Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1408 Shandong Severe Drought ([-])

Captain Liu Fubo came to Jiaozhou Port in a hurry. He was on the grandfather-class armed transport ship "Galicia Flying Fish". The ship was over 40 years old and was almost falling apart. A boat full of salt, tea, cloth, fish, rice, oil and other commodities arrived at Jiaozhou Port. This shows that in order to cope with the increasingly serious disaster, the people on the east coast are also fighting hard.

"... Judging from the current trend, this year's autumn grain sowing work is very worrying. As far as the Second Mansion of Denglai is concerned, I am afraid that only a very small number of places with irrigation canals and close to water sources can be farmed, let alone the locust plague. The shadow of the epidemic has also shrouded everyone's heads. I am very worried, what will I eat next year! Moreover, what if the drought and locust plagues continue next year? There are 60 million people and soldiers in Lai Erfu, and there are more than [-] disaster victims in Shandong. The pressure is huge. To be honest, I already regret accepting so many victims. Now, on this point, I want to criticize myself." As soon as he came to the combat command room inside the Jiaozhou Fortress, Liu Fubo, who had sharp ears, heard Liang Xiangjian's deep voice.

"It's all because of the food." Huang Hanhua, who was sitting at the door of the meeting room "basking in the sun", patted the stone bench beside him with a smile, motioned Liu Fubo to sit down, and said, "There are so many people in the four prefectures of Shanxi and Dongxi. One million, how many can we get relief? Denglei is not a place with fertile soil. The agricultural conditions are actually very average. It is not easy to feed 60 people. This is due to the promotion of the three-crop rotation system and the construction of Water conservancy, equalization of land rights, and the promotion of new crops were achieved. But now the drought has caused a significant reduction in production, and there may be no harvest in the future. There are [-] more victims of disasters. The days behind are simply unimaginable. Captain Jiang Zhiqing of the team has ordered Ningbo to completely ban the cultivation of cotton and mulberry. All cotton fields will be converted into rice fields when they are sown this autumn. Use all means to increase food production. After all, there is no catastrophe there, and it is much better than Shandong. In addition, I heard that there is still a "Zhoushan fishery production doubling plan" there, and I try my best to produce more The supply of salted fish to Shandong is indeed doing our best. We can only do so much now, and the rest is up to God to reward us."

"Then this year, will God reward you?" Liu Fubo sat down beside Huang Hanhua and asked.

"From the looks of it, it's very disgraceful." Huang Hanhua said with a wry smile, "The drought continues to spread, and there hasn't been any rain in July. This has been four or five months without rain, and the number of states and counties with locust outbreaks has increased significantly. , Large areas of locusts have appeared in many places in Denglei, the situation is not optimistic, perhaps it should be said to be very bad."

In fact, the real situation may be even worse than what Secretary Huang said!In the past July, the drought in the whole Shandong continued to spread as usual. The rain disappeared, but the evaporation did not decrease. Many rivers and streams dried up and bottomed out. Some water was running intermittently.Faced with such a difficult situation, even though the Denglai Pioneering Team organized a large number of manpower to carry water and irrigate, it had little effect and could only guarantee the harvest of a very small part of the farmland.

As for the water storage tanks and irrigation canals that have been built successively in the past 20 years, the current water level has dropped sharply due to the absence of precipitation and the supplementation of upstream rivers and streams. Many storage tanks and small reservoirs are close to drying up. , all I can do is irrigate some of the fields next to the reservoir, and I really can't do much.That is to say, with the continuation and spread of the drought, the situation of Denglai Second Mansion is just as Huang Hanhua said, "God is very unfavorable", and the situation is very critical.Then, before obtaining a larger source of food, it is indeed a very necessary thing to properly reduce the number of relief victims and keep it within a reasonable range.

"I heard that you have collected more than 11 disaster victims? Why are there so many people? How could so many people come from Qingzhou, won't the Qing army stop them?" Liu Fubo frowned when he heard this. The drought in Denglai seems to be long-term. The problem is indeed very serious, especially when they have received more than [-] victims, they are simply overwhelmed.

"Most of them are from the Laizhou prefecture controlled by the Qing Dynasty, and Pingdu prefecture contributed more than half of it." Huang Hanhua explained, "There are not many immigrants from the eastern and western prefectures of Shanxi from land and sea, but recently there have been more and more immigrants. This may be due to the ineffective relief of the famine by the local government of the Qing Dynasty, because many victims who ran over complained that there were not enough porridge sheds in the area to provide porridge, and they had to go to sea to escape the famine."

"In addition, at the beginning of this month (August), eight counties in Denglai Prefecture have reported locusts in their territory. Commander Liang is worried that this year's autumn grains (usually corn, sorghum, soybeans, potatoes or sweet potatoes, depending on the land conditions) Selective sowing) will also be ruined, so although it is very likely to survive this year, what about next year? With the existing grain reserves, it will probably be around April or May next year, and everyone can only stare blankly." Huang Hanhua frowns again said.After finishing speaking, he stopped making a sound, and probably didn't want to talk about this issue too much.

"A plague of locusts..." Liu Fubo took off the cylindrical military cap on his head, and sighed heavily.The drought is okay, but the locust plague is unreasonable. Here God is going to completely wipe out the harvest of hundreds of thousands of people in Denglai Second Mansion. I just don’t know how the West Fourth Mansion is. It should be more or less there. Some locust plagues may be more serious.

In fact, the common people in Shandong should have realized it a long time ago. They have lived on this land for generations, and encountered many droughts. The so-called locust plague will inevitably break out after a long drought. This is almost an unsolvable thing, so They have long since given up their heart and fled the famine, and now the "stupid" people on the east coast still want to produce and save themselves-the Denglai pioneer team had planned it well before, that is, to use the people who boarded the ship to leave The collective farms left by the immigrants from Huai'an prefecture housed a large number of disaster victims from the eastern and western prefectures of Shanxi Province, allowing them to help reclaim wasteland and build roads while waiting to go to the mainland. After all, Shandong had resettled a considerable number of immigrants from Huai'an prefecture. Many facilities are readily available.

But now it seems that people are not as good as God. The sky is going to cut off the food rations of the people in Shandong. Not only has there been no rain for half a year, but the locust plagues have gradually increased in the blink of an eye. It is really a double disaster.Therefore, in the view of Liu Fubo, Huang Hanhua and others at this meeting, Shandong is no longer capable of resettling the victims. The more realistic plan is to transfer them to Jeju Island, Busan, Wonsan, Ezo and other territories in the Northeast. .It's just that this year's grain planting season has been missed, and the autumn grain in the second half of the year is destined to not be harvested. The food pressure faced by the people on the east coast is not normal. How can they feed the disaster victims who are destined to exceed [-]?

Liu Fubo fell into deep thought.In his view as a martial artist, the ready-made and quickest way is to go to other places to grab food!And counting the places around the people on the east coast, with a large population (and the conflict between people and land can not be fought, otherwise most of the food produced will be consumed by themselves), weak force, and convenient transportation, counting and counting are only the Korean Kingdom!

A few months ago, the North Koreans had donated 30 shi of rice to the Denglai pioneer team. It stands to reason that the people on the east coast should let them go for the time being, and should not demand excessively.It's just that Liang Xiangjian, Captain Liang, didn't expect to be able to bring so many disaster victims here at once! The Qing court of the Communist Party of China failed to provide disaster relief, causing famine everywhere. The people on the east bank didn't even bother to take in more than [-] people in a daze.It’s really that the plan can’t keep up with the changes, so what’s the point? In the second half of the year, in addition to the [-] tons of Nanyang rice that was safely transported back to the Maluku Islands, I probably have to go to North Korea to borrow an additional few hundred thousand shi of grain as an emergency reserve. Otherwise, I am afraid that the future will be very sad.

As for the proposal to go to Japan to grab food, it was considered by Liang Xiangjian as the last plan of last resort and will not be implemented for the time being.The reason is actually very simple. Japan now has more than [-] million people. The land is narrow and the people are poor. Most of the food is consumed by themselves, and very little can be sold. Unlike the wasteland of the Korean Kingdom, In recent years, grain production has been increasing day by day due to the impact of foreign trade demand, so robbing Japan is not as effective as robbing North Korea.

In addition, Japan has a unified shogunate, and the feudal clans have always been relatively united in dealing with foreign enemies, and the smuggling trade with Japanese daimyos such as Satsuma, Sendai, Matsumae, Mutsu, and Dewa is also quite profitable. Once they were cut off because of grabbing food, that would really make people laugh out loud.Therefore, although this plan has also been included in the lowest priority backup plan, it has actually been shot down by Liang Xiangjian, Wei Boqiu and others, and there is basically no possibility of implementation.

I searched and searched for it, and finally found it on Bangzi's head. What a miserable life for the Korean kingdom!

……

And while Liang Xiangjian, Huang Hanhua, Liu Fubo and other officials on the east coast were talking about this year's drought, in Jiaozhou Bay, which is only one step away from them, there are still small fishing boats from the Qing Dynasty floating in the waves. Refugees with yellow, emaciated and ragged clothes were sent ashore one by one.

Although the above was holding a meeting to discuss the problem of food shortage, the soldiers below had not received the order to stop accepting the victims, so they were still carrying out the gathering and resettlement of the victims step by step.In fact, even if the superiors really say that they will no longer accept new disaster victims, when these dying hungry people—especially when there are many women and children among them—come to you to beg for a bite of food, how many people can be ruthless? refuse?

Don’t you see, many officers and soldiers of the [-]th Mixed Battalion of the Army who were assisting in the defense of the Jiaozhou Fortress distributed some chocolates, biscuits, and canned food that they had just received to the hungry and crying children, which shows that they stopped accepting the victims The order basically cannot be carried out, at most it is to take the initiative to withdraw the team that he sent out to search for immigrants two months ago.

The "Flying Fish of Galicia", which seemed to fall apart in a gust of wind, received nearly 4 disaster victims from Jinan Prefecture under the suspicious eyes of the port and port authority officials.According to the plan, except for some of the more than 1 Shandong disaster victims gathered in Terengganu, the rest (at least 1.5 or [-] people) will be urgently transported to Jeju Island, North Korea, and the area under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Pioneering Team, especially now The area of ​​farmland reclaimed is said to be getting bigger and bigger. Wei Boqiu patted his chest to ensure that they could accommodate at least [-] to [-] additional victims, and if there was insufficient food, he could ask the Japanese to borrow money through his relationship. People look at it with admiration, so thousands of people have been transported to the two ports of Kushiro and Akkeshi before.

However, the destination of the classic ship "Galicia Flying Fish" is not Ezoji Island, but Dadomari County in the south of Sakhalin Island.In the past two years, many immigrants from Huai'an Prefecture have been removed from the local area, and now a large collective farm has been vacated, and the fishing season for salmon, saury and Far Eastern sardine will soon come one after another, and there is a shortage of manpower to catch, process, and marinate make it.

Liang Xiangjian is old in Heishui, and he is quite familiar with the situation in several counties on Sakhalin Island, so he quickly agreed to resettle nearly 20 disaster victims in Dabo, Nanku, Heishui, Picheng counties and neighboring islands. I don’t care about other things, let’s help catch the fish first, especially the Ituru Island, which has a lot of rivers, and countless salmon migrate over every autumn, and the number is unreasonably large.It's a pity that the people on the east coast don't even have time to catch the salmon that migrate from the various rivers on the Sakhalin Island. There is no spare manpower to catch the salmon on the island, so a lot of fishery resources have been wasted in [-] years.Now that the food shortage has forced it to this point, it is better to temporarily arrange a group of disaster victims to go there. It is more cost-effective to catch one more fish and consume a little less food.

Speaking of which, in fact, we can also compare the performance of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the East Bank in this great famine.The Tartar court lacked marine awareness, navigation skills, and poor understanding of the outside world. Naturally, it could only be confined to the land of the Central Plains, staring at its own one-third of an acre of land, and could not even rescue disasters.On the other hand, the people on the east coast, although the second prefecture of Denglai also suffered a catastrophic disaster, they were able to alleviate the disaster by getting food from North Korea, Ningbo and other places that were not affected much, and at the same time actively fishing (Zhoushan Fishing Ground, Qiandao Islands Fishing Ground) to reduce food Consumption, and finally the Bank of Taiwan, which has made a fortune by doing sea trade business, purchases a large amount of grain from the Nanyang region. This performance is exactly the difference between an emerging capitalist ocean country and a traditional feudal mainland country. It is true. .

On August 1665, 8, the "Galicia Flying Fish" arrived at Dabo Port, which is ushering in the busiest time of the year. Hundreds of disaster victims in Jinan Prefecture, who had been on board for more than a week, were finally able to go ashore to rest. up.

(End of this chapter)