As an experienced senior manager of an overseas development company, Li Datong has been working in Africa for more than ten years.
During this period, he accumulated a lot of wealth. In addition to bank deposits, purchasing treasury bonds, funds, etc., he also partnered with others to set up a small gold mine in Maputo House.
Although Li Datong is not a rich man, he definitely belongs to the wealthy class.
He can basically enjoy everything that can be enjoyed with money in daily life.
And what he can't enjoy, even if his assets increase ten times, he won't be able to enjoy it...but it is exclusive to the real rich.
Generally speaking, even if he earns tens of thousands of Chu yuan a year, it is unlikely that his living standard will change much.
In terms of career development, he is actually almost at the end. He is one of the many directors of the Guinea Development Company and belongs to the company's senior management. If he goes up further, he will not be able to get involved.
As for the higher-level supervision and co-organizer, the supervisor is an official sent from the Industrial Department of the Golden State Governor's Mansion, and the co-organizer is a professional manager sent by Qinghe Investment Company, a major shareholder of private capital.
Responsible for the management of a specific matter is the limit that Li Datong, a non-major shareholder representative and official, can do.
The subsequent development may be to move to a larger development company as a manager, or accept an invitation from a smaller development company to serve as a co-organizer, etc., but in fact they are similar and there is not much difference.
Li Datong also considered setting up his own small private development company a few years ago, but gave up in the end.
Overseas development companies are a very special enterprise that cannot be run by ordinary people... because development companies not only simply farm and develop minerals, but are often accompanied by military operations.
You have seized land from the indigenous people and then used labor dispatch. Of course the indigenous people will not tolerate you... they will also resist.
Therefore, the military risk is still quite high!
If an ordinary private person wants to start an enterprise with a strong sense of "colonial company", you can't do it in a big one, and the government won't let you do it, and you can't even buy weapons...Small and micro colonial enterprises, in the administrative territory It's OK, but the profit is too low. It's no different from ordinary immigrants. Even if the cultivated land area is larger, you can't actually make much money, let alone bring any sense of accomplishment to people like Li Datong... If the market goes bad, for example, if the prices of the crops you grow fall, you may even lose money.
If you go to the indigenous-controlled areas, you need the protection of armed forces. If you go to the indigenous-controlled areas to build some plantations without strong armed forces, your investment will be easily beaten by meat buns and never come back.
The natives don't tell you that private property is not inviolable. They think you are an intruder from outside, plundering their wealth and enslaving their population. When you mention you, they want to chew you up and spit you out...Chu people In many indigenous countries, its reputation is not very good, and in the eyes of the locals, it is no different from a devil.
If you don’t have enough force to protect yourself, it’s normal for you to be beaten, smashed, and robbed. Even if it makes a big fuss and many Chu people are killed or injured, the Chu official will usually send troops to retaliate... But the official retaliation has nothing to do with you personally. It doesn't matter what the loss is, you won't get a dime from the official compensation.
Besides, the official revenge of the Chu State will only come after a big commotion... In fact, the Chu State official generally doesn't care about the ordinary casualties and property losses of the Chu people in the indigenous-controlled areas... It doesn't matter if they want to. Don't come.
There are so many Chu people who have fled to the indigenous-controlled areas, and the communication methods and transportation are backward. The Chu officials themselves don't know how many people have fled... The devil knows where you died.
Therefore, in most cases, when Chu people go to the indigenous-controlled areas to do business, travel, etc., they are responsible for their own safety.
What stands out is that a person's life and death are determined by fate and wealth. Don't expect the official to save you if something goes wrong...
Even the Chu Empire, which had global territory and dominated the earth, could not protect every citizen who was seeking death in the indigenous-controlled areas.
Li Datong has been in Africa for many years and knows very well how many Chu people die in Africa every year... many of them are people who have a small fortune and then go to plantations in indigenous-controlled areas.
He didn't want to be next.
Therefore, it is not reliable to run a private development company, at least not for ordinary people like him.
But for Li Datong, whether it is money, career, or even social status, it has now reached a bottleneck period and it is difficult to overcome it.
Moreover, Li Datong is ambitious and has dreams.
So in the end he accepted Chen Jingyun's invitation to stay and work in the West African Kingdom, where he hoped to achieve greater development and greater satisfaction.
Of course, it is impossible to directly become a citizen and serve as an official in the West African Kingdom... Changing nationality would have too much impact, and Li Datong would not mess around, so he just accepted the employment and served as Chen Jingyun's personal consultant.
He didn't confiscate too much money, which meant that he received an annual salary of several thousand yuan a year. In addition, Chen Jingyun gave him a land of more than 30 square kilometers near Kala City with a wave of his hand. He did not rent it, but gave him the property rights directly. That kind of thing.
But in Africa, pure land is actually worthless. Even if the land is tens of square kilometers, it is just a small piece of land a few kilometers long and wide. You can bring some armed men to the indigenous-controlled areas and you can do it yourself. Occupying a large area of land, hundreds of square kilometers or whatever, is nothing.
Only land that is safe and fully developed is valuable. To be more precise, only land that is maturely developed in the directly controlled territories or administrative territories directly controlled by the Chu Empire is valuable.
The land here owned by Chen Jingyun obviously does not count.
Part of what Li Datong valued was power. Although he joined the team as a private consultant, his actual job was to do things like economic development, plantations, and port construction.
But what matters more, and the reason that prompted him to join the West African Kingdom, is the sense of accomplishment.
Take charge of the economic development of a small kingdom, and then develop a small fishing village port into a real port city to get the economic development of a micro-nation on the right track.
This sense of accomplishment is much greater than the sense of accomplishment brought by a simple business leader of a company.
To be honest, Chen Jingyun was a little surprised by Li Datong's smooth joining... Originally, his poaching targets were just some ordinary technical personnel in the Guinea Development Company.
As for recruiting Li Datong, the executive of the Guinea Development Company, it was by the way... He has the kind of mentality where you can chat without losing a piece of meat. If he is invited, he will make a lot of money, and the other party will not come over. Nothing to lose.
After all, the invitation was polite and sincere... well, at least that was the attitude.
If the other party doesn't want to, he can at most say something like wishful thinking, but it won't turn against him or lead to retaliation.
But he didn't expect that Li Datong would actually agree to him... although only in the name of a personal consultant.
This surprised Chen Jingyun, and also allowed Chen Jingyun to initially recognize Li Datong... He is a person with ideas and ideals.
There are also some brain problems...
Because anyone with a normal mind would not agree to his invitation.
Coincidentally, Li Datong also felt that there was something wrong with Chen Jingyun. How could a normal person do such a thing as establishing a country overseas?
So, this is a situation where two people who think the other person has a brain problem got in touch and finally reached a cooperation.
unusual!
But these did not affect the continued operation of the small country of the West African Kingdom. After Li Datong served as Chen Jingyun's personal consultant, he quickly showed his rich experience and outstanding abilities.
First, a series of plantation development plans and even specific management methods were formulated. Li Datong used to be in the agricultural business. To put it bluntly, he managed many plantations under the company.
He is very experienced in the development and management of plantations.
In addition, Chen Jingyun also hired several ordinary agricultural technicians to serve as agricultural technical consultants, so there were no problems with planting technology.
This means that the agricultural development that Chen Jingyun has high hopes for is successfully on the right track.
At the same time, the Kara Hotel, which had been built for several months in Kara Port, was officially completed and ready for business at any time... The small coal mine that Chen Jingyun and the others found in the upper reaches also organized manpower to mine the first batch of several thousand tons of coal. And through Chen Jingyun and his own broken steamship, they were transported along the river to the warehouse in the port, and subsequent coal will be transported continuously.
There are restaurants to entertain guests, coal for supplying ships, not to mention food and fresh water.
Now, as the saying goes, everything is ready, all we need is the east wind, and we are waiting for the passing ships to come.
In the autumn of October, the thirty-third year of Chengshun, a transport ship was sailing slowly on the sea in the Gulf of Guinea. However, although the ship had a huge and towering chimney, there was no smoke coming from the chimney. It opened a large number of sails and moved forward slowly with the help of the wind.
On the bridge, Qian Liqun, the owner and captain of the ship, frowned and looked at the sails that had been fully opened. However, because there was not much wind on the sea, the sails looked a little soft and listless.
As a result, this transport ship of more than 3,000 tons has a pitiful speed of three knots. This speed is no different from being stationary on the vast sea.
At this rate, it would take at least ten days to reach Ghana City to replenish coal.
Thinking of this, he regretted why he had not replenished coal directly in South Africa before... South Africa is a large port, and many ships traveling to and from the east coast of America, Europe and the west coast of Africa will replenish their supplies here before continuing their journey.
However, it is precisely because of the passing of ships that the ports in South Africa are berthed, and the cost of coal supply is relatively high.
Qian Liqun is not a professional captain who works for those shipping companies. He is the owner of the Anlan transport ship. He drives his own ship to run business, so he naturally saves as much as he can.
The cost of berthing and replenishment in South Africa is relatively high, so when he used to travel to Europe, he did not replenish in South Africa. Instead, he chose to replenish in Luanda after passing South Africa.
That place was a supply port established by the empire on the west coast of southern Africa, but what a coincidence... When I arrived in Luanda, I was told that due to a temporary problem with the coal supply, the local coal was no longer available... although there would be Coal continues to arrive, but there are already more than twenty ships waiting for the coal. It will probably be half a month before it is Qian Liqun's turn.
Finally, he calculated the coal reserves on the ship, and after planning a route, he felt that he could use steam power and sail power together to reach the city of Ghana.
But what he didn't expect was that he would be extremely unlucky after setting sail. The wind on the sea was extremely limited, which resulted in the need to frequently increase the output power of the steam engine, resulting in excessive coal consumption.
So much so that he was about to run out of coal when he was still more than a thousand kilometers away from Ghana, and he had to leave some coal reserves in case of bad weather and for entering the port.
In the end, I could only rely on pure sail power and sail slowly as fast as a turtle.
If nothing happens, it doesn't matter if he runs slower, but now the goods on his ship have a delivery time limit. If the transportation time is exceeded, he will have to pay fines and compensation.
Originally, he had plenty of time, but when he was sailing in the Indian Ocean, in order to make more money, he took a detour and temporarily picked up a transportation order on the Island of Ceylon and transported a batch of supplies to the Suez region. This leads to a tight schedule...
If nothing unexpected happens, his ship will be on time and even arrive at Cadiz, the destination of this voyage, several days in advance.
The problem is, this accident happened...
So now he is worried that he will be overdue and will inevitably be fined according to the contract.
Thinking that he might be fined, Qian Liqun felt very bad.
It's hard-earned money from running a boat by yourself, and it's hard-earned money... A trip on the sea means you'll be away from home for at least half a year, and running a boat is already very hard, and the conditions are still very difficult.
It’s not easy to make money!
So at this time, he was particularly looking forward to strong winds blowing on the sea, and then arriving in the city of Ghana smoothly, then replenishing the damn coal, and arriving in Cadiz in time to avoid breach of the transportation contract.
It's a pity that God didn't give him face. There weren't even slightly bigger waves on the sea, and it was very calm.
However, the wind did not pick up, but a steam boat appeared in front.
This small steam clipper was very fast, and soon it was approaching the Anlan while emitting white smoke.
On the vast sea, a strange ship approached rashly, which naturally attracted the attention of Qian Liqun and other crew members!
Pirates have never disappeared... not only the indigenous pirates, but also the Chu pirates, and the Chu pirates are a greater threat... because the indigenous pirates may just drive small wooden boats with sails. , get a smoothbore cannon.
But Chu pirates often drove steam boats and brought rifled cannons and rifled guns obtained from the black market...
There are many pirates in this part of West Africa, and there are also many pirates from the Chu country. Although the navy has conducted many raids, it is not easy to completely eradicate them.
After all, being a pirate is so profitable that many people can ignore the risks involved.
Facing the steam clipper with unknown purpose and appearing near an unfamiliar coast, Qian Liqun directly ordered the highly paid security team captain to be more vigilant... If the steam clipper had any What kind of bad intentions are there, just give this captain a direct bombardment.
As a ship that often runs routes to Africa and Europe, the Anlan has applied for and been temporarily equipped with naval guns for self-defense... However, the gunners and naval guns are not actually fixed equipment and personnel on the Anlan. It's from a maritime security company.
Although the Da Chu Empire allowed some private merchant ships to use naval guns, it did not mean to liberalize purchase rights and allow ship owners to purchase naval guns directly and then recruit gunners themselves... There were too many uncontrollable factors and the risk was too high.
Therefore, the actual operation method is that the imperial government has directly established some maritime security companies, which are directly controlled by the government. The personnel inside are basically retired soldiers. Only these maritime security companies have the authority to purchase and use civilian rifled weapons.
This is similar to the model in which only overseas security companies can purchase civilian rifled weapons. However, overseas security companies allow private investment and operation, but only limit the size of armed personnel, while maritime security companies are only purely official enterprises...
In fact, the current maritime security companies and some large-scale overseas land security companies themselves are reformed from the armed organizations of the original Eastern Trading Company and Western Trading Company.
As the empire took full control of the Americas and colonized Africa and Europe on a large scale, these two armed trading companies came to the end of their careers and began their transformation.
The main purpose is to split the company, and the company territory that it previously operated will be directly handed over to the government and turned into an administrative territory;
The three major sectors of transportation, plantation, and armed forces were split into shipping companies, development companies, and security companies. The original large and small shareholders of the armed trading company became one of the shareholders of these subdivided business enterprises.
Because there are maritime security companies, shipping companies will apply for security services in advance according to the route of their ships. After official approval, they can sign security contracts with those maritime security companies.
Then the maritime security company will bring small-caliber naval guns and gunners or other armed personnel to the ship to perform security services...
Civilian naval guns are all small-caliber naval guns. They are not heavy and are easy to hoist. At the same time, based on this, when many civilian ships are built, they will reserve a number of deck gun positions and use unified interface standards to temporarily install maritime security. The company's small-caliber naval gun.
This is how the naval guns and a dozen armed personnel on the Anlan came...all members of the Xilin Maritime Security Company.
Qian Liqun signed this maritime security service contract with Xilin Maritime Security Company...
According to the contract, the Anlan is now equipped with a 40mm breech-mounted rifled gun. Although this gun is only a civilian version and has limited performance, it is very good for dealing with ordinary wooden ships.
Qian Liqun and the others were prepared for battle just in case...but the steam boat on the opposite side directly raised its flag, saying that they were some kind of port ship from Kara Port, and they came just to ask if they wanted to go to Kara Port for supplies. , Kara Port can provide coal and other material supplies as well as food and accommodation.
Finally, they said that if the Anlan allowed it, they could send a small rowing boat over to deliver a promotional material to them!
Port ship at Kara Port? Are you even going to the sea to solicit customers for publicity?
What kind of genius operation is this!
Moreover, he also knew that Kara Port was actually a nearby small indigenous fishing village port on the navigation map... When had it been occupied by our Chu people and made a supply port?
If it was normal, Qian Liqun would not bother to pay attention to them, and even told them to stay away for safety reasons, otherwise guns and guns have no eyes...
However, our situation is not very good now and we are in urgent need of coal replenishment.
At the same time, he also observed it personally with a telescope. The port ship opposite had no on-board firepower, and there were not even many people there, probably only a dozen or so.
Moreover, Qian Liqun also saw that there was trawling equipment on the boat... At first glance, he knew that it was just a small offshore fishing boat.
Qian Liqun was indeed right. This boat was a small offshore fishing boat purchased by Chen Jingyun in the name of a security company. On weekdays, it hunted fish to provide fish and meat for the people in Kala City. It also served as an offshore patrol boat... ...But there is nothing to patrol. If there are ships in the nearby waters, they are basically Chu people's ocean-going ships.
Therefore, the recent so-called patrol business of this small fishing boat has become to solicit customers... On weekdays, when fishing on the sea, when seeing a boat passing by, it will put up a flag to promote... If the other party can accept it, return it The other party will send you a copy of the port introduction information.
It's just that this small fishing boat has carried out a lot of publicity activities before. It has flagged more than a dozen ships in the past and sent out some information. However, not even a single ship listened to their introduction and ran directly to it. Port Kara.
After all, many ships sail on fixed routes, and they have planned in advance where they will stop for supplies. Unless an accident occurs, they will not go to other ports for supplies.
But unfortunately, something happened to the Anlan!
Therefore, after Qian Liqun hesitated for a while, he asked the personnel of the maritime security company next to him: "Is there any threat from the other party? Is it safe in case of an accident?"
The security captain nodded: "There is no problem. Even if there is any problem, my people are ready and can shoot them at any time. For a small fishing boat like this, one shot can sink it. "
After learning that safety was guaranteed, Qian Liqun began to order his crew members: "Sign up and ask them to send someone to deliver the information!"
The other party quickly sent someone to row a small boat and delivered the information.
Qian Liqun looked at this simple brochure and learned that Kara Port is now the territory of the Chu people. There is a security company stationed here and there is certain infrastructure to berth large ships. There is also an urgent need for the Anlan. of coal and other supplies.
Qian Liqun couldn't help but feel excited. After all, he had had enough of the slow pace, and he didn't want to bear the consequences of breach of contract fines.
He immediately found the security captain to discuss detailed countermeasures. Kara Port could be passed there, and supplies were also needed, but how to get there still had to be considered in detail.
After all, safety is the most important thing when sailing in a place like this!
According to the discussed countermeasures, the port will not be entered. Otherwise, if someone pulls out several artillery pieces on the shore, wouldn't it be doomed?
This supply is carried out on the sea outside the port, and the other party is asked to send unarmed boats to carry the coal, and then hoist it directly. Their Anlan has hoisting equipment, so it can be replenished directly at sea.
Although this will be troublesome, it is safe and controllable.
(End of chapter)
