The Ming Dynasty in this era is already like a big ship about to capsize, the bottom of the ship is leaking everywhere, the external environment is stormy, and the people on the ship are also fighting endlessly, and there is no chance to repair the ship. However, for the crossing group that has just entered the third year of this era and the foundation is not too solid, the Ming Empire is still a behemoth that cannot be fought against for the time being, and in the minds of the vast majority of time-travelers, they don't want the Ming to fall too quickly, after all, the Ming Dynasty is still Han orthodox, and the wild boar skin outside the gate is a complete barbarian. Therefore, Haihan's basic position was still on the side of the Ming Dynasty, and if it could help this empire that was nearing the end of its life through the means of military assistance, the vast majority of people would definitely vote in favor - of course, no matter what form of aid it was, it would certainly not be provided free of charge.

On the issue of how to renew the life of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, it had already begun to be discussed within the Preparatory Committee at that time long before the crossing, and the more common view was that the problem faced by the Ming Dynasty was not just the weakness of military strength, but the backwardness of the entire social system led to various social contradictions that broke out during this period, and unilateral military assistance could not change the reality that the Ming Empire was declining. However, reasonable assistance may be able to help the Ming withstand the attack from outside the Northeast Pass, so that the crossing group can have more time to make full use of the market and various resources under the rule of the Ming Dynasty to strengthen its own strength.

To cooperate with the Ming court in military affairs, all aspects involved are extremely complex, and there are many issues to consider. However, fortunately, there have been some undisclosed cooperation with the Guangdong government and Fujian sailors, and the relevant departments can be regarded as having a certain amount of experience accumulation, so they will not find a way out when the matter is at the end.

"It's too far off topic, let's listen to me talk about the conscription and expansion first!" Yan Chujie saw that the topic of discussion had deviated from the original point by a long distance, and quickly drew everyone's attention back to his own proposal: "The necessity and feasibility of the troop expansion, I believe everyone has already understood my introduction, and now I will talk about the conscription plan." ”

The treatment of the Haihan militia has always been good, after enlisting in the army, they will directly obtain the naturalized civilian nationality, and enjoy the salary standard of the second-level labor, and due to the frequent expansion of the army, the low-level militia has actually had quite a lot of opportunities for promotion, and now the grass-roots officers at the level of the middle squad platoon leader of the militia have all been replaced by the naturalized militia who enlisted early, and the individual outstanding personnel will have the opportunity to continue to be promoted, and this kind of rising speed is very difficult to appear in the army of other forces of the same era.

In addition, militia soldiers who are discharged from the army and change jobs, or who are wounded or killed in battle, will receive very thoughtful arrangements and care for the aftermath, as well as generous remuneration or pensions; if they are unwilling to accept the work arrangements of the civil affairs department after being discharged from the army, they can also be allocated at least 30 acres of low-rent cultivated land and go home to farm on their own. To put it mildly, for ordinary people, it is still very cost-effective to serve as a soldier in the Haihan People's League and work for the executive committee.

It is precisely because of these favorable treatments, coupled with the fact that the Haihan militia has never been defeated in the battles, and the results can be called brilliant, and the enthusiasm of young people in the area under Haihan rule to join the army has always been very high. Every time the military recruits foreign soldiers, it can almost recruit the required soldiers in a very short period of time, and often the number of conscripts will greatly exceed the original recruitment plan. Therefore, for Yan Chujie, there is no need to worry about the source of soldiers at all when opening up the next stage of conscription, although the planned conscription quota may exceed 1,000 people, but judging from the current population size under the rule of Haihan, most of them will still have a burst of conscripts.

"There is a small adjustment in the recruitment plan, I hope you will pay attention. Yan Chujie introduced: "Because of the progress of the Shilu project, in the past six months, there will be a number of Li Tong and Miao Zhai gradually moved out of the Shilu area, these cottages have a large number of young people of appropriate age, are a good source of soldiers, so we plan to focus on the area of conscription in Shilu, absorb the local indigenous young people into the army, which can also play a certain role in promoting the stability of the local society." ”

Li Miao's enlistment in the army is nothing new in the Haihan militia. Although the Li and Miao ethnic groups had a relatively deep ******** in the past, the militia of the Li and Miao ethnic groups quickly eliminated their estrangement in the melting pot of the army and became partners who fought side by side and shared life and death. The friendship between the two ethnic groups, which had been common in previous years, has gradually spread to the outside world, and the frequency of fights and even armed conflicts between the two ethnic groups, which was common in previous years, has also rapidly decreased, and relations have gradually normalized.

It is no wonder that Haihan gave great support to the Li and Miao cottages who were willing to cooperate, so that they could obtain better economic benefits and living security through their labor, and canceled many discriminatory regulations promulgated by the Ming Dynasty, treating the Li and Miao ethnic groups equally. After being able to eat and clothe themselves and obtain basic dignity, the Li and Miao tribes no longer had to fight for living space and production resources, and most of the young and aggressive young Zhuang factions joined the militia as soldiers, and peace naturally came.

However, in the previous conscription, in order to ensure the interests of the Han people, who accounted for the majority of the population, the military generally mainly recruited Han soldiers, and the proportion of militia from the Li and Miao ethnic groups in the militia was probably only close to 30%. In this military expansion and recruitment plan, it is hoped that more young and strong people of the Li and Miao ethnic groups will be recruited into the army, and it is hoped that this will alleviate the pressure on the resettlement of the Shilu project.

No one raised objections to the military's arrangement, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, for example, expressed its appreciation in a clear-cut manner. Ning Qi opened his mouth and continued: "That's fine, the Shilu project needs to relocate as many as two or three thousand people from the Limiao Mountains, of which half are young and strong, and your army will take those young people away, and it will be easier for us to arrange immigration." ”

Thanks to the military's thorough preparations in advance, the proposal for the expansion of the armed forces was approved without too much trouble at the executive meeting. However, the plan to provide military assistance to the Ming Dynasty derived from the proposal to expand the army did not reach a clear conclusion at the meeting because it involved too many departments and required preparations, and it was necessary to conduct a special investigation at another time.

In July, good news finally came from the Indochina Peninsula across the sea, that after three months of continuous fighting, the North Vietnamese forces had basically wiped out the main force of the remnants of the South Vietnamese resistance, and the coastal areas from Hue south to Nha Trang had also been cleared, and a large number of prefectures and counties had changed their banners and been reincorporated into the Thang Long imperial court. Among the four southern ports proposed by the Haihan side before the war, Da Nang and Quy Nhon Port were returned to the control of the northern imperial court and could already enter the development stage.

This news can be described as painful and happy for the Executive Committee, happy that these long-coveted coastal areas can finally be included in its own rule, and painful is that Haihan does not have enough resources for the construction of large-scale overseas engineering projects. At present, almost all the technicians and main construction teams of the Ministry of Construction are concentrated on the road construction site from Changhua to Shilu, and the first phase of this road will last at least until the end of the year, when it is possible to send some personnel to Annan to preside over the construction of the port. While everyone is excited about the addition of two new overseas territories, the Shiroku project is a top priority at this stage, and the port of Annam has to be given a low priority.

However, the Executive Committee is not in a hurry, but someone else is in a hurry. For the development of Da Nang and Quy Nhon ports, Annam also sent a special envoy to Sanya to discuss with the Executive Committee the possibility of cooperation in development.

The envoy sent was not an outsider, it was Zheng Lin, a refugee who was originally sent to the port of Heitu to rescue the refugees on the coast of Thanh Hoa, because this person was related to the Trung family, a powerful minister of North Vietnam, so that the Executive Committee had a relationship with the North Vietnamese court, and later all-round cooperation in politics, military and economy. After Zheng Lin returned to Thang Long Mansion, because he had lived in Heitu Port for a period of time and knew more about the Haihan people, he was appointed as a special envoy to deal with Haihan-related affairs. After the Thang Long court recognized Haihan's de facto control over the port of Heitu in the name of the concession, Zheng Lin was appointed as an observer and lived in the port for another year.

Of course, the treatment that Zheng Lin enjoyed during this period was fundamentally different from when he fled, basically the standard of food and accommodation was on par with that of the traverser, and this standard of living had exceeded his treatment in Thang Long Mansion. When the Thang Long Mansion transferred him back to his new position, Zheng Lin was actually quite reluctant to leave the Black Earth Port.

The new task assigned to Zheng Lin by the Annan Imperial Court this year was to discuss with Haihan the plan for the cooperative development of the four southern ports. The main reason why the Annan court took such an active part was that the economic benefits generated by the development of the three northern ports under the auspices of Haihan made the rulers of Annam see the convenience and potential of maritime trade. A large number of Ming merchants chose to leave Annam and return to Daming or settle in Sanya, while the Portuguese did not have the ability to build large ports independently on the southern coast for the time being, and the maritime trade in the southern region almost came to a standstill, which made the Annam court feel very dissatisfied with the high hopes of the southern maritime trade.

The original intention of Annam's rulers was to put the Haihan people on the responsibility of building a new port, so that although the ownership of the land would be placed under the control of the Haihan people indefinitely, it would at least have a chance to save Annam's finances and allow the already empty treasury to be replenished again. However, the Haihan people did not know what medicine they had taken wrong, and in the past, they began to build the port quickly after reaching an agreement, lest the Annan side would regret it, and Tushan Port even won the concession authority by negotiating while building. But this time, a few months after the end of the Hue campaign, there was no further movement on the Haihan side, and the coastal area they had asked for before the war was still barren, and there was no sign of construction at all, which made the Annam rulers a little unable to sit still.

Although the Haihan people occupied the three ports of Heitu, Tushan, and Yong'an in the northern coastal area in the name of the concession, the Annan court still gained a lot of profits from the import and export trade of these ports - of course, a considerable part of them went directly into the pockets of the various elites who monopolized the trade. Although the trade between the Haihan and Annam was almost entirely a case of the scissors difference between the industrial and agricultural countries, for the Annam court, which was so poor that it was about to lose its pants, the maritime trade brought by these ports still brought a certain amount of profit, giving Annam the opportunity to exchange the local less valuable goods such as rice, timber, medicinal herbs, and ivory for better returns.

After the fall of the Hue regime, the Annam court was certainly not satisfied with the import and export trade limited to just three ports, and there were also many good things that could be sold to the Haihan people in the thousands of miles of rivers and mountains in the south, provided that there were large commercial ports in the local area. However, waiting and waiting, the Haihan people who got the land for the construction of the port did not start construction for a long time, and the Annan court saw that it was not a way to wait for nothing but wasting time, and finally decided to send an envoy to Sanya to explain the matter clearly.

Zheng Lin did not have many old acquaintances in Sanya, and Wang Tom was one of them, and Wang Tom was the commander of the special fleet that rescued Zheng Lin at the beginning. Therefore, the executive committee also included Wang Tom in the reception staff this time, and Zheng Lin did not have the slightest arrogance of Annan officials after meeting Wang Tom, and still called him a benevolent man, and thanked him again and again for saving his life. Wang Tom excused himself for a while before Zheng Lin changed his words and called him Brother Wang.

In addition to Wang Tom, he was also responsible for receiving the envoys of Annan with Schneider. It was precisely with the presence of a calculating old fox like Schneider that Tom Wang was reluctant to accept this task that should have been the responsibility of the diplomatic department.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food at the reception banquet, Zheng Lin took the initiative to get down to business: "Among the many agreements reached between you and China last year, one of them mentioned the terms of assisting China in rebuilding the southern commercial port and reopening maritime trade after the war.

Schneider responded: "Special Envoy Zheng, I correct you for a mistake, this is not that we assisted your country in building a port, but that your country provided these coastal areas to us in the form of military collateral as a concession, as for when to start the construction of the port, there was no clear timetable negotiated at that time, these contents were recorded at that time, all of them are well documented, Special Envoy Zheng should not come as soon as he opens his mouth." ”