Sunday, September 10, 1630.

In the western and southern suburbs of Pearl City, there is a large resettlement area, where more than 7,000 Ming refugees waiting to cross the Indian Ocean live in these makeshift huts or tents, and these numbers are increasing every month. To facilitate management, local officials have selected one representative for every 50 refugees to receive rice, flour and clothing from the city government distribution station every day, and medical quarantine personnel regularly come to check on patients.

Behind a slender wooden fence and a guard tower dozens of meters away, there is the official urban area demarcated by Mingzhu City, but it is still a vacant land that is only neatly organized. The existing formal settlements, which are just simple communities built by residents themselves over the past year or so near the port, are not necessarily much more upscale than the places where the refugees live. But even so, the people who also came from the Ming Dynasty were clearly divided into two groups, except for being temporarily hired and getting some meager income, the people waiting for the ship were basically strictly confined to the transit resettlement area.

But now, this immigration management system seems to have been "broken" by a wave of newcomers. For several days in a row, under the protection of the garrison, more than a dozen recruitment points of the Oriental Industrial Company simultaneously lined up on the edge of the resettlement area for migrants, wantonly soliciting people.

In order to cooperate with the on-site recruitment, in addition to the recruitment foreman of the Oriental Industrial Company, there is also a government worker who is responsible for stamping and stamping the "foreign labor visa" behind each long table.

"The construction team has recruited 300 workers...... Carpenters, stonemasons, and masons! Another 100 apprentices will be recruited, at least under the age of 20! ”

"Recruit 200 textile workers, limited to women, with a minimum age of 16 years old!"

"The building materials cement yard recruits people, not afraid of dirty and tired! Only 300 people, first come, first served! ”

Under the banners. One by one, the employees from the local cooperative enterprises opened their throats, compared and painted, and even simply found some residents with "purer accents" from the local area to help shout. In the demarcated areas, thousands of Daming refugees who have eaten the sweetness of temporary labor remuneration have lined up to conduct recruitment registration interviews at long tables.

"Your Excellency Mayor, is the Oriental Union Group planning to trap everyone in one go? God, this is not in order! A European-American clerk in charge of local immigration affairs couldn't help but be stunned as he watched the people of the OUCC group walking in circles about the immigrants who were supposed to be shipped to the Atlantic mainland.

"Not really. But I'm sure they're going to pick everything they can out of the middle. Looking at the few staff members who had gone through the labor visa procedures and stamped their hands cramped, Mayor George shrugged his shoulders and looked indifferent, "Congress and the Cabinet have passed the Far East Encouragement Act to give them exclusive authorization for Far East operations." It's a good thing that the merchants have the ability to feed these people, and our burdens have finally been laid. Now what we have to do is try to provide administrative help. Don't you want Pearl Island to become a real Oriental Pearl? ”

In recent years, many local officials have been promoted from the bottom in China, but after all, not everyone is good at both administration and economics. Honesty, duty, and education are the most important indicators for the selection of the first generation of grassroots officials. As overseas consular magistrates, they are still at a loss as to how to develop Pearl Island, except for the implementation of municipal administration according to the instructions of the cabinet. Listening to the mayor's explanation, the officials below were relieved.

But in this recruitment process. There was still a very interesting episode.

Mayor George reminded the newcomer managers of Oriental Industrial Company very "kindly": even if they are official residents of the local area, the salary level of Pearl City is much lower than that of North America, so the standard of recruitment salary can be greatly reduced.

It's no wonder, not to mention the farmland that the locals cultivate themselves. At its most expensive, the rice brought from Siam by English or Portuguese merchants was only 2 cents per kilogram, almost one-fifteenth of the domestic price of rice. one-fifth of the price of wheat. A piece of cotton cloth from Malacca or Guangzhou is only equivalent to 70 cents, and for the stranded refugees on Pearl Island, where food, drink, and clothing are king, the income of $2 a month is simply heaven, and no matter how luxurious life is, they dare not imagine it. (Note: Due to the width of the old looms, the general width of cloth in the 17th century was only one-fifth of that of Chinese-American fabric, so the Chinese-American standard of 1 horse is equal to the other 5.) ）

Zhao Mingchuan, who received this reminder, couldn't cry or laugh, thinking back to his living conditions in Daming and his life in Shuangwan City, Bermuda, and once again had a new understanding of this "wonderful" difference in people's livelihood in the world. However, after thinking about it, Zhao Mingchuan still rejected Mayor George's "kindness" and more than doubled the labor remuneration.

The previous temporary labor remuneration of $2 per person per month has been robbed of the scalp. Now Zhao Mingchuan's salary of 5 US dollars a month (equivalent to three taels of silver) is less than one-third of the minimum salary in China, and even lower than the wages of local Indian hired workers and sweatshops in the American Concession of the Atlantic Azores, but it has set off earth-shattering waves among Ming refugees. Those who pass the physical examination and skills interview are ecstatic and grateful, while those who are eliminated are as depressed as if the sky is falling.

On the other hand, even if the residents of Pearl Island have been naturalized for a short time, they must comply with domestic laws when they are hired, and before the state introduces differentiated policies, the minimum wage for temporary settlement rights is 12 US dollars, while those Daming refugees who are hired on foreign labor visas are only paid 5 US dollars a month, which is very excessive.

Now the island is full of Chinese descent for a short time, and the more than 2,000 people who are official residents are not necessarily more senior than these "foreign employees". Once we get along for a long time, the situation of "not suffering from widowhood but suffering from inequality" will appear on a large scale, and it will be an unavoidable social contradiction in the future. What's more, now the entire Pearl Island is still counting on enriching the citizen population and laying the foundation for the construction of the "Far Eastern National Image Template", so this kind of thing can be done in Nanshan Port and Twin Ports, but it cannot be done too much in Pearl Island.

However, the group's attitude is very clear, as long as there are no local naturalized Ming refugees on Pearl Island, the group has the right of priority in labor employment, and these Ming refugees who have not gone through the naturalization procedures will be treated in accordance with the "Foreign Labor Import Act", which is to exploit and squeeze for several years. As for a future labor operation plan that is still pressed in the depths of Zhao Mingchuan's briefcase, it makes Zhao Mingchuan even more secretly frightened. To put it simply, the group came to the East to invest and make money. It's not here to do good!

Fortunately, Qian Laosan, the former business director of the Bermuda Mingxing Trading Company and the current business director of the Oriental Industrial Company, who followed Zhao Mingchuan, gave a perfect solution: during the validity period of the state's authorization of the Far East's exclusive operation, the Oriental Industrial Company, a subsidiary of the Oriental Union Group, can provide free housing and working meals for the foreign employees of Daming who are employed on Pearl Island, so the employees' wages are composed of two parts: "welfare" and "cash", and outstanding employees will be "recommended" for naturalization in the future. In this way, it sounds much more comfortable.

Qian Laosan is really a smart person! Zhao Mingchuan suddenly fell to the ground in his heart, and immediately wrote the problem into a letter to the domestic group headquarters to ask for instructions, and then soon received a 12-word reply: "Strictly control the cost, and stop in moderation." Fittest! ”

With such a decision by the Oriental Union Group, Mayor George is of course eager to do so. Originally, due to financial constraints and national legal problems, except for the more than 2,400 old residents who were originally "forcibly incorporated into the territory" by the expeditionary fleet, Pearl City did not dare to add a new naturalized immigrant, and all the refugees transported were sent to the mainland.

Not to mention whether it has the ability to build large-scale residential apartments, the resettlement fee alone is an unbearable pressure for the poor Mingzhu city government at this stage, and it must be fully implemented in accordance with the local system. Then you have to go bankrupt right now.

Now, Oriental Industrial Company has skillfully combined the resettlement with the exclusive operation qualification of the Pearl Island of the Oriental Union Group, and has taken advantage of the loopholes in the interpretation of domestic laws to increase the labor force of the local government of Mingzhu City and relieve most of the burden. For George, it was impossible to ask for.

But Zhao Mingchuan also knows that this is just a temporary "change of concept" approach. Only with the accelerated economic development of Pearl Island can these "foreign workers" have the opportunity to become naturalized, and the living standards of the local people have gradually risen. Only then will the national income and spending power gradually move closer to the mainland.

All in all, what makes Zhao Mingchuan deeply emotional: Huamei treats its own people too seriously!

And the other side of this sentence is self-evident.

……

In a simple wooden building that was temporarily used as an office by the Oriental Industrial Company. Zhao Mingchuan was processing some business information, and Qian Laosan, who was in charge of local employee recruitment, was making a report.

"Vice President Zhao, now almost all the cooperative enterprises in construction engineering, wood processing, cement and building materials, and salt making have been recruited. Let's start work when you see when we can't be idle! ”

Qian Laosan's habitual character as a smuggler is naturally very good at calculating the principal and profit, and it can be regarded as Zhao Mingchuan who sees the right person. However, at this time, Zhao Mingchuan remembered what Di Zugong had said to him before leaving.

"Don't worry, this time, it is difficult for the newly recruited craftsmen to start with the machinery of Dongyun, so let the people of the cooperative enterprise do a month's training for everyone separately, so as not to delay this time. Well, the construction team can start the construction for the local area first, and you can send someone to consult with the city magistrate about how to plan the construction. Zhao Mingchuan carefully checked the current recruitment information form and gave the latest instructions, "If others don't understand, don't despise and humiliate, be sure to explain the reason in detail." ”

"Vice President Zhao is really kind-hearted, presumably this place will not be long in coming, and the hearts of the people must be one, let Vice President Zhao drive, why worry about big things!" Qian Laosan hurriedly slapped his ass, although he didn't have any big culture, he still described Zhao Mingchuan as a good person.

"Qian Laosan, this place is the border of China and the United States, and we are just employees of the Oriental Union Group. If people think that we have committed a great rebellion, I am afraid that we will be imprisoned tomorrow! Zhao Mingchuan turned his head and quietly looked at his subordinates who had followed him for many years, and his words were full of warnings.

"Hey, that's, that's! I'm just anxious, I want to do the group's affairs well, and I can live a quiet life, hehe. Qian Laosan knew that he was shooting in the wrong place, so he quickly nodded like a chicken pecking rice.

"It's so dangerous here, I think a gust of wind can blow the whole house in!"

As the two were talking, they saw Frey, the young "scholar" accompanying the team, step into the room of the wooden building. I saw that the other party was holding a stack of maps, and he was dressed as a well-groomed local scholar gentleman in the hot temperature, and he was sweating profusely.

"Sir has just arrived here, and he still needs to get used to it, so don't work too hard." Zhao Mingchuan quickly stood up and personally poured a cup of herbal tea for the other party.

"Actually, I've rested, if possible. I want to go to the big island to the north right away. Frey rolled out the domestic version of the Far East map on the spot, pointing to Hainan Island, which is about a thousand nautical miles away from Pearl Island, and the situation was also high under the high temperature, "Professor An has given me a lot of information, and I can probably imagine the beautiful one there!" ”

"Well, in a few days, I will personally accompany Mr. Frey to Qiongzhou." Seeing that this young geologist and biologist was so fascinated by Daming and Hainan Island, Zhao Mingchuan couldn't help but smile, "But before that, we have to go to Panyu first." Go to see Mr. Li Guozhu in Luzon, and the group will sign some cooperation agreements with him. ”

"No problem, maybe I can learn more about this land from your friends." Frey nodded earnestly, nerdy.

A few days later, a group of engineering and technical backbones recruited from several local construction companies, accompanied by local officials, began to comprehensively survey and plan the formal urban construction plan. According to the agreement signed between China and the Oriental Union Group, the Oriental Industrial Company will be contracted to be responsible for the municipal construction of Mingzhu City, and part of the urban construction funds will be borne by the Oriental Union Group. In return. The Pearl Municipal Government will provide local corporate land for OUCC at a symbolic price of US$1 per mu of land.

……

Qiongshan County, the government of Qiongzhou Mansion in Guangdong Province, although it is autumn. However, the temperature is still a bit damp.

The tattered brick-clad walls seem to have not been repaired for decades or even hundreds of years, and the mottled walls reveal large layers of black and yellow rammed earth, and occasionally a few weeds are still stubbornly piling up at the edges of these wounds.

As the southernmost territory of the Ming Dynasty, Qiongzhou's pioneering achievements at the digital level are no worse than those of other state capitals in Liangguang. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the cultivated land area of Qiongzhou exceeded 3.8 million mu. This record was maintained even until the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the per capita arable land area was almost the largest in Guangdong. Of course, these numbers do not prove that Qiongzhou was the southern paradise of the late Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, due to the continuous riots and famines of the Lebanese people for more than half a century, a large amount of land has actually been in a state of abandonment for a long time.

During the Hongwu period alone, the population of Qiongzhou was close to 300,000, and later rose to more than 400,000, but since the Longqing year, the local Han-Li conflict has deteriorated sharply, and the population has been in a downward trend. In the Chongzhen period, Qiongshan County, the capital of Qiongzhou, was less than 100,000 people, and the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture Hanmin, Shuli, and Shengli added up to only 300,000.

The city is depressed, there are many beggars, and you can always see miserable parents who sell their children or refugees who have wandered here from other places to live without a permanent place to live. The officials who patrol the city are also weak, and in this moldy and lifeless city, even the enthusiasm for extortion seems to be gone.

In the Qiongzhou Mansion, Zhao Youheng, the prefect of Qiongzhou, who has only been in office for two years, is still borrowing wine in the study to kill his sorrows, sighing. A calligraphy and painting that had not been finished for a month was spread out on the bookcase, but the ink had already dried in the inkstone on one side.

At the age of 36, Zhao Youheng was once known as the amazing genius of the children of Jiangbei Shandong, and with the support of his wife's Shandong Liu family, he can be described as a bright career. However, after only sitting in the position for a year, because his wife's family stood on the wrong team, the entire wife's relatives and foreigners were swept away when Emperor Chongzhen came to power, and he himself was dismissed pending investigation. If it weren't for Xiong Wencan, who was the political envoy of Shandong, who stood up to help, and was only demoted to Qiongzhou Mansion as the prefect, I am afraid that Zhao Youheng would inevitably end up cutting officials for the people and even ruining his family.

"One is to move to Changsha, and I don't see my home in Chang'an. The jade flute is played in the Yellow Crane Tower, and the plum blossoms fall in May in Jiangcheng. ”

Drinking a glass of wine again, Zhao Youheng, who is almost confused this year, muttered the Wenqing poem that Li Bai was exiled for being implicated in the Yongwang Li Lan incident.

"Don't listen to the sound of the forest beating the leaves, why not chant and walk slowly. Bamboo cane shoes are lighter than horses, who is afraid? A cloud of smoke and rain is Ren Ping's life.

The steep spring breeze blows the wine and wakes up, slightly cold, and the mountain is obliquely shining but welcomes. Looking back at the bleak place, returning, there is no wind and rain and no sunshine! ”

I was about to sigh again, when suddenly the door curtain opened, and a plainly dressed young beautiful woman walked in with a cold face, reciting a song by Su Dongpo "Fixing the Storm. On March 7, it rained in the middle of Shahu Road", the last sentence ended in a rather heavy tone, obviously very disdainful of her husband's low love in the past two years.

"Husband, the ups and downs of life are ordinary, if the years, months, months, days and days are always remembered for mundane things, even if the official is reinstated, what is the use?!" Liu's temperament is very straightforward, and he raised his eyebrows on the spot, then walked to her husband's side and began to grind, "This painting must be finished, and it is my husband's 'Heng'." ”

"It made Madame smile again...... Let's paint for my husband! Zhao Youheng's face was slightly red, so he had to pick up the ink pen on the side, and was about to move his wrist, when he suddenly found that there was a figure standing outside the door curtain, and then took a closer look, it was his brother-in-law Liu Yaoyu.

"The ninth brother didn't plan to come to disturb, but since it's my own family, I also brought it to enlighten you." Liu smiled lightly and beckoned in the direction of the door curtain.

"Brother-in-law, seventh sister ......" has always known that his cousin is very strong, but standing up at this time may make his cousin-in-law feel embarrassed. When Liu Yaoyu opened the curtain, he lowered his head, as if to indicate that he hadn't seen or heard anything before.

"Madam, let's make a pot of tea with Yi Ping." Zhao Youheng saw that the other party's expression was different, and it seemed that he had other things to discuss, so he hurriedly glanced at his wife.

……

“…… Huamei Fanyi intends to fellowship with me? As an official of the imperial court, how can he be good at forming foreign vassals! After listening to Liu Yaoyu's whispering, Zhao Youheng quickly frowned and walked around the study.

"This person is not Huamei Fanyi, but a close friend that my brother met during his study tour in Guangzhou many years ago. He has traveled overseas, is well-informed, and is now a translator for Chinese businessmen in Nanyang, and has a slight relationship with the United States. Yesterday, I received a message that Brother Zhao had arrived in Nanyang. Liu Yaoyu carefully packaged Zhao Mingchuan's identity, and did not dare to reveal too much content at this time.

"Alas, you, you, give up your fame, take advantage of business, associate with such people, and talk about how to reinstate your family." Zhao Youheng shook his head and turned his head, as if he deeply regretted the only remaining seedling of his wife's family.

"My brother-in-law is hard working, and my brother is convinced. However, his father had been in business for many years, and his uncle was loyal to the country, but he was killed in prison by the disaster of the fish pond. The mother died with hatred, and the family business was ruined day by day...... The fame of this court is already a thing of the past for my younger brother. Liu Yaoyu hurriedly bowed to the end, the words were heavy, "The director's head is only to calculate the baht, settle down and keep the household, if he can restore the Liu family's family business, his mind is enough, and he is worthy of his father under Jiuquan." I hope that my brother-in-law will be perfected. ”

"Then Zhao Mingchuan and Zhao Sicheng, but is he the one who really helps you?" Zhao Youheng saw that his wife and brother's attitude was still firm, so it was difficult to persuade him anymore, "Okay, if you can revive the Liu family, your sister will also be happy." In that case, I'll meet this person and see what I can do for you both. ”

"Thank you, brother-in-law! Now Brother Sicheng is going to Panyu and will come to Qiongzhou to visit in the near future! Liu Yaoyu was overjoyed when he saw that the words had been said.

On September 19, the day after Liu Yaoyu talked about his relatives, the Huaqingchi flying shear merchant ship on which Zhao Mingchuan and Frey and others were riding, sailed into Panyu Port in Guangzhou Prefecture under the flag of Huamei. (To be continued......)