Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1409 Shandong Severe Drought ([-])

"What? You want us to go to Temple Street Port?" On the pier of Dabo Port, the captain of the "Galicia Flying Fish" was surprised and said: "I heard that there are quite strong winds and waves over there. My ship Go there again and make a fuss, don’t fall apart! No, you should go find someone else, I have to return to Dengzhou to return to my life, I don’t have time to spend time here with you guys. My back hurts, if I can't bring this old boat back to Shandong safely, Shangfeng can kill me, you know, there are more and more mouths waiting to eat!"

The captain had a reason to refuse, because the reason why the superiors sent out their old ship was not because the current capacity was relatively tight, and a large number of ships went south to the Maluku Islands to buy food (the Dutch East India Company did not have enough capacity to To transport food to the people on the east coast), in order to maintain the capacity, we can only tap the potential by ourselves.Don't you see, if it weren't for the golden season for fishing, the dozens of fishing boats and whaling ships of the Blackwater Pioneering Team would all have to be transferred to Liaohai to help.

Founded by Marshal Mo's wife Lola, the Heishui Shipyard, which has been managed by Wei Boqiu and Liang Xiangjian, is currently rushing to build new ships, including 150-ton medium-sized fishing boats and classic "Yacsa" class weapons. The transport ship happened to have several sets of steam propulsion systems newly shipped from the mainland last year, and it happened to come in handy. At present, there are seven ships of this type. If two more ships are started this year, the Bank of Taiwan will have nine such ships in the second half of the year. Classes of lean, fast, and practical armed transport ships are available, although they all nominally belong to the Okhotsk Sea Squadron of the Third Fleet.

The Kushiro Shipyard, which is controlled by the East Coast Japan Company, can only continue to work hard to build flute-shaped transport ships because it does not have a steam engine.It just so happened that during the drought in Shandong, Liang Xiangjian also asked them to build more new ships just in case, so Wei Boqiu built three flute-shaped transport ships in one go (of course, there are only two on the books), intending to expand the ships of the Japanese company on the east coast team size.After all, the smuggling trade with the Satsuma domain is becoming more and more frequent, and the recruitment of Japanese ronin and technicians (Tanegashima) to settle in the North American Democratic Freedom Federation also requires fleet support, so building more ships is naturally in line with Wei Boqiu Originally, it happened that the Denglai Pioneering Team and the Blackwater Pioneering Team all allocated funds for shipbuilding this time, so it was really not black and white.

"Captain Lin, our shipping capacity is also very tight now, and this shipment is urgent. Commander Liao asked for it by name. There are weapons and ammunition, clothing to keep out the cold, tobacco, alcohol, sugar and salt, and building materials. I will pick them up again on the way back. Bring hundreds of wild sheep back over there to support the famine in Shandong, so please help." The officials on the pier said earnestly, and they seem to be busy now, and there is a serious shortage of people, boats, and things. Xiaoyao is still launching a war of conquest of the Tungus Tu people in the Northeast, which is simply keeping people busy.

In fact, the Blackwater Pioneering Team used to have some water transportation power, but now most of the fishing boats are fishing and whaling outside, and only a few large ships are also going back and forth between Shandong and Sakhalin Island. The transportation capacity is extremely tight. Otherwise, they wouldn't rush to build new ships temporarily.

"Captain Lin, look, there are thousands of tons of fish and meat in the ice cellars of Heishui and Dabo that need to be transported to Shandong; Rishiri Island, Okushiri Island, and Rebun Island also have roe deer, cattle, sheep, Live animals such as pigs and deer have to be collected and transported; there are still a large number of scattered seafood such as sea vegetables, shellfish, crabs, and sea cucumbers. Captain Liang wrote to say that they will be sent to Shandong, not to mention the massive construction materials needed for the renovation of water conservancy ( Cement and lime can only be produced in Heishui County, and only Heishui County has large-scale rotary kilns), wood and fuel, and it is too late to transport.” The dock officials continued to complain that they have been really hard recently. The large collective farms left behind by the immigrants need to be rectified (it seems that new farms will even be opened up now), and the arrival of the fishing season has also taken up a lot of everyone's energy. The victims of the disasters in the four prefectures in the east and west of Shanxi, this is going to kill people.

However, their earnest persuasion obviously had no effect. Captain Lin shook his head resolutely, and then said: "You just take those barreled salted fish, bacon, tallow, rye, oats, barley, honey, Just fill my cabin with fruits, vegetables and other food, and everything below can be arranged by the superior. You know, I have not received an order to help you transport additional supplies to the Amur River. I have my own tasks to complete, right? Hold on, man."

After speaking, he turned back to the deck of the ship and urged the sailors to straighten the sails and prepare for sailing.Classic boats are like this, they have to be maintained carefully, otherwise they are just making fun of their own lives.However, it is indeed time for this ship to be dismantled and decommissioned, and it will not take a few years. Seeing the decks and superstructures with plates of different colors and materials, Captain Lin sighed deeply. With a sigh of relief, it would be great if there could be a "Yaksa" class armed transport ship. Although the tonnage is not as large as my own, it is better than the motor sailing ship, and the speed is faster than myself.

Just when Captain Lin was complaining about his own ship, not far from them in the harbor, a new-looking "Yaksa"-class armed transport ship turned off its steam power system and slowly anchored. By the pier.Captain Lin guessed that this may be one of the sixth ship "Hai Lan Pao" and the seventh ship "Udi River" newly built by Heishui Shipyard last year, and it should have just arrived from Heixiazi Port. Back there, the cabin was full of stuff like dried whale meat, whale oil, seal meat, seal oil, whale skin, whalebone, sea animal skin, mink skin, bear skin, fox skin, salted fish, fish oil, etc.

"The guys who are so dizzy from doing business with the Dutch red hair, don't they know that there is a severe drought in Shandong? They don't know that they should come back to help." Captain Lin spat inwardly.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the cargo had been loaded and counted. Captain Lin looked at the sky and saw that the sky was clear and clear, so he ordered to pull the anchor and set sail, heading for Shandong.Since they are sailing ships, they have to carefully look for ocean currents and try their best to use the changeable crosswinds to sail. Only an old sea dog like Captain Lin can do this kind of thing.

On September 1665, 9, the "Galicia Flying Fish" docked at the wharf of Yantai Port. At this time, news of a large-scale outbreak of locust plagues came from all over the country, which made people's hearts sink suddenly. It seems that the harvest in the second half of the year It is indeed dangerous, how much you can charge depends entirely on whether Mr. Locust is merciful.

Captain Lin inquired a little at the pier, and he knew that locusts were scattered all over the place, but the scale was not very large, but this time a large number of locusts flew over from Qingzhou Prefecture, "swarms flying to cover the wild", "flat land" Gushing out" and "the roads are full", eating up all the local crops, vegetation and trees in a short time.At the same time, the plague of locusts in Wendeng, Rongcheng, Fushan, and Laiyang counties of Terengganu Prefecture is also getting worse day by day. The local residents are organized by government officials to kill the locusts manually, and the chickens and ducks at home are also driven out to hunt the locusts. It's hard to say, at least most people are not very optimistic.

"This is going to be difficult!" Captain Lin sighed secretly, and began to deliver the goods with the port officials on the pier, hoping that the food he brought back from the Blackwater area could help them.I also sincerely hope that there are as many cattle, sheep, roe deer, moose, reindeer, fish and other livestock in Heishui as they "bragged" before. At least it can save some more people.However, the large group of disaster victims who have been collected now probably will not stay in Shandong. After all, no one can guarantee that there will be no drought or locust plague next year. of the Blackwater area.Just like the farms where immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture lived and worked collectively, they can also open up farming, logging, fishing, and earn their own living there. These Shandong victims may not have enough food to survive the first year.

……

On September 1665, 9, more than three months after the Bank of Taiwan placed the order, the first batch of Nanyang rice finally arrived at various ports in Terengganu under the long-distance transportation of immigrant ships.Moreover, according to the returning captains, the Dutch East India Company has been at war with the English recently, and it has cost a lot of money and supplies. They are very happy with the large orders from the people on the east coast. Therefore, these grains are new grains this year, and the texture is very good. And the total has reached about 15 tons (of course, additional fees need to be paid), which is much more than originally expected.

After the grain arrived in Shandong, Liang Xiangjian finally relaxed a little. Since May and June, the three major feudal towns in the Far East have worked together and have raised 9.1 tons of rice (including nearly 1600 tons of rice purchased from North Korea and Japan. 60 tons of grain), plus the grain stored in the private and Denglei treasury, and more than [-] tons of whale meat, fish meat, roe deer meat, mutton, beef, venison, rye, oats and other grains successively sent from the Heishui area , It is almost enough for the [-] people in Denglai Second Prefecture and the total of [-] Shandong disaster victims to live until next year's summer grain harvest - if there is any.

In addition, this year, Ningbo also became ruthless. Commander Jiang Zhiqing ordered that tea, mulberry, and cotton fields in various counties be replanted with overwintering wheat on a large scale to make up for the shortage of food in the area under the jurisdiction of the Southern Pioneering Team (the area imports more than 11 tons of rice), because in this way, some of the more than 12 tons of rice currently stored in the barns of Dinghai and Yinxian can be liberated and sent to Shandong for emergency relief—it is said that Jiang Zhiqing’s move has aroused many businessmen in Ningbo. Some gentry who were members of the Stability Maintenance Association even took the lead in opposing the destruction of mulberry and grain. However, more than [-] officers and soldiers of the [-]th and [-]th Divisions of the Zhejiang New Army were dispatched urgently to arrest and try some people who opposed the government. After being a businessman or a gentry, everyone is honest and realizes who owns Ningbo now.

However, they were still puzzled. Although the drought and locust disasters did not happen every year, they were not uncommon. Why did the people from the Eastern Kingdom go to such lengths to raise food for disaster relief?Do you know how much the loss is from destroying so many tea, mulberry and cotton fields?How many years will it take to make up for it in the future?Zuo are just some suffering victims. Every time there is a famine, 10,000+ hundreds of thousands of people will die. Is there any need to make such a fuss?Alas, it seems that the Ningbo silk tea and cloth trade will fall into a trough in the next few years. This trade loss is too great!Wow!Every time I think of this, these wealthy businessmen in Ningbo feel a pang of pain in their hearts.

However, Liang Xiangjian, the highest official in Denglei, is also very clear that it is far from time to relax, because the number of disaster victims is still increasing day by day, and there are now more than 14 people. God knows there will be more people in a few months How many people, maybe 20 are all there, which is a headache.And once this happens, Liang Xiangjian can only resort to three ultimate moves after much deliberation, that is: [-]. Continue to blackmail the Kingdom of Korea, let it donate or credit, in short, don’t scrape out another one for me. The matter of hundreds of thousands of shi grains is not the end; [-]. The number of horses on Jeju Island is already very large. You can consider selling some to the Zheng, Lu Wang, Nanming and Dashun regimes. The rarity is tight, and the situation in this meeting is extremely tense, presumably they are all willing to eat it, well, it is not too much to exchange a horse (of course it has been castrated) for fifteen or six shi of grain; three, that is to send troops to rob Japan The feudal vassals on the coast are all over, this is the trick Liang Xiangjian is most unwilling to resort to, and he will not move lightly unless it is absolutely necessary, so as not to affect the long-term interests of the people on the east coast in the Far East.

All in all, let's take it one step at a time now. He hopes in his heart that the autumn grain can be kept more or less, that the fishery in the Qiandao Islands will have a bumper harvest this year, and that Ningbo's action of destroying mulberry and changing grain can be resolutely carried out. The situation of the Lai Pioneer team can also be better, after all, it is obvious that their family alone cannot cope with such a serious disaster.

On October 1665, 10, almost all the ships that were running outside were in port for maintenance and maintenance, because the annual immigration transportation season will come in less than a month, and it will be too late if these ships are not maintained.Moreover, what is certain is that because I have been traveling and sailing outside all summer this year, I have no time for major repairs, and I can only do some simple maintenance. Therefore, the condition of this year's immigration transport ship is the worst in history. I hope that by then Let there be no accident at sea.

At this time, the total number of Shandong disaster victims who were collected by the East Coast people through various channels has exceeded 16, and the number is still rising.This is probably due to the large-scale outbreak of locust plagues in the summer and autumn of this year, which caused many people who were still in their hometown to produce and save themselves to give up their last hope and go out to flee famine. It has been formally decided to abandon the South Expedition, and open Changping warehouses in Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Shanxi and other provinces instead, allocating a large amount of food to relieve the victims. The situation in Shandong has calmed down strangely, except for those victims who continued to move around in search of food.

(End of this chapter)