Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1422 Shandong Severe Drought ([-])

On December 1665, 12, Pingduzhou City.

In a few days, 1665, which was full of disasters and disasters, will be over. Liang Xiangjian, the captain of the Denglai pioneer team who is in charge of the state office, is still frowning. This may be because there are still many refugees in recent days. Because of the control area on the east coast of Laizhou Prefecture.After all, seeing the tragic situation of those victims, as long as they are not hard-hearted, I am afraid that no one will turn them away coldly, not to mention that people on the east coast have been working hard to collect people in the Far East over the years, and now so many people are automatically sent to their door Even if there is a lot of food and there is not enough food, you should do your best to resettle the victims—many of these victims probably died in repeated famine operations in history, but in this plane where people from the east coast intervene , they had a better choice and a greater chance of survival, that is, to escape into the control area on the east bank in search of enough food to satisfy their hunger.

To be honest, with the continuous assistance from all over the country, the food in the government treasury of Denglai is actually relatively sufficient, but the problem is that no one can guarantee how long this disaster will last, and no one can guarantee The subsequent influx of refugees will not increase significantly.Then in this way, the food in hand now has to be saved!

"The main thing is to wait until next year's summer grain harvest, and the food gap in Ningbo Mansion will be closed. It will be a victory if some of the stored grain can be brought here! More people will survive!" Liang Xiangjian put down the pipe in his hand, After receiving the breakfast handed over by the orderly, he thought silently.

Because of the lack of food, Liang Xiangjian's breakfast level has also dropped a lot. Currently there are only a bowl of oatmeal, two eggs, two deep-fried dough sticks and a glass of milk. It's still as good as heaven, this is the special treatment for big shots.

According to the usual practice, while Liang Xiangjian was having breakfast, his secretary Huang Hanhua came over with a pile of documents and materials, and softly reported to him the various affairs of the Denglai Pioneering Team.

"Yesterday, a battalion of the Qing army rushed from Changyi County, but was intercepted by the officers and soldiers of the third squadron of the cavalry regiment. After negotiating with the commander of the Qing army, they learned that they were ordered to take over Pingdu Prefecture. Zhizhou even accused us of "breaking promises", arbitrarily breaking the ceasefire agreement, and occupying the land of the Qing Dynasty. He also demanded that we immediately return the city of Pingdu and promise not to invade in the future. The officers and soldiers of the cavalry regiment did not receive The reason for the order was to prevent the Qing army from advancing, and the Qing army's green battalion commanders were intimidated by our army's military prestige, and retreated to their control area. I think this is probably a test by the Qing side." According to the urgency of the document, Huang Hanhua, He began to report to Liang Xiangjian.

"Don't pay too much attention to them." Liang Xiangjian waved his hand and said disapprovingly: "Now our main force has entered Laizhou Prefecture for the first time, and such a serious natural disaster has occurred in the territory of the Qing Dynasty. I heard that Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provincial capitals The grain in stock was empty, and they even had to transfer grain from the south of the Yangtze River to rescue them. The extent of their distress should be worse than ours. If there is still room left to send troops east to attack our army, then it is really a ghost!"

In fact, what Liang Xiangjian said is correct. Although thanks to the blessings of the past ten years (only relatively speaking), the production order of the Qing court in the north has been greatly restored, especially in Shanxi, Henan, Shandong and other places. , the population increased rapidly, and grain production continued to rise, which once gave the Qing court the confidence to aggressively invade the south.However, a sudden drought disrupted the position of the Qing court. The whole of Shandong was affected, and some prefectures and counties in Hebei, Henan, and Shanxi were also affected. In addition, they don't have the determination to eat outside because of the enemy's food. Therefore, it is normal to suspend the southern expedition and take care of internal affairs first. It should not start a war outside in a short time.

As for Huang Hanhua's report about the march of the Qing army's green battalion to Pingdu Prefecture, Liang Xiangjian judged that this should be a response to the people from the east bank occupying Pingdu Prefecture to gather the victims a while ago, and it was mostly tentative.Otherwise, do you think they sent a battalion of people (the size of which looks like hundreds of people) to take over Pingdu Prefecture and eat enough to support them?Therefore, Liang Xiangjian didn't pay much attention after hearing this, and just told the cavalry wing to do a good job of investigation.

"Commander, according to your instructions, we will count the number of new immigrants every ten days. The latest figures have been released. Compared with the number ten days ago, there are more than 5000 more people. The total number of victims gathered today has exceeded 21. ...Moreover, the growth rate has risen sharply in recent times, and we are all a little surprised, is it because the Qing government has relaxed the control of the border, causing a large number of disaster victims to come over by land?" Huang Hanhua frowned lightly while holding a document , Chao Liang Xiang Jianhui reported.

"Recently, the increase in the number of victims of disasters is a bit fast. It's also strange. Don't the officials of the prefectures and counties of the Qing Dynasty ignore it and let so many people come to our side!" Liang Xiangjian drank delicious oatmeal Porridge, while thinking about it, said: "Is this because the officials of the Qing Dynasty found out with their conscience that they felt that they could not feed too many victims, so they put it on our side for relief, or did they think that they would send a bunch of bitter refugees over there?" Can it mess us up, or maybe both?"

The reason why Liang Xiangjian said this is actually what he meant, that is, he doubted whether the Qing army deliberately sent many refugees to the east bank control area to consume the food and material reserves of the people on the east bank, so that the people on the east bank could not take care of themselves. Leave them free to think about other ideas.After all, in the face of such a catastrophe, the current Qing court is actually very empty. Although they have suspended the southern expedition, they are still afraid that the people on the east bank who are close at hand will take advantage of the fire and send troops from Shandong to attack At present, Jiangbei, Shandong, and Hebei are in some chaos. Therefore, when they are sure that they are unable to provide relief, they open their eyes and close their eyes and let many people from the West Fourth Prefecture go to the east bank control area to escape famine. A coup of strength.Because they discovered it early in the morning, the yellow-clothed thieves have never treated the people badly. For the Shandong victims who may exceed 20, they will still provide a large amount of relief. In this way, they will have no time to attack the Qing Dynasty Of course, the above are all speculations by Liang Xiangjian and others, and they are not sure. As for the real situation, you still have to ask the officials of the Qing court.

"Maybe there are all these factors." Huang Hanhua speculated, "Because of the preparations for the Southern Expedition a while ago, the Qing army dispatched a lot of people to the south and stationed in Jiangbei. Shandong is empty, and a catastrophe broke out. They are worried that we will attack, which is normal. It's just that our lower limit is not as low as theirs, and they are worrying for nothing. However, Commander, your entry into Pingdu Prefecture this time may have stimulated them a little and made them feel that the situation is not good. I suggest that the next One step is to simply occupy Jiaozhou City and completely pull out the nail that is wedged into our defense line, which will also benefit the overall layout of Laizhou defense line."

"Well, I will arrange the affairs of Jiaozhou later. If it is not occupied, it will not be occupied. If it is occupied, I understand that the Qing court will not be able to deal with us at this time. As for the possible accusations from the local side, alas, I will write The letter explains it well, and it's not a big trouble to carry it." Liang Xiangjian reached out for the boiled egg and said while peeling the shell.

"The third article is about the Japanese company on the east coast. According to the feedback from the armed transport ship 'Nerchinsk' that was going there to transport wheat, Director Wei Bo and Qiu Wei have dispatched seven ships including the flute-shaped transport ship 'Baobab'. A ship sailed to the waters of Shikoku Island in Japan. It is said that the Tosa clan who swallowed the company's cargo was punished, and 250 soldiers from the Tianyou and Tianzhu Army stationed on Ezoji Island were dispatched. Regarding these, Director Wei has also reported in writing, The document was just delivered from Jiaozhou this morning. Director Wei declared in the report that this move would not arouse great hostility from the shogunate. Therefore, the impact is controllable. Finally, Director Wei also pointed out that if Commander Liang is willing, he can urge the East Coast Japanese Company and the East Coast Korean Company to send out elite soldiers to harass and rob some The food is sent to Shandong to meet our urgent needs." Huang Hanhua reported again.

During the recent institutional reforms, Wei Boqiu was appointed as the director of the Far East Economic and Trade Commission, the organization that oversees the economic affairs of the three major feudal towns, just like Liang Xiangjian was the nominally supreme military leader of the three major feudal towns.After Wei Boqiu took this position, he managed the two major organizations, the East Coast Japan Company and the East Coast North Korea Company, and operated the old nest in Ezo as if it were an iron bucket. He even once wanted to extend his hand to the Bank of Taiwan. It was just boycotted by Liang Xiangjian, Jiang Zhiqing, and Liao Xiaoyao.

Liang Xiangjian even vaguely heard that the Japanese Matsumae clan at the southern end of the Ezo land here has been infiltrated by Wei Boqiu like a sieve. Many important officials in the clan are currently served by ronin or samurai introduced by Wei Boqiu. The power of the new feudal lord is extremely limited. As a result, they have to go to Edo to live for a while every three days, so as not to stay in Fukuyama City and suffer anger, which shows the methods of the Wei Group.

This time Wei Boqiu said that he wanted to attack the Tosa clan and punish the greedy feudal lord, which would inevitably involve dispatching ships and troops, and Liang Xiangjian had to be informed about this in terms of organizational procedures, so this announcement came about.Liang Xiangjian had no objection to Wei Boqiu's attack on the Tosa clan, but he was a little worried about whether it would affect the smuggling trade of the people from the east bank in southern Japan. , then let’s forget about this matter, at most I will give an instruction in the reply letter to be careful.

However, this guy Wei Boqiu really knows me, Lao Liang, and knows that he is short of food, so he tempts himself with the possibility of going to the coast of Japan to plunder food.However, Liang Xiangjian also knew that Wei Boqiu was just saying that, and if he was really asked to play pirates on the coast of Japan, he himself would not be the first to do so!Without him, I am afraid that the Tokugawa shogunate will be furious and put pressure on the Shimadzu family and the Date family, so that the current very prosperous smuggling trade cannot continue. The one that suffers in that way is the East Coast Japan Company. A shrewd person like Wei, It shouldn't be like this.Therefore, it is indeed possible to engage in small-scale activities along the coast of Japan, but it is unlikely to be possible on a large scale. Both Lao Liang and Lao Wei are well aware of this, so let’s take it as a Alternate options now!

"There is news from Dengzhou that the disaster is serious and there is no way to recover! The large collective farms left behind by the immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture are barely inhabited now, but farming is not possible. We can only see the drought next year and locusts. Can the situation weaken, or there will still be no harvest in the field." When reporting this item, Huang Hanhua was also very worried, so he used a very heavy tone.As Liang Xiangjian's secretary, he has participated in most of the affairs of the Denglai Pioneering Team, but he is very aware of the embarrassment that will be faced by the people of Denglai if the summer grain crops are cut off next year, because at that time, not only There are only 20 disaster victims, and there are still 60 Denglei residents. What a huge number!

According to the current trend of the disaster, no one can guarantee what will happen next year. Therefore, the only insurance is to evacuate the people immediately from now on, that is, to transport a large number of people out of the disaster-stricken Shandong Peninsula to North Korea, Heishui, Ningbo and other places, in short, jump out of the big pit of Shandong first.Because this will be planting grain in Jiaodong, it is estimated that even the seeds will not be collected. It is too bad, and we must find another way.

As for where to evacuate, Liang Xiangjian, Huang Hanhua and others have also discussed briefly before, probably Ningbo, Jeju Island, Busan, Wonsan, Ezodi, Sakhalin Island, and the Amur River Basin.These places have previously assumed the important task of resettling 50 immigrants in Huai'an Prefecture. At that time, there were more than 100 million people from the east coast of Shiqingjiangpu who made a foundation of grain (they also harvested rice from many counties in Huai'an Prefecture during the retreat). In the above places, great efforts have been made to build many collective farms for the resettlement of immigrants waiting to be transported.

The immigrants in the collective farms, except for a little salt drying, road construction, logging, coal digging, and brick burning, most of them are farming and grazing, so as to ensure a certain amount of output to support themselves and reduce food consumption.After all, one hundred thousand stones of grain looks like a lot, but it can't stand to sit and eat for a long time. Therefore, in the above places, a lot of land has actually been developed, and the area is quite large, so this time I want to They are the preferred destinations for transferring immigrants abroad.

"Shandong doesn't need to count too much. Let's immigrate in batches according to the plan in advance. The collective farms over there in Ningbo are of average size. The first batch of 5 to 1 people will be transported there, and there will be no more. I remember that you have already urgently transported them. There are more than 4 people, and there is no boat now. After the immigration transportation season is over, the large-scale immigration transportation will start immediately, and we will have time to plant a season of early rice in Ningbo." Liang Xiangjian also put down his chopsticks when he heard this. I continued to eat in my mind, and after thinking for a while, I only heard him say: "The collective farms in Busan, Wonsan, and Jeju Island are not large in size, but fortunately, after the officers and soldiers of the First Division of the New Army and their families withdrew, Jeju Prefecture was empty." A lot of land came out, and the vacant land in these three places plus collective farms should be able to accommodate more than [-] people."

"The rest is resettlement in Ezo, Rishiri Island, Okushiri Island, Sakhalin Island, and the Amur River Basin. Among them, Sakhalin Island has the largest collective farm and reclamation area, and there are still some immigrants in Huai'an Prefecture who are waiting to be shipped. There, someone guided them, and the resettlement of the victims was quicker. Well, the land reclamation area on Ezodi Island is quite large. Old Wei has become more interested in recent years. In addition, Liao Xiaoyao ran around the Amur River last year. It is said that the local area There are also a lot of fertile fields, but it's a pity that the inherent population is too small and the supplies are lacking, so I'm afraid they won't be able to accommodate too many people for a while. Forget it, let's fill in as many as we can, and we can't manage so many." Liang Xiangjian stood up. , said solemnly: "These places mentioned above can almost accommodate 5 to 4 people. Including Ningbo and North Korea, we will rush to transport at least [-] to [-] people in the first half of next year. , and urged them to start agricultural production immediately. Especially in Heishui and Ezo, the arable land is very wide and the soil is very fertile. There is neither drought nor locust plague, but the climate is relatively cold and the crop growth period is short It's only five or six months, and we can only grow some corn, potatoes, oats or rye, so we must hurry up, and we must not miss the farming time, or we will die!"

"After transporting more than [-] people, the pressure on Denglai can be relieved a little bit. Let's see how the situation develops later." Liang Xiangjian said without confidence.

(End of this chapter)