Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1419 Shandong Severe Drought ([-])

Let's go back in time a little bit.While our motorboat was sailing through the waves in the South Pacific, the famine caused by drought and locust plagues on the Jiaodong Peninsula, thousands of miles away, was gradually entering the cruelest and most terrifying stage.

Throughout the summer and autumn seasons, not only did not a drop of rain fall in the entire Shandong Province, but also a large-scale locust plague broke out, making the people of Shandong who had replanted autumn grain in summer want to cry without tears.Especially in the Jiaodong area where agricultural irrigation conditions are relatively good, everyone had some hope for autumn grain, but it turned out that judging from the overwhelming locust situation, not to mention the harvest of grain, the seeds sown may not be able to grow. It's really a big loss to get it back!Now, all they can count on is Ningbo Mansion in the south. I hope that the overwintering wheat they planted last autumn can provide everyone with a satisfactory harvest, otherwise Shandong will be really sad.

According to incomplete statistics, the Shandong disaster victims in their early 18s who have been gathered in the hands of the Denglai Pioneering Team, together with the people of Denglai itself, rely on the current stock of grain (a small part of summer grain is also harvested) and the grain imported from the outside world. Meat and fish are basically just enough to last until next year's summer grain harvest season.As for how many victims there will be in the Denglai area when the summer grain is harvested next year, and how much grain will be harvested, no one can guarantee this.

Therefore, from the beginning of the fall of this year (1665), Liang Xiangjian, the captain of the Denglai pioneering team, began another wave of crazy food-raising journeys: On October 10, Army Captain Sun Wu led a division of the new army to land at Pusan ​​Port , requiring the Kingdom of Korea to continue to donate an additional 15 shi of grain to the Denglai area based on the principle of "humanitarianism". I don't have much money left on hand) to help the victims, as for when to return it, "negotiate"!

The Kingdom of Korea has a population of just over 400 million. Although food production has recovered rapidly in recent years, it is not an unlimited food cash machine!Besides, due to the influence of external commercial demand, there are quite a few people engaged in medicinal planting, iron ore mining and smelting, and timber harvesting and processing industries. Considering the severe global weather at the end of the Little Ice River, The food production in its territory has more or less decreased, so it is really impossible to give too much food to the people on the east coast at one time.

Last time they were ordered to donate 30 shi of rice, but this time they were extorted another 20 shi, and they had to take 30 shi away in vain (although people on the east coast said it was a loan, everyone knew whether there was a loan or not. Also), how can this be!However, the soldiers in yellow clothes from the Eastern Kingdom have already landed in Pusan ​​County. If you don’t allow them, they might have to take it themselves. Therefore, at the end of the total, the North Korean monarchs and ministers reluctantly agreed to the grain of 50 shi rice. For this reason, almost every household of the elders was apportioned a certain amount, which is sad enough.

The people on the east bank who got the exact news no longer put on a vicious look. On the contrary, Liang Xiangjian sent his secretary Huang Hanhua to Hanyang City to comfort the North Korean monarchs and ministers.Because they also understand that the 80 shi of grain that was extorted twice before and after is already a certain limit for the North Koreans, and no amount of more can be squeezed out, but they are afraid that something will happen. "The expansion of power will not benefit the interests of the east coast, so it is decisive to stop oppressing North Korea.

After the search from North Korea was completed, the people on the east coast gained a little bit of confidence.At the same time, considering the need to store more food for the future, Liang Xiangjian appointed Captain Guo Puxia, who was in charge of intelligence and foreign affairs, to go to Jiangxi once on a navy shallow-water gunboat, intending to get some food from the Shun Army.

On November 11, Captain Guo Puxia and his team of dozens of people landed at the fortress of Madang Town. Together with them, there were more than 12 horses of various colors in reserve.The horses are basically all males, and all of them have been groomed, otherwise they will be extremely irritable and turbulent, biting, kicking and neighing are commonplace.Such a situation makes it a dangerous job for the groom to take care of and appease the irritable horses, and injuries and even deaths are common. Horse Administration Cultivation Program), the castration of male horses has become a regulation that must be strictly enforced, so the so-called "black water horses" that Guo Puxia and others will bring to Jiangxi are all castrated, which is not only for the cavalry and Good groom, it can also protect the genetic resources of the horses from being leaked.

This time it was still Guo Shi'an who received the people from the east bank. When the people from the east bank asked where Guo Sheng had gone, this guy faltered and refused to go into details. This made Guo Puxia, who had some information, feel a little uncomfortable It's a wonderful feeling, Shun Jun and his gang are not causing trouble again, are they?Sigh, forget it, let's settle the matter of exchanging food for now, and then talk about it, countless victims in Shandong are waiting to be fed!In fact, thinking about it is also a crime. Drought and locust plagues broke out together, and the crops in the fields were not harvested. It seems that countless people will starve to death. The disaster relief capabilities of this feudal court are really weak to the extreme. In the end, he had to rely on the yellow-clothed thief who had an extremely bad reputation. It was ironic to think about it.

"These are all good horses!" Guo Shi'an jumped over when he saw the people from the east bank coming ashore, and took a few tall, smooth-coated horses to watch carefully, smiling from ear to ear while watching, for a long time It was only later that I heard him continue to say: "Shoulder height, body width, and weight seem to be more than 600 catties. God, the most handsome horse in our Zhongying cavalry weighs only more than [-] catties, and the shoulder height is also [-] catties." It’s worse than the old nose, it’s really incomparable.”

"It's all superficial, Lao Guo." Guo Puxia stepped forward, pointed to the big horses that were being collected to the shore one by one, and introduced with a very proud tone: "These blackwater big horses are all It is the best horse material in the world. Compared with the Mongolian horses and pony horses in your army, it is not only tall and strong, but also has good discipline. It does not neigh at will, and does not chase mares on the battlefield. Top-notch horses, twenty shi of rice from you is already a conscience price, really."

In fact, although Guo Puxia's words are not without boasting, but if you really want to say it, it is not exaggerated.Shunjun actually bought a small batch of black water horses before (like this batch, they are all semi-finished products and eliminated products of the horse administration plan. Of course, these horses are also active in the East Coast Cavalry Regiment), but the number is relatively small. , It can only be used by officers or scouts, and it is carefully taken care of like a baby bump on weekdays, for fear of dying of exhaustion and illness.

After using these horses for a period of time, the Shun army was very satisfied and full of praise. They felt that they were many times better than the Mongolian and Sichuan horses that they had worked so hard to get in their own army, and they were easy to manage. It can supervise 15-20 military horses, which is an all-round transcendence.Therefore, this time, because of the lack of food, the people from the east coast went to Huguang to communicate with Shunjun and asked if they could exchange military horses for food. , Ben was very good at using the cavalry team-after some intense bargaining, an agreement was reached on the exchange of [-] shi of rice for a military horse.

This price is almost twice as expensive as that of Mongolian horses, but who can make them of good quality, and the Shun Army itself is short of horses. On the rise), and if there is such a trace of intention to help the Shun army, it is absolutely impossible for them to win this batch of high-quality war horses at this price, at least they have to spend 25 shi of rice to make it possible.

This batch of more than 150 military horses, among which there are about a hundred war horses, Guo Sheng did not dare to specialize in this part, it is estimated that they will have to be sent to the Changsha court for unified distribution by Li Guo.As for the remaining fifty military draft horses, with Li Guo's acquiescence, he, Guo, can stay in Jiangxi.Anyway, the reason is very sufficient. Except for Guo Sheng's department, none of the other departments has a large-scale artillery formation, so there is no need for these military horses with strong stature, strong load, and fast speed. For light-load and time-sensitive tasks such as transporting luggage, food and grass, it is enough to hand over the collected donkeys, mules and cattle, or even use those Sichuan horses. Although they are less powerful, they will make do with them. Bar.

"I, Guo Shi'an, don't care about the value of twenty stones of rice for a horse. That's something that the commander should consider. My old Guo is a rough man and a warrior. As long as there are enough horses to supplement the cavalry, enough to draw There is no other opinion." Guo Shian signaled his own soldiers to come over to receive the horses, and said with a smile: "I heard that this time the superior has made a big decision to buy three thousand and eight horses from you. One hundred war horses, six hundred draft horses, tsk tsk, what a great deal. In addition to the purchase of some saddlery, sabers, reins, horse bits, horseshoes, riding spears, etc. It can be seen that in order to raise food, it is enough to fight, and you don’t even need your own war reserves), 10,000+ shi grains are scattered out like this. It seems a lot, but ah, my old Guo thinks it’s worth it. hey-hey!"

Hearing what Guo Shi'an said, Guo Puxia curled his lips and didn't say anything else.After this wave of large-scale sales of military horses to the Shun Army, the military horse farms set up in Jeju Island, Ezo Land, Sakhalin Island and other places will not have too many horses left, and the total number of them will probably be several thousand. Well, apart from keeping some to supplement the consumption of the east bank army itself (the east bank army is highly mule-horse, with a large number of riding horses, combat horses, and draft horses, and even civil affairs officials ride a lot of horses), the rest It will also be used to implement the second 12-year horse administration plan, in order to cultivate more powerful military horses with more stable genetic traits—of course, research on horses suitable for various terrains and climates is also necessary—calculate Go, there are no more than [-] army horses that can be sold, and it seems that the buyer is Li Chengdong's family in Guangdong.As for the Zheng and Nanming regimes in Fujian, it's not that they don't know how to buy them, but the quantity must be very small, and most of them are used by generals.

After the delivery of more than 150 military horses was completed, Guo Shian quickly ordered people to bring in a large amount of food, and the quantity was relatively large. It is said that it exceeded [-] shi, which was enough to pay for [-] military horses.The reason for this was mainly at the request of the people on the east coast, because they didn't want to let the cabin go back empty, so they brought back a lot of food at one time.From this point, it can also be seen that the reclamation work of the Shun army in Hunan and Jiangxi areas over the years (more than [-] old and weak soldiers were abolished, learned from Cao Cao's old wisdom, and organized into military troops) should be fruitful. It shouldn't be too short, otherwise, with the mere three provinces they control and the constant wars, they wouldn't be able to provide so much food so readily.

However, they don't have to worry about the Dong'an people not fulfilling the contract to pay for the follow-up horses. They have cooperated with Dong'an for so many years, and the reputation of the "yellow thief" has always been extremely good, which they are still very relieved.What's more, under the current situation, they still have a lot of places to rely on on the east bank.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Min Honggui and Hu Chi, two local cadres who had defected to the east bank of Jiangxi, came to report to Guo Puxia that all the food had been properly allocated to the ships in the fleet. After hearing the news, Guo Puxia immediately ordered the anchor to be pulled Set sail and march down.He didn't want to stay here any longer. With so much life-saving food on board, he felt it was very hot. It would be better to send it to Shandong as soon as possible and hand it over to Commander-in-Chief Liang.

And after the fleet sailed to the center of the river, Min Honggui also quietly reported to Guo Puxia, saying that he vaguely heard that Wang Deren in Ganzhou seemed to be seriously ill and was about to die. The big one behind.It is said that Guo Sheng and Marshal Guo of Jiangxi were also involved in this conspiracy to seize the throne under Li Guo's instigation. They placed a heavy bet on Wang Zamao's second son, intending to help him ascend to the throne, and then took the opportunity to seize the throne in southern Jiangxi. The prefectures and counties instigated rebellion and came under the rule of Dashun.

Guo Puxia was a little surprised when he heard the news, but also a little scared.Because the southern Jiangxi area with Ganzhou as the core is extremely important to both Jiangxi and Guangdong, it is no exaggeration to call it a place of lock and key.Don't you see that in history, Li Chengdong attacked Jiangxi anyway, and he was defeated under the city of Ganzhou. Therefore, for both Guo Sheng and Li Chengdong, the southern Gansu area is an extremely sensitive strategic place that must be obtained quickly.

Before, Wang Deren, who was born as a thief, occupied southern Jiangxi, and Dashun had been wooing him all the time, but he was sober-minded and never agreed.But after his death, his sons didn't have such color and ability, and they started arguing for the high position, which gave outsiders an excellent opportunity to intervene, and the Shun army really took action immediately, A heavy bet was placed in it.But this time, once the Shun army's speculation is successful and southern Jiangxi falls to Dashun, it will inevitably lead to a full-scale conflict between Nanming and Dashun, and it will be difficult to have any room for reconciliation.

What are Li Guo and Guo Sheng thinking about?Guo Puxia is a little annoyed. Although the Qing court has been severely affected by the disaster, it seems that there will be no large-scale invasion of the south in a short time, but you, Dashun, can't do it like this. Is your desire to destroy Nanming and integrate the southern forces so strong?

Thinking of this, Guo Puxia decided that regardless of the authenticity of the news, he planned to report it to Liang Xiangjian immediately after returning home, and at the same time send a copy to Captain Jiang Zhiqing of the Southern Exploration Team, asking them to pay close attention to any minor changes in the situation in the South.

(End of this chapter)