When Ruan Jinggui came to Sanya last year, he had seen this kind of monster spitting white smoke on an iron track from afar, but at that time he didn't understand the operating principle of this thing, thinking that it should be another magical spell in the hands of the Haihan people. This time when I came to the camp where I lived in Sanya, I could also hear the whistle of the train when it entered and exited the station every day, and now I saw the locomotive parked next to the platform in the near distance, and Ruan Jinggui really realized how huge this thing was. However, it was not yet time for the train to leave, and they could only watch the big guy lying motionless on the tracks from the platform.

"It's really big!" Ruan Jinggui couldn't help but sigh softly.

Ruan Wenwen also sighed beside him: "The iron used in this black iron lump must be measured in 10,000 catties, and the rails must be laid everywhere it passes, and I don't know how much iron will be used, and the Haihan people have so much iron material that can be used in this kind of place, it is no wonder that the military strength is stronger than Annam." ”

Although Ruan Wenwen is an officer from an aristocratic background, he is not a gentleman who doesn't know anything, and he still has a good idea of what iron means to a regime. If the Hue Imperial Court had been able to produce such iron as Haihan under the rule of the Imperial Court, it would have already opened its own furnace to make iron and cast cannons, and the Haihan militia wanted to take Hue City, at least they had to face several times the number of cannons defending the city, and the defenders would not have been completely defeated in just one month of fighting.

At the beginning, in the face of the offensive of the Haihan Army, all the South Vietnamese officers had to sigh at the opponent's strong equipment, almost all musketeers, supplemented by a large number of artillery, which made the South Vietnamese army, which was still at the level of cold weapons for most of the army, simply unable to resist. And the large amount of iron used to make zuò weapons for such a column is also unattainable in South Vietnam. While the South Vietnamese army was still worried about the source of iron, the Haihan people had already used it extravagantly to pave roads, and this huge disparity in strength was simply desperate.

"If I had personally come here to see the strength of the Haihan people, how could I have chosen to settle the dispute by war?" Ruan Jinggui shook his head lightly and sighed: "The princes of the court are not reluctant to cede the land and sue for peace, and we can also give the conditions that the north can give, but the princes have always been unwilling to believe in the strength of the Haihan people, and wishful thinking that they will only help the north fight the war if they only receive money from the north, as long as the north can't come up with the money." The Haihan people will automatically withdraw from the battlefield...... As everyone knows, the purpose of the Haihan people in waging war is for land and population, and collecting money from the north is just a convenient move, if the imperial court had fulfilled their wishes, there would still be room for negotiation, so why would they have made trouble with Cheng Dù, who is now ruined and ruined!"

"But the original condition of the peace talks proposed by the Haihan people was to let the imperial court give up the national system, how did this make it!" Ruan Wenwen said disapprovingly: "Give up the national system, then how can we talk about other conditions?"

"Brother Wei was thinking the same as you at that time. I believe that the state system is the foundation of my Hue court, and I must not give it up. Ruan Jinggui let out a long sigh and said, "I thought about it later. What the Haihan people want is the unification of Annam, but to let Annam have a court that obeys their will to rule. ”

"Where do you start with this?" Ruan Wenwen also heard his brother say such a point of view for the first time, and couldn't help but ask.

"Do you know why the Champa state in the south suddenly raised troops to ask for important territory from me?" Ruan Jinggui turned his words around and asked a seemingly unrelated question.

Ruan Wenwen is not stupid, and he thought of the key with a roll of his eyes: "Are you saying that the Haihan people deliberately support Champa, but in fact, it is not just to go against us?"

Before Hai Han launched an attack on South Vietnam, the southern states of Champa had taken the lead in propagating to South Vietnam, and had defeated the South Vietnamese army in several successive battles, and the weapons they used were arquebuses produced by Hai Han. In Ruan Jinggui's opinion. It is precisely because of the intervention of the Haihan that Champa can have the courage to jump out and turn against South Vietnam, and the purpose of the Haihan people to support Champa is probably not just to find some trouble for the South Vietnamese court - to create an opponent for Annam, so that the rulers can continue to maintain their dependence on the Haihan, is the most fundamental purpose.

Although it is already an afterthought, it is not easy for Ruan Jinggui to figure out the interests in the middle. Ruan's text was nodded by his brother after a few words. also suddenly realized: "So what they want is not the unification of the north and the south, but the obedience of the imperial court?"

"Maybe you don't even need to be obedient, the Haihan people don't like to kill everything, as long as they are willing to cooperate with them, there is room for negotiation in many things. Nguyen Ching Gui sighed: "When they attacked Hoi An last year, they really did it with the Portuguese. As soon as they turned their heads, the two of them sat together to talk about business. When my brother came here for peace talks last year, the Portuguese representatives even helped them to persuade me. The Haihan people are a group of businessmen who value profit over righteousness, and as long as their interests are related, there is nothing they can't talk about. ”

Ruan Wenwen was stunned for a while before he said: "I knew this was the case, why bother to fight this battle, seeing the Haihan soldiers approaching the city, the high-ranking officials of the court should judge the situation." It's the right thing to talk to the Haihan people!"

"By then, it's already too late!" Ruan Jinggui shook his head and said, "If Haihan has not yet sent troops, maybe there is still room for negotiation in this matter." But they mobilized thousands of people to come across the sea, how much did it cost? By the time the Haihan militia attacked the city of Hue, there was no possibility of reaching an alliance under the city. If Hue is not broken, how can they be willing to withdraw their troops!"

The two brothers sighed for a while on the platform, and they also knew that this was an unchangeable reality, no matter whether the South Vietnamese court chose to confront or obey at the beginning, it was inevitable that they would be at the mercy of Haihan in the end, and in the end, fighting this battle would only increase the consumption of both sides. The court of South Vietnam chose a more heroic way to withdraw from the stage of history, but for the losers, their actions will only be regarded as a false lesson for future generations.

"Stand back, step back!" a black-clad policeman approached, waving his baton to signal the people waiting on the platform to exit to a certain safe distance.

The steam locomotive on the platform has been coaled and preheated, and the steam is continuously discharged from the exhaust pipe, forming a fog barrier near the platform. The train driver, dressed in blue cloth overalls, walked briskly with his head held high, and climbed into the driver's cab of the locomotive under the gaze of everyone.

In the early days of the train line, the work of driving the train was done by a few traversers from the Ministry of Communications, but the driving of this steam engine was very simple, and after half a year of training, the first ten naturalized drivers took over the job. Nowadays, the operation and maintenance of the entire railway system, all the front-line personnel have been replaced by naturalized citizens.

The cadres of the Civil Affairs Bureau, who led the new immigrants, showed the tickets to the platform staff, and then beckoned the Ruan brothers and others to get on the train. This train has only one passenger car, and the other three wagons are pulled to unload various production raw materials from the port to be transported to the Tiando Industrial Zone. Probably also learned the lessons of the previous operation, and now the carriages carrying people are hung on the last section of the whole train. So as not to make passengers confused by soot and steam throughout the whole process.

The crowd entered the carriage with a sense of novelty, but the furnishings were a bit disappointing: the empty carriage had nothing but benches, and the floor was covered with a thick layer of soot, which looked nowhere near as clean as the dormitories in the quarantine camp.

Ruan Jinggui brushed the dust off the bench with his sleeve with a little disgust, and then reluctantly sat down. If he didn't know that the Victory Fort he was going to now was ten miles away from here, Ruan Jinggui really didn't want to take this kind of dirty transportation.

Ruan was not as particular as his brother. Looking left and right, you can't stop at all. There are also no special windows in this carriage. It's just a bamboo and wood roof on the original open-top wagon, and you can poke your head out to look out in all directions, which is very suitable for a curious person like Ruan Wenwen.

Except for the new immigrants, almost all the other passengers in this carriage were naturalized people wearing blue cloth shirts and overalls. These people are obviously used to these newcomers coming out of the quarantine camp to get on the bus here, so they don't care much about their survival, and talk to themselves.

After waiting for a while, there was still no sign of the train starting, and a black-faced man sitting next to Ruan Jinggui became agitated, poked his head out of the carriage and asked the staff on the platform: "Why haven't you left the train yet?

The staff waved his hand and said, "Don't worry. There is a chief who wants to ride in the car, in the shunting wagon. ”

The black-faced man didn't ask any more questions, and retracted his head and sat back in his seat. Ruan Jinggui asked: "This brother, why does the chief need to transfer another wagon when he takes the car? There are obviously many vacant seats here!"

The man smiled and said, "New immigrants, huh?"

Ruan Jinggui didn't know why, but he still nodded and didn't deny it.

"The wagon that the chief sits on is much better than the one we sit on, it's dirty here, how can the chiefs sit?" the black-faced man explained to him why.

Ruan Jinggui asked again: "Then if you delay your time to go to work because of this." What compensation is there?"

"I'm not busy at work, no matter how busy I am, can the chiefs be busy?" The black-faced man didn't have any resentment about this.

After waiting for a while, sure enough, a very short carriage was added behind this carriage, and Ruan Jinggui visually estimated that it was about two zhang long. However, this short car is obviously different from the civilian version of the wagon that I am riding, and the car and roof are obviously monolithic. Moreover, the windows of the carriage are made of glass, which can completely insulate the soot and water vapor during the journey.

Then Ruan Jinggui saw several Haihan people enter the back carriage, and they were followed by several gray-clothed militiamen with short guns on their backs. Ruan Jinggui didn't ask, but he knew that these militiamen must be protecting the personal soldiers of the Haihan people in the carriage.

After the people got on the train, the train finally sounded the signal whistle to leave the station, and a few immigrants were so frightened that they fell to the floor. It provoked a burst of laughter from the naturalized laborers.

After the train leaves the station, the first place you pass by is the shipyard area located between the Luhuitou Peninsula and the Yulin Peninsula. From the train, you can clearly see that there are several slipways standing along the coast, and on each slipway is a sea vessel with a different construction progress. With Nguyen Ching Gui's many years of experience in maritime trade, the smallest ship he saw had already exceeded the level of 400 materials. The fact that so many large sea vessels are being built here around the clock also seems to explain why the Haihan people were able to dominate the sea area between Annan and Daming Qiongzhou Island.

After passing through the shipyard, we entered the port area of Yulin Port, and looked into the harbor, the shore was densely packed with various warehouses, commercial inns and stacked goods like a hill, and the wharf was docked with large and small sea vessels. Last year, the number of ships entering and leaving Yulin Port every day was only five or six, but now this number has doubled, and more than 100 foreign merchant ships arrive in the port every month, and they have unknowingly won the position of the first commercial port on Qiongzhou Island. Compared to the prosperity here, Nguyen Ching Gui also had to admit that Hoi An City, which had made the Hue court proud in the past, was nothing more than a rural wharf.

After passing through the five-mile-long port area, the train begins to slow down and enter the station. This stop is Fort Victory. It is also the final stop of the trip of new immigrants such as Ruan Jinggui. The civil affairs cadres beckoned everyone to get off the train and assembled the whole team on the platform. Nguyen Ching Gui noticed that the number of naturalized migrant laborers who got on the train here was even larger, and the originally empty carriages were stuffed to the brim, and some people who couldn't squeeze in the back had to climb onto the wagons. The laborers took the train to the inland industrial area of Tiandoku, and there were still 20 miles left on the line, and the train was the fastest way for them to commute to work every day.

Except for Nguyen Ching-Gui, the rest of the newcomers were coming to Sanya's political center, Shengli Fort, for the first time. After seeing the imposing exterior of Fort Victory, almost everyone felt the visual impact. Although the height of the walls of Victory Fort is not as high as that of Hue City. But the dense cracks in the fort walls and the oddly shaped bunker-like towers were enough to shock these people.

"Now you follow me to the immigration bureau to go through the registration procedures. "Civil affairs cadres led the way in front and led them to a brick and stone building next to Fort Victory.

In fact, when they arrived in the quarantine camp in Victory Harbor, they had already registered their identities once, and now they are only checking their identities again and allowing them to collect their luggage and other personal belongings.

The Ruan brothers' luggage was not too much, and before they entered the quarantine camp, Nguyen Ching Gui was in charge and handed over all the gold and silver to the civil affairs cadres to exchange for huàn negotiable coupons. But when they signed and received a stack of banknote bills, they were still a little uneasy. Ruan Wenwen couldn't help muttering in a low voice: "Real money has been exchanged for so many pieces of paper. Can this really be used?"

Ruan Jinggui comforted: "Don't worry, this kind of circulation coupon is used in the areas under the rule of the Haihan people, and you can even buy a house, so there is nothing to worry about." Besides, this paper is also easy to carry, and it is not as easy to lose as gold and silver. ”

Having said that, he carefully wrapped the stack of negotiable coupons with a piece of cloth and put them in his arms, leaving only two yuan of change outside in case of emergency.

"Ruan Jinggui, Ruan Wenwen. Have you finished counting your personal belongings? Are there any omissions?" asked the civil affairs cadre.

"No, no, the numbers are right. Ruan Jinggui hurriedly responded.

"If nothing is missing, let's sign it here. The civil affairs cadre pushed the pen and paper over, and Ruan Jinggui picked it up and wrote the names of his two brothers at the place where the words "signatory".

"This is your temporary identification, you need to carry it with you when you go out, if you don't bring it with you and happen to be found by the police, then you will squat in a small dark room. Do you understand?" said the civil affairs cadre as he handed them two signs wearing hemp ropes.

Although Ruan Jinggui didn't know much about what a small black house was, it would definitely not be a good thing to listen to this tone. Immediately took over the small brand, and started with cold and hard, it turned out to be made of fine stainless steel, with a row of runes on it, but Ruan Jinggui didn't know any of them.

This temporary ID tag is a design that mimics a dog tag. The above rune is actually a row of Arabic numeral numbers, each number corresponds to a new immigrant who has not yet obtained naturalized citizenship, the first three codes represent the place of residence, the last three represent the work unit, the police who check the identity card only need to check the number, you can know the immigrant's residence and work unit and other information. When the immigrant obtains naturalization during the inspection period, the temporary status plate will be recycled and issued to the next group of new immigrants, and the naturalized person will receive a more sophisticated permanent identity card.

The role of this ID card system in maintaining social order is self-evident, and the foreign population without identity cards will be restricted in many places, and some units that implement military management but have naturalized civilian employees can also use this identity card to identify their authority. This kind of identity tag is all made of steel, and then it is difficult to imitate it by the outside world.

"Have you all received your identity badges? Hang them around your necks, you can only take them off when you sleep, and put them on as soon as you wake up, remember?" After the civil affairs cadre finished admonishing them, he asked everyone to take their luggage and wait in line outside a nearby office.

Here, the assignment of work and accommodation for new immigrants is handled. These people were assigned different units, and their stations were not limited to Sanya, but even as far away as Panyu County, Guangdong, a Langzhong who was said to be very good at treating all kinds of fevers, so he was selected in advance by the medical department and sent to work at the Lijiazhuang Immigration Base in Panyu.