Zhan Gui's request is actually not much, that is, he wants to buy a homestead in Shengli Harbor to build a house, and then move his favorite concubine and children to settle here, and he also hopes that the child can be enrolled in Shengli Harbor Primary School, but he has personally visited it, and he is also very satisfied with the school's environment and teaching methods. Of course, there is another reason, that is, the concubine's child is a daughter and not a son, and she doesn't need to learn the Four Books and Five Classics to test the fame of the imperial court, as long as she is literate. And there are also a lot of girls in the school of the Haihan people, and the last time Zhan Gui went to visit, he even saw two Western dolls also going to school here, that is, Jessica and Emily, the two daughters of the bearded Johnson.

Even those barbaric Westerners sent their children here to go to school, Zhan Gui felt that this had fully proved the ability of the Haihan people in education, so when he asked Ren Liang, he especially told the children about enrolling in school. As for the difference in land ownership and use rights, which is very important to ordinary people, Zhan Gui didn't pay much attention to the matter of a few hundred negotiable coupons, and it was solved by transporting a boatload of salt to the south. Besides, with the reputation of the Haihan people, Zhan Gui is not worried about things like the land being taken back by the Haihan people after the house is built.

And Ren Liang's reply to Zhan Gui has also solved this matter satisfactorily, and the executive committee will give Zhan Gui a special grant of two acres of homestead, the cost of which is slightly lower than the commercial land in the port business district, and his daughter can enroll in Shengligang Primary School at any time. However, because it is not a naturalized nationality, the tuition and miscellaneous fees must be paid in full, of course, this little money is just a drizzle for Zhan Gui, who has deep pockets.

As for whether there is any meaning behind Zhan Gui's move to Shengli Port, and whether it is intended to show goodwill to Haihan, the Executive Committee does not intend to make it clear. With the gradual prosperity of the Sanya area, it was only a matter of time before the middle and upper classes of society moved in, and eventually Zhan Gui's case would gradually develop into a common phenomenon. The urban area of Sanya in the long-term plan of the Executive Committee is actually a living area for the middle and upper classes, and it is obvious that the proportion of foreigners will be very high in the middle and upper class living in Sanya in the coming period. By then, however, there will be further changes to the hukou system for the settled population.

Whether it is the first time to set foot in Shengli Port or an old customer like Zhan Gui, almost everyone in the delegation has some special requirements, those who have not set up an office in Shengli Port are anxious to figure out how to handle various procedures, and those who have already taken root in the local area hope to start discussing the specific project of "Qiong Lianfa" so far away without talking about money? What are you kidding, everyone is so busy.

In the end, Schneider came forward to appease the enthusiastic Ming businessmen: "You must have worked very hard to float on the sea for so many days, settle down today, have a good rest, and there is a reception dinner for you in the evening, let's take care of our spirits first." As for the questions you just raised, don't worry, we will arrange personnel to go to your resting place to solve them one by one. ”

There were as many as 70 or 80 people in this inspection group, and although several inns and hotels in the business district had already been notified by the management committee to try their best to vacate some rooms, they were still unable to accommodate these people. As a result, a small number of businesses that are considered to be more reliable are fortunate to settle in the shack guest house in the No. 1 base.

It is worth mentioning that at the plenary meeting two days ago, one of the final resolutions left by the previous Executive Committee was to rename the No. 1 and No. 2 bases as "Shengli Fort" and "Tiandu Fort" respectively. And when the delegation arrived today, it also happened to encounter the listing ceremony of "Victory Fort". Of course, as guests of the ceremony, the rich businessmen of the delegation also had to pay some money to congratulate them. However, this happy money is not in vain, each family gets a souvenir engraved with the words "Victory Fort 1st Anniversary" glass paperweight, and this thing is definitely not a limited edition that will not be sold, the value of this rarity is not a little silver can measure.

In the afternoon of the same day, the "Lightning", which was sent to Yacheng to pick up people, also turned around, and Wei Ping's brother-in-law Wang Tongzhi and Luo Shengdong's father-in-law Zhang Tongju arrived on the same ship. Although the two of them have been dealing with the Crossing Group for a long time, it is the first time that they have come to Victory Port in person. Although I have heard Luo Shengdong and Wei Ping's descriptions of the Shengli Port area many times beforehand, when I really come here and see the barren mountains and uninhabited bays in the past, which have become today's prosperous ports, the visual shock is indeed indescribable.

As the official representatives of the Ming Dynasty, these two and their entourage were received the best reception, and a two-story simple shack had been specially set up for them in the Victory Fort as a place to stay. At the reception banquet in the evening, these two will also distance themselves from other inspection groups to show their official majesty. Of course, it is not in vain to spend money to invite these two to come forward, and at tomorrow's celebration ceremony, the two magistrates will make a public appearance, so that local people and foreign merchants can confirm the influence of the crossing group in the Yazhou area.

In addition to the superficial article, the more important thing is the next movement of the political situation in Yazhou. The term of office of the current incumbent Zhizhou has expired, and when he recovers from this illness, it is almost time to hang up his seal and step down. Under the desperate activities of the crossing group, the successor has basically finalized the judgment of Luo Shengdong's father-in-law Zhang Tong, among which the current Zhizhou, Wang Notice, He Shen General of Shuizhai and Zhang Qianhu of the Weisuo Army have all taken the benefits of the Cliff Office and jointly sent a letter of recommendation to the Qiongzhou Fucheng. Under the joint recommendation of local military and political officials, it will basically be possible to achieve success. After all, Yazhou is a remote place, and it is not a good errand to be an official in this place, of course, it was before the appearance of the Haihan people, and the future situation needs to be another matter.

These high-ranking local officials, who have all reached the threshold of retirement this year, have all received a lot of benefits from the side of the crossing group before leaving office, and compared to those who are officials in the north, at least this year's harvest is quite good. If they have to say that they have any grievances, they probably think that the Haihan people appeared too late, and if they had come here ten or eight years earlier, how much silver would they have made by now?

A lot of money has been spent, and the Executive Committee also wants to let them use a little bit of residual heat before they leave office, such as the ownership of land in the areas along the Linchun River and the Sanya River, or the issue of the Executive Committee's special law enforcement power in the Sanya area.

According to the development plan of "Qionglianfa", the entire southern part of Qiongzhou Island, especially the coastal plain area between Shengli Port and Yacheng, will become the implementation area of various construction projects. This includes both urban planning and large-scale agricultural development, but either way, it will ultimately involve the issue of land ownership.

Most of the area is ternullius, but there are some fields that have been reclaimed, and some yeoman farmers or small landowners still have legal land registration in Yacheng. If the Crossing Group wants to expropriate these lands, it will inevitably come into conflict with certain stakeholders. If the land can be redeemed directly with money, then it is best to solve it peacefully, anyway, there are a large number of shareholders holding silver behind "Qiong Lianfa", and there is no need to worry about no funds. I'm afraid that some dead hard molecules will not eat hard and soft, and it will be more troublesome to deal with when the time comes. It's not that the executive committee is reluctant to carry out forced demolition, but it doesn't want to affect its reputation because of this, and if Yacheng can give some "convenience", it would be the best.

The main object of negotiation in this matter is, of course, the incoming Zhang Tongju. After settling the team of the two officials, Tao Donglai asked Luo Shengdong to come forward to find a reason, and invited Zhang Tongju to the conference room of the executive committee to discuss alone.

and Tao Donglai met with Zhang Tongju and Luo Shengdong, as well as Schneider and Ning Qi. After a few words of greeting, the two sides quickly got to the point. Ning Qi got up and hung a map on the whiteboard in the conference room, and Zhang Tongju could see this map of Yazhou at a glance, but the mountains, rivers, and coasts on this map were very clear, and the quality was obviously much better than the rough map used in the state government.

"Lord Zhang, please look, this is Yacheng, this is Victory Harbor. While explaining, Ning Qi marked two locations on the map: "The two places are not more than 100 miles apart, and at present, more than eighty percent of Yazhou's population lives in these two places, but the development process of the middle area is quite poor." According to our statistics, there are only 237 households and less than 1,000 residents between Fenghuang Town and Nanshan Town, while the total number of people in Yacheng and Shengli Port on both sides has exceeded 30,000. ”

"It's a shame that this area is so deserted, so we're going to develop it. Ningqi drew a large circle in the two river basins with his hands: "Here we will build a new urban area and an inland port that can accommodate 10,000 households." ”

He then drew a circle north of the town of Phoenix: "This area is flat and well-watered, and it is very good for agricultural development, and we plan to build several large farms here, in addition to growing crops, but also to develop livestock breeding." ”

"Between Nanshan Town and Tianya Town...... Ning Qi's hand quickly moved over to demarcate the area: "...... We are going to use it to grow cash crops, that is, crops such as sugar cane and spices. These crops are cultivated for a relatively short period of time, and they can be planted within a year or two. If large-scale development can be formed, then the annual income will be very considerable, of course, the official tax received by Yazhou will be many times more than now. ”

Before coming, Luo Shengdong had given his father-in-law all kinds of preventive injections, and Zhang Tongju also knew that the Haihan people had always been bold in doing things, but he didn't expect the other party to plan so big, and with a few words, he encircled all the nearly 100-mile coastal area. And the style is so natural, it seems as if these places have long been in their pockets.

Zhang Tongju coughed dryly and said, "This Mr. Ning, do you know how big this area is?"

"Big is not a problem, what we have is manpower available. At present, the number of laborers imported into Shengli Port will not be less than 2,000 per month, and the population is now basically the same as that of Yacheng, and it will exceed Yacheng at least twice this year. With so much available labor, Master Zhang doesn't need to worry about a manpower shortage. Ning Qi replied immediately.

Zhang Tongju didn't expect Ning Qi to answer so smoothly, and he seemed to be completely confident, so he hurriedly added: "What this official is talking about is not the land area, but the development of such a large area, and the cost required should not be a small amount, right?"

"Ah, it turns out that Master Zhang is worried about our financial problems!" Ning Qi nodded as if he suddenly realized: "Since it is a financial problem, let's ask Mr. Shi to explain." ”

Schneider replied with a smile: "Then I will briefly explain the problem of funds to Master Zhang." In order to develop this area, together with 12 commercial houses on the mainland, we have set up a new business called the 'Qiongzhou United Development Company', and the construction funds required will be jointly paid by the 13 shareholders. So far, we have nearly 150,000 taels of silver in the development fund, and if the project is confirmed, it will not be too much of a problem to raise one or two times the fund. If hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are smashed, this place will eventually change, right?"

Compared with Mr. Shi, who is said to be the director of Haihan's finances, Zhang Tongju felt that the so-called rich gentry in Yacheng were simply weak. When the small businessmen were still racking their brains for the business of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, the big tyrants had already planned the business of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Of course, as for whether the Haihan people really have such economic strength, Zhang Tongju still did some homework to understand in advance. Regarding this aspect, his good son-in-law Luo Shengdong gave him a lot of valuable information.

In the past year, the Haihan people have purchased nearly 30 ships of 400 materials, and they are still buying them while building them, and it seems that they have no intention of stopping at all. At the current level, they already have more large ships than the ports of the whole island.

The private salt sold by the Haihan people has exceeded 50,000 catties just by Luo Shengdong alone. As far as Luo Shengdong knows, the private salt transported by Haihan to Daming and Annan is far more than several times his share. As for the most profitable Haihan industrial products, how much silver was sold in this year, probably only a few people in charge of the accounts know, but Luo Shengdong knows very well that that number must be able to scare many people out of pee.

The most powerful thing is the money bank called "Haihan Bank", now the merchants from the mainland almost do not bring cash, only a few fluttering silver tickets can be used to settle accounts, and after returning to Guangzhou, and then in the local "Haihan Bank" to exchange cash. Luo Shengdong estimated that for this business alone, Haihan Bank needed to prepare at least 100,000 taels of cash in Guangzhou. And these cooperative businesses selected by the financial resources and vision of the Haihan people, I am afraid that if they pull one out at random, their family background will not be much worse than that of the Haihan people, at least half of these twelve shareholders, Luo Shengdong has more or less dealt with, and he also knows a little about his economic strength.

Even if Schneider said just now that he could make up a million taels, Luo Shengdong would not be the slightest surprised. In fact, when he heard the numbers quoted by Schneider, he subconsciously thought that Schneider had reservations and did not show his real hole cards. But this is actually scary enough, for Yazhou, whose annual fiscal revenue is less than 10,000 taels and the local fiscal expenditure still needs to rely on the appropriation of funds from the higher levels to subsidize, hundreds of thousands of taels and 1 million taels are actually about the same, and they are just untouchable numbers.

Zhang Tongju saw the calm face of his son-in-law, and knew that this Haihan leader surnamed Shi was not bragging, but really had such a strong strength. Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were smashed, and Zhang Tong couldn't imagine how there would be changes at the moment, but at least one thing he could be sure of was that the Haihan people should have an iron heart to take these areas, and whoever stood in the way would be unable to get along with these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Whether others will have trouble with so much silver, Zhang Tongju doesn't know, but he knows that he will definitely not do such an unwise thing. Now everyone in Yacheng who can catch up with the Haihan people, from the literati to the peddlers and pawns, are all trying to move to Shengli Port to settle down. Why? In the final analysis, it's not for the money of the Haihan people.

The old groom of the state government used to live a safe and stable life with an annual salary of more than 20 taels, and last year he heard that he went to Shengli Port to raise horses for the Haihan people, and he could get a salary equivalent to ten taels of silver every month, so he immediately resigned and ran away, so that now the state government has no horses to use. Even the handymen in the yamen who could only carry water, chop wood, and clean up actually quit their jobs and ran to Shengli Harbor, and it is said that as long as they work under the Haihan people, the minimum income can be twice as high as that of Yacheng.

Those poor talents in Yacheng Academy, because they had no means of making a living, used to rely on their fame and fortune to live on state relief. It is recorded in the "Ming History Food and Goods Chronicle" that Xiucai's treatment is "one liter a day for the rice people, and the subordinate officials of the fish and meat salt are given to them", although they don't have to work, but they can barely live by eating, and there is a living allowance of one or two silver per month. But after the Haihan people came, they went directly to the fifteenth to twenty-two months and the all-inclusive high price of food and housing, and looted all the poor talents who did not want to make progress to the side of Shengli Port to do things.

And this kind of economic infiltration of the Haihan people is not only aimed at ordinary civilians, in fact, it started from the beginning with the government. Zhang Tongju knows very well why several colleagues who usually look good will jointly write a recommendation letter for himself when they leave office, and he also knows why his son-in-law can frequently make military exploits in this year, and at the same time earn a lot of extra money. The infiltration of the Haihan people into the Yacheng officialdom has reached the point where he is not allowed to say "no".