Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1519 Shandong Earthquake ([-])

On August 1668, 8, after several days of hard trekking on the muddy road after the rain (in fact, there is no serious road), Liang Xiangjian, the leader of the Denglai pioneer team and Denglai security commander, surrounded by a large number of followers, Came outside of Pingdu city.

They passed through many villages and market towns along the way, and what they heard and saw was shocking: the ground was full of cracks of different lengths and depths, where the walls collapsed and the houses collapsed, and water gushed and sand sprayed. It was like being carpet bombed by heavy bombers in later generations. It is the same as the places where we have been; the hidden danger of flooding is still great. This is not only the flood caused by the bursting of rivers and reservoirs, but also the water gushing out of the ground inexplicably. , The ground is covered with "white hairs", which makes people creepy.

Especially in the area of ​​rivers in Pingdu Prefecture, "well water gushes up, and the water is red", "the earth is cracked, yellow water, red water and smelly water", "every river is soaring", "the room comes out of the spring, and it is cold. Untouchable", "the well water is two feet high, straight up like a spray" and other comprehensive descriptions from various places are simply the best portrayal of the post-earthquake situation in the cities and villages here.Liang Xiangjian didn't know how much sand and water spewed out of the originally waterless surface after the earthquake. He only knew that water pools formed by ground depressions were everywhere along the way, and it seemed that it was still raining heavily. It was almost impossible to live this day. Yes.

"Pingdu Prefecture looks like this. I really don't know what happened to Jiaozhou in the south." When entering Pingdu Prefecture City, a follower sighed and said: "Now the situation is somewhat clear. The further south you are, the stronger the impact of the earthquake. The center should be located in the south, or our southwest is more accurate."

More than half a month has passed since the earthquake. With the continuous collection of news from various places, people on the east coast have now deduced the approximate location of the earthquake from the extent of the earthquake damage. It should be in Jinan, Yanzhou, and even Jiangbei The area around Huai'an Mansion and the Jiaodong Peninsula have only been affected.

But then again, the affected Jiaodong Peninsula is in such a miserable state, what will happen to the various prefectures in the Qing Dynasty?Maybe it's already devastated and a mess over there?Has the Yellow River burst its embankment?Did Mount Tai collapse?Has the water level of the river and lake skyrocketed?Although everyone doesn't know, but they can guess a little bit, and in the end they can only sigh: Millions of Qing people over there are suffering!

Now Pingdu Prefecture is run by a number of Bingtuanbao students from the local area, but most of the positions in the prefecture are still the old officials of the Qing Dynasty. At most, some people with less reputation have been replaced by graduates of the Anti-Qing Military and Political Academy.As for the wild countryside, it is basically the same old state as before. The people on the east bank mixed a little sand into it by the method of resettling veterans, but it is still far away from real control, so this town can't control it. Knowing the news of the vast villages and towns for sure, the envoys sent out also hesitated and couldn't say one, two, three, which made Liang Xiangjian and others very disappointed.

But it's no wonder.Pingdu Prefecture was originally an area controlled by the Qing army. It has not been two years since it fell into the hands of the people on the east coast. The old relationship and system have already taken shape, and it is a bit difficult to change it.In contrast, when Marshal Mo established the order in Dengzhou, it had already gone through the Kong Youde Rebellion, the Qing army’s massacre at the pass, the short period of occupation by the Shun army, and the chaotic period of bandits after the collapse of the Dashun regime. After the people defeated the bandits one by one and repelled the invading Qing Army Hauge, the place was basically a piece of white paper, and all order had completely collapsed. Therefore, it was very simple to clean up, and there was little resistance. I am grateful to the people on the east bank for helping them end the precarious chaos and establish order. Therefore, the Denglai pioneer team now has a strong control over parts of Dengzhou and Laizhou (except for the areas designated for the garrison of the slave army), which is far from Pingdu. Xinde places such as Zhouzhou and Jiaozhou are comparable.

The original yellow book of Pingdu Prefecture had a total of 5 people. If converted into a population, there are about 5 people.However, after the East Coast people actually took over the control, they found that the real population figure may be more than 20, about 30%-6%. Therefore, the real population of Pingdu Prefecture is about [-] to [-]. Some people who went to the border of Dengzhou during the previous drought, there should be more than [-] men, women and children in Pingdu Prefecture now.

This population base, do not know the number of casualties in this earthquake?Liang Xiangjian and others reckoned that there must be 2000 casualties no matter what.In addition, the terrain in Pingdu Prefecture is flat, the water system is vertical and horizontal, and the soil is not bad. It has been an important grain-producing area in Jiaodong since ancient times, so there should be a lot of livestock (although the number of them should have sharpened during the previous severe drought. reduced), most of the damage caused by the earthquake to livestock is not light, but this is difficult to count.

"Is Pingdu Prefecture still short of food?" As soon as he entered the state government—of course it has been renamed the Pingdu Prefecture Government—Liang Xiangjian asked several officials about the situation: "You know what I'm talking about. Not only It is whether the people's food is sufficient, and there are more than 1 soldiers from the Sixth Division, Eighth Division, and Ninth Division of the Shandong New Army stationed on this line, as well as the first brigade of the Standing Team and half of the Cavalry Wing. More than a thousand steps are also included. To a certain extent, ensuring that our soldiers have sufficient food supplies is even the most important thing. You tell me the truth, food—is it enough?"

"After the earthquake, we have focused on the damage of the road surface, and the results are not optimistic, which has a great impact on the efficiency of land transportation. There are only more than 6 people in Pingdu Prefecture, and they have just recovered from the drought and locust plague. , There is almost no food in stock, and relying on the strength of the state alone, I am afraid that it will not be able to supply the 50 people." It may be that this issue has been considered before, and the governor of the [-]th graduate of Bingtuanbao truthfully reported: "Now The focus of the problem is when the external traffic will resume and the food and other supplies can be supplied in a timely manner. If it is possible, then the army can continue to be stationed here, if not, then..."

Liang Xiangjian knew what he said. From what he saw along the way, people and animals may be able to walk (but it is also quite difficult, because the road is seriously damaged, and the ground cracks, ponds, sand pits, collapsed houses or trees are greatly increased. If the road is difficult), vehicles will be much more difficult. Pingdu Prefecture should not be able to receive a large amount of supplies in the short term.Moreover, according to the previous observations in Ye County, the earthquake caused an obvious regression phenomenon in the Shandong Peninsula (in later generations, Haizhou, which was close to the epicenter, that is, the distance of sea retreat in Lianyungang area reached as much as [-] miles. Shocking), many of the originally built dock facilities may no longer be useful, which makes people on the east coast, who have always used sea transportation as the main mode of transportation, feel even more distressed, because the land will be reorganized and the dock built later. Super-large projects cost a lot of manpower and material resources-now we can only hope that the sea retreat is a temporary phenomenon, but Liang Xiangjian himself is not very optimistic. Some places may recover, but most places should not. The landform changes caused by the earthquake were so great that the entire Shandong Peninsula seemed to have floated up from the sea for a long period of time.

"At this time, if the Jiaolai Canal still exists, it should be able to play a big role!" Liang Xiangjian suddenly had such an idea in his mind.It’s just that this is just an idea. The Yuan and Ming dynasties wanted to open the Jiaolai Canal, but in the end due to various factors, it finally failed to take shape. Therefore, the water grain ships of the Yuan Dynasty continued to bypass the mountains from the sea* The eastern peninsula arrived in the area of ​​TJ, and the grain ships of the Ming Dynasty continued to arrive in TJ from the silted and shallow canals. It is hard to imagine why a country established by nomads had the courage to transport grain by sea, but the Ming Dynasty never dared or could not transport grain by sea... …), the Jiao Lai Canal continues to exist on paper.

However, if we have survived the earthquake this time and have a lot of money and food available, it is time to consider dredging the Jiaolai Canal.This is not only convenient for people on the east bank to transfer materials from north to south, but also has many benefits in terms of military defense. And if well-trained heavy troops are stationed, in the future, without sea control, if the mainland regime wants to break through this line of defense and then occupy the entire Jiaodong Peninsula, the difficulty will also increase exponentially compared to now.

Therefore, no matter from the perspective of economic development or military defense, Jiaolai Canal has its existence value.Moreover, this canal can make use of the existing water system. What really needs to be excavated is the section known as the Jiaolai New River in history-this section of the river has been excavated in the Yuan Dynasty, and was later abandoned. It still exists, which can greatly reduce the workload.

In the Ming Dynasty, on the basis of the Yuan Dynasty, although the proposal to excavate the Jiaolai Canal was repeated several times and was finally abandoned, in fact a considerable part was still excavated. The reason why it was finally abandoned was that there were more than 100 miles of underground stones in the watershed area. The conditions were difficult to dig out, and it was estimated that the opening of the entire canal would cost more than [-] million taels of silver, so it was finally dismissed.As a result, during the reign of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, when the grain and salaries in the Jiangnan area were transported to the north and east of Shandong, it was quite inconvenient to transfer the grain and salaries by horse-drawn cart after they arrived at the watershed, and then transport them to sea by boat.

Therefore, if enough manpower and funds are raised, the excavation of the Jiaolai Canal should be put on the agenda.At the very least, it is also good to dredge and widen some river sections so that ships can go deeper into the inland.As for opening up the watershed and connecting the Bohai Sea with the Yellow Sea, you can take your time, there is no rush.

However, it is estimated that this large project will not be able to start during his tenure, which makes Liang Xiangjian a little regretful.If there is no accident, Liao Xiaoyao, the current captain of the Heishui Pioneering Team, will replace him as the captain of the Denglai Pioneering Team. Liang Xiangjian had a chat with him once, and he felt that Liao Xiaoyao opposed the opening of the Jiaolai Canal. There are roughly two reasons. One is that the cost is huge but the cost cannot be recovered; the other is that the river is prone to siltation, and the water volume is insufficient in dry seasons, so it is necessary to build a steam pumping water station, which undoubtedly has huge political risks, so he is quite hesitant about this, and it can even be said that it is opposing.Therefore, it is hard to say what the future of the Jiaolai Canal will be like, and we can only take one step at a time.

"5000 people from the Xie Qian Division of the Sixth Division of the New Army went south, 500 people from the Du Chong Division of the Eighth Division of the New Army went south, and 2000 people from the First Brigade of the Standing Team went south..." After lingering in Pingdu Prefecture for a few days, before going to Liang Xiangjian ordered so in Jiaozhou.

This order undoubtedly made Pingdu Prefecture feel relieved.With less than 1 mouths to eat, their lives should be much easier in the future, and they will have more leeway for disaster relief.As for whether the above-mentioned three departments will affect the local defense after going south to Jiaozhou to eat, huh, huh, don't worry at all!The [-] Qing troops stationed in Qingzhou Mansion probably would be too busy to take care of themselves, so how could they have other thoughts?It’s not bad for the people on the east coast not to cross the border to find trouble with them (of course, this is unlikely). It is really too difficult for them to expect the Qing army to go hungry and trek on the muddy and impassable roads. It is simply impossible. .

On August 8, Liang Xiangjian and his party, who had almost turned into mud monkeys, arrived in Jiaozhou City under continuous heavy rain.It is worth mentioning that this Jiaozhou is a city that gradually developed after people from the east bank built forts along the coast of Jiaozhou Bay in later generations. The city taken from Li was renamed Jiaoxian County, and Du Chong's troops were moved to the town - Du Chong gave up a county town that was not very lucrative, and got a state capital, so naturally he was willing to do so.

At this time, many elite troops were stationed in Jiaozhou City, including the Seventh Mixed Battalion, the Fourth Battalion of the Standing Brigade, the Third Battalion of the Cavalry Wing, and the Jiaozhou Artillery Company. what happened.Fortunately, what he saw and heard in Jiaozhou City made him completely relieved. The fortresses, barracks, forts, and piers built by the people on the east coast over the years are mostly solid structures made of bricks and stones, and the walls are relatively thick and not easy to collapse.Therefore, even though Jiaozhou was slightly affected by the earthquake, it only caused cracks in some buildings, and there were no large-scale collapses. This made only a small number of unlucky soldiers suffer from the earthquake damage, which did not affect the overall situation.

There is also a very obvious regression phenomenon in the coastal waters of Jiaozhou Port, which has caused certain troubles to shipping.However, Jiaozhou Bay is a good natural harbor, and the water depth is enough to prevent ships from running aground immediately—but it is a fact that some small boats capsized in the bay during the earthquake. There is no way, the huge swell caused by the earthquake is really scary. The anchor chains of the class fast cruiser were completely torn off—and it is said that the sea water has also flowed back in recent days, and some tidal flats in the distance that were exposed due to sea retreat are now covered by sea water again, which seems to indicate that things are going on. To develop in a good way.

"Are there any disaster victims from the west?" After learning that the loss of Jiaozhou City was still within an acceptable range, Liang Xiangjian suddenly asked about the situation in the Qing Dynasty to the west, but he didn't know what his plan was.

(End of this chapter)