1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2137
Let alone a few thousand people, even if the number is increased tenfold on this basis, there will be no problem for Haihan who has a strong demand for labor.No matter in Haihan or overseas colonies, increasing the population and labor force is one of the main policy programs. As the governor of the Zhoushan colonial area, Shi Diwen naturally knows the importance of population to local development.

Because Zhoushan is close to Daming, the main way to obtain population is to recruit immigrants from the territory of Ming Dynasty. However, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions where it is located are rich and prosperous places.If intermediary channel fees and resettlement fees and other additional fees are included, the cost of this method of acquiring population is actually relatively high, and even occupied a considerable part of Zhoushan's fiscal expenditure in certain periods.

Now, a large number of people can be acquired from Hirado at a very low cost, which is actually equivalent to saving a large amount of civil affairs expenses for Zhoushan. Of course, Shi Diwen will not miss this opportunity.If possible, he even wanted to move all these people to Zhoushan and resettle them to the areas under his rule.

Of course, whether it is due to security considerations or political reasons, the Executive Committee will probably not agree to allow him to "monopolize" this special resource.Therefore, although Shi Diwen will be in charge of the follow-up population migration operation, all the people who have been diverted from Hirado will not flow to Zhoushan.

In fact, after receiving the notice from the executive committee, the colonial areas in Shandong and Liaodong are already drawing up the number of local labor demand, and they are ready to get a share of the pie.The Fushan Copper Mine operated by Haihan in Dengzhou, Shandong Province needs to further expand its mining scale, and the Changshan Islands off the east coast of Liaodong are preparing for resettlement and development, all of which require a lot of labor to realize.

Even with Haihan's operational efficiency, this large-scale population migration plan cannot be completed in a short period of time.Ships were transferred from various places, and the personnel and materials were transported from Hirado. The time required for such a round was very likely to be ten days and a half months. Considering the schedule of the ship, this time probably had to be extended.And this means that the coalition fleet has to continue to be stationed in Hirado to guard against counterattacks from opponents.

Although the coalition forces defeated their opponents relatively smoothly, the quick victory envisioned by the Ministry of National Defense ultimately compromised the results of the battle because of the escape of the target person, and now they have to stay for a period of time for additional operations. The logistical issue had to be put back on the agenda.

Thousands of coalition troops consume a huge amount of supplies every day, and the various supplies they carry during the expedition can last for about half a month. However, it seems that with the extension of the stationing time, there will definitely be a gap in the supply of supplies. .

There are nothing more than two solutions. One is to transport materials from the rear supply port. For example, the huge ammunition that has been consumed during the battle can only be supplied through the rear delivery.The second is to expropriate materials on the spot, which can solve part of the problem of food and grass supply.

Because of the terrain and environment, Hirado’s food production capacity is relatively limited, and the area of ​​farmland reclaimed on Hirado Island is even smaller than that of Fukue Island, which has a smaller population.Therefore, a considerable part of the daily food consumption of Hirado Island is actually supplied from the Kyushu area.The amount of food stored on the island is generally only enough to maintain the life of the islanders for about two to three months. Now that there are a few thousand troops suddenly added, the food consumption rate immediately increases sharply.

After the Haihan army took control of Hirado City, it immediately seized all local rice shops and granaries, regardless of whether they were official or private, and all the grain in stock was requisitioned as war preparations.However, judging from the current inventory, there may still be some pressure to last until the end of the operation. Therefore, in addition to the local food storage, it is also necessary to transport some food from the rear for emergency.

Fortunately, before the war, Jeju Island was asked to raise spare food and grass. Although the amount was not large, it must be enough for the coalition forces stationed in Hirado to last for seven or eight days.However, now that the plan has changed, there is no need to transport these grains to Hirado. Shi Diwen has already made better arrangements for this.

"Now we use the troop carrier to transfer the people from Hirado to Seogwipo first, and then the ships from the north and Zhoushan will go directly to Seogwipo to pick up the people, so that we can save a lot of time and the corresponding material consumption will also be reduced." will be reduced a lot.”

Shi Diwen's plan is very simple. He is going to complete the migration of the Hirado population as soon as possible by means of transshipment.As long as people and high-value materials are transported away, the army can evacuate here earlier, thereby achieving the goal of saving military expenses.

Qian Tiandun said: "The plan is good, but such an arrangement may cause Seogwipo to be in a hurry for a while."

Shi Diwen said: "Whether there will be chaos, that is the problem of the local officials in Seogwipo, not mine. There will definitely be some chaos in the process, and some people may die, but as long as we can complete the task Done, those are just minor issues."

Qian Tiandun knew that Shi Diwen was right, so he didn't question it again.It was not the first time he had fought overseas, and of course he knew what war meant to civilians.After the meeting of several important people thousands of miles away, their fate has been decided. No matter innocent or not, the people of Hirado will have to leave their homes and go to a completely unfamiliar environment, and this process will not end with them. will to transfer.

In the troubled times, those who can survive are considered very lucky, but there may also be people who get the chance to change their destiny because of this, just like Gao Qiaonan who was captured by Haihan as a Japanese pirate.

Takahashi Minami has no resistance to the orders issued by the Executive Committee, and he does not think there is anything wrong with these local people being forcibly moved out of this place.If the Haihan Army withdraws immediately, and Tian Chuansuke and his men regain control of this area, it is very likely that the Haihan Army will return here in a year or two, and innocent people will have to fall into war again.

Removing these people and completely destroying the social system of Hirado Port will make it more difficult for Tagawasuke to rebuild Hirado, thereby eliminating the possibility of his revenge on Haihan.And innocent people will not suffer from war again, let alone worry about being forced by the government and sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder.

Compared with these serious consequences, Takahashi Minami believes that the executive committee's decision is already very humane, and these people will not be treated as slaves. According to the official explanation, as long as they can honestly accept the official placement, they will die in the future. There is still a chance to become a Haihan citizen like yourself.As for how many people will be "eliminated" in this process, Takahashi Nan feels that this is also destiny, and this responsibility cannot be attributed to the war launched by Haihan.

As one of the few senior officers of Japanese descent in the Haihan Army, Takahashi Minami undoubtedly had a better understanding of Japanese social conditions than his superiors, so he had to shoulder the task of identifying and classifying immigrant groups.

Generally speaking, these people who will be moved out of Hirado will be divided into two categories, one is people with a higher degree of risk, that is, Hirado officials at all levels, public officials, and captured members of the army.These people will go to the most closed, dangerous, and hard labor positions, such as miners who have to go underground to extract ore, salt workers who have been exposed to the sun on the beach for many years, and so on.What they mean to Haihan is pure labor. When they are completely squeezed out, they can be released. Their treatment is basically the same as that of the prisoners in the hard labor camp in Haihan.

The rest of the people will be classified into the second category, that is, the group that "can accept the naturalization inspection". These people will be dispersed and resettled in various areas under Haihan's rule, and some people may even be assigned to Xingdao. A place far away from Japan.These new immigrants are generally sent to relatively remote and desolate areas with low population density on the Haihan territory to cultivate and open up wasteland, and use the fruits of their labor to slowly accumulate the conditions required for naturalization.

In order to prevent these people from secretly forming a party after immigrating, the civil affairs department will try to separate them as much as possible. An overseas colonial area may only get a few hundred people, and then disperse them to the various villages and towns below. It is basically impossible to form another Together.

Of course, Shi Diwen, who is in charge of handling this matter, will definitely fight for more people in his jurisdiction. After all, the Zhoushan Islands are not big, but they are definitely not small. There are some ways to resettle more people without violating immigration regulations. some people.

And Takahashi Minami's task is to confirm whether there are any objects that need special attention among the "dangerous elements" classified as the first category.For example, the leader or official who is Han Chinese is very likely to be born in Shibazhi, and needs to be handed over to the Military Intelligence Bureau for further interrogation.

In addition, there are also some craftsmen who are engaged in the manufacture of weapons and equipment. They are also regarded as public officials and temporarily classified into the first category. However, if these people have good craftsmanship, they may still have a certain value, Takahashi Nan needs to find out if their situation qualifies for amnesty.After all, these craftsmen who have mastered professional skills such as smelting, casting, and shipbuilding are also scarce resources in Haihan. It would be a bit violent to send them directly to work as coolies.

After Shi Diwen made a plan, he immediately notified Seogwipo that he was going to receive the personnel transported by Hirado. At the same time, he expedited the local personnel screening work and dispatched a troop carrier to transport some of the confirmed prisoners to Seogwipo.

The reason why the prisoners of war were transported away first was to eliminate the unstable factors in Hirado as much as possible. After these people were transported away, even if the remaining local people resisted the arrangement of forced relocation overseas, it would be difficult for organized crime to reappear. resisted.In addition, if an extreme situation occurs, such as the Hirado Navy launching another counterattack, then there is no need to worry about riots on the island.

Of course, this worry of the headquarters did not happen. After the coalition forces occupied Hirado Port and the city, the warships of the Hirado Navy no longer appeared near the Hirado Strait.The warships that went out to patrol even expanded their range to Iki Island, eighty miles away to the north, and still did not find any traces of the Hirado navy. It can be seen that they have left Hirado Island far away, and will not come back for the time being. up.

It was probably Shi Diwen's most regrettable point that the Hirado navy could not be completely wiped out.The navy dispatched dozens of combat ships in this operation, but most of the time of the battle was spent as a sea turret to attract firepower. The real time to fight the Hirado navy was only half a day, and the opponent was not the main force.

Reflecting after the war, Shi Diwen also felt that the decision made at that time might have been a little impulsive. Perhaps ignoring the temptation of those Japanese warships at that time might lead to the main force of the Hirado Army later.As a result, the two Majestic-class warships challenged the opponent's entire fleet that day. While showing their strength, they probably scared the opponent a lot, and decisively gave up their plan to challenge again.

The war opportunity is fleeting, and it is impossible for Shi Diwen to get a chance to choose again, but Shi Diwen believes that as Haihan evacuates the Hirado Port, it will be much more difficult for the Hirado Domain to support a fleet in the future. Even far beyond what its financial resources can support.

According to the information confessed by the prisoners of war, the main force of the Hirado Navy still has at least a dozen Chinese warships, with a sailor size of about a thousand.Without the source of income from Hirado Port, if this naval force does not intend to disband, it will either seal up some warships and reduce its size, or it will have to find other ways to earn income, such as returning to the old business of being a pirate.

At that time, the southern coastal areas of North Korea, which lack surface armed forces, are likely to be affected by this.However, if such a situation occurs, it will definitely not be a bad thing for Haihan. After all, after the war last year, the more North Korea is in internal and external troubles, the more it will rely on Haihan's help.At that time, if they suffer from the Japanese pirates, they will probably still ask Shanghai Han for help. It just so happens that there is a suitable reason to come to Hirado to reap another wave, and they can also collect a protection fee from North Korea, which is also a way of training soldiers remaining means of income generation.

After thinking about it in this way, Shi Diwen felt relieved a lot about the escape of the main force of the Hirado Navy. Although the expected combat goal was not achieved, it might not be a bad thing to leave a little room for the opponent to move.

It is impossible for Haihan to transport hundreds of prisoners of war out of Hirado without any movement, so the news quickly spread in the city.Many smart people with flexible minds immediately sensed something unusual from Hai Han's actions, and began to try to find out further news.

Yu Chengli sat in Gonzalez's shop, got up from time to time, went to the door to look around, and sat back on the chair with a sigh.He was waiting for Gonzalez to come back, to be precise, waiting for the news that Gonzalez brought back.

They already knew the news that the Haihan people had shipped the captives away, and they also noticed that the situation might have some bad changes.Gonzalez found out that there was a Portuguese military officer accompanying the Haihan Army, so he brought a generous gift to visit him today, and Yu Chengli was also involved, so he waited for news from Gonzalez here, so that he could make plans for the next step in advance .

(End of this chapter)