The main reason why Qiongzhou Island has become the current situation in just a few months is that the wave of pirates invaded a few months ago, although the capital city did not fall, but it was surrounded by pirate troops for several days, and these big families here are also apprehensive. You must know that if the city is broken that day and the vicious pirate army invades the city, the first unlucky people in the city will probably be their rich people.

Although these people were not convinced by Haihan's measures to take over the city, and even had some resentment towards Haihan because of the conflict of interests, the vast majority of people must still think that the pirates who invaded Qiongzhou Island were more dangerous and terrifying. As for the local spies who colluded with pirates, the kind of disgust and resentment naturally went without saying.

Qiu Yuan's words and the evidence cited have basically confirmed Zhang Fucheng's crimes, and those who had previously followed him in shouting for Haihan to revoke the unfair regulations are now all silent, and there is no sound at all - not to mention the rights and wrongs of opposing Haihan's regulations, no one dares to take the initiative to take the charge of complicity with "pirate spies".

Of course, Zhang Fucheng himself really felt the change in the atmosphere in the venue at this time, a moment ago he was a public opinion leader supported by local businessmen, but after a while, the hot atmosphere just now became like falling into an ice cellar. Zhang Fucheng didn't even have to look back, he could feel everyone's eyes stuck in his back like sharp knives. Now, of course, he understands that he has been ruthlessly calculated by the Haihan people, but there are all human and material evidence, and it is almost impossible for him to clear his grievances.

In a trance, Zhang Fucheng only heard Qiu Yuan's voice continuing: "...... After the case of Zhang Fucheng colluding with pirates and reselling arms was very bad in nature, after the vigilante group reported it to the Haihan Executive Committee, Chairman Tao Donglai personally ordered it to be supervised and handled, and it lasted nearly three months, and the relevant departments dispatched hundreds of people, visited many prefectures and counties to investigate, and obtained a large number of detailed human and material evidence. The evidence I have just listed is only 23 out of 10 of them, and I have only four words to comment on this case -- evidence! Evidence! Conclusive! If you have any doubts, you can go to the Haihan Ministry of Justice in Sanya to inquire about the details of this case after that. ”

If there are really any blind people who go to Sanya to find the Ministry of Justice to inquire about this case, it is basically tantamount to throwing themselves into the net, and the relevant departments have at least 100 ways to get rid of a person in Sanya. Therefore, whether this case has ironclad evidence touted by Qiu Yuan is not so important.

"Someone!" Qiu Yuan raised his voice and beckoned: "Escort this unscrupulous businessman who colludes with pirates and plots against him!" After the successor official appointed by the Guangdong government comes, he will be handed over to the parents for interrogation. ”

At that moment, four fierce militiamen rushed forward, took out the prepared ropes and began to put them on Zhang Fucheng's body. Zhang Fucheng was so frightened that he didn't even have the strength to resist at all, but he kept shouting injustices in his mouth. The militia had already been instructed to continue to make noise, and he was slapped by the collar with two big mouths, then pinched his chin and stuffed a mass of rags into his mouth, and then squeaked silently. After tying him up, two militiamen held him under his armpits with their hands and dragged him out of the venue as if he were dragging him dead.

Looking at the frightened appearance of everyone in the venue, Qiu Yuan really felt indescribably comfortable, and began to end the play with a smile: "You don't have to be nervous, in order to protect the safety of Qiongzhou Island, we have always spared no effort, here I can give you a promise, as long as we are here, there will be no pirates to attack Qiongzhou Island again!"

However, this enthusiastic speech did not exchange for the cheers that Qiu Yuan expected, perhaps still in shock, and most of the people's expressions were still sluggish and did not keep up with the rhythm of the wave he brought. Qiu Yuan had no choice but to continue: "For the investigation and handling of the illegal businessman Zhang Fucheng, please rest assured, our Haihan judicial department will not wronged a good person, but it will never let go of a bad person. The reason why this case has dragged on for so long to come to light on this occasion is because, according to our investigation, in fact, there are many local people involved in the previous pirate invasion, and the merchants who have private ties with the pirate gang are far from being the only one of Fu Cheng Ship......

Qiu Yuan's eyes slowly swept over everyone's faces: "...... As far as we know, the pirates not only bought arms before the war, but also purchased a large amount of medicines, ships, food, and other items in advance, and many of the people who provided these things to the pirates were suspected of colluding with them and betraying the imperial court!"

The people who were swept by his eyes were all shocked. Most of these people have a similar position to Zhang Fucheng, believing that the arrival of Haihan has greatly affected their original business development model, and they have been fighting against the coast more or less implicitly. And Qiu Yuan's words are undoubtedly a warning to them.

“...... For some merchants who do not know the truth and go astray, we still adhere to the principle of curing the disease and saving people, as long as it is found that their motive is not to assist the pirates, then we can not be blamed in the past. Qiu Yuan's voice continued to echo in the conference room: "But...... We will resolutely crack down on and punish those lawbreakers who are obstinate and stubborn and still trying to confront the forces of justice! We will confiscate all illegal income on behalf of the government, and arrest and detain those who have committed illegal acts!"

"Okay! Director Qiu said it so well!" Just next to the chair that Zhang Fucheng had vacated, a middle-aged man with a dark complexion immediately responded: "With the soldiers of the Haihan People's Regiment guarding us, we no longer need to worry about pirates invading Qiongzhou! A shameless person like Zhang Fucheng who colludes with pirates and murders the people should be severely punished!"

This guy who jumped out and hugged his thighs was also one of the people who shouted the most with Zhang Fucheng just now, but it was obvious that his brain was much better than Zhang Fucheng's, and when he saw that the limelight was wrong, he immediately jumped back and began to shout for Haihan. Of course, being able to sort out his mind so quickly and make up his mind to change roles, the thickness of this cheek really made Qiu Yuan feel breathtaking.

"What Boss Zeng said is extremely true, if everyone attending the meeting had such an awareness and discipline as Boss Zeng, our temporary management committee would not have to worry so much!" Qiu Yuan saw that this guy had a more correct attitude, so he pushed the boat down the river and gave him a chance.

These people here are not stupid, Qiu Yuan said it so clearly, and dared to shut up and not express his position, it is almost equivalent to taking a position with Zhang Fucheng, who was just arrested. At that moment, everyone opened their mouths to express their support for Haihan, and they ruthlessly drew the line between them and Zhang Fucheng and others. For a while, the situation suddenly changed, and the cold situation at the beginning of the meeting suddenly ceased to exist, and everyone was vying to speak, lest they would be too slow to express their position and be misunderstood by Qiu Yuan.

Finally, after everyone expressed their attitudes one by one, Qiu Yuan returned to the position of speaker, cleared his throat and said: "Actually, this incident just now is just a small episode, and then we should hurry up and talk about serious things." Do you have any comments on the Haikou Port reconstruction and expansion project that I mentioned earlier?"

When the matter has come to this point, what other opinions can there be? The person who just jumped out to say that he had an opinion has now been imprisoned on the charge of "colluding with pirates," and he will not even have his head in time to make a decisive decision. Can anyone other than agree with it dare to put forward a second opinion at this juncture?

After coming to Fucheng and having held so many meetings, Qiu Yuan felt that today was the only meeting that made him feel refreshed. Of course, he also understood that although this method was very effective, it was still a palliative method after all, and those who did not want to accept the rule of the Haihan would only hide their feelings of rebellion more deeply, and the means they used were more hidden. In the future, it will be even more troublesome to deal with those who are secretly making trouble. As long as the Haihan-style ruling system is established at the local level, it will not be so easy for the remnants of the feudal forces to turn the tables again.

At present, the naturalized cadres assigned to the northern part of Qiongbei are far from being enough to support the administrative system based on the village, and at most they go to the county. As for the local rule of these provisional administrations, they still have to rely more on the scattered militia troops stationed in various places and rely on military deterrence to achieve management, which is far from the level of the Qiongnan region in comparison.

But after pacifying the merchants in Fucheng, Qiu Yuan was finally able to free up his hands and feet and began to implement the reconstruction and expansion project of Haikou Port north of Fucheng. The design of this project was completed by the Ministry of Construction in advance in the first two months, and now all that needs to be done is to invest a lot of labor and start the real project.

At present, the biggest problem of Haikou Port is the sediment accumulation at the mouth of the Nandu River, under the erosion of the river water for many years, a large amount of sediment is deposited on the channel of the estuary, making the effectively navigable river surface narrower and narrower, and the water depth of the channel is getting shallower and shallower. The waters that used to be accessible to 400 boats are now in danger of running aground even when half a ship is in danger.

Haihan didn't have enough energy to build a new port here, and 20 miles away was the military port area, which had just begun to break ground. With the current engineering strength of the Ministry of Construction, it is clear that there is no way to build two new ports in this area at the same time. Therefore, as the name suggests, the reconstruction and expansion project in Haikou Port is mainly aimed at improving the conditions of the waterway, expanding the terminal on the basis of the existing port, and improving the cargo handling function.

In this era, the dredging of waterways was undoubtedly a chore, and basically had to rely on manpower to dig up the silt from the bottom of the river little by little to the boats, and then transport it to the shore for disposal. Although the industrial sector has long had the ability to manufacture steam engines, the existing production capacity is not enough to build professional equipment such as dredging ships, so the dredging work at the mouth of the Nandu River and the port of Haikou can only be carried out by the most primitive methods and by manpower.

With such a construction method, the progress of the project will undoubtedly be very slow. The Ministry of Construction expects that the project will last for up to half a year, during which the port of Haikou will implement sailboat access control, and only part of the wharf will be opened for ships to dock in turn. The "entry and exit qualification certification" mentioned by Qiu Yuan at the previous meeting is not entirely groundless, and it is indeed a part of the supporting projects in the port reconstruction project. Of course, Zhang Fucheng was able to jump out so consciously to die, which can be regarded as an unexpected gain.

On January 17, 1631, the sixteenth day of the fourth lunar month of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Guangzhou.

More than a dozen alternate Qiongzhou officials who were finally screened out from the Guangdong officialdom came to the Pearl River Wharf with their families. From here, they will take a boat south to Qiongzhou Island to perform their duties. Although Wang Zunde, the governor of Liangguang, did not personally rush from Zhaoqing Mansion to see him off, he still sent his most effective subordinate Liu Qian to Guangzhou to practice for these officials who went to Qiongzhou to take office.

Liu Qian has gained a lot of weight compared to when he first dealt with Haihan two years ago, which may have a lot to do with his gains in the past two years. Just the various service benefits obtained from Haihan are already worth ten thousand taels of silver. Moreover, Haihan also specially left him a way back, as long as he said it, someone would pick him up from Zhaoqing at any time and go to Qiongzhou Island or any place he designated to settle down. It is precisely because of such a guarantee that Liu Qian's silver is becoming more and more unscrupulous.

This time, Qiongzhou Island was attacked by pirates, and Liu Qianwei said that Wang Zunde allowed Haihan to send troops and temporarily take charge of the government affairs in the northern part of Qiongzhou, so he received a lot of benefits from Haihan. After that, there were a large number of vacancies in official positions on Qiongzhou Island, and there was an undercurrent in the Guangdong officialdom for this reason, and many people planned to take advantage of this opportunity to go up again. Although the appointment of these positions was decided by the imperial court and the ministry, it was the governor of Liangguang who recommended candidates to the imperial court, so many people tried to take this path to achieve their goals.

In the past two or three months, the threshold of his house has been several inches shorter, and almost every night there are visitors who come to the door. Of course, these people will not come to him empty-handed, and Liu Qian has also reaped a bumper harvest because of this, and his income in the past two or three months has suddenly exceeded the sum of his previous years.

Liu Qian made a fortune, but he didn't forget who was his real God of Wealth, if it weren't for the Haihan people tossing such a big formation on Qiongzhou Island, he wouldn't have had this opportunity to sit at home and receive the silver sent by others. Therefore, during this period, he also followed all the instructions given to him by Haihan, and became a supernumerary employee of Haihan.