Wei Ping didn't care whether Li Nai and He Qiang came to Shengli Port to buy salt or glass products, but there was one thing Wei Ping was sure of, these merchants came from afar, and they would definitely not let go of any business that could make money.

"Two, the queue in front of you is so long, why don't we go to the side and find a place to sit and wait. Later, I'll ask my men to bring breakfast to both of you. Wei Ping took the initiative to show them goodwill.

Li Nai hurriedly clenched his fists and said, "Don't dare to bother Wei to inspect it." ”

"Little things, little things. Wei Ping immediately ordered his subordinates, and then took the lead and walked under a big tree next to him. Wei Ping also wanted to find a more hidden place to speak, but his range of activities was limited, and he didn't dare to go too far so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

Next to the tree are piles of bluestone, which were brought in by laborers from a quarry at the foot of a nearby hill and then transported to the port to build a dock. The three of them each found a clean place and sat down, but their minds were different, and neither of them was in a hurry to speak first.

After a while, Wei Ping finally couldn't help it, after breakfast time, the nearby laborers would start working one after another, and there would be no secluded place here, he was not willing to wait until tomorrow morning.

"When the two of you came to the Inspection Department yesterday, I saw that the two of you seemed to want to stop talking, but what doubts did you have?" Wei Ping can also be regarded as a figure who has been rolling in society for several years, and he didn't mention his own affairs at first, and first tried to trick the other party's words.

Li Nai responded: "I was going to ask Wei Patrol to inquire about the local situation, but yesterday there was Mr. Shi from Nahai Han by his side, and it was inconvenient to speak, but it made Wei Patrol worried." ”

Wei Ping said with a smile: "I don't know what kind of situation Li Gongzi wants to know? I have been living here for more than a month, and I still know a little about the local people. ”

Wei Ping's words are a bit of a braggart, he lived in Shengli Harbor for more than a month, but during this time, more than half of them were confined in the courtyard of the inspection department and were not allowed to go out, and the scope of his involvement was extremely limited, and most of the "public feelings" that could be observed were only the results of his observation from the courtyard.

However, Li Nai didn't know whether Wei Ping was really under house arrest, but he just guessed this, since Wei Ping showed such an attitude of willing exchange, of course he would not refuse the other party's kindness, and hurriedly asked: "Then may I ask Wei Inspection, what is the local people's opinion of the Haihan people? Based on what Wei Patrol has seen, is the local people's situation here?"

Wei Ping muttered: "The Haihan people do have a unique way of governing civil affairs, and the local people are obedient to their arrangements and arrangements, and rarely hear complaints and dissatisfactions. But this is also a reasonable thing, after all, they rely on the Haihan people for food, clothing, and housing......"

Speaking of this, Wei Ping couldn't help but think that his situation was not exactly like this, and quickly changed the topic and said: "As for whether the people's situation is stable or not, I think the two of you must have seen a lot of militia soldiers when they visited the neighborhood yesterday, right?"

Li Nai and He Qiang remembered the visit to the boot camp yesterday, and even those half-grown children were trained to be like soldiers, and they all nodded with apprehension.

"The rule of law here in Victory Harbor is so strict that the slightest mistake by the people is thrown into the area called a 'labor camp' for hard labor. And in addition to the militia here, there is another kind of organization used to maintain law and order, which the Haihan people call 'security', you can see those who are dressed in black short clothes and have short sticks pinned to their waists. They usually patrol the vicinity of ports and people's homes, and specialize in trivial matters. If new immigrants arrive at the port, they will also go to the docks to help the vigilante groups maintain order. Wei Ping explained to the two in detail.

Li Nai and He Qiang looked around, and sure enough, they saw a few black-clothed security guards as Wei Ping said standing in the distance. Li Nai said in his heart, this position of 'security guard' is probably similar to the function of my Ming Patrol Department. It's just that in front of Wei Ping, this speculation can't be said casually.

"But why are these people willing to join the militia or work as security guards for those Haihan people when they first arrive in Shengli Port? Could it be that the Haihan people are paid very well?" asked He Qiang puzzled.

Wei Ping explained: "I have always been puzzled by this matter, but later I slowly learned that the original Haihan people used the 'commune' as a unit to co-opt the local civilians, and all the civilians who joined the commune were called 'members', and the treatment was much better than that of the general public, so the people who came to work here were all aiming to enter the commune." As long as one member of the family joins the militia or becomes a security guard, the family can move into the commune and enjoy various benefits of the members. ”

"I see......"

At this time, Li Nai and He Qiang both thought of the farm commune they visited yesterday, and the various institutional arrangements there left a deep impression on the two of them, but they never thought that there was such a connection between the commune and the local militia group.

Not only that, but it is said that the Haihan people built a large number of workshops in the inland more than ten miles away, and it is said that they also opened an iron mine. The income of working in the workshop is higher than that of working in the port and cultivating land, but it is not so easy to enter the workshop to work, and you must first have the qualification of 'member' before you can accept further selection by the Haihan people. Wei Ping continued.

After Wei Ping's explanation, Li Nai and He Qiang also roughly understood what kind of social structure this place was. After arriving in Port Victory, these newcomers were screened and first shunted to work on various construction sites, among which those with better expressions were selected to work in the "commune", and those with better expression in the commune were selected to work in the higher-level workshops. As for what kind of setting is on top of the workshop, Li Nai can think of it without asking.

It is said that there are only a few hundred Haihan people here, and in order to manage the growing number of people, it is necessary to promote some locals to do grassroots management. From new immigrants, ordinary laborers, social members, workshop laborers, to higher employment levels, the Haihan people have designed a set of upward channel system for ordinary people, no matter what level these people struggle to, there will definitely be new bait in front of them, inducing them to work hard.

In fact, there is nothing new about this social structure, and there are also upward channels like zài in the Ming society, such as He Qiang, the senior steward of "Fu Ruifeng", who did it step by step from the little guy who served tea and ran errands. If there is really anything different, Li Nai thinks that the Haihan people's management of the local area is more like a combination of civil affairs and business to make money.

If it is the local government of the Ming Dynasty, it will generally only govern the civil affairs, and as for how the people work to make a living, the government does not have the leisure to take care of it. Unless it is a project that requires a lot of labor, such as road construction and water control, the government will never organize the people to start work, after all, organizing a large-scale project is a rather laborious matter, and few local officials are willing to take the initiative to do such a thing unless it is absolutely necessary.

The commercial banks that are good at making money generally do not organize the people to produce, which not only will encounter many problems in management, but also can easily be labeled as "gathering the people, the Internet people's will, and the bad intentions". Even if a commercial house with deep roots in Guangzhou like "Fu Ruifeng" is at most to organize a caravan and set up a militia in his hometown, and will definitely not engage in any kind of "commune" like the Haihan people, who will organize hundreds or thousands of people to build villages and villages to form their own system. If this kind of thing had happened in Guangzhou, Li Nai dared to guarantee that all these Haihan people would have been arrested and imprisoned pending trial.

But the Haihan people have blended civil administration and business management, and the local people have been organized for large-scale production, as Li Nai realized from the farm communes he visited yesterday. All the farmland here is cultivated and harvested in a unified manner, and all the harvested grain also enters the public granary, which is arranged by the Haihan Executive Committee.

The arrangement of agricultural production by the Haihan people was so detailed that Li Nai even found that they had a very detailed plan for the frequency, quantity, and type of fertilizer they had not seen in any rural village before. If he hadn't seen the operation of the farm with his own eyes, Li Nai would probably only think that Gao Huan's statement that the annual production capacity of rice per mu was 1,000 catties was bragging.

In the style of the Haihan people, it is not difficult for Li Nai to imagine that they must have also adopted a management method similar to that of a farm commune in the production of refined salt and glass. In fact, at the reception banquet the day before, Schneider had already revealed to him that he would arrange for them to visit the local salt factory commune the next day, so as to enhance their confidence in the long-term cooperation in the private salt trade.

Li Nai learned from yesterday's visit to the farm commune that there is only a small "commune management committee" as the farm management body, but this management committee only plays a coordinating role, and the specific affairs are carried out by various functional and detailed institutions composed of members, such as the agricultural technology association, the health association, the red and white council, and so on. At that time, when I introduced it, Li Nai's head was big, but now in retrospect, I realized the deep meaning of the Haihan people's doing.

Judging from the speed of local development of the Haihan people, whether it is a farm commune or other production sites, it is only a matter of time before the scale continues to expand, and the following grassroots management institutions are also expanding, and the Haihan people have begun to appoint some locals to serve as civil administrators. This is fundamentally different from the Ming Dynasty's civil armor protection system, the commune here is not a private joint protection autonomy, but organized and managed by the Haihan Executive Committee, and these staff members now enjoy the salary paid by the Haihan people, in Li Nai's view, they are similar to the small officials who work for the yamen, that is to say, the Haihan Executive Committee has completely replaced the function of the local government in the local civil administration.

From the perspective of a bystander, Li Nai had to admit that the Haihan people had done an excellent job in civil administration, and their results far exceeded those of the local government. In turn, the abundance of food and clothing for the people also ensured the stability and good social order of the people, which is a characteristic valued by businessmen like Li Nai.