Nguyen Ching Quy was one of the first to surrender to the South Vietnamese regime before the fall of the regime, so the treatment he and his family received after the war was beyond the reach of the South Vietnamese remnants. After Nguyen Ching Gui arrived at Victory Port, he was soon asked by Schneider to work in the Ministry of Commerce, and the plan of the Executive Committee at that time was to subdue him and send him back to South Vietnam to work, so that he could make full use of his indigenous identity. And his younger brother Nguyen Van Van was also reused, and was absorbed into the police department, with his qualifications as a former military officer, as long as he remained loyal to the executive committee, it was basically only a matter of time before he was promoted and reused.

After Nguyen Jinggui entered the Ministry of Commerce, in addition to serving as Schneider's personal assistant, he also began to gradually take over some trade affairs related to Annan. As the main trading partner of the Ming Dynasty in terms of trade volume with Haihan and even on an equal footing with Ming in terms of immigration imports, Haihan attaches great importance to Annan. In the Ministry of Commerce, there is a special office in Annam, which is responsible for the day-to-day trade between Haihan and Annam.

In contrast to the trade strategy adopted by the Haihan in the Ming Dynasty, the commerce department did not open the door to trade with Annam by smuggling, but from the outset reached a trade agreement with the ruling class of Annam, importing industrial goods into Annam in an open manner. To a large extent, this was also due to the fact that Annam was in the mud pit of war at that time, and a large number of laborers were forced to be conscripted to serve the war on the front line, and even salt had to be imported from Haihan on a large scale. Although the civil war in Annam has come to an end, in the past two years, high-quality and low-cost Haihan refined salt has occupied the main market in the former North Vietnamese region, and every revision of the trade agreement between the two sides will still include salt as a major commodity in the agreement.

Along with the salt, a large number of other industrial products such as glassware, soap, matches, iron farming tools, and so on entered Annam. Not only that, but even cheap agricultural products were tossed out of their reputation by the Ministry of Commerce and sold to Annam at a high price. For example, palm oil, which only began to be produced this year, was produced in small quantities, so the commerce department played the "royal cooking oil" signboard gimmick to sell it to the aristocracy of Annam. This high-grade edible oil, which is said to be only eligible for pure Haihan people, has been selling well in Annam since its launch, and the price per tonne of palm oil is three times that of the commerce department's test market in Guangzhou.

However, it is no wonder that the authority of the name Haihan in Annam is much stronger than that in Daming, after all, it is a strong person who can change the situation of the civil war in Annam, whether it is ordinary people or high-level society, they are willing to imitate Haihan's way of life. As for the price, this kind of well-positioned commodity is not sold to the poor in the first place, and the people who sell it do not think too much about the price when they buy it, and they have already formed a certain mindset in the past two years - as long as the Haihan people say it is a good thing, it will certainly not be bad.

And the person who proposed this sales plan was none other than Ruan Jinggui, who had joined the Ministry of Commerce not long ago. Although the Nanyue court did not establish official trade relations with the Haihan at that time, the Daming maritime merchants who continuously transported Haihan goods from Shengli Port to South Vietnam for sale were never cut off, so the atmosphere in South Vietnam at that time was actually similar, and sometimes even because of the shortage of goods, the shortage of the same goods in South Vietnam greatly exceeded that of the north. Although the powerful people of South Vietnam were indignant at Haihan's participation in the Annam Civil War, almost everyone had a collection of high-end glass stationery produced by Haihan in their homes. It was out of his understanding of the domestic situation in Annam that Nguyen Ching Gui proposed such a sales method.

Relying on the concept of hype to improve the force, and then pull the price of the product up, this business operation model is naturally not a new thing in another time and space, and the so-called direct selling companies on the market are using this routine. But in this era, Ruan Jinggui was able to come up with this sales strategy without a teacher, which shows that he does have some extraordinary talent in business. After Schneider confirmed this matter, he handed over the planning of the business strategy to Nguyen Ching Gui to follow up.

Ruan Jinggui really lived up to Schneider's trust, and soon followed this path and sorted out the hype plan for other agricultural products. After the corresponding adjustments made by the Ministry of Commerce, the export of agricultural products to Annam in the first half of the year more than tripled compared to the projected income. This is not the concept of roadside grocery stores selling more than a few bottles of oil and a few catties of vinegar, and the increase in efficiency brought about by the adjustment of the sales strategy of agricultural products is enough to allow the navy to add two more big ships within the year.

It was precisely because of his outstanding performance in the Ministry of Commerce for nearly half a year that Nguyen Jinggui finally gained the trust of the Executive Committee and appointed him to Da Nang as a commercial representative of Hai Han to negotiate and deal with the local trade situation and participate in the planning of the construction of the local port trade zone.

Originally, according to the agreement reached between Hai Han and the Annam court, no South Vietnamese vassals who had been sheltered by Hai Han after the Battle of Hue could return to Annam. However, due to the extraterritoriality of the Haihan Concession, even if a person like Nguyen Ching Gui arrived in Da Nang, as long as he did not deliberately leave the concession area, the Annam officials could only pretend that they had not seen anything.

For Ruan Jinggui, it is already an unexpected joy to be fortunate enough to set foot on the land of Annam again. When he first boarded the ship outside Hue, he thought that he probably would not have the opportunity to return to this land. Unexpectedly, only half a year has passed, and he has returned to his homeland - of course, this place is no longer surnamed Ruan, but has changed his surname to Zheng.

Although Ruan Jinggui shoulders the position appointed by the Haihan Executive Committee, to be honest, he does not feel like he has returned to his hometown, but is very much like a down-and-out person who has been assigned to a poor rural area to become a county official. Although Da Nang's geographical environment is good, the former South Vietnamese court did not have enough capacity to develop it on a large scale, so it was in a near-primitive state for a long time, and it was only in the last two months that people have moved here one after another.

These people did not come here by chance, in fact they were the laborers prepared by the Annam court for Haihan. According to the agreement between the two parties, these laborers will have the right to choose whether or not to join Haihan as a Haihan naturalized citizen after completing the local construction works. It can be said that the essence of this project is that the Annam court exchanged the population for a port that was built by Haihan, who actually controlled it, and Annam only enjoyed the nominal ownership and part of the right to use.

Not only did Annam have to endure this loss, but he also had to try to get the Haihan people to start implementing the development plan for Da Nang as much as possible, because the stagnation of maritime trade in the South Vietnamese region was definitely a big problem that had to be solved for the Annam court, which had a strict shortage of state revenues.

When the Haihan attacked Hoi An last year, they took almost all the local Ming merchants with them, and also drove away the Portuguese, the only western partner, which can be said to have directly stifled the maritime trade of South Vietnam at that time. If from the standpoint of the Annam court at that time, there was no problem with the Haihan people's practices, and they could be described as very good, cutting off the largest economic source of the Nanyue court in one fell swoop. But after the war, the disadvantages gradually became apparent.

It is not that the court of Annam has not tried to roll up its sleeves and play on the field, but the Ming maritime merchants who can get in touch with each other said that without the approval of the Haihan people, they do not want to risk the war to do business in Annam. The Portuguese, on the other hand, were more direct, believing that Haihan was a more important partner than Annam, and that Portugal would not unilaterally negotiate trade cooperation with Annam until Haihan made a clear statement.

Of course, the Portuguese do not have such an expression out of respect for Haihan, and I am afraid that there are more elements of awe. After the Portuguese became the arms agents of the Haihan, they had already trafficked a large number of Haihan guns and sent them to the European battlefield. It's not that no one has ever thought of using these weapons against the Haihan people, but the Portuguese who have visited the Haihan shooting range know that the Haihan people still have many advanced weapons in their hands that are not for sale, and the Haihan militia equipped with these advanced weapons can deal with an enemy with only arquebuses and small-caliber smoothbore cannons, just as an adult with a stick bullies a bare-handed child. What's more, the naval strength of the Haihan people is not weak, and if they are provoked, then the future of the Portuguese stationed in the Macao area will be worrying, and the Haihan people can easily blockade the Macao area, including the surrounding waters, by relying on the two places of Wanshan Port and Panyu Lijiazhuang. At that time, let alone doing business, it will be a question whether the Portuguese can continue to stay in the Far East.

The court of Annam could not say that the Ming maritime merchants and the Portuguese would cooperate directly with them, so the only object they could choose to cooperate with was Haihan. Even if the conditions proposed by Haihan were very harsh, the Annan court could only knock out its teeth and swallow it in its stomach now.

Although the results of his last trip to Sanya to discuss cooperation with the Haihan people in the development of the four southern ports were not ideal, the Annam court believed that there was no more suitable candidate than Zheng Lin for the time being, so Zheng Lin was still responsible for the follow-up matters concerning the development of the four southern ports.

It's not a daunting task, but it's not an easy one. Zheng Lin has been dealing with the Haihan people for almost two years, and he knows very well that although these Haihan people are very particular about business credit, the problem is that their skills of squeezing others are really unguardable. The reason why Annan is now in a rather passive position in the process of commercial cooperation, and even has to give up some of his interests in exchange for a compromise with Haihan, is that when various cooperation agreements were first negotiated, the Haihan people took advantage of too many loopholes, so that now they have to pay more for the previous sloppiness.

"Ruan Jinggui, commissioner of the Annan Affairs Office of the Ministry of Commerce in Xiahai, has met Special Envoy Zheng!" After Ruan Jinggui got off the ship, someone introduced him to Zheng Lin.

Zheng Lin bowed his hand slightly: "Long look up, long look up! Commissioner Ruan heard that he is a local!"

Ruan Jinggui heard the hint of ridicule in these words, and replied without changing his face: "My current identity is a naturalized citizen of the Haihan Dynasty, and I don't pay attention to the region of origin. To do things for the Executive Committee, never ask about your background, just be loyal!"

Zheng Lin snorted coldly and said: "Loyalty, I didn't commit suicide and martyrdom, and I dare to talk about loyalty!"

"If I am martyred, then what is the small court of your Zheng family?" Ruan Jinggui immediately seized the loophole in Zheng Lin's words.

As soon as Zheng Lin spoke, he also knew that he was speechless, and quickly changed the topic: "I heard that this time it is Lord Liu from the Haihan Engineering Construction Department who led the team, why haven't you gotten off the boat yet?"

"Chief Liu is receiving a message from the Executive Committee and will disembark later. Speaking of this, Ruan Jinggui's face was a little more solemn. The ability to transmit messages through the air in the hands of the Haihan people is more like a magical spell in the eyes of outsiders, although Ruan Jinggui knows that the Haihan people use a wonderful tool to achieve this effect, but he is still full of awe of it.

Zheng Lin knew that the situation was actually similar to Ruan Jinggui, during his residence in Heitu Port, he had seen many times at close range that the Haihan people used radios, walkie-talkies and other equipment to achieve telecommunication in the air, but he didn't understand the principle and how to operate it. But there is one thing he knows, the Haihan people are not allowed to be disturbed by others when they are on an air call. If Liu Shanxia is indeed talking to the Executive Committee, then don't talk about him Zheng Lin, even if the King of Qingdu comes in person, Liu Shanxia may not sell this face and immediately interrupt the call.

The identities of these two people were placed half a year ago, that is, your life-and-death opponents, and now although the civil war is over, one side is not completely winning, and the other side is not convinced, but they will encounter this kind of occasion that requires cooperation. The two stared at each other, and neither of them refused to lose their hearts first.

After being silent for more than ten minutes, Liu Shanxia finally got off the boat. He wasn't playing big names just now, but he was really receiving messages from the base camp. Although it was only a routine call every day, Liu Shanxia would not change his arrangements for the sake of the Annan envoy waiting on the shore, which was exactly the same as Zheng Lin's estimate.

After Liu Shanxia got off the boat, he saw that the expressions of these two people were not too right. He roughly knew Ruan Jinggui's background, Zheng Lin had seen it in Heitu Port earlier, and he was not a stranger, and he had already understood what was going on in the cold field in front of him in a blink of an eye, and he immediately said: "Special Envoy Zheng has been waiting for a long time!"

Zheng Lin hurriedly clenched his fists and bowed down and said: "Lord Liu is polite, it's just a moment, it's still Lord Liu who came across the sea, and he has worked hard all the way." I have prepared a table of catching wine, and I hope that Lord Liu will not be disgusted, and he must appreciate his face!"