Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2125 Local Will ([-])

On January 1691, 1, outside Wuzhou Port, a large group of captives in messy clothes were working.Surrounding them were groups of security regiment soldiers in khaki military uniforms. They temporarily acted as supervisors to ensure that the captives would not cause trouble. At the same time, the expansion project of Wuzhou Port was successfully completed to allow better navigation with the downstream area.

The sources of the captives are quite complicated. There are not only Ming army prisoners of war, but also gentry landlords and their families who were captured by the people from the east bank after they came to collude with Nanming and Dashun. At the same time, there are many bandits who took advantage of the chaos. They were all arrested and sent to a prisoner concentration camp outside Wuzhou City.

In order to manage these proud and rebellious captives well, Jiang Yunfan, director of the Lianwu Management Committee, had no choice but to let the Wuzhou security regiment go into battle.For this reason, the military barracks of the security regiment were built next to the prisoner concentration camp, and thousands of people were divided into two parts, one part for daily training and patrolling, and the other part for guarding the prisoners and supervising work.

Some people may say that it is a bit of a big deal to use [-] soldiers to guard more than [-] prisoners.But if you see the contemptuous eyes of the Ming army prisoners looking at the supervisors, you will probably understand that it is not enough for such a group of soldiers from the security regiment who were not private salt dealers, bandits and bandits before to surrender their troops. The obedience of the Ming army in the regular army is overthinking.Many Ming soldiers said in private that they were defeated by the new Dongguo army, not their cowards.In the past, they would not have looked at these crooked members of the security group seriously, but now they are under their constant surveillance, and the situation has reversed, which is really driving people crazy.

In fact, according to the logic, these captives should have been included in the immigration reserves of the Far Eastern vassals and sent to the mainland on the east coast.However, because of the initial establishment of the Lianwu Management Committee, these people were eventually detained and used as the construction team for the entire region.For example, the Wuzhou Port expansion project in front of us used this captive force.Before that, this labor force was also requisitioned for the preliminary renovation of several traffic arteries in Wuzhou Prefecture.

Oh, by the way, after finishing the work at Wuzhou Port, this construction army will go to Lianzhou Prefecture to renovate the local roads.Especially the roads leading from Qinzhou Port to various places, due to disrepair for a long time, the road conditions are very bad, and the transportation capacity is greatly limited.Considering the current situation in the Lianwu area, Qinzhou Port is still its main source of materials. Most of the materials needed by the Lianwu Management Committee will be transported to this port, and then transported to other places by land.At present, the condition of Qinzhou Port is so-so, and there is no need to make great efforts to improve it for the time being. However, the roads connecting various cities from Qinzhou are very poor, and the river is also silted up, which urgently needs to be improved.

Undoubtedly, this is a very large project that requires a lot of manpower, material resources and money, and it cannot be completed overnight.It can also be seen from here that in the entire three prefectures of Lian, Wu, and Mian, the small court of the Nanming Dynasty, which does not even have a second-class national road, has governed the place like it?I'm afraid it's not that as long as they can receive taxes and collect food, the rest will take care of you!Therefore, for the overthrow of such a corrupt government, the Dong'an people who have always upheld China's Zhengshuo have no psychological pressure at all. On the contrary, they may still regard themselves as the savior, and have a slight sense of superiority, although the local people think of Dong'an people. It's hard to say.

But no matter what your perception is, people in the East Coast have always been doing things their own way. If they should do construction, they should make assumptions, if they should develop the economy, they should develop the economy, if they should do culture and education, they should do culture and education.And it is precisely because of their desperate approach that they can slowly break through the originally intricate situation in the local area and slowly bring the situation back to normal.And as long as the place is built well, people will naturally change their views slowly as time goes on, and recognize the rule of the East Bank from the bottom of their hearts, so basically it will be stable.

In fact, just look at Denglei and other old ruling areas.At the end of Ming Dynasty, Kong Youde, the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, the Ming army, and numerous local bandits and thieves kept going back and forth, almost completely disrupting the entire social order.Even in many states and counties in Denglei, the local Wubao is almost invisible, all of them have been breached, and the remaining ordinary people are hiding in the corners and shivering.Until the people from the east bank landed here, the blue-clothed army holding high the red flag wiped out the heroes, quickly restored local order, and then continued to govern until now, the appearance has been very different.

Today's Denglai not only has a high standard of living for the people, but also created many firsts in mainland China, such as the first railway, the first steam engine, the first college that teaches knowledge in various disciplines, the first modern hospital, etc. wait.You can go to the counties of Denglei to ask some people at will. As long as they are old, they will say good things about the east bank. Many people still miss the Marshal Mo who saved them from the fire.

That is to say, some young people born in peaceful times feel that this kind of stable order and higher living standards are taken for granted. They feel that they have paid the royal grain and paid taxes. The success of Denglai is the result of their hard work and has nothing to do with the government. , but the situation of successive wars between the Qing, Shun, and Ming states definitely disagrees with their views.

Of course, not all areas have "thoughts" like the people in Denglai.At least on Lianwu's side, because it was not long after getting out of the chaos of war, the common people basically didn't have any special ideas, as long as they could survive, don't make any more fuss.And their desire is actually similar to that of the Lianwu Management Committee, because they also want to stabilize the situation as soon as possible, and Shunguo next door is watching.

In order to achieve this goal, Jiang Yunfan, director of the Lianwu Management Committee, gave the local government many privileges.That is to say, he formed a political consultative conference, and recruited famous gentry and big businessmen from the three prefectures of Lian, Wu, and Mian to participate in the conference, participate in the discussion of state affairs, and directly respond to many local problems to the management committee.Then the local government is basically governed by them, as long as they recognize the rule of the people on the east coast, anyway, they don't have the strength to extend their tentacles to every corner of Lianwu.

In fact, this ruling mode is similar to the early form of Ningbo Mansion.The stability maintenance associations that sprung up in Ningbo all over the place were almost an autonomous organization of local gentry. They paid money and food to the people on the east coast, and sometimes gave birth to wives. At the same time, they generally maintained local order. quite positive.

But this model also has a disadvantage, that is, there are too many famous families in the local area, the influence is too strong, and the localism is too strong, which brings certain troubles to the rulers.The Lianwu Management Committee has now absorbed wealthy businessmen, gentry, and chieftains into the ruling system. Although it can stabilize the local order as quickly as possible, it will undoubtedly face the problem of local will rebound in the future. It is really not good for outsiders to choose. Beak.

The reason why Jiang Yunfan did this was probably mainly because of the relatively severe situation Lian Wu was facing.The troops of Li Dingguo's son Li Sixing had already suffered a devastating defeat in the west of Guangxi Province. Li Sixing himself led some remnants into Vietnam and disappeared.There were occasional sporadic rebellions in parts of Yunnan and Guizhou, but they were all quickly extinguished by the fierce and capable Shun Army troops.In particular, some rebel chieftains in Yunnan were beaten terribly by Liu Zhonggui's men, and many of them became prisoners.

In other words, in the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, the resistance forces on the surface no longer exist, and they have all been wiped out.Of course, this does not mean that the Shun army can be withdrawn. In fact, they will still have to garrison a considerable number of troops in various places in the next few years to suppress the situation.The main advantage of being wiped out for open resistance is that they can adjust their deployment, stop quietly, and put pressure on the people on the east bank in the border area of ​​Lianwu. ——This may be the main reason why Jiang Yunfan is eager to stabilize the local situation.

As for the remnants of the Ming army that entered Vietnam, the Shun army seems to have an excuse to pursue and suppress Li Sixing recently, taking the opportunity to enter Vietnam.This can be seen from the fact that General Wang Wanchun of the Shun Army brought [-] elite troops and [-] surrendered troops into Zhen'an Mansion and Guishun Prefecture. In the north, see if you can bypass the blockade of the people on the east coast and get an outlet to the sea.

It's just that they still seem to have some doubts at the moment, that is, once they officially enter northern Vietnam, will there be an armed conflict with the Vietnamese government?You must know that during the century-old civil war in Vietnam, the army was very good both in terms of number and combat effectiveness, and its tactics were also very advanced, so it was not something that could be manipulated at will.Moreover, so what if you can win for a while?Can it adapt to the local environment?Now these Shunjun soldiers in Guangxi are basically the children of the two lakes. If they really went to the tropical jungle, maybe the enemy didn't kill you, but the disease made you lie down a lot, so the gain outweighs the loss.

This is no joke.In history, the Central Plains dynasty conquered Vietnam several times. For example, when the Western Army entered Vietnam in the Northern Song Dynasty, they won the field battle at first, but were later defeated by diseases and the environment. In the end, they were defeated and suffered heavy losses.Therefore, the plan of occupying northern Vietnam and taking the opportunity to obtain access to the sea seems very tempting, but it still needs to be considered in the long run and should not be moved lightly.Now Dashun's main enemy is the life and death enemy Manqing in the north, and that is the enemy that can really kill them.For a land like Vietnam, we should wait until later to figure out a solution. The issue of the estuary must be resolved, and the issue of Li Sixing’s remnant troops must also be resolved.

(End of this chapter)