Chapter 368 A hurried transfer

As for Portugal and Hainan turning enemies into friends and cooperating in bilateral trade or even deeper politics, it is not something that Enrique, the special envoy, can make a decision directly, so the Executive Committee does not expect him to make a decision after a night of consideration.

can sign a cooperation agreement on behalf of Portugal. All Enrique can do now is to try to win as many favorable conditions as possible for his own interest groups, and then report the situation back to Macau and let the council there make the final decision.

ruling. Of course, Enrique's attitude on this matter will affect the final result to a great extent. This is the main reason why the Executive Committee invested a lot of resources in the preliminary work.

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"Dear gentlemen, after careful consideration last night, I must admit that the cooperation prospects you have described are very tempting, and I have not found a reason to reject you." Enrique said with a rare seriousness: "But

At present, it is not possible for us to sign any form of written agreement, and I hope you can recognize this status quo."

"We have already thought about this. For such a big matter, Mr. Enrique probably needs to draft a very detailed report and send it back to Haojing'ao?" Tao Donglai had already received the report. Last night, in Enrique's room,

The lights stayed on all night, presumably because he was rushing to write report materials.

"If you are willing, we can send a ship to Haojing'ao as soon as possible and hand it over to your council." Yan Chujie immediately added: "It will take our ship three days to reach Haojing'ao.

.”

"This..." Enrique really wanted to refuse Yan Chujie's offer of help, but the efficiency of being able to deliver the letter to Haojingao in three days made it difficult for him to give up. If he could find a ship to send the letter back by himself now, no matter how fast it would be

Six or seven days are given, and it seems that there is no delay of a few days, but this kind of matter should be done sooner rather than later, and things will change later. Who knows whether the Haihan people will suddenly regret it in a few days?

"Don't worry, I can send you away if I can't." Yan Chujie saw the hesitation on Enrique's face and continued to persuade him.

Enrique was really moved at this time. He originally wanted to send a letter back and stay in Port Victory to continue negotiations with the Haihan people. However, the description in the letter was definitely not as detailed as his own explanation. If he could reply in person,

If you go to Hao Jing'ao to report in person, your chances of convincing the board of directors will definitely be much greater than sending a letter back.

"Without further delay, let's arrange a boat for Mr. Enrique." Tao Donglai saw Enrique's hesitant expression and immediately helped him make a decision.

"It just so happens that the Lightning has just finished its hull maintenance, so it's time for a trip. I'll call Tom Wang right away." Yan Chujie didn't give Enrique any more time to think about it, and immediately informed Tom Wang to go.

"Okay." Enrique gritted his teeth and decided to take a gamble on this matter: "I will ask the servant to go back to the guest house to pick up my luggage."

Half an hour later, Enrique has boarded the "Lightning" docked at the Port of Victory Pier, and Tom Wang himself will personally drive him back to Macau. Of course, with Tom Wang's current status, he will also take the opportunity to visit him.

Representative Hai Han of Macau held talks with the Portuguese Council of Macau on military cooperation issues.

There are different reasons why both sides want to promote this matter as soon as possible. Enrique believes that if the cooperation method claimed by the Haihan people can be realized as soon as possible, the Portuguese side will gain not only economic benefits, but also both sides can gain from

Confrontation turns to cooperation, which means that Portugal loses a strong opponent in the Far East and gains a strong partner. The political benefits here and abroad cannot be measured in terms of money. The Haihan people have made it clear that they are willing to help Portugal in the fight

In the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, this kind of opportunity does not always come. Although the strength of the Haihan people is still relatively limited, Enrique believes that their future development prospects can really only be described as "unlimited". Now there is an opportunity

If he could choose to cooperate, Enrique would never allow this opportunity to slip by him easily and let the two sides enter a hostile relationship.

The fact that the Executive Committee is so eager is not because the Executive Committee members are too superficial and can't hide their secrets - when it comes to the extent of their evil intentions, it would be difficult to find another ruling group in the same era that can compete with Haihan.

The committee has compared it. The reason why the executive committee is eager to deal with this matter, in addition to the superficial statement, is that the number of prospective immigrants from Guangdong has surged recently. In the first half of September, people poured into the Panyu immigration camp.

The number of people has exceeded the total number of immigrants in the previous two months. If you want to transfer so many immigrants to Sanya in a short period of time, almost all the transportation capacity of Victory Port will be needed. And after the local area accepted a large number of immigrants in a short period of time,

, the pressure on material supply has suddenly increased a lot, and I have sent several telegrams back to ask for support.

However, Macau happens to be stuck on the immigration transshipment route. If the relationship with the Portuguese is not properly handled, the risks of the transshipment process will inevitably increase greatly, because no one can guarantee whether the Portuguese, who suffered a major defeat in South Vietnam, will

Let’s take a shot at the soft persimmon of the Haihan immigration ship. Although Wanshan Port is not far from Macau, the navy only has two or three warships stationed in Wanshan Port for combat readiness. They usually patrol the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.

It's not a big problem, but it's not enough to conduct a long-distance escort between the Pearl River Estuary and Victory Port.

Compared with sending warships to escort, trying to resolve the hostile relationship between the two sides is undoubtedly a lower-cost solution, not to mention that the Executive Committee already had the intention to cooperate with Portugal before sending troops to attack Hoi An. The Executive Committee worked with the Portuguese as soon as possible

By reaching cooperation, a large number of ships can be dispatched to Panyu to transport immigrants as soon as possible. This is an important task that the Executive Committee, which is eager to expand the population base of the areas under its jurisdiction, cannot afford to wait.

The "Lightning" set off with Enrique on its front foot, and the back foot executive committee issued an emergency notice, suspending all cargo flights to North Vietnam and Indochina, and gathering all the ships in the port area to prepare for a wave in Panyu

There is a huge tide of immigration transfer. The Ministry of Construction has also tried its best to transfer the construction team from the existing construction site to the newly designated resettlement area to start emergency construction and expansion. The arrival of thousands of people means that hundreds of thousands of people will be built.

Temporary shelter and corresponding basic living facilities are required. Without the coordination and cooperation of various departments, it will be difficult to complete such a large amount of work in a short period of time.

As for food and clothing, the civil affairs department's inventory is quite sufficient, enough to supply nearly 10,000 people. There should be no shortage of materials in the short term. The only thing the executive committee is more worried about the local reception work is health and epidemic prevention. In the past, every batch

When hundreds or hundreds of people arrive in Hong Kong, the maximum number is only about a thousand people, which is relatively easy to arrange. But if thousands of people arrive in Hong Kong at one time, the requirements for health and epidemic prevention work are different. The commercial department has already started

Contact merchants to collect a large number of commonly used medicinal materials from cities such as Guangzhou and northern Qiongzhou Island to prepare for the upcoming wave of immigrants.

September 17, Panyu, Lijiazhuang Immigration Camp.

After more than three months of construction, the immigrant camp outside Lijiazhuang near the Shawan Waterway has expanded from an initial area of ​​more than 30 acres to nearly 200 acres, and the number of immigrants it receives has also increased from the original four to five hundred people.

It has expanded to thousands of people now - of course, the current reception scale has actually greatly exceeded the actual operating capacity of the camp.

"Sister Ma, the medicinal materials shipped from Guangzhou have arrived. I have already counted them. Can you sign for them?" Sha Xi ran over panting and handed a piece of paper to Ma Yu.

Ma Yu took a look at it and signed it with a pen, and then warned: "Xiao Sha, please ask people to bring all the medicinal materials to the infirmary, and also assign twenty people to me to grind the medicine."

We don’t have enough manpower.”

"Okay, okay, I'll do it right away." Sha Xi grabbed the paperwork and hurried out.

Due to the recent influx of a large number of people into the Lijiazhuang immigration camp, the local immigration cadres are no longer enough. The Guangdong Office had to send reinforcements and asked Ma Yu, who was in charge of medical and health care, and Sha Xi, who was in charge of immigration affairs, to come here to coordinate. In addition to

In addition to them, Xiao Liang, who was more familiar with the local situation, was also transferred over. Cooperating with his actions were militiamen from two platoons of Wanshan Port to maintain public order in the immigration camp.

This wave of immigration did not arise without reason. Since May this year, most areas in the Pearl River Delta have once again fallen into drought. However, it was not until after the summer harvest that the harm of the drought began to gradually become apparent.

People in the region went bankrupt because they borrowed money to buy food, and the flow of refugees that had begun to subside began to grow again.

Guangzhou's senior officials have no particularly good solution to this problem. The farmland in the province has experienced poor harvests every year due to natural and man-made disasters. In fact, there is not much surplus grain in the government's granary that can be used for disaster relief. They can only mobilize local gentry and wealthy businessmen to put

Food relief. However, the effect of this is extremely limited. Even if some wealthy businessmen are willing to do this good deed, there are many specific difficulties.

First of all, it is difficult to purchase large amounts of food for disaster relief locally, and the rising food prices also make this kind of relief very uneconomical. However, if the rice grain is purchased from other places, it will take a lot of time to transport it to the towns near Guangzhou.

A period of time. Secondly, as soon as there is news that a warehouse is being opened to release grain somewhere, victims from the nearby area for dozens of miles will soon swarm in. A small squire from a small family can help a hundred and eighty people, but if there are thousands

People are rushing to the door to beg for food. How can they resist this attitude? Once the situation gets out of control, it can easily turn into violent incidents such as looting.

In addition, many people chose to turn into bandits in order to get a bite to eat. For a while, the bandits who had been suppressed by the Lijiazhuang battle seemed to be showing signs of being ready to move again, and even began to organize and rob some remote areas.

In this mountain village and small town, these news were collected in the governor's office, leaving Governor Wang scratching his head just a few months after taking office.

At this time, of course, there will be staff to give Wang Zunde advice - there are endless victims, and the government is unable to provide relief, so it can only rely on private power to try its best to evacuate the victims. At present, the most powerful businessman in Guangdong and Guangxi who is willing to do good deeds is "Qiong Lianfa"

"As long as they are allowed to take the lead, the increasingly serious food shortage in the province will be temporarily alleviated to a certain extent.

As for whether there are any drawbacks in this, and where the "Qiong Lianfa" will arrange these immigrants, the staff did not say much, and Mr. Wang did not have the time to think about it slowly. If there is chaos in Guangdong and Guangxi, then a memorial will be filed.

When reporting important matters to the court, you must try to stabilize the situation first no matter what. As for the negative effects of doing so, no one can care about it at this juncture.

So a document from the Governor's Office was sent to "Qiong Lianfa". Naturally, the shareholders and bosses here did not dare to make decisions privately, so they sent the original document to the Office of the People's Republic of China in Guangdong Province overnight. When Malik saw it, he immediately felt that this was a good opportunity.

On the one hand, it can introduce a large number of immigrants, and on the other hand, it can also use this to create a better reputation for Haihan among the people. In the future, even without special publicity, people seeking livelihood will naturally know where the way out is.

Of course, this matter cannot be handled by the Guangdong Office, but must be left to "Qiong Lianfa" and its more than a dozen related firms. In order to leave this hard work to "Qiong Lianfa", the government

"Issuance" has also happily provided a lot of convenience - all rice grains and daily necessities transported to the Panyu Immigration Camp will be exempted from all tolls and taxes, and all people going to the Panyu Immigration Camp will not need to check the road signs.

, all the immigration relief points organized by "Qiong Lianfa" in various states and counties will be assisted by government officials to maintain order, and corresponding notices of peace of mind will be issued to prove their reliability.

As a result, a large number of immigrants began to flow from various prefectures and counties in the province to Panyu County. The speed far exceeded Malico and others' initial expectations, so that they had to ask for help from the base camp and requested that ships be sent to deliver supplies.

And pick up the immigrants who are about to overflow.

Currently, the number of people from all walks of life temporarily living in the immigration area is close to 5,000. The food they eat every day is measured in kilograms, and the consumption of medicinal materials and other daily necessities is also huge. The General Office of the People's Republic of China in Guangdong Province only relies on the basic support.

That's not the answer. And with so many people living together, it's easy for a large epidemic to break out. Once such a vicious accident occurs, it may not be so easy to gain public approval if Haihan wants to organize large-scale immigration in the future.

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On September 18, Wang Tom drove Enrique to Macau on the "Lightning" and began to participate in further talks between the two parties. After emergency consultations between the two parties, the Macau Portuguese Council agreed to Haihan's application.

Before the two parties reached a further cooperation agreement, the safety of entry and exit of all Haihan immigrant ships in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary was guaranteed. After this news was sent back to the base camp via telegram, the executive committee members all breathed a sigh of relief.

Three days later, the first batch of immigrant ships that followed the "Lightning" arrived in Panyu, unloaded a large amount of supplies, and shipped more than 700 immigrants to leave here and return south to Victory Port. However, this was already far away.

Far unable to keep up with the speed at which people from all over the country are entering the immigration camps, the number of people in the immigration camps has already exceeded 7,000 before these ships left the Pearl River Estuary, and there seems to be an upward trend in the short term.

On September 22, the largest foreign fleet since the crossing sailed into the Pearl River Estuary and arrived at the dock of Shawan Waterway. More than 70 large and small ships could not even enter the Shawan Waterway.

Among them, more than half of the ships can dock along the Pearl River.

These ships not only concentrated most of the cargo ships and immigration ships under the name of the Ministry of Shipping, but also mobilized almost all the warships of the Navy. In addition, "Qiong Lianfa" and some other merchants were temporarily requisitioned, chartered ships, and even even

Several warships in better condition in Yacheng Water Village were also captured. If the Guangdong Office and the "Qiong Lianfa" had not reported to the Guangzhou government and garrison in advance, the Ming army stationed at the Pearl River Estuary would have mistakenly thought

This is when a large number of pirates are preparing to go ashore and attack the interior.

The anxious people living in the immigration camp were finally relieved when they saw the arrival of such a large fleet. Although they knew that they would be transported to Qiongzhou Island to settle down after arriving here, they have been waiting for many days.

Not seeing the fleet appear, it is inevitable to feel a little uneasy. After all, all the stories about the Haihan people in Qiongzhou Island are just legends. Even if the naturalized cadres describe it in lavish terms, to these people who have not been to Victory Port, they are just legends.

The place of illusion.

Because there were so many people who needed to be transferred this time, and the docking scale of Shawan Pier was very limited, the organization of the immigration boarding had to be divided into two days. The ship that had loaded the immigrants on the first day set off first.

, headed to the Wanshan Port at the Pearl River Estuary to dock overnight. The immigration ship on the second day did not stop after loading the population, and sailed directly out of the Pearl River Estuary, rendezvousing with the fleet that set off the previous day, and returned to Sanya together.

According to statistics from the Lijiazhuang Immigration Camp, a total of more than 5,100 people boarded the ship in two days, making it the largest sea transport after the crossing. Almost all the ships were fully loaded, and the cabins were full.

Immigration is not only reminiscent of the ships transporting slaves in Western countries. The consequences of this hurried large-scale population transportation cannot be avoided. A large number of people with weak constitutions soon developed various discomforts after going to sea.

On the second day after going to sea, as many as seventeen people died on the ship due to physical reasons. Naturally, the bodies of these people could not be recovered and could only be thrown into the sea immediately.

These were not the only unlucky people who died on the way. When the fleet arrived at Victory Port seven days later, a total of 273 people died on the way. This record is also the largest number of deaths in maritime transportation after the crossing. Of course

The medical staff cannot be blamed for this situation. Although the relevant departments have tried their best, they still cannot guarantee that each ship can be equipped with enough medical personnel. In fact, the entire fleet is only equipped with a total of more than 30 doctors and seven doctors.

There are more than a dozen nursing staff, so on average there is less than one doctor per ship.
Chapter completed!