Although Shaxi has been away from the center of power for a long time, he still has some reliable sources of information, and he also has some understanding of the movements of the executive committee in terms of personnel appointments and dismissals. If he wants to continue to work in civil affairs after the administrative level of the office is promoted, he must seize every opportunity to show his ability to win more support from the Executive Committee.

It was under Sha Xi's command that the order of the Lijiazhuang migrant camp was not greatly affected by the thousands of victims who came here in a short period of time, and it also took this opportunity to quickly absorb more than 1,000 new immigrants who volunteered to work on Qiongzhou Island.

The treatment of people who choose to immigrate to Qiongzhou is naturally far better than that of those who are unwilling to leave their hometowns and can only sleep outside Lijiazhuang. Not only do the newcomers receive adequate food every day, but they also enjoy better accommodation and medical care than the outside world. Shaxi also organized a number of migrant cadres who could say that they would return, and went to the disaster victim gathering area outside Lijiazhuang every day to preach Haihan's immigration policy, attracting more people to join the ranks of immigrants.

A considerable number of these grassroots naturalized cadres are from the mainland, and their influence is also considerable when they come to preach as witnesses. Some people who did not have land or real estate in the first place, and who lost all their property in this typhoon, will inevitably be tempted to sign up after hearing about the various benefits of Sanya.

But for Shaxi, the current rate of absorbing immigrants does not meet his ideal requirements. Two months ago, he had already sent a report to the Executive Committee, calling for further renovation and expansion of the Lijiazhuang resettlement camp to prepare for the increase in the scale of the introduction of immigrants from the mainland.

As Haihan expands more and more in the Kongzhì area of Qiongzhou Island, the demand gap for the labor force is no longer the 1,800 people in the early stage, and only the Changhua-Shilu coal-iron composite industrial base will be rebuilt, and the labor force required in the future will inevitably exceed 10,000. The super-large collective farm projects planned by the Executive Committee in the coastal areas of southern and western Qiongxi are also labor-intensive industries that require the participation of a large number of laborers before they can be implemented. According to the estimates of the Executive Committee, the existing population of 200,000 on the island alone is at most enough to develop the coastline of southern and western Qiongnan, and to complete the layout of the whole island, it is necessary to at least double the population figure.

Such a large gap mainly depends on the introduction of immigrants from the outside world. In the past, there was still Annan, a large emigrant household, as a support, but with the end of the civil war in Annam, the number of immigrants from Annam has also shown a downward trend month by month, from 3,000 per month during the war last year to only 7 or 800 per month now. And the scale of this kind of immigration import is difficult to keep up with the speed of development in today's shape.

Although the scale of immigrants from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty is not as large as that of Annan at its peak, it has deep potential and a relatively stable delivery volume, and the number of new immigrants sent from Panyu to Sanya every month is basically more than 1,000. In Shaxi's view, the mainland is a source of immigrants that has considerable potential to be tapped, and if there are some methods, it will definitely be able to greatly speed up the pace of immigration introduction - of course, in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to first make the social order under the Ming Dynasty unsafe, so that the people have the idea of leaving the region. This, in turn, is in conflict with the Executive Committee's current foreign policy of seeking stability.

The Executive Committee believes that under the current situation, maintaining the stability of the Ming sales market can be more conducive to the development of Haihan, and at this time, if chaos is created in the south and the Ming Dynasty is robbed, it is inevitable that there will be a suspicion of killing 1,000 enemies and injuring 800. Therefore, in the orders issued by the Guangzhou Office, it has always been emphasized that the purpose of increasing the scale of immigration should not be used to disrupt the social order in Guangdong, at least not on the initiative.

Looking at the gathering place of the victims that stretched for several miles outside Lijiazhuang, Sha Xi could only sigh, if the executive committee allowed it, he could play some tricks to make these hesitant victims outside the village vote for Haihan's side. For example, let the militia disguise itself as bandits and bandits and make trouble nearby, and there will definitely be many people who will choose to apply for immigration to ensure their own safety, after all, everyone who comes here knows that the Haihan militia is not easy to mess with, and within dozens of miles in this vicinity, the only reliable armed force is the militia stationed in Lijiazhuang.

However, Shaxi also knew that the methods he was thinking of were not correct, and it was easy to get out of control if he really played like this. Take 10,000 steps back and say, if he wants to play like this, the military people probably won't cooperate, so these thoughts can only be put in his head, and it is safer to rely on disaster relief to continue to win over these victims.

While Sha Xi was running up and down for immigration affairs, the Provisional Management Committee on Hong Kong Island finally received a reply from the Ming army in the north, to the effect that he would not agree to the three conditions proposed by Chen Yixin earlier, but agreed with Haihan's willingness to maintain an attitude of peaceful coexistence.

You Yihan also felt a little inexplicable when he received such a reply, so he found Chen Yixin and consulted him about the mystery. Although Chen Yixin is a professional in military affairs, he is not a person with a diplomatic background, and he touched his chin and thought for a long time before responding: "I think the Ming army is just protecting his face, and he refuses to explicitly agree to my three conditions." ”

"How so?" asked You Yihan.

"They don't agree to our conditions, but they also want to keep peace with us, to put it bluntly, they can't wipe their face!" Chen Yixin analyzed: "Anyway, he is also a dignified sailor, so he agreed to the condition of losing power and humiliating the country, and if it spreads out in the future, will the general's black gauze hat be gone?"

"It also makes sense...... But what if they embarrass our merchant ships?" You Yihan was still a little uneasy about not being able to reach a bilateral agreement in the end.

Chen Yixin said with a smile: "When I first proposed the conditions, I didn't think that I would necessarily let them agree, mainly to let them know where our bottom line is." To put it so clearly, if they still want to provoke us, then I can probably only reluctantly take it and take someone to attack the water village directly. Anyway, there are so many pirates, just plant them wherever you want, we can also play a rescue in the line of fire, play two roles ourselves, and send a team of people to drive the fake pirates away. In this way, the pot has also been shaken off, and the reputation has also been gained. ”

"You kid has a lot of brains!" You Yihan was also amused by Chen Yixin's bold idea.

"Brother You, don't forget, the north has just suffered a disaster, and their current situation is not to mention that they are against us, I'm afraid it will be a little difficult to protect themselves. Chen Yixin said very firmly: "According to the information we have, the ship of the sailor is old, and such a big typhoon will probably be damaged." If they dare to provoke us at this juncture, it will be easier to clean up. ”

In fact, Chen Yixin's guess is indeed very close to the actual situation, in the typhoon a few days ago, due to insufficient preparation in advance, three ships on the side of the sailor directly capsized, and there are also several ships that are more severely damaged, and now the ships that the sailor can dispatch are not even half of the ships under normal conditions, and there is no ability to confront the Haihan Navy at all.

After this not-so-severe natural disaster passed, construction of the new port soon began. Dozens of businesses that had already carved out a site here had also sent craftsmen and building materials from all over Guangdong to start construction in the planned business district. On this narrow plain near the sea, a small town of various warehouses has risen almost at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the construction progress has even exceeded the situation in the early days of the development of Shengli Port.

By the end of 1629, the new port had begun to take shape, the first phase of the project had built a deep-water wharf for 3,000-ton ships, and a barracks had been built on Ap Lei Chau Island, where two full companies of army and half a fleet of sailors were stationed, and the island's shore defense batteries had already been built. On the day of the completion of the first phase of the project, a total of 27 commercial facilities built by merchants were also put into use at the same time.

Under the prepared propaganda of Haihan, the maritime circles of Guangdong have long known about the storage of this new port, and they are also very aware of its function - this is the last supply station after leaving the mainland on the route from Guangdong to Manila, and after that, it must cross a voyage of six or seven hundred nautical miles before they can see the storage of a large area of land again.

With the precedent of Wanshan Port, maritime merchants are very clear about how to use the location of this port to achieve tax evasion and reduce transshipment costs. Moreover, most of the maritime merchants in Guangdong knew that the area under the rule of the Haihan would not be intervened by the Ming government, so some of the maritime merchants who originally docked at the port in the north of Hong Kong Island also transferred their docking place to the port controlled by the Haihan in the south, including Chen Lin, who was the messenger between the Daming sailors and the Haihan. Although it sounds a bit of a deformed prosperity, almost all the ports under the rule of Haihan were developed along this path, and the understanding of the Haihan Free Port has long been ingrained in the hearts of maritime merchants.

At the end of 1629, three days before the New Year, the first flagship of the Haihan Navy, the "Majesty", held a grand entry ceremony at the military dock of Shengli Port. Almost all the members of the executive committee and the heads of various units were present to watch this large warship, which embodies the efforts of the entire crossing group, enter into service.

The ship was already in the maritime department's construction plan long before the crossing, and the design was prepared well in advance. However, it was not immediately possible to implement the shipbuilding technology for the initial reasons of the crossing, and it was not until the expansion of the Victory Port Shipyard that the keel of the new large slipway was finally laid for the construction of the ship.

The three-masted schooner had a displacement of 1,762 tons, a total length of 50 meters, a deck width of 12 meters, and a mainmast height of 55 meters. The ship was designed with a three-tier gun deck with a total of 52 guns of 12-, 24-, and 48-pounder calibers. The rated crew plus combat crew totaled 388 people, and the theoretical speed of 6-12 knots using only wind propulsion was used.

Of course, the biggest highlight of this ship is not only the huge hull and dense gun ports, but the most important component is actually a steam power system designed for 800 hp at the rear of the bilge. With the simultaneous use of two propulsion systems, steam and wind, the maximum speed can exceed 15 knots, which is absolutely impossible to find in the current time and space.

Due to Haihan's huge superiority in artillery manufacturing technology, the guns equipped with the "Majesty" greatly surpassed its contemporaries in terms of range and accuracy, so the ship was not built with an extra-thick outer deck and iron hull like Western warships, but left more of the limited load capacity for the rather heavy steam propulsion system, as well as the coal and fresh water needed to maintain its operation.

In order to make this capital ship have stronger sea cruising capabilities, the Navy also specially modified and customized two "exploration-class" supply ships for it to load fuel, fresh water, ammunition and daily necessities for hundreds of people on board. According to the Navy's estimates, this ship can maintain a combat radius of at least 500 nautical miles at sea to be qualified, but whether it can reach such a level in actual operation has to be a big question mark, after all, no one has ever played with the steam warship, whether it is the maintenance of the machine on the way or the implementation of logistics supply at sea, it still takes a lot of time to explore and practice.

The sister ship "Weifeng", which was built at the same time, has also entered the stage of launching and outfitting, and it is expected that it will take about three months to complete the construction period, and it should be officially listed in the first half of next year.

Tao Donglai stood on the rostrum, applauded and slightly tilted his head to Yan Chujie next to him: "This ship can really be listed now?"

Yan Chujie said quietly: "Enter the list first, and the other problems will be solved slowly." ”

After Tao Donglai listened, the expression on his face did not change much. The delivery time of this ship is much earlier than the estimated construction period, although Tao Donglai is not a professional in shipbuilding, but he is also a military fan, and he faintly feels that it seems to be a little boring, but he has been busy with other affairs and has no time to ask. And Yan Chujie's words undoubtedly confirmed his guess, this "Majesty" should not have completed all the adjustment work when it was listed. In other words, the ship can only be said to be forcibly listed now, but I am afraid that there is still a lot of work to be done to form combat effectiveness.

Tao Donglai knew that this occasion was not suitable to continue to ask what had happened, so he did not discuss this issue any further. He knows Yan Chujie's personality very well, and believes that Yan Chujie will not joke about such a big project, and he will definitely explain it to him later, as long as he waits patiently.