1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1197 Submission
In the past two years when Haihan went north, small-scale wars continued, and naturally many people were captured. Many prisoners were held in local labor camps in Zhejiang and Shandong, and there were even more labor camps on Zhoushan Island. There are as many as several, and the prisoners are divided according to the degree of danger.Most of them did not commit serious crimes, but unfortunately became prisoners of war because the camp they belonged to was hostile to Haihan in the past. Originally, they would be released after a period of labor reform and resettled by Haihan.But now that there is too much labor shortage in the south, those who have not committed serious crimes, or are even admitted to hard labor camps because of their status, can be transported in advance to those strongholds in the south that are in urgent need of labor for resettlement.

Under this general environment, inmates like Zhao Sanbiao became the first batch of "lucky ones". The Navy, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Communications worked together to transport them to the south for resettlement.Based on past experience, it can be inferred that after they have settled in the local area for a year or so, they will gradually realize the importance of nationality to their stable life in the future, and most of them should take the initiative to apply for naturalization.

Of course, there may also be some stubborn guys who will still violate Haihan's law after arriving in the south. Then it will not be as simple as entering a hard labor camp.There are many tropical cash crop plantations invested and operated by private individuals in various strongholds in the South China Sea. The labor force is mainly slaves. Not much worse than livestock.If these people who were transported to the south committed crimes, most of them would be sold to farmers as slaves, and their ending would likely be exhausted to death in the plantation.

Although this kind of personnel transfer will slow down the progress of various local construction projects to a certain extent, Wang Tom and Shi Diwen believe that this may not be a bad thing.The identities of most of these prisoners are relatively sensitive. The information they know will hinder Haihan’s local rule, and they cannot be allowed to return to Zhejiang to live. It would be a good thing to transport these people away as soon as possible. After the hard labor camps are vacated, they can be easily transformed into immigration camps to accommodate immigrants who will be continuously transported from Shandong and Liaodong areas after the spring.

In addition to nearly [-] local prisoners, the first batch of shipments included almost the same number of captives sent back from the Zhifu Port stronghold in Shandong.Among them were local bandits and bandits, a small number of captured Ming army personnel, and some refugees collected in Dengzhou and Liaodong Pidao.After departing from Zhoushan, the fleet transporting immigrants will stop at Penghu, Hong Kong, Sanya, and Cam Ranh Port for rest, and the final destination is Vung Tau Port at the junction of Champa and Annan.

However, Vung Tau Port is only one of the many underpopulated strongholds in the South China Sea, so Wang Tom and Shi Diwen agreed to take this opportunity to clean up all the local prisoners with relatively minor crimes as soon as possible to reduce the pressure on public security. , Let Zhoushan continue to develop in the direction of a commercial port instead of a prison island.Of the six existing labor camps, only one was kept after the personnel clearing, and the others were all converted into immigration camps and storage warehouses, so as to further strengthen the local population receiving capacity.

The prisoners who will eventually be left in the local area to serve hard labor are basically sentenced to life imprisonment. It is impossible to change their status to become Haihan nationals, and there is no value in transporting them to other places as immigrants for resettlement.The number of these people is not large, so as long as they are detained in a centralized manner, there will be no major problems.And a prisoner like Han Zhengshan, in fact, was captured and imprisoned only to seal his mouth, and the threat to Haihan was extremely limited. As long as he left Zhejiang, he would be a passer-by. Sending him to the distant South China Sea can perfectly solve this problem .

Of course, considering safety and confidentiality issues, the other two who were in the same case as Han Zhengshan must not be sent to the same place as him, they must be housed separately.In fact, among the first batch of people going south, the prostitute Cui'e had already been taken away.It is unlikely that Han Zhengshan and Gu Hui will know her whereabouts through official channels in the future, and the chances of these three meeting each other in the rest of their lives are probably very slim.

Han Zhengshan never imagined that his own destiny had already been decided by others unconsciously, and the current situation did not allow him to think about the long-term future. Although he learned from Zhao Sanbiao that he might become one of the immigrants going south members, but he will not list this as his only way out for the time being.If possible, he still hopes to solve the problem of his way out on Zhoushan Island as soon as possible, so as to avoid the ending of being forced to leave his hometown and go elsewhere.

After Zhao Sanbiao and others were sent away, as expected, he was quickly adjusted to the cell and lived with a group of Shandong bandits.However, with the previous experience of getting along with Zhao Sanbiao and others, Han Zhengshan didn't cause any trouble this time, and got acquainted with this group of people.

From these populations, Han Zhengshan learned that the Haihan army had gone north to Shandong last year and established a firm foothold in Dengzhou.The response of the local government is similar to that of Zhejiang. They have no good way to deal with this group of foreign armed forces, and they are unable to expel them from the country. They can only turn a blind eye and close their eyes to ignore their existence.As for civilian armed forces like bandits and thieves, they are naturally not Haihan's opponents. Those Shandong people who are in the same cell as Han Zhengshan have lingering fears when they talk about their experience of fighting the Haihan army at that time. Fortunately, they were lucky enough to survive the battlefield .

As for leaving their hometowns and coming to the south after being captured, these Shandong people are very open-minded: "We went to the mountains to become bandits, isn't it just for food? As long as we can make ends meet, we can do anything! To be honest, this place is at least today. If you go to sleep, you don’t have to worry about having nothing to eat tomorrow, and if you have food and shelter, you don’t have to take the risk of going out to rob your house, isn’t this better than being a savage in the mountains?”

Han Zhengshan was very speechless about this kind of remarks. He really couldn't understand the mentality of these people, and he couldn't imagine how bad their living environment was in the past.But it is obvious that these people are not disgusted with the current life of prisoners, and even somewhat content with the status quo.Moreover, this is Zhejiang, not Shandong. Even if they are out of the current environment, they have no way to survive. They can't just fall into the grass and become bandits again. Therefore, the hard labor camp that can provide food and lodging has become an asylum in the eyes of these people. common existence.As long as they work honestly and don't cause trouble, the Haihan people will not impose additional punishment on them. Apart from being as tired as a dog after work every day, there is nothing to complain about.

Whether they will be assigned to the farther south in the future, these people will not feel that there is anything wrong, anyway, there is no chance to return to Shandong, and it is not the same where they settle.Their requirements for the future are very low, so low that Han Zhengshan can only sigh that they are different and do not seek each other.

This group of Shandong people came to Zhoushan only a month earlier than Han Zhengshan, but ranked by points, Han Zhengshan is naturally not qualified to compete for the top spot, so he can only continue to be a member of the crowd.However, he does not reject this kind of arrangement, and in his opinion, it is not a big deal whether he succeeds in this place.He is more interested in Haihan's various behaviors in the north. After work every day, he will chat with these Shandong people about the situation they know.

The more he learned about Haihan, the more frightened he became. Only then did Han Zhengshan gradually realize that this country was not a small foreign country, and its national strength was enough to support their army to fight a real local war thousands of miles away from the mainland.The actions of the Haihan army in Shandong were far more powerful than the bluff and intimidation outside Hangzhou. Thousands of prisoners of war were transported to the south alone, and many of them were even local Ming troops—of course, The place where the Ming army prisoners were held was separated from these bandits to prevent these guys from fighting in the camp.In comparison, Haihan's actions in Zhejiang are already very restrained. If they really feel at ease and want to make a scene, there seems to be no way for Zhejiang to effectively stop Haihan's actions.

On the No. 20 day of entering the hard labor camp, that is, seven days after Han Zhengshan's last group of inmates left, these Shandong people were also transferred out of the hard labor camp in the same way.Different from the previous group of people, the Shandong people obviously regarded this transfer as an opportunity to regain their new life. Instead of rejecting this arrangement, they were very happy, even packing their luggage, which seemed extraordinarily cheerful.

The destination of the group of Shandong people who will be transferred to the Ambuna Islands is also unknown to Han Zhengshan.It is said that its main island is much larger than Zhoushan Island, and the local resident population is thousands of people, so it is not an undeveloped desert island.After these Shandong people arrive in the local area, they can share the land and housing to enjoy the treatment of new immigrants. For them, life must be much better than being a bandit before, and now being a prisoner.

Before leaving, the number one Shandong man took off his sheepskin jacket and left it to Han Zhengshan: "I heard that the place we are going to is extremely hot all year round, so I won't be able to wear this sheepskin jacket, so I will leave it to you." Right! But I guess you won't be able to wear it for long!"

After Han Zhengshan thanked him, he responded with a wry smile: "Yes, spring will start soon, and I won't be able to wear these clothes for a few days."

"I mean you may not wait until the spring, and you will be transported to the south." The Shandong man grinned and said, "Once our group leaves, there will only be dozens of prisoners left in this camp. This place will be emptied soon, and we will use this place to receive immigrants from the north in the future. If you have the opportunity to come to Annbuna Island, remember to come and drink with us!"

For a moment, Han Zhengshan didn't know how to answer these words. Although he was very resistant to being arranged as a new immigrant to the wild area thousands of miles away in the south, he also understood that such a fate was not something he could fight against.Perhaps from now on, it is time to think about the way out after going to the south in advance, otherwise, after waiting there, I will fall into a great passive situation again.

If you want to get information about the south, Han Zhengshan is not without connections. In fact, when he first arrived in Zhoushan, there was an official lecture in the hard labor camp. The content was to introduce the South China Sea to the prisoners. natural environment, living conditions, etc.But at that time, Han Zhengshan had no interest in these irrelevant things. Although Zhao Sanbiao and others in the same cell would go to listen to the lecture, this activity was voluntary, and Han Zhengshan never went there once.But now it seems that it may be a wise choice to understand the local situation first.

But this publicity event was only held every five or six days. Before Han Zhengshan could attend the next event, the list of the new batch of prisoners moving south had already been announced, and his name was already on the list.Up to this time, Han Zhengshan hadn't even been in the Zhoushan hard labor camp for a full month.

Han Zhengshan boldly went to the guard in his camp and asked if he could apply to stay in Zhejiang.The guard's answer was straightforward: "It's not impossible for you to stay, but your case is quite special. You can't be released from the hard labor camp within seven years, but if you want to go to the south, then the three-month supervision period Once the time passes, you can regain your freedom, but you are limited not to leave the local area. After half a year, you can apply for Haihan nationality, and when you have Haihan citizenship, you can go back to Zhejiang even if you want.”

Of course, the guards didn't make it too clear. No matter how smooth it was, Han Zhengshan's desire to become a naturalized Haihan would take at least a year's time. At that time, his mentality would probably be quite different from what it is now.Even if he still has a heart for Daming and wants to come back to expose Haihan's "conspiracy", this kind of cross-regional population movement must be approved by relevant departments, and he can't go wherever he wants.

As for the seven-year sentence, the corrections are actually just a passing word. After Han Zhengshan entered the camp, he was classified as a person who was going to move to the south, so the judiciary had no intention of sentencing him at all, and just waited for the order of batches After that, he was transported away.After that, the civil affairs department and the local management committee took charge, and the judiciary department of Zhoushan Island took advantage of the situation to save the trouble of this link.

Han Zhengshan is at the other end of the information asymmetry, how can he think of Haihan's plan, but he has been in the public office for many years, and he also knows that the yamen's sentence can be light or serious, and the range of activities during it is huge. A sure thing.It's just that he was penniless when he was arrested here, and the other party would not sell his face because of his past status, so there was really no basis for bargaining with the other party.

Whether to stay in prison for seven years or go south to be a free man, this is probably no longer a difficult choice.Han Zhengshan wasn't sure if he could survive seven years in the hard labor camp, but it was just around the corner to regain his freedom through another option.No matter how much he hated Hai Han, he still couldn't deny his desire for freedom after all.

(End of this chapter)