The Haihan Executive Committee does not intend to completely close Hainan Island, so that while ensuring the right to rule, it will also lose the huge consumer market of the mainland, and this kind of magpie's nest dove occupation behavior will definitely make the Ming unable to step down, even if the strength of the Ming army in the Liangguang region is not enough to cross the sea to defeat the Haihan militia, but for this reason it is still a bad policy to enter a hostile state with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it took great pains to arrange an invasion of an army disguised as pirates from Annam, taking the opportunity to purge the local opposition forces, and then the Haihan militia would naturally take over the Qiongbei region.

The situation that the Executive Committee hopes to achieve at this stage is the de facto occupation of the entire territory of Hainan Island, and as for the nominal ownership, the Executive Committee does not mind letting the Ming court retain its face for a period of time. The local government of the Ming Dynasty can continue to store zài on Hainan Island, but from now on, it will only be stored in form, and the executive committee does not intend to return the jurisdiction over the local government.

The policy that accompanied this line of thinking was to allow the Ming to continue to station officials on Qiongzhou Island, and then impose measures on them locally. If you are willing to cooperate, you will definitely have a better life during your tenure, and you will probably receive a lot of money when you leave. But if you want to come to Hainan Island to make trouble, then the result will probably be the same as the dozens of officials and officials who mysteriously disappeared in this pirate attack.

If you don't want to mess up this game, there are certain requirements for the manipulation of details, similar to the officials who were sent to Hainan Island again by the Ming Dynasty, they need to take a good check, and try to exclude those candidates who have more extreme views on Haihan and more hostile feelings from the list, so as to avoid the negative impact that these people may have after they take office. And in this gatekeeping work, Haihan does not have the power to directly participate, mainly through the link of Liu Qian to exert indirect influence.

Although there were crowds of officials on the Pearl River wharf today, Liu Qian's attention was obviously not on them, but on the east side. Seeing this, an alternate official who was thanking him couldn't help asking, "Master Liu, is there any other adult who is coming today?"

Liu Qian responded: "My lord, hehe, this person who is coming is not an adult, but his influence in Qiongzhou, Guangzhou, is no worse than that of the adults in the yamen." ”

"Such a powerful character, could it be that he is from the brocade guard?" the official asked with a slight surprise.

Liu Qian glared at him, and said in his heart that a guy who had never seen the world would dare to go to Qiongzhou Island, if it weren't for his refreshing money, he would really be too lazy to take care of him, and snorted at the moment: "Lord Yan, although you used to be an official in Luodingzhou, you won't know the news of Guangzhou and Qiongzhou at all, right? You want to go to Qiongzhou so deaf and blind, I'm afraid that this son will not be able to sit still!"

As far as the staff is concerned, Liu Qian's words can be said to be extremely serious, but after all, he is a popular person next to the governor of Liangguang, although the official surnamed Yan was reprimanded by him for a few words, there was no angry expression on his face, and he said with a smile: "This official has been in that place in Luoding Prefecture for a long time, and the news is indeed a little blocked, and I ask Master Liu for guidance!"

Liu Qian saw that his attitude was quite correct, so he responded: "In the past two or three years, the most popular people in Guangzhou and Qiongzhou are the Haihan people, if you haven't heard of it, then I really advise you to go home as soon as possible and don't go to Qiongzhou Island." ”

"I've heard of it, and I've naturally heard of the name of the Haihan people, but I never expected their influence to be so great, Master Liu, please continue. The official surnamed Yan hurriedly answered.

Liu Qian's face looked a little better: "A few days ago, the group of Annan pirates swept across the Qiongzhou Strait, and the sailors stationed on Qiongzhou Island have all been wiped out except for a partial division on the Yazhou side, and they are powerless to protect the sea frontier. Even the sea route from the mouth of the Pearl River to Qiongzhou has not been very peaceful in recent months. Now it is up to the Haihan militia to send their own armed ships to escort the ships that come and go on this waterway. Today, all of you went south by boat to take up your duties, and you also specially invited the Haihan people to send armed ships to escort the fleet. ”

When Liu Qian said this, his tone was also quite complacent. Although many officials in the Guangdong officialdom have sat at the same table with the Haihan people, eaten and drank, and also received silver tickets from the Haihan to give the Haihan all kinds of conveniences, but if you really want to talk about the depth of this dealing, there is really nothing in the officialdom that can compare with him Liu Qian- In the past year, the objects of Haihan's gifts in Guangdong officialdom have basically been paved by Liu Qian's guidance, who must give and who can't send, how much should be sent, whether to send silver or luxury goods, and what channels to send.

It is precisely because of Liu Qian's ability to express his strength that when people in Guangdong officialdom have a request for Haihan and the conditions are not appropriate, they often have to use Liu Qian's special channel to spread the word to the Haihan people. For example, during the most panicked period on Hong Kong Island, in addition to finding a timber merchant to act as a messenger to express goodwill to the Haihan people in the south of Hong Kong Island, he also found Liu Qian through various channels and asked him to come forward to negotiate with the Guangzhou Office on terms, hoping to maintain peaceful coexistence between the two sides as much as possible.

Although Liu Qian was a little surprised that the sailor actually took the initiative to bow his head to the Haihan People's League, he still went to find the Guangzhou Office. Of course, Marik's old fritter naturally didn't make any actual promises to him, just to ensure that the militia would not take the initiative to attack the warships or personnel of the Daming Navy Division - and when it was really necessary to fight, it would not be difficult to come up with a "passive defense" to destroy the small sailors.

At present, the matter of Haihan armed ships escorting civilian fleets has actually been implemented since the chaos in northern Qiongbei. Haihan's propaganda was to prevent pirates from attacking civilian ships in this part of the water, so the militia sent armed ships to escort them. But the actual purpose is to control the ships entering and leaving Qiongzhou Island, and every sailboat that joins the fleet will be inspected in advance by the militia in the name of safety, and the boarding personnel must also be registered according to the head, basically eliminating the way for spies to enter Qiongzhou Island through guò.

However, this practice is very well received by the people, because before this, many merchant ships and civilian ships have been sacked by pirates in the waters near Qiongzhou, and some have not even appeared with people and ships again. At that time, because of the people's complaints, the capital city of Qiongzhou had to send a local sailor to suppress the bandits, but it was also gone. Now, if it weren't for the Haihan armed ships to escort the ship, many maritime merchants in the Pearl River valley would not even dare to send ships to Qiongzhou.

As always, Haihan kept a low profile in this matter, claiming that the reason for sending armed ships to escort the escort was "a request from the Liangguang Governor's Palace", and gave this benefit to Liu Qian. Therefore, many people in the market believe that the reason why Haihan is willing to go to great lengths to do this is because Cheng Dù still looks at Liu Qian's face, so far people from all walks of life who have asked Haihan have found Liu Qian for help, and the benefits brought to him naturally do not need to be said. Of course, this also affected Liu Qian's reputation from the side, and now the outside world generally believes that he is a representative of the pro-Haihan faction.

Lord Yan was really on the road, and immediately praised Liu Qian along the way. Liu Qianzheng was fluttering and complacent, and his eyes caught a glimpse of a black carriage driving on the official road in the distance, and there were horse guards in front and behind, so he put the teacup on a few sides, stood up and said, "It's coming, it's coming." ”

Seeing this, the group of alternate officials who were also waiting under the tea shed also got up one after another, and some of them were as unknown as the surnamed Yan, and they also asked left and right who the person was. Someone immediately explained: "This carriage with blue on a black background is only available in the Haihan Office in Guangzhou, and the one who can travel in this carriage is either Director Ma or Director He." ”

Someone next to him responded: "This must be Director Ma, Director He didn't have so many horse team guards when he traveled in a carriage, and he was all alone." ”

The cart of horses soon arrived at the dock, and the group of people waiting here suddenly found that these knights were carrying a thick three-foot-long firearm on their backs, and one of the knights led by him grabbed the reins and jumped off the horse, but saw that he not only had a firearm on his back, but also a short firearm on the left and right sides of his waist and crotch inserted in the holster, and his eyes swept over the faces of these people present like an eagle falcon, and even Liu Qian felt a chill passing over him.

After this person determined the situation at the scene, he walked to the side of the carriage and whispered a report, and then the door opened from the inside, and a middle-aged man wearing a Haihan-style shirt, long pants and leather shoes got out of the car, which was the director of the horsepower department of the Haihan office in Guangzhou. And the head of the bodyguard with three long and short guns on his back was Gong Seventeen, the right-hand man under He Xi. There happened to be no other task today, so He Xi sent him out with the field team to make a cameo appearance as a bodyguard.

Of course, in fact, the measures of this bodyguard still have a slight element of demonstration and prestige, and the wharf where the official fleet docks is only a little more than a mile away from the courtyard of the Guangzhou Office, and it can be said that this place is still within the sphere of influence of the Guangzhou Office, and almost all the workers on this wharf are doing things for Haihan, and no one has always dared to make trouble here. Gong Qiqi rode out of the field team with a short-barreled rifle on his back and went around this circle, showing off his force far more than performing bodyguard duties.

"Director Ma, let me wait!" Liu Qian had already taken the initiative to greet him with a smile on his face, although his tone was slightly complaining, but his expression was like seeing a relative.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Master Liu, I've been waiting for you for a long time!" Ma Li Ke said again and again: "I'm really sorry, I just accompanied the distinguished guests from Fujian to talk about things, and I haven't been able to get out, delaying everyone's time!"

One of the alternate officials snorted coldly and said, "I don't know what kind of distinguished guest can let me wait for more than ten imperial court officials to blow the wind on this dock for more than half an hour?"

Marik glanced at this person, secretly noted his appearance, and said with the same expression on his face: "Lord Xu Xinsu, the chief soldier of Fujian, came to our place to discuss the purchase of new artillery and warships, what objection does this lord have to this?"

The man was immediately dumbfounded, although the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were born one level higher than the military attachés, but the Fujian General Army was not a petty official with sesame mung beans, and not everyone could speak humiliating. In recent years, Xu Xinsu has made a remarkable career in Fujian, not only has his own maritime trade business become bigger, but he has also led his troops to defeat the "Eighteen Zhi" entrenched on Dayuan Island. It only took Xu Xinsu two or three years to accumulate military exploits, and he was promoted from a naval commander with 2,000 troops to a provincial commander-in-chief, and his reputation was also praised in Guangdong.

Moreover, it is rumored that this Xu Zongbing has a deep relationship with Haihan, and a large number of merchant ships travel between Fujian and Qiongzhou and Sanya every year. In recent years, the combat power of the Fujian Navy Division has increased sharply, and almost all of them have been equipped with light and heavy firearms made by Haihan, which must also have strong support from Haihan people. It is said that the imperial court was also very dissatisfied with the erosion of coastal defense in Guangdong, and had already intended to transfer Xu Xinsu, who had achieved outstanding results in recent years, to Guangdong to take up a post to rebuild coastal defense.

Seeing that the man obediently shut up, Mariko had no intention of continuing to pursue him, and said loudly at the moment: "Your Excellency will go to Qiongzhou Island this time, and it will inevitably be hard work along the way. ”

As soon as Mariko finished speaking, someone took out several wooden boxes from the back of the carriage, each half a foot long and three inches wide, and only half an inch thick. At that moment, someone was responsible for distributing it to each household, and every official got one.

Liu Qian heard someone in the crowd behind him muttering: "The Haihan people are so poor and sour, I thought that the director would be more generous when he came, but he sent this useless medicine...... Oh, this isn't medicine......"

Liu Qian just snorted lightly in his nose, and secretly scolded a hillbilly in his heart. As soon as he saw the box, he knew that this gift was not simple, because every time someone from the Guangzhou Office sent him a silver ticket, it was filled with this kind of wooden box carved from rosewood, but he didn't know how many people were sold by the Guangzhou Office this time.

However, soon people began to thank Marico one after another, and it seems that it should not be too small. Liu Qian will not be jealous of Marik giving money to these alternate officials who go to Qiongzhou Island, he has cooperated with the Haihan people for a long time, he knows the Haihan people's work habits, simply put, how much money is paid for how much they do, as long as they do what they should do well, the Haihan people will naturally present the silver tickets with the fragrance of ink on time and in quantity.

After answering a few words, Marik said loudly: "I think you adults also know that the wind and waves on this sea have not been calm recently, and there have always been pirates in the Qiongzhou Strait. In order for you to arrive on Qiongzhou Island safely, Master Liu specially came to negotiate with me more than half a month in advance, and asked us to deploy armed ships to escort the fleet of the adults. ”