1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2344
Everyone couldn't help being a little surprised when they heard the words. They didn't expect that the ruthless character in the recent rumors was in front of them.Listening to Gong Hu's tone, it is obvious that he is not bragging about it, and he is even more admirable at the moment.

Although these people plan to join the army in Jinzhou, most of them are civilians and have no military experience in the past, let alone murder and beheading. For Gong Hu who went to Haihan with the head of a tartar, he naturally looked up to him. perspective on its behavior.

Immediately someone praised: "If the Han people can be as tough as this brother, how can this great country in Liaodong be cheaper than the Manchu Tartars!"

Another person responded: "The Tartars are all soldiers, and they have practiced riding and archery since they were young. How can we Han people have such conditions? Just like the present, there are only a small number of good men like this brother. That's why Ming can't beat the Tartars." what!"

"The Tartars are not invulnerable, and the severed heads will not grow back. As long as you dare to fight them, the Tartars will not be as many as us Han!" Gong Hu is naturally the one who advocates fighting against the Manchus, but he is He came from a military household, and he was very aware of the shortcomings of the Ming army, so he paused and said: "I think the Haihan army is all Han Chinese, but if they can beat the Tartars, it means that the problem is not with the Han people! "

As for which link is the problem, Gong Hu can vaguely feel it, but he is not very good at expressing it.Obviously they are all Han soldiers, why the Ming army has been passively beaten while the Haihan army is so powerful, this is obviously a problem with the people who command the army.But in the end it was the generals of the various armies, the military department that mobilized the army, the imperial court that decided whether to fight or not, or His Majesty the emperor who was aloof. Outrageous words.

"As long as you stay in the Haihan Army for a few years, you will be able to find the answer to this question!" A Haihan officer who was listening to them discussing this topic couldn't help but interjected: "But now you give me the answer. Line up! Don't chatter, like a group of women!"

After being reprimanded, everyone including Gong Hu was silent, shut up and lined up quickly, not daring to talk casually.They have not forgotten how they were freed from the hands of Manren, and they have no intention of challenging the Haihan army.

The troops sent by the Haihan Army to Liaodong a few years ago were almost all southern soldiers, and they had not been able to adapt to the environment very well. Therefore, after occupying Jinzhou, the Northern Corps began to recruit local soldiers on the spot, mainly in Shandong and Liaodong. The land is the main one.These recruits have adapted to the northern environment much better, and are more conducive to exerting their due combat effectiveness.

Most of the Han Chinese rescued from the Manchu Qing ruled area had irreconcilable hatred with the Manchus, and these people became the focus of conscription.At present, among the Haihan Army stationed in Jinzhou, a considerable number of soldiers are from this special group, and their performance after training is also remarkable, so now every time such an immigrant ship arrives at the port, the military will Conduct a round of recruitment first to recruit people like Gong Hu into the army.

However, as the leader of the Jinzhou region, Chen Yixin is most concerned not with how many new recruits are recruited from the refugees every day, but whether these new refugees can be smoothly resettled in the local villages and towns.

Although the combat effectiveness of the army is the basis for maintaining the stability of the Golden State, it also requires the local society to provide stable logistical supplies.For the Golden State region, population growth means a simultaneous increase in productivity, and the degree of dependence on food and other living materials shipped from other places will also be gradually reduced, so that the local society is expected to enter a state of normal operation.

It is not easy to achieve this. The situation of the Golden State is too special. It is not only the border of the empire, an overseas enclave, but also a frontline area in a state of war. Most of the combat materials must rely on external supplies.However, the local environment is limited, and the current business is mainly agricultural projects such as planting and fishing, which makes it difficult to revitalize the local economy.

Of course, with the technology that Haihan has mastered, it is not difficult to develop high-profit industries such as salt making and shipbuilding locally, and the funding problem can also be solved through Haihan Bank, but the biggest problem is that these industries are labor-intensive. large-scale industries, and the population size of the Golden State is difficult to meet the labor demand of these industries.

Therefore, in terms of the development prospects of Jinzhou, expanding the troop establishment is actually far less useful than increasing the population size. If Chen Yixin wants to make Jinzhou, a small place of more than 1000 square kilometers, develop in the direction of a normal coastal colonial area and trading port, he must We must try to quickly increase the population size, so that the local labor force can be engaged in other industries other than agriculture, and then improve the local economic level.

As the confrontation on the front line of the isthmus tends to ease with the onset of severe winter, and the mopping-up operations of the special operations group and the navy hundreds of miles away are coming to an end, Chen Yixin no longer has to stick to the front line every day, and always pay attention to the movements of the Qing army. , more attention can be put on the harvest of this joint operation.

Recently, the number of refugees brought back from each batch of Changshan Islands is around [-], which has far exceeded the population input of Jinzhou in a year under normal circumstances.For Golden State, where there is a huge labor shortage, the arrival of these refugees is not only a burden, but a resource that Chen Yixin is looking forward to.

"A total of 78 people arrived in Hong Kong today, including 820 men and 250 eight women. Among them, there are 27 registered carpenters, blacksmiths, plasterers and other craftsmen, and six scholars who can write articles have been arranged separately. There are 37 people who voluntarily signed up to join the army, and have completed the handover of personnel with the garrison, and they can join the army if they pass the medical examination.

"These special personnel and their families will be resettled as soon as possible according to their distribution. The rest of the people will still be dispersed and resettled in various villages and towns in the Jinzhou area according to the previous rules..."

"Wait!" Chen Yixin called to stop Liu Shang's report: "Starting from this group of people, we need to change the resettlement method."

"My lord, please give me instructions." Liu Shang replied respectfully.

"The salt field in Lushun Shuangdao Bay has always been seriously short of people. You should first draw 500 people from this group of people, and seize the time this winter to complete the infrastructure project, and strive to start production after the beginning of next spring."

Chen Yixin paused, and then continued: "The remaining people will be allocated as usual. In addition, there should not be any major wars breaking out on the isthmus defense line in the near future. The civilians on the front line can withdraw half of them first, and see what infrastructure projects are there. Try to arrange it to be completed this winter."

Liu Shang quickly responded one by one, thinking that as long as there is a truce, there will be no need for so many civilians to stand by on the front line, and the rear will naturally be able to free up manpower to complete large-scale infrastructure projects.It's just that the environment in winter is relatively harsh, and the construction difficulty will be much greater than in other seasons. Even if the winter is long, the infrastructure project may not be able to make much progress.

But this is something that can’t be helped. Except for winter, the Jinzhou area is basically in a state of preparation for war. Civil servants may be recruited to serve on the front line at any time. Many large-scale infrastructure projects can only be constructed intermittently.The construction period of the Shuangdaowan Salt Plant mentioned by Chen Yixin earlier has been delayed from last winter to this winter. Chen Yixin has no patience to wait any longer, so he plans to complete the construction and start production as soon as there is a surplus of labor available.

As soon as Jinzhou begins to produce a large amount of table salt, Chen Yixin has his own channels to sell it to various places in Bohai Bay.At that time, more merchant ships will come to Jinzhou to transport salt, which will naturally drive the development of the local service industry and shipping industry.

According to the designed production capacity of the Shuangdaowan Salt Field, if it can be fully put into operation and the market is unimpeded, it can bring at least 40 million taels of income to the Jinzhou area every year, which is enough to greatly improve the local financial situation. No longer completely dependent on Sanya's appropriation to live a tight life.

Liu Shangdao: "My lord, we previously expected to receive 5000 people this winter. Now the resettlement capacity is about to become saturated. If a large number of people are sent to Jinzhou in the future, there may be problems with the resettlement measures at the village and town level."

The food and other materials prepared by Golden State to receive refugees are relatively sufficient, but so many people who come to Golden State need to solve not only the problem of food, but more importantly, a place to stay to survive the cold winter.

Each village and town will build some new houses every year, which are usually used as grain warehouses. When new immigrants are allocated to resettlement places, they will be vacated for new immigrants to live in.

However, the number of refugees transported here from the Changshan Islands has exceeded previous expectations. If the resettlement work cannot be completed locally, they can only be transported to Shandong first, and then transported back to Jinzhou after the spring.Although doing so can solve the immediate problem, it will take a lot of trouble, and the round-trip freight alone is not a small sum.

Hearing this situation, Chen Yixin murmured: "There are at least 2000 people on the Changshan Islands, and there is no way to accommodate so many people on the island for the winter... So other infrastructure projects have to be put on hold first, and the housing problem must be solved first. .”

Liu Shang reminded: "My lord, in fact, there are still many vacant barracks in Jinzhou..."

Chen Yixin slapped his thigh and said, "That's right, I forgot about this!"

In the past two years, all Haihan's garrisons in the north were piled up in Jinzhou, so a large number of barracks were built more than ten miles away from the isthmus defense line.However, last year, the garrison of the Special Operations Regiment and part of the navy had been moved to the Taedong River base in North Korea, so a large number of barracks were vacated.But these barracks are located within the restricted area of ​​the military, and Chen Yixin didn't think of this solution for a while.

Liu Shangdao: "These vacant barracks should be able to accommodate the returned people, and they will be allocated to places after the spring of next year."

Chen Yixin nodded and said: "I will write a warrant later, and you will be responsible for taking over the camp to resettle the people. But even if they are reassigned to other places in the spring, this winter can't let people be idle. You can arrange something you can do to let the residents These people in the camp should adapt to the local area as soon as possible.”

Liu Shangdao: "My lord, don't worry, I will arrange it properly."

Chen Yixin was very satisfied with Liu Shang's response. As soon as the topic changed, he talked about something else: "When the snow treading operation is over, I will submit an application to the Executive Committee to officially appoint you as the civil affairs officer of Jinzhou District. Do your best, Mo Let me down."

Liu Shang was overjoyed when he heard the words. He has been in Haihan's bureaucratic system for several years, so he naturally understands how big the gap is between a temporary appointment and a formal appointment.Once promoted to the civil affairs officer of the Jinzhou area, it is equivalent to a party member. If it follows the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, it is almost the status of the magistrate.

This would have been a few years ago, but he didn't even dare to think that he would be able to reach this level as an official. It seems that staying in Sanya by mistake was the most correct decision in his life.

Liu Shang hurriedly stood up and bowed, sincerely thanking Chen Yixin for his promotion.

Speaking of which, Chen Yixin is really a great nobleman of his.When Liu Shangchu arrived in Shandong, he was assigned to work under Chen Yixin.It was precisely because his performance in Fushan County was appreciated by Chen Yixin that Chen Yixin later arranged for him to be transferred to Liaodong.If he hadn't been transferred here, he might still be working as a small propaganda officer in Fushan County at this time.

In this way, Chen Yixin was responsible for his promotion all the way from propaganda officer to local civil affairs officer. Liu Shang was grateful, but he also knew that Chen Yixin was not too cold about flattery, so he tried his best to control his emotions and just calmly asked Chen Yixin said that he would continue to work for him in the future, and he already regarded himself as Chen Yixin's retainer in words.

Although Liu Shang's ability has been recognized by Chen Yixin, in fact, this appointment is somewhat helpless. The only local official who is qualified for this position is Liu Shang, and the executive committee has no plans to send someone from Sanya to take up the post, so Chen Yixin could only appoint Liu Shang as the local civil affairs officer to share some affairs for himself.

Of course, this appointment is not that simple for Liu Shang. Although it is not easy to be a civil affairs officer in an overseas enclave like Jinzhou, and it seems that there is not much money to be made, Liu Shang will not underestimate this an errand.This means that he has truly stepped into the ranks of senior officials. Even if he returns to Sanya to report on his duties in the future, he will be at the level where he can sit and answer in the Fort of Victory.

After leaving Chen Yixin's official residence, Liu Shang didn't care about celebrating, so he took Chen Yixin's warrant and took a carriage to Nanguanling Camp, ten miles away from the isthmus defense line, to handle the handover of the camp.

Although Chen Yixin has nodded and approved the practice of using military camps to temporarily resettle refugees, there are still many details that need to be resolved through negotiation between Liu Shang and the military.The eating, drinking, and messing of so many refugees needs to be resolved, and how to allocate management authority and responsibilities requires some coordination between the civil affairs office under Liu Shang's jurisdiction and the garrison.

Fortunately, since he came to the north, he has been dealing with the Haihan army, and he has a lot of contacts in the army. With Chen Yixin's warrant as a guarantee, no one will embarrass him in this matter.

(End of this chapter)