Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

Li Yan, with tears in his eyes, helped the company commander up and said, "I have only a little strength left, but I will obey your orders! I have no second thoughts!"

Volume 376: Chapter Chapter : Plague Prevention and Control

The operation in Henan went so smoothly that it was astonishing.

Ever since Li Yan cooperated with the volunteers and modified the original plan of asking for help from the royal family and saving the common people to asking for help from the officers and soldiers and saving the royal family, and promised to give porridge and distribute food to everyone, the people from the surrounding areas have come in droves, and they are almost breaking down the door. The volunteers are not even enough to maintain order.

Jiang Han had been selling grain and purchasing locusts at a fair price in Henan before, and now, with the publicity effect, the time has finally come to reap the rewards. The huge reputation he had accumulated previously made him extremely trusted by the people of Henan. It can be said that the people have long been looking forward to Mr. Jiang raising his arms and leading everyone to seize the throne.

What's more, there is food to eat. What others say may be deceiving, but what Mr. Jiang said is definitely true.

Against this background, thousands of people gathered around the camp in just a few days, and the volunteers had to send a letter to Yangzhou, requesting additional manpower to cope with the increasing management pressure.

Li Yan's performance in this event was enough to prove his worth. The gathering of thousands of people was due to his contribution. After joining, he threw himself into the intensive work on the same day and specially wrote several rhymes, such as "seek survival in the morning and reunion in the evening, it is difficult for poor people to survive these days, open the door early to welcome Jiang Jun, which made everyone happy.

Originally, I wanted to call him King Jiang, but gave up after being stopped by the company commander. After all, there is nothing wrong in giving the leader a nickname, but if the leader is not satisfied with the nickname, then it would be all over.

It would be better to say that Jiang Han's name was a rare one among the major rebel armies in the late Ming Dynasty because his title was too normal and seemed out of place in the general environment of the rebel army in the late Ming Dynasty. Influenced by a series of literary works such as Water Margin, the rebel army in the late Ming Dynasty had tacitly accepted that if they wanted to make a name for themselves, they had to have a resounding nickname. When this grand vision conflicted with their cultural level, the names of these rebel armies were varied.

First of all, there are the half-brothers of Chongzhen: King Chuang, King Qizhi, King Hun Tian, ​​King Bada, King Luan Shi, King Hun Jin, etc.

There is also the animal world: flying mountain tiger, double-winged tiger, flying mountain dragon, black scorpion, two dragons, five dragons, etc.

Avengers: Shoot the Sky Down, Fly All Over the Sky, No Mud, Eyes Full of Eyes, Mountain Moving, etc.....

SCP containment cases: Scorpion block, Sky Star, Clam Circle, Purple Star, Black Wind Ghost, Purple Gold Beam, Dangerous Road God, Downy Grass, etc...

Compared with these people's nicknames, Jiang Han's title of Mr. is simply too simple.

Under Li Yan's action, a large number of people were called upon to carry out propaganda. Everyone called on their friends and responded, and a large group of people were gathered in a very short time.

Afterwards, Li Yan led these people and, with the help of the volunteers, attacked many local nobles and bullies and distributed all their property to the poor. The hungry people who saw the actual benefits became more active. At the same time, the reputation of this team became higher and higher, and its fame became greater and greater, attracting people from the surrounding areas to join.

The company commander of the volunteer army was surprised at Li Yan's efficient work level, and was also saddened by the suffering of the local people. However, there was still a problem at the moment. Due to the rapidly growing number of starving people, the company commander, who had originally planned to consider this issue after a while, had to put this matter on the table first, that is, how to prevent and control the plague.

The company commander found Li Yan who was busy winning over the hearts of the people. It must be said that Li Yan was feeling very comfortable at work now. It was really great that everything was paved by predecessors and he just had to let go. You know, Li Yan's goal was to win over the people, distribute food, and exempt certain taxes. As long as he raised half of the money from the Ming court, there would definitely be a lot of people coming to serve him. However, the company commander told him that the unified rule on his side was to only collect 10% of the tax, and the hardest-hit areas would be exempted from tax. Li Yan almost smiled to his heart's content.

These nobles in the late Ming Dynasty were so rich that robbing one was enough to feed tens of thousands of people for a month. Since the recovery of Yangzhou, Jiang Han had robbed so many nobles' homes, so Jiang Han is now really rich, as can be seen from the fact that he can afford a galleon.

After the company commander found Li Yan and explained the situation, Li Yan was also shocked. He was very clear about the horror of the plague. This kind of thing was simply deadly. Now the other party actually said that the epidemic would enter Henan with Li Zicheng’s army. This was simply too terrible. It must be strictly controlled, otherwise, Henan will be in great disaster!

During the Chongzhen period, severe droughts occurred in various places for consecutive years, causing a significant reduction in grain production, a serious decline in the physical fitness of the people, and extremely deteriorating sanitary conditions. Even rats multiplied in large numbers due to the plague bacteria caused by the drought.

The starving people in the famine gnawed on tree bark and ate soil. Some began to steal food hidden in rats' holes and ate rats that died in groups on the roadside. The plague outbreak that swept across the country finally began.

In the 14th year of Chongzhen, a plague broke out in Daming Prefecture, killing 50 to 60 percent of the population. It was a very bad year. There was a great famine and plague in Guangping Prefecture, and people were cannibalizing each other.

The capital city was hit by a major epidemic, Tianjin was hit by a major epidemic, Henan Province was hit by a major epidemic, 19 people died in Yangwu County, Kaifeng Prefecture, and countless people were exterminated. In Rongyang, people died without leaving their houses, and no one walked on the road in March...

As Li Zicheng's war in Henan broke out, more and more hungry people fled south, including some who were infected with the plague, and brought them to the south of the Yangtze River.

There were also merchants who traveled around all year round, which further aggravated the epidemic. It began to break out in the south of the Yangtze River. There were people who were infected in the morning and died in the evening. There were no fewer than hundreds of people every day. House after house was lined up with the disease, and no one was spared.

Fortunately, Jiang Han was well prepared and sent over the epidemic prevention methods early on, which prevented them from being in a hurry while working on the front line. The terms were very detailed: 1. Establish an isolation area to control the spread of the plague.

Some areas were blocked, and refugees coming from Luoyang were strictly blocked. The city and roads were closed, and troops were stationed at all passes and intersections to defend.

The Ming Dynasty was not as good as later generations. The population mobility was limited, and the death toll in one place would not spread widely. The plague was transmitted from the north. As long as the implementation was effective and proper protection was taken, the plague would most likely not spread.

2. Carry out comprehensive rat eradication and strengthen sanitation management in all areas. Garbage should not be left randomly. These newly arrived hungry people should be strictly controlled. They should first clean up their personal hygiene and then distribute food to prevent the spread of parasites and the like.

3. Disinfection to prevent the spread of the plague. Vinegar or lime will be used in various places. Anyone entering the city must have their vehicle and horse gear fumigated with fire for disinfection and prevention.

4. Actively diagnose and treat patients using herbal medicine, acupuncture and other methods.

The general incubation period of plague is about two to eight days. The onset is acute, with obvious chills, fever, and other symptoms of septicemia. As long as appropriate measures are taken, the epidemic can be effectively controlled.

But if it is septicemic plague, the incubation period is shorter and the disease can usually break out within a few hours!

However, Henan is now short of supplies. How easy is it to treat the disease? Herbs and other supplies need to be transported from Jiangnan, and they have to pass through Huai'an on the way. This is undoubtedly another huge expense. In addition, there is another point: how to prevent these hungry people from eating humans.

There have been famines in Henan for years, and countless people are starving. Everyone's eyes are green with hunger. People at this time are no longer human. They will eat anything that can be stuffed into their mouths to fill their stomachs, whether it is ashes, grass roots, tree bark, sawdust, or Guanyin soil. In contrast, human flesh can be a good meal as long as it breaks the moral bottom line. People are starving to death, so what moral bottom line is there?

In Henan during the 12th year of Chongzhen, cannibalism had become a common phenomenon. Women and children did not dare to go out alone, and family members did not dare to hold public funerals for fear that the person would be taken away and cooked and eaten. In such an environment, if a plague patient died on the roadside, there was a high probability that hungry people would surround him and take him home to improve his diet. If you wanted to dissuade him, you could only do it step by step. After all, no normal person would want to eat other people. They would only do so when they were starving and had no other choice.

So the volunteers and Li Yan distributed food while explaining the epidemic prevention regulations and publicizing the harm of the plague, telling people not to harm their entire family for the sake of satisfying their appetite. If they were really hungry and lacked food, they could come to them, and they hoped that everyone would spread the word.

The volunteers also learned Jiang Han's relief style of using work for relief. They specifically called on the people to publicize these things and distributed food as wages. They also recruited the people to help with cooking porridge, transportation, and construction, and paid them wages. The entire camp was doing well.

However, as their lives began to improve, the surrounding government officials began to feel unhappy. They said, "You are doing this right under my nose. Do you think I don't exist? If I can't control the Tartars, can I control you?"

Send troops! Kill it for me!

The superior's order made the officers below feel very embarrassed. You may feel good talking big, but they are the ones risking their lives. They tactfully asked their superiors, "Those are Jiang Han's men, so they may not be easy to move."

Perhaps because he was touched by the pain point that men cannot say no, or perhaps in order to show his authority, the county magistrate acted quite stubbornly: "What's wrong with Jiang Han's people? Kill them! I don't believe that he has the ability to take down my city with just a few thousand peasants."

The officers were even more upset by their superiors' stubbornness. They asked, "You only pay us so little money every month, but you want us to do such a difficult job. Isn't that a bit too much?" A few of them looked at each other, gritted their teeth, stomped their feet, and turned around to chop off the county magistrate's head, and then went to join the volunteers.

Volume 377: Chapter Chapter : Unkind Visitors

"You said that Mr. Zheng seized my goods?"

Jiang Han was still chatting with researchers in the research institute when he heard the news from the herald.

"Is Zheng Zhilong crazy? My ship has rubber and alpacas, but he's robbing them all?" Jiang Han's first reaction was surprise. It's impossible. Is this guy crazy because of poverty? It's not like I didn't pay you protection money. Why would you do that?

"There's still some food left," the official nearby reminded weakly.

"Is this a food issue? I am really a Buddha. It has come to a critical moment, why are there always people getting sick? Let's go and take a look!"

It's no wonder that Jiang Han is anxious, because at present, the research on the steam engine has been basically completed, and even the prototype has been built. The next step is for Jiang Han to prepare for mass production, but you are stuck with the raw materials. How can this be possible?

Since these engineers came to Jiang Han and said, "Hey, we have made a breakthrough!" Jiang Han was pulled over to take a look and put forward some of his own suggestions for improvement, such as separate condenser, insulation layer outside the cylinder, oil-lubricated piston, planetary gear, parallel motion connecting rod mechanism, centrifugal governor, throttle valve, pressure gauge... and so on.

By using a valve to separate the cylinder and the condensing cylinder, and using a vacuum pump to automate the valve, the steam engine's efficiency has been increased by more than three times. Its safety has also been greatly enhanced, and it is no longer so prone to explosion. As long as it is implemented according to the operating specifications, there will definitely be no problem. This is also the reason why Jiang Han dared to start mass production.

Since the steam engine has the advantages of constant torque, variable speed, reversibility, reliable operation, and easy manufacturing and maintenance, it will be very useful in the future development of electricity, just like eating one bite at a time.

With the steam engine, you can do a lot more things. The steam engine is the heart of the First Industrial Revolution. Only on its basis can there be subsequent progress in prevention, smelting, and machinery manufacturing. Otherwise, how long would it take for people to hammer and pound manually?

You should know that in today's China region, the number of real players is gradually decreasing. If you say that the labor force is sufficient, it is seriously insufficient. Especially when the industry needs some top-notch talents, the knowledge level of these ordinary people is basically only top-notch. Why don't they use machines to improve productivity and increase the population for education? What are they waiting for? Waiting for love?

"You continue to debug and make sure it is safe. Then write an operation manual. I've approved the reward for you. I'll have someone send the seal to you later. You can take the documents to the Ministry of Industry. I'll be leaving now."

The situation in Henan is quite complicated. Li Zicheng seems to have not arrived yet, and there is no news about him in the local area. However, Jiang Han dare not take it lightly. A terrible infectious disease like plague cannot be taken too seriously. In contrast, overthrowing the local government is too simple. In today's world where the technological gap is not that big, people are the decisive factor.

Jiang Han has made a lot of initial investments in Henan Province, and now the time to reap the rewards has come. This reputation can make the volunteer army invincible in Henan, without even requiring too much manpower investment. When the frontal attack becomes difficult, all he needs to do is pull the Iron Blood Squad out. Food can be taken from the warehouses of the nobles without having to pay for it himself. All he has to pay for is some management and medical personnel plus medical supplies. If it weren't for the plague, no medical supplies would be needed.

Oh, by the way, they also had to hurry up and find Li Zicheng's trace, or they had to take the lead in occupying Kaifeng. You know, there was a key point in the large-scale spread of the plague in later generations, which was Li Zicheng's siege of Kaifeng City.

Kaifeng City occupies the throat of Kyushu and is a metropolis of both land and water. It was the fiefdom of the King of Zhou, which lasted for more than two hundred years.

The new Henan Governor Gao Mingheng and General Chen Yongfu held Kaifeng firmly, but the military pay was in short supply. After some operations, King Zhou took out 500,000 gold from the treasury to buy rice and wheat for the soldiers defending the city, and offered a reward of 50 gold to recruit brave men. Killing an enemy soldier would be rewarded with 50 gold. King Zhou of Kaifeng was one of the very few princes of the royal family who was willing to take out money to support officers and soldiers and defend the territory. The others were so short-sighted that it was simply outrageous.

For example, Prince Fu, who was eating delicious food behind closed doors when there were starving people all over the place, was a normal practice of the royal family in the late Ming Dynasty. When the officials of the King of Shu in Sichuan solicited donations from him, he said that he had no savings and only had one Chengyuan Palace, which he would sell to pay the military expenses if it could be changed. This was simply disgusting. There was an even more cruel one, when the local officials of the King of Chu in Wuchang begged him to donate some silver for military pay, he pointed to the golden chair given to his ancestor by Zhu Yuanzhang and said that it could be used to assist the army, but he had no money.

After Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuchang, the treasures seized from the Chu Palace required hundreds of carts to haul them, a figure that anyone would find outrageous.

After several days of siege, Li Zicheng personally led his generals to show off the military power under the Chengming Gate in Kaifeng. Henan General Chen Yongfu shot an arrow from the city wall, blinding Li Zicheng's left eye and almost killing him.

Li Zicheng's pretense failed and he had to withdraw his troops in resentment. He was jealous and determined to capture Kaifeng to avenge the arrow shot!

Kaifeng was under siege, and the surrounding reinforcements were reluctant to come to the rescue. Governor Gao Mingheng discussed with his subordinates and planned to divert the river water at the entrance of Zhujiazhai to flood Li Zicheng's army and lift the siege of Kaifeng.

After receiving the secret report, Li Zicheng laughed out loud, ordered the army to move to high ground, and then retaliated in the same way, driving tens of thousands of refugees to break the Yellow River and flood Kaifeng City.

The surging water of the Yellow River flowed in from the north gate and out from the southeast gate. The sound of the water was as loud as thunder. Millions of households in the city were flooded, and more than 10,000 soldiers of the rebel army were drowned. They then withdrew their camp and fled.

The health problems caused by such floods were naturally left unaddressed in the social environment of the late Ming Dynasty. After a large number of people were drowned, the hungry people ate a lot of food washed up from the water. How could the plague not spread?

But these are far from happening now, so there is no need to rush. The things at hand are more critical. What would happen if my things were confiscated?

When he arrived at the reception room, Jiang Han saw several red-haired Dutchmen with Sima faces sitting on the stools in the reception room. When they saw Jiang Han coming, they stood up and looked at Jiang Han.

Jiang Han continued to walk in: "Mr. Van Leighton, long time no see, who are these distinguished guests over there? Can you introduce them to me?"

Van Leyden's expression warmed up a little. "It's been a long time since I last saw you, Mr. Jiang. You still look so good. Please allow me to introduce you to the sixth Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company in Taiwan, Paul Duradinius."

Paul bowed his head and gestured slightly, without saying anything. Instead, he waited for Jiang Han to come forward and salute, putting on the airs of a governor.

Seeing this, Jiang Han narrowed his eyes. It seemed that the person coming here had bad intentions...

Volume 378: Chapter : Looking Back at That Person

Naturally, this trip was not well-intentioned. The Dutch Governor-General in Taiwan came to Yangzhou on behalf of the Netherlands and the East India Company.

As for why he came, it has something to do with Jiang Han’s partner, Van Leighton.

The Dutch East India Company was a commercial company established by the Netherlands with state functions to carry out colonial plunder in the East and monopolize the Oriental trade. It was the world's first multinational company and the first company to issue stocks.

There were only seventeen people who truly held power in the Dutch East Indies, known as the Board of Seventeen, but the Dutch government also held shares. The company had the right to support war salaries, sign treaties with foreign countries, mint currency, establish colonies, etc. On average, each overseas base had 25,000 employees and 12,000 crew members.

In 1619, the year when the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin fought the Battle of Sarhu, the Dutch East India Company established its Asian headquarters in Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia), set up a trade system for Asian countries, and extended its trade footprint to Japan, Korea, China and other places.

Four years ago, Japan closed its borders, the Portuguese were driven out, and the Dutch East India Company monopolized trade with Japan.

The Dutch East India Company then occupied Galle in Sri Lanka and drove out the Portuguese, thus breaking the Portuguese monopoly on the cinnamon trade.

Later, the Dutch East India Company expelled the Portuguese again and occupied the Strait of Malacca.

The Portuguese had to swallow their anger when their teeth were broken. It was such a grievance.

During the ninth year of Chongzhen, when the famous bubble, the Dutch tulip bubble, peaked, the market value of the Dutch East India Company was $7.9 trillion in today's dollars.

In today's stock market, that is the combined size of the world's top 5.22 companies, which is higher than the total GDP of Japan, the world's third largest economy, of US$ trillion.

For a company of this size, our brother Van Leighton did not report to his superiors when doing a deal with Jiang Han. Instead, he planned to develop quietly and then surprise everyone. Everything was going smoothly until the ship was seized by Zheng Zhilong.

Several cargo ships plus the goods inside, this is not a small loss. Zheng Zhilong was also very ruthless. You funded the rebels, I didn't arrest you, you still want the goods? But he also knew that he had to stop while he was ahead, so he sent the ship back safely.

Such a big event naturally alarmed the top leaders of the East India Company, so Van Leyden was held accountable. They did not want to offend Zheng Zhilong at all. Although the Netherlands was at a disadvantage in the competition with Zheng Zhilong, every time Zheng Zhilong had to dispatch warships that exceeded several times the number of the Dutch fleet to defeat the Dutch fleet, but the local governor did not dare to touch the Zheng family easily.

In their eyes, Zheng Zhilong was like a hateful shark. He would just hang around your boat and bite you hard when you fell into the water. But we couldn't bully Zheng Zhilong, but we still had the ability to bully others, and it was very strong.

In the process of holding Van Leyden accountable, the Dutch discovered a brilliant point: the leader of the Far Eastern resistance army that was trading with Van Leyden seemed to be really rich! Moreover, he was not recognized by the Ming Dynasty officials!

Not being officially recognized means that this is an enclave. This is an enclave, which means there is no penalty for conquering it, and there are rewards! We have conquered this land for you, can you not let us make a concession?

The Dutch were overjoyed. As mentioned before, the East India Company was a commercial company mainly responsible for colonial plunder and monopolizing trade. Its main creed was to rob if we could win and do business without capital; if we couldn't win, we would talk later and do business honestly.

They had long wanted to bypass Zheng Zhilong and establish a new stronghold, and now they are here!

When Paul came here under the leadership of Van Leyden, he began to examine it. In his opinion, this place is absolutely suitable for being a port. The location here is much better than Tainan (southern Taiwan). If it can be occupied, it will become a cash cow for our Dutch East India Company!

This is what the Netherlands did to Taiwan. At first, there were only 260 Dutch troops stationed in Taiwan. They did not dare to act recklessly and were relatively restrained towards the local indigenous people, practicing fair trade and friendly coexistence.

After the completion of Fort Zeelandia, the Dutch sent an additional 475 troops from Batavia to Taiwan, and began to show their hideous face as colonists, carrying out a bloody conquest of the local indigenous people of Taiwan.

In five years, they killed more than 4,000 natives, sold more than 7,000 people as slaves, and burned more than 8,000 houses.

In addition to conquering by force, the Dutch also took advantage of the fact that there was little communication between the local indigenous people of Taiwan and used methods such as division and provocation to stir up internal strife among the indigenous people, attacking one side while attacking the other. At the same time, they sent missionaries to the indigenous villages and communities to preach and forbade the indigenous people to believe in local religions in order to exercise mental control.

By this time, more than 200 indigenous tribes in Taiwan with a population of more than 40,000 had surrendered to the Dutch. Every year they would attend the rallies held by the Dutch in Fort Zeelandia and pay tribute to these red devils.

The closer to Tainan in southern Taiwan, the stricter the control by the Dutch. The Dutch also continued to infiltrate central and northern Taiwan and dominate Taiwan.

When Paul learned during his communication with Van Leighton that the rebel leader had only a little over 1 troops and only a dozen naval ships, he pressed option in his mind.

But fighting is just the beginning. As a "democrat", he still has to have a legitimate reason before fighting. So, Van Leighton, who was sitting in Jiang Han's reception room at this moment, came here to find trouble. That's why he showed such an arrogant attitude in the meeting just now, just to anger the rebel leader and prompt him to speak rudely, preferably a few words of abuse, so that they would have a reason to start a war.

"Nice to meet you, hello"

To his surprise, the other party just glanced at him, responded calmly, and went back to his desk: "Let's get straight to the point. I heard that our goods were robbed?"

"Yes...we..."

Just as Van Leighton was about to speak, Paul stopped him with a look. He slowly said, "That's right. Because your identity is not recognized by the Ming court, our goods have been seized by the Ming court. Such a huge loss is unacceptable to us, so we need an explanation."

Jiang Han was amused by this man's reversal of host and guest: "Me? Explain to you? You lost something I bought with real money at sea, and you don't even know how to compensate me, and you still want me to explain to you?"

Without waiting for the other party to respond, he asked: "Is this your personal opinion, or the opinion of those 17 old guys from your East India Company?"

Paul was stunned when Jiang Han spoke. What did he mean? He knows the business? He even knows that the speaker and the board of directors have 17 members? He turned his head and looked at Van Leighton beside him. His eyes meant, "Why didn't you tell me such a big thing?"

Van Leighton responded with an innocent expression: You didn’t ask either?

Paul had no choice but to answer: "I can fully represent our opinion, please give me an explanation."

"Can you be the full representative?" Jiang Han laughed playfully. "It doesn't seem right, right? As I recall, the only person who has this power is Anthony, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Aren't you the Governor-General of Taiwan? Do you also have this power?"

Paul did not give in at all: "I don't want to be too rude, but I think I have the right and status to take full responsibility for this matter."