Chapter 1471 Northern Route (4)

The people who could sit in the county government office to interview Zhang Zhixian were all businessmen who had accepted Haihan's conditions and had in-depth cooperation with Haihan. Therefore, although they were a little surprised by Zhang Pucheng's attitude, they would never say anything.

Opposition. In the final analysis, everyone's position is similar. They all want to cling to Haihan's thigh and gain more benefits. However, as a local official, Zhang Pucheng needs to consider the beneficiaries besides himself, but also the local people.

The purpose of Haihan officials bringing these businessmen to meet Zhang Pucheng was to give them another reassurance and to let them experience for themselves how reliable Haihan's business in Shandong is. Although the official in front of them is only a county magistrate,

Rather than being some great big shot, these businessmen are all people who have seen the market and understand how difficult it is for Haihan to achieve such results in Shandong. With the endorsement of the local officials, at least they don't have to worry about their fleet being in trouble.

During my stay in Shandong, I will be troubled by the government.

Because He Li had an elder brother who worked as an aide in the magistrate's office, his understanding of politics was a little deeper than that of ordinary businessmen, so he had a deeper feeling about it. Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan County, openly supported Haihan's side.

Either Dengzhou has a similar attitude and acquiesces to his actions, or the government at the upper level has completely lost control and influence over Fushan County and can only let what happens here, and also

We dare not change local officials easily in order to maintain the current peaceful situation.

Of course, this peaceful situation is not only achieved by the restraint of the local officials in Shandong. Haihan obviously has no plans to conduct a large-scale conquest in the local area. He only included Zhifu Island in the military defense zone. Places like Fushan County are still controlled by the local government.

He Li estimated that Dengzhou Prefecture and even the Chief Envoy of Shandong were happy to see the outcome of this situation, and were unwilling to overly provoke the Haihan people. After all, the Haihan people had always been soft-hearted and wanted to use military means to drive them away. The local government

You may not be able to bear the corresponding consequences.

After coming out of the county government office, Fushan County Chief Huangqu took everyone around the county town again, and finally took them to a restaurant in the county town for lunch. Of course, this meal was definitely not paid for by him, Haihan would know that

Settlement fees. This arrangement was naturally intended to show the southern businessmen the reality that local civil and military officials had surrendered.

Huang Qu is now a casual military attache. All the symbolic guards at the county town and the city gate have been withdrawn, so he does not need to worry about defense. Following the advice given by the Haihan people, he invested his own money and opened a horse and carriage shop, specializing in

The ore transportation business of Fushan Copper Mine is now making a lot of money every month, but at least it is much better than before when the big soldiers were paid for their jobs. He has finally figured it out now. The Haihan people are just here.

When doing business, as long as they don't block the way to make money, they won't make it too difficult for themselves. Since the imperial court has made no comment, it should be okay to make some extra money by doing business with the Haihan people.

Huang Qu didn't have any objection to the Haihan people arranging for him to come out to receive the southern merchants. This kind of job was not in vain. After the end, he would get a reward for his hard work. Huang Qu had nothing to complain about since he ate and took it. Moreover, this had long been the case.

These were the first batch of merchants from the south, and to him it was just a routine matter.

Since a visit was scheduled in the afternoon, the banquet at noon ended quickly. After taking a short rest in the restaurant, the visiting team left the county and headed for the next visit location.

As soon as the team left the county town, there was a group of cavalry waiting outside, and then they set off with the motorcade, seemingly serving as a guard. This made everyone a little curious about where they were going. The team all the way from the county town

Going west, after walking along the official road for about ten miles, we began to turn into the mountainous area.

Seeing that the surrounding environment was becoming more and more desolate, when everyone began to worry, the entourage explained to them that the place they were about to go to was a copper mine. Of course, the current owner of this copper mine was not

The officials of the Ming Dynasty were the Haihan people who discovered and mined this copper mine. The official road leading to the copper mine was only built after Haihan began to mine the mineral deposits.

He Li remembered that when he met with Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan County, he had mentioned that all the local criminals were taken away by the Haihan people to do hard labor in the mines. This must be the place he was talking about. After walking for a while, he finally saw someone transporting supplies.

A convoy of horse-drawn carriages, numbering more than twenty, were running on this road. Only then did everyone confirm that there was indeed a mine in this mountainous area.

However, when they actually saw the real thing, He Li and others were a little doubtful of the nature of this destination, because it looked more like a military stronghold than the image of mines and pits everywhere. This group of businessmen

I have been to quite a few places, but I have never seen a mine where the entire area is surrounded by tall barbed wire and there is an anti-climbing device on top. The accompanying officer explained that this is for

Prevent criminals serving in the mine from escaping.

He Li and others thought that this was just a big prison. To put it more seriously, this was the Haihan people setting up private prisons in Shandong to imprison and arrest the people of the Ming Dynasty. This was also the local government pretending to be deaf and dumb, and they had to get serious.

This can be regarded as the crime of Haihan's invasion of Ming Dynasty.

Of course, it is not difficult to think that the Haihan people must have troops stationed here, and the use of force is an option that the local government should try to avoid, so although this kind of thing is unreasonable, it still happened here.

The accompanying officer briefly introduced to them the battle in which the Dengzhou garrison raided the mines in 1634. In order to save the face of the Ming army in front of these people, the officer simply called it "repelling the Ming army's offensive" in an understatement.

In exchange for the peace and tranquility here today. He said it easily, but the audience could imagine that the matter was not as simple as he said. It is estimated that the Dengzhou army had suffered a lot before even thinking of revenge.

If you don't come out, you can only acquiesce in Haihan's occupation of this copper mine.

Then everyone got off the bus at the gate and entered the mine to visit. Haihan has been mining this copper mine for nearly two years. Some steam equipment with relatively simple maintenance, such as ore conveyor belts, stone crushers, steam trains, etc.,

They all began to be gradually put into use in mines. After He Li and others saw these things, they finally understood why Haihan sent a large amount of coal to Fushan County by sea. The purpose was to use these mining machines to improve mining efficiency.

.After they saw it, they knew that these steel beasts could only be played by the Haihan people, and it seemed unrealistic to expect them to be introduced into the Ming Dynasty.

As for the so-called hard labor of criminals, He Li and others knew at a glance that there was something wrong with it, because there could not be so many young people in any county-level prison, and not even two elderly people could be seen.

If you use your brain a little, you can figure out that these people will definitely not all be fished out of the prisons in Fushan County.

As expected by He Li and others, in addition to coming from the Fushan County Prison, these hard laborers were mostly bandits and bandits captured in previous battles and prisoners of the Ming Army. As for those who were older and in poor health, they basically died of exhaustion and illness long ago.

In the mine, the remaining people who can persevere are naturally mainly young and strong. Of course, the officer who led them to visit this place will definitely not tell the truth about this cruel truth.

Of course, these hard labors were not the main purpose of Haihan's arrangement for them to visit this place. He just wanted to use this trip to make these southern businessmen realize that Haihan had enough profitable projects in Shandong to support the development of this colony, and this kind of trip

Sustainable development will also bring more transportation tasks and money-making opportunities to their partners. As for how to seize these opportunities, it depends on everyone's ability to comprehend and act. Haihan gave the opportunity, but

Only those who are prepared can catch it.

After visiting the copper ingot warehouse of the mine, the merchants all roughly understood why Haihan sent troops to garrison here. This was not only to guard the hard laborers, but more importantly, to protect these valuable precious metals. He Li even felt that

A very malicious idea came to mind. With Haihan's craftsmanship, if copper coins were minted to impact the money market of the Ming Dynasty, the power might be greater than the armed offensive of the army.

Of course, Haihan will definitely not use precious copper on such a boring project as coining money. The development of industry requires a large amount of copper as raw material. Even if the output of all the copper mines under Haihan's current rule is added together,

It is far from enough to meet the demand. And for industrial manufacturing and production, such a use is obviously not something that businessmen like He Li can understand, so the military accompanying personnel did not mention the whereabouts and use of these copper ingots at all.

.

After visiting the copper mine, He Li saw that it was getting late and thought that Haihan would arrange to stay at the mine, but he never thought that there would be arrangements for the next stop. The leading officer said: "Because of time constraints

, we have only arranged one day for you to visit, so I can only feel sorry for you and have to go to the last place."

Everyone said they didn't dare, but Haihan was willing to organize them to visit, which in itself was a great trust. These businessmen were well-informed and knowledgeable people, so naturally they would not embarrass the organizers. Besides, they were also really curious about the other party.

What kind of place is the last local stop that they have been planning to visit without stopping?

Everyone got out of the mine and got on the carriage, and after a lot of bumps, they arrived at a seemingly prosperous town. Looking at the carriages, sedans, and pedestrians going in and out of the town, He Li felt that this place seemed like

It was even more lively than the county town I visited in the morning.

The entourage introduced to everyone: "This is Majiazhuang, which is currently the largest trade distribution center in Fushan County. It is also my country's trade window in Shandong. As you can see, the floating population here is mainly caravans from other places, Shandong They are available in every state capital. They bring special products from all over Shandong and exchange them here for gold and silver, or various goods produced in our country. I can say without exaggeration that the trade volume here is even greater than that of Dengzhou City. Much larger, there may still be a gap between the trade scale of Jinan Prefecture, but it will probably be a matter of time before we catch up."

Naturally, everyone had never heard of a place like Majiazhuang, but the scene in front of them made them believe that Haihan had created an exclusive trade distribution center here. Judging from the prosperity here,

I'm afraid the introduction I just heard is not a lie. The situation Haihan has managed here is obviously more sophisticated than that of the government. Even if this place is not making money every day, its prospects are immeasurable. And from so many people

The caravan appears here to deduce that the Shandong government has obviously turned a blind eye to the existence of this place. Maybe it is the same as Zhejiang. Many senior officials have initiated their own personal relationships and through this kind of relationship with Haihan

Semi-open smuggling trade to make big money.

This kind of operation is almost the norm in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty where Haihan people have penetrated. Any officials with some real power are willing to use their power to exchange some practical benefits from the Haihan people. Moreover, the Haihan people will arrange the most reasonable channels for conveying benefits.

, so that the process will not be too simple and straightforward for people to easily grasp the handle. After many years of repeated practice, this set of operation methods has been extremely perfected in detail, and it will not be too easy to use in Shandong.

If there are too many obstacles, at most it will take longer to open the joints.

Ma Dongqiang, the owner of Majiazhuang Village, personally came out to welcome these guests. Just like Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan, received more visitors than this group in Majiazhuang. Ma Dongqiang also had a set of words to make people happy.

These southern businessmen fully felt the influence of Haihan in the local area. It did not take a moment for He Li and others to understand that Ma Dongqiang's identity was the spokesperson for the interests supported by Haihan in the local area. It is said that Haihan called this kind of people the "comprador class".

However, few people understand the meaning of this term.

Ma Dongqiang took them to visit some shops in the town to let them understand the local business conditions of merchants. At the same time, he said that if they were interested, they could also invest in opening local shops to sell goods from the north and the south. At that moment, several people moved.

However, He Li calmly thought that even if he wanted to invest in the north, he would have to go to Liaodong to see the local conditions before making a decision. Majiazhuang looks pretty good, but its location is already in

Outside the Haihan military defense zone, what if one day a fool comes to Shandong as a high official in the imperial court and directly raises troops to overthrow the stalls here?

Ma Dongqiang did not have any intention of attracting a few businessmen to settle down locally. He just showed these businessmen the local construction results and informed them of some of the trade policies Haihan implemented locally. As for whether he wanted to establish a business in Fushan

Even if the county spends money on business, Ma Dongqiang will not be too troublesome.

Everyone wandered around the town until nightfall, and then Ma Dongqiang hosted the visiting group at the largest restaurant in town.
Chapter completed!