The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1893 American Refugees
Although the war between the United States and Great Britain has ended, its aftereffects are only just beginning.

New York State is one of the most populous states in the United States, and at this time, millions of people are wandering around the northern lands of the United States.

When a village or town is discovered, the refugee rush surrounds it like a swarm of bees. These northern towns typically have only a few hundred, or even just a few dozen, households.

The refugees weren't entirely without money; many dug out their savings from their basements. Bread, grains, meat, vegetables, even salted fish that had been sitting out for a long time—anything edible was worth buying.

This was an unprecedented opportunity for the merchants in the small town, and Old Baldwin's grocery store was the first to raise prices.

"Hey! Listen up! We're almost out of flour and meat! If we don't buy now, we won't get any! Whoever pays the most gets to eat. It's going to get really cold tonight, and you'll freeze to death if you don't fill your stomach!"

After a series of persuasive words from old Baldwin, his business flourished even more, and people who were willing to pay money to buy things couldn't be driven away.

The profits were outrageous; the price of one item was equivalent to buying dozens of items normally. Seeing this, neighboring shops also raised their prices; flour that originally cost two or three cents a pound now cost fifty cents.

"You damned swindler! You'll die a horrible death!"

Although the homeless people kept cursing, they could only obediently pay and leave, and even feel fortunate to still have money in their hands.

Seeing this scene, the farmers who delivered goods also had a sudden idea. They turned down their usual customers and started selling their goods in the town, but at eight times the usual price.

Hotels, tailors, and other businesses began to raise prices wildly, while the cost of hiring people continued to decline. After all, the labor force was virtually unlimited, giving them absolute bargaining power.

But not everyone has money, and not everyone is willing to put up with it.

While excessive hunger can impair cognitive abilities, the survival instinct can also make people irritable, easily angered, and aggressive.

However, the townspeople who made a fortune didn't understand this; they wanted to continue stimulating the refugees to generate gold coins so they could fill their own pockets.

A man in tattered clothes sold his most prized hat and squeezed his way to the bakery with 80 cents he had scraped together.

"I want to buy bread."

The bakery apprentice threw the change at the man's face with obvious disgust.

"Count it yourself before you come back. I don't have time to count your change for you."

The man had no choice but to kneel on the ground and pick up the money one by one, while several refugees nearby silently helped him count the money.

They weren't originally destitute; they were once respectable people with jobs and businesses. It was the war that drove them to this desperate situation, but they still have their dignity, at least for now.

The money was quickly picked up and divided into several piles according to denomination.

Not a single coin was missing; there were a full eighty coins. The man looked at the people gratefully and bowed deeply with his bald head.

This is why he treasured that hat so much. The man clutched the money in his hand and returned to the group.

His wife was still waiting for him. The woman had never enjoyed a single day with him, and their only two children had died in the fire.

Now that woman has fallen ill again and can no longer walk. People say it's from hunger and she can no longer eat wild vegetables, so he came to buy bread hoping for a miracle.

However, the man's hopes were quickly dashed again when the bakery apprentice glanced at him and slapped his outstretched hand away.

Then he pointed to the small blackboard next to him with the prices written on it.

"The price has gone up now."

"Please sell it to me at a lower price, I beg you."

The bald man's obsequious manner only fueled the young apprentice's disdain.

"Just because you beg me doesn't mean I have to help you. Get out of my way and don't interfere with my business."

The apprentice said impatiently, but the man still stubbornly refused to leave.

"Please, for God's sake, consider it a debt I owe you. I'll pay you back as soon as I have the money."

At this moment, the baker standing to the side became unhappy and roared.

"Don't delay my business, tell him to get lost! Otherwise, I'll throw you out too and beg for food with these locusts!"

The apprentice, angered by the scolding, shoved the bald man to the ground, scattering the coins all over the floor once more.

"Get lost! Go eat shit! You have no money, and you dare to come and buy bread? Shameless thing!"

The apprentice had just turned around when the man leaped into the counter, grabbed a piece of wood with nails, and smashed it hard against the apprentice's head.

"Dead! Die! Die!"

The bald man's eyes were bloodshot. He had only one thought in mind: to kill the guy in front of him and take the bread back, no matter what the cost.

The bald man was just an ordinary person who had been driven to desperation. He didn't shout any slogans, nor did he think about what would happen next.

Upon seeing this, the baker immediately grabbed the hunting rifle behind him, intending to teach these outsiders a lesson.

"Damn it, you're dead!"

But before the baker could even touch the shotgun, a throwing knife pinned him to the wall. Although the bald man didn't say anything, everyone saw it all.

At this moment, the Americans were still full of martial spirit; the man who threw the knife jumped onto the counter and shouted.

"They won't let us live! We'll just take it ourselves!"

A beastly roar, inhuman in nature, suddenly erupted from the crowd, and people rushed into the bakery to loot anything usable.

They ripped open the oven and, ignoring the burns on their hands, stuffed bread into their mouths and into their clothes like a group of savages.

The money box was violently broken open, and coins and banknotes were scattered all over the ground. Everyone around joined in the feast, and the entire shop was almost completely destroyed by the refugees.

The town's sheriff arrived with two men and immediately tried to fire his gun, but after a shot rang out, the sheriff fell to the ground.

The man who threw the knife earlier was holding a smoking shotgun. He was originally a sheriff, but he couldn't protect his town from the British and American troops, and he himself became a refugee.

The two henchmen beside him also lacked the courage to fight back and spurred their horses to flee, but they didn't have the chance and were quickly pulled off their horses.

Then they were beaten to death with sticks, their belongings stolen, not even their boots and underwear were left. The angry mob began to smash and loot shops one by one, taking everything inside. Anyone who had bothered them was killed on the spot.

The town's men were organized by the town mayor.

"Villagers of Quinta! Those New Yorkers are beasts, they're just as filthy and disgusting as those Irishmen!"
They are looting our town if we cannot succeed.

Then tonight they'll climb into your beds, sleep with your wives, steal your food, and turn your homes into refugee camps!

The townspeople, armed with shotguns and axes, confronted the enraged refugee tide. There was no debate about right or wrong, only the most primal violence—a fight to the death.

A few dozen people had no chance of winning against tens of thousands of refugees, and the refugees, blinded by rage, could no longer suppress their inner impulses.

Soon the entire town was completely engulfed by the refugee influx, and the angry crowd even set fire to houses.

The town disappeared, and many more people became refugees.

This unstoppable torrent is destroying everything in its path; villages, towns, and farmlands are all targets of its looting.

Unripe grains and soil were uprooted, and high-quality protein sources such as birds and beasts were also doomed.

Even the dairy cows and oxen that were originally used to produce milk were killed and eaten by the refugees, and the fruit trees were cut down and used as firewood.

Philadelphia, as the gateway to Washington, was the first major city to be paralyzed, with a massive influx of refugees filling the city and enormous amounts of excrement making the entire city stink.

Cholera and typhoid fever began to break out one after another. These diseases were terrible in the nineteenth century, and could kill a person within days.

The corpses and excrement of those people will become new sources of pollution, and robberies and thefts will continue to occur.

Every day, serious incidents occur, and ordinary people are even afraid to go out. Shops have also sealed off their storefronts.

The entire city gradually came to a standstill, and the refugees, unable to access food and work, became even more hysterical.

Then a telegram arrived that Washington had decided to use force to expel the refugees, and an army was on its way from the front to support Philadelphia.

Philadelphia's leaders finally breathed a sigh of relief. They did have an army, but not enough troops. If a large-scale conflict broke out with the refugee group, the outcome would be uncertain.

Deporting refugees carries absolutely no psychological burden for them; in fact, American politicians interpret it as defending their own property and maintaining order.

Historically, a riot broke out during the Union Army's conscription in New York. Lincoln, who was almost deified by later Western scholars, immediately ordered the recall of elite troops from the Gettysburg battlefield to suppress the riot with artillery and cavalry, resulting in the deaths of thousands.

But afterwards, no one was held accountable for the incident, and Lincoln was portrayed as a brave man who said "no" to the mob.

Even in the 21st century, Americans who died from military gunfire are still considered thugs, not victims.

At the time, religious groups in the United States also supported this approach, since the poor and refugees were seen as inherently sinful.

Is it wrong for God's chosen people to trample on those who have abandoned them?

In fact, many soldiers and officers felt that they were protecting their community and the federal constitution.

(The above sentence comes from the diary of a US soldier who participated in the suppression in the 19th century. The specific content may differ, but the general meaning is the same.)
In official propaganda, refugees are often portrayed as barbarians, problems that need to be solved, or threats to civilization.

The situation in Baltimore is much more complicated. Although it was a slave state, it has always been more economically and culturally closer to the free states to the north.

At that time, Baltimore was the third largest city in the United States, with a population of over 200,000. It had enormous carrying capacity, but it was also one of the areas where the North-South conflict was most severe.

Those Black people from the North were the first to suffer, because Southern slaveholders would only regard them as runaway slaves, and they would even send people to arrest them, since the price of Black slaves in the United States was not low.

But abolitionists could not accept this approach, knowing that rescuing these black people was not easy, not to mention that black people were real cheap labor.

If we don't have Black people, are we supposed to hire those expensive white people?
A fierce conflict soon broke out between the two sides, and freed blacks, led by abolitionists, quickly occupied the city and began a full-scale retaliation against their Southern supporters.

The supporters in the north tacitly approved of this behavior, as they also wanted to take this opportunity to suppress dissent and eventually control the entire city.

The retaliation was extremely bloody, and the refugees from the north also needed enough space to live, so the two sides quickly reached an agreement.

However, this was Maryland, a slave state, and the people of the American South were thoroughly enraged when the survivors in Baltimore fled to the South.

At this time, the American South controlled the economic lifeline of the United States and commanded a massive military force, making it virtually impossible for them to swallow their anger any longer.

Historically, Maryland was a slave state, but it had always sided with the Northern United States. However, the situation was different at this time.

The northern United States has been severely weakened, while the southern United States, although not as developed as it has been in the same period in history, has become relatively stronger than the north.

Maryland's leadership naturally sided with whichever side was stronger. With the support of the Maryland government, a large number of Southern troops entered Maryland and besieged Baltimore, determined to reclaim the land that belonged to the Southerners.

Even General Robert E. Lee led the elite of the Confederate army back to Baltimore. In fact, personally, General Robert E. Lee did not like slavery and did not want his own people to fight each other.

However, he was, after all, a general from the American South, and most of his subordinates were also from the American South.

With hundreds of thousands of troops besieging the city, Baltimore's makeshift armed forces and gang members alone could not hold it.

So the high command in Baltimore prepared to negotiate with Robert E. Lee, who readily agreed and even used his personal prestige to subdue the restless Confederate soldiers.

Robert E. Lee's victories over the years were not in vain; he had become a household name in the American South, and people regarded him as a hero.

The city's leaders agreed to expel the refugees and return the property to the Southern supporters.

Although the lack of compensation displeased many, given that the South clearly held the upper hand and was the victim, Robert E. Lee was determined to resolve the matter peacefully and thus continued to persuade the South to accept the compensation.

However, things did not go as smoothly as expected. Robert Lee was shot by a gunman during the handover negotiations, and the scene immediately descended into chaos.

Fortunately, Robert E. Lee was given a bulletproof vest before returning to North America. Not only him, but almost all the students who returned from overseas received such a gift.

However, so-called bulletproof vests can only stop bullets from pistols and old-fashioned rifles. Their protective effect against new rifles using Minié bullets is purely speculative.

The North and South have conflicting accounts of the attack. The South believes that the North ambushed their general and that the entire negotiation was a premeditated trap.

The North claims that the Southerners staged the whole thing to gain sympathy and fight for their interests; otherwise, why was Robert E. Lee, who was shot, unharmed?

In addition, the scene was too chaotic at the time, and many soldiers on both sides had been told by their families before they arrived that "if anything happens, kill the other side first."

So the murderer didn't attract much attention; instead, the North and South were engaged in a fierce battle.