Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1358 Journey to Jiangxi ([-])

On January 1664, 1, the troop carrier that Wang Zhijie had been talking about had just hit the road.

This team consisted of two "August [-]" class battleships, four steam engine sailing ships, a water supply ship, an ammunition supply ship, a repair ship, a troop carrier, a coal carrier and a The huge fleet of medical ships has just left Jeju Island, and is preparing to take advantage of the strong northeasterly wind to sail directly south to Macau; after supply and maintenance, it will go south to Malacca again, following the counterclockwise circulation of the North Indian Ocean in winter and spring Go south through the coast of East Africa to Xinhua Port, and finally look for opportunities to return home.

Such a fleet with a total tonnage of nearly 1.4 tons left, except for the first batch of more than [-] officers and soldiers of the First Division of the New Army.

In addition to their family members, they also carried a large amount of Ming and Qing books, jewelry and jade, antique relics, and gold and silver. The amount is not large, about two to three million taels. In addition, there are cash and material discounted in Diu, India, which add up to more than 400 million East Coast silver dollars.Although it is not as large as the Spanish treasure fleet, which costs more than 30 million pesos every year, once it is snatched away, it is extremely painful. Therefore, the two battleships have been waiting in the Yellow Sea for a long time, waiting for all the goods, personnel, and ships. After they were all assembled, they went south and returned to the country together.

As for the extremely powerful three-deck battleship "Eastern Man", together with a water supply ship and an ammunition supply ship, it stayed in Ningbo Fuding Harbor, waiting for the last batch of medicinal materials, furs and personnel ( Most of them are departing officials and their family members, such as Bingtuanbao graduates who were sent to the Far East in large numbers in the past few years) to take their positions, and then go south to the port of Rabaul and Jinshan Port in Australia, and return to the mainland on the east coast by the South Pacific route.

At this time, within the jurisdiction of the Southern Exploration Team, where the administrative divisions had just been adjusted, Major Jiang Zhiqing, who had just taken office as a new official, sent a delegation of more than [-] envoys on board the ship "Baikal" of the Bank of Taiwan while familiarizing himself with the situation. ", has just sailed out of the increasingly prosperous Dinghai Port in a low-key manner, and headed for the Jiangxi Shunjun-controlled area.

The speed of the "Baikal" was extremely fast, and it took only one day to reach Chongmingsha. After unloading some food, repaired ordnance and building materials, the "Baikal" set sail again and sailed into the Yangtze River With a smug mouth, the goal is directed at Madang Town, Jiangxi.

It is the middle of winter on both sides of the Yangtze River. Looking around, there are dead branches and leaves, bleak and decaying scenes everywhere, which makes people feel unreasonably depressed, thinking that the Central Empire is also in this bleak place on both sides of the Yangtze River. , the people's livelihood is withered, all industries are ruined, and starvation is everywhere.However, the facts may be somewhat deviated from the literati's imaginary scene——

In fact, in the past few years since the de facto peace talks with the Qing Dynasty, the Yangtze River Basin has calmed down a lot.In northern Zhejiang, Jiangsu (established just in the second year of Kangxi), and Anhui (also established in the second year of Kangxi), the food, salaries and materials south of the Ergaoguan River can also be transferred to the north on a large scale. The circulation of goods between the north and the south has been greatly strengthened, and the economy has grown rapidly. There has been improvement—of course, with the peace of the Northland for almost 20 years, the population and products have also increased greatly, and it is no effort to support the entire Qing court. After all, many troops of "My Great Qing" live in the south. .

The biggest worry of the Qing court now is probably the restraint caused by the thieves in yellow. The Denglai theater in Shandong and the Amur River theater in the northeast are like two steel knives at the vital points of the Qing court, making them whenever they want to When trying to wipe out the forces of Nanming, Dashun, or Daxi, they are always unable to do their best. After a long delay, the opportunity to quickly sweep and unify the country at a small cost has been lost. It will be very difficult to fight an annexation war later. And the intensity will be very high. If you don't fight for many years, there will be no results.

"This land in the north of the Yangtze River was visited by Marshal Mo in the early years. At that time, in the battle of Yangzhou, Shi Tingzhu ran away with his head in his arms. Later, Commander Liao Xiaoyao, who immigrated 50 million to Huai'an Mansion, made great achievements and suffered heavy losses. The prestige of the Qing court caused the decisive battle that had been brewing for a long time on the front line of Huguang to come to an end. Hehe, I heard from businessmen from the north that the Qing court is still in Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Henan and other places to publicize that Commander Liao has slaughtered the city in Huai'an for several months. Killing 50 people will cut off the flow of Surabaya and Dahe. Hey, don’t tell me, there are really many people who believe it, because we have evacuated the population of Qingjiangpu, Huai’an Fucheng and other places, and the remaining fools Once the foolish woman is preached by the government and gentry, our "massacre of the city" has really become a fact!" On the front deck of the "Baikal", Sun Wu, the senior staff officer of the Southern Theater Command and the army captain, said to everyone with a smile: "I heard that the Qing court relocated some population from Anhui, Henan and other provinces with faster population recovery to supplement the large number of people lost in Huai'an Prefecture. At the same time, they were very busy repairing the Qingjiang Pu sluice and dredging the canal. Uh, fair To put it bluntly, the imperial court of the Tartars is really strong in execution. They can do whatever they want when they give an order, and cut down those who don’t listen. If this kind of administrative efficiency is used in the construction of places, it is really stronger than Nanming, Dashun, and Daxi. There are many people on all walks of life."

"Let's not talk about Nanming, it's hard to get back, warlords are everywhere, there is no cure." Guo Puxia, an army captain who has been transferred from the gendarmerie to the local army, curled his lips and said: "According to the analysis report of the State Intelligence Bureau, except businessmen Except for the relatively high vitality of this class, the rest is a stagnant pool with no future. In fact, you can see that Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and some remote areas in western Guangdong under the direct administration of the Yongli court are far less economically and socially active than Fujian, Eastern Guangdong, of course, those two places have always had a tradition of doing business, so they cannot be generalized. In short, I still say that the court of Nanming should not be supported, and the cost-effectiveness ratio is too low. If you invest ten yuan, it may only produce one yuan. Even the benefit of fifty cents, it’s still a fart, it’s better to invest in Dashun Group, which may generate three or four yuan in benefits, which is more cost-effective than investing in Nanming’s bottomless pit.”

"Aren't we going to the territory of Dashun?" Navy captain Liu Fubo interjected, "Now seeing that the Qing court's vitality is gradually recovering, Dashun has also been mobilizing its troops and accumulating strength in the past four years. The last time it fought Jiangxi and Hunan, it showed its sharpness. , the intention to expand the depth of the abdomen is very obvious, and it seems that it is also preparing for the general attack of the Qing Dynasty who does not know when it will come."

In fact, from the standpoint of the east coast, they don't want any wars to break out in China in the short term, especially the wars between the Qing court and Dashun. They must be suppressed if they can. After all, they have a large number of immigrants on hand. , it was almost completely shipped until 1668 (the time of arrival in the mainland was 1670).Therefore, at least before that, they do not want all parties to go to war. The population of China at this time is estimated to be 6000 million (about 1645 million at the beginning of 7400). Therefore, they hope that both the North and the South will have a long period of recuperation so that the population and economy can recover to a certain extent.

In recent years, merchants from the Qing Dynasty in Shandong, Jiangsu, and northern Zhejiang came to trade, and the amount of raw silk, tea, porcelain, and medicinal materials they brought for trade was increasing year by year. , sandalwood, etc.), high-grade furs, large livestock, black pearls, Taiwan cane sugar, tobacco, medicinal materials, East Coast curiosities (such as clocks, etc.), soap (rising in recent years) and other commodities are also increasing year by year. This shows the degree of economic recovery.

Although the trade volume between the people on the east coast and Lu Wangbu, Dashun, and Nanming has also increased, in terms of growth rate, it is not as good as the trade with the Qing Dynasty. This shows that Zhili, Henan, and Shanxi have been in peace for a long time. The degree of population and socio-economic recovery in places such as Gansu, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Shandong far exceeds that of Huguang, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian, which have been hit and killed all the time.This cognition makes the people on the east bank a little depressed. After so many years of co-authoring in the Yangtze River Basin, the strength of the Qing Dynasty has not been greatly affected. As long as you can't hit the hinterland of his northern provinces, it may not be possible It hurts him. After all, the Manchu Qing court in this era is far less bloated than later generations, and the rate of corruption of the Eight Banners is not as fast as later generations, and it has not completely developed the habit of relying on southern water transportation.

Except for the lack of silver in the market, everything in and outside the Qing Dynasty did not seem to have changed much, and they could make do with it.In particular, the high-yielding crops of the New World, such as corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, which flowed into the Qing Dynasty from the east coast, have become more and more domesticated by the climate in northern China in recent years, and their yields have increased year by year. This undoubtedly represents a larger population. Can be supported, and population is often a manifestation of strength in many cases.

Such a Qing court is indeed capable of launching a war of unification and annexation to the south, and this is actually the reason why the east coast side sent people by boat to the area controlled by the Shun army.There was no way, although there had been some rifts between Dashun and Dong'an due to the attack on Nanming; although Dong'an even supported Liu Fangliang's adopted son, General Guoyi Liu Zhonggui's fight for the control of Zuoying, which made Li Guo very angry But this will not be the time to get angry after all. Manqing has recharged his energy for four years, and has finished taking care of the internal affairs (Azig has been given to death), and it will probably be within two or three years to launch a large-scale unification war. ——This can be seen from many signs. A while ago, some Manchu businessmen even asked if they could buy some black water horses when their business was doing very happily in the past few years. It can be seen from this.

And when the people on the east bank conveyed the news to Li Hou in Changsha through the Guo Sheng Department in Jiangxi, they also opened up wasteland and farmed land, opened up subjects to obtain scholars, and governed the local area (in recent years, some gentry who took the initiative to come over have been appointed, and the local economy has improved. The Dashun court immediately paid attention to it, and the generals of the battalions met once in Changsha. Li Guo unified his thinking and urged all the ministries to mobilize their horses and horses, reward warriors generously, complete their armor, big guns and small guns, Military supplies such as medicine and flint must be stored in place, in case the Tartar court army attacks at any time.

In addition, after hearing the news brought back by the gunboats of the East Coast Navy that were going to trade in the Baling area, the Shun army aggressively conscripted husbands in the Hunan area, repairing rivers and official roads, and a large number of bastions have also urgently entered the repair process. The dog jumped, and the people complained, but the Shun army remained unmoved and insisted on finishing these things, which shows its determination to stand ready for death—no way, Dashun is on the front line of the Qing army going south. If this string is tightened, it will be wiped out long ago. The Ming army, who has been hiding in the rear for many years, may find it difficult to appreciate their sense of urgency.

The "Baikal" armed transport ship finally arrived at the Madang Fortress in Jiangxi Province on the afternoon of January 1. It was rebuilt by people from the east coast and handed over to the Shun army after retreating. In recent years, it has become a confrontation between the Shun army and the Qing army. It is an important first-line town, with more than 25 elite troops from Guo Sheng's department stationed all year round.

Immediately after the ship docked at the Shuizhai Wharf, local merchants came to sell food and small commodities in small boats, and Lifu on the wharf was also eyeing, ready to grab the unloading business at any time—the "smoking boats" from the east have come to do it over the years. In business, whenever there are too many large and small packages of goods, a lot of people have to be called to unload them.What's more, sometimes the ships carry some valuable things, and the generals in Guo Dashuai's army don't worry about their clumsy men, but General Zhong Erlang personally sends them over to unload and carry the goods. these things.

"Let these people get out of the way." Guo Puxia, who was wearing the uniform of a lieutenant on the east coast, jumped onto the bluestone pier, grabbed two Shunjun soldiers who were staring blankly on the pier, and walked towards the bustling people on the pier. The crowd pointed and said: "Even the brothel turtle came over, do you think we are here to visit the brothel? You are from Guo Shi'an, go and report, saying that the Eastern Dynasty mission is visiting, and there is a large amount of ordnance on board. Tell him to send someone to clear the pier quickly. Uh, yes, find someone to bring some coal over to resupply the ship, don’t worry, we will pay you money, and we are not robbers.”

There was a clear sound of horseshoes on the pier. Guo Puxia, Sun Wu and others who had already landed looked around, only to see Guo Shi'an led by Dashun Zhongying in official uniforms to drive over.Sun Wu's sharp eyes saw that Guo Shi'an was actually riding a mixed-breed warhorse sold by the East Bank (the eliminated product of the Mazheng Project, commonly known as the black water horse), which made him smile, and at the same time he was a little proud: these soil turtles, Without my Dadong'an's help, I'm afraid the grass on the grave would be taller than the elders. I don't know how to write the dead word if I dared to have a quarrel with us and play petty temper!

"General Sun, General Guo, General Liu—ah, and General Tian, ​​you four come here together, you are really rare, rare visitors!" Guo Shi'an got off his horse from a distance on the side of the street, and then walked over in a hurry. , while walking, he laughed and said, looking extremely heroic.

(End of this chapter)