In fact, the entire working population of Yazhou has been in a state of accelerated outflow in the past six months, which is naturally the Shengli Harbor with a huge labor shortage. （.）

In terms of productivity and material supply capacity in this era, if a large number of people are poured into a certain place, it will inevitably face a shortage of food and material supply. However, food is no longer the main factor limiting the number of migrants to Shengli Port, on the contrary, the residents of Shengli Port have received much better supplies than Yazhou. In particular, in terms of food supply, due to the food rationing system adopted by the Executive Committee, the basic cost of food for naturalized people is surprisingly low, and the level of food is much higher than when they lived in Yazhou.

Similarly, there are other living costs, such as housing, health care, education, etc., which are arranged by the Executive Committee, which allow naturalized residents to save a lot of money and enjoy a standard of living that was unimaginable in the past. It can be said that except for the fact that he did not get his own land under his name, the other qiē treatment is better than in the past. Moreover, land was not out of reach, and according to the policy propagated by the Haihan people, as long as they had obtained the status of naturalized citizens, they could work hard for a few years, and when the labor level reached a certain level, they could expect to obtain land with very low rent.

If you feel that the time is too long to wait, you can also directly sign up for the Haihan militia, the militia soldiers can be discharged from the army and take the land immediately after a few years of service, this kind of treatment in the Ming Dynasty did not even dare to think that the guards of the Tuntian Tun have become the private property of the military leaders, but I have never heard of the military leaders take out the land and distribute it to the soldiers below.

Beginning in the second half of 1627, a number of selected "senior" naturalized people returned to Yazhou to persuade relatives and friends to move to Shengli Harbor to settle down. Under the appearance of these people, many people at the bottom of the society inside and outside Yazhou City began to take the initiative to move out. Up to now, the population of Yazhou City has decreased by nearly 40 percent compared with before the arrival of the Haihan people, and there are four main types of residents who still remain here: First, people who eat public meals, including various yamen and local garrisons, which are all accessories bound by Yazhou City; second, the local gentry and large households, these people are basically light and will not move their nests; third, small landlords who own land in the surrounding areas, and they are naturally unwilling to give up their current living environment because they are not allowed to buy and sell land privately by the Haihan people; and the last group is a small number of yeoman farmers, and the reasons for this kind of people are similar to those of the third categoryBasically, they have great concerns about the way the Haihan people deal with the land issue.

The consequence of the outflow of a large number of workers is the gradual depression of Yazhou City, the labor market outside the south gate has long been out of business, and now there is no need for Yahang to organize publicity, and residents who are willing to go to Shengli Port naturally know on which days of the month there will be migrant boats to Shengli Port that can be taken for free. Since there is not much oil and water to be fished in the local area, Yaxing, which organized the resettlement for the Yazhou Office, has long since stopped doing business in Yazhou, and has also moved to several towns in the north of Hainan Island.

Due to the gradual prosperity of Shengli Port, the cargo distribution center in the south of Hainan Island is no longer dominated by Yazhou City, and many merchants have wisely chosen Shengli Port with zero tax as the end point of their goods. In addition to the burden of paying taxes, the merchants who transport goods to Yazhou City will also face another trouble, that is, it is difficult to find laborers locally, and even the unloading of goods has become very troublesome. As long as the ship is loaded with the goods needed by the Haihan people, the unloading process does not even cost a copper plate, and the labor costs are all borne by the Haihan people.

As for Yazhou, the city is even more depressed, with fewer vendors and pedestrians than before, some small shops are starting to close their doors, and people who have access to other places have even begun to sell their properties in preparation for leaving this lifeless place. At present, the main channel for population import in Yazhou City is only the prisoners who are distributed here every year. But then again, except for a small number of felons and ****** in Yazhou Prison, most of the other prisoners have also been sent to Shengli Harbor to work for the Haihan people to make money. If the Criminal Department sends people down to inspect, basically no one from the relevant units of Yazhou Prison will be able to escape responsibility.

In such a social environment, the Yaya Office has quietly occupied the market for several major local daily necessities. Hai Han refined salt from Victory Port, as well as refined coal and rice from the North Vietnamese region, quickly beat competitors in the local market at extremely low prices. Under the control of the crossing group, the price of these daily necessities is only half of what it used to be, and the acceptance of the local people is naturally very high, and because of this, they have more favorability towards Haihan. And when the supply of these basic living materials is controlled by the crossing group, there is not much suspense about the future direction of Yazhou City, as long as the supply of these materials is slightly adjusted, it is enough to affect the social stability of Yazhou City.

However, for the Executive Committee, the worries of local officials like Zhang Qianhu are indeed somewhat redundant, and the Executive Committee will not issue an order to directly occupy Yazhou City in the short term, as Zhang Qianhu thought, occupying Yazhou City will not have any practical benefits for the Crossing Group, and the more important role may only show the essence of the rebellion.

Through the group's development plan in Sanya, it is still based on Shengli Port and gradually expands outward. With the acceleration of labor input and the gradual increase in the flow of foreign maritime merchants, the Executive Committee believes that the construction plan of the new urban area and the new port area can now be included in the agenda.

The so-called new urban area refers to the coastal plain area covered by the two river systems of Sanya River and Linchun River, that is, the urban area of Sanya in another time and space. The two rivers meet offshore and then flow into the sea through a narrow inlet in Guò, an inland harbour that is close to the estuary. As early as the beginning of the crossing, when the first expedition team was sent to Yazhou, the harbor had already been inspected, and the relevant construction plans had already been placed in the database of the Ministry of Construction, just waiting for the right time to implement.

Now that the labor force of the group is sufficient, it is a good time to work quickly, and the Ministry of Construction once again put forward a plan to develop a new urban area. According to this development plan, the commercial and residential areas will gradually be relocated from Shengli Port to the new urban area, and Shengli Port will gradually be transformed into a military port, while the Tiandu area will be stored as a purely industrial area.

Although such a plan may be a duplication of the current Shengli Port development plan, it is also a process that must be experienced in local construction, because Shengli Port is indeed not suitable for long-term use as a commercial and residential area, and with the construction of the Tiandu Industrial Zone, the Tiandu River system has actually begun to appear lightly polluted. The industrial zone is upstream and the residential area is downstream, and this industrial layout around the Tiandu iron ore mine will gradually show a stricter negative impact in the future, and the executive committee does not want to wait until the Tiandu River becomes the Heishui River to start organizing the relocation.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Construction, the new city will be built around the Xingang District, and the first phase of the project alone will require the investment of thousands of laborers to renovate the Xingang Riverbank, and at the same time open up the land communication line from Shengli Port to the Xingang District, so as to transport various materials from the base camp to the construction site. In terms of the amount of work, it is no less than the period when the Shengli Port built an integrated passenger and freight terminal last year, but because the manpower situation has been greatly improved, it will no longer be as stretched as the labor demand at that time.

In principle, this plan has been approved by the Executive Committee, but the time for public announcement will have to be pressed a little later, and there is still a month to go before the first anniversary.

On March 3, two "Explorer-class" sailing ships were launched at the same time at the Victory Port shipyard to begin the final outfitting work. According to the shipyard's schedule, the two ships are expected to complete outfitting and sea trials before the anniversary, and will be included in the newly established naval establishment. Although the third "Explorer-class" sailing ship that started construction at the same time is still on the slipway, it has also entered the preparation period before launching, which is expected to be launched within a week. If the shipyard is fast enough, it is not impossible for three "Explorer-class" ships to be listed at the same time.

However, as the shipyard focused its main efforts on the construction of the "Exploration class", the construction plan of the larger 500-ton sailing ship was affected to a certain extent. The Ministry of Shipping had intended to complete the design and lay the keel on the slipway by the end of January, but the work was not completed until mid-February. When the two new ships were launched, the 500-ton ship was still in the stage of assembling the keel, and it would be good to be able to complete it in the first half of the year.

On the morning of the second day after attending the launching ceremony on behalf of the Military Police Department, Tao Donglai quietly left Shengli Harbor on the "Lightning" fast sailing ship. The direction of his secret trip this time was Guangzhou, and the reason why he wanted to keep this trip secret was that the executive committee also took into account that Tao Donglai's identity was relatively special, and if the news of the Haihan chieftain's visit to Guangzhou spread, it was hard to guarantee that there would not be some ill-intentioned people with bad intentions.

Tao Donglai came to Guangzhou for two main purposes: First, on behalf of the Executive Committee, he conducted routine inspections of units stationed abroad; among the current units stationed abroad, Tao Donglai had already inspected the work of the Heitu Port, the base of the Tushan Peninsula, and the Yaya Office, but only the Guangzhou Office had not been there. Second, the Executive Committee also needs to know the specific progress of the construction of financial institutions currently being carried out by the Guangzhou Office, to put it bluntly, it is to go to the local authorities to verify the accounts on behalf of the Executive Committee.

After Schneider returned to Shengli Port to attend the work summary meeting on the New Year, he returned to Guangzhou with a full 150,000 taels of cash and 2,000 taels of gold as the starting capital for the Guangzhou Office to carry out the general deposit and exchange business. As long as this business is handled in the Guangzhou Office, the maritime businessmen no longer need to carry the cash back and forth between Shengli Port and Guangzhou, as long as they have the silver ticket issued by the "Haihan Development Bank", they can directly exchange the full amount of cash at the Guangzhou Office or the Currency Exchange Center of Shengli Port, and it is in full condition, and there is no need to worry about the problem of color conversion in the transaction.

With Schneider, a veteran financial fraudster, in command in Guangzhou, the Executive Committee actually has nothing to worry about the possible loopholes in the system, and Schneider himself is an expert in this area, and he will definitely be more thoughtful than the members of the Executive Committee. The main purpose of Tao Dong's visit was only to see the specific operation status and listen to the evaluation of local users.

The voyage of more than 300 nautical miles from Shengli Port to the mouth of the Pearl River was completed by the "Lightning" in only two days. However, due to the fact that the appearance of the "Lightning" was too eye-catching to appear outside Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Office also arranged for a ship to come to the Pearl River Estuary early for Tao Dong to come and transfer. It took another day and a half for Tao Donglai to finally arrive at the wharf outside Guangzhou.

In order to avoid attracting the attention of idlers, the Guangzhou Office did not go out to the dock to greet Tao Donglai, only He Xi took Zhang Qianzhi, the youngest son of Zhang Chuanjiang, and hired a soft sedan car to wait on the dock. After receiving Tao Donglai, he simply said a few words, and arranged for Tao Donglai to get on the sedan chair and return to the Guangzhou Office.

Of course, it was a different weather in the Guangzhou Office, Schneider and others had already prepared a reception banquet, and Tao Donglai was directly led to the wine table as soon as he entered the courtyard.

Tao Dong looked at the big table of wine and food and couldn't help but quip: "You guys have exceeded the standard for this reception banquet! Don't forget that my mission is to check the problem of corruption!"

"Mr. Tao, if you want to check that you are full, you will have the strength to check, whether it exceeds the standard depends on whether you have eaten well, if you think that this meal is not good, then we will not admit that it is over the standard anyway, everyone said yes?" He Xi couldn't help but press Tao Donglai on the main seat.

Tao Donglai naturally doesn't really care about how much silver this meal is worth in the Guangzhou Office, because of the needs of carrying out various businesses, the financial freedom of the Guangzhou Office has always been quite large, and the daily expenses below 1,000 taels of silver do not need to be reported to the base camp, just need to make a record in the income and expenditure account. In particular, many of the accounts of He Xi's work are not suitable for public, and even some staff of the Guangzhou Office do not have access to the relevant records.

At the dinner that night, Tao Donglai did not take the initiative to mention things at work, and everyone returned happily at the wine table.

The next morning, Tao Donglai met with Schneider and He Xi in his study to learn from them about the current operation of the Guangzhou Office.

Schneider first handed a book to Tao Donglai: "This is the registration information of the merchants who participated in the deposit and exchange of Daming." As of the end of February, a total of 17 merchants in the Fuguang area have used our general deposit and exchange business, with the lowest transaction amount of 1,000 taels and the highest single transaction amount of 75,000 taels. ”

Tao Donglai nodded slightly while flipping through the book.

Schneider continued: "According to the current trading trend, the cash input of the Guangzhou Office is still far greater than the output, which is basically consistent with the import and export trade surplus we currently maintain. At present, there are 228,000 taels of silver and nearly 4,000 taels of gold in the Guangzhou Office. Now we have expanded a courtyard on the wall of the rear cover room on the periphery of the Guangzhou Office, which is specially used to handle the business of foreign money exchanges, and I will take you there later. ”

Tao Donglai raised his head and said, "Have you encountered any difficulties in the actual operation?"

"It's mainly a question of creditworthiness. Schneider said unabashedly: "Although our products have a certain reputation in the two regions, in the financial field, the credibility of our Haihan signboard is obviously far from enough." Only merchants with whom we have direct trade dealings will be willing to use the silver tickets issued by us, and these merchants basically require the use of registered silver tickets for security reasons, so they are not liquid in the market at all. ”

"It doesn't matter, it takes a while to build credit and let customers develop habits, so don't be in a hurry. At least we've made a good start now, and as long as the richest and most powerful people start using our services, it won't be too difficult to promote them to society. Tao Donglai still gave encouragement and comfort to Schneider's problem.

In this era when precious metals are the main circulating currency, it is naturally very difficult to implement credit currency, which not only needs a strong economic foundation as support, but also needs to be gradually recognized by the public. The transformation of values is not an overnight thing, and it is impossible for the Guangzhou Office to copy the experience of Shengli Port on the mainland and directly abolish the circulation of precious metal currency. At least from the point of view of the www.biquge.info of the Fun Pavilion of the Deposit, the choice made by the financial sector headed by Schneider is extremely correct, which has a high degree of practicality for the merchants between the two places, and this group of merchants has more contact with the crossing group, and the credit of the signboard of "Haihan" in their minds is relatively high.

When the group of people using Haihan's financial services is getting larger and larger, the relevant departments can begin to gradually introduce bearer banknotes, which will circulate in the market as credit currency, of course, for a considerable period of time in the future, the circulation scope can only be in the circle of the upper strata of society.

Silver tickets are not a new thing in China, the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties all had official silver bills, but unfortunately although the official has the vision of issuing credit currency, there is no professional management of currency, and finally because of the arbitrary issuance of additional coupons caused by the value of paper coupons, and finally had to be abolished by the official itself. From Song Renzong to the end of the Qing Dynasty, it took more than 800 years to form a perfect financial system. And this kind of historical development trajectory is exactly what Schneider and others are determined to change