Li Qingyang was a smart man, and of course he could think of why the Ministry of Security would arrange for him to meet these outsiders who had already taken refuge in Haihan. Regardless of whether it is the Ming Dynasty or Annan, these officials who once worked for different regimes have now been reborn under the rule of the Haihan Executive Committee, and they have more or less expressed their gratitude to Dade.

Li Qingyang has interrogated many prisoners in the past, and he has his own set of standards for judging whether a person's words are credible. In his opinion, the contact subjects arranged by the Ministry of Security did not have obvious traces of lying in the process of communicating with him, and their credibility was still relatively high. And all three of them have a common argument, that is, as long as they stay in Sanya for a few more days, their thinking will change.

In fact, he didn't need to stay for a long time, Li Qingyang felt that in just half a day after his release, some subtle changes had begun to occur in his psychology. The initial hostility towards Haihan has gradually faded unconsciously. One is because of the kindness of the Haihan people, and the other is because of the terrible strength that the Haihan has shown intentionally or unintentionally.

If the Haihan people really wanted to divide one side and commit rebellion, Li Qingyang thought that they undoubtedly had such strength, but the Haihan people obviously had no intention of becoming enemies of the Ming - at least not in the current situation, the Haihan people needed to export to the Ming all kinds of goods they made in Sanya, and the huge amount of money and manpower provided by the Ming was exactly what the Haihan needed.

From a commercial point of view, it seems that Haihan follows the practice of merchants when dealing with external relations, and almost all exchanges with the outside world are carried out in the form of commodity transactions. But Li Qingyang now understands the terrible strength of Haihan under the disguise of this layer of merchants, and their silent means of expansion are only gentler than the rebellion with open swords and guns, but the final direction is not much different, they are all constantly incorporating a broader territory and more population and property resources into their rule. Fortunately, this kind of expansion was not aimed at the Ming Dynasty, and the methods adopted by these Haihan people in Annam were much more radical, directly military intervention.

Of course, this is still because Li Qingyang doesn't know enough about Haihan, and after a while, he will slowly know that in fact, Haihan has not taken a lot of military means in the Ming Dynasty, but he has not signed various interest exchange agreements directly with the government like Annan. Haihan's seaports in Panyu, Dawanshan Island, and the southwest of Hong Kong Island, which is now in the planning stage, are all geographically critical areas, and for the control of these places, Haihan has no intention of showdown with the Ming court, but first occupies the territory in the name of building a merchant inn and a refugee shelter, and before the local government can react, it began to implement a set of social systems in the local area to achieve basic rule.

While Li Qingyang was in his thoughts, the "Lightning" had sailed out of the bay of Shengli Harbor, and after rounding Yulinjiao to the south, it docked at the coast of the Luhuitou Peninsula.

Lin Nan opened his mouth to greet him: "It's already past noon, presumably Brother Li is also hungry, right? ”

Li Qingyang originally thought that he would not be able to eat any decent hot food on the way to sea, but he did not expect that these crew members took out the grill, charcoal and a large pot of seafood from the cabin, and started to operate the barbecue directly on the aft deck. This kind of sea barbecue has almost become a tradition in the Ministry of Shipping and the Navy, and as long as they are not on military duty, most captains will arrange a seafood barbecue meal or twice on the way to sea. Today, although there is no Haihan chief on the ship to command, this custom has not been forgotten by the crew.

"Sanya's seafood barbecue is different from other practices, with a variety of locally produced spices, and Brother Li can taste it. Lin Nan enthusiastically stuffed a string of hot charcoal-grilled squid into Li Qingyang's hand first.

Most of the spices produced in Sanya are only sold in the Liangguang and Fujian areas, but they have not yet been sold to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so for Li Qingyang, the method and taste of this seafood barbecue are very novel. Coupled with the local specialty bamboo rice, Li Qingyang felt that this meal was really the most comfortable meal he had eaten since his arrest.

After lunch, Li Qingyang stood up solemnly and said to Lin Nan: "Today, Brother Lao Lin has guided me all the way, and Li Qingyang is here to thank you." ”

Lin Nan was stunned and said, "Today's trip has not been completed, why is Brother Li so anxious?"

Li Qingyang replied in surprise: "Isn't it already the end of the tour?"

Lin Nan smiled and said: "Brother Li doesn't think that Sanya only has these places that he saw in the morning, right? You must know that there are two seaports here in Sanya, the one in the morning is Shengli Port, and in the afternoon I am going to take Brother Li to see the newly built Sanya Port." ”

Li Qingyang said in his heart that it has only been two or three years since the completion of Shengli Port, and there is still a newer port. Listening to the name of this harbor, it turns out that Sanya got its name from this.

The crew of the "Lightning" packed up their decks and soon set off again, sailing around the Luhuitou Peninsula to the entrance strait of Sanya Port. The sea was open here, and the "Lightning" let go of its speed and galloped all the way, and Li Qingyang really felt the speed advantage of this strange-looking sailing ship.

The entrance to Sanya Port was more than half as narrow as Shengli Port, and as he sailed into the strait, Li Qingyang was able to observe more clearly the shore defense batteries on the slope of the right bank. Although the scale of this piece of artillery is not as good as the Shengli Port Fort seen in the morning, it is much closer to the firing target, even if Li Qingyang does not understand the performance of the Haihan artillery, he also knows that facing the muzzle of the black hole at such a close distance is actually no different from putting his head directly on the muzzle. The firing error of the artillery at this distance was almost negligible, and if a foreign enemy tried to rush into the port in the strait by water, then it would be a hard time.

Due to the narrowness of the shipping lanes, the transportation situation here is particularly busy, and large and small sailing ships line up in two queues, one in and one out, and travel in opposite directions in the strait. The high speed of the "Lightning" was no longer useful in this place, and according to the port regulations, the speed of the ship could only be reduced, and it could move forward in order in the queue of ships entering the port.

After passing through this one-mile-long narrow channel, the water surface immediately became open, which is the estuary of the two water veins of the Linchun River and the Sanya River, and the main wharf of Sanya Port built along the inland harbor was also displayed in front of Li Qingyang. Compared to the Victory Harbor Pier that we visited in the morning, it is a little more crowded, there are hardly any empty piers, and the pier has been running upstream along the two rivers, and there is no end in sight from the boat.

"This place is somewhat similar to the Pearl River Wharf outside Guangzhou. Li Qingyang stood at the bow of the boat and commented on the scene in front of him, but he still had half of the unspoken words: "...... However, the operational efficiency of the wharf here is far better than that of the Pearl River wharf. ”

Li Qingyang saw that there were a large number of laborers on the wharf wearing the multi-colored vests he had seen, and the wharf operation system arranged by the Haihan people was obviously very skillful, and the scale of cargo throughput was even higher than that of Shengli Port. Li Qingyang secretly calculated in his heart that if the business scale of Shengli Port and Sanya Port were added together, it would have already surpassed Guangzhou, and the Haihan people boasted that Haikou was the first port in Qiongzhou, or even the first port in the South China Sea, but they were not bragging.

Li Qingyang turned his head to the side and saw that there were still two abrupt Galen boats parked on the bank of the river in front of him, so he couldn't help but ask Lin Nan: "Are there still Westerners here?"

"Yes!" Lin Nan nodded naturally and replied, "They are Portuguese, and they also have a station in Haojingao, Guangdong. According to the chiefs, these Portuguese are from the continent of Europa, far to the west, tens of thousands of miles away from us. For them, all kinds of things produced in the East are valuable treasures after they are shipped back. ”

"The Portuguese have always been arrogant and arrogant, and they may not be the choice of business partners. Li Qingyang shook his head and said.

Lin Nan smiled and said: "Brother Li, these Western barbarians, who don't know my Eastern etiquette, think that they are superior in force, but they don't know that with my Haihan sitting in the South China Sea, it is inevitable that they will only know the pain when they touch a bag." ”

Li Qingyang heard Lin Nan's bad tone, so he asked, "Could it be that the two sides have already fought each other?"

"We already fought last year. As a veteran of the militia regiment, Lin Nan has always been hesitant to publicize the achievements of the Haihan militia: "The Portuguese were behind-the-scenes supporters of the southern court of Annam, providing them with a large number of muskets and artillery. However, after we intervened in the civil war in Annam, the Portuguese advantage in the region was gradually dismantled. Last year we captured the port of Hoi An in Annam, which is the main area of the Portuguese population, and after that the Executive Committee reached an agreement with the Portuguese that they would withdraw from Annam and that we would give them the opportunity to cooperate in trade and military. ”

Lin Nan said as he pointed to the Galen ship on the shore and said, "For them, it is much better to make money than to fight, not to mention that their partner is the most powerful force in the entire South China Sea. These Portuguese were savage, but they were not stupid and knew who was best for them. ”

Lin Nan's words were an understatement, but Li Qingyang had a different taste in his ears. A few years ago, someone in the military department had already proposed to the imperial court to buy Portuguese artillery, hire Portuguese officers and gunners, and go to the northeast front to participate in the war. In the eyes of the Ministry of War, the Portuguese were extremely powerful, but they did not win favor from the Haihan people, and the agreement reached after the war as Lin Nan said, if it was not too bad, how could the Portuguese be willing to withdraw from Annam?

What Lin Nan said shows at least one thing, that is, the military strength of Haihan is still far above that of the Portuguese, so that the Portuguese now have to use a relatively low posture to seek cooperation opportunities with Haihan. Thinking of this, Li Qingyang was even more worried about the position of the future exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and the Haihan, in front of this group of Haihan people who seemed to be omnipotent, in addition to the vast territory, the Ming Dynasty really didn't seem to have any other obvious advantages.

"This is the new city of Sanya, which began to be developed last year, and many foreign businessmen have bought real estate here to settle down, and you can see the five-story brick and stone buildings on the shore are complete houses for sale to outsiders. Lin Nan continued to enthusiastically introduce the customs and enthusiasm of Sanya Port to Li Qingyang: "This area was a wasteland a year ago, and if you look at the prosperity scene today, Brother Li can see why the local people have such reverence for the authority of the Executive Committee. ”

Li Qingyang nodded silently, he has seen with his own eyes the ability of the executive committee to run the local area. If Da Ming had such a capable magistrate, I am afraid that it would not take a few years to be promoted to the Golden Palace. However, the Haihan people were obviously not interested in becoming officials in the Ming Dynasty, because it is said that the private schools they ran did not teach the content of the Four Books and the Five Classics, and did not encourage the scholars under their rule to take the imperial examinations.

Li Qingyang did not think that this move was any great rebellion, because the Haihan people were obviously more adept at governing the local area than the officials trained by the imperial court, and these officials, who had read the Four Books and Five Classics for many years before joining the army, did not seem to be of obvious help to their local appearance. The civil affairs system implemented by the Haihan people is obviously not imitated from the Ming Dynasty, and many places have more advanced and reasonable places than the current system of the Ming Dynasty.

The attitude of ordinary people towards this kind of problem may be more simple and direct, they can have food, housing, children can have books, they can see the trend of future life becoming better, and they have the protection of the Haihan militia, for them the place under the rule of the Haihan Executive Committee is probably like heaven. After living in this kind of place for a year and a half, who cares about the Ming Dynasty? Now the Ming court can't give them their current life, let alone guarantee their future life.

Thinking of this, Li Qingyang couldn't help but feel some pessimism in his heart--the Ming Dynasty, who had always been proud of him, had so many places that were not as good as the Han Dynasty, so that Li Qingyang wanted to find some reason to refute that Lin Nan's show-off had no available materials. Li Qingyang also wanted to plant the charges of rebellion and thieves on the head of the Haihan people, so that he could at least find a little reason for his resistance, but the Haihan people's expression Xiàn even gave him no excuse to criticize, if he wanted to insist that the Haihan people did not do well, then what level of action was the Ming court?

Looking at the rows of merchant inns, warehouses and other buildings on the riverbank, Li Qingyang has fallen into deep thought, Haihan's model has proved its advanced nature, so is it possible for the Ming Dynasty to imitate their approach?