Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 423 Immigration Departure

As the Dashun Army launched a large-scale counterattack in Shanxi and Henan, the Qing Army began to transfer all the troops that could fight there but sent people to contact the Muslims who fought fiercely with the Dashun Army in Qinghai and Gansu. The total destruction of Li Chuang restrained a large number of main forces of the Shun army.In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, more than [-] Qing troops from the Bahana and Shi Tingzhu tribes who had been wandering around Jinan were transferred westward to Huaiqing Mansion to join the Qing army from the Gushan Erzhen Yechen tribe.This Qing army avoided the northern part of Shanxi, where Dashun's heavy troops were assembled, and ignored the Dashun army's partial divisions in Hebei and northwestern Shanxi, attacking Zezhou and Lu'an from Henan, with the intention of approaching Taiyuan from south to north.

But in late August of the lunar calendar, the situation in northern Shanxi has undergone major changes.The Tang Tong Department of the Shun Army stationed in Baode, Kelan and other places suddenly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and attacked the Shun Army's rear camp in Fugu. The Shun Army was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.Tang Tong also exchanged information with the Qing army in Datong and Ningwu, and the momentum was extremely shocking.

In September, Li Guo, who had failed in the city of Datong before, led his troops in two ways to attack Datong, Ningwu, and Baode where the Qing army was stationed. The soldiers paid more, and begged the soldiers in the inner court (Eight Banners soldiers) to come to help as soon as possible.At the end of this month, after receiving a large number of reinforcements from the Eight Banners Army, the Yechen Division of the Qing Army on the South Road conquered Zezhou and Lu'an, and then went straight to the city of Taiyuan.In order to relieve the pressure of the Dashun Army in Taiyuan, the Dashun Army in southern Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and other places began to gather heavy troops to attack the Qing army's flanks.At the same time, the local gentry in Shanxi rebelled one after another in response to the Qing army, and the situation of the Shun army was badly damaged.

……

On October 1644, 10, there were many masts and sculls in the wharf of Yantai Port.More than a dozen large ships that are rarely seen on the ground in the Far East gathered here, including seven steam engine sailboats, two merchant ships, two armed transport ships, and two escort gunboats.At the beginning of this month, the mainland sent two steam engine sailboats again, along with the 15th Company of the Army, the Third Battalion of the Eight Banners New Army, and some supplementary soldiers (105 musketeers + 100 gunners + 50 Eight Banners warriors), 200 military police, more than 50 Polish mercenaries, eight Andalusian horses, and a large number of weapons and ammunition.

Regarding the 105th Company of the Army, it is a unit that has just been established in South Africa.Now the local troops are really tight, and there are not enough troops to go to the Far East for the time being. Therefore, the military department divided the 5th Company of the South African Army (formerly 104th Company) into two parts, namely the 5th Company and the 105th Company, and then added A large number of soldiers from the original Hezhong Security Regiment went in to fill the gap.Less than two months after the establishment of the 105th company, they immediately boarded a passing transport ship and headed east.Lieutenant Li Renjun, the company commander of the company, was a middle school student before crossing over, and was a staff officer of the Army Department. Later, he participated in several domestic bandit suppression wars, and also fought against the Xhosa in South Africa for a while. After a little experience, he served as a The commander of the newly formed 105th company.In addition, Second Lieutenant Sun Shengjun served as the deputy company commander of the company and also came to Yantai at the same time.

The arrival of them and a new batch of reinforcements has greatly strengthened Yantai Fort's east coast troops. As of today, there are 870 infantrymen, 231 artillerymen, 2422 people from three battalions of the Eight Banners New Army, 12 people from 3000 squadrons, 353 Polish mercenaries, 6876 in total.In addition, there are more than 2500 military men in Yantai Fort, 50 new gendarmes in Heishui Port, more than 230 black soldiers in Dabo, and more than 40 navy sailors in Yuanbo Port. There are more than 60 patrol officers in the local police station, and the total force is quite impressive.

At this time, the population of Yantai and other places also reached an unprecedented 5000 people. If the army on the east bank is added, the number will approach 1800.There is absolutely no way to feed so many people!At present, the grain in Sakhalin Island, Yantai and other places has been harvested long ago. After these time consumption, there are less than 9 tons left.Fortunately, in September, Mo Ming led his troops to visit Laizhou, Qingzhou and other places. Taking advantage of the spring wheat harvest, he forcibly collected some grain and grass from the local gentry and brought back about 2300 tons of grain.In addition, there are currently more than 1400 tons of salmon, more than 1800 tons of saury, more than 2400 tons of Far Eastern sardines, and more than 300 tons of mackerel, squid, crabs, sea cucumbers and other miscellaneous goods in the ice cellar of Heishui Port.However, this year's fishing season is about to pass, and the output of the four fishing boats that are still floating in the sea may be quite limited in the next period of time. During the month, and a considerable part of the grain has to be left out.

This food pressure is not ordinary!It is estimated that the shortfall will be more than [-] tons, and this shortfall cannot be made up.Because the situation in Shandong is becoming more and more chaotic, the current grain production in Shandong is declining rapidly from a macro point of view, which means that even if the people on the east coast go out to collect grain, the amount they collect will be very limited.

To be honest, after the Shun army distributed the land of the landlords to the common people, the land planting area in Shandong increased rapidly. If they can persist until the autumn harvest, maybe this year will be a bumper harvest year.Helplessly, the Shun army was defeated too quickly, and had to retreat under the counterattack of the landlord's armed forces in about two months.However, many people who were assigned to the landlord's land and were happily farming were expelled or even killed by the landlord's armed forces. Many people were forced to flee or simply became bandits. The production order that had just improved was once again disrupted.

However, the Qing court failed to quickly and effectively fill the power vacuum created by the retreat of the Shun army. At present, there are constant wars in Shandong, and there are bandits, bandits, and rebels from hungry people under the banner of Li Chuang everywhere. There are countless people who abandon the wasteland and follow the thieves.Moreover, before Guo Sheng announced in Shandong that he would be exempted from exempting money and grain for three years, Wang Aoyong, Fang Dayou and others from the Qing court also shouted the slogan of exempting money and grain in order to win the hearts of the people.But later, Wang and Fang found that this was not going to work, because they had no money to recruit and raise soldiers.

Fang Dayou once played "Today there are no people, no officials, no soldiers, and there is always no salary", which shows his embarrassment.Later, with the establishment of the Qing army's Jiaozhou and Yizhou towns, Fang Dayou wanted to collect some money and grain to support the green battalion troops recruited by Ke Yongsheng and others: "Remove the wasteland, and only one point will be collected for those who are mature."Unexpectedly, the people who had just seen the situation calmed down and came back from the "thief's nest", when they heard that the Qing government was about to start collecting taxes, they immediately "turned away" and returned to the mountains again to become bandits. The two recruiters in Shandong were extremely embarrassed.

We can basically see from it that among the few forces in Shandong at present, the poorest should be the remnants of the Shun Army and local banditry, followed by the Qing court, and the people on the east bank have vigorously organized production self-rescue and fishing operations. Relatively richer, this has to be said to be an irony.Although the landlords and gentry in the four prefectures of Qingzhou, Dongchang, Jinan, and Yanzhou should still have a lot of food, they are far away from the activities of the people on the east coast, and they are beyond their reach. Therefore, the people on the east coast actually have to rely on their own food reserves to survive the next one year.

In order to successfully pass the next year, reducing the population of Yantai and Heishui has become a top priority.And it just so happened that the two steam engine sailboats newly supported by the mainland have arrived. After spending seven or eight days on maintenance, the climate has also undergone some changes. The northerly wind on the sea has gradually become the mainstream, so the immigrants are transported to Jinshan Port, Australia Actions can also begin.

This is the case with the seven steam engine sailboats in front of them. They loaded 3000 people at Heishui Port, 500 people at Yuanbo Port, 500 people at Dabo Port, and then loaded the last 1000 people at Kongtong Island. People, the supply has been completed at Yantai Port, and they are ready to set sail for Australia. The weather in late October is very suitable for sailing. Not only the severe weather such as typhoon disappeared without a trace, but also the southward direction until crossing the equator and reaching the central part of the east coast of Australia has a favorable wind. This fleet of pure machine sailboats is not slow It may only take more than 10 days to reach the destination Jinshan Port.Coupled with the cooler weather now, the death rate should be controlled within a tolerable range.

On the pier, Mo Ming shook Li Yi's right hand tightly, and said with a smile: "Your boy is going back to his hometown to enjoy the blessings. Are you afraid that your wife and little lover will run away with others? Haha."

"They dare?!" Li Yi also said with a smile, "Don't talk about me, I heard that you went to Laizhou and Qingzhou a while ago, but what is the design of Laura from the Heishui Ship Repair Station? The teacher had a great time playing ambiguously. I heard that his father died indirectly at your hands. You are quite courageous and have a strong taste. Are you not afraid of being snapped with scissors one day? "

"Hehe." Mo Ming smiled shamelessly, then patted Li Yi's shoulder hard, and said, "I don't know when we will meet again next time. After you arrive in Australia, you will not be able to leave until May anyway." , Help me keep an eye on it over there. I’m in charge of it in name, but you know it’s all about letting go. The latest report brought to me by the two ships that arrived at the beginning of the month shows that there are currently more than 900 people in Jinshan Port, and the farmland More than 3000 acres, with 300 tons of wheat and more than 400 tons of potatoes; there are less than 100 people in Gushan Port, and the amount of grain is only less than 7000 tons more than Jinshan Port. Now we have to transport [-] people this time. There will be another group or even two groups of people behind, I don't know whether the food is enough to eat, but this will last until May."

"It should be enough. The next one or two groups of people didn't go there at once. If the time is staggered, they can consume less food. And in May, the wheat in Jinshan Port will be harvested again. With the cultivated area over there It is no problem to feed tens of thousands of people. Because it can grow one season of wheat and one season of potatoes a year there, and the annual grain output is much stronger than that of Heishui. If it is not possible, there will also be fishing boats there. It's not a big problem to catch some fish and shrimp offshore, and then transfer one or two boats of grain from Xinhua." Li Yi said after thinking about it.

"Well, that's good." Mo Ming also breathed a sigh of relief, and then said: "If the sailing is smooth and the ship is in good condition, you can try to go back and forth three times this year, and try to transport 2 people there. Now Xinhua is going to Australia A special ship for immigrants and a flute-shaped transport ship were added to the voyage of the voyage, and a large "Scud"-class clipper ship was added to the voyage from New China to the mainland. The number of ships has reached 19, and the capacity has increased a lot compared to before, so we can try to transport more people.”

(End of this chapter)