Schneider is not interested in wasting any more time in negotiations that are destined to be fruitless. He had already informed Yu Xiaobao of the negotiation framework, so he and the representatives of the East India Company could grind it slowly. Now that the time has come to September and the annual Sanya Autumn Fair has reached the final stage of preparation, Schneider has a large number of drafted agreements to be reviewed, and these agreements will be signed at the next autumn fair to promote the great results of the autumn fair.

After entering the fifth year, the economic activities between Haihan and Daming have become more and more frequent, and the bilateral trade volume has also shown an upward trend year by year. Compared with the huge market of Daming, Haihan's current production capacity in various fields is still in short supply, and some high-end industrial products still need to be booked several months or even half a year in advance before they can be shipped when they are listed. In order to give foreign businessmen a fair chance to compete, the annual Sanya Autumn Fair has become the largest and most concentrated order period for Haihan to the outside world.

In addition to the trade fair, the cooperation of some large-scale projects is also the highlight of the autumn fair. "Qiong Lianfa", which started with the development of agriculture and forestry infrastructure projects, has now become a representative institution of economic and trade exchanges between Daming and Haihan, and has signed a lot of cooperation projects at the autumn fair every year, and the funds invested in various projects have already exceeded one million taels of silver in the past few years. Of course, under the careful management of Haihan, the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" have also obtained quite rich returns, and the more than ten major shareholders who initially invested in the shares are now counted as large households in Fuguang and Guangzhou provinces.

In addition to the traditional projects, this year's autumn fair also added a vast area in the northern part of Qiongzhou Island. After taking control of the northern Qiongbei area last year, after more than half a year of governance, a large area of undeveloped areas has been cleared, and the next step is to wait for the injection of capital and labor. At present, the Ministry of Agriculture has planned tens of thousands of acres of cash crop farms, and will select cooperative businesses for joint development through bidding during the autumn fair. In addition, Haikou Port, Danzhou Port and other harbor terminal infrastructure projects have also reached an intentional agreement, waiting to be officially signed during the autumn fair.

As in previous years, this year, the Ministry of Commerce also organized a foreign delegation to visit the construction project in the area of Haihan Control and visit the construction results. In addition to the representatives of the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa", this year there are also many new merchants from Fujian, Jiangxi and other places, as well as foreign guests from Annam, Champang, Siam, Portugal and other countries. The local officials of the Ming Dynasty stationed in Qiongzhou will also be represented in order to convince foreign merchants that the development and construction of Qiongzhou Island by the Haihan has received the support of the Ming government.

Just arranging this stall has already kept the commercial and diplomatic departments busy, and it is naturally difficult for the Dutch mission to visit at this time to get Haihan's attention. Schneider and Gu Kai felt that there was no substantive content after contacting each other, and they quickly lost this work to Yu Xiaobao, who had just come into contact with foreign affairs, and was busy doing business.

It stands to reason that Gu Kai should not leave Shengli Port at this time, but the Executive Committee believes that it is just the right time to take the opportunity of the commissioning ceremony of the Changhua project to bring the foreign visiting group over to open their eyes and let them see the beginning of the industrial age. In addition, this event is also to create a blow for the government measures to be carried out in the next year, after all, the salt and iron monopoly has been regarded as a symbol of the political power since ancient times, although Haihan has long realized the self-production of salt and iron, but the mining and operation scale of Tiandu iron ore is far less than that of the Changhua Shiroku area, and its influence on the outside world is also very limited. Let foreign businessmen go to Changhua to take a look at the production status of ironmaking and steelmaking, so that they can have more confidence in the future development of Haihan.

It is not a problem to transport foreign visiting groups to Changhua, but the difficulty is that the development process in Changhua is far less than that of Sanya, and it still takes some effort to find a place to settle so many distinguished guests. For this reason, Qiao Zhiya had to inform the county seat of Changhua in advance, and asked the local official squires to temporarily vacate three or four courtyards as the accommodation of the visiting group.

When the Dutch were still following Yu Xiaobao, the foreign business delegation organized by the Ministry of Commerce had already boarded ships from Sanya and Danzhou to Changhua area. Gu Kai also set off with the fleet, and in addition to being the guest of honor at the commissioning ceremony, he will also be responsible for the organization of the activities of the delegation during their stay in Changhua.

On September 7, 1631, Gu Kai's fleet arrived at the port of Changhua. He also came twice in the early days of the development of Changhua, but at that time Changhua Port even the port facilities have not been built perfectly, the coal ships from the black soil port of Annan are blocked outside the small harbor, and the unloading can basically only rely on shovels and burlap bags, every time there is a coal ship to the port for a few days, the whole port together with the river water of the Changhua River is floating with a layer of coal ash, the situation is even worse than the production area at least the black soil port has realized the mechanized bulk coal loading, the small train transported from the mining area to the port can directly unload the loose coal next to the conveyor device for loading, and there are relatively complete dust removal means, so as not to make the coal ash all over the world within a radius of several miles。

However, when Gu Kai arrived at Changhua Port this time, he found that the appearance of this place had indeed changed greatly compared to the previous time. First of all, the size of the port has been greatly improved, and the passenger and cargo terminals have been completely separated, not mixed together as before. The small harbor on the seaward side became a dedicated passenger terminal, and the fleet of ships transporting supplies would sail further inland to the banks of the Changhua River, where there was a specially built cargo terminal, and several steam-powered dry bulk conveyors were installed according to the setting of the black soil port, which made the unloading efficiency more than ten times more than before.

Secondly, the passenger and cargo passages on the shore have also been separated, and the freight terminal has a special transportation track to the coal and iron industrial base in the east of Changhua County, which is responsible for transporting the coal transported to the port to the coking workshop of the industrial base, where it is made into coke and then used in the production of iron-making iron and steel. This track is also connected to the rail transportation line from Changhua Port to Shilu, where some construction machinery and equipment produced in Sanya can also be loaded and transported directly to the Shilu mining area.

Qiao Zhiya took the local naturalized cadres to the dock to greet Gu Kai and his party. Most of the members of the visiting group who accompanied him were still excitedly discussing the huge ship they had seen before entering the port.

A "Majestic-class" warship, which had just completed its combat readiness duty in the waters near Changhua, chose to dock at Changhua Port for replenishment, and when the visiting group's fleet entered the port, this ship and two companion "Exploration-class" warships were slowly leaving the coast. The vast majority of people have witnessed this legendary Haihan battle ship for the first time, so it is inevitable to have a taste.

Of course, no one questioned the actual combat effectiveness of this kind of warship, because just four months ago, this kind of warship broke through the eighteenth century in Fujian and made great achievements. The Fujian government has also issued a special notice for this purpose, and the yamen in all parts of Qiongzhou have a copy, as long as they have recently entered and exited Qiongzhou Island, they can see the relevant notices at the wharves and city gates. Two months ago, the news that the Haihan fleet had defeated the red-haired fleet in Fujian came back, and hundreds of foreign prisoners also paraded through the streets of Sanya Port.

It has been some time since the visiting group arrived in Qiongzhou, and during this time, they have been brainwashed by these news, and even those who still have doubts in their hearts have immediately become convinced of the rumors after seeing the real body of this warship just now.

Of course, Gu Kai had much more information than these outsiders, and quickly pulled Qiao Zhiya aside and asked, "Why did the people from the navy come here to replenish their supply port in Danzhou Bay?"

"It is mainly loaded with coal, and the reserves in Danzhou Bay are estimated to be insufficient. Qiao Zhiya explained: "There is martial law in Danzhou again, and some cargo ships can't run Danzhou for the time being, and it just so happens that the navy's ships are training nearby, so they come over to decorate coal by the way." ”

"Why is there an accident in Danzhou under martial law again," Gu Kai frowned and asked.

"Last week, there were assassins in Danzhou again, but this time it was not Zhang Xin who was looking for it, but the Ming officials who took refuge in us. Qiao Zhiya probably stayed in this place for a long time and was bored, and he was also very excited when he talked about these foreign gossip: "Didn't the officials assigned to Danzhou at the beginning of the year all defect to us later, this time there were assassins in Danzhou to assassinate them, Zhang Xin and the people from the Ministry of Security thought that the remnants of the last assassination had not been cleared, so they sealed the port and arrested the assassins in Danzhou." ”

"Oh, I remembered, one is called Yan Mingjun and the other is called Li Jin, right" Gu Kai also remembered this after he said this.

When these two Ming officials first arrived in Danzhou, their resistance was still relatively obvious, but in March, there were anti-Haihan squires and Jinyi Wei officers who instigated a riot in Danzhou, trying to assassinate Zhang Xin and other Haihan dignitaries in the city, and these two still chose to cooperate with Haihan at the last moment, and sold their accomplices. After that, the two of them could only be vassals and spokesmen of the local management of Haihan with peace of mind, on the surface they were the governors and generals of Danzhou, but in fact they were just decorations, only responsible for writing routine reports to the governor of Zhaoqing Yamen every month, and the content of the report was all written according to the instructions of the Haihan people.

Of course, this is not a good thing for them, in addition to saving their lives, they can also make a small fortune, and at the same time, they don't need to work for local governance, so naturally the Danzhou Management Committee will take care of a good business. In addition to not being allowed to travel to the mainland, their local movements are no longer restricted.

Under the arrangement of the management committee, Yan Mingjun, who likes literature, naturally sat on the throne of the honorary president of the "Danzhou Literati Federation", and also presided over the latest Qiongzhou Poetry Club.

And Li Jin, who is good at martial arts, is completely mixed with the Haihan soldiers. He himself had no family members, so he simply moved his residence outside the city, adjacent to the training ground of the Haihan garrison, and ate and lived with the Haihan officers every day, not like an outsider at all. Although Li Xiangtou never said anything like surrendering to Haihan, everyone regarded him as a general.

Of course, this is not any discrimination, the Ming generals under the rule of Haihan are not uncommon, the first to take refuge in Haihan, Luo Shengdongluo, is now not only hanging the rank of Ming to do smuggling business, but also served as the vice president of the "Daming Haihan Civil Relations Association" established in April this year. Although this organization is not officially recognized by the Ming Dynasty, its level is really not low, because the president is concurrently served by Tao Donglai, the leader of Haihan. Although the name is hung with the sign of "people-to-people relations", the actual task is to coordinate the relationship between Haihan and Ming officialdom.

Li came in late, of course, he didn't get so many opportunities to serve Haihan and be loyal, but the Haihan officers saw him as a soldier who didn't like politics, and they didn't exclude him from joining, and they usually let him participate in daily training. After all, it is difficult for Haihan to copy this set of things to be implemented in the Ming Dynasty, and the officers are not afraid that he can steal what tricks he can learn. Li Jin may have had such thoughts at first, but after a long time of contact with the Haihan militia, he also knew that it was impossible to train such an army under the existing conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

Although Li Jin was not born as a naval division, he often went to Danzhou Port to watch the drills of the Haihan Navy. Later, he hit it off at first sight with Wu Sen, who was also a general, and the two actually burned yellow paper and cut off the head of the chicken. Although this kind of atmosphere is not advocated in the Haihan Army, no one deliberately targets these two generals with special identities.

After Yan Mingjun and Li Jin had been mingling unharmed for a few months, an accident occurred recently, when two Assassins climbed over the wall and entered Yan Mingjun's residence after dark, trying to assassinate him. However, Yan Mingjun voted in March