Gu Kai heard a commotion in a daze, he opened his eyes, and through the small window on the side of the ship, he could see that the sky was already bright. Gu Kai raised his hand and looked at the time, just after 7 o'clock in the morning, it was also the time when he usually listened to the "Soviet March" played by the loudspeaker and got up to wash up and eat breakfast.

However, now that he is on a business trip on Hong Kong Island, he no longer needs to abide by Sanya's work and rest system, Gu Kai closed his eyes and planned to sleep for a while, but the noise outside did not seem to stop, but became louder and louder, and there seemed to be the sound of quarrels during the period.

Although there were militia members on duty on the shore, and it was impossible for the idle people to approach the dock where the "Lightning" was docked, Gu Kai still turned over and sat up, planning to go out to see what was going on outside.

Gu Kai came to the deck and saw a group of Ming civilians on the shore, about sixty or seventy people, who were stopped outside the dock by the militia on duty. Although the militia was not large in number, the appearance of the loaded guns was still very deterrent, and the people did not dare to get too close, but it seemed that they had no intention of retreating.

"What's going on?" Gu Kai asked the sailor who was arranging the cables on the trestle.

The sailor hurriedly put down his work and responded: "Report to the chief, I heard that it was these people who asked to see the chief, and the people of the militia were afraid that the scene would not be controlled, so they blocked them out. ”

The militia group's approach is understandable, and their duty on this trip is to protect the safety of the crossing people, so naturally they will not let this group of people go at will. And the traversal will not deliberately create a people-friendly image, consciously keeping a distance can create a sense of authority.

Gu Kai thought for a while, and instructed the sailor: "You go and talk to the people of the militia group, let those people elect a representative first, and then bring them over to meet me." ”

The sailor answered, and trotted over. After receiving the order, the militia platoon commander asked the people to elect a representative according to Gu Kai's wishes. A moment later, the group of people pushed an elder out, and after a simple body search by the militia, they brought him to Gu Kai.

"Xiaomin Huang Sanyuan, I've seen Master Haihan!" The elder came to Gu Kai and bowed.

Gu Kai saw that his hair was gray, and he was estimated to be fifty or sixty years old, so he quickly stretched out his hand to support him: "You don't need to make such a big ceremony!"

The militia platoon commander next to him introduced: "This is our President Gu of the Haihan Executive Committee!"

"Old man, you guys came to the door early in the morning, what is the matter?" Gu Kai didn't intend to greet him slowly, and directly cut to the chase.

"Master Gu, Xiao Lao'er is a villager from a nearby fishing village, I heard that the masters of Haihan are going to start construction and repair the port locally, I don't know if it's true?" asked Huang Sanyuan very cautiously.

Haihan's plan to develop this area, due to the large number of people involved, did not expect to keep it a secret. However, the two investigation teams have only been here for a day, and the news has already spread among the local people, and it seems that the speed of gossip news in this era is not at all behind the time and space before Gu Kai traveled.

Gu Kai didn't deny it, nodded and replied, "We do have this plan. If you have a qiē shun lì, it will probably start work soon. ”

"Rong Xiaolao'er asks more, most of the land in this vicinity is owned by the local people, may I ask what the masters of Haihan plan to deal with?" Huang Sanyuan asked worriedly.

The land question is undoubtedly the most basic social contradiction of this era, and it can be said that the root cause of the vast majority of civil contradictions between peasants and landlords, between landlords and the government, is on land. The public ownership of land in the areas under the rule of the Haihan is completely different from the land system of the Ming Dynasty, and this system is very likely to become one of the most likely social contradictions to erupt when the Haihan system expands outward.

The Executive Committee has always attached great importance to this hidden danger that may become an obstacle on the road to the expansion of the Haihan Dynasty, and for this reason it has held study classes since the first half of last year to specially train naturalized civilian cadres from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Civil Affairs to help them correct their thinking and improve their theoretical level. For example, when Sanya New Port was first opened, the troublemakers who were secretly suppressed by the militia were not one or two households, and Chen Yixin, a young officer who is now in charge of Wanshan Port, rose to power at that time by virtue of his excellent performance in suppressing troublemakers.

Of course, the situation on Hong Kong Island is definitely different from that of Sanya, and when the Executive Committee annexed Sanya, it had already reached a secret agreement with the Yazhou government, and the conditions for the negotiation had been almost negotiated, and the benefits that should be given were all in place, and there would not be any pressure on the official side. However, the limited resistance of the people could not make waves in the face of the powerful armed forces, and it could not prevent the Executive Committee from promoting the new land system in Sanya.

However, the location of Hong Kong Island is quite far from the actual control area of Haihan, and the influence of Haihan is not enough to directly control this area under the jurisdiction of Xin'an County, Guangzhou Prefecture, Daming Dynasty. Although there may be only a few hundred local residents, if there is a dispute or even conflict over land during the development process, it is inevitable that the matter will attract the attention of the government, and this is the last thing the executive committee wants.

As the saying goes, as long as no one makes trouble, then Haihan University can close the door in this place and slowly build a social system with Haihan characteristics, just like the previous practice in Heitu Port, Changhua Port and other places. But the problem is that the influence of the Haihan did not cover the area, and the local residents have heard of the reputation of the Haihan people at most, but they do not know the rules of their actions, and the implementation of public ownership of land here is bound to be resisted by the local residents. In order to properly solve this problem, the Executive Committee has prepared corresponding plans in advance.

Gu Kai said in a deep voice: "Regarding the land under the name of the local people, as long as we can take out the real estate title deed, we can add two percent to the market price to buy, and we can choose to go to Yazhou to live a better life, we will be responsible for transportation, and arrange life and work." If you don't want to sell, we won't force it, but in the future, you still have to abide by the rules we have set to live here!"

The way Gu Kai said seems to be reasonable and fair, but if you think about it carefully, it is actually a semi-forced transaction. The market price is increased by 20%, even if the limited arable land in the southwest coastal area of Hong Kong Island is bought in one go, it is not a big expense for Haihan, not to mention that there are a large number of Guangdong rich people waiting to pay for it, and money is not a problem at all in this process. Moreover, the vast majority of the people living on the island are fishermen, and the cultivated land is really limited, at most they grow some fruit and vegetable crops, and the grain is basically purchased from the mainland.

Of course, having said that, the money may not actually be paid out at that time. There is also a very important content in the conditions mentioned by Gu Kai, that is, you have to take out the title deed. Hong Kong Island is far away from Xin'an County, the island's government agencies are in the north, and the southern seaside area is completely autonomous, most of the people do not go to the government to apply for a special house deed, so as to save some tax expenses, and the tax collectors of Xin'an County are not willing to come to this stinky fishing village for a little money. There is not much arable land cultivated by the people here, and if they were to show legal proof of land ownership, I am afraid that there would not be even ten households.

If you can't get a title deed issued by the government, then to put it bluntly, this is borderland. However, Haihan has already obtained the official document issued by the Guangzhou government, as long as he circles the land and pays a sum of money back, all the land here will be surnamed "Haihan". Therefore, Gu Kai's statement of spending money to buy land actually just sounds good, and in fact, the local people who can get money from this kind of transaction are probably not one in ten.

However, most of the local people are fishermen, and they do not rely entirely on the land for their livelihood, and even if they have no land, they can still rely on the sea to eat the sea. Therefore, Gu Kai added the following content to the conditions he said-those who stay here in the future must abide by Haihan's rules and regulations, if not, then they will bear the consequences.

These seemingly mild conditions actually did not leave much room for the local people to choose, Huang Sanyuan was stunned for a while after listening to it before saying: "Master Gu, what if the locals can't get the title deed stamped by the government?"

Gu Kai replied calmly: "It doesn't matter if you can't take it out, we won't avoid the villagers to a dead end." But the government has allocated this land to us, and if you continue to occupy our land here, you can't say it, right? As for the land, you don't need to worry, the people who work for us will never worry about having no place to live, no food to eat, we can provide these things, and we will pay a commission to all the hired workers on a regular basis, provided that you obey the arrangement. ”

"This ......" Huang Sanyuan's face showed obvious embarrassment. Who wants to suddenly become someone else's slave when he is a good free man? Being a fisherman here is poor, but at least he lives very freely, and Huang Sanyuan thinks that Gu Kai's construction is not attractive. But he didn't dare to take the liberty to refute the other party, Haihan's reputation had already spread last year, and Liu Xiang and his gang, who had been controlling the local area for many years, were beaten by this group of people and rolled back to Fujian, where could ordinary people afford to provoke them? At least they can talk about the conditions now, if they provoke these people, who knows if they will be directly driven out of this area by their soldiers?

"Master Gu, can you allow Xiao Lao'er to convene the villagers to discuss and discuss this matter after he goes back, and then reply?" Huang Sanyuan didn't dare to refuse Gu Kai's proposal in person, so he could only resort to delaying tactics.

Of course, Gu Kai could easily guess Huang Sanyuan's thoughts, and smiled: "This is naturally possible, but there is something I forgot to mention just now, so I will add it now." Those who are willing to work for us as hired laborers will have food and lodging all inclusive, and their monthly salary will start at two taels of silver. ”

"Two taels of silver?" Huang Sanyuan's eyes widened.

The living conditions of the fishermen on the island are not comparable to those of the farmers living on the mainland, and the main output here is seafood, but due to the limitation of freshness and transportation, they do not have the ability to send large quantities of fresh seafood to Guangzhou, and the main source of income is to sell the seafood to the merchant ships that pass here, but this pure buyer's market cannot sell at any ideal price, so the life of these fishermen on the island has been in a situation of barely subsisting on food and clothing. The little income from selling seafood can't save a few taels of silver in a year, and if the roof is lifted on a typhoon day, or someone in the family is sick, they often have to go into debt.

What is the level of two taels of silver? For these fishermen on the island, if they can bring back a full boatload of seafood every day, two taels of silver is basically the income of a month's hard work. Of course, this situation is not realistic, even if you exclude the days of the month when you cannot go to sea due to weather conditions, fishermen still have to spend time maintaining their fishing boats and repairing their nets, which is exactly what is said to be the so-called three days of fishing and two days of drying nets. If you count the expenses needed to survive, the treatment offered by Haihan is really not low, and judging from Huang Sanyuan's values, I am afraid that most local people will find it difficult to resist this temptation.

As for the current interests of freedom, what is the meaning of that ridiculous freedom? You must know that the monthly salary of going to Guangzhou to be a servant of those lords is only a few dollars of silver, and the Haihan people are only two taels of silver!

Looking at Huang Sanyuan's surprised look, Gu Kai knew that his little trick had worked. Gu Kai snapped his fingers, and a sailor at the front of the deck who was arranging the cable immediately looked back - he had become accustomed to Gu Kai's summoning method in the past two days on the road.

"Sailor, report your personal situation and current income. Gu Kai decided to show Huang Sanyuan a living example.

The sailor immediately stood up and replied: "The head of the report, the villain Han Song, is nineteen years old, entered the shipping department as an errand in September last year, and is now the exclusive sailor of the Lightning, and the shipping department assesses the second-class laborer, and the monthly salary is five yuan for the negotiable coupon, and the business trip allowance is calculated separately. ”

"Very good, you tell this old man, in the place under the jurisdiction of our Haihan, how to exchange negotiable coupons and silver. Gu Kai continued to order.

"A negotiable coupon can be exchanged for a thousand feet of silver, and the villain's monthly salary is equivalent to five taels of silver. The sailor was also knowledgeable and understood what Gu Kai meant when he asked him to tell him about these situations, so he said it very consciously at the moment.

"Five...... Five taels of silver!" After Huang Sanyuan heard this number, he even became short of breath. The Haihan people are rich, this is a well-known thing, but under the hands of the Haihan people, the income can be so considerable, which is something he has not thought about before. These people in the fishing village don't have any other skills, but they grew up by the sea since they were children, and the ability to drive a boat was almost brought out of their mother's womb, but Huang Sanyuan never thought that this skill would be so valuable.