Without waiting for Gu Kai to recover from the shock, Schneider stared at the wine glass in his hand and continued to himself: "Of course, this part of the cost is only the labor cost for us to send troops to fight locally, as for the consumption of ammunition and materials, and the freight of sea ships back and forth, it must be calculated separately and extra." (.) In the event of casualties, the costs of treatment and bereavement must also be borne by the North Vietnamese side. ”

Gu Kai could only sigh in his heart that he was still thinking too conservatively, how could a famous profiteer like Schneider be able to knock on the bamboo and finish the matter? This is simply preparing to make the North Vietnamese regime have a heavy hemorrhage!

With Tao Donglai's suggestion at the discussion meeting to strengthen the battalion and settle down in the war zone, even if there is no war, the "labor fee" that the North Vietnamese side needs to pay every day for this is by no means a small amount. As for the cost after the start of the battle, Gu Kai can probably estimate Schneider's idea that the price of these ammunition materials must be calculated according to the price sold to North Vietnam, and the more you use, the more you earn!

Schneider didn't care about Gu Kai's somewhat stiff expression, and then said: "When the time comes, when the Military Police Department transports troops south, you can also take a look at what other places on the coastline over there are suitable to take, and you have to come over together." You are quite right about what you said just now, since South Vietnam already has a firearms unit, the only thing North Vietnam can do is to expand the size of its firearms unit. The faster we can explode, the more weapons we can sell. ”

Gu Kai waved his hand and said, "This won't work for the time being, we don't have so many people who can be sent overseas as military advisers." Besides, we don't have a regular military academy ourselves, and the report of the Military Police Department has been going on for half a year, and the Executive Committee has always pressed it on the grounds that the time is not ripe, and even if we want to build a military school, it must be built in the base camp first. ”

"It doesn't matter, if it is built in a base camp, then it is better to let the North Vietnamese officers come to study abroad, and the results of specially training senior officers will be faster. Schneider obviously also knew the military exchange system of later generations very well, so he responded in passing.

"Then do you roughly calculate the total amount of military spending we are going to ask for from North Vietnam?" Seeing that he was about to digress as he spoke, Gu Kai hurriedly turned the topic back to business.

"This depends on the length of the combat period arranged by the Military Police Department, anyway, if you don't go to the frontal battlefield, then it will be calculated according to the number of days of stationing, and if you participate in the war, you will add the consumption and the expenses I just mentioned, in short, at least ensure that this dispatch can have a lot of income. Hasn't the Military Police Department been clamoring that the military budget is insufficient? This time, we will give them a chance to make money, and it should not be difficult to increase the establishment of another battalion next year. Schneider is confident in his vision.

"That being said, tonight we will separate up to draft the draft, and tomorrow we will go through the agenda at the meeting, and if there are no major problems, then I will take a boat back to Heitu Port the day after tomorrow. Gu Kai said and stood up to say goodbye to Schneider: "Thank you for your rice wine, I have the opportunity to go to Heitu Port, and I also invite you to taste the fruit wine produced there." ”

"There's a military parade on New Year's Day, aren't you going to watch it and go back?" Schneider also got up to see him off.

Gu Kai shook his head and said: "I'm afraid it's too late, if I really have to send troops next, it will probably be a matter of the next few days, there are still many things that need to be recoordinated on the side of Heitu Port, I have to go back and stare at the point." ”

Perhaps because of the fact that the domestic situation in Annam and the decision to intervene by force attracted too much attention, the work summary meeting of the next two days appeared to be uneventful, and there were no major problems in the summary reports of various departments. Since the Executive Committee has already put part of its efforts into the cross-sea operational plan that will soon be implemented, the work arrangements for the new year proposed by various departments have also been smoothly approved. However, some institutional and political system and policy adjustments will be postponed until the end of March for further discussion and implementation at the first anniversary of the conference.

January 1, 1628, the twenty-fifth day of the winter month of the seventh year of the Great Tomorrow Apocalypse. Although Emperor Chongzhen has been on the throne in Beijing for a period of time, according to the royal calendar, this year will still use the era name of the first emperor Tianqi, and will not be renamed "Chongzhen" until the next year.

For the traversers, this is the first New Year after the traversal, and it is a day worth celebrating. However, the naturalized people do not quite understand why the leaders of the Haihan Dynasty regard this very ordinary day as a festival to celebrate, the "New Year's Day" of this period is the first day of the first month, in the original time and space, it was only after the founding of New China that the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar was changed to the Spring Festival, and the first day of January in the Gregorian calendar was set as the New Year's Day.

There have also been a variety of opinions within the Crossing Group on the use of chronology, which are mainly divided into two types: the Common Era calendar and the lunar calendar. In fact, both methods of dating have their pros and cons, and if one method is used alone, it will inevitably cause some confusion in the work. For example, most of the historical events in the database are recorded in the Common Era, and it would be quite troublesome to convert them all into the lunar calendar. If the Ming Dynasty is simply used, there will be many inconveniences in the trade and cultural contact with the Ming Dynasty, so after the crossing has been the use of two sets of chronological methods in parallel.

In order to commemorate the arrival of this day, the Executive Committee did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to create an atmosphere of joy with the people. All naturalized citizens were given a day off in turn, as well as special meals on holidays, and naturalized citizens who had been naturalized for more than a month each received a one-yuan circulation voucher as a "special bonus". Although this move added a large amount of money to the account books of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Executive Committee believed that the money was well spent, not only to win the hearts and minds of the people, but also to stimulate local consumption in a certain way, creating an atmosphere of "holiday consumption".

Of course, the most important thing is that the residents have nowhere else to use after receiving this money, and basically can only go to the business and trade area of Shengli Harbor to consume, and they can only buy those goods that have received special subsidies from the Executive Committee, and the prices are surprisingly low, so the money will soon return to the Executive Committee after flowing outside. But despite this, the naturalized people are also very grateful for the "good deeds" of the Haihan chiefs, which are the act of giving money to the common people door to door for no reason, but they have never even heard of it in the past.

Yu Dashan hummed the "Soviet March" in his mouth and walked into the "Victory Department Store" located in the port trade area. This shop is a business unit under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, specializing in selling various daily necessities and commodities to naturalized citizens. Due to its low price and good quality, it quickly became one of the most popular shops in the entire business district.

As soon as Yu Dashan stepped into the store, a guy had already greeted him: "Steward Yu is here!

"You go and get busy with yours, I'll say hello!" a thin middle-aged man waved his hand to signal the guy to step back.

"Tailor Wang, I haven't had time to congratulate you on your ascension!" Yu Dashan arched his hand at the other party.

"Steward Yu, I'm not a tailor now!" The other party was obviously not satisfied with Yu Dashan's attitude, and pointed to the two-inch-wide and half-high-high white cloth sign on his chest with three points proudly, and the words "store manager" were sewn with black silk thread on the white cloth sign.

"Okay, Wangdianmian, it's me who lost my words, I lost my words!" Yu Dashan apologized to the other party with a smile.

"Is Wang's shop like that, please call me Manager Wang!" Wang Cai expressed his dissatisfaction angrily.

This person called "Wang Tailor" by Yu Dashan is named Wang Cai, who was originally a small tailor in Yazhou, but later became a homeless because of bankruptcy, and was collected by Yaxing to settle in Shengli Port. In the first few months, he was engaged in his old profession as a tailor, and the clothes that Yu Dashan Yu Xiaobao ordered for him before he went to Guangzhou were made by Wang Cai. Later, when the shipyard tried to produce sails, all the local tailors were temporarily requisitioned, and Wang Cai seized this rare opportunity to come up with a lot of ideas for the manufacturing process of sails, so he was awarded for meritorious service and was exceptionally promoted.

After that, Wang Cai also used his expertise to do some things, such as the various fabrics that Schneider ordered from the "Yongfeng Cloth Company" in Guangzhou, and the reference materials were collected and sorted out by Wang Cai. After that, he was responsible for organizing a group of tailors to complete the work of the new military uniform system, and the construction period and product quality were well received by the Military Police Department. After several successive excellent performances, the Ministry of Civil Affairs transferred him to the newly opened "Victory Department Store" as a store manager.

This position does not seem to have anything directly related to his own work, but Wang Cai is also a smart person, and he knows that his real opportunity has only begun to come, and the leaders of Haihan have made such a big situation, and sooner or later these industries under his command will have to be handed over to the local naturalized people to take care of, and those who can walk in front now will undoubtedly have a great advantage in the future. Don't look at it as just a grocery store now, with the skills of the leaders of Haihan, maybe it will become a big business house in a few years, and at least you can be a shopkeeper or something.

This department store usually has eight people, plus him, the supervisor, a total of nine people are in charge of store operations, as for the accounts and the import and export of goods, it is in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Generally, the things that greet guests are done by the guys, and Wang Cai is generally only responsible for providing services to those Haihan chiefs who wear red badges, but old acquaintances like Yu Dashan, Wang Cai is still happy to put down the shelf and take the initiative to greet them.

Wang Cai introduced to him very enthusiastically: "I just shipped a batch of fabrics from Guangzhou yesterday, do you want to take a look? This is a good thing, and there may not be any goods for sale in Yazhou." You're also a senior steward now, so don't keep hanging around in dirty overalls after work. ”

Yu Dashan shook his head and said, "My son is in Guangzhou, just buy fabrics and let him buy them in Guangzhou." ”

Before Wang Cai could reply, a person with his back next to him said: "Your Excellency, you don't know, the price of the fabrics sold here is cheaper than that in Guangzhou!"

Yu Dashan saw that he knew the person who spoke, and hurriedly bowed and saluted: "Mr. Li!"

The person who interjected was none other than Li Nai, who had been living in Victory Harbor for more than two months. Originally, after the completion of the business inn, Li Nai was considered to have completed the task and could return to Guangzhou to make a mission. However, he seems to have been interested in living in Shengli Harbor, and he is not in a hurry to leave here, but has asked the merchant ships going south to bring a lot of living materials, and even repaired books and returned home, so that his wife can also go south to Qiongzhou Island. In Li Nai's view, there is so much to learn and explore in this ever-changing place, and although Shengli Port is far less prosperous than Guangzhou, there has always been a pleasant sense of freshness and stability in living here.

At first sight, of course, Li Nai also recognized Yu Dashan, in fact, after living in Shengli Harbor for two months, he could already recognize more than half of the high-ranking naturalized people who worked for the Haihan people. Li Nai also knew that Yu Dashan was the first group of local residents to mention the Haihan people, and both father and son were deeply respected by the Haihan people. Before Li Nai went south, he had a lot of dealings with the Guangzhou Office, and Mr. Schneider Shi was in and out of Guangzhou City, and the little follower he had been with him was Yu Dashan's only son, Yu Xiaobao. Although Li Nai didn't know what a "vested interest" was, he also understood that people like Yu Dashan must already be hardcore subordinates of the Haihan people, and it was almost impossible to treat him as an ordinary Ming people.

Li Nai bowed his hand slightly, and then explained to Yu Dashan: "Manager Yu doesn't know that the things sold in this store, whether they are fabrics or other goods, as long as they are shipped from outside, their prices are almost lower than those of the place of origin. ”

Yu Dashan showed a puzzled look on his face: "Why is this? Guangzhou's goods come by sea, plus freight, shouldn't the price be higher?"

Li Nai nodded and said, "It should be so." However, the executive committee often buys in large quantities, and the purchase price will naturally be lower than that of retail, and when it is sold to the local people, it intends to further reduce the price. As far as I know, the price of cloth here is only two to three percent lower than that in Guangzhou. ”

"What does Mr. Li mean is that the Executive Committee will transport these goods back from Guangzhou and sell them to us people at a loss?" Yu Dashan was in disbelief.

Li Nai nodded slightly and said, "That's roughly the case." As for those locally produced goods, it goes without saying, if it weren't for the strict control of the executive committee, I am afraid that merchants from other places would have flocked to this department store and swept it away. ”

What Li Nai is talking about is one of the civil affairs strategies implemented by the Crossing Group in the local area. Due to the adoption of the form of production under collective ownership in the local area, all the profits of production activities have been concentrated in the hands of the crossing group for unified arrangement, and the only currency that can be circulated normally in the local area is issued by the crossing collective itself, so almost all the social wealth is concentrated in the hands of the executive committee, and at this time, some advantages of the public ownership economy can be fully reflected in the ultra-low cost of living and price level.

Except for those daily necessities provided free of charge to naturalized people, almost all other daily necessities are purchased by the foreign trade department, and then the price is subsidized, and even sold to the people in Shengli Port at a price lower than the price of the place of origin. In this way, the Executive Committee is the only big local buyer, and if anyone can't see the direction of the wind and wants to open a store in Shengli Port to retail daily necessities, it will probably lose all their money. From the very beginning, Li Nai had already seen through the executive committee's trading method of buying high and selling low, so the business inn opened by "Fu Ruifeng" in Shengli Port did not even consider selling goods at all, and only took the pure service industry as the main body.

Although their incomes are still very low, not much different from those of the people under the Ming Dynasty, the quality of life is very different from the low prices that the Executive Committee has kept in the local area, which is simply murderous in attracting the hearts of the people. Almost ninety percent of the people from outside the country will choose to join the Haihan Executive Committee after seeing the living standards of the local naturalized people, and very few people will want to return to the area under the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, this kind of policy will also have obvious drawbacks, since the naturalized people can enjoy the supply of materials at a very low price, it is inevitable that some careful people want to use the identity of the naturalized people to speculate and resell the special supplies to the outside world. However, the relevant departments have also investigated this very strictly, and the few naturalized citizens who have been caught so far involved in speculation have all been sentenced to five years of hard labor, which is basically a death sentence in terms of the labor intensity of Tiandu Iron Mine.

Yu Dashan didn't know what "price subsidy" was, but it was obvious that this was a great act of kindness given by the Haihan chiefs to the local people, which made him feel very ashamed at the same time, not because he couldn't understand the economic operation principle, but because the Haihan chiefs did not let the people find out about this kind deed.

"This propaganda task is up to me Yu Dashan to complete!" Yu Dashan thought silently in his heart, and then ordered the fabric of the real flower shading from Wang Cai, preparing to make a decent set of clothes, of course, it will no longer be the traditional cardigan style, but a "Haihan style" shirt similar to overalls.

In fact, the Executive Committee does not intend to publicize this kind of price subsidy policy to the outside world at all, because this is not a long-term plan, the planned economy is an excessive means, and the market economy is the fast lane of development. Although the price subsidy is effective, it is not the fundamental way to solve the problem: increasing productivity, increasing the variety of products, and reducing the cost of goods through self-production as much as possible, which is the effective solution. Of course, for a period of time, the Executive Committee will continue to implement the policy of price subsidies for commodities such as cloth and silk that cannot be produced locally in large quantities.

When Wang Cai was measuring the fabric for Yu Dashan, he heard a commotion on the street outside, and someone was shouting loudly, "Come on, come on." Yu Dashan couldn't care less about Wang Cailiang cloth when he heard it, and hurriedly urged: "Put the cloth away, go back and measure it again, go out and watch the excitement first!"

Wang Cai was stunned and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"You'll know if you come along!" Yu Dashan grabbed Wang Cai's wrist and pulled him out of the store.