Dominate the Country

Just when Japan was experiencing a "political earthquake", Luo Fangbai, who came to Sudan from Aden to take up his post, was already leisurely checking the achievements of Port Sudan in the past few months.

Luo Fangbai offended someone. When the Immigration Bureau was abolished, Luo Fangbai not only did not move up to the provincial level, but was kicked to the Arabian Peninsula. Luo Fangbai participated in all of Chen Han's actions on the Arabian Peninsula in recent years, and his official position was promoted.

But the interests of the Suez Canal were too great. The commander-in-chief there had long been determined to be Duan Guorui, who had a deep connection. Although Luo Fangbai was promoted, he was kicked from the Arabian Peninsula to Port Sudan in the middle of the Red Sea. His mission is to expand and strengthen Chen Han's power in Sudan.

Before Chen Han officially attacked South Africa, Chen Han's claws reached into Sudan. This rich land has a vast area, but the coastline is quite narrow, limited to the northeastern part. After a year of exploration, the exploration team only found a small bay in the middle of the northeastern coastline and established Port Sudan.

The harbor is really small, with a coastline of less than five miles. The shallow northwest coast is a small boat dock, and the ocean ship dock is distributed on the east and south coasts of the bay.

Since the establishment of the port, Sudan's economic activity has suddenly risen to a big step. Not only has the goods between the tribes been more fully circulated, but the "class" of indigenous merchants has also officially stepped onto the historical stage of Sudan. Located in the middle of the Red Sea, the location of Port Sudan plays a good connecting role between Egypt and Aden Port.

After arriving in Port Sudan, Luo Fangbai issued a formal order to discuss the plan to upgrade Port Sudan from a town to a city. Luo Fangbai is the Sudanese governor, and he has the qualifications.

Hongji City, Singapore City, etc. in China, these places have also come from small port towns. Upgrading to a "city" is the path that Port Sudan must take in the future. Luo Fangbai just moved the time forward a little!

This upgrade plan was beyond the expectations of many people, but as soon as Luo Fangbai proposed it, it was strongly supported by local officials and expatriates in Port Sudan. Because everyone knows the benefits of upgrading the port town to a city. If Port Sudan becomes Sudan City and gets ahead of Aden Port in the promotion, then it will become Chen Han’s political center in the Red Sea region, which is of great benefit to officials and local expatriate merchants.

When the Suez Canal is completed, the Port of Suez will inevitably become one of the important ports in the Tianfang world. Not only its economic status, but also its strategic status will be greatly improved. Unfortunately, the control of this port will not fall into the hands of Chen Han in a short time. Although Luo Fangbai did not know the evil intentions of Emperor Chen towards the Ottoman Empire, he clearly saw that the control of the Suez Canal was in the hands of the Ottomans instead of Chen Han, and he felt that this was the best opportunity for Port Sudan.

With the Suez Canal and the rich Sudan behind it, Port Sudan is likely to become the political center of Chen Han in the Tianfang world. The court gave him the title of Sudan Protector General, which also shows the court's high hopes for Port Sudan in a way, right?

Of course, Luo Fangbai did this for selfish reasons.

Luo Fangbai, the Protector General of the Sudan Protectorate, also served as the mayor of Port Sudan. After all, the current Sudan Protectorate's territory is limited to a small Port Sudan. Luo Fangbai really wants to upgrade the small town and let himself taste the mayor of a big city.

Since he entered the officialdom, he has always longed to be able to herd people, but unfortunately, Luo Fangbai has never had such an opportunity. He joined Chen Han when the Fu Han Army went south to Guangdong and Guangxi, and served in the Jiaying government, but his rank was not high. Later, he signed up to go south and completed a major transformation from a middle-lower-level civil servant to a seventh-rank official in West Borneo. When Li Kun was in trouble, he was already a fifth-rank official. But Luo Fangbai has always been an assistant officer.

When Li Kun was in trouble, Luo Fangbai was an envoy of the Chinese delegation negotiating with the Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengku Buwono II. Relying on this good relationship, Luo Fangbai was transferred back to Guangdong from West Borneo, and his rank was promoted to the fifth rank - the threshold of middle-level officials, but he was still not the chief officer. Then he was transferred to the Immigration Bureau. Before the Immigration Bureau was abolished, his official position was already the deputy director of the Immigration Bureau from the third rank. But what's the use of this? Isn't it still an assistant officer?

But in the current Sudan, Luo Fangbai is a regular official. But the importance of Port Sudan is much less than that of the previous Port of Aden, and the rank of Port Sudan is only from the sixth rank. What's the taste of being a regular official?

But what if it is upgraded to a "city"? That is at least from the fourth rank, which is higher than the county in China. Luo Fangbai is now a third-rank official. Is it a bit of a taste to be a mayor from the fourth rank?

It didn't take much time for Port Sudan to come up with a formal upgrade plan.

But any plan is empty before it is completed. Whether Port Sudan can be upgraded to a city as expected depends on the construction achievements of Port Sudan.

The most important thing for an official is to do it!

However, after Luo Fangbai really understood the progress of Port Sudan's commercial development, he could hardly believe his eyes. The recent earnings report of Port Sudan really blinded his 24k pure titanium alloy dog ​​eyes.

"Three thousand pounds of tax in one quarter? Are you sure? You can't even tax the court's ships?" The chief of the Port Sudan Customs is Zhang. But when Chief Zhang showed Luo Fangbai the customs records, Luo Fangbai's eyes were blinded.

If there is a tariff of three thousand pounds in one quarter, it will be more than ten thousand, or even fifteen thousand pounds in a year.

This is not a small number. The operation of Port Sudan requires less than 100,000 Chinese yuan a year [a little more than 2,000 pounds]. The tariff of Port Aden is only 100,000 Chinese yuan a year, just over 20,000 pounds.

Although the trade between China and the Ottoman Empire is increasing, the destination of merchant ships is the Port of Suez at the end of the Red Sea. In Luo Fangbai's impression, there are very few merchant ships unloading in Port Sudan.

You know, the annual tariff of many ports in Southeast Asia may not be even 10,000 pounds in pounds.

"Of course, the tax of the imperial transport team was confiscated. I don't plan to go to jail." Zhang Guanzhang rolled his eyes. "The tariff of Port Sudan comes more from exports and local expatriates."

Sudan is an extremely backward place. Many tribes on the coastline here can't even produce salt. A lot of salt is transported from Egypt to the inland of Sudan. The first business opportunity that the Chen Han people who moved here saw was salt. With a population of at least three million, Sudan's annual demand for salt is definitely not a small number.

The first thing they did when they arrived was to open up thousands of acres of salt fields in Port Sudan!

Then they used the snow-white salt to exchange for everything they needed - corn, wheat, a large number of livestock, and even land, as well as cotton, peanuts, sesame and gum arabic.

And these materials they exchanged were then sold to Arab merchants or Chinese merchants, making a lot of money.

There were also ironware, swords, sickles, spears, scissors, etc., which were all popular goods needed by the Sudanese tribe.

"The tariff for a town in Port Sudan is so high?" Luo Fangbai still didn't quite believe it. If this amount was the tax for the entire town of Port Sudan, Luo Fangbai might believe it, but this was just the customs tariff, which was really an astonishing number.

"Protector General, Sudan produces gum arabic and peanuts. The farm opposite has been buying peanuts since last year, and then pressing oil to send to the canal construction site. The people in this town saw it and started doing this business, and they benefited a lot."

"Moreover, there are many gold mines in the northeast of Sudan, and many tribes have gold sands. There is no currency here. Even the Ottoman currency can only be used as gold and silver here. Trading with the natives in these tribes who have gold sands is very profitable."

In a word, Director Zhang wanted to tell Luo Fangbai that although Port Sudan is not as famous as Port Aden, a tariff of 3,000 pounds in the first quarter is not impossible, but very normal.

"Trade, trade, it is indeed trade that makes money." Luo Fangbai sighed inwardly. Sudan is like a big market, and now Port Sudan is the only window to the outside world, just like the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou during the Qing Dynasty. As long as we can go deep into Sudan and open up a wider market in Sudan, the future of Port Sudan is extremely bright.

Egypt is 90% desert, and the ships on the Nile River can only reach Aswan at most, which is still a long way from Sudan.

It is better to go through Port Sudan to transport bulk goods from Egypt to Sudan.

In fact, although the overseas Chinese in Port Sudan have only moved here for a few days, some of them are already thinking about how to mine gold in the northeastern region of Sudan.

According to their investigation, there should be a gold belt in the northeast of Sudan. If the gold mine can be developed, the fiscal revenue of Port Sudan will have a qualitative increase.

Now the customs duty of Port Sudan is 3,000 pounds, which is really a small witch in front of the big witch.

After meeting with Zhang, the director of the customs, Luo Fangbai met with many key officials in Port Sudan one after another, and finally summoned the financial chief here, Lin Siwen.

"Port Sudan has a promising development momentum, Lord Lin, I think your report should also be good news, right?" Luo Fangbai asked with a smile.

Lin Siwen chuckled, "Your Excellency, I don't have any bad news here. Port Sudan's finances are very loose, and the growth rate is quite high compared with the same period last year. The increase in trade volume and the development of the trading market are very good. In addition, the Sudanese native laborers who poured into the town in the first quarter of this year accounted for 50% of the labor force in the whole year of last year." This growth rate is very high.

"We have no less than one million in savings in our finances. If we spend all this money, I want to know if we can build a road that connects Port Sudan directly to Atbara?"

Atbara is in the northeast of Sudan, between the fifth and sixth waterfalls of the upper reaches of the Nile River, and is five or six hundred miles away from Port Sudan. It is an important control point city of Ilam in Sudan, and it is also the most marginal area of ​​the radiation area of ​​Port Sudan today.

Going further inland, that is, Khartoum, the political and military center of Ilam in Sudan, is still quite a distance away.

But this is enough.

In Luo Fangbai's opinion, as long as Port Sudan expands its economic radiation to Atbara City, the Sudanese indigenous tribes within this range can fully support a "Sudan City".

He has already inquired about the situation of Sudanese indigenous tribes, and the chiefs have great power. 1 million yuan can be exchanged for things that Sudanese indigenous people like, and given to the chiefs of the tribes, and then let them send labor to build this line. It doesn't require a big project. You just need to dig a drainage channel on the surveyed route, burn all the grass and trees, and use a stone roller to crush a piece.

There is no need to pave the stone road surface, just a simple treatment.

Luo Fangbai thinks it's worth a try.

Anyway, this dirt road is not a real road, and the quality must be taken into account. This dirt road is just a good advertisement for the expansion of Port Sudan.

No matter what happens, the indigenous tribes between Port Sudan and Atbara will remember the name of Port Sudan.

Luo Fangbai is just running an advertisement worth millions of yuan.

But none of the administrative officials of Sudan Protectorate opposed it. Even the local expatriates donated money after hearing the news. They didn't know that it was just an advertisement by Luo Fangbai. They thought that Port Sudan was really going to build a road to Atbara.

Then they would definitely support it, because the expatriates in Port Sudan were planning to dig for gold in the northeast of Sudan.