The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 354: Chen State's Preparations

"If there is a rift between our Great Qi and France, it will inevitably affect our Chen State. Therefore, we must plan ahead and make preparations early. Not only must we train the local soldiers, reserve ammunition, and strengthen the necessary armaments, but we must also accumulate more food, clothing, medicine, oil, sugar and other daily necessities to meet the needs of the emergency."

On May 1735, 5, Chen Wang Qi Weijun, along with more than a dozen officials and guards, crossed the bay by boat and arrived at Guangchuan City on the opposite bank (now Dartmouth City on the opposite bank of Halifax) to inspect local agricultural production and immigrant resettlement.

Qi Weijun rode on his horse and stopped on a high slope. Looking around, he saw green spring wheat and felt very pleased.

During the six years since he came to Chenzhou, he had devoted all his energy and efforts, and finally brought some promising changes to this vassal state.

As of the end of last year, the territory under the jurisdiction of the State of Chen, including the headquarters of Qingchuan Prefecture (now the Nova Scotia Peninsula) and Changxing Island (now Newfoundland Island), had a total population of more than 14,700, of which the number of Han immigrants exceeded 9,100. Although the immigration speed was not as fast as that of neighboring New England, it was far faster than that of the French, and had become a force that could not be ignored in the Gulf (Gulf of St. Lawrence) area.

Five years ago, because the power of the Acadians, descendants of France, was too strong, King Chen Qi Weijun abandoned the development of the mature Huayang River Valley (now the Annapolis Valley) and instead chose a site in the southeast of Qingchuan to build a new city and named it Wanqiu.

The Qi people spent two years building a large area of ​​residential buildings, public facilities, administrative agencies, warehouses, military camps, and corresponding factories and workshops in this wilderness. They also built two artillery fortresses and a circle of wooden fences on the outskirts of the city.

In the third year, as the number of immigrants continued to increase, Qi built Guangchuan City across the bay and Suian City (now Bedford Town under Halifax) deep in the bay.

The enthusiasm of the Qi people not only brought vitality to the area, but also attracted a group of hardworking Irish farmers. Last year, the Chen Palace arranged more than 200 Irish immigrants and more than 400 Qin immigrants to build the Xichong Fort (now Lunenburg City) settlement in another beautiful seaport west of Wanqiu.

The establishment of a series of Qi immigrant towns such as Wanqiu, Guangchuan, Suian and Xichong was tantamount to making a solemn declaration to the French: Qingchuan (i.e. Arcadia) had belonged to Qi forever.

However, the French did not despair about this. Instead, they sought to revive. On the basis of developing close trade relations with the local Qi people, they also secretly sent spies to the area from time to time, trying their best to instigate the French residents in Qingchuan area to continue to be loyal to the French king.

However, most priests in the local diocese are unwilling to become victims of political struggles. They will advise believers to obey the local government where they survive, be submissive to the Qi people, and maintain peace.

Of course, there are also some priests who do not have so many concerns, and can even be said to love their homeland. They are devout in their faith and enthusiastic about politics. Compared with the corrupt officials who are exploiting New France, they are extremely loyal to France.

In order to regain sovereignty over French territories, they are always ready to fight and sacrifice their own lives and the lives of others.

Influenced by religion and patriotism, some radical priests would organize local Acadians like the Indians, and even join forces with the Mi'kmaq (an Indian tribe in the eastern coastal provinces of Canada) to carry out ambushes and night raids on pagans.

One night in early spring of 1733, the Mi’kmaq and the disguised Acadians raided the newly built settlement of Suian, killing more than Qi immigrants and taking all the women and children captive deep in the jungle. The defenders of Wanqiu saw the fire and rode in. However, the raiders had already fled under the cover of night.

The Chen Palace was furious, but due to its lack of strength at the time, it could only endure it temporarily. However, it sent envoys to Quebec several times, strongly urging the French colonial authorities to restrain their behavior and stop using various shady means to support the Acadians' destructive behavior and interfere in Chenzhou's internal affairs.

At the same time, Chen Wangfu ordered the confiscation of firearms and excess swords owned by the Acadians, and forced all Acadians to swear allegiance to Qi and Chen Wangfu in front of their God.

In the Americas, most of the early colonists were half-military and half-civilian, or militia, and there was almost no regular army. In those days, New France fought so fiercely with the Iroquois, except for a Salinas Corps that briefly appeared in North America, almost all the wars were fought by the colonists themselves.

Therefore, for the people of Qi, how to deal with this large number of "armed" people was a difficult problem.

At the beginning, when the Chen Palace was discussing economic cooperation with the New France colonial authorities, it proposed a suggestion that the French should bring the French residents stranded on Qingchuan and Changxing Island back to Quebec or transfer them to Louisbourg.

However, the New France colonial authorities were obviously unable to afford to suddenly accept four or five thousand Acadians, so they declined the Qi people's request. However, they did not completely close the door for the Acadians to return, and would allow them to move back to Quebec or Louisbourg freely as long as they could bear the cost of the migration.

However, the Acadians, who were ruled by the English and Qi people successively, enjoyed more than ten years of peace, comfortable life, thriving population, diversified economy, prosperous businesses, and religious freedom - yes, whether under the rule of England or Qi, the rulers above them did not suppress or forcefully change their religious beliefs. Moreover, most of them were unwilling to give up the vast tracts of land that their ancestors had cultivated for generations and start all over again in a new place.

With the encouragement of the parish priest, some Acadians also went to Louisbourg to investigate, but the soil in Cape Breton was very thin and barren, which was not suitable for agricultural production by the Acadians. After all, the Acadians were farmers, not fishermen.

For more than five years, except for a few hundred Acadians who migrated to Quebec or Louisbourg, most people continued to stay in their homes, farming, fishing, and became citizens of Qi.

When the people of Qi demanded that the Arcadian people disarm, they did not have too many complaints. Just disarm them. We are just ordinary people. Why do we need guns if we are not going to fight?

Moreover, the Qi people had a fully armed Irish mercenary army at their disposal, so it would be unwise to resist forcefully.

However, someone gave the Qi people a suggestion that all Arcadian people should swear allegiance to the Emperor of Qi and King Chen in front of God. This was where the problem came from.

In fact, the Acadians had been asked to swear an oath twice, once in 1690 when Phips (the first governor of Massachusetts) occupied Port Royal, and again in 1710 when England occupied Port Royal again. The oath of allegiance was included in the terms of surrender.

Therefore, swearing allegiance was already a piece of cake for the Acadians.

But this time, the people of Qi planned to go a step further. They asked the Arcadians to swear before God: when the war started again, the Arcadians would take up arms and stand on the side of Qi to fight the enemy.

This……

Take up arms and strike against Qi's enemies?
Who are Qi’s enemies in the New World?
Obviously, it's either English or French!
It is humiliating enough to be a submissive citizen in a country occupied by infidels, but if you pick up a gun, might you kill your own compatriots?
How can you bear this!

Worse still, it meant making enemies of the French's old allies, the Mi'kmaq, who were interestingly more "patriotic" than the Acadians. The Acadians were somewhat coy about which side they were on, while the Mi'kmaq stood firmly on the side of the French (incredibly, nearly half of them were Catholics), and considered this attitude a betrayal.

If the Acadians dared to swear allegiance, they would immediately be regarded as mortal enemies by the Mi'kmaq and eliminated by the Mi'kmaq "traitor-killing team". This was a real threat. It must be said that someone gave the Qi people a good idea.

For the Arcadians, swearing an oath before God is a very sacred thing. Once they make the promise, they can only follow the Qi people to the end.

In the future, when we French come to recapture Arcadia, are we going to take up arms and follow the people of Qi to fight back against our homeland’s army?

If the Arcadians refused to swear allegiance, they would be considered non-citizens by the rulers of Qi, and would be subject to heavy taxes, forced labor, and deprived of any political rights.

Of course, the Arcadians could also choose to leave their homes and not be bullied by the Qi people.

However, it is so difficult to abandon the accumulation of several generations and choose to go far away!

Many Arcadian people weighed the pros and cons and thought over and over again. Most of them were forced to swear allegiance to the Emperor of Qi and King Chen in the name of God, thus retaining their legitimate rights and interests.

But it was obvious that the Qi people still did not trust them very much. During the winter off-season, they would organize local militia drills and exclude them without exception. In the management of local affairs, they also used the excuse that the Acadians could not speak Chinese and rarely recruited them into government management agencies, which was a clear political discrimination.

A few days ago, news came from the European continent that Qi ships had an exchange of fire with the French navy in the waters of Sicily, triggering tensions between the two countries.

Chen Wangfu immediately issued an order, requiring local governments to closely monitor the movements of the Acadians and be vigilant against possible retaliation by the French.

Fearing that this unexpected military conflict would eventually turn into a war, King Chen Qi Weijun, while increasing necessary vigilance, also ordered the trading companies under the Chen State to actively purchase gunpowder, cloth, livestock, medicinal materials, sugar, wine and other commodities from the New England region in order to stockpile strategic materials needed for the war.

You know, apart from an armed gunboat converted from a motor sailer (mainly used for fishery law enforcement), the State of Chen did not even have a decent warship and was unable to guarantee the safety of its own waters.

The Qi State's Atlantic Fleet did not deploy any military forces near the Chen State. It only had a small squadron in the Caribbean Sea, stationed in the port of Ryan on the island of Saint Domingo (now the port of Barahona in the Dominican Republic).

It can be predicted that once the Qi-French War breaks out, the State of Chen will inevitably be invaded by the neighboring New France. Although the opponent's naval strength is not very good, it can easily mobilize more than 20 armed warships to completely blockade and besiege Qingchuan and Changxing Island.

By then, it would take an unknown amount of time for the Qi navy to come to the rescue.

Therefore, the Military Affairs Department of Prince Chen's Palace made a war plan based on this, which was that after the outbreak of war, the State of Chen had to rely on its own strength and hold out for at least eight to twelve months before it could obtain corresponding rescue.

"Your Majesty, since there is a risk of war, should we suspend this year's immigration affairs?" Wang Yuanzhang, the head of the Political Affairs Department of Prince Chen's Palace, rode beside Prince Chen Qi Weijun and asked softly, "In order to stockpile military supplies and build more city defenses and artillery forts, there is not much money left in the treasury. If we still follow the immigration plan set at the beginning of the year, I'm afraid there won't be enough money to pay for the immigration expenses."

"Immigration cannot stop!" Chen Wang Qi Weijun said decisively: "In the entire east coast of North America, our Chen State is the weakest, with the fewest people and the weakest military force. If we don't hurry up to immigrate and increase the population size in the shortest time, how can we compete with Britain and France? As for the problem of insufficient funds in the treasury, it is not a big problem. We can temporarily owe some immigration fees, or mortgage the land, forest farms or fishing rights of Changxing Fishery in the country to those merchants. In addition, we can also try to borrow some money from several giants such as the Caribbean Trading Company, the American Trading Company, and the Mediterranean Trading Company, also using land, forest farms and mines as collateral. I don't believe that with such a large territory of our Chen State, we can't get some funds?"

"Your Majesty, the money you owe must be repaid eventually..." Wang Yuanzhang couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this.

It seems that this king, in order to grow and become stronger quickly, has completely ignored how he will live in the future!

"Wang Qing, you are also an old man who used to work in the Ministry of Revenue. You should know the story of borrowing chickens to lay eggs." Qi Weijun said: "Since the first fiscal deficit in the 1654th year of Qianwu (), the fiscal surplus years of our Great Qi have been very few. Since we established our country in Chenzhou, the empire's fiscal deficit has exceeded million yuan. Can you see that the Minister of Revenue and the Prime Minister of the Cabinet have been worried about this? As long as our Chen State is developing and making money, and can afford the annual interest, those creditors will not be afraid of not being able to recover their investment."

"I am worried..."

"Don't worry." Qi Weijun said with a smile: "The more money you owe, the worse it may not be. What do you think? If our Chen State gets into trouble at some point in the future and is attacked by the French or the English, will those creditors do their best to save us in order to recover their investment?"

“……”Wang Yuanzhang.

Oh my god, this royal family is really ruthless. They used debts to kidnap local business tycoons, forcing them to find ways to rescue the State of Chen when it was in huge trouble.

"Hoo ho ho..."

There was the sound of horse hooves, and a palace guard came galloping.

"Your Majesty, urgent news from Anlu (now Amherst, Nova Scotia)."

"speak!"

"The French conscripted hundreds of civilians and began to build a fortress on the north bank of the Little Ning River (now the Missigash River)."

"Huh?" Qi Weijun was suddenly shocked.

Are the French about to take action?

(End of this chapter)