Chapter 122 Overseas Investigation (9)
Thanh Hoa is a quite unfamiliar city to the expedition team. The information the expedition team has is basically the domestic situation in Vietnam before the crossing. They only know that this is the capital of Thanh Hoa Province in Vietnam in later generations and one of the big cities in its eastern coastal area. However, this information is not useful for judging the current situation. It is almost useless as a reference.
At the critical moment, the expedition team still thought of asking for help at the base camp. At least there were some semi-professionals like Ning Qi who were familiar with history there, who might be able to provide some more useful information. Sure enough, the expert team at the base camp did not disappoint the expedition team this time. After receiving the request for help, the expedition team quickly received guidance from the expert team.
Before this operation, Ning Qi once mentioned Vietnam's domestic history during this period in the training class of the expedition team. One of the important historical events was Vietnam's independence from the rule of the Ming Dynasty in 1427. The Vietnamese Le Li who led this independence movement was born in Thanh Hoa. The armed rebellion he launched against the rule of the Ming Dynasty in 1418 was in Shouchun County, Thanh Hoa, Vietnam. Vietnamese history books call it "Blue Mountains Uprising". Le Loi single-handedly established the Le dynasty, known as Dai Viet. Although this dynasty was divided for a long time during its rule, it still managed to survive until the Nguyen Dynasty came to power at the end of the 18th century, and the Le dynasty withdrew from the stage of history. By the way, it is worth mentioning that the current country name "Vietnam" is the country name used by the Nguyen Dynasty in the early 19th century.
100 years before the travelers came to this time and space, that is, in 1526, the then emperor of the Le Dynasty, Le Zhaozong, was killed by the powerful minister Mo Theng Dung. The next year, Mo Deng Dung usurped the throne and established the Mo Dynasty. At that time, the Nguyen and Zheng families, ministers of the Li Dynasty, supported the son of Zhaozong, Li Zhuangzong, to succeed him in Thanh Hoa, forming a situation of confrontation between the northern and southern dynasties of Li Mo. During this period, Thanh Hoa existed as the ruling center and de facto capital of the Le Dynasty. It was not until 1592 that General Zheng Song of the Le Dynasty destroyed the Mo Dynasty, and then the capital of the Le Dynasty was moved back to Hanoi, which was called "Thang Long Palace" at this time.
However, after Zheng Song took office, he immediately became a new generation of powerful ministers. The Emperor of Le Dynasty continued to be reduced to a puppet, while another powerful minister, the Nguyen family, occupied Hue in the south as a stronghold, forming a new north-south confrontation. The Annan Civil War, which started in 1627, was a head-on collision between the two major forces in the country. Thanh Hoa, the former temporary capital, became the first choice for war refugees fleeing north.
But as for what the situation was in Thanh Hoa at this time, what the garrison strength was and what the political situation was, the expert team at the rear could not provide more detailed information. After all, the expert team are all keyboard historians, and their limited energy is basically spent on studying domestic history and European history. It is not easy to have such a level of understanding of a country like Vietnam.
After receiving this information, the expedition team held a collective discussion again and finally formulated several rules for the next day's actions. The first is to avoid the local army as much as possible, because the country is still in a state of civil war, and it is difficult to say whether the appearance of the expedition team will attract an attack from the military; the second is to maintain an appropriate safe distance from the large number of refugees that may appear. , after all, there is only one word difference between a refugee and a rogue, and people who are under pressure to survive can do anything; the third is to find suitable anchorages along the coast in preparation for the subsequent large-scale transportation of immigrants. The fleet would dock and, if possible, see if there was a suitable environment for setting up something like a refugee camp.
On June 25, 1627, the ninth day of the expedition, the expedition team continued to sail south along the coast. This part of the voyage was smooth sailing, and the expedition team completed the 40-nautical-mile journey in just three hours and arrived off the coast of Thanh Hoa.
The two guides invited by the expedition team both moved out of Thanh Hoa a few years ago. According to them, this place is still about thirty miles away from Thanh Hoa, which is located inland. There are land and road routes to Thanh Hoa. Two options for waterway. However, the expedition team did not need to go to Thanh Hoa City to detect the situation. The two ships just took a trip around the mouth of the Thanh Hoa River and already saw many people carrying baggage and baskets on the shore.
"These should be the war refugees we want to see." Xie Chun muttered, turned to the two guides and asked: "Why are these people gathering here?"
"They are waiting for the boat to cross the river." One of the guides answered Xie Chun's question: "They want to continue going north."
Xie Chun nodded, agreeing with the guide's answer. Although geographically, this place is far away from the battlefield, but being able to cross one more river to the north will give you a better chance of saving your life. What's more, just over thirty years ago, Thanh Hoa was the main battlefield between the north and the south. The Le Dynasty and the Mo Dynasty fought on the front line of Thanh Hoa for more than sixty years before they were able to distinguish themselves. The brutality was enough to make later generations People consciously avoid this potentially dangerous area. Now that the Civil War is about to resume, the Vietnamese people who have suffered deeply from it naturally do not want to stay here for too long. Perhaps in their view, the further away from the battlefield, the better. As for where they will eventually go, it is not so clear. things. The sudden appearance of the two catamaran sailing boats did not affect the determination of these refugees to flee north. Hundreds of refugees still gathered on the south bank, waiting for the two or three small wooden boats on the river to ferry. According to what the expedition team observed, there were hundreds of refugees at the mouth of the river alone, and there were at least several thousand refugees between here and Qinghua City. However, these small wooden boats on the river can only carry a dozen people at a time. It is unknown how long it will take to transport all the increasing numbers of refugees to the north bank.
Roger, who was standing on the bow of the "Speed" to observe the situation, whistled and said: "If our New World can still move, if we come and pull it in at this time, it will be enough for the population needed for mining in the north."< br>
"There is no hope for the New World. Our remaining fuel reserves are no longer enough for it to sail from Victory Port to this place." Wang Tom also regretted what he saw in front of him. If the Crossing Group can now have enough If the transportation capacity is guaranteed, it should not be difficult to recruit some people from this place. These people just want to live a peaceful life. For people who want to live well, a stable environment is obviously more important than anything else.
The two sailboats found a place with relatively few refugees to dock, and then asked the two guides to disembark and bring twenty or thirty refugees nearby to inquire about the situation. As they thought, the vast majority of these refugees came from Quang Tri, Quang Binh, Ha Tinh and other areas in the south, leaving their homes to avoid military service and labor that would soon be sent to the battlefield.
According to the descriptions of these refugees, the current confrontation between the North and South armies is mainly between Hue and Quang Tri. In the recent small-scale battles, it seems that the North Korean army has suffered some losses and there are signs of defeat. The Guangzhi area, which was about to become a frontal battlefield, was already empty of houses, and a large number of people began to flee north. An older refugee claimed that in Guangzhi alone, at least 10,000 refugees fled north. In the eyes of these refugees, even though Thanh Hoa City is a full 800 miles away from Hue, it is not an absolutely safe place. As long as there is a possibility of advancement, they will continue to move north, and some even want to escape to the more remote inland areas northwest of Hanoi to escape the war.
When the refugees were asked whether they were willing to work in the undeveloped areas in the north on the premise of ensuring food, clothing and shelter, about 20 to 30 out of 10 said they were willing to go. And when they learned that this place was only three to four hundred miles away and could be reached in two days by boat at most, at least half of them expressed their willingness to go. If it comes to medical care, education, salary and promotion mechanisms, etc. guarantee, the expedition team believes that this ratio will increase significantly. Such survey results made the inspection team feel particularly excited. They had a vague premonition that the problem of labor and population in overseas bases that had been troubled by the Executive Committee for a long time seemed to have found a key to solving it.
The expedition team kindly sent these refugees who cooperated with the investigation to the north shore by boat, and also gave them a small amount of salt. Before leaving, these refugees were told that if they were willing to wait here for another half month, a ship would take them to a place in the north where there was no war to start a new life.
The two guides were also left on the north shore, and they had to walk home on their own. But this was not a big deal to them, because in the end the expedition team gave them two taels of silver each as an additional reward, which was enough to cover their harvest for a year. At the same time, the two guides were also reminded by the expedition team that a fleet will visit their fishing village next time, hoping that more young people like them will join.
The expedition team, already eager to return home, even gave up the usual task of burying pots to make rice ashore and set sail directly away from the coast of Vietnam, heading southeast at full speed. The next morning, the fleet arrived at Yinggezui in the southwest corner of Hainan Island. However, the fleet did not stop for rest. Instead, it continued sailing westward and headed for the base camp at the fastest speed. At two o'clock in the afternoon that day, the familiar mountains of Yulinjiao finally appeared in the field of vision. The crew members who had been sailing on the sea for 24 hours could not help but cheer. Ten days after setting off, the expedition team finally returned to Port Victory intact and brought back a large number of ore specimens and graphic and video materials from the field investigation.
Almost all the members of the executive committee who had received the news in advance rushed to Victory Port to welcome back this group of members who were on their first overseas mission. All members who participated in this expedition have undoubtedly added a very important chapter to their personal resumes. The people who can participate in this operation have been carefully selected, and their personal abilities are beyond doubt. The successful completion of the task also proves from the side that the executive committee has an accurate vision and employs people wisely. As long as there are no major accidents, these people will definitely be reused by the executive committee in the future development of the Cross-Travel Group.
(End of chapter)