Marik's statement can be described as simple and crude, but it also speaks of the current situation of the cooperation model between Haihan and Ming businessmen in large-scale development projects.

In the various joint-stock projects led by Haihan, Ming businessmen often only play the role of investors and sales terminals, and the specific operation of the project is rarely directly involved - of course, there are indeed some projects on the Haihan side out of the need for confidentiality, consciously eliminating the opportunity for external forces to participate in the operation. The promotion content of many projects is often only a brief introduction to the project, the amount of capital contribution and the proportion of share allocation, the return on investment period and the expected rate of return.

Of course, in order to reassure the bosses who pay for it, the commercial department will generally set up a symbolic supervisory position, which will be filled by a few representatives of the shareholders of Daming. However, this so-called supervision can only manage the ledger, and the representatives do not have the power to meddle in the specific affairs of the project implementation process. In particular, some projects with confidential technology are difficult for outsiders to get a glimpse of.

This kind of overlord clause-like agreement seems to be strict and unfair, and if you are a shrewd businessman, you can easily find many disadvantages for the funder. But such an explicit agreement is still flocking to Ming businessmen today, and the reason is very simple, that is, because of the high return on investment on Haihan's side, and there are enough security guarantees to ensure that the project is carried out smoothly.

A group of Ming businessmen who first invested in Sanya have basically recovered their investment and begun to make a profit in the first half of this year, even according to the current business conditions reflected in the accounts, it should not be a big problem to recover more than three times the amount of investment within five years. This rate of return is quite good in today's era, and investing in Haihan is stable, and Haihan people's past business record and good business reputation are excellent guarantees. Of course, the most powerful guarantee is the powerful private armed forces under the Haihan Executive Committee, which makes every businessman involved in the Haihan trade system full of confidence in the prospects of cooperation.

For example, this time it organized a business delegation to Hong Kong Island in the south, and for this purpose, the Guangzhou Consulate General Office specially transferred a large "expedition-class" warship and a platoon of army escorts from Wanshan Port to escort it. Although there are no pirates in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary for a long time, and there is no big problem in terms of security, the Guangzhou Office still insists on making such an arrangement, and the reason is very simple, that is, to show off its military force -- after all, there are some new customers in this delegation who are not so familiar with the Haihan militia group, so that they can see the powerful strength of the Haihan armed forces, and it will also help them correct their understanding and attitude before cooperating.

The hull of this warship is about a third larger than the largest civilian ship at present, and the neat row of gun windows on the side of the ship and the high mast that clearly distinguishes it from the Chinese sails increase its recognition, so that the viewer will not mistake this big guy for the warship of the Ming Navy.

Of course, in addition to its striking appearance, the ship's maneuverability and speed on the surface of the sea also amazed the representatives of the merchants who saw it for the first time. It is said that last year, the Haihan people relied on a dozen or so such warships to defeat the menacing Fujian pirates outside the mouth of the Pearl River in one fell swoop, and after seeing the real thing, people who were originally skeptical about it had to admit the power of this kind of warship -- not to mention those pirates who were only equipped with a few earthen cannons, even if the Ming sailors encountered such a warship one-on-one, I am afraid it would be difficult to have a good end.

As for the Haihan militia army, which is loaded with guns and ammunition and has strict military discipline, its mental outlook alone is much better than that of those soldiers of the Daming Guards who are yellow-faced and thin-skinned and lack training, and even if people who do not know how to do it see them, they will think that this so-called private armed force will definitely not be just the level of ordinary caretakers, but a real military force with combat effectiveness.

After arriving on Hong Kong Island, some people with flexible brains have already begun to ask people whether they can pay for Haihan to build ships on their behalf, and whether Haihan militias accept private employment. After all, no matter how powerful the Haihan militia is, there is still a certain limit on the scope of activities, and the size of this range is directly related to the confidence of the merchants in the security capabilities of the Haihan.

In view of the fact that there are many Ming businessmen who are concerned about the sea escort, Gu Kai also announced the armed escort plan of the Haihan trade lanes in the next two or three years at the public Q&A meeting: "At present, our armed escort is mainly concentrated in the waters from Guangzhou to the Pearl River Estuary, and after the opening of Hong Kong Island, we will further expand the sea area of the armed escort on the existing basis, to the east to Jieshiwei and to the west to Guanghaiwei, and the maritime security in this area will gradually be taken charge by our militia group." As for the land armed escort that you are concerned about, you can go to the Golden Shield escort to discuss it in detail after returning to Guangzhou. ”

"You send ships to patrol the sea, if you meet the Daming Marine, will there be trouble?" someone asked below.

Gu Kai waved his hand lightly and said: "You don't need to worry about this question, we didn't set up an armed force to fight against the Ming Dynasty, and what we are guarding against is only those pirate gangs who are doing evil at sea." If the conditions and timing are right, we will also cooperate with the Daming Naval Division to jointly crack down on pirates along the coast of Guangzhou!"

Gu Kai stood up to answer questions about the military, but it was not entirely a substitute for the military, the Executive Committee did not have no ideas about Hong Kong Island, some strategic plans had already taken the lead, and the Executive Committee had also discussed many times the strategy of the mainland after gaining a foothold at the mouth of the Pearl River, so Gu Kai was able to casually come and directly define the scope of future activities of the armed forces.

Guanghaiwei to the west of the Pearl River Estuary and Jieshiwei to the east are both about 100 nautical miles away from Hong Kong Island. As for the waters near Hainan Island, Gu Kai doesn't need to explain more, now in addition to the line of Qiongzhou Fucheng, Hainan Wei, Lingao, and Danzhou in the north of Hainan Island, seven or eight out of ten of the sea ships running and transporting on the other three coastlines are either directly subordinate to the name of the Haihan Shipping Department, or they are ships hired by Haihan. The navy's warships had already completed their first training to sail around the island three months ago, and theoretically speaking, the entire coastline of Hainan Island could actually be regarded as within the reach of the Haihan militia. In time, this range will probably gradually become the actual control.

"All your investments and all your property, whether it is gold or silver or real estate, will be properly protected by the Haihan militia. If you still have doubts about this, you can ask the bosses who have invested in the Sanya area how we Haihan promised, how they implemented it, and whether there is a discrepancy between what they said and the actual situation. Gu Kai also understood that he probably wouldn't be able to find out the truth when he came to Hong Kong Island this time, so he simply turned the occasion in front of him into an investment promotion meeting, and tried to pull a few more investors if he could, anyway, as long as he entered the big pit of Haihan, he didn't want to climb out lightly - of course, those who tasted the sweetness probably couldn't kick it away.

"May I ask Mr. Gu, how much does your construction plan on Hong Kong Island need to be funded? How will the equity be distributed, and when will it be implemented?" After all, the purpose of their coming here is to invest, and the main questions they are concerned about are how much money to pay, how to do it, and when there will be a return.

This question stumped Gu Kai, in terms of military planning, he could still fool these business representatives with the previous draft plan, but when it came to the specific development plan, he would be blind. Engineering planning is not his area of responsibility, and the main technical personnel of the Ministry of Construction are still all directing the construction of roads on the construction site in Changhua, and they have not prepared the construction plan for Hong Kong Island in advance, and when it comes to the specific project budget, Gu Kai must not be able to talk nonsense casually.

"Hmm...... That's the question...... We are still studying, after all, the money to be spent is jointly funded by you, how to make the most of these silver, get the most returns, this is the responsibility that we must fulfill as an organizer. We came from Sanya this time, and we also brought the personnel in charge of project planning. The question raised by the boss just now must wait for the professional to come up with a plan before giving a clear answer. Please give us a moment to come up with a development plan that takes into account the interests of everyone as much as possible. Gu Kai is also one of the several big mouths of the executive committee, although he doesn't know anything about engineering, he still bluffs this series of problems in an official tone.

Of course, the person who raised this question did not really have to get a clear answer immediately, and more of an element should be to determine the official attitude of Haihan. Gu Kai's answer was decent and impeccable.

"In the next two or three days, I hope you can join me to take a closer look at the local situation, and everyone will brainstorm ideas to see how this place can be developed better. Gu Kai said smoothly.

For these merchants who are not very strong, the most worrying thing is not whether they can make money after investing, but investing money in it, but because of their strength, they still have no status in this system and have no right to speak. And Gu Kai's attitude is obviously to treat everyone equally, and he does not treat big bosses and small businesses differently, which makes people who were originally a little uneasy about this put their minds at ease.

The night's accommodation became a big problem, because there are not many local floating population, there are no hotels or other facilities here, and the only small hotel has only six rooms in total, and there are dozens of business representatives alone, which cannot be accommodated at all. However, fortunately, the Guangzhou Office also somewhat anticipated such a situation, and when the troops stationed in Wanshan Port were mobilized, they were required to carry a batch of military tents, and this came in handy.

The Navy and Army worked together to clear an area on the shore and then set up more than a dozen large military tents. The standard of wartime housing in such tents was one platoon of soldiers per room, barely enough to fit the men of the expedition. But don't think about the bed, although the Haihan militia also distributed some iron marching beds to the troops, but the number is very limited, when the march is outside, basically only officers above the platoon level can enjoy it, and ordinary soldiers can only use bedding or even hay mats to lay on the floor.

Of course, if the time spent in one place will be relatively long, then the logistics department will still make some simple wooden marching beds to transport with the army. For example, the wooden beds used in the barracks on Wanshan Port are double-decker marching beds made by the carpentry workshop of Shengli Port, which are transported to the local area in the form of parts, and then assembled and used by the trained soldiers themselves.

Obviously, the delegation did not have such conditions, and it was impossible for the Guangzhou Office to pull out all the military equipment from Wanshan Port for their sake, so most of them could only solve the problem of accommodation here by laying on the floor.

Naturally, the traversers did not need to face this trouble, and each warship had a high-class cabin for the traverser officers, which could accommodate four people at a time. This kind of high-class cabin is actually similar to the soft sleeper on the train, with two bunk beds and a small desk, and luggage and other things have to be stuffed under the bottom of the bed. The only thing to praise is the thick palm mats on the bed boards, which the logistics department has only recently started mass-producing, and its raw material is coconut palms planted by the Ministry of Agriculture all over the coast of Sanya, and their skin fibers are treated to make zuò.

Haihan's existing industrial capacity is able to produce steel wire springs, but since steel production is still quite limited, the industrial sector does not use valuable raw materials for things like making zuò mattress springs, so the coconut palm is almost the highest standard that travelers can now enjoy. Moreover, at present, most of the processes of this thing still have to rely on manual production, and the production capacity is not enough to commercialize it, so in addition to supplying the traverser, only special departments such as the military can enjoy this treatment.

Except for the warship, the other traversers basically chose to rest in the cabin of the "Lightning", and the accommodation conditions on this ship are estimated to be the best in the entire Pearl River Estuary area, and it is not an exaggeration to call it luxurious. However, in order to be able to carry more weapons during the crossing, some of the non-essential equipment on the ship was removed, such as bathtubs and the like, and now only those high-end mattresses can be enjoyed.