Chapter 1307
Balance Point
Chapter 1307 Balance Point
Although we arrived at the port in the middle of the night, the port was not completely dark. Liu Shang was surprised to find that there was an all-night dock here, and many laborers were still loading and unloading goods from the ship under the light of torches and lanterns.He had only seen such a busy port scene in Sanya before.Zhang Qianzhi said that this is the normal state of Haikou Port, which shows that the degree of trade prosperity here is probably not much worse than that of Sanya.
Naturally, there is no need to expect the local chief executive to come to the pier to welcome them at this time, but the corresponding reception work has been arranged in advance. After disembarking, someone will take them to the official guest house located in the former Qiongzhou Prefecture.This place was originally a private residence of an official, but the original owner was "unaccounted for" when Haihan took over the place a few years ago. Han officials and foreign envoys visiting here.
The guest house has four courtyards, and the inspection team was gathered in one of the courtyards. Although it was already midnight, the guest house quickly served them supper and hot water, and the service level was not bad.Liu Shang has now learned to judge the prosperity of an area from the environment of the local guest house. Judging from the living environment here and the furniture, bedding, and decoration grades in the rooms, the economic situation in Haikou is obviously not bad, and it may be better than before. Danzhou, which I have just been to, is even better.
But it is reasonable to think about it. After all, this used to be the capital of Qiongzhou Island, and the political and economic center of the island has a much better foundation than other areas on the island.Operating a new city on the basis of the original Qiongzhou Fucheng is naturally a higher starting point than other places.Moreover, there is only a Qiongzhou Strait, which is ten nautical miles wide, between this place and the mainland. It is the closest city on this island to Daming, and has a unique geographical advantage in terms of trade with Daming.With Haihan's management level, it is not difficult to turn this place into a prosperous trading port.
There was nothing to say all night, and early the next morning, Qiu Yuan, the local chief executive, took the initiative to come to the guest house to meet with the inspection team.
Qiu Yuan can be regarded as a relatively early person in the time travel group. He is the person in charge of commercial affairs in the Yazhou working group of Haihan's first expatriate organization.Later, he was transferred back to Sanya and served as the director of the Shengli Port Management Committee for a period of time. After that, he was assigned to Qiongbei and became the person in charge of the Haikou area.
Qiu Yuan is only 34 or [-] years old. He is already a senior member of one party in his prime, and has rich experience in governing. Many people think that he will be one of the strong contenders to enter the executive committee in the future.Since he entered Haikou, the changes and development of this area are indeed obvious. Not only has the cargo throughput and trade volume increased significantly, but the local population size and infrastructure level have also risen with the tide, which has been greatly improved since the Ming Dynasty. .
Of course, these words are very unpleasant to Liu Shang's ears. After the Haihan people took over here, they did better than Daming. Doesn't this mean that the Haihan people's ability to govern is better than Daming?Even so, Liu Shang never agrees with Haihan's act of occupying the territory that originally belonged to Ming Dynasty as an invader.For Daming, these Haihan people are not benevolent people who saved Liming, but real bandits. No matter what achievements they made here, they could not change the nature of their invasion of Daming.
However, the Haihan people obviously didn't care too much about the attitude of the Ming court. What this group of people cared about was to continuously expand the scope of activities, increase the scale of trade, and earn more wealth from import and export trade, so as to build the land they controlled. areas, and attracted more immigrants to move to these stable and affluent areas under the Haihan rule.However, the government in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty obviously did not have any effective measures to contain these intentions of the Haihan people. They could only watch helplessly as they continued to suck blood from Daming through trade and population migration after they captured Hainan Island.
"According to the statistics of the Haikou Municipal Immigration Bureau, the number of immigrants entering the country in the first half of this year reached more than [-], and the registered population increased by more than [-], which is a slight increase compared with the same period last year. However, the labor gap in Haikou is still Obviously, Haikou Port and Qiongbei Military Port on the west coast alone still have at least [-] labor force needs that cannot be met. Therefore, I hope that the Ministry of Civil Affairs can give some preference to the immigration quota applied by Haikou City. Make up for this part of the labor gap as soon as possible."
After Qiu Yuan roughly explained the local population changes, he changed the subject and made a request, but of course Yu Xiaobao can't be expected to make a decision on this kind of matter, and Qiu Yuan just let him play the role of spreading the word.
Hearing this, Liu Shang thought to himself, along the way, except for the Shilu Mine, which used a large number of prisoners as labor, officials in almost every place claimed that the demand for labor could not be met, and Haihan One of the main purposes of manufacturing and promoting the use of steam engines at any cost is to make up for the shortage of manpower.From this point of view, Haihan's population demand is indeed a shortcoming that restricts its development speed. If some articles can be made in this regard, it may be able to slightly restrain Haihan's development.
In Haikou alone, more than 1 immigrants have entered the country in half a year. Presumably, Sanya, as the largest immigration entrance in Haihan, will absorb more immigrants during this period.This does not include the immigrants absorbed by Haihan in coastal areas such as Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang. According to a rough estimate, Haihan absorbs at least tens of thousands of immigrants from Daming to migrate overseas every year. This number can be regarded as quite large.
However, if it is necessary to completely ban the migration of nationals overseas in the southern coastal areas, the movement will definitely be serious, and it will not be difficult for Haihan to realize who this means is aimed at.If you tear up your face for this, then Da Ming will have to face the threat of war, and then there will be a risk that the gains outweigh the losses.Therefore, if the method is too simple and rude, I am afraid that it will lead to Haihan's direct retaliation, which may be a blow that the current Daming cannot bear.
But if this is not done, how can the speed of the outflow of southern population to Haihan be restrained?Most of the migrant population from Daming was attracted and organized by Haihan's immigration recruitment activities. Can the current Daming provide the stability and prosperity they yearn for?Liu Shang thinks it is not optimistic, at least in the towns he has visited under the rule of Haihan, the law and order is really far better than the Daming cities he knows, and there will never be beggars on the streets, it seems that in Haihan There is simply no room for idlers to survive.
And the income level of Haihan citizens is indeed higher than that of Ming Dynasty, especially various skilled craftsmen with special skills.For example, Liu Shang heard that Zhang Qianzhi's father, Zhang Tiangui, was just an old shipbuilder before coming to Haihan, but now he is a master figure in the shipbuilding industry of Haihan. All got official status.Zhang Qianzhi is only his youngest son, and now he has become an influential young official in Haihan. Imagine if his family hadn't moved to Haihan, Zhang Qianzhi might still be a carpenter in a shipbuilding workshop. How can there be the current prestige.
For people with skills, moving to Haihan can not only get better income, but also have more opportunities to use their expertise, and even become officials with their skills. This level of treatment makes it difficult to resist the temptation up.Even the storyteller that Liu Shang used to conceal his identity could be recruited into the officialdom, what else is impossible?
Daming definitely couldn't copy the treatment Haihan gave, and it seemed that there was no small difficulty in retaining Daming's professionals with favorable conditions.Moreover, this kind of policy-level matter is not at all where Liu Shang can make his strength. Even if he reports the situation he knows to the top, the big shots above may not be willing to formulate a new population management according to his suggestion. policy.Even if it is enacted, it may not be able to be implemented smoothly at the local level. After all, the southern coastal areas have been deeply infiltrated by Haihan, and the vested interests probably do not want Haihan's expansion to be hindered.The bondage between them and Haihan's interests is too deep and too tight, and it is no longer something that can be easily changed by the government's decree.
The more Liu Shang thought about it, the more he felt a headache. The situation Haihan managed in the south was too big. From his point of view, he couldn't think of any effective solution.At this time, Yu Xiaobao and Qiu Yuan were still discussing how to recruit immigrants from Daming territory more efficiently, which made Liu Shang feel even more upset after hearing this.
Yu Xiaobao said: "Chief, the biggest employment gap here is the labor force. There are not many requirements for personal labor skills. This application should be easier to pass. In the second half of the year, a batch of immigrants will be brought back from the north one after another. At least five digits, when the time comes, you should keep an eye on it.”
Qiu Yuan snorted and said, "If it was so easy to grab, I wouldn't have brought it up to you specifically. The northern immigrants brought back from Shandong are very sought-after, and they were intercepted by Zhoushan, Penghu, and Hong Kong all the way. There is not much left in Hainan Island. When we get here, we have to compete with other cities and counties... Do you think people like Zhang Xin and Qiao Zhiya will just look down on their hands? If I move slower, I may not even be able to drink soup One bite!"
Qiu Yuan's status is different, so it's not a big deal to complain about his colleagues, but Yu Xiaobao didn't dare to pick up his words, and said in private that he was fine, but now there are a group of subordinates present, if he also casually echoed a few words, it would be a big deal There is no up and down performance.
However, Yu Xiaobao also has to admit that Qiu Yuan's complaints are somewhat justified. Now Haihan still has a very large demand for population. There are a large number of agricultural projects and infrastructure projects in various cities and counties that need to invest in labor. They recruit from outside every year. The immigrant population does not fully meet the needs.In particular, immigrants from Daming who were of the same ancestor as Haihan, because there was no cultural barrier, could integrate into Haihan society more quickly, so they were also important resources that local governors competed for.
And the number of immigrants recruited from Ming Dynasty every year is limited, so who gets more and who gets less is not just a matter of reporting to the executive committee, local officials will use their own tricks to win for their own governance performance. The policies of relevant departments are inclined.This kind of competition is not limited to the field of professional talents. Ordinary labor is also a hot resource. Qiu Yuan spends a lot of energy in this area every year, and he dare not slack off.If he doesn't work hard here, other magistrates may not necessarily rest. When the immigration quota is reduced, there will be no place to cry.
This kind of game situation is also an objective manifestation of the internal competition in Haihan official circles. Local officials hope to pave the way for their official careers by creating political achievements, and trying their best to win more resources will undoubtedly help their own jurisdictions. construction.The most troublesome thing about this situation is actually the Executive Committee. Although the nominal immigrant distribution plan is drawn up by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and discussed and issued by the Executive Committee, in the actual operation process, local officials in various places will try their best to complain to the Executive Committee. , hoping to win more quotas for their own jurisdiction.These overt and covert public relations activities will more or less affect the final decision of the Executive Committee, but they will inevitably suffer complaints and complaints. After all, the total amount of resources is limited, and no matter how they are allocated, it is impossible to satisfy everyone.
And how to grasp the balance between the development speed of each region and the allocation of resources is a subject that will test the executive committee's ability to govern.But so far, the executive committee's work in this area can only be said to be unsatisfactory, but local officials still have many complaints in private.In fact, Yu Xiaobao has heard complaints like Qiu Yuan's in other places more or less, but from his standpoint, he must not express his position on this, otherwise it will easily be interpreted as the attitude of the executive committee.
Regarding Qiu Yuan's resentment, Yu Xiaobao could only persuade him with good words: "Sir, the immigration quota is also being adjusted every year at Fort Victory. Mr. Tao also said that the palms and backs of the hands are full of meat, and whoever is treated badly will be fine." No. I think this balance is not so easy to grasp. The top priority is to find ways to open source and think about how to introduce more immigrants from other countries.”
Qiu Yuan snorted and said, "I would say that fighting is the fastest. Think about it, every time we finish a big battle, we will usher in a wave of immigrant population growth. It can range from thousands to counts." Each city and county can get some sweetness. The Leizhou Peninsula on the other side of the strait has a population of tens of thousands. You said that if it is directly merged into Haihan, it would be great if some people moved to Hainan Island. Haikou City is the closest and can receive There is no pressure for tens of thousands of people."
Liu Shang was also taken aback when he heard this. He thought Qiu Yuan was gentle and easy-going, but he didn't expect that this man's ambition was really big, and he had already set his sights on the Ming territory on the other side of the strait.
(End of this chapter)
Although we arrived at the port in the middle of the night, the port was not completely dark. Liu Shang was surprised to find that there was an all-night dock here, and many laborers were still loading and unloading goods from the ship under the light of torches and lanterns.He had only seen such a busy port scene in Sanya before.Zhang Qianzhi said that this is the normal state of Haikou Port, which shows that the degree of trade prosperity here is probably not much worse than that of Sanya.
Naturally, there is no need to expect the local chief executive to come to the pier to welcome them at this time, but the corresponding reception work has been arranged in advance. After disembarking, someone will take them to the official guest house located in the former Qiongzhou Prefecture.This place was originally a private residence of an official, but the original owner was "unaccounted for" when Haihan took over the place a few years ago. Han officials and foreign envoys visiting here.
The guest house has four courtyards, and the inspection team was gathered in one of the courtyards. Although it was already midnight, the guest house quickly served them supper and hot water, and the service level was not bad.Liu Shang has now learned to judge the prosperity of an area from the environment of the local guest house. Judging from the living environment here and the furniture, bedding, and decoration grades in the rooms, the economic situation in Haikou is obviously not bad, and it may be better than before. Danzhou, which I have just been to, is even better.
But it is reasonable to think about it. After all, this used to be the capital of Qiongzhou Island, and the political and economic center of the island has a much better foundation than other areas on the island.Operating a new city on the basis of the original Qiongzhou Fucheng is naturally a higher starting point than other places.Moreover, there is only a Qiongzhou Strait, which is ten nautical miles wide, between this place and the mainland. It is the closest city on this island to Daming, and has a unique geographical advantage in terms of trade with Daming.With Haihan's management level, it is not difficult to turn this place into a prosperous trading port.
There was nothing to say all night, and early the next morning, Qiu Yuan, the local chief executive, took the initiative to come to the guest house to meet with the inspection team.
Qiu Yuan can be regarded as a relatively early person in the time travel group. He is the person in charge of commercial affairs in the Yazhou working group of Haihan's first expatriate organization.Later, he was transferred back to Sanya and served as the director of the Shengli Port Management Committee for a period of time. After that, he was assigned to Qiongbei and became the person in charge of the Haikou area.
Qiu Yuan is only 34 or [-] years old. He is already a senior member of one party in his prime, and has rich experience in governing. Many people think that he will be one of the strong contenders to enter the executive committee in the future.Since he entered Haikou, the changes and development of this area are indeed obvious. Not only has the cargo throughput and trade volume increased significantly, but the local population size and infrastructure level have also risen with the tide, which has been greatly improved since the Ming Dynasty. .
Of course, these words are very unpleasant to Liu Shang's ears. After the Haihan people took over here, they did better than Daming. Doesn't this mean that the Haihan people's ability to govern is better than Daming?Even so, Liu Shang never agrees with Haihan's act of occupying the territory that originally belonged to Ming Dynasty as an invader.For Daming, these Haihan people are not benevolent people who saved Liming, but real bandits. No matter what achievements they made here, they could not change the nature of their invasion of Daming.
However, the Haihan people obviously didn't care too much about the attitude of the Ming court. What this group of people cared about was to continuously expand the scope of activities, increase the scale of trade, and earn more wealth from import and export trade, so as to build the land they controlled. areas, and attracted more immigrants to move to these stable and affluent areas under the Haihan rule.However, the government in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty obviously did not have any effective measures to contain these intentions of the Haihan people. They could only watch helplessly as they continued to suck blood from Daming through trade and population migration after they captured Hainan Island.
"According to the statistics of the Haikou Municipal Immigration Bureau, the number of immigrants entering the country in the first half of this year reached more than [-], and the registered population increased by more than [-], which is a slight increase compared with the same period last year. However, the labor gap in Haikou is still Obviously, Haikou Port and Qiongbei Military Port on the west coast alone still have at least [-] labor force needs that cannot be met. Therefore, I hope that the Ministry of Civil Affairs can give some preference to the immigration quota applied by Haikou City. Make up for this part of the labor gap as soon as possible."
After Qiu Yuan roughly explained the local population changes, he changed the subject and made a request, but of course Yu Xiaobao can't be expected to make a decision on this kind of matter, and Qiu Yuan just let him play the role of spreading the word.
Hearing this, Liu Shang thought to himself, along the way, except for the Shilu Mine, which used a large number of prisoners as labor, officials in almost every place claimed that the demand for labor could not be met, and Haihan One of the main purposes of manufacturing and promoting the use of steam engines at any cost is to make up for the shortage of manpower.From this point of view, Haihan's population demand is indeed a shortcoming that restricts its development speed. If some articles can be made in this regard, it may be able to slightly restrain Haihan's development.
In Haikou alone, more than 1 immigrants have entered the country in half a year. Presumably, Sanya, as the largest immigration entrance in Haihan, will absorb more immigrants during this period.This does not include the immigrants absorbed by Haihan in coastal areas such as Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang. According to a rough estimate, Haihan absorbs at least tens of thousands of immigrants from Daming to migrate overseas every year. This number can be regarded as quite large.
However, if it is necessary to completely ban the migration of nationals overseas in the southern coastal areas, the movement will definitely be serious, and it will not be difficult for Haihan to realize who this means is aimed at.If you tear up your face for this, then Da Ming will have to face the threat of war, and then there will be a risk that the gains outweigh the losses.Therefore, if the method is too simple and rude, I am afraid that it will lead to Haihan's direct retaliation, which may be a blow that the current Daming cannot bear.
But if this is not done, how can the speed of the outflow of southern population to Haihan be restrained?Most of the migrant population from Daming was attracted and organized by Haihan's immigration recruitment activities. Can the current Daming provide the stability and prosperity they yearn for?Liu Shang thinks it is not optimistic, at least in the towns he has visited under the rule of Haihan, the law and order is really far better than the Daming cities he knows, and there will never be beggars on the streets, it seems that in Haihan There is simply no room for idlers to survive.
And the income level of Haihan citizens is indeed higher than that of Ming Dynasty, especially various skilled craftsmen with special skills.For example, Liu Shang heard that Zhang Qianzhi's father, Zhang Tiangui, was just an old shipbuilder before coming to Haihan, but now he is a master figure in the shipbuilding industry of Haihan. All got official status.Zhang Qianzhi is only his youngest son, and now he has become an influential young official in Haihan. Imagine if his family hadn't moved to Haihan, Zhang Qianzhi might still be a carpenter in a shipbuilding workshop. How can there be the current prestige.
For people with skills, moving to Haihan can not only get better income, but also have more opportunities to use their expertise, and even become officials with their skills. This level of treatment makes it difficult to resist the temptation up.Even the storyteller that Liu Shang used to conceal his identity could be recruited into the officialdom, what else is impossible?
Daming definitely couldn't copy the treatment Haihan gave, and it seemed that there was no small difficulty in retaining Daming's professionals with favorable conditions.Moreover, this kind of policy-level matter is not at all where Liu Shang can make his strength. Even if he reports the situation he knows to the top, the big shots above may not be willing to formulate a new population management according to his suggestion. policy.Even if it is enacted, it may not be able to be implemented smoothly at the local level. After all, the southern coastal areas have been deeply infiltrated by Haihan, and the vested interests probably do not want Haihan's expansion to be hindered.The bondage between them and Haihan's interests is too deep and too tight, and it is no longer something that can be easily changed by the government's decree.
The more Liu Shang thought about it, the more he felt a headache. The situation Haihan managed in the south was too big. From his point of view, he couldn't think of any effective solution.At this time, Yu Xiaobao and Qiu Yuan were still discussing how to recruit immigrants from Daming territory more efficiently, which made Liu Shang feel even more upset after hearing this.
Yu Xiaobao said: "Chief, the biggest employment gap here is the labor force. There are not many requirements for personal labor skills. This application should be easier to pass. In the second half of the year, a batch of immigrants will be brought back from the north one after another. At least five digits, when the time comes, you should keep an eye on it.”
Qiu Yuan snorted and said, "If it was so easy to grab, I wouldn't have brought it up to you specifically. The northern immigrants brought back from Shandong are very sought-after, and they were intercepted by Zhoushan, Penghu, and Hong Kong all the way. There is not much left in Hainan Island. When we get here, we have to compete with other cities and counties... Do you think people like Zhang Xin and Qiao Zhiya will just look down on their hands? If I move slower, I may not even be able to drink soup One bite!"
Qiu Yuan's status is different, so it's not a big deal to complain about his colleagues, but Yu Xiaobao didn't dare to pick up his words, and said in private that he was fine, but now there are a group of subordinates present, if he also casually echoed a few words, it would be a big deal There is no up and down performance.
However, Yu Xiaobao also has to admit that Qiu Yuan's complaints are somewhat justified. Now Haihan still has a very large demand for population. There are a large number of agricultural projects and infrastructure projects in various cities and counties that need to invest in labor. They recruit from outside every year. The immigrant population does not fully meet the needs.In particular, immigrants from Daming who were of the same ancestor as Haihan, because there was no cultural barrier, could integrate into Haihan society more quickly, so they were also important resources that local governors competed for.
And the number of immigrants recruited from Ming Dynasty every year is limited, so who gets more and who gets less is not just a matter of reporting to the executive committee, local officials will use their own tricks to win for their own governance performance. The policies of relevant departments are inclined.This kind of competition is not limited to the field of professional talents. Ordinary labor is also a hot resource. Qiu Yuan spends a lot of energy in this area every year, and he dare not slack off.If he doesn't work hard here, other magistrates may not necessarily rest. When the immigration quota is reduced, there will be no place to cry.
This kind of game situation is also an objective manifestation of the internal competition in Haihan official circles. Local officials hope to pave the way for their official careers by creating political achievements, and trying their best to win more resources will undoubtedly help their own jurisdictions. construction.The most troublesome thing about this situation is actually the Executive Committee. Although the nominal immigrant distribution plan is drawn up by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and discussed and issued by the Executive Committee, in the actual operation process, local officials in various places will try their best to complain to the Executive Committee. , hoping to win more quotas for their own jurisdiction.These overt and covert public relations activities will more or less affect the final decision of the Executive Committee, but they will inevitably suffer complaints and complaints. After all, the total amount of resources is limited, and no matter how they are allocated, it is impossible to satisfy everyone.
And how to grasp the balance between the development speed of each region and the allocation of resources is a subject that will test the executive committee's ability to govern.But so far, the executive committee's work in this area can only be said to be unsatisfactory, but local officials still have many complaints in private.In fact, Yu Xiaobao has heard complaints like Qiu Yuan's in other places more or less, but from his standpoint, he must not express his position on this, otherwise it will easily be interpreted as the attitude of the executive committee.
Regarding Qiu Yuan's resentment, Yu Xiaobao could only persuade him with good words: "Sir, the immigration quota is also being adjusted every year at Fort Victory. Mr. Tao also said that the palms and backs of the hands are full of meat, and whoever is treated badly will be fine." No. I think this balance is not so easy to grasp. The top priority is to find ways to open source and think about how to introduce more immigrants from other countries.”
Qiu Yuan snorted and said, "I would say that fighting is the fastest. Think about it, every time we finish a big battle, we will usher in a wave of immigrant population growth. It can range from thousands to counts." Each city and county can get some sweetness. The Leizhou Peninsula on the other side of the strait has a population of tens of thousands. You said that if it is directly merged into Haihan, it would be great if some people moved to Hainan Island. Haikou City is the closest and can receive There is no pressure for tens of thousands of people."
Liu Shang was also taken aback when he heard this. He thought Qiu Yuan was gentle and easy-going, but he didn't expect that this man's ambition was really big, and he had already set his sights on the Ming territory on the other side of the strait.
(End of this chapter)