1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 404 Encountering an old friend
Because the Haihan militia first entered Hue City and took away the bulk, when the North Vietnamese Army took over the defense of Hue City, there was really not much oil and water left in the city.Zheng Bo led his men to scrape three feet in the city of Hue, only to collect about 20 taels of silver, and this money was far from enough to pay for the military expenses of the Haihan militia this time. As for the Haihan militia, they chose to directly withdraw from the subsequent clean-up operations, leaving the mess to Zheng Bai, and then evacuated the large forces from Hue.

The Annan court was unable to pay its military expenses. This situation was of course expected by the Executive Committee. Fortunately, the two sides have already had successful precedents on this issue for reference, and this will not cause debt disputes.The method of repaying debts with population has been implemented many times in the past two years, and the two sides have already reached a certain degree of consensus on the calculation method of immigration. Of course, such dangerous personnel as prisoners of war, other The price must be lower than that of ordinary people, so these prisoners of war were wholesaled to Haihan at a very low price, and then stuffed into the bilge like cargo for shipment—it is said that only three to four intact South Vietnamese prisoners of war can arrive The price of an Annan buffalo, and the treatment of these prisoners of war during transportation is not even as good as the cattle imported from Annan by the Ministry of Agriculture.

However, in this era, the defeated have no human rights to speak of, even the nobles like Ruan Jinggui, who used to be in the upper class of society, have nothing to say.It is already an expression of the benevolence of the conqueror that the prisoners of war can get a way to live.

The prisoners of war used by the North Vietnamese to settle the bill were not only the South Vietnamese soldiers captured by the Haihan militia in Hue City. Except for some South Vietnamese soldiers who were recruited and demobilized on the spot, a considerable number of prisoners of war would be packed and sent to the sea after the war. The areas under the Han rule were forced to do hard labor.According to a more conservative estimate, the number of prisoners of war that Haihan will obtain is at least 8000 to [-]. If the North Vietnamese army's process of clearing out the remnants of South Vietnam is smooth enough, then it is not surprising that the number exceeds [-] or even higher.

After all, these prisoners of war are also a big trouble for the North Vietnamese court. If they are all recruited under their own name, they will definitely not be able to support them, and it is also a very troublesome thing to disperse and resettle too many surrendered troops.If they are dismissed on the spot, so many unemployed young men will definitely become a factor of social instability. At that time, the imperial court will have to use a lot of manpower and material resources to maintain local law and order.Throwing it to Haihan can serve multiple purposes. It not only avoids possible troubles, but also saves the cost and consumption of dealing with prisoners of war, and can also offset part of the war debt. A large number of prisoners of war were dealt with cheaply to Haihan.

In addition to being transported back to Hainan Island, some prisoners of war will also go to the coal mines in Heitu Port and the four southern ports to be developed.Of course, Hainan Island, which is the base camp, will get the most share, and the executive committee has already made a preliminary plan for their whereabouts.

At present, the development and construction of the Lianghe River Basin in the new urban area of ​​Sanya is proceeding in an orderly manner. However, due to safety considerations, most of the people working on this large construction site are ordinary people. Most of the prisoners in the hard labor camp are still arranged in Do heavy physical labor in the mine of Tiandu Iron Mine.In the near future, thousands of prisoners of war will be transported to Hainan Island, and these people will certainly not be able to arrange for all of them to work in the Tiandu Iron Mine, which has a limited working area. Therefore, the long-planned development plan of the Shilu Iron Mine by the Executive Committee has finally come to an end. It was taken out from the dusty database again and put on the agenda of the executive committee members.

Long before the crossing, when the preparatory committee chose the crossing site, the iron ore resources possessed by Hainan Island were one of the important conditions for it to fancy.This large iron mine is located inland on the west coast of Hainan Island, about 50 kilometers away from the coastline. In another time and space, the proven reserves of more than 18 million tons, and the average grade of the ore exceeds [-]%. The superior conditions of mining are rare mineral sources for the level of mining and smelting in the [-]th century.Shilu Iron Mine is not only rich in iron and copper ores, but also has cobalt, nickel, sulfur, aluminum, gold and other mineral resources.For the modern industrial system that the Executive Committee wants to realize on Hainan Island, the Shilu Iron Mine is really a treasure that cannot be missed.

In the original time and space, the Shilu Iron Mine was not discovered until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.However, the arrival of the time traveler will advance this time point by about a century and a half, and the intensity of development will far exceed the original historical situation.However, during the first two years when the Executive Committee settled in Sanya, it had no idea of ​​developing Shilu Iron Mine. It was not that there was no idea in this regard, but limited by objective conditions, there was no way to implement the development of Shilu Iron Mine for the time being. plan.

First of all, the location of the Shilu Iron Mine is a bit far away from the Victory Port where the traversers settled. From the Victory Port to Changhua on the west coast, the sea voyage exceeds 100 nautical miles. This distance is already from the Victory Port to Hue. two-thirds of the voyage.Of course, it’s not a big problem if it’s just a slightly longer sea voyage. After all, the voyage of the overseas mine of Heitu Port is even longer. It is a full [-] kilometers away from the small harbor of Changhua on the seashore, and the whole area is in an undeveloped primitive environment. Even if it is placed in the time and space before crossing, if you want to build A road from the sea to the interior is no easy feat either.

The second reason for delaying the planning of the Executive Committee is due to political considerations.According to the administrative division of Qiongzhou Island by Ming Dynasty, Changhua is located in Danzhou in the north. If Haihan wants to develop Changhua on a large scale, it will definitely arouse the fear of the Danzhou government, and maybe some people will be born because of it. This is an unacceptable risk for the Executive Committee, which has a weak foothold in the early stage.Even the military, which has been advocating the expansion of force, could not afford to station troops in Changhua at that time to ensure the safety of this development project.

The third reason is because of the existence of the Tiandu Iron Mine. Although the reserves and mineral varieties of this mine are not as good as those of Shilu, the location is good. Half of the reason why the Executive Committee chose Shengli Port to land is because of Tiandu Iron Mine. From iron ore.The industrial zones established after that are almost all arranged around the Tiandu Iron Mine to arrange workshops and production units, its importance can be seen.Even if the Shilu Iron Mine is not developed for the time being, the iron ore produced by Tiandu alone can basically support Haihan's production and development needs in the early stage.

However, today is different. With the development of Haihan, the demand for steel and other metals is also increasing.Whether it is shipping capacity, political influence or smelting level, they are no longer obstacles restricting the development of Shilu Iron Mine.After the conditions became more and more mature, the Executive Committee finally revealed the plan to develop the Shilu Iron Mine again, and planned to implement it in the near future.Thousands of South Vietnamese prisoners of war will be transported to the local area, and the transportation line from Changhua Port on the seaside to Shilu will be opened, and a large-scale coal and iron complex industrial base will start to be built locally.After the formation of this area, the clean coal produced in the Black Soil Port can be transported to the nearby area for smelting and processing of steel and other metals.

Of course, in this construction process, I am afraid that many lives will be paid for it.In the first half year of the development of the Heitugang Coal Mine in the Beibu Gulf, hundreds of workers died from various accidents, diseases and other reasons, and the location of the Shilu Iron Mine determines that its development will inevitably be much more difficult than Heitu Port Coal Mine and other overseas ports.The Executive Committee will certainly not ignore this predictable loss of personnel, and the best way is to pass it on to the cheap labor of prisoners of war.

Ruan Jinggui, who was watching these prisoners of war disembark, naturally would not have imagined what the fate of his compatriots would be.However, seeing that the Haihan people did not remove the shackles and handcuffs of these people during the transportation, he knew that the fate of these people might not be the same as his own.

From Ruan Jinggui's point of view, it's not that he has no sympathy for these captives who once belonged to the same camp, and he still has some sympathy for them.But he also remembers to restrain his emotions and remind himself that his current status is not suitable for making some misleading actions.

But Ruan Jinggui can remain calm and rational, and he can reach the same level without ghostwriting.Ruan Jingwen, who was standing next to him, rushed out without any warning, directly threw himself into the line of prisoners, and hugged one of them.

Ruan Jinggui turned pale with shock, but before he could rush forward to pull his brother out, four or five black-clothed policemen with wooden sticks had rushed over, and beat Ruan Jingwen without asking any questions.

This little chaos immediately attracted the attention of the on-site management personnel, and soon the personnel from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the military rushed over to stop the beating by the police, pulled Ruan Jingwen out of the queue together with the man he was hugging, and let the The other prisoners of war marched on.

Although Ruan Jingwen was severely beaten with a stick, he didn't look depressed at all. He even pulled the prisoner and shouted, "Brother Wu, so you're still alive! I'm Ruan Jingwen, it's me!"

Ruan Jinggui took a look, he knew this person himself, he was a general of the Nanyue Navy named Wu Sen.The Wu family and the Ruan family are also considered family friends, Wu Sen and Ruan Jingwen have known each other since childhood, they can be regarded as siblings.But when the Haihan people attacked Hue, Wu Sen did not choose to avoid the battle in the city, but went to the front line to fight with the Haihan people. It is said that all his troops were sunk by the Haihan people's artillery while patrolling the river—— This paragraph was also edited into the war documentary of the Haihan Propaganda Department, but the people involved never had the chance to see it.

The news of Wu Sen's death in battle was sent back to Hue. As a friend, Ruan Jingwen was naturally very sad, but he had no intention of fighting since then, and in the end he did not choose to fight against the Haihan militia to avenge his friend, but listened to Ruan Jinggui Persuasion, he completely gave up resistance and directly led his troops to surrender.

However, Ruan Jingwen did not expect that after traveling for many days, he would actually meet his friend who had died in battle in the Haihan people's base camp.When he saw it, he couldn't control his mood, so he rushed out and grabbed Wu Sen.The onlookers thought he was going to cause trouble, so they rushed up and knocked him down.

Ruan Jinggui hurriedly bowed his body and explained the situation to the military and the Ministry of Civil Affairs next to him, letting them know that it was just a small misunderstanding.On the other hand, Wu Sen, who was held back by Ruan Jingwen, calmed down immediately after the initial shock passed, stood up and broke away from Ruan Jingwen's hand, and angrily said to him: "Looking at your unharmed appearance, you must have voted for the Haihan people." ? Hundreds of soldiers from my navy lost their lives in Xiangjiang just to protect a shameless person like you!"

Ruan Jingwen probably didn't expect Wu Sen's emotions to be so intense, and he was so scolded that he couldn't speak for a while.Ruan Jinggui persuaded from the side: "Xiao Wu, a defeated general, how can you be brave? You go for a while, and I will go to find the chief of Haihan someday, and find a way out for you!"

Wu Sen spat on the ground and said: "I will go my own way, how can I ask you, a traitor, to seek some shit for me to escape! The friendship between our two families has been broken since then, and we must never seek any friendship with Master Wu again! "

After Wu Sen finished speaking, he shook the shackles on his body, and followed the team of prisoners of war on his own, without looking back at the Ruan brothers.The two brothers looked at each other and found that the other's face was quite ugly.

It was a long time before Ruan Jingwen said: "If Wu Sen hadn't saved my life when I was 14, I would have drowned in the Xiangjiang River long ago. I will give him back this love no matter what."

Ruan Jinggui took a deep breath before persuading him: "Wu Sen is kind to you alone. At the beginning, my family's property in Hoi An was also taken care of by him. Now that he is in trouble because of the war, how can he stand by as a brother? Even if he It has nothing to do with my family, and as a brother, I don't want to see such a loyal person buried."

Ruan Jinggui was afraid that his brother would see other acquaintances, so he kept standing next to him and watched. Fortunately, there were not many senior officers like Wu Sen in the prisoner-of-war team. Meet acquaintances again.After they were done, they were still led by several security guards and returned to the immigration isolation camp all the way.

Ruan Jinggui didn't forget what he said, he took the initiative to find the squadron leader Zheng Yi the next day, hoping that he could bring a message to the senior officials.

Zheng Yi looked Ruan Jinggui up and down and said, "You mean to save that prisoner's life?"

"Not only to save his life, but I also hope that the chiefs will give him a chance. This person was a naval officer in Hue and is proficient in the hydrological conditions of the Annan coast. In the future, the chiefs will build ports in the south. This person must It will work!" Ruan Jinggui quickly told Zheng Yihe the reasons.When he returned to the camp yesterday, he asked several security guards. He heard that these prisoners of war would be sent to hard labor camps, and their destinations were often mines deep in the mountains. Ruan Jinggui didn't want Wu Sen to be treated as a cheap miner. Spent the rest of his life in the dark pit.

Zheng Yi shook his head and said: "I heard that your friend is also a general. If an officer of this level is willing to surrender, the chiefs will definitely not arrest him and send him to a hard labor camp. If he is unwilling to surrender, you protect him What's the use? If he doesn't want to serve the executive committee, who would dare to let him out?"

Ruan Jinggui hurriedly said: "I would like to be a guarantee. If he still refuses to surrender, please ask me to persuade him personally! Captain Zheng, although this person is a bit foolish and loyal to the old master, he is capable after all. When the committee recruits talents, talents should not be missed!"

Zheng Yi looked at Ruan Jinggui carefully for a while, as if he wanted to confirm whether he was playing tricks, then nodded after a long time and said: "I can convey this to the higher authorities for you, but as for the effect, I will not guarantee it with you."

"Thank you, Captain Zheng!" Ruan Jinggui hurriedly made a deep bow.

The Ruan brothers waited for another three days in anxiety, and finally Zheng Yi came, but he didn't come to inform Wu Sen, but asked them to pack up and prepare to leave: "Ruan Jingwen, Ruan Jinggui, your quarantine period has arrived , Pack up your personal belongings, report to the gate of the camp, and someone will take you to the next stop."

Ruan Jinggui said anxiously: "Captain Zheng, what about my friend?"

"There is no response from the above, and I don't dare to press it!" Zheng Yi shook his head helplessly and said, "The chiefs are so busy every day, maybe forget about it! After you go out, you can think of a way to find the chief. Tongtongzi, don’t you know the head of the executive committee? If they are willing to speak up, then your friend’s future will definitely be fine.”

Ruan Jinggui had no choice but to thank Zheng Yi, and then packed things together with Ruan Jingwen.In fact, there is nothing to clean up. When I first entered the camp, I handed in all my luggage, and only a few sets of clothes were brought in.Even rice bowls, water cups, and bedding are distributed uniformly after entering. However, these items must also be handed over to the camp management agency when they leave. After cleaning and disinfection, they will be left for the next batch of immigrants to use.

After being locked up in this isolation camp for more than ten days, the two of them couldn't stay any longer. After packing their clothes, they left the residence.As for why the other members of the Ruan clan who lived with him did not get permission to leave at the same time, Ruan Jinggui knew to some extent - both of their brothers had been assigned employment units by the Haihan people before they came here, and their way out was determined. The clansmen who have no ability are naturally different.Like those tribesmen without professional skills, if they can read and count, at least they can get easy jobs like clerical documents in the future. If they don’t know anything, they can only be assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture as farmers, or to build The Ministry is working as a laborer to repair the earth.

The two came to the gate of the camp area, and there were already about twenty people gathered here, and it seemed that they were all immigrants who had been destined to go like them.Soon several cadres of the naturalized people came to roll their names with the list, and after counting, they led them to the train station.It was the first time for these new immigrants to enter the train station, and they inevitably pointed and talked everywhere, with the expression of grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden.

(End of this chapter)