1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1702 The New Look of Xingdao
Since Haihan entered the Xingdao area at the end of 1633, the project of building a colonial port here has entered the fourth year.However, because it is too far away from Hainan Island and Daming, it is not easy to recruit Han immigrants from the north who are willing to move here. After a few years, the local Han population is only three to four thousand.Moreover, the terrain of Xingdao is critical, guarding the exit of the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, which connects the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, can be said to be a strategic location that many countries secretly covet, so at least half of the local infrastructure projects in Xingdao are military-related. The engineering standard is much higher than that of civil facilities, and the amount of engineering has increased a lot.

This means that ordinary people who immigrate to Xingdao have to do more labor for the government than ordinary Haihan colonies. Without getting more substantial returns, the people who are willing to move to Xingdao will naturally less. In 1635, after Tan Ju was appointed as the head of civil affairs in Nanxia Xingdao, he also tried to increase the area of ​​cultivated land allocated to immigrants and reduce or exempt taxes to attract people to immigrate.

After the Xingdao authorities recognized the status quo, they also gradually shifted the focus of introducing population from the far north to channels that Xingdao could directly contact, such as buying cheap slaves from neighboring countries.Most of these slaves came from prisoners of war resulting from years of war between countries in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, and some were trafficked from Central West Asia and East Africa by Dutch and Portuguese slave traders.What Xingdao needs is this kind of labor with extremely low labor costs, and a large amount of the budget for immigration and resettlement is spent on slave purchases. Therefore, in just a few years, the slave population of Xingdao accounted for the total area The proportion of the population has probably become the highest in the Haihan colony.

In addition to these slave populations, Xingdao also has another source of population that cannot be ignored, that is, the convicts transported from Manila this time were exiled to Xingdao for hard labor from various areas under the rule of Haihan. Even lower than slaves.Although dozens of people or even less may be transported at one time, the number seems small, but the number of South China Sea colonies under Haihan's rule has increased year by year, and the number is still not small after years of time.

Up to now, the number of hard labor camp laborers in Xingdao has been second only to Shilu Iron Mine and Heitugang Coal Mine, two traditional places of exile. These hard labor prisoners can be seen on the construction sites of many important local projects.In Manila alone, more than [-] prisoners of war and exiled prisoners were successively transported after the war.

For these hard labor prisoners, the attitude of the Sing Tao authorities is basically the same as that of the other places of exile, that is, to make the best use of everything, and to exhaust their labor as much as possible during their sentence.As for the life and death of these prisoners, Roger didn't take it very seriously. Tan Juren was relatively soft-hearted, and would try his best to provide them with basic living conditions, and would not deliberately deduct their rations and other entitlements.

Tan Juren was sent to Xingdao to be in charge of civil affairs, and Roger simply handed over the management of these exiled prisoners to him.After the newly arrived prisoners are handed over to the escort team, they will be taken over by the local hard labor camp. These prisoners will be roughly classified according to their sentence and personal health status, and then assigned to suitable construction sites for labor.

Of course, this is not without examples of special treatment due to outstanding personal conditions. For example, some people with special skills may get rid of the arrangement of hard labor because of this, and give priority to filling local civilian positions with serious shortage of human resources.In this selection process, the past personal data records of the prisoners are particularly important, and the employment experience can attract the attention of the competent authorities more than the crimes they committed.

Qin Huacheng was very aware of his own situation, saying that his level of education was basically free from illiteracy, but he was definitely not a scholar. He could only master two-digit addition and subtraction in arithmetic.With his level, it is obviously impossible to get special treatment in the place of exile, but if you want to talk about his professional experience, he still has a chance to stand out.

After the prisoners disembarked and assembled on the pier, civil affairs officials soon came to check their personal information to complete the handover work, and Qin Huacheng unsurprisingly attracted the attention of civil affairs officials.

As a policeman, he knew the law and broke the law, and was sentenced to exile on Xingdao. This kind of precedent is not completely unknown, but it is extremely rare.And Qin Huacheng was the first batch of police officers appointed by the new colony of Haihan, and he was sentenced for making mistakes in just over a month after taking office. This fortune really came and went faster.The civil affairs official who was in charge of receiving these prisoners was a middle-aged Confucian scholar in his 40s. After reading Qin Huacheng's files, he asked him to come out, asked about his personal situation, and finally let him go back to the team without comment. .

Qin Huacheng could feel that the official seemed a little interested in him, but he didn't know what the other party was looking for in him, and he didn't dare to initiate a conversation rashly. The opponent's resentment.

After counting the prisoners who were lucky enough to complete the death voyage and arrive at Xingdao, a team of local soldiers came forward to escort them to an immigration reception near the port.In addition to receiving exiled prisoners, this place also has slaves from other regions, mainly to complete the process of physical examination and bathing and disinfection here.Over the years, Haihan has accumulated a complete set of standard procedures for accepting foreign populations. However, the prisoners transported by this ship have suffered from diseases on the way, and the treatment and inspection of them must be stricter than usual.

After completing these complicated procedures for two hours, Qin Huacheng and the other prisoners finally boarded the carriage to the camp.The physical examination just now left a deep impression on Qin Huacheng. This was probably the first time since he was born that he was naked in front of so many strangers.After taking a bath, a whole team of Haihan soldiers and about five or six doctors in white coats conducted physical examinations on the prisoners one by one—or rather, they watched inhumanely.

However, Qin Huacheng didn't have much sense of shame about this, or after experiencing the recent series of blows and tribulations, he no longer took this kind of thing to heart, but was surprised at how much Haihan attached importance to them.He didn't know that basically every batch of prisoners sent to Xingdao was treated in this way, but this batch of them was checked very strictly because of the epidemic.

After completing this link, everyone got a new prison uniform, and all the clothes they were wearing were thrown into the iron bucket and burned to prevent the spread of the disease as much as possible.What surprised Qin Huacheng was that the officials didn't put handcuffs and shackles on them, as if they weren't afraid that someone would take the opportunity to escape.

But soon the guards in the car explained the reason to them: "This is Xingdao. The place is only so big. Even if you escape, where can you escape? You have also seen that the south is surrounded by the sea, and the north is separated from Johor. There is a strait, if you are good enough to swim across, you better hope you don’t get caught by the Johoreans, otherwise you will definitely end up with cramp!”

Qin Huacheng asked in surprise: "Could it be that Haihan and Johor have a deep hatred?"

The guard smiled and said: "The year before last, the Johorans colluded with the British and fought from the north, trying to take Xingdao from our country. In the end, they were beaten like dogs. Thousands of elites were lost for nothing. You Are you saying they hate it?"

Qin Huacheng didn't know anything about the Three Kingdoms War over the control of Xingdao that took place in mid-1635. The speed of information dissemination in this era was inherently slow, and Xingdao was five thousand miles away from Manila. , and the Strait of Malacca is not within the scope of activities of Spanish navigators, so there is a lack of understanding of the causes and consequences of this war.If Qin Huacheng hadn't come here by accident, it might have been a long time before he heard the story about this war from some storytelling passages that have been circulated to Manila.

However, the name of the British, Qin Huacheng heard the Spanish military officer mention it. It is said that this country has been in a state of war with Spain in the far western continent, and there are many armed conflicts overseas because of the fight for colonies. It can be said that It's an enemy.Qin Huacheng didn't know the cause and effect of the 30-year war in Europe, and he didn't understand what it meant for the Western seafaring powers to compete for maritime supremacy on a global scale at this stage. He only knew that the Spaniards were also quite afraid of the British. Most of the boats have to be divided into life and death to end.

And such a country doesn't seem to have any advantage under Haihan's hands. Judging from the guard's tone, it is obvious that the joint attack between Johor and the United Kingdom lost so badly that Johor still holds grudges after a long time , will do whatever it takes to deal with people from the Haihan occupied area—even if they are fugitives.

Qin Huacheng thought to himself, since Haihan didn't put shackles on the hard laborers, it seemed that he had nothing to fear, and he couldn't easily try to escape such means unless it was absolutely necessary, so as not to ask for trouble.

On the road, the carriage passed through the towns in the southern part of Xingdao. The prisoners in the car were all from Manila. They had never been to a place actually run and built by Haihan. They were quite curious to see a city appearing, but they soon discovered that Haihan There are no fortifications such as city walls and towers in this urban area, but a gully area about one mile deep can be seen in the northern part of the urban area, but what kind of facilities are built there cannot be seen clearly from a distance from the car.

After leaving the urban area and going north, there are large tracts of farmland and plantations. Qin Huacheng is no stranger to this kind of pastoral scenery. Outside Manila, a similar scene can be seen on the coastal plain north of the Pasig River.He originally thought that since this Xingdao was on the border of the empire, there would probably be frequent wars, and the local people wouldn't want to have a peaceful life, but judging by the agricultural development here, it was much better than he expected.It seems that the Haihan people are quite sure about the security situation here. Otherwise, if they are faced with the threat of war, they should not dare to engage in agricultural development here.

After leaving the port for about ten miles, the carriage carrying the prisoners finally arrived at the destination, a camp surrounded by barbed wire.When the carriage drove into the gate of the camp, Qin Huacheng noticed that the signboard hanging on the gate read "Xingdao No. [-] Hard Labor Camp". It seemed that this was just one of the camps where hard labor prisoners were confined.

The No. 1635 labor camp was built after the end of the war in [-], and it was also a demonstration site for Tan Juren to implement the "new-style labor camp" he advocated locally.The environment in the camp is actually not bad. The barracks are all standard wooden bungalows, and the layout is very neat.The [-] barracks can accommodate about [-] prisoners. The basic public facilities such as bathhouses and canteens in the barracks are very complete, and there are prisoners on duty every day to clean the barracks. This environment is more than what Qin Huacheng imagined on the way. I don't know how many times stronger that kind of black prison is.

Of course, if you only look at the living conditions, this place is not worthy of being called a hard labor camp. The labor tasks of the prisoners are not easy. Most of them leave early and return late every day to go to nearby construction sites. work on.At present, within a five-mile radius of the hard labor camp, there are a total of three construction sites under construction, including a dam, a defensive stronghold, and a military dock, and these hard laborers are the most laborious people on the construction site.

A small number of weaker prisoners acted as support staff, responsible for washing, cooking and doing chores in the camp.In fact, there are only two platoons of armed guards in the entire camp on duty, but there are very few emergencies such as escapes.

After seeing the environment here with his own eyes, Qin Huacheng's uneasy mood has eased a lot. This place looks even better than the refugee shelter built in Manila after the war. Compared with the dark and depressing place when he came, The cabin is worlds apart.Staying here can at least see the outside world every day, and you don't have to go crazy in a small space.

Although the establishment of the Xingdao hard labor camp was assigned by Luo Jie to Tan Juren, a civil official, for the management, in terms of locality, the garrison was still responsible for the daily operation and security measures of the hard labor camp.The person in charge of No. [-] Hard Labor Battalion is an officer under Roger. However, due to changes in the establishment, the administrative side is responsible to Tan Juren, while the security side follows Roger's instructions, which is equivalent to accepting dual leadership.

Qin Huacheng didn't know that the hard labor camp in Xingdao still had so many ways. He just felt that the environment here was much better than he imagined, and maybe the next three years would not be as difficult as he feared.As long as he can live well, staying here for three years is not unbearable.

(End of this chapter)