Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1711 Rising Storm (Twenty)

On December 1675, 12, Tongzhou.

It snowed heavily all night, and the big-toed leather boots of the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the New Army stepped on the snow and made a creaking sound.They breathed hotly, carried rifles with bayonets on their shoulders, and patrolled the city with their heads held high.

There is no doubt that the Chinese are the ones who cannot leave their homeland the most. Even though they are facing the notorious yellow-clothed thieves (the result of years of demonized propaganda by the Qing court and the gentry), some people still rose up to resist and did not want to He was taken captive by the yellow clothes thief.Especially those gentry or businessmen who have land and houses outside the city are most reluctant to leave their own property and a place where they can dominate, but what is the use of this?Thieves in yellow clothes are not easy to talk to—the Qing court has slowly raised the status of Han civil servants and generals over the years. , there is only one end, and that is death!The series of bloody heads hanging on the tower is the proof!

Therefore, in the end, a total of more than 8000 men, women and children in Tongzhou City were escorted out of the city and headed to the riverside, almost without leaving.In addition to the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the New Army, there were even some river thieves, water bandits, green-skinned hooligans, and even cult figures temporarily recruited by people from the east coast to escort them.These people's combat effectiveness is not very good, but after issuing some tattered cold weapons, they can still perform some guarding tasks carelessly. In a big deal, these people will be sent to overseas colonies to serve in overseas colonies, such as the cannibals. Bauer colony, let them fight the natives, the picture must be beautiful.

"After breaking the city yesterday, thanks to the fact that it was during the daytime, no troubles were caused. If the city was broken at night, with the virtues of the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the New Army, I am afraid that some disciplinary incidents would have occurred earlier." With his hands behind his back Major Junio, who walked out of Zhizhou Yamen, looked at the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division coming and going on the street, and asked Sun Wu, a major of the gendarmerie who was following him.

"The staff department went to each team to count the situation last night, and found that after entering the city, the discipline of each department was pretty good. There were only 8 rape incidents and 18 illegal killing incidents. Theft and robbery were not counted because there were bonuses for the spoils. It is very frequent, and the total is only more than a hundred. Overall, it is very good. No matter compared with the army of Qing, Shun or Ming, we are the most civilized, there is no doubt about it." Major Sun Wu stood at attention and replied: "Of course The above are all exposed incidents, and it is not ruled out that some incidents were concealed because no one reported them. The Ministry also had discussions with officers and soldiers from the grassroots companies of the Fifth Division and the Seventh Mixed Battalion, but they generally treated our military police I don’t understand the work, and there is antagonism, and the officers and soldiers who come to the symposium are often candidates appointed by the superiors, and we may not be able to hear the truth and unearth clues..."

"That's enough, don't be too demanding." Major Junio ​​waved his hand when he heard the words, and said: "Those who have been fighting outside all the year round have had devils in their hearts. Look at the Franco-Dutch War, the Pole-Swiss War, and the Franco-Spanish War. Are there few armies from various countries in China who indulge in casual killings? Look at the Zuoying of the Shun Army who entered Sichuan. What is it that the green battalion guest army under Su Songchang's command actually robbed their own people, which makes people speechless; look at the North Korea you have been to, those imperial battalion officers and soldiers are not very good at fighting, do you dare to say anything when they bully the people? ? Forget it, just hit them a little bit, but if you go too far, it’s not good if morale is lost.”

Junio's words actually meant something.Because according to the news sent back by the scouts, after more than a week of tossing around Tongzhou City by the people from the east coast, the Qing army in Yangzhou finally dispatched, and it is reported that they are currently coming to Tongzhou for reinforcements.The total number of Qing troops reported by the scouts is about 1. However, after removing the repeated and obviously false parts, the intelligence staff concluded that the Qing army is about 5000-8000. , and the marching speed should not be very fast, one is because of bad weather, and the other is because of insufficient strength, I want to wait for reinforcements from farther places to come.

The Qing army, which is less than [-] in size, is not in the eyes of Major Junio ​​to be honest.In his opinion, the Qing army's equipment in Yangzhou Prefecture is backward, their tactics are outdated, and their morale is not very high. This should be the reason why they have been stationed in a place full of fireworks for a long time.Therefore, he looked down on this kind of troops with few shotguns, melee combat with cold weapons and not as "wild" as the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalion. He felt that the Seventh Mixed Battalion under his command would fight five or more Not a problem at all.

But even so, he did not intend to stay here to entangle with the Qing army, but ordered the various ministries to speed up their actions and transport the people to the riverside as soon as possible, so as not to slow down the marching speed of the combat troops.He reckoned that with the marching speed of the Qing army, they would at most have time to send the immigrants onto the transport ship, and they would definitely not be able to wait until the ship was empty before returning from Chongmingsha.Therefore, he planned to abandon the city of Tongzhou after taking care of the affairs of Tongzhou City, and lead his troops all the way to the east, moving towards Haimen County. In the end, he would either fight or leave there, and the Qing army should have nothing to do with them. .

The two walked while talking, and soon reached the gate of the city.Here, an infantry company of the Seventh Mixed Battalion is maintaining order. A company commander with a fair complexion is holding a list in his hand, shouting names such as "third team" and "fifth team" from time to time, and then you can see A group of officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the New Army in yellow clothes responded loudly, leading a large group of civilians to march south.Around them, the cavalry regiment of the Fifth Division and the cavalry company of the Seventh Mixed Battalion have a total of more than a thousand cavalry, and they also allocated some troops to accompany them to ensure that if someone escapes, they can catch up with them at the fastest speed and cut them down. Fall, to frighten everyone.

Junio ​​nodded when he saw this. There were a lot of people at the gate of the city, including the citizens of Tongzhou City and the villagers who were captured from nearby villages.They stood side by side, very crowded, although it was already winter, many of them were still sweating profusely.In this case, not to mention eating anything, even going to the toilet has become a luxury.Perhaps out of nervousness, some people couldn't hold back any longer and squatted on the ground with pale faces. Amidst the murmurs and anxiety of the people around them, a stench of excrement and urine spread.At this time, no one laughed at them, because everyone was very sad, and it could even be said that they were on the verge of collapse, because soon they were about to stagger southward under the threat of the yellow thief's sword and gun, and walk on the unknown road. It's a journey.

"When people reach this point, they are like pigs and dogs, and they have lost any human dignity." Junio ​​looked at the scene in front of him and said in a sympathetic tone, as if he did not cause all this by himself. .

"Actually, I just have to bear with it. After arriving in Ningbo, life in collective farms is not difficult. There are decent houses, at least better than the large thatched huts we saw in the countryside of Qing Dynasty; Clothes that are durable and can keep out the cold are better than those of the tenants in the Qing Dynasty who shivered in winter with ragged clothes; there are enough rice, salted fish and vegetables, and food is distributed according to human hair, well, I admit this There is no obvious advantage in the above points, but at least they eat better than they did in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, after they go to Ningbo, their living standards will improve a lot, and their physical fitness will also improve a lot. If you learn some rules and emigrate to the mainland in the future, you can live a good life." Major Sun Wu said: "Actually, we are helping them and treating them well, although this may be against their wishes. But Is this important? It's not important, hehe!"

In fact, generally speaking, after these people arrive in Ningbo Mansion, they will be incorporated into many units on the spot, not just collective farms.For example, Yancheng requires a lot of labor. Strong men and strong women do physical work, and the elderly and children do lighter work. The same is true for the construction team. In short, it will not let you idle, but have work to do.

Even, in recent years, the southern development team has obtained local special approval, and some local technology-based enterprises that have lowered their confidentiality levels have also come here to set up.For example, the glass factories jointly established by the pioneering government and the Bank of Taiwan, such as building material factories, silk reeling factories, etc., also need a lot of people who do pure physical work. After peace and discipline, they will be transported back to the mainland to open up wasteland, killing two birds with one stone.

Of course, overall speaking, the large tracts of state-owned farms scattered on both sides of Cixi and the outer suburbs of Yin County are still the largest absorbers of labor.These people work collectively here, growing rice, wheat, corn, sweet potatoes and other crops for military supplies.Sometimes they also produce a lot of vegetables, melons and fruits, and raise some livestock. In addition to supplying their own consumption, the output is basically sent to Dinghai Port to supplement the sailors of the navy or immigration transport ships.

In the past few years, as the source of immigrants has been drying up-the number of spontaneous immigrants from Ningbo and Denglai is far from enough, and there are still many people from these two places who have gone to Heishui to open up wasteland, especially in the land. Ningbo, where there are fewer people and more people - the labor force in these saltworks, construction teams, orchards, farms, brick kilns and factories is also decreasing day by day, which even affects the normal production operation later on.In desperation, these units wanted to hire labor locally in Ningbo, but they also encountered policy obstacles (because the Southern Pioneering Team wanted these people to find no jobs locally and force them to emigrate overseas), so the start of work was quite insufficient. , income has also been greatly affected.

This time, Major Junio ​​led thousands of officers and soldiers of the Seventh Mixed Battalion and the Fifth Division of the New Army to "consecutively commit crimes" in Songjiang Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture, and captured more than 8 people (including this time around Tongzhou City). Arrived), and there is still the possibility of further increase, so the labor shortage of these units should be greatly alleviated, so that they will not complain non-stop.

"Okay, let's stop standing here and affect the work of the sons and daughters. Let's go, go back to Zhizhou Yamen to clean up and prepare to move. The Qing army is coming. Although it is not difficult to deal with, I am too lazy to learn from them. It's better to leave for Haimen County as soon as possible, maybe you can get a hand in it, there should be a lot of people there." Looking up at the snowflakes that are gradually shrinking in the sky, Major Junio ​​said.

"That's exactly the reason. The Qing army from Yangzhou marched at such a slow pace, and the essence of being fierce and indifferent was immediately seen through. Obviously, they were not sure that they would go deep alone, and they were afraid of being eaten by us. Okay, since they are so cooperative, we will be disrespectful , it is reasonable to hurry up and get on the road." Major Sun Wu also said with a smile.

On December 1675, 12, the Qing army did not catch up for a whole week, which made Major Junio ​​a little fortunate and disappointed at the same time.He even guessed whether the thousands of Qing troops who rushed over first were the "quick response troops" prepared all year round, and they could be dispatched the next day if there was a situation, which can be described as extremely fast.As for the others, it is estimated that it will have to be done slowly. Part of the owed military salary will have to be distributed, and weapons, fodder, and luggage will have to be transported from various warehouses (provided that they have not been stolen and sold out), and the local gentry must be asked for Some money and food, some draft animals, all in all very "busy", no wonder no one caught up for a while, and the vanguard of thousands of people also dawdled behind, fearing that they would be defeated if they were early birds.

And since the Qing army is so knowledgeable, the people on the east bank are not polite.It only took them a few hours to attack Haimen County, and then they "packed" a large number of people, property and livestock, and headed for the seaside agreed with the navy. After about five days, they boarded the ship and evacuated smoothly. When they arrived in Chongmingsha, the Qing army was so weak that they didn’t fight a single battle. It seems that the offensive launched in Shaoxing Mansion last year was very effective. It really attracted a large number of Qing troops from the surrounding area, leaving the place very empty.

Major Junio ​​and his Seventh Mixed Battalion did not stay in Chongmingsha for long, because the combat mission had come to an end temporarily, and the Fifth Division of the New Army could stay there for training, and there was no need for them to continue mixing. At the beginning of January, he returned to Ningbo Dinghai Port by boat, and made a report to Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Exploration Team.

Ma Wenqiang didn't care about the specific situation of their battle, but only asked about the population acquisition situation. When he got an accurate data from Junio ​​and calculated the next two immigration transportation seasons (as of April 78), he could rest easy. Finally, he finally let out a long sigh of relief, and now he doesn't need to be assessed at last - the mainland is currently engaged in infrastructure construction, and it is the time when there is an extreme thirst for manpower. At this juncture, he doesn't want to make any trouble. As for affecting the superior's perception of himself.Especially recently when he even heard from a friend in a letter that the executive committee planned to build some ports and roads on the Pampa Plain regardless of the perception of the Spaniards, his sense of crisis became even stronger.

(End of this chapter)