Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 372

The men and women in Zhuangzi have been completely gathered at this time.Mo Ming took a look and found that most of them were women and servants. These people lowered their heads and their bodies were trembling. I don't know if it was because of the cold or fear.It's just that the master seems to have run away!

After Mo Ming took a casual glance, he lost interest in these people. After ordering his subordinates to interrogate them, he sat in the main hall surrounded by staff officers and began to wait for his subordinates to report to him .

The subordinates didn't make him wait for too long. As robbers, they were already familiar with the road, and they quickly found key facilities such as silver cellars and grain depots in Zhuangzi, and searched and seized a large amount of property.And when his subordinates reported that there were more than 1000 taels of silver hidden in the silver cellar and more than [-] shi of grain in the grain depot, Mo Ming was surprised. Wasn't this old man who co-authored Zhang robbed by tartars?There is so much oil and water in the house!

The soldiers came in and out of the manor, searched almost every room carefully, and then returned to the courtyard in front of the hall.At this time, the Korean masters outside the door had already swarmed in, and began to move out the grain stored in the grain depot and the silver in the silver cellar one by one, preparing to be carried away by horses.It's just that there are more than 1000 stones of grain here, more than 20 tons. Calculated based on the weight of [-] kilograms per horse, even if all [-] horses can transport [-] tons at a time.It took people from the east coast to transport five round trips to transport all the food, not to mention that there were some livestock, silver, silk and other property in the village.

"According to the interrogation, the owner of this house is a scholar. He escaped on horseback through the back door, and he should not have gone far. Do you want to send someone to chase after you?" The young combat staff officer Junior came in from the outside, and said softly. Mo Ming asked in his ear.

"Why are you chasing him? We're not here to ransack the house, just to borrow some food." Mo Ming waved his hand and said shamelessly, "This guy runs pretty fast. Where's his family?"

"It is said that his family lives in the county town." The staff officer continued, "His family has a grain shop in the county town, and most of the grain harvested by the family is stored in the grain shop, so there is not much grain in the manor, only about 100 tons. It looks like it. On the contrary, it’s quite a lot of money. According to my rough estimate, it’s conservatively estimated to be more than 1000 yuan.”

"By the way, we also captured nearly [-] captives, most of them were the scholar's private slaves, and only a few were his employees and their family members, such as tutors, accountants, farm managers, etc. etc. Also, several of the militia officers were hired from the county seat, warriors of some renown nearby—though I find their will to fight very doubtful; Slaves who are also farm operators, including their families." Junior flipped through a small book and kept reading: "In the previous battle, a total of nineteen militiamen were killed by us, and three others were injured. , most of the rest were captured by us except for a few who escaped. Because of their unwise resistance, four volunteers who came forward were injured, do you want them to be tried?"

"Don't give them any form of trial for the time being, and give them the treatment they deserve as prisoners of war." Mo Ming replied.Of course he knew what Junior meant by trial, that is, to capture and execute the enemy soldiers who caused harm to them; These people practice the law of killing eleven.Mo Ming naturally didn't want to use this method of dealing with barbarians on Ming people, so he resolutely stopped this proposal.

"Unload all our combat materials and store them in the manor, load the food we urgently need on the pack horses, and then return to Yantai. Let's start the operation now. After all the horses of the pack horse team have been loaded, the 3rd Squadron of the Standing Team will be responsible for escorting them. Send the food to the Yantai Fortress and then return. Going round and round in this way, try to ship all the food and property within a week. Oh, by the way, this scholar... um, the books in the scholar's library are also packed together Go, don't miss it! Carry out the order, second lieutenant intern!" Mo Ming began to issue orders.

The young intern staff saluted, then hurried down to make arrangements.

The Korean masters of the pack horse team quickly put heavy grain bags on the backs of all 40 horses, and each horse carried 50-200 kilograms. Then they stood up with more than [-] people led by Kurhan Under the escort of the officers and soldiers of the army, they walked out of the manor one by one, and headed towards the Yantai Fortress under the leadership of the guide.

After they left, the infantry and artillery of the 102nd Company of the Army also packed their bags and shrank to the manor.They repaired the gate that was broken by the artillery, and then buried the corpses inside and outside the manor wall, and then sent sentries to the top of the wall for vigilance.

The captives in the manor were still huddled at the foot of the wall, and they watched numbly as the group of high-nosed and deep-eyed thieves transported away the grain from the manor one by one.They didn't feel any heartache, because the food had nothing to do with them, they just felt a little hesitant about their unknown fate.

"Veterinarians, grooms, blacksmiths and other people with special skills are first screened out, registered and compiled, and given preferential treatment to them and their families; the family members of Xiangyong who was killed by us and their relatives and friends should also be screened out, and strictly enforced. Take care, we don’t need to bring these people with us when we return, so as not to cause trouble for ourselves. In addition, we should publicize our army’s policy to all these people and pardon the slaves as free people.” Mo Ming began to issue his second order He gave the order, and soon, an equally young intern staff officer of the Dingyuan Military Academy hurried out after obeying the order.

The main content of the so-called "propaganda of our army's policy" is "paying enough taxes", "pardoning slaves as free people", "returning the land illegally occupied by the gentry", etc., and allowing the local villagers to report to the people on the east bank , Dongan people will conduct a "fair trial" according to their own judgment and discretion.The main purpose of these policies is to enhance the prestige of the people on the east coast at the bottom, win a certain degree of support from the people in the three prefectures of Deng, Lai, and Qing, and eliminate their fear of the people on the east coast, thereby increasing the effect of immigration.

However, it is obvious that this policy of the people on the east bank put themselves on the opposite side of the gentry and landlord class.It is not that no one has pointed out that they should abandon this policy of going downhill and turn to the support of the gentry.However, this kind of argument cannot withstand scrutiny. First of all, the people on the east bank obviously do not have enough power to protect the interests of these gentry in the next big change, so as to gain their support; secondly, the attitude of these gentry towards the people on the east bank It is quite negative. In their eyes, the vulgar Dongan people are not even as good as the Tartars; in the end, the purpose of the Dongan people is not to seize the world of Ming Dynasty, but to gain population.And precisely because of the acquisition of population, there is a fundamental contradiction between them and these gentry classes.

Although Shandong has been looted twice by the Tartars, and the control of the Ming Dynasty has been greatly weakened, it is not like Shaanxi and Henan, which have completely become thousands of miles away.On the contrary, when the control of the central government weakened, a large number of rural local powers were taken over by the gentry.In this troubled world, they tried every means to tie tenant farmers, domestic slaves, long-term workers, etc. to their land, and used various means to prevent them from becoming refugees. After all, the land also needs people to cultivate it.However, the people on the east coast are playing the idea of ​​a large population controlled by the gentry. How can the two sides have a basis for cooperation?

Well, in this case, it is better to go directly to the bottom line, and make your own population without asking anyone, as long as the gentry don't come to make trouble.Of course, if there are troublemakers, they will be resolutely suppressed.

The packhorse team of the East Coasters returned to the manor the next day, and then continued to load the second batch of grain.When they returned, about a hundred blacksmiths, veterinarians, grooms, carpenters, teachers and other craftsmen and their families in Zhuangzi were reluctantly escorted back to Yantai Fortress.

Due to the deterioration of the weather and moderate snowfall, the people on the east bank moved food, silver and books several days later than expected.It was not until the noon of November 11, when the last team of pack horses left with valuable silver and books, that the entire transportation operation was almost declared over.Before that, more than 5 domestic slaves of Zhang Yuanwai had been taken back to Yantai Fortress by the people from the east coast, crying.At this time, apart from the soldiers from the East Coast Army, there were only more than 200 Xiangyongs and their families staying in the manor. As for these people, Mo Ming did not intend to take them away.Because many of their brothers, friends, husbands or fathers were killed by the East Coasters in the battles of the previous days, there is no guarantee that some of them have a deep-rooted hatred for the East Coasters, so they are left here to fend for themselves It's self-defeating.

In the early morning of November 11, Mo Ming led his troops to evacuate the manor that had been occupied for ten days.In the past ten days, I don't know whether it was Fushan County or Dengzhou Prefecture who were slow to respond or what. In short, no one came to take any measures against them, as if everyone ignored the bad behavior of the people from the east bank to blatantly seize the Jinshen Manor. It is amazing.Before leaving, he ordered the last bit of grain and silver in the village to be distributed to those village braves, and then he left and led his army back to Yantai Fortress.

After returning, they rested for a few days. Starting from November 11th, Mo Ming led the army to set off again, and braved the severe cold to attack everywhere in Fushan County, Ninghai Prefecture, Wendeng County, and even Pingdu Prefecture, and broke through more than ten gentry in a row. Or the manor of a rich merchant, who plundered more than 9 people, gold and silver worth more than 300 yuan, more than 12 tons of grain, and more than [-] (only) livestock, which can be described as a bumper harvest.This kind of operation lasted until mid-December. Because of the heavy snowfall in the Dengzhou area, the roads were difficult to walk, and many soldiers fell ill due to long-term high-intensity combat in severe cold, so Mo Ming decisively ended this kind of rural looting operation.

(End of this chapter)