Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 359 Accident from Shandong

While Zhao Xin and the others were busy dealing with Tsarist Russia, everyone in Beihai Town was also busy.

Everyone in the power plant was busy installing and debugging the unit. Chen Qingsong continued his farmland water conservancy project in Fuerdan City; Zhao Liang led a group of Henan blacksmiths to work on his military-industrial and steel complex; Fang Hua became his indispensable help .

Hong Tao's medical centers located in various residential communities are busy vaccinating adults and children against smallpox; Wang Zhenyi's father is now the second in command of the imaging department of Beihai Town Hospital, and he is likely to succeed Father Ma. Feel the crisis.With the news of Beihai's defeat of Rakshasa, Father Ma has been in a low mood recently.

After completing the blueprint design, Pereira has already started the construction of the military port in the east of Beihai Town, and the power plant people will sometimes go to help; Deng Fei is currently in charge of the sailing school, and by the way supervises the transformation of the three sailboats snatched from Tsarist Russia; Ding Guofeng became the captain of the transportation brigade, leading a group of intern crew members, and traveled frequently between Kuba Island, Ezodi, Sendai Domain and Southern Kyushu.

Wang Zhenyi followed Lao You to study junior high school mathematics in another time and space at school; A Miao continued to lead King Duofu around, thinking about when Zhao Xin would send someone to pick her up; Miss Shen was depressed waiting to get married, Usually, I go to school to give literacy classes to the children for half a day, and spend the rest of the day at home with my adoptive mother.

It is said that after the Qingming Festival, Beihai Town’s troops at the Sheyang Lake stronghold were divided into two groups: one group was led by Xu Dayong to the “Nanba Laolin” at the junction of the three provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Chu, and the other group was led by Wang Changsheng. Shandong.

Wang Changsheng was originally sent by Zhao Xin to Guangzhou to contact the Cai family, but later Xu Dayong sent a telegram to ask for instructions, saying that Wang Changsheng had connections with the Cao Gang and it was more suitable to go to Shandong.After Zhao Xin thought about it, he agreed to Xu Dayong's request.After Shen Jingdan heard about it, he applied to Zhao Xin, saying that he happened to have several past business relationships in Guangdong, and wanted to try to make a breakthrough.So he landed from northern Jiangsu in May and went to Guangzhou instead of Wang Changsheng.

In mid-April, Wang Changsheng and his party of more than a dozen people made a sandboat from northern Jiangsu to Jiaodong, and then went to Wendeng County.In addition to the people from Beihai Town, there were also a few people from the Cao Gang who were born in Wendeng.

The Wendeng area is either a mountain or a sea, not to mention arable land, and a lot of saline-alkali land. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has been the least developed area in Shandong.Even if the local farmers worked hard, the grain harvested a year would be [-] catties per mu. After deducting the imperial grain and seeds, the leftovers would be less than that of a low-class household in the western Shandong area.

Contrary to what many people in later generations believed, after the severe drought that affected six provinces in the 50th year of Qianlong, the popularity of sweet potatoes and corn in the Central Plains is still not high.The so-called population boom in China during the Qianlong period, and the saying that sweet potatoes can feed so many people is completely unfounded!
In fact, from the end of Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi, Jin Xuezeng and others promoted sweet potato planting in Shandong; in the 50th and 51st years of Qianlong, it was raised to the level of official promotion.

Even so, when farmers know about sweet potatoes, it doesn't mean they will regard them as a major food crop.Agricultural production has been a complex systematic project since ancient times. The core of agricultural production is to form a complete crop planting system with different crops through crop rotation and multiple cropping methods!
This is not the same as introducing a new vegetable variety.If a new staple food wants to integrate into or even change the planting system of the entire region, it means breaking the planting system formed in the feudal era for thousands of years, and the climate, soil, and even farmers' planting habits must be greatly changed.

As a famine relief crop, the conditions for sweet potatoes to integrate into the crop planting system in the Central Plains are far from being met.In fact, not only did Qianlong's 50-year promotion fail to achieve results, but throughout the Qing Dynasty, sweet potatoes only formed a middle-production area in the south-central part of Shandong.In another time and space, until the 50s, sweet potatoes had not been widely planted in Shandong.

For farmers in the Central Plains, millet and wheat are their staple foods in spring, summer and autumn, and sorghum is their staple food in winter.In terms of the calorie value of food, 100 grams of sorghum rice is 360 calories, how much is 100 grams of potatoes or sweet potatoes?

(Wake up! People who are willing to travel through time. Even if you bring potatoes and sweet potato seeds to ancient times, farmers will not buy it. Those all kinds of heroes who want to fill the stomachs of the world with potatoes, first check how the Great Famine in Ireland thing.)
Wang Changsheng and his party of six arrived in Wendeng County and found a place to settle down. The members of the Cao Gang took the "Xujiazhuang" people and went deep into the villages, towns, markets and restaurants in Wendeng and Rongcheng counties to spread the news.

"Have you heard? In early June, there will be several large ships docking at the mouth of Sanggou. It is said that they will pick up people to farm outside the pass, and those who are willing to get off the ship will be given [-] acres of land!"

"Really?"

"It's absolutely true! This is what lied to you." The speaker stretched out his thumb and middle finger, making a bastard gesture.

This news was spread quickly by interested people who took advantage of it, and it spread all over Terengganu after half a month, and the more it was said, the more evil it became.

Fifty acres of land became eighty acres, and in addition to the distribution of daughter-in-law, house, property, horses and cattle.During this period, many middlemen appeared inexplicably. Those who want to go just need to sign their fingerprints with the middleman, and then the middleman will lead the applicants to the seaside to board the boat. money.

Wang Changsheng also worked hard. In order to lure people to Beihai Town, he used all means.Those middlemen were developed together by him and his subordinates. As long as they sign and deposit one, and take it to the seaside and board a boat, they can get fifty coins.

As of the 52nd year of Qianlong, according to the official statistics of the Qing court, the total population of Terengganu has exceeded 300 million, and the number of households has exceeded 50.The area of ​​arable land in the jurisdiction is 707 million mu, and the per capita arable land is nearly 5 mu, while the reclamation coefficient is only a pitiful 26%. This means that Dengzhou is mountainous and rocky, and three-quarters of the area is completely unsuitable for farming.

In addition, the Wendeng area has always been the place of culture and education in Jiaodong, and there are many scholars and scholars, and land annexation is very serious, and the life of ordinary people is very miserable.

So when the saying "Go outside the customs and give fifty acres plus fifty dollars" spread, it immediately sparked an upsurge in Wendeng and Rongcheng.After confirming from the middle population that the news was true, the poor people made dry food and packed their belongings one after another.

In charge of the "people-pulling project" in Rongcheng County is an intelligence officer named Yu Shun in the intelligence system of Beihai Town. He is from Henan. In the end, he was selected by Lu Shoushan and entered the intelligence system. After several months of training, he was transferred to Xu Dayong's subordinates.

Yu Shun's progress was very smooth. By mid-May, the number reported by the people in the villages and towns under Rongcheng had exceeded 5000 people.These people are all reporting the attitude of giving it a try. If it is true, then they will take all their wives and children; if it is false, forget it, and accept their fate!

Just when Yushun had grown to 6000 people and migrated to Sanggoukou Bay in the south of Rongcheng County in waves, because among these people there was a widow who eloped with others and several escaped slaves, they were held by thousands of people. The siege of the villagers caused an uproar in Rongcheng County, and Yu Shun himself was imprisoned.

Shandong is the birthplace of Confucian culture, and the ethics and morals constructed by Confucianism influenced the formation of folk customs in Shandong in the Ming and Qing Dynasties that "Men should be loyal and women should be chaste and obedient".

The problem is that some girls start to observe the festival in their teens or twenties for decades. They not only have to endure the loneliness of observing the festival, but also have to bear certain family responsibilities and obligations.However, sometimes women's festivals are not fully supported by the husband's tribe, and some tribes even plunder the property of the chaste woman.

The one who caused trouble for Yu Shun was a young widow, surnamed Xu, who was just 16 years old this year; her husband, surnamed Bi, died two years ago and had no children.Originally, this girl wanted to keep the festival until her old age, but she was repeatedly bullied by her husband's family, and because her husband's family was quite powerful in the local area, there was no way to ask for help.

Mrs. Bi Xu was young and her husband's family was poor. Finally, she was forced to hang herself in front of her husband's grave outside the village, but she was rescued by a shopkeeper surnamed Li from a neighboring village.Seeing her beautiful appearance, Mr. Li moved his mind; Bi Xu was reborn after death, saw Mr. Li's handsome appearance, and was coaxed by some sweet words in the conversation, so he was immediately fascinated.

When the two of them made a private decision for life and were worried about what to do in the future, the news of Yu Shun's recruitment came, so Bi Xu gritted his teeth and absconded quietly, and pretended to be husband and wife with Li's shopkeeper, and got into the crowd.Unexpectedly, the two of them happened to be seen by a tenant of the Bi family who was watching the excitement, so there was a later story.

When Ms. Xu's deceased husband's clan knew that the chaste woman in the family did not obey women's morals and eloped with others, they called their own family members and tenants, and surrounded the group led by Yu Shun with rakes and sticks.

If this is other human traffickers or people who come to recruit people for work, they can only admit that they are unlucky when they encounter such a rare thing in a century, pay money and admit their mistakes, and rush to finish the job.The problem is that the members of the Bi family opened their mouths openly in an attempt to blackmail people, and the price of opening their mouths was 200 taels, which of course Yu Shun could not agree to.

When the two sides were in a stalemate, a squire named Ding in Wendeng County also brought people from his family, saying that by the way, among these people were his fugitive slaves, and they still injured their masters and escaped; They really found them, and the two domestic servants finally admitted, saying that Squire Ding's family is too strict, and every time he buys servants, he scolds and beats them until they are completely numb, and then let them do things.

According to the "Great Qing Law", it is only natural for the people to capture fugitive slaves, and the government will protect them.Moreover, regardless of the red or white deeds, if a servant beats the parents and the elders of the parents, even if they are not injured, they will have to stick for a hundred or three years;

Faced with the siege of thousands of villagers, Yu Shun finally agreed to pay 50 taels to each of the two families, and then set up two banquets in a restaurant in Rongcheng County to apologize.

50 taels is a lot, and can buy several thousand catties of grain.Right now, a stone of wheat in Shandong is only 1.5 taels, and millet and sorghum are less than one tael.The problem was that Yu Shun was in a hurry to get out of trouble, and he couldn't wait, so what he took out was not an ordinary silver ingot, but a standard silver bar from Beihai Town.

Indeed, the standard silver bars in Beihai Town are really attractive in appearance, bright enough to reflect people's shadows, but no one has seen such pure silver in Dengzhou Prefecture, or even in Shandong Province.Be it the members of the Bi family or the Ding family, when they saw such a rare silver bar, they all became greedy at the same time.

Therefore, relying on being local gentry, the two families insisted on dragging Yushun to the Rongcheng County Yamen to meet the officials. How could this be possible?

The argument turned into fighting. During the pushing and shoving, Yu Shun saw that someone was going to tie him with a rope, so he couldn't care less, took out his revolver and fired into the sky.

Don't look at Yu Shun talking to these people in a friendly manner, in fact, he is crazy in his heart.Yu Shun felt that Beihai Town was behind him, and the army of the imperial court had beaten him several times. What are you country gentry and landlords doing!

But to his surprise, although these villagers were startled by the gunshots at first, their immediate reaction became more intense.They swarmed up, and the ants killed the elephant to death, and they tied Yu Shun up.

In the folk fighting in the Qing Dynasty, villagers often made their own muskets, and the sound of gunfire was no stranger to these people.The government forbids the use of cast iron to make guns, so they use solid bamboo wrapped in iron wire as the barrel; rebellion is not good for it, but it is best for fighting.To the west of Wendeng is Qixia Mountain, and there are not a few people who have hunted with earthen guns.

Yu Shun was dumbfounded now, he only had five bullets left in his gun, and there were thousands of people around, who would he not hit?It will be more troublesome if you fight.

After being tied up, the silver bars and coins on his body were divided up by the Bi and Ding families, and the farmers who followed him to Sanggoukou Bay scattered away.When he arrived at the Rongcheng County Government, he didn't even see the county magistrate face to face, so he was thrown into prison on the charge of "carrying a firearm with intent to commit crimes".

The companions who escaped in the chaos ran to Wendeng County overnight, and Wang Changsheng was shocked when he learned about it.There are only a dozen or so of them, and they are not familiar with the place where they live. If they go to Rongcheng to do business, they will be bullied.

What if you go to jailbreak?Don't be ridiculous, there are more than a dozen pistols with more than 100 rounds of bullets. After shooting, the plan to lure people to Beihai Town will be ruined.

After thinking about it, Wang Changsheng decided to prepare with both hands. He first sent people back to Sheyang Lake and sent a report to Beihai Town for help; then he took two members of the Cao Gang to Rongcheng to inquire about the news and try to rescue them.

After more than ten days, after spending tens of thousands of dollars, there was no progress in Rongcheng. When Wang Changsheng was waiting for news from Beihai, an accident happened.

At noon in late June of the lunar calendar, Deng Fei drove Jinglei, together with Beihai No. [-] and Beihai No. [-], to the ocean outside the mouth of Sanggou, southeast of Rongcheng County, the easternmost tip of Shandong.Then the three boats continued to head north, and were soon discovered by the Qing Army Beacon Tower in Yangyuchiwan, Chengshanjiao.

The Qing Dynasty set up a front battalion of the Dengzhou Navy in Shandong, which was in charge of the coastal areas of Shandong. It was divided into three floods, Dengzhou flood, Jiaozhou flood, and Chengshan flood; Yangyuchiwan was the station of Chengshan flood.In the 12th year of Yongzheng, Chengshanwei was promoted to Rongcheng County.In the first year of Qianlong, the Qing court built a navy battalion in the south of Rongcheng and north of Mashan, and set up the Chengshan Garrison Office. There are two canopy boats.

Zheng Yi, the trainee captain of Beihai No. 1, looked through the binoculars and saw that the Qing army under the beacon tower was in a mess. One minute later, the beacon tower hadn't been lit yet.

"What a bunch of trash!" Zheng Yi sneered in his heart, and was about to ask Deng Fei through the walkie-talkie whether he could fire the cannon, when suddenly he heard the sound of "booming" cannons from the thunder, and the flames shot out around the beacon tower instantly, and the gunpowder smoke filled the air.A few minutes later, when Zheng raised his binoculars to observe again and again, he saw that the beacon tower had turned into a pile of rubble.

Subsequently, three assault boats capable of carrying 16 people were slowly lowered from the deck of the Thunder, and a platoon of the North Marine Corps began to land.

Their goal was the Qing army's water camp dock located in Yangyuchi Bay, to open up a landing site and measure the water depth so that Beihai No. [-] and No. [-] could dock.As the next two platoons landed one after another, more and more soldiers of the Northern Navy, wearing camouflage uniforms and whose complexion was blown by the sea wind, red and black, began to appear on the coast.An hour later, Deng Fei also went ashore with his guard squad.

Another hour later, when Beihai No. [-] and No. [-] began to enter and anchor in Yangyuchi Bay, the local garrison troops of the Qing army finally appeared in the sight of the Beihai Navy.

Deng Fei held up his binoculars and observed for a long time, and finally determined that the group of people was only a hundred or so.Except for the leading military officer on a horse, the rest of the Qing army wore a ragged outfit!If it weren't for the writing on the chest of their uniforms, no one would think that these were the local Green Battalion troops.

When the guys tentatively approached and were 400 meters away from the makeshift position, the marines opened fire.To Deng Fei's surprise, the Qing army turned around and ran away as soon as they heard a few gunshots.A few minutes later, apart from an unlucky ghost who was shot in the thigh yelling "Ouch", there was no Qing army in sight.

Deng Fei shook his head and smiled wryly, "Is this the Green Camp?"

(End of this chapter)