Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1405 Shandong Severe Drought ([-]) (Fifth Update Today)

It is a pity that the city of Macau has been officially handed over to the Kingdom of Portugal, and not long ago, this is the news that Captain Ding Zhen, the captain of the light cruiser "Polar Star", heard at the anchorage of Tanzai Island.However, although the city had been handed over, the Portuguese politely allowed the warships on the east coast to enter the port, and arranged for some supplies to be delivered by hand—for a fee, of course.

After sending a few official documents to the Haizhu Island trading station, the light cruiser "Polaris" and two "Yaksa"-class armed transport ships full of Dan people followed the sudden southeast wind and near-surface ocean currents towards the sea. Sailed to Ningbo Fuding Harbor and anchored in Dinghai Harbor Wharf on May 1665, 5.

At the pier of Dinghai Port, a large number of transport ships are now gathering.These ships were originally immigration ships. They had just finished their work in the 1664-1665 immigration transport season. Many of them received orders to transport grain north to Shandong before they had time for overhaul and maintenance. The order was urgent. In desperation, the navy The fleet can only be divided into two parts, one part is repaired in Yantai, Jiaozhou, Jeju, Dinghai and other places nearby, and the other part is transported to the ports of North Korea and Ningbo to transport grain, and even two "Yaksa" class transport ships were also ordered to venture to the port There may still be a small number of drift ice at Dabo Port, and a large amount of cured meat and salted fish will be transported back to Dengzhou from the underground ice storage there to deal with the imminent food crisis in the local area.

The reason for this situation is actually related to the drought that is happening in Shandong today.The severe drought in Shandong that occurred in 1665 in history actually had some signs as early as the second half of 1664, but it did not attract too much attention.As a result, after the beginning of spring today, the spring rain, which Xiang said is "expensive as oil", has not come, and there has been no rain for three consecutive months. This has made the people in the six prefectures of Shandong panic. Is this a drought? ——It’s no wonder that the people think so. In fact, droughts are not uncommon in the history of Shandong, and there is even a tradition of fighting drought in the local area. Therefore, after discovering that there has been no rain for several months and the spring drought is a foregone conclusion, the people of Shandong immediately understood In my own situation, don't even think about the harvest in this year's field.

In fact, Shandong has a warm temperate monsoon climate, and most of its precipitation is concentrated in summer, which can be regarded as the same period of rain and heat. The precipitation in winter and spring is very little and unstable, and the threat of spring drought is relatively large.Now everything has come true. With the advent of the "stuck neck drought" (spring drought), the overwintering wheat planted last year has basically burped. This season's harvest is over, and it seems that there is no rain at all. The meaning of the next, so the people had no choice but to start a tragic escape from famine.

Some people may ask, will the Qing government not provide disaster relief?There are not 500 million people in the four prefectures (Jinan, Dongchang, Yanzhou, Qingzhou) of Shanxi Province, but there are 400 million people. There are so many people, and they are not dead. Would Kangxi, the emperor of the ages, turn a blind eye?Cough cough, well, it is definitely inaccurate to say that there was no disaster relief, so now I would like to invite the author to introduce how "My Qing Dynasty" provided disaster relief-according to the records of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court issued "disaster relief silver 6 taels and rice [-] shi ", what kind of concept is this, well, in fact, it is almost not enough for [-] adult men for one year's rations, but how many people are there in Shandong?Millions!The bird court actually only allocated such a small amount of money and food for disaster relief. Isn't that forcing people to die!

What's more, at that time, the Manchu Qing court only exempted Denglai Second Mansion, which was less affected by the disaster, from that year's taxes, and those that were in arrears had to be paid; Taxes (actually not much), but Kangxi’s tax arrears in the four years since he came to the throne is not less than a penny.

Since the imperial court's relief is a drop in the bucket, the people in the four prefectures of Shanxi Province will inevitably face the great threat of starvation. Fleeing from the famine in Guide Mansion and Laizhou Mansion—Huai’an Mansion, originally known as the land of fish and rice, is a good place to escape from famine, but it’s worth not mentioning it now—before fleeing famine, in order to raise enough food along the way, they basically used Cattle, farm tools, household items are mortgaged, and the grain left as seeds is also taken with him for food on the road. It can be said that any possibility of resuming production in a short period of time has been cut off. This will have a catastrophic impact on Shandong's economy in the next few years.

The people on the east bank naturally have no time to take care of the so-called production recovery in the Qing Dynasty. The most urgent task of the new official Liang Xiangjian at this time is to deal with the living problems of the people in the east bank area of ​​the second prefecture of Denglai.Although the precipitation in the second prefecture of Denglei last winter was relatively low (compared to that of the fourth prefecture), but relying on some reservoirs, reservoirs and irrigation canals that have been built intermittently in the past 20 years, the counties are about to open. The harvest of summer grain should be more or less able to keep some of the harvest, and the winter wheat will not be completely harvested, which undoubtedly makes people feel very relieved. In history, Denglai Second Prefecture was originally a "light disaster area" (of course, this is also relative) After all, about [-]% to [-]% of the harvest in the field has been preserved. Compared with Xisi Prefecture, where "two wheats (winter wheat and spring wheat) have never been harvested, and autumn crops cannot be sown", it is indeed a light disaster area.

However, although the second mansion of Denglai was less affected by the disaster, Liang Xiangjian did not dare to take it lightly. He organized people to carry water to irrigate the fields and strive for self-help in production. The two places quickly raised a batch of grain and sent it to Dengzhou to cope with the imminent food shortage.Because no one can guarantee whether the drought will continue (in fact, in the second half of 1665, the drought in Denglai Second Prefecture was greatly intensified, and there was almost no rain throughout the summer), whether the planting of autumn grains would be affected, let alone according to the people's past According to my experience, there must be locust plagues after droughts, and the impact on agricultural production is almost fatal.Therefore, Liang Xiangjian really didn't dare to be careless. He wanted to raise as much grain as possible to store up. These grains, together with some of the common people's own grain reserves, should still make it through this year. To save face, there will be no rain in the second half of this year.

Therefore, when Captain Ding Zhen's light cruiser "Polaris" arrived at Dinghai Port, he saw about seven or eight immigrant ships loading rice.These grains are emergency reserves stored in barns in Yinxian County, Dinghai and other places. The quantity is about [-] tons, which accounts for almost half of the total annual grain imports of Ningbo Prefecture.Even if it wasn't just in case, Jiang Zhiqing planned to send all the [-] tons of rice in the granary to Shandong, so the last batch of ships going south to transport immigrants should have already parked in the Maluku Islands And started to load the grain. It will be finished loading and return to the mainland in the first and middle of June. By then, more than [-] tons of new grain will arrive at Dinghai Port, and the grain in Dinghai and other places will naturally fill up again.However, just in case, Jiang Zhiqing withheld [-] tons of grain, planning to wait until the new Nanyang grain arrives in Hong Kong at the end of June before sending it to Shandong for emergency relief, so that there should be no delay.

In addition, Jiang Zhiqing also sent someone to find Shao Shuguang, the general manager of the Bank of Taiwan, and asked him to use all means to purchase at least [-] tons of rice from the Dutch East India Company. Temporarily pay for it, and if it is insufficient, take a loan from the Dutch East India Company, even if the interest rate is higher, it does not matter, after all, human life is at stake.As for purchasing food from the Nanming or Dashun regimes, it might be difficult, because they have had bad weather in recent years, so food is already in short supply, and they are preparing for a war, so there shouldn't be too much food left.

And in order to save the people of the Second Mansion of Denglai, the East Coast Navy also risked their lives this time. You must know that they are risking a typhoon to transport food southward. If it wasn't for the severe drought in Shandong, they would not have worked so hard. Summer and autumn are generally the seasons for them to rest and maintain their ships.

The [-] tons of emergency grain reserves in Ningbo and the additional [-] tons of rice purchased (if it is shipped back smoothly), this is [-] tons of grain, plus almost [-] tons in multiple granaries in Denglai Second Prefecture The stored grains such as wheat, corn, potatoes, etc., as well as the stored grains in the hands of the local people (should not exceed [-] tons), can almost fool this year.Even after "borrowing" a lot of cured meat, salted fish and even live livestock in the Heishui area, there is still some surplus in these grains, which can be used to help some people in other places, if there is any.

Of course, the three major feudal towns of the East Coast Republic of China in the Far East have all mobilized to deal with the drought. How can the Kingdom of Korea, which is so close at hand, not show their hearts?In mid-May, several North Korean envoys arrived at Yantai Port by boat from Jianghua Island, and told Liang Xiangjian that North Korea would offer 20 shi (about 1.5 tons) of rice in return to help the country survive the famine. Intimidated, the North Korean envoy finally added 30 shi with a bitter face, and a total of [-] shi of rice was donated to the Denglai pioneer team for free, which made Liang a little satisfied.

In addition, Liang Xiangjian also wrote that Wei Boqiu, who is now in charge of the economic affairs of the three major feudal towns in the Far East, asked the East Bank Korean Company and the East Bank Japanese Company under his management to step up efforts to purchase food in the two countries. On credit, even if you take some strategic materials that are in short supply as collateral, you must rush to buy as much food as possible.Wei Boqiu has already replied to express his agreement, saying that he will purchase as much grain as possible, and then transport it to Yantai, Jiaozhou, Weihai, Penglai, Yexian and other ports, and deliver it to local officials for disaster relief.

Captain Ding Zhen also sighed a little after hearing these things. It was really unpredictable. He didn't expect that the thriving Denglai Qiang Fan was so difficult now that he was begging his grandpa to sue his grandma everywhere.The 60 local people (including the population on the east bank of Laizhou Prefecture) are indeed a huge burden. When drought and locust plagues come together, you have to take on the heavy responsibility of feeding them, otherwise why should you treat them in the future? Instigated by anger?Our Dadong'an is not as thick-skinned as the Tartars, and it is impossible to distribute "400 taels of silver and 6 shi of grain" to [-] million people for disaster relief.

On June 6, after repairing and maintaining the ship and handing over all official documents, the light cruiser "Polaris" also left the Dinghai Port Wharf and headed north to Yantai Port, the capital of Dengzhou.Considering that almost all ships in the Far East are mobilized to transport goods, Captain Ding Zhen’s ship (the cabin capacity is really not large) also transported some salt and salted fish (mostly large) after delivering some local commodities. Yellow croakers and small yellow croakers, caught by Dan people recruited by the Guangzhou government in the Zhoushan fishing ground) went to Shandong, which can be regarded as making their own contribution.

On the afternoon of June 1665, 6, the light cruiser "Polaris" arrived at the wharf of Yantai Port.Captain Ding Zhen looked around, and saw that in the huge harbor, there were masts like forests, and the number of fishing boats might be as high as 9 to [-]. Fishing boats were coming in and out. Fish, thought to do their part to survive the famine.

In addition to these fishing boats, there are naturally large cargo ships in the harbor. The workers on the pier are doing their best to transport bags of grain ashore through pulleys and booms for storage in case of serious disasters. Take it out and distribute it.At this time, most of the people in Dengzhou Prefecture still have some surplus grain in their hands, and some will be harvested from the fields immediately (the harvest is not exhausted after all), and it should be able to continue for some time, so it is not large-scale yet. In the stage of distributing relief food, unless there are a large number of refugees from the Qing Dynasty coming from Qingzhou Prefecture.

Perhaps because of the relatively high handling efficiency of the Yantai Port Wharf, a large group of laborers came to unload the cargo in the cabin of the "Polaris" soon, and a customs official from Bingtuanbao came with them.When a large amount of canned food, high-end biscuits, chocolate, yerba mate, butter, cheese, ham and other local foods were unloaded, the customs officials could only smile wryly. Perhaps he felt that during the severe drought in Shandong, they It's a bit out of date to be able to enjoy so much luxury food.

"I want to meet Captain Liang Xiangjian. There are some documents here that need to be handed over to him, and there may be some documents from him that need to be handed over to me to bring back to the mainland." Captain Ding Zhen straightened his coat and hat, and said to the customs officer in front of him. .

"Ah, what a coincidence, Captain Ding." The customs officer smiled helplessly and said, "Maybe you should make another trip, yes, to Ye County in the west. Captain Liang took people to Laizhou to inspect the disaster a while ago. Well, he probably won’t be back in a short time, you can only find him there, of course you can also wait in Yantai, if you are not in a hurry.”

Some prefectures and counties in Laizhou Prefecture are currently under the control of the Dong'an people, so it is normal for Liang Xiangjian to inspect there.

"I'm going to Laizhou." Captain Ding Zhen said firmly: "Perhaps you have any cargo that you need me to carry? Although my ship has limited capacity, I can carry some cargo there to reduce your transportation pressure."

"That's really great!" The customs officer clapped his hands excitedly and said, "Please help us transport a batch of horse fodder and corn to Ye County. These supplies must be in great need there, but first I have to ask my superiors for instructions." , please wait a moment."

(End of this chapter)