Chapter 1222 The Current Situation of Star Island

Different from the other stops on the way south, the reception banquet held for Tan Juren and his entourage was held in the officers' mess hall of the garrison camp, rather than in a high-end restaurant or private residence. The reason is also very simple. There are no high-end consumption places here, and

Roger's residence has nothing to do with the word "official residence". When he first arrived here, he lived in a prefabricated house brought from Sanya. Later, he built a separate courtyard and replaced it with

A small bungalow with brick and stone structure, that's all.

This is not because Roger is willing to be poor. In fact, the objective conditions here are not enough to talk about material enjoyment. Because of the shortage of labor and the limited number of engineering and technical personnel, it is also necessary to build docks, roads, bridges, immigrant villages, water supply and drainage facilities and other infrastructure projects.

In order to give priority, other construction projects can only be put in the back queue. Even the garrison, which has been here for more than a year, is still living in wooden barracks. Roger's living conditions are considered to be the highest level locally.

, but compared to the top leaders of other colonies, this kind of treatment is indeed a bit shabby.

If they were just entertaining Tan Juren alone, then Roger's residence would be able to accommodate a table. However, the reception banquet would not only involve the two of them, but their respective generals would also be present to accompany them. The only military canteen in the camp was more convenient.

Already.

Although the environment is not as good as the high-end places in Ambon Island, fortunately, the chef is also an apprentice who has received hands-on training from Chef Fan in Sanya Victory Fort, and his skills are not bad. Moreover, this place is close to the coast, and the seafood is really fresh.

, so the deliciousness is no less than the banquets Tan Juren enjoyed at the previous stops.

At this reception banquet, everyone was drinking and drinking, and naturally it was not suitable for talking about serious matters. Tan Juren randomly picked some interesting things on the way south as conversation topics. When talking about the hunting experience on Ambona Island, Roger said smoothly: "

If Director Tan likes hunting, it will be easy. I will take you to the north to hunt another day when I have time. I don’t have so many restrictions here, so you can hunt whatever you want!"

The northern area of ​​Xingdao is still an undeveloped uninhabited area, covering an area of ​​hundreds of square kilometers, with mountains and water. The geographical environment is almost the same as the wildlife area on Ampurna Island, except that there are not so many types of animals.

Every month or so, Roger would organize his men to conduct live-fire drills in the wilderness in the north of the island. After that, he would stop by for a round of hunting, so that the soldiers could maintain the state required for collective operations for a long time. For the people on Ambuna Island

Roger was naturally indifferent to this kind of commercial hunting. In Zhang Yun's place, one could not be killed, and the other had to be protected. How could one hunt freely and happily here?

Tan Juren actually doesn't have much interest in the activity of hunting. The reason why he went there was more to see his friends. But since Roger took the initiative to invite him to show his kindness, he naturally would not refuse the kindness.

, he immediately agreed with a smile. Now that he had just arrived, the most important thing was to establish a good relationship with Roger, who had been in charge of the local military and political power for more than a year. Next, he had to take over the local administrative affairs, and there were many details that had to be relied on.

Roger needs help to handle it.

However, Tan Juren did not forget about business. At the end of the reception banquet, he took the initiative to mention that he hoped that the new Sheriff Han Zhengshan would go to the military camp to receive a short-term firearms training so that he could start relevant work as soon as possible after taking office. This was very important to Roger.

It was just a matter of words, so he gave the order to his adjutant to contact Han Zhengshan to arrange the training schedule.

The residence Roger prepared for Tan Juren was of the same grade as his own residence. It was also a separate courtyard. The furniture and other daily facilities were fully prepared, and it could be said that it had reached the standard of move-in. Tan Juren had visited it before

Roger's residence, so I don't have any complaints about such treatment.

After washing and lying on the bed, Tan Juren was quite emotional when he thought of his experience on the southward journey. In the past, his understanding of overseas colonies was mostly on paper, only mentioned in exchanges of documents, and he did not have an intuitive feeling.

This time I took an errand and traveled all the way, and finally got a personal experience. Needless to say, Haihan is becoming more and more powerful. It goes without saying that being able to open up a colony thousands of miles away from the mainland is a kind of country in itself.

It is a symbol of strength, and each colony has chosen different development directions depending on its own environment, which also gave him a lot of feelings.

Da Nang and Quy Nhon Port are relatively pure commercial ports, and their development direction is mainly maritime trade; while Cam Ranh Port is a military-civilian integration, mainly for military purposes, and the local development direction is to meet the needs of the garrison; Vung Tau Port

It is the most important outlet to the sea at the southern tip of the Indochina Peninsula, and is also the junction of Annan and Champa. It has a unique geographical location. Although it is not prosperous yet, it has huge development potential; and Ampurna Island is located in the hinterland of the South China Sea.

It will be regarded as a center for gathering powerful and political figures from various countries in the South China Sea and collecting military and political intelligence. It will invest the most in the local area, and the future will naturally be bright.

Each of these colonies has its own advantages and different development directions. The experience of these visits also made Tan Juren start to think about the advantages and the best development direction of Xingdao.

The executive committee's plan is to build Xingdao into the southwest frontier bridgehead of Haihan Kingdom for a period of time in the future. In principle, the function here should be viewed as a military strategic location. This has to be said to be a very pragmatic choice. In this

In the era, the number of merchant ships traveling between the Pacific and Indian Oceans was far less than the time and space they used to be in. If we want to build Star Island into a regional trade hub port like Singapore, the current volume of East-West maritime trade is still difficult to meet development needs.

Before Haihan entered this area, the Portuguese had the greatest influence in the Strait of Malacca. About 200 kilometers northwest of Sing Island, on the coast is the city of Malacca that the Portuguese occupied after driving away the original indigenous people. Traveling between the two oceans

The Portuguese merchant ships would naturally choose their own port to berth first. The Dutch really wanted to intervene in this area, but unfortunately they were driven out by the Portuguese every time they tried. Therefore, the Dutch merchant ships traveling between the two oceans did not pass through Malacca at all.

Strait, but chose to go through the Sunda Strait close to Batavia City. Therefore, merchant ships from these two countries operating in the Far East are unlikely to use Star Island as one of their must-stop ports.

The countries in the Malacca Strait area currently regard Haihan as a new external threat. Even if they do not publicly break their faces, it is inevitable to be secretly wary. Naturally, no ships will come to Star Island to dock.

.

There are not many foreign merchant ships that may actually use this place as an entrepot trade port at this stage. Basically, they are from the Ming Dynasty and countries in the Indian Ocean. It is difficult to develop to the scale of Hainan Island or the Daming Coastal Trade Port in the short term. Moreover, the local market is now

Due to the population size and demand, Xingdao's current development direction cannot be positioned as a trading port. First, carry out agricultural development, try to feed the existing permanent population, and do as much as possible in the supply of materials other than armaments.

To achieve self-sufficiency, this is the more practical development goal of Xingdao in the near future.

But so far, Tan Juren’s understanding of Xingdao comes mostly from paper information, and his actual contact is limited to just a few glances after landing today, which is far from enough to be used for planning.

Long-term development. Tan Juren himself is very clear about this, so he is not in a hurry to think about long-term things and how to perform his duties. He will wait until he conducts an on-site inspection of the local area.

The next day, Roger showed up in person and took Tan Juren to inspect the current situation of Star Island. This inspection trip once again returned to the place where Tan Juren landed yesterday. After all, this is a coastal colony, and the importance of the port to this place is self-evident.

"This place was called Keppel Harbor in our previous time and space, and it was the most important port at the southern tip of Singapore. The two islands in the south, a small one and a large one, were originally named Brani Island and Sentosa Island, but now these two

The island has been assigned to the navy and has not been named yet." Roger paused and said proudly: "According to the executive committee's naming principles for new place names, we can apply to order these two islands with our own names.

island."

Tan Juren said: "According to the naming of the Ming Dynasty, shouldn't this place be called Temasek?"

"Temasek refers to the entire Star Island, but the smaller affiliated islands can still be named by themselves. This is a good opportunity to be remembered in history!" When Roger said this, he winked at Tan Juren and said: "Juren Island, Juren Island

, it’s also a good bonus!”

Tan Juren didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "People here don't know how to take the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination, so what's the point of calling Juren Island!"

The place name Temasek only started to be called in the Ming Dynasty, but as early as the beginning of the 14th century, the Yuan Dynasty sent people to a place called "Dragon Tooth Gate" to look for elephants. Wang Dayuan's "Daoyi Zhilue" described "

The description of "Dragon Tooth Gate" is that "the gate is made of Temasek and Fan, intersecting like a dragon's tooth, with a water channel in between." In fact, this dragon's tooth refers to a large area at the entrance and exit of the channel on the west side of the star port that allows navigators to identify their directions.

Sharp stone.

The "Dao Yi Zhi Lue" written by the Yuan Dynasty also attracted much attention in the Ming Dynasty. It was included in "Yongle Dadian" and "Sikuquanshu". Even when Zheng He went to the West, this book was

One of the references for the fleet.

"Zheng He's fleet docked at this place back then. Here we also found some living utensils left behind by the fleet and stone tablets buried in the highlands." Roger continued to introduce the local culture to Tan Juren without showing off.

History: "Two hundred years ago, this place was once a port city, and many Han people lived here."

"Then why did it become depressed later?" Tan Juren only knew that this place had become a buffer zone for wars between the surrounding countries when Haihan arrived. It did not have much permanent population and had long been turned into a desert island, but it did not

I understand very well how this place suddenly declined.

"This place was originally the territory of the Malacca Sultanate. However, this regime was destroyed by the Portuguese more than 20 years ago. The Johor Sultanate in the north of Star Island is now a regime re-established by the fleeing nobles. The Portuguese took over the island in 1613

All the towns on the island were burned down, so the island has been basically in a state of no man's land since then." Roger patiently explained to Tan Juren: "There was no one here when we came, so it didn't take any effort.

I took it directly."

"The Portuguese are quite ruthless in doing things!" Tan Juren couldn't help but sigh after hearing this. Obviously the Portuguese had the ability to capture this place at that time, but they had already occupied the city of Malacca in the northwest. As for the small port on Star Island

Naturally, they didn't take it that seriously. In addition, the population was limited and they couldn't allocate enough manpower to occupy the place for a long time, so they simply set fire to all the facilities on the island, so that no one could get a foothold here.

"I used to be very ruthless, but now... I'm very cowardly!" Roger gave an unceremonious comment: "After we arrived, the Portuguese also sent a boat to circle around, and when they saw the flag we planted, they gave us a shit.

Just leave one, turn around and leave."

Tan Juren laughed a few times in admiration, and then asked with concern: "Is there any force nearby that is obviously hostile to us now?"

"It's not that we are hostile, but there are quite a few countries that are wary of us...basically all the surrounding countries are on this list." When talking about this topic, Roger's expression became less relaxed: "Although they are not

Dare to openly oppose us, but there are still many means available to slow down our development speed. You see, it has been more than a year since we settled here, and the population is still pitifully small. We can recruit from surrounding countries.

The number of immigrants arriving is extremely limited, and there is some artificial resistance here."

Haihan's expansion model has extremely high requirements for infrastructure construction, which in turn brings a corresponding demand for labor. However, overseas enclaves like Xingdao, which are thousands of miles away from Hainan Island, almost entirely rely on immigrants sent from the country.

When it comes to development and construction, the speed will naturally not be much faster.

Roger continued: "Of course, in our current situation, we cannot take the initiative to go to war with the surrounding countries and rely on force to plunder the population. The Executive Committee still hopes to gradually soften the surrounding countries with benefits through commercial organizations such as the South China Sea Trade Alliance.

The attitude of the country, after all, the market is also very important to us."

"Is there any significant progress in this regard?" Tan Juren asked hopefully.

"No!" Roger shook his head without thinking: "So far, I haven't seen any signs of softening of attitude, and diplomacy is not an area I am good at. So I have been reporting to the Executive Committee since last year.

, requesting that a partner be sent over who is responsible for administrative and diplomatic affairs."

At this point, Roger raised his hand and patted Tan Juren on the shoulder and said: "From now on, you will be responsible for these things. If you need any cooperation and assistance from me, feel free to ask for it. As long as I can do my best, I will definitely give it to you."

Give me a hand."
Chapter completed!