

However, the conditions for the construction of three new shipyards required by Zheng Lin are not something that Schneider and Tom Wang can make a decision directly, but must be discussed at a meeting. Currently, Annan and Haihan have a cooperation

The shipyard is located in Black Earth Port, but its shipbuilding capacity is still relatively limited. Currently, it can only build sea-going ships with a size of 200 materials. For larger ships, it can only do maintenance and repair work, and it does not have the construction capacity for the time being. And this

The ships built by a shipyard must not only be supplied to the Annan court, but also meet the needs of Black Earth Port and the other two concession ports. Therefore, it is a normal reaction of the Annan court to be dissatisfied with its supply capacity and request the construction of more shipyards.

It is also a reasonable thing.

In the past two years, Haihan helped Thang Long Prefecture fight several battles. The Annan military should have been more deeply aware of its shortcomings. In addition to weapons and weapons, mobility is also a huge shortcoming. If it weren't for

The Hai Han fleet undertook the cargo transportation task from the Red River Delta to the fighting front. The North Vietnamese army, which was at a passive disadvantage at that time, would probably be overwhelmed by its backward logistics supply system without fighting. The Hai Han militia used warships to penetrate deep into the sea several times.

The successful examples of breach warfare behind enemy lines made the North Vietnamese military realize the importance of surface combat capabilities.

The gap in civilian maritime transport capacity is even greater. After the Hai Han militia captured Hoi An and Hue, they took away all captured ships regardless of size when evacuating. This caused the southern coastal areas to be almost without ships.

situation. If we count on the Black Earth Port Shipyard, we don’t know how many years and months it will take before the prosperity of southern maritime trade can be restored.

"The ship matter can be discussed, but building a new shipyard may be a bit difficult..." Schneider shook his head and began to speak in an official tone: "Special Envoy Zheng, this shipyard can't just be built.

I, Haihan, have been here for three years, and there is only one shipyard on Qiongzhou Island. Your country is going to build three new shipyards as soon as you start, which is a bit embarrassing."

Zheng Lin came to Sanya for the first time and had never visited the Victory Port Shipyard. Hearing this, he was stunned and said: "So many of your cargo ships and warships are all built by one shipyard? Dare I ask?

How many slipways does your shipyard have? How many large ships can it build every year?"

Schneider couldn't help but secretly regretted that he had said the wrong thing. He should not use this as an excuse to evade. The Victory Port Shipyard now has two large slipways of more than 1,000 tons, 500-ton class, 300-ton class and smaller slipways.

There are more than ten together. A shipyard of this size, let alone Qiongzhou Island, is probably one of the top large-scale shipyards in East Asia at this time. Of course, a shipyard of this size consumes considerable resources.

Astonishingly, there are more than ten supporting units including carpentry workshops for processing raw materials, drying rooms for drying wood, and workshops for manufacturing metal parts, employing thousands of people.

There are hundreds of professional shipbuilding technicians in the shipyard, and most of them are professional shipwrights who have been hired from various coastal areas with high wages in the past year or so through various means. And the various tools used here are small and large.

From all kinds of planing, chiseling and hammer saws made of fine steel to the large lifting frames required to install keels and masts, they are almost all unique to Haihan and cannot be copied by the outside world. As for the various types of products made by Haihan

The design drawings of the ships are top secret information, and those who have access to these drawings are naturalized citizens with high loyalty.

It was impossible for Schneider to explain these technical advantages to Zheng Lin, such as the number of slipways and the specific number of ships built each year. These are also projects that must be kept secret. Schneider could only answer vaguely: "There is nothing to do about it."

Please forgive me, Special Envoy Zheng!"

Zheng Lin shook his head and said: "Even if Mr. Shi doesn't say it, I can guess a lot. Presumably, the scale of this shipyard in Sanya is far beyond what Heitugang Shipyard can compare with. Mr. Shi used this shipyard to compare the three shipyards required by our country.

If you are a shipyard, you probably think it’s unfair, right?”

Seeing that Schneider was a little embarrassed, Wang Tom coughed and interrupted: "Then I wonder what the scale of the shipyard proposed by your country is going to be?"

"It's very simple. Each shipyard only needs to have the ability to build 400-material seagoing ships." Zheng Lin added: "Even if there is only one slipway."

Tom Wang thought to himself, "You think I'm just an amateur? It doesn't make much difference whether you have one slipway or two slipways. As long as you master the corresponding shipbuilding technology, expanding to ten slipways is just a matter of how much money you spend."

At that moment, Tom Wang responded calmly: "We can't tell you immediately whether it's okay or not. According to our procedures, this matter must go through the collective discussion of the Executive Committee before we can make a final decision. If Special Envoy Zheng doesn't

If you are in a hurry to return to life, you might as well stay in Sanya for a few more days."

Zheng Lin cupped his hands and responded, "I'm planning to disturb you for a few days, so I'd rather be respectful than obey. I wonder if I can move around during my stay here?"

"Don't worry, special envoy, we will arrange a special visit itinerary for you, and there will also be dedicated reception staff to accompany you throughout the entire journey, while ensuring your personal safety." Wang Tom responded immediately.

If Zheng Lin understands these words, he should understand that Wang Tom means something - we will arrange for you to go where you should go, and you should stop worrying about the places you should not go, we will always arrange it.

People are monitoring you, so you'd better not do any tricks and remember that your life is always under our control.
Chapter completed!