Chapter 172: Driving fish into the abyss (Part 1)
In March, the orioles grow.
The spring breeze blows and tourists get drunk. Before we knew it, West Lake in Hangzhou ushered in another bright spring. The willow trees on Su Di took out new branches and danced gently, as if braiding their own hair; the peach blossoms in Gushan stuck out their little heads and looked at the figure of Miss Chun on the branches.
However, thousands of gray-headed and ragged war refugees appeared one after another from the northern horizon, suddenly breaking into this wonderful landscape scroll, adding to the now bright spring scenery of the West Lake. A layer of thick haze arose from the turbulent times.
——A full year has passed since this world-famous "Paradise on Earth" fell into the hands of the "Australian thieves".
Compared with a year ago, Hangzhou has become much deserted now. Because Jin Gentlemen, who were the main consumers, either fled with their families or were almost wiped out by the thieves, most of the most luxurious brothels and taverns have gone out of business. The famous brothel prostitutes who were once bought by high-rollers with huge sums of money were forced to lower their values one after another, or to redeem themselves and become good friends. There are also many famous actors in the theater who have lost their livelihood because no one cares about them. And those people who are engaged in the service industry have also fallen into unemployment and hardship one after another due to the greatly reduced customer base.
——Just as every time the economic crisis comes in later generations, the first unlucky city is the tourism industry. At present, Hangzhou is also experiencing a depression in all industries. Although strictly speaking, Hangzhou does not have the potential to develop light industry and manufacturing. In fact, it has been a famous producer of silk and tea since ancient times. But the problem is that for the Global Chinese Travelers Alliance, which over-expanded last year and whose digestion capacity has been stretched far beyond its limit, Hangzhou is already the northernmost edge of the South China Occupied Zone. Not to mention organizing and resuming production, even maintaining the occupation It’s already very reluctant.
As a result, the Allied forces could only control a few major cities such as Hangzhou and Fuyang for a long time, but were never able to completely control the vast rural areas.
Therefore, Hangzhou's economic situation has been very bad this year. As a large number of Jin gentry were killed or fled, the original industrial chain of mulberry planting and sericulture was broken, and the local silk weaving industry in Hangzhou was on the verge of shutting down. Although tea production has not been greatly affected, it has not been able to create many jobs. As a result, the remaining citizens of Hangzhou soon began to lose their jobs in large numbers. If the Allied forces had not always had abundant food supplies and could set up shops to provide porridge every day, so that the unemployed citizens could make do without starving to death, then there would have been a catastrophe. broke out in the city.
——In the modern world, even if the people barely have enough to eat, in this situation, trouble would have already occurred. However, the standard of living standards required by ancient people were obviously much lower than those of modern people. As long as they did not starve to death, they would be thankful.
Fortunately, after a period of digestion and resettlement, the member republics of the Chinese League have regained their ability to absorb immigrants since last autumn. After all, the Chinese League has half of the earth's land for cultivation, and through the biological black technology of the 22nd century, it can obtain endless food at any time, so there is no upper limit on the population it can accommodate. And these down-and-out refugees who were willing to do anything for food in the 17th century are different from those refugee uncles who poured into Europe in the 21st century. They dreamed of not working, only eating welfare, and relying on state subsidies to support a large family ( A few intellectuals such as scholars and scholars may be so greedy, but the sticks and whips of the relevant departments will soon teach them how to behave).
The previous suspension of the introduction of immigrants was simply because the administrative capacity of the bureaucracy reached its limit and it was unable to arrange housing and jobs for so many people at once, similar to the backlog of passengers at the train station during the Spring Festival rush. But as long as this peak has passed, and there will be several more civil servant recruitment expansions to enhance management capabilities, then the immigration and land reclamation work can begin in full swing again.
Therefore, after a few months of half-starving and eating relief porridge, the poor people in Hangzhou City entered the Allied immigration quarantine camp under the temptation of food and silver coins. , respectively received tickets to travel to various parts of the world.
Among them, the most honest guys arranged to go to North America and work in state-owned farms, lumber mills or factories under the arrangements of the Chinese-American Republic government; the more honest but somewhat bloody guys arranged to go to South America to build frontier forts and beat up the Indian natives, or Go to Taiwan to reclaim wasteland, and occasionally deal with headhunting savages. As for the most unruly assassins and soldiers, they were thrown to Africa to dig for gold and diamonds, while risking their lives with Uncle Black - anyway, as long as you get there, you have no choice but to risk your life. Finally, as a pilot project, a small group of carefully selected "outstanding immigrants" who were the most lawful and disciplined were sent to southwestern Australia where construction was initially completed, so that this future "capital of the world" would be somewhat popular.
As a result, with the Allied Forces' vigorous efforts to organize immigration, the population of Hangzhou quickly dropped to about 300,000. In the past, the prosperous neighborhoods where every inch of land was at a premium are now filled with large tracts of empty, uninhabited houses, almost like ghost towns where real estate development failed in later generations.
After extracting so many people at once, by the end of last year, the work of the immigration department in Hangzhou had come to a standstill, because the surplus population in Hangzhou had been basically exhausted, and the contradiction between man and land had been greatly exacerbated. Mitigation, there is not much potential left to explore. The vast majority of Chinese people have the idea of relocating to their new homeland. As long as they can barely survive, they are not willing to move to other places.
Therefore, unless the relevant departments are willing to use violence and coercion like the bandits, they will not be able to recruit immigrants even if they give out silver coins and food.
Regrettably, although in the eyes of modern society, the Chinese League today is already in the midst of a humanitarian disaster. But compared to the vast majority of warlords these days, the upper echelons of the Chinese League are still relatively disciplined, and they still can't bear to do such dirty work.
But just when the Chinese League Immigration Department was preparing to collect stalls from Hangzhou, the Eight Banners Qing Army crossed the Yangtze River and encircled the land, instantly creating millions of war refugees in the south of the Yangtze River, and at least half of them were actually They rushed across or around Taihu Lake toward Zhejiang in a noisy manner. Especially those Hangzhou people who fled north to "escape from the bandits" are now turning around and fleeing with regret - if they are not dead yet. Many of them knelt down as soon as they reached the West Lake and cried endlessly at the rippling blue water of the West Lake. They must have suffered a lot while fleeing.
However, what these unlucky people who move back and forth don’t know is that quite a few of them will have to suffer more in the future...
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
At this moment, classmate Wang Qiu, who holds the title of the most senior special commissioner, is sitting in a pavilion facing the West Lake in Phoenix Villa. While using a telescope to overlook the scenery of the West Lake four centuries ago, he is talking to several people with faces full of smiles. Tired civil servants chatted casually.
"...In the past few months, there have been so many refugees coming from Jiangsu Province! The total number should be more than one million!"
Wang Qiu asked casually while drinking the absolutely authentic Hangzhou Longjing tea, "...Is Jiangnan going to let the Eight Banners Tatars kill everyone!"
"...Actually, the total number of immigrants we have recruited before and after this round has exceeded 2 million! As for Jiangnan being killed, we can't talk about it. First of all, the territory that the Qing army is currently causing trouble in Jiangnan is actually Taiping Mansion, The total area of the five prefectures, Yingtian Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture, is The area is less than half of the entire Jiangnan. Secondly, the population of Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty has exceeded 10 million, and the population of Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture has reached more than 2 million. There are only tens of thousands of Qing soldiers, and they can't kill them all no matter how much they loot. But it will definitely cause devastating damage to the local society.”
A civil servant from a republic on the east coast of South America yawned, and at the same time struck a match and lit a Havana cigar, "...Are you worried that the Qing Empire, which is like a joke, actually turned Jiangnan into a Manchu?" This is simply impossible! Having lost the base area of Liaodong, it can only wander around in the core hinterland of the Han people. It is tantamount to becoming a rootless person. How can it be possible to lay the foundation for the country in the south of the Yangtze River? At most, it will be like the Hou Jing Rebellion in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Just disappear into ashes.”
Having said this, he paused, opened his mouth and blew out a smoke ring, "...From ancient times to the present, there have only been situations where the Hu people have occupied the north and confronted the Han government in the south. There has never been a situation where the Hu people have occupied the south and fought with the north. What a strange thing about the long-term confrontation between the Han regime! What's more, now even the Qing Dynasty has opened up! The king of the country, Huang Taiji, is dead, and the candidate for the new emperor has not yet been determined. There may be a fratricidal war on the horizon. Whether the newly born Qing Empire can barely survive, or whether it will break up and collapse, is still unclear. There has to be a big question mark!”
"...You mean, we can just watch the Qing Dynasty, which is as tenacious as cockroaches, fail? Well...I'm not as optimistic as you! After all, the late Ming Dynasty itself was an era of extreme weirdness and subversion of common sense. , and the arrival of us time-travelers seems to make this era more and more weird... For example, the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties could actually sit together in court, and three Ming Dynasty emperors appeared at the same time..."< br>
Wang Qiu sighed and shook his head, "...Besides, although there are relatively few cases of Hu people establishing political power in southern China, it is not impossible. I happen to know an example, that is, in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a group of Di people, well, that is During the Battle of Feishui, the same clan of the former Qin Emperor Fu Jian once separated Bashu , established the Han Kingdom... If the result of our capture of Liaodong and the removal of the Manchus' home base was to move the Qing Empire to the south of the Yangtze River and establish it, it would be really weird. Should I say that the vitality of the Eight Banners is too strong? Does it mean that the fighting power of the North Koreans is too overwhelming?”
"...Well, considering the weirdness of the scholar-officials in the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, it is not completely impossible for the Qing court to successfully establish a country in Nanjing... Haha, but this is too ridiculous! It is simply worse than the Roman Empire moving to Greece. The continuation of Guo Zuo’s mischief on human territory!”
The civil servant from the East Coast Republic thought for a moment and couldn't help but laugh, "...But it doesn't seem to be bad for us! Only when there is comparison can there be progress, and where there is killing can there be refugees! There is no Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. How can the mountains of corpses and seas of blood bring out our generosity and kindness? The Eight Banners Tatars and the landlords and gentry are all targets that need to be eradicated. Only the naturalized people raised from the refugees are the basic base that they can rely on. If the Qing army can really burn Jiangnan to a wasteland, then it will be created. Refugees are enough for us to conquer America!”
Regarding the above-mentioned cruel statement that was inhumane and merciless, almost everyone present took a breath.
Indeed, for travelers who are preparing to build a new world, the Jiangnan water town with prosperous literary style and abundant natural resources is actually a hard nut to digest. Although there is a large population here, everything from thoughts to people are tightly controlled by the landlords and gentry. Whether the time travelers want to carry out large-scale immigration or carry out modernization in Jiangnan, they need to eradicate these old-era scholars!
In other words, whether it is to liberate the labor force or rationally utilize land resources, time travelers need to eradicate the entire landowning gentry class and the soil on which it exists. The contradiction between the two is simply irreconcilable. And using the butcher's knife of the Manchu Tatars to kill the southern gentry is indeed a less troublesome way to avoid getting your hands dirty. But the problem is, in this way, too many people will die in Jiangnan... So, after a while, someone raised an objection, "...Do you want Jiangnan to be beaten to pieces? ? If this really happens, then this land will definitely be devastated, the people will be in dire straits, and all the Chinese cultural heritage accumulated over the years will be lost."