The ships at Leizhou Station were not only small in tonnage, mixed in size, poor in condition, and mixed in quality: among them were unemployed pirates and deserters of officers and sailors after the Lingao Navy took control of the sea control in the strait. There is also Shui Yong, who was hired by Zhu'an in the past. Although there has been no trouble under the trade escort system of Leizhou Station and the Navy, it has always been a hidden danger.

As for the Navy itself, there is, of course, ideas about a fleet that is completely free from the command system of the Navy. At relevant meetings, it has been proposed to "strengthen the unified management of ships at sea".

However, unifying the two fleets in Guangzhou and Leizhou under the command of the navy and completely under the control of the navy would cause the command system to be too complicated -- the various departments in Lingao did not feel that the dispatch of ships only required to call the Admiralty, and the transportation department of the Admiralty would arrange the shipping schedule. However, it is very inconvenient for the departments in the field.

In the early days, Guangzhou Station decided to set up Gaoguang Shipping Company because of the cumbersome procedures for using ships. At that time, when it was necessary to use the ship, it was necessary to send a telegram back to Lingao, and then issue the transfer procedure through the command system of the navy, which not only had many links and wasted time, but also appeared to be very rigid in operation -- the sailors on the ship were not under the direct command of the Guangzhou station, and they had to re-report to Lingao to change the order if there was a slight change, which was completely unsuitable for commercial trade. Zuihou had to authorize the outpost to organize its own transport fleet.

The combination of these factors ultimately led the Executive Board to decide to reform the previous maritime shipping system. Formal establishment of a shipping company. The shipping company is going to adopt a shareholding system, with the Senate holding 51 percent, and the rest to raise shares from indigenous and naturalized peoples. Qiwei was, of course, the first shareholder, and they originally had shares in Gaoguang Shipyard.

The newly established shipping company will undertake all shipping business across the Group's waters in Guangdong. It also includes trade shipping to Vietnam. The company will be headquartered in Hong Kong, with shipping offices in Lingao, Xuwen, Qiongshan, Guangzhou and Sanya. In the long term, shipping agencies will also be set up in all counties of Hainan Island and coastal areas of Guangdong. Integrate the fleet under the original Guangzhou Station and Leizhou Station. At the same time, the navy also handed over some ships that were not suitable for combat service to shipping companies, including the five-masted ships that were originally purchased from the Haijia.

The shipping companies operated autonomously in the transport business, and were under the dual leadership of the Postal Communications Commission and the Navy - similar to the British merchant marine reserve system. All personnel of shipping companies are included in the naval reserve, and senior seafarers are awarded the rank of naval reserve officer. It is necessary to set aside a certain amount of time each year for military training and exercises.

After the end of the second anti-encirclement campaign, the gap before the signing of the peace treaty was taken advantage of. The Executive Committee entrusted the Navy, the General Administration of Political Protection, and the Postal and Transportation Commission to conduct a three-month large-scale training for the Leizhou Shipping Company and the Gaoguang Shipping Company. All indigenous personnel underwent political review and study. The unreliable personnel among them were purged: some were converted to land work, and a few notorious and blood-indebted were arrested in labor camps. The rest of the personnel underwent a major change: some young and strong pirates and sailors were added to the navy, and some of the older, injured, and less malleable sailors who were not suitable for naval combat operations were transferred to shipping companies. Ships owned by shipping companies have also been partially cleaned and refurbished, eliminating overly small ones - large ships are more economical to employ than small ones in terms of efficiency.

Xinde Shipping Company officially changed its name to "Dabo Shipping Company". And Zhang Dascara finished a few months of study class life in Lingao and returned to Leizhou. This old fur dog, who was originally mixed with rice, has completely determined the idea of being a "minister of the dragon" after receiving a comprehensive "re-education". He attended a ceremony in Lingao and received the rank of second lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. He was reinstated as captain - he would sail mainly on the trade routes with Vietnam, which were the routes he was most familiar with.

As she walked into a former sugar merchant's house on Hai'an Street, which had been converted into the headquarters of the Vietnam Trading Company and the Xu Wen office of the Dabo Shipping Company, craftsmen were moving in and out of the yard, with the sound of clanging banging and building materials all over the floor. Renovation work is underway here.

The person he was looking for was Yan Maoda, who is currently also the director of the Xu Wen Representative Office of Dabo Shipping. Yan Maoda gave him the task: he would set off tomorrow and send a few veterans and a shipload of goods to Vietnam.

"In addition to myself, there are several other patriarchs."

In addition to Yan Maoda, who is going to find out the layout, and Bei Kai, who is ready to be stationed in Vietnam, there are also several veterans of the military, construction companies and long-range exploration teams. They went to the front station to build the Hongji Armed Merchant Station.

"Understood, villain—I'll get the chiefs safely." Zhang Dascar was confident, "Don't say that this will be a new boat, even if it is a fishing boat, I will still keep the chief's wife peaceful." ”

"Well, I know you have what it takes." Yan Maoda smiled, "You send us to Haiyang first, and then from Haiyang to Hongji." Did you have any difficulties along the way? ”

"Nope." Zhang Da Scarla looked very sure, "It's just that the chiefs are going to go for a few days?" I arranged for the boat to be stocked with rice, rice and vegetables. ”

"Bring as much as you can, as much as you can. It's going to be a long time coming. Yan Maoda said, "This voyage to Vietnam is not to buy and sell goods than before, and it is an important task related to the great cause." You have to put in 120,000 points of energy, and you have to be ready to do everything possible. ”

"Yes!" Zhang Da Scara heard that this trip to sea was of great significance, and his energy immediately rose. Since you have to make meritorious service from the dragon, you can't get to it and have hard work. I didn't know how to confess my determination for a while, and Zuihou only held back one, "Please look at our old Zhang!" ”

Zhang's ship was a three-masted vessel with an original displacement of about 350 tons, which had been converted by a shipyard to serve as an armed trading vessel in the coastal areas of Southeast Asia and the mainland. The displacement increased to 400 tons. The ship was newly equipped with six 48-pounder Caron cannons, as well as one typewriter. It's enough to deter the average small group of pirates. A low stern was added to the stern of the ship, which served as the residence of the steward, conductor and senior seafarers and dignitaries accompanying the ship. Yan Maoda and Beikai live here. Ship name: "Zhennan".

Overnight, Zhang arranged for the ship to be loaded with enough food and water for 30 days, as well as a large amount of trade goods - the voyage itself was also intended to deliver goods to local agents.

In addition to the sailors, the ship sent another 20 sailors to serve as armed guards, and several dart divisions from the Leizhou Branch of the Wei Dart Bureau as personal guards.

The journey across the Gulf of Tonkin was not smooth, as the wind direction made the route very tortuous, and it took almost four days to reach the port of Hai Duong in Vietnam.

Leizhou Station's trade with Vietnam is very impressive. However, because of the foreign policy issues, they did not spread out a lot of work, but only opened a trading warehouse in Haiyang Port in the name of Dachang Rice Company, in which they had a stake in Leizhou, to sell sugar and various groceries to local merchants, buying rice, high-quality timber and coal - a small number of small coal kilns in this area. In Hai Duong, their biggest trading partner is still Wu Yujia. This large landowner of North Vietnam sold rice to them as if he had an endless supply of rice, and later, because the demand for Lingao was too great, Wu Yujia's stewards said that they had no time to make rice, and now they were exporting dry grain directly.

There is a Chinese shopping street near Hai Duong Pier, where a large number of merchants from the Ming Dynasty gather and sell all kinds of groceries from China and Southeast Asia. The Dachang Warehouse is located on this street.

Judging from the street view and pedestrians on land, it is very similar to the small coastal county of Daming. Even what I heard in my ears were all kinds of Ming dialects. In particular, Cantonese, Hokkien and Hakka dialects are the majority. On the way, Yan Maoda and Bei Kai also saw several small local guild halls. It can be seen that this place has been deeply infiltrated by the Chinese.

Yan Maoda thought that this was a liliang that could be used. Once the full-scale conquest of Vietnam began, these Ming Dynasty merchants and craftsmen who had settled in Vietnam for many years and were familiar with the local customs were an effective force to maintain stability. But now these Chinese are unreliable for the time being -- not only unreliable, but also potentially dangerous. The Dachang Warehouse never complained to him about his hardships - the local Chinese merchants were very regional, and there were only fellow villagers and no compatriots in the concept. Not only does it overtly and covertly crowd out and suppress business rivals, but from time to time it will lead wolves into the house and collude with local officials and bandits to harm compatriots.

As a new outsider, Dachang is of course not less exposed to open guns and hidden arrows, fortunately, they are strong, and the general business tricks are not overwhelmed, and the cooperative relationship with Wu Yujia, the local big landlord and the big soil tyrant, makes others dare not make mistakes casually.

The group came to the warehouse. The warehouses were well-walled and deep, and the guards were tightly guarded -- the officials of the Northern Li Dynasty only collected money, and never asked about the local security and the like, and the merchants had to protect themselves. The Dachang warehouse sells and stores large quantities of sugar and rice, and if you are not careful, you will be in danger of arson.

The local shopkeeper is called Zhu Fuyuan, the brother of Zhu Fusheng, the owner of Dachang Rice Shop, whose family is very poor, and originally ran errands for Daming merchants in Hai Duong to make a living, and can speak very Haode Vietnamese and several dialects. After investigation, Yan Maoda learned that he had already married in Xu Wen, had a wife and children, and was a decent person -- the whole family lived on the more than a dozen taels of silver he earned from Vietnam every year, and life was very difficult. Yan Maoda recruited him as the shopkeeper of the warehouse, not only with a good salary, but also often with small favors and small favors to envelop his family on weekdays. It soon made this man die for the crossing group.