Chapter 103: Great Battle in the Capital (Part 2)
At the end of November of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Dagukou, Tianjin
In the era when the Ming Empire was powerful, the Dagukou area was once the headquarters of the Tianjin Navy and was tightly guarded. However, during the Chongzhen period when the world declined and the military system collapsed, only a few beacon towers remained here. However, the private port market for private maritime trade is quite prosperous.
However, as Dengzhou Town raised troops to rebel in the summer, attacked Tianjin's port, and blocked the Bohai Sea route, Tianjin's seaport quickly became depressed.
Next, about three months ago, the Dengzhou rebels and a group of unfamiliar southern troops landed in Dagukou and expelled the few local landlord regiments and yamen servants. Immediately, they did not occupy the private port, but chose another remote coast to set up camp and established a stronghold.
If it were in the peaceful era, this would definitely be a major event that would shock the Beijing court and spread the word all over the world. However, at this time, tens of thousands of Tartars had already broken through and invaded Beizhili, and were wantonly raiding Yongping Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture. The entire The North China Plain has turned into a huge battlefield, and the Ming Empire's rule in North Zhili has rapidly collapsed. In the midst of the flames of war and chaos, no one could care about this small force that suddenly crossed the sea and squeezed into the battlefield.
On the other hand, the "rebels" entrenched on the coast also felt that after establishing the port stronghold, there was no sign of further expansion of the occupied area. They did not even invade the nearest Tianjin Acropolis. Instead, they summoned Many merchant ships set up markets on the beach on the edge of the battlefield and started food business. And the price is quite fair - ten taels of silver per stone of brown rice, five taels of silver per stone of wheat, which is even cheaper than the price of food in Jinan, Shandong at this time. If it's still too expensive, there are corns priced at three taels of silver and one stone, and potatoes priced at one tael and one stone. If you meet wealthy customers, you can also buy high-end foods such as bacon, salted fish, sausages, refined salt and even candies and pastries here.
As we all know, in troubled times, food is the most precious, and even mountains of gold and silver are not as valuable as mountains of rice and mountains. After hearing the news that a large amount of grain was being sold in Dagukou, those wealthy Jin gentry families who had fled south with their families to avoid the war, all detoured here to replenish their "food supplies." Even families who were preparing to form a stronghold to protect themselves had sent their confidants to buy food. In today's war-torn world, it was always a good idea to stock up on more food and rice in the cellar.
There are also some businessmen who are not afraid of death and find that the price of grain here is actually cheaper than that in Jinan. Because the canal is cut off from merchants' efforts to raise prices, the price of rice in Jinan has soared to forty taels of silver per stone, and has even begun to reach Come here to buy goods, and then sell them to the south to earn the price difference.
As for those refugees who really have nothing, there is a way to have enough to eat - Dengzhou Town is currently recruiting refugees. As long as they sign a five-year labor contract, they will have food and housing included: There are countless big pots in the "purification camp" The fire is kept day and night to cook a paste made from grain bricks mixed with seaweed and wild vegetables. As soon as any refugee comes in, he can get a wooden basin and a wooden spoon and go to the pot to get the hot paste to eat. Although many refugees had to shave their heads and take a shower before entering the purification camp, which made many refugees feel hesitant, their hair was not as important as their stomachs, so they basically agreed without hesitation.
In fact, even if there was no food supply, many fleeing people subconsciously flocked to Dagukou - the North Zhili Plain was really raging with war this autumn, and the Jurchen Tartars certainly committed all kinds of crimes by burning, killing and looting, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty Although the army was incompetent against the enemy and collapsed at the first touch, it was still bloody and brutal when it caused harm to the common people. Even places that were not directly affected by the military disaster were plunged into extreme panic. "Rogues" and bandits from all over the country took the opportunity to cause trouble and robbed and robbed everywhere. In the midst of panic and chaos, ordinary people could only subconsciously drag their children with them and flee to towns and villages where there was still some order. However, in those villages and towns protected by walls, the food reserves are also limited. During times of war, even if you have money, you can't buy food, so you can't accommodate too many outsiders - otherwise, everyone will wait to eat up the food reserves. Let's starve together.
Under such circumstances, Dagokou, which was open to supply food, was like a paradise, attracting refugees from all directions.
In order to build a reputation, the "rebels" in Dagukou also selected a group of articulate refugees - all of whom had wives and children who were held hostage in the purification camps, and gave each of them some dry food and With a dagger for self-defense, they were allowed to go around to carry out propaganda and kill people. Anyone who could bring back a refugee would be rewarded with a certain amount of food, clothes and bedding. Under the material incentives, these refugees worked very hard. Within a month, the news that there was food in Dagukou had spread throughout Shuntian Prefecture. In various villages and county towns, people who had exhausted their food reserves and could not find work to do anything every day, who were so hungry that they could no longer survive, resolutely chose to bid farewell to their homes and embark on the road to Dagukou.
Even the Ming and Later Jin armies who were fighting came to Dagukou to purchase military supplies. These warriors with swords and guns in their hands naturally planned to rob them by force at first, but when they arrived at the beach, Saw Huang Shi and Chen With the new banner, I thought of General Huang's invincible sweep across Liaodong and the reputation of defeating the Jurchens in every battle, as well as his "unparalleled martial arts" of riding into Liaoyang and killing Nurhachi alone. I immediately felt my legs weaken for three seconds. point. Later, when several "big iron ships" sailed into Dagokou and fired a round of incendiary bombs at the abandoned beacon tower on the shore as a demonstration from a distance of more than ten miles, there was no longer any military leader. He didn't dare to take advantage of this place, but started the business in a friendly manner.
——When he first took over Beijing, Huang Taiji was complacent for a time. He wanted to send his troops to expel this group of "bold pirates" and seize the food and grass they left in the camp on the shore. But when he learned that the "sea merchant leader" who came to Tianjin to do grain business was actually Huang Shi, he immediately recalled the horrific memory of being beaten to pieces by the Changsheng Camp in Liaodong in the past. He was so frightened that he lost his mind. They didn't dare to take advantage of Dagong Kou anymore, and they didn't even dare to let the Jurchen Eight Banners directly come forward to purchase food. Instead, they ordered people from the Guan Ning Army to take care of it on their behalf. In addition, Huang Taiji also withdrew all the Eight Banners soldiers originally stationed in Tianjin Acropolis and mobilized them to Baoding and other places further inland, just in case... There was no way, during the war during the Tianqi years, the entire Jurchen army Any troops of the Eight Banners will be defeated in every battle once they encounter Huangshi, and Huangshi has already cast a psychological shadow on them.
At the same time, Huang Taiji even sent envoys in an attempt to recruit Huang Shi and Chen Xin to his banner to jointly fight against the Ming Dynasty. According to the information obtained by the Hou Jin Kingdom, these two old rivals also tried to create the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, it seems that the relationship with Hou Jin is no longer an enemy.
Therefore, in order to turn enemies into friends, Huang Taiji was very generous and generous, and gave Huang Shi and Chen Xin the titles of King of Yue and Duke of Qi respectively... Then for reasons well known to everyone, Huang Shi and Chen Xin were all perfunctory. As a result, this negotiation did not achieve any results.
No matter what, this battle can't be fought for the time being. As a result, relying on the huge amount of food input and the security provided by the landing troops, within just two or three months, a bustling market emerged on this deserted beach. There are tea shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and even several secret kilns. It is said that former official ladies are selling their bodies inside. In this world of cannibalism, as long as you can exchange for a few handfuls of rice, your virginity is nothing. None of them are worth anything. As for those women who would rather be chaste than die, they have naturally starved to death or hanged themselves.
Of course, compared with the above-mentioned small businesses that are not worth mentioning, the most popular bulk business in Dagukou today is also the main purpose of Huameng to establish this trade stronghold, including human trade... For the Jurchen Eight Banners and the Guanning Rebellion As far as the military is concerned, the common people everywhere are much cheaper than gold and silver!
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On the navigation bridge of a Crocodile-class Russian landing ship, Wang Qiu wore a woolen hat and a thick military coat. He held up a pair of high-power military binoculars and looked at the horizon on the west. Countless poor people in ragged clothes and disheveled faces were killed.
One hundred people each of these "trading items" were strung up in a row with ropes, and were slowly approaching the Dagukou camp, driven by a group of Guan Ning Army cavalry. Looking more closely, they were all in rags and rags. Many of them simply walked barefoot in the snow, their skin turning blue from the cold... The dense crowd and the numb expressions like zombies made Wang Qiu see. I feel my scalp is numb and my heart is blocked.
——In order to buy enough winter food from the market in Dagukou and try to avoid consuming the limited gold and silver precious metals--Although a lot of gold and silver were seized in Beijing, a considerable part of the gold and silver had to be used to reward soldiers and prepare supplies. After preliminary negotiations with Dagukou, Huang Taiji Khan decided to They "sold piglets" and ordered the troops to be dispatched to drive the hundreds of thousands of refugees who had gathered inside and outside the capital toward Tianjin. According to the price of "coarse grains" such as eight bushels of wheat or potatoes of equivalent value per adult male and female, the elderly and children were Five buckets of wheat, at a separate price for the beautiful woman, were dumped to the "sea merchants" at Dagukou. In this way, Huang Taiji could not only obtain a large amount of military rations, but also reduce the risk of civil unrest in the Gyeonggi area.
Since it was freezing cold at the time, and the Jurchen Eight Banners who escorted them did not provide much food rations, half of these refugees died on the way from Beijing to Tianjin, and many others escaped along the way. It's just that in troubled times, human life is as cheap as grass. This kind of plundering of people is what the Jurchen Eight Banners have been used to doing in recent years, so no one will be compassionate at all. Even if it was Guan Ning's army that escorted them, the refugees would have suffered even more misery - they would have been searched even more carefully, and even some small items hidden close to their bodies would not have been saved. In addition, officials from the old Ming Dynasty who had just surrendered to the Hou Jin Dynasty in various parts of Northern Zhili were also driving refugees from various counties to Dagukou, making the population market in this place more and more prosperous.
When the refugees were finally driven to the outskirts of the camp in Dagukou after going through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, a group of soldiers from the Dengzhou Army came up to them as usual. On the one hand, they were counting the number of people and calculating the total price, and on the other hand, they were preparing for the escort. The enemy soldiers took the opportunity to make a sneak attack - this kind of thing has really happened a few times. As for the result... The scattered skeletons and broken swords and armor outside the camp fully illustrate the fate of these "brave men".
Therefore, the current group of Guan Ning Army cavalry escorting refugees to sell goods is generally quite gentle - only when it comes to dealing with buyers.
Next, these half-dead refugees first drank a bowl of hot gooey around the fire and roasted themselves for a while. They finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then they were forced to deal with them with swords and guns by a group of strange soldiers with short shaved hair. They had their hair cut short, and then they were collectively driven into several wooden sheds to take a shower. This process was definitely not peaceful. Many people kept crying and crying, but in the face of those ferocious soldiers and dazzling swords and guns, everyone still had to choose to submit. In the past few months, bandits, rebels, and officials The army and the Tatars took turns wreaking havoc in Beizhili. The local people suffered a great disaster and were ravaged and massacred over and over again. Those who had a particularly strong spirit of resistance had already been hacked to death by the Jurchen Tatars or the Guan Ning Army on the way. The rest are people who just want to survive and don't dare to think about anything else.
After taking a bath, their rags and clothes were collected and burned, and then they put on blue cloth clothes provided by the purification camp. Next, they were driven up a long trestle, boarded a "big iron ship" moored at the port, and then passed through the "random door" secretly set up in the cabin to arrive at the immigration destination on the other side of the earth, leaving forever. Their homeland has been reduced to hell on earth, and they went to another continent to start their new life.
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Through the surveillance screen in the cabin, watching another batch of more than 3,000 new immigrants being escorted onto the ship, Wang Qiu couldn't help but sigh, "...In order to recruit these 3,000 immigrants, I am afraid that during the whole process Tens of thousands of people are going to die...Isn’t this a little too sinful?”
"...This is totally wrong. How can you think like this? Without us, I'm afraid even the remaining three people wouldn't be able to survive!"
Mo Ming, the Army Major General of the East Coast Republic who was responsible for supervising this immigration operation, immediately retorted after hearing this - because according to the prior internal negotiations of the Chinese League, the population collected in Tianjin will be exported to South America and South Africa, so the East Coast Republic of South America So he sent Major General Mo Ming to take care of things, "...not to mention that the Eight Banners soldiers would massacre every time they broke through the pass and went south. Remember that in history, only in Shandong Two million people were killed. Even if they were able to escape the military disaster, there would be a ten-year drought in the late Ming Dynasty. From Shandong to Shaanxi, no province in the north would be able to escape. In addition, there would be plagues and locust plagues at the same time. Happened...Rather than letting them die meaninglessly here, it is better to go overseas to fight for their lives and open up a living space for the nation!”
"...What you said is indeed reasonable, but what I'm worried about is that in North China and Liaodong, on the one hand, the Han population is declining sharply, and on the other hand, the Jurchens, that is, the Manchus will enter the country in large numbers in the future. , and there are still a lot of Mongolians coming in. If it is done too much, will it lead to a change in the ethnic composition? It would be terrible if the Beijing area becomes the territory of the Hu people. "
Wang Qiu shook his head and said, "...it's good to open up a new world, but it's still a bit unacceptable to give up your homeland for this."
"...This is simply unfounded worry! None of the Mongols back then could do it, and the Eight Banners soldiers couldn't even do it."
Major General Mo Ming sneered at this, "...not to mention that we will launch a fatal blow to the Hou Jin regime no later than next summer, and we will not give Huang Taiji much time at all; not to mention these Mongolians who have entered the Central Plains Both the people and the Jurchens will eventually be completely Sinicized, even if Beijing is the whole country. North China has become a horse ranch for the barbarians, so what? For the entire size of China, it is just a small corner of the country! As long as we can move the population from these places to the East Coast Republic, what will happen? We can recreate a Chinese civilization overseas! ”
"...Rebuilding China overseas? Just you?" Wang Qiu was stunned for a moment, and then laughed out loud, "...The Huamei Republic has at least robbed the foundation of future generations of bald eagles. Maybe it can really copy a Chinese Come to the United States. But your little territory in South America, Uruguay, is still surrounded by Portuguese Brazil and Spanish American colonies... It seems too exaggerated to say that you want to recreate China overseas.”
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——There is no way. Although it seems that the strength of the East Coast Republic and the Chinese-American Republic are about the same now, considering the huge difference between the United States and Uruguay in the future, Wang Qiu still habitually believes that the East Coast Republic may not have enough development potential. It’s hard to compare with the Chinese and American Republic.
But Major General Mo Ming obviously did not think so, "...You underestimate our development potential, Comrade Xiao Wang. Indeed, the territory we actually control now is not large, and Uruguay in later generations does not have a great reputation. But This does not mean that the conditions of this land are not good - it is just that the Latin Americans who rule this land are too unsatisfactory, and it does not mean that we will be satisfied with this little territory of Uruguay in the future.
In fact, our goal from the beginning was to seize the entire Rio de la Plata plain, including what would become Uruguay, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, which is the essence of the entire South America. Enough to build another China! ”
"...Is the La Plata River plain so vast? Can it accommodate a population of hundreds of millions?" Wang Qiu asked with some disbelief.
"...No problem at all!" Major General Mo Ming said confidently, "...For example, in China, the entire Yangtze River Basin covers an area of only 1.8 million square kilometers, and many of them are Only about half of the plains that can be developed are mountainous and hilly areas that are difficult to develop. However, the La Plata River Basin in South America covers an area of four million. Square kilometers! The La Plata Plain alone is suitable for development into cultivated land, covering an area of 1.5 million square kilometers! And this land is basically in the subtropical and temperate zones, and the climate conditions are worse than the black soil in Ukraine and the three northeastern provinces. Better. Throughout South America, there is no better place than here. This is the Central Plains of South America!
As long as we Chinese people occupy this fertile land, we will definitely become the masters of the entire South America in the future..."
"...So powerful? But since this land is so uniquely endowed by nature, why doesn't it have any powerful characters in our history?"
Wang Qiu still blinked in disbelief, "...and, judging from the map, your country is right above Brazil, the largest country in South America and one of the BRICS countries in the future. No matter how you look at it, it is Brazil’s territory is bigger and better!”
"...Brazil? This country just looks big on the map! In fact, it has no basic conditions to become a big country! To give a similar example, in Asia, Outer Mongolia is how many times larger than Japan and South Korea? But there are Who thinks Outer Mongolia can be compared with Japan and South Korea?" Major General Mo Ming shook his head with disdain, "...You have never been to South America, so you may not know that Brazil, a so-called big country, needs a lot of water. In fact, from a strategic and economic perspective, Brazil is equivalent to the Russia of South America - the country looks huge, but there are not many places where people can actually live, and the city and population can only be reduced to a small area. In the corner. The Amazon rainforest in Brazil is like Siberia in South America. It seems to be a vast land and rich in resources, but in fact it is not a place suitable for human survival at all..."