What kind of new plan is this to make money, this is simply a rebellion!

Occupying this Qiongzhou capital city and occupying the wasteland over there in Sanya are not the same nature at all, Qiongnan Mountain is far away from the emperor, and the Guangdong government can't manage so much, but Qiongzhou Mansion is the core area of this island, how can the government let the Haihan people control the local situation lightly?

Some of the participants below have already begun to secretly regret in their hearts, knowing that the Haihan people are going to play so big, they should find a reason not to attend this shareholders' meeting. If you step into this muddy water, I'm afraid that before you can make money, you will get into trouble first!

Although these participants have some investment on Qiongzhou Island, almost all of their roots are on the mainland, and the so-called monks who run away can't run away from the temple, if the actions of the Haihan people anger the Guangdong government, then what will happen to these people who are "in the same stream" as the Haihan people?

Of course, the government cannot afford to offend, but the other side cannot afford to offend either, in terms of force alone, the strength of Haihan in its area of activity has even surpassed that of the Ming government, at least on Qiongzhou Island, no one dares to disobey it. If you don't cooperate with the Haihan people, it is almost equivalent to giving up all your interests on Qiongzhou Island, which is not a loss that everyone can afford.

Of course, money is secondary, and when it comes to life and death, it is not something that cannot be given up. Now the Haihan people have built two ports in the waters of the Pearl River estuary, and warships are stationed all year round, and they are an indestructible umbrella for their partners, but for those who are unwilling to cooperate, the survival of those Haihan warships is a great threat.

The location of the Pearl River Estuary is extremely critical, and the outlets of several major commercial and trade areas in Guangdong, such as Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Huizhou, are located here, and controlling it is equivalent to controlling more than half of the waterways along the coastline of Guangdong. Prior to this, it was believed that the measures of the Haihan people were very popular, and that they could provide excellent protection for the insecure maritime merchants, and that the merchant and civilian ships traveling between Guangdong and other parts of the South China Sea no longer had to worry about the pirates that were rampant in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary in previous years.

However, the treatment is directly related to the position, and of course you can be protected by cooperating with the Haihan people, but if you don't cooperate, what will become of the situation?

After Schneider asked this, no one in the audience immediately answered, and everyone was waiting for him to give further explanations.

Schneider took in the expressions below, and waited until the discussion in the crowd had stopped before he continued: "Guys, I have another piece of news to announce before the next project is announced......

The hearts of everyone in the audience suddenly rose to their throats, lest Schneider would say something rebellious in the next sentence. However, Schneider said with a relaxed face: "In the next year, we will further open the trade lanes in the direction of Annam and the South China Sea, and for merchants who are not able to carry out ocean shipping, they can also rent the cargo hold of our merchant ships in Haihan to transport goods." At that time, we will launch a new business organization for this purpose, as long as we become a member of this organization, we will provide a full range of services, such as the delivery and collection of goods in overseas ports, the transfer and loan of funds, the armed escort during the voyage, and even the communication with the local government, we can get our help. ”

As soon as this remark came out, there was an uproar in the audience, and even the Li family father and son were shocked by the news, because when Schneider came to visit a few days ago, he didn't mention that there was such a thing.

The shipping lanes from Canton to Annam and the South China Sea in the direction of Batavia and Manraka were nothing new, and all maritime merchants knew that they could make excellent profits by trafficking various Ming specialties from the mainland to the local area. However, for these maritime merchants here, not every one of them has the ability to transport goods from Guangdong to the local area for sale and sale, and many of the sailing vessels owned by the maritime merchants can sail in the near sea, but they cannot go to the other side of the ocean thousands of miles away, and they can only look at the sea and sigh at the huge profits of the ocean trade.

And Schneider's words are obviously a great blessing for this part of the maritime merchants with limited strength. In the future, even if they do not have ships that can reach the overseas ports in the south, they can take the big ship of Haihan and lay out the business network in places that they have not been able to reach before.

For those maritime merchants who were already able to go to distant ports, they immediately paid attention to a few key words—commercial organization, armed escort, and communication with the local government. There is no doubt that this is the intention of the Haihan people to copy the set of tactics they now have on the coast of the mainland to be used in the South China Sea, to gradually integrate these capable maritime merchants together, to unify foreign trade in the form of commercial organizations, and to provide transportation and financial assistance, as well as the protection of force that the merchants most desire.

Of course, compared with those small maritime merchants who only think of the huge profits of ocean trade at the first time, these powerful big merchants are considering whether Haihan's policy will have an impact on their own business, and whether the new business organization that Schneider said will have a strong exclusivity.

Sure enough, Schneider continued: "...... Of course, there is no threshold to obtain these services from us, first of all, you must first become a member of the new business organization I just mentioned - I will call it the South China Sea Business Alliance, and after entering this organization, you can be eligible to enjoy the corresponding various treatments. As for the threshold for entering this organization, it is also very low, as long as there are merchants who invest more than 20,000 taels of silver on Qiongzhou Island, they can sign up. ”

For the merchants who can sit here and participate in this meeting, 20,000 taels is not a large amount, at least half of them have reached or exceeded this number, and the rest of them have no difficulty if they want to reach this goal, even if they can't come up with this money for the time being, they can borrow a sum of money from Haihan Bank, which is open for twelve hours. Smart people have already thought that Haihan's purpose in setting this entry threshold is obviously not to block out the people present, but to force the maritime merchants to stand in line.

If you want to enter the new game in the next paragraph, you have to follow the rules and arrangements of Haihan's game to continue playing, and those who want to clear up their relationship with Haihan will basically not be eligible to enter the new game. Previously, many people silently weighed the pros and cons in their hearts, considering whether to give up their interests on Qiongzhou Island, but as soon as Schneider drew this pie, many people could no longer remain calm.

Although the various investment projects presided over by the Haihan people on Qiongzhou Island have good profit prospects, the cycle is often relatively long, short months, and the long sericulture project in Qiongzhong may take several years to produce results, and it does not matter to the large merchants with strong capital, because many people throw money into these long-term projects not only for profit, but also to maintain the trade partnership with Haihan. For those merchants with little capital and weak strength, they pay more attention to short-term gains, and they can collect silver once on a boat, and this traditional trade method is more popular with them.

As long as a shipload of goods can be transported over, or even the amount of a cargo hold, they can actually receive a sum of silver, which is much faster than smashing long-term projects. Of course, the premise is that in the future, their butts will have to move from Daming to Haihan's side.

In addition to being shocked, Li Jifeng contacted the information that Schneider had revealed in private before, and naturally thought that the purpose of the Haihan people was to force the most wealthy and powerful people in the Guangdong business community to continue the trade cooperation between the two sides, and the scale would be larger than in previous years, and Cheng Dù would also be more in-depth.

Li Jifeng had to admire the methods of the Haihan people, if they used the threat of force at this stage, they would probably be able to force most of the people here to comply, at least Li Jifeng thought that the Haihan people had such a purpose when he visited the Haihan warship at the dock. However, the Haihan people were clearly superior in chess, and adopted a more clever method to lure these businessmen, including himself, into the game voluntarily, and those who were able to resist the temptation of huge profits to stand their ground, Li Jifeng thought that the proportion of those present would be frighteningly low - even he himself could hardly resist such a temptation.

"Fu Ruifeng" naturally has the ability to trade in the ocean, but since the Haihan controlled the coastline of Annam, the maritime trade of Annam has actually been monopolized by the Haihan. Even if a merchant like "Fu Ruifeng" has a good relationship with Haihan and wants to go to the coast of Annam to trade, he must first report to the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Shipping of Haihan, go to the specified port along the specified route at the specified time, and trade with the merchants designated by Haihan in Annam. As for those merchants who tried to go to Annam to do maritime trade on their own, they all came back with a nose - almost all the commercial ports on the coastline of Annam were under the control of Haihan, and the largest trading houses in Annan were all officials and businessmen with aristocratic backgrounds, and they had long been in collusion with the Haihan people, so naturally they would not offend Haihan, a big backer, for the sake of one or two retail investors from the Ming Dynasty.

What's even worse is that after the end of the Annam Civil War, the Annam Imperial Court handed over several major ports in the south to the Haihan people to operate, and the Hoi An Port, which had the best foundation, had been destroyed in the previous civil war - at that time, almost all the Ming maritime merchants in Annam had moved away from the local area in order to escape the war, and completely lost their foundation in Annam. Therefore, after the war, the coastline in southern Annam was also controlled by the Haihan people, and the ships from the South China Sea to Manraka and Batavia almost had to seek a docking point in the southern part of Annam.

Schneider's plan seems to have put a sea route to Annam and Southeast Asia, but from another point of view, it is to choke the necks of a small number of maritime merchants who are currently capable of running such ocean routes. If they do not stand on the same side as the Haihan, they will lose not only their business on Qiongzhou Island, but also their ability to trade in Annam and more distant overseas ports in the future. And the long-term benefits of these maritime trade exchanges are probably not something that tens of thousands of taels of silver can hold.

"The Haihan people's soft and hard tricks are powerful enough!" After Li Jifeng pondered the cause and effect in his heart, he could only praise the Haihan people's serial methods.

Whether it is the special transfer of warships to make an appearance, or the announcement of the conditional opening of the South China Sea route, the Haihan people have made enough preparations for both soft and hard, if they cooperate obediently, then Schneider's Qiē will become a help that can help maritime merchants earn more silver. But if you want to part ways with the Haihan at this juncture and draw a clear line, then be ready to withdraw from the maritime world, even if you are reluctant to stay, don't think about playing in this circle in the future - the Haihan people have at least a hundred ways to drive those who are unwilling to cooperate from their sphere of influence.

Unless there is an ultra-low probability that the Ming official army will annihilate the Haihan militia in one fell swoop, no one will want to change the current situation of Haihan dominance in the South China Sea with their own strength. For such a situation, the maritime merchants probably have no other way to choose except to say "obey" in unison.

When Li Jifeng was sighing, he suddenly felt Schneider's gaze on the stage towards him, and the two looked at each other, and Li Jifeng clearly felt that Schneider was signaling to him.

Of course, Li Jifeng understood what Schneider's purpose was at this time - he had promised to be a trustee in advance, and now it was time to go to work. Li Jifeng thought about it a little in his heart, and immediately stood up.

"Mr. Shi, can I ask a question about this?" As soon as Li Jifeng spoke, the crowd around him who were still whispering immediately quieted down. Everyone knows the relationship between Li Jifeng and the Haihan people, and the questions he will ask the Haihan people must not be missed.

Schneider smiled and nodded, "Boss Li, please ask." ”

Li Jifeng took a deep breath and said, "I want to know, if you incur some official troubles in the future because of business cooperation with you, will you come forward to solve it?"

Schneider did not immediately answer Li Jifeng's question, but glanced at the people present: "I believe that most of you here have the same problem in their hearts, right? I would like to make a special point that the South China Sea Business Alliance I just mentioned is not only an alliance in the field of commerce and trade for Haihan, but also the safety of the families and property of all members who join this alliance is protected by the Executive Committee in the same way as the area under Haihan's rule. Any external forces that are detrimental to the interests of the business alliance will become the target of the Haihan militia. This is not my personal explanation, this is the commitment given to you by the Haihan Executive Committee. ”